Author: Ann Klefstad

I graduated from the Paracollege at St. Olaf College in 1978, and then worked in factories, was a foreman in a bakery, traveled around the country, did Fluxus-inspired street art, took a swing at grad school, left for California again, and worked for the wonderful publishing house of avant literature Sun and Moon Press, whose editor and publisher, Douglas Messerli, was an important factor in my education.
I did editing at various levels for other literary and academic presses, had children (who were also important teachers), and crept back into writing. Eventually returned to Minnesota, began doing more permanent sculpture, also began writing art critique for a number of publications and co-founded an artists’ collective, Common Language.
I was the news and features editor of mnartists.org from 2002-2008; moved from that position to that of arts and entertainment reporter on the Duluth News Tribune 2008-2009, won a Best Short Feature Award from the Society of Professional Journalists, and was laid off due to the newspaper tsunami (the DNT labors along with approximately 1/3 the reporters it had when I joined up).
I now freelance for many magazines, edit books for several publishers, and make photographs from my sailboat and my kayak, creating a series called Walk on Water. I am on Lake Superior, but I’d like to continue this practice on other bodies of water as well. It portrays water on its own terms–the great organism of the lake dictates the terms. I look and listen.
I continue to do sculpture, but Joseph Beuys’ ideas of social sculpture are more and more resonant these days. That is the direction in which I am walking.
See my water documentation work at
http://walkonwaterannklefstad.blogspot.com
and commissions and projects at
http://annklefstad.com
See clips of my articles at
http://sites.google.com/site/annklefstadwrite