AuthorBETH OBERMEYER
A dancer, a musician, a journalist and an author, Beth Obermeyer used her journalism degree and a lifetime of dance and music to seed three careers: dance/faculty/soloist, Minnesota Dance Theatre, 1973-1983; her company, TA DA! Special Events/Public Relations, 1978-1990; and author of four books. The first three books are published by North Star Press, 2011-2012. The third book, THE DAYS OF SONG AND LILACS, was a finalist, memoir, one of three from twelve states, Midwest Book Awards. The fourth book, WHEN WINTER CAME, 2023, was a massive collaboration with Mayo Clinic Press.
Her first book, THE BIGGEST DANCE, was a Summer Read Pick, St. Paul Pioneer Press and featured in The Quarterly of the Minnesota Historical Society, 2013. Beth's fourth book, WHEN WINTER CAME, is about finding her grandfather's medical journal of the winter of 1918-1919, the great flu pandemic.
Beth graduated from Iowa State University with a degree in Technical Journalism. While writing her first three books she studied at St. Catherine University, St. Paul, for two semesters, and at the Loft Literary Center, Minneapolis, for two years. She was a Professional in Residence at Iowa State University at the Greenlee School of Journalism for one week.
While on the faculty of the Minnesota Dance Theatre, Beth soloed with Garrison Keillor on "Prairie Home Companion"; with the Minnesota Orchestra in "The Tap Concerto," a twenty-minute piece in four movements, Morton Gould composer; with Gregory Hines, to promote his film, "Tap;" and with Christopher Plummer in Minnesota Orchestra's British Series. In 1979 she organized 1,801 tap dancers to open the Hennepin Center for the Arts—one of five TA DA! Special Events that entered the Guinness Book of World Records.
Beth has done seminars to business and professional groups, including Public Relations Society of America. Her journalism degree is from Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa, where she was a member of Kappa Alpha Theta, social sorority, and Theta Sigma Phi, journalism honorary.
Beth is a native of Mason City, Iowa, the setting of her third book and has lived in Minneapolis, Minnesota, for the past fifty-six years. In Spring 2019 she became a citizen of Luxembourg, a dual citizenship. Luxembourg is a setting for her fourth book, WHEN WINTER CAME, along with Chicago, Illinois, and Bancroft and Titonka, Iowa.
Beth's books are available or can be ordered in book stores everywhere. They are also on amazon.com and on other websites where books are sold.
For author appearances, check the SPARKLE page of this website. To schedule an event, contact Beth