At the Saint Paul Almanac, we know we all do better when we know each other.

Our goal is to use storytelling to help everyone in Saint Paul become friends and neighbors — one big block club of Saint Paulites that understand and support each other in good and difficult times.

Just a few of our accomplishments:

• We just published our seventh edition with more than 130 stories and poems, richly illustrated in full color.
• We conduct three annual reading series that celebrate the rich literary history of Minnesota’s capital city: Lowertown Reading Jam, Saint Paul Almanac Readings,and the newest, Soul Sounds Open Mic, hosted each Thursday by Tish Jones at Golden Thyme Café on Selby Avenue. Visit saintpaulalmanac.org for an up-to-date schedule of events.
• This year, the Saint Paul Almanac conducted writing activities for women at the Ramsey County Correctional Facility. Two collections of poems were published.
• This fall, the Saint Paul Almanac donated 2,000 books to the St. Paul Public Schools and a curriculum guide for teachers who use the books in English and Social Studies classes.
• The Saint Paul Almanac inspired art for the light rail corridor. A group of five community editors received an Irrigate Arts placemaking grant to create a series of posters featuring stories from the Almanac that were installed along Saint Paul’s light rail corridor. Look for the large banner featuring an excerpt from Kofi Bobby Hickman’s story “The Brawl in Saint Paul” on the facade of the Old Home building on University Avenue and Western.
• In October, we convened a new community editor group for the 2014 edition. The Saint Paul Almanac mentors a cross-cultural and cross-generational team of twenty-one editors to collect stories in their communities—both written and oral. Using a collaborative and democratic approach, the group decides which essays and poems to include in the upcoming Almanac.

Please support us as we grow and pursue new goals:

• We are doing more engagement with community groups than ever before. We have projects under development with the St. Paul Public Schools’ Multicultural Resource Center and the St. Paul Public Library, and we are working to get the books into the hands of more Saint Paul residents and visitors.
• We are exploring partnerships with other community-based arts organizations to expand our ability to gather and tell the stories of our city. One project under development is What Moves You, a mobile story-gathering cart.
• We are printing and selling more books than ever. The book is currently sold at over fifty local retail outlets, including local and independent bookstores, museums, coffee shops, and the airport, and it is the only book sold at Saint Paul Public Libraries.

Having something that I have written published has made me want to write more. It also lets me know that I truly have a gift. Thanks for helping me see that for myself. — Angela Mack

Thanks for all the work you do to make the Saint Paul Almanac possible. It's a terrific institution of community building. I'm pleased to be part of it again this year. — David Mura

[I am] pleased to have my poem appear in the Almanac. Although I have spent much of my working life in an academic setting, it remains very important to me that poetry — and literature in general — reach an audience beyond academia. I am especially honored that my own work might reach that larger audience. — Patricia Kirkpatrick

Thank you so much for letting me be a part of this process of creating the Almanac. I hope that I can be a part this group again. Thank you! — Uri-Biia H. Si-Asar (Central High School twelfth grader who was a 2009 and 2010 community editor)