Bill Meissner: A Baseball Doubleheader

Join us for a baseball themed virtual event as local author Bill Meissner presents a "doubleheader" of his recent writing!

About Circling Toward Home: A collection of 100 unique photographs of small-town or amateur baseball fields accompanied by short prose. The themes range from the joys and struggles of growing up and growing old, to romance relationships (a section entitled "Love and Baseball"), to meditations about the game and the way it becomes a metaphor for our lives. One section ("In Another League") focuses on baseball in the Caribbean, featuring the players and rustic fields in Mexico and St. Thomas. One prose piece is a tribute to the late great Hank Aaron, and the racial discrimination he had to overcome. The ballfields themselves have their say, too, and there are whimsical pieces written from the point of view of the backstop, a line drive, the scoreboard, a light pole, and even the clouds that hover over a game.

About Light at the Edge of the Field: Like a baseball’s cushioned cork core, the stories illuminate what’s central to our lives—our dreams, both those that can be reached, and those which remain unreachable. A pitcher’s girlfriend confronts her lover, not about his obsession with baseball but about their relationship and future together. After watching a traveling African American baseball team, a father is forced to inform his innocent young son about small-town racism. An insightful, empathetic wife guides her husband through the most difficult challenge he will ever face in baseball: his own retirement from it. A disadvantaged, fleet-footed player in Mexico dreams of making it to the Major Leagues. Though he can catch pitches consistently for hours, a diligent catcher drops the ball in his relationship with his girlfriend. These are just a few of the compelling characters readers will discover as they step into the batter’s box. This tour de force of baseball short stories reveals insights not only about the game of baseball, but the game of life.

Minnesota writer and teacher Bill Meissner grew up in Iowa and Wisconsin and has been a lifelong baseball enthusiast and/or player. In recent years, he’s been taking photos of the unique, nostalgic settings of small-town amateur baseball fields. As his collection of photos grew, so did the idea of writing short prose pieces to accompany them. The result is this coffee-table style book, which includes 99 color photos accompanied by 63 prose pieces. Meissner is the author of ten books, including three previous baseball-theme books: Hitting into the Wind, and Spirits in the Grass, a novel, for which he won the Midwest Book Award, and Light at the Edge of the Field, published by Stephen F. Austin University Press in 2021. His latest book of poetry is The Mapmaker’s Dream, from Finishing Line Press. He has written articles for the Minnesota Twins Magazine, Minnesota Monthly, and Baseball Cards Monthly, for which he interviewed such baseball stars as Nolan Ryan, Kirby Puckett, Ken Griffey Jr., Paul Molitor, Dave Winfield, and Don Mattingly. He lives with his wife, Christine, in St. Cloud, and plays occasionally with a pick-up group called The Catch and Release Baseball Club.

Event access links will be emailed to registered attendees.