MINNEAPOLIS — Bill Holm, who wrote about a dozen books and traveled the world, has died. He was 65.
The Rehkamp & Horvath funeral home in Marshall, Minn., said Holm died Wednesday at the Avera Heart Hospital in Sioux Falls, S.D. The funeral home did not give a cause of death.
Holm, a poet and essayist, was born in 1943 on a farm north of Minneota. He continued to live there while working as an English professor at Southwest Minnesota State University in Marshall, where he taught for 27 years before retiring in 2007.
His books include “The Windows of Brimnes,” named for his cottage near the small fishing village of Hofsos in Iceland, where he spent his summers in the land of his ancestors. It was published in 2007 by Milkweed Editions.
Holm’s other titles included “Boxelder Bug Variations” (1985), “Coming Home Crazy” (2000), “Eccentric Islands” (2000), “The Heart Can Be Filled Anywhere on Earth” (2001), and “Playing the Black Piano” (2004).
Last year, Holm won the annual McKnight Foundation Distinguished Artist award, which is given to people who could work elsewhere but choose to stay in Minnesota and make a difference in the state’s cultural life. The award included a $50,000 cash prize.
