The Saint Paul Almanac is an annual calendar and guide to take the curious urban adventurer through the year in Minnesota's capital city.

In the current rush to make most everything global and generic, the Saint Paul Almanac seeks to do just the opposite, celebrating our ma-and-pa restaurants, our corner bars, our baseball team, our small-town manners, and our big-city ways.





We Saint Paulites are a quirky bunch, and the Almanac embraces the paradoxes in our marvelous community of diverse neighborhoods and local businesses. The Almanac brings you Saint Paul stories, old and new.





The Saint Paul Almanac brings you the voices of people who know and love the city. The Almanac gives the lowdown on various facets of the city, from the rebirth of Lowertown to stories about growing up on the East Side.

Led by managing editor, Kimberly Nightingale, the Saint Paul Almanac mentors a group of community editors who collect stories in their communities—both written and oral—and together decide which essays and poems to include in the Saint Paul Almanac. This collaborative and democratic approach with a cross-cultural and cross-generational team strengthens the relationship of the Saint Paul Almanac to the community it serves. For 2010, the community editors reviewed over 400 submissions and ultimately included 135 works by 110 writers on 384 pages.






Saint Paul stories, poems, and photo contributors include:
Garrison Keillor • David Mura • Diego Vázquez • Jr. • Marcie Rendon • Jim Heynen • Diane Wilson • Loren Neimi • Carol Connolly • Mike Hazard • Nora Murphy • Katie Ka Vang • Kathryn Kysar • Greg Brick • Nora Murphy • Patricia Kirkpatrick and many more

With over 110 writers, and with distribution at over 75 local bookstores, coffee shops, pharmacies, and grocery stores, the Saint Paul Almanac is a mechanism by which a broad cross-section of Saint Paul residents have a media vehicle with wide local distribution for expressions of local history, activities, literature, and reflection. Every eleventh grade (3,000 students) Saint Paul Public School student receives a Saint Paul Almanac book as part of their curriculum.




The Almanac includes:
Maps • Theater • Calendar • Historic Sites • Annual Events • Museums • Restaurants • and much more!

Included is a datebook with Saint Paul happenings and events listed throughout the calendar year. There is also plenty of room to pen in your appointments. You can schedule your out-of-town excursions around your favorite Saint Paul activities, like the Winter Carnival, the Saint Paul Classic Bike Tour, or the Festival of Nations.





Read it, write in it. Wherever you go, bring the Saint Paul Almanac with you!

384 pages, 5 3/16 x 8 inches, $11.95, ISBN: 978-0-9772651-5-2.

Download the 2010 SPA Media Kit now.

The Saint Paul Almanac is homegrown—find it in your neighborhood bookstore, coffee shop or gift store. Or have it delivered right to your doorstep by clicking "Buy the Almanac" on any page in this site. The Saint Paul Almanac is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. Your contribution is tax deductible!

What gave you the idea for the Almanac?

All my experiences have taught me that place matters deeply. Stories matter. Stories may be as important as food for survival. And it coalesced into a vision I had for the Almanac of creating a book about living in Saint Paul as defined by time (the calendar) and combining that with articles, stories, and poems that reflect on the city in a more timeless way. I hope the Almanac begins a conversation between people about what the place they live in means to them.


Is the Almanac for the tourist or the Saint Paul resident, or both? If so, how does this work?

It's for both. Anyone who loves Saint Paul and tourists who visit Saint Paul will want a copy of the Saint Paul Almanac. The tourist can get a good feel for our beautiful city by reading the Almanac stories, and also participating in events listed in the Almanac. They can use the restaurant, museum, and theater guides.

The Saint Paul resident can use the Almanac as their yearly datebook, and plan what Saint Paul happenings and events they want to attend. There's plenty of room to pen their appointments around their favorite Saint Paul activities—like the Winter Carnival, the Saint Paul Classic Bike Tour, or the Festival of Nations.†


How do you find your contributing writers? What are the criteria?

We have community editors finding writers everywhere—talking to people at restaurants, the farmers' market, festivals, writers' groups, coffee shops. Pretty much everywhere the editors go, they ask people to send something in to the Almanac.

We're looking for compelling stories, poems, or articles about Saint Paul—stories from everyday people and established writers. As far as writing quality, the only criterion is that it be interesting. Some of the best pieces we get are from folks who struggled in high school. We also receive permission to use already published material from writers we admire.

What is unique about the Saint Paul Almanac is its accessibility to all residents of Saint Paul. Key to the heart of the Almanac is the opportunity of Saint Paul residents to be published alongside such Saint Paul literary icons as Gordon Parks, Garrison Keillor, and Meridel LeSueur.

This intertwining of professional writers with nonprofessional community voices reflects the Saint Paul Almanac's understanding that even nationally acclaimed art and artists belong to a local community.


Do you plan to duplicate subject matter in future Almanacs? For instance, will there be a Winter Carnival story or history sketch in every Almanac?

Each year the Almanac will have the same format of calendar and events with stories, poems, and articles about Saint Paul and Saint Paul writers' contributions interspersed. We'll have health and fitness events and the listings of restaurants, et cetera in the back every year. We will have history facts. Beyond that, it really depends upon the kind of stories, poems, and articles that the Almanac receives any given year.


What is the single thing that makes you love Saint Paul?

The medallion hunt, of course. It brings out the kid in me. I hunt for the medallion every year. I used to play hooky from work to sneak out and dig. Any city that supports digging for treasure just has to be a darn good place to live.


Photo credits: All images on this site by Patricia Bour-Schilla. Headshot of editor Kimberly Nightingale, available in high resolution in the Media Kit, by Lou Michaels.