Neal Karlen’s ninth book, Prince Talks! A Life Off the Record, a memoir of his 31-year friendship of, well, Prince, will be published by St. Martin’s Press in April 2020. Karlen was an associate editor for Newsweek, a Contributing Editor for Rolling Stone, a regular contributor to The New York Times, and an on-air essayist for CBS News and National Public Radio.
2016 Indianapolis 500
His other books range in topic from vaudeville, minor league baseball, and Midwest mobsters to religious fundamentalism, linguistics, and the Kabbalah. Karlen’s articles have appeared in both The New Yorker and the punk rock fanzine The Squealer, and his fiction has been published in The Indiana Review and Mandala. He has taught creative nonfiction in the MFA creative writing programs of the University of Minnesota and Augsburg College, and despite having seven “Fs” on his final transcript, graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Brown University (for real.) He has lectured from Bangor to Bakersfield on everything and nothing, and lives in his native Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Recent Books
THIS THING CALLED LIFE Prince’s Odyssey, On and Off the Record
Neal's memoir of his 31-year friendship of Prince will be published by St. Martin’s Press in October 2020. Neal was…
Augie’s Secrets: The Minneapolis Mob and the King of the Hennepin Strip
There's an old Yiddish saying: two people can keep a secret if one of them is dead. But two living…
Babes in Toyland The Making and Selling of a Rock and Roll Band
An eye-opening glimpse inside the world of contemporary rock music describes the discovery of a Minneapolis female band and follows…