Women share stories of connection and support in ‘Locker Room Talk,’ up for MN Book Award
The 2023 anthology "Locker Room Talk: Women in Private Spaces," edited by Michelle Filkins and Margret Aldrich, is a finalist for a Minnesota Book Award.
Courtesy of Spout Press
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Minnesota has a rich literary scene and one way to find books by local authors is to check out the annual list of finalists for the Minnesota Book Awards.
For the first time since 2006, anthologies are a category on that list. These are collections of stories, poems and even visual art that are organized around a theme.
The stories in one of the finalist works this year may be familiar to anyone who’s stumbled into a deep conversation in a bathroom or on a bus. In fact, the idea for “Locker Room Talk: Women in Private Spaces” came to co-editor Michelle Filkins after she witnessed one of those moments. She joins MPR News host Nina Moini along with New York Times bestselling author Alison McGhee, who is one of the writers featured in the anthology.
MPR News has spoken with a number of writers on the list of 2025 Minnesota Book Award finalists, including Louise Erdrich, Mubanga Kalimamukwento and Anne Ursu, as well as Graywolf Press, which is nominated for its 50th anniversary poetry collection.
Use the audio player above to listen to the full conversation.
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We attempt to make transcripts for Minnesota Now available the next business day after a broadcast. When ready they will appear here.
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Audio transcript
NINA MOINI: Minnesota has a rich literary scene, and a great way to learn about books by local authors is to check out the list of nominees for the Minnesota Book Awards. For the first time since 2006, anthologies are a category on that list. These are collections of stories, poems, and even visual art that are organized around a theme.
The stories in one of the works nominated this year may be familiar to anyone who stumbled into a deep conversation in a bathroom, or maybe on a bus. Joining me now is Michelle Filkins, co-editor of Locker Room Talk-- Women in Private Spaces. Hi, Michelle.
MICHELLE FILKINS: Hi. Thank you for having us.
NINA MOINI: Absolutely. And Alison McGhee New York Times bestselling author and one of the writers in the collection, is also on the line. Thanks for being here, Alison.
ALISON MCGHEE: It's my pleasure. Thanks, Nina.
NINA MOINI: I really love the idea behind Locker Room Talk, and I caught myself thinking, who among us as women hasn't found themselves hugging a stranger in the bathroom and making a new friend? You know? I just love-- I love the idea behind it.
Michelle, I understand you got the idea for this anthology in an actual locker room. Can you tell me about that?
MICHELLE FILKINS: Yes, I did. I was in a locker room in the YMCA in east Saint Paul, and I witnessed an amazing moment where two women who didn't know each other all that well had been in a class together but seemed to be just acquaintances, started having a conversation. It started sort of casual, and then it became much more serious, and one of the women started confiding about some really painful experiences that she was going through.
And wordlessly, the other woman came over, gave her a hug. The first woman said, thank you. I haven't been able to talk about this. And then they left, and I was left with the thought, that is locker room talk.
NINA MOINI: Yeah. And that's such an interesting point, because sometimes it can almost be easier to confide in someone who maybe doesn't know everything about you and everything about your past, and sometimes people just connect in these unique ways. Alison, I'm curious what you thought when Michelle approached you with this idea.
ALISON MCGHEE: Well, first, I was honored. And when I started thinking of ideas for an essay to write about locker rooms, I was flooded with sparks of memory and inspiration. I am not someone who's spent a lot of time in locker rooms as an athlete. I'm more of a loner when it comes to that sort of thing.
NINA MOINI: Sure.
ALISON MCGHEE: But I have spent so much time in spaces where women support each other without thinking. You know, there's something about the women in my life, from childhood on. I can hear their voices. I can hear my great aunt's voice and my grandmother's sitting around the table telling family stories.
And so rather than write something out of rage and fury, which so many of us are feeling so much of these days, I wanted to write something about how women have nurtured me and each other our entire lives. The memory that I came up with to focus on was teaching a creative writing workshop in outstate Minnesota, in which I believe there were 10 women and one older gentleman, and I gave them a prompt, and it said, write about something you've never told anyone. And then we went around the room and read them out loud if you wanted to, and the man wrote about having his best friend die in his arms in the Korean war. And as he read it, it was so heartfelt and beautiful.
And the women in the room around this long table literally stretched out their arms toward him, as if they could hold him and keep him safe. And when he was finished, there were all those sounds of women's voices telling him how beautiful it was, how hard it must have been. And he looked around, bewildered, and said, I've never told anyone that. I've never told my wife that story.
And I thought, in that moment, this is the power of women. This is the power of women to nurture and create safe spaces. And I think that's what Michelle and Margret did with this anthology. They opened up a room where everyone could write about those spaces that are so profoundly comforting.
NINA MOINI: That's a beautiful story. Thank you for sharing. And, Michelle, how did you go about selecting stories? Because there's probably a lot of directions and people that you could have reached out to. How did you narrow this process?
MICHELLE FILKINS: So I reached out to Margret Aldrich, who was a friend from graduate school and had worked in publishing. She works with Little Free Libraries right now. And I said to her, do you think that this could work?
And we sat down, and we thought of some authors that we would like to include. We solicited some work. But what's really incredible is that we put the call for submissions out on our website, at a couple of different conferences, and the submissions just started coming in, and it was this incredible cross-section of women, some who had a really distinguished publishing history, like Alison has, and some that had never published anything before. And we just found that there were so many people who had a really compelling story to tell, and so it's sort of evolved from there.
NINA MOINI: And when we're thinking about these different spaces, some people call it like the third spaces, places that people would normally come across one another, nowadays, a lot of people we know are staring down at their phones, maybe not connecting as much as they once would. Alison, I'm curious if you think these kinds of conversations and interactions are becoming more rare, or are people seeking them out more, do you think?
ALISON MCGHEE: Oh, that's such a good question. I know exactly what you're talking about with the phones. I walk all the time. I'm constantly out walking and with my dog, and I find myself these days making a point of trying to make eye contact, always smiling, always greeting people.
It might be a mixed bag. I think the more we stare at our phones, the more we unconsciously even crave connection. And having read through the anthology again over the last couple of days, for the first time in a year or so, I felt that kind of comfort, the kind of comfort of proximity to people who are there, willing to help.
NINA MOINI: Yeah, and it is sort of nuanced. But yeah, I agree with you that sometimes, it might feel awkward, but maybe look up and see who's around, and see if you can make a connection because it could really make a difference in somebody's day. And so with this anthology category, I understand this is a biennial award, so it's awarded every two years.
And your collection was published 2023, Michelle. Do you think that it would be much different if you were to start it today? Or do you have any plans to do something like it again?
MICHELLE FILKINS: So we've definitely talked about what would a second volume look like. There's a lot of stories that are out there that we would love to tell, but I feel like this book is very much of the moment that we were working on it. Margret and I started thinking about this book shortly after the idea of locker room talk had been reintroduced into the lexicon in a way that was very misogynistic.
And so rather than dwelling on that, as Alison was saying, not the negative or the anger, but we wanted to reframe and say that rather than being a space where you could be your worst self, it could be a space, a private space where you can be your best self. But because of the fact that COVID was happening and the civil unrest was happening around the murder of George Floyd, I feel like this book is very much of that time. And although the book wasn't finished in that time, it's a big part of it.
The artwork on the cover, Leslie Barlow, who's an incredible local artist, did a series of paintings called Portraits During the Pandemic. And you were asking about looking down at phones, and there's a couple pieces in the anthology that talk about the fact that for a long time, women were just craving those connections with each other. And Zoom was sort of a facsimile for the way that we used to connect with each other. So I feel like those images are also very much a part of the book and a part of the moment when we were working on it.
NINA MOINI: Yeah. Times are changing, but these types of connections, I think people will always be seeking them out. And I just appreciate you both so much, Alison and Michelle, for sharing your work with us.
ALISON MCGHEE: Thank you so much.
MICHELLE FILKINS: Thank you so much, Nina. It's been an honor.
NINA MOINI: Alison McGhee is a New York Times bestselling author and one of the writers featured in Locker Room Talk-- Women in Private Spaces. And Michelle Filkins is one of the anthology's editors and the founding editor of Spout Press.
The stories in one of the works nominated this year may be familiar to anyone who stumbled into a deep conversation in a bathroom, or maybe on a bus. Joining me now is Michelle Filkins, co-editor of Locker Room Talk-- Women in Private Spaces. Hi, Michelle.
MICHELLE FILKINS: Hi. Thank you for having us.
NINA MOINI: Absolutely. And Alison McGhee New York Times bestselling author and one of the writers in the collection, is also on the line. Thanks for being here, Alison.
ALISON MCGHEE: It's my pleasure. Thanks, Nina.
NINA MOINI: I really love the idea behind Locker Room Talk, and I caught myself thinking, who among us as women hasn't found themselves hugging a stranger in the bathroom and making a new friend? You know? I just love-- I love the idea behind it.
Michelle, I understand you got the idea for this anthology in an actual locker room. Can you tell me about that?
MICHELLE FILKINS: Yes, I did. I was in a locker room in the YMCA in east Saint Paul, and I witnessed an amazing moment where two women who didn't know each other all that well had been in a class together but seemed to be just acquaintances, started having a conversation. It started sort of casual, and then it became much more serious, and one of the women started confiding about some really painful experiences that she was going through.
And wordlessly, the other woman came over, gave her a hug. The first woman said, thank you. I haven't been able to talk about this. And then they left, and I was left with the thought, that is locker room talk.
NINA MOINI: Yeah. And that's such an interesting point, because sometimes it can almost be easier to confide in someone who maybe doesn't know everything about you and everything about your past, and sometimes people just connect in these unique ways. Alison, I'm curious what you thought when Michelle approached you with this idea.
ALISON MCGHEE: Well, first, I was honored. And when I started thinking of ideas for an essay to write about locker rooms, I was flooded with sparks of memory and inspiration. I am not someone who's spent a lot of time in locker rooms as an athlete. I'm more of a loner when it comes to that sort of thing.
NINA MOINI: Sure.
ALISON MCGHEE: But I have spent so much time in spaces where women support each other without thinking. You know, there's something about the women in my life, from childhood on. I can hear their voices. I can hear my great aunt's voice and my grandmother's sitting around the table telling family stories.
And so rather than write something out of rage and fury, which so many of us are feeling so much of these days, I wanted to write something about how women have nurtured me and each other our entire lives. The memory that I came up with to focus on was teaching a creative writing workshop in outstate Minnesota, in which I believe there were 10 women and one older gentleman, and I gave them a prompt, and it said, write about something you've never told anyone. And then we went around the room and read them out loud if you wanted to, and the man wrote about having his best friend die in his arms in the Korean war. And as he read it, it was so heartfelt and beautiful.
And the women in the room around this long table literally stretched out their arms toward him, as if they could hold him and keep him safe. And when he was finished, there were all those sounds of women's voices telling him how beautiful it was, how hard it must have been. And he looked around, bewildered, and said, I've never told anyone that. I've never told my wife that story.
And I thought, in that moment, this is the power of women. This is the power of women to nurture and create safe spaces. And I think that's what Michelle and Margret did with this anthology. They opened up a room where everyone could write about those spaces that are so profoundly comforting.
NINA MOINI: That's a beautiful story. Thank you for sharing. And, Michelle, how did you go about selecting stories? Because there's probably a lot of directions and people that you could have reached out to. How did you narrow this process?
MICHELLE FILKINS: So I reached out to Margret Aldrich, who was a friend from graduate school and had worked in publishing. She works with Little Free Libraries right now. And I said to her, do you think that this could work?
And we sat down, and we thought of some authors that we would like to include. We solicited some work. But what's really incredible is that we put the call for submissions out on our website, at a couple of different conferences, and the submissions just started coming in, and it was this incredible cross-section of women, some who had a really distinguished publishing history, like Alison has, and some that had never published anything before. And we just found that there were so many people who had a really compelling story to tell, and so it's sort of evolved from there.
NINA MOINI: And when we're thinking about these different spaces, some people call it like the third spaces, places that people would normally come across one another, nowadays, a lot of people we know are staring down at their phones, maybe not connecting as much as they once would. Alison, I'm curious if you think these kinds of conversations and interactions are becoming more rare, or are people seeking them out more, do you think?
ALISON MCGHEE: Oh, that's such a good question. I know exactly what you're talking about with the phones. I walk all the time. I'm constantly out walking and with my dog, and I find myself these days making a point of trying to make eye contact, always smiling, always greeting people.
It might be a mixed bag. I think the more we stare at our phones, the more we unconsciously even crave connection. And having read through the anthology again over the last couple of days, for the first time in a year or so, I felt that kind of comfort, the kind of comfort of proximity to people who are there, willing to help.
NINA MOINI: Yeah, and it is sort of nuanced. But yeah, I agree with you that sometimes, it might feel awkward, but maybe look up and see who's around, and see if you can make a connection because it could really make a difference in somebody's day. And so with this anthology category, I understand this is a biennial award, so it's awarded every two years.
And your collection was published 2023, Michelle. Do you think that it would be much different if you were to start it today? Or do you have any plans to do something like it again?
MICHELLE FILKINS: So we've definitely talked about what would a second volume look like. There's a lot of stories that are out there that we would love to tell, but I feel like this book is very much of the moment that we were working on it. Margret and I started thinking about this book shortly after the idea of locker room talk had been reintroduced into the lexicon in a way that was very misogynistic.
And so rather than dwelling on that, as Alison was saying, not the negative or the anger, but we wanted to reframe and say that rather than being a space where you could be your worst self, it could be a space, a private space where you can be your best self. But because of the fact that COVID was happening and the civil unrest was happening around the murder of George Floyd, I feel like this book is very much of that time. And although the book wasn't finished in that time, it's a big part of it.
The artwork on the cover, Leslie Barlow, who's an incredible local artist, did a series of paintings called Portraits During the Pandemic. And you were asking about looking down at phones, and there's a couple pieces in the anthology that talk about the fact that for a long time, women were just craving those connections with each other. And Zoom was sort of a facsimile for the way that we used to connect with each other. So I feel like those images are also very much a part of the book and a part of the moment when we were working on it.
NINA MOINI: Yeah. Times are changing, but these types of connections, I think people will always be seeking them out. And I just appreciate you both so much, Alison and Michelle, for sharing your work with us.
ALISON MCGHEE: Thank you so much.
MICHELLE FILKINS: Thank you so much, Nina. It's been an honor.
NINA MOINI: Alison McGhee is a New York Times bestselling author and one of the writers featured in Locker Room Talk-- Women in Private Spaces. And Michelle Filkins is one of the anthology's editors and the founding editor of Spout Press.
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