...Write the salutation-Dear You- and take a deep breath and plunge in. A simple declarative sentence will do, followed by another and another and another. Tell us what you're doing and tell it like you were talking to us. Don't think about grammar, don't think about lit'ry style, don't try to write dramatically, just give us your news. Where did you go, who did you see, what did they say, what do you think?...

American radio host, humorist, and essayist. Born in Anoka, Minnesota, Keillor graduated from the University of Minnesota in 1966. He is the creator and, since 1971, the host of the popular weekly NPR radio program A Prairie Home Companion, a live revue featuring comic skits, spoof advertisements, nationally renowned musicians, and Keillor's trademark monologues, the news from Lake Wobegon. The Writer's Almanac, Keillor's daily NPR radio program, highlights literary history, especially poetry. He has contributed humorous stories to the New Yorker, the Atlantic Monthly, and Salon.com, and is the author of many books, including Happy to Be Here (1981) and the political manifesto Homegrown Democrat (2004), as well as the best-selling Lake Wobegon series, most recently Life among the Lutherans (2009) and Pilgrims: A Wobegon Romance (2009). See also prairiehome.publicradio.org.