Bill Holm

At this point Bill Holm probably qualifies as a literary lion. He looks the part, certainly (Garrison Keillor has described him as “the tallest radical humorist in the Midwest”), and has a pretty unconventional lifestyle by Minnesota lit standards. Holm is an outsized personality, yet he’s also something of an outstate recluse and a rambler. When he’s not hunkered down in his little hometown of Minneota, Holm’s generally … well, somewhere exotic else. He’s capable of writing about anyplace—and anything, really—in an amiable yet erudite style in which, time and again, his sui generis personality comes through loud and clear. His latest book, Windows of Brimnes: An American in Iceland, is a dispatch from his favorite summer retreat, an Icelandic fishing village, and is a sharp and often very funny study in cultural contrast.

7 p.m., Minneapolis Central Library, 300 Nicollet Mall, Minneapolis; 612-630-6170.