Kent Stever

Author and Winona native Kent Stever explores the details of post-World War II life in small town America, combining historic research with personal reflection.  In addition, he offers over fifty small stories of growth and life in his first two books - written in his seventies. 

     In Growing Up on the Mississippi (2013) and Kinder, Gentler Ways (2014), one reviewer writes; “Stever has a knack for finding little stories from the past that illuminate the spirit of the time and for mining sources for details that enrich his tales……He becomes poetic recalling childhood basketball games with ‘the rhythm of the dribble, the turn of the hook shot, and the side-sliding moves of defense…. The book is replete with familiar names and places - all tied together with Stever’s argument that those kinder, gentler days have valuable lessons for modern society.” 

     His stories have been published in Chicken Soup for the Soul, Minnesota Moments, Today Magazine and the Winona Post.  His third book, Tomatoes Free for the Asking(2015) is to be a May offering.  A storyteller, a sort of historic sage, a grand researcher, Stever looks in every corner for ways to personalize and make researched topics fun – or “compelling” as one reader has offered.  As the books roll out, stories evidence life based upon early, learned values.