Garrison Keillor Biography

Radio Personality / Writer

Photos ( See all 8 )

Garrison Keillor is an author, storyteller, humorist, and creator of the weekly radio show A Prairie Home Companion. The show began in 1974 as a live variety show on Minnesota Public Radio. In the 1980s A Prairie Home Companion became a pop culture phenomenon, with millions of Americans listening to Keillor's folksy tales of life in the fictional Midwestern town of Lake Wobegon, where (in Keillor's words) "the women are strong, the men are good looking, and all of the children are above average." Keillor ended the show in 1987, and 1989 began a similar new radio show titled American Radio Company of the Air. In 1993 he returned the show to its original name. Keillor also created the syndicated daily radio feature A Writer's Almanac in 1993. He has written for The New Yorker and is the author of several books, including Happy to Be Here (1990), Leaving Home (1992), Lake Wobegon Days (1995), and Good Poems for Hard Times (2005). His radio show inspired a 2006 movie, A Prairie Home Companion, written by and starring Keillor and directed by Robert Altman.

Extra credit: Keillor graduated from the University of Minneosta in 1966... His signature sign-off on The Writer's Almanac is "Be well, do good work, and keep in touch"... A Prairie Home Companion was Altman's last film; he died later that year. The film also starred Meryl Streep and Lindsay Lohan.

Keillor joins Paul Harvey and Art Bell in our loop on Legends of Radio.

Blog posts mentioning Garrison Keillor: