Christopher Vondracek

Christopher Vondracek is the author of the memoir 'Dancing with Welk: Music, Memory, and Prairie Troubadours' (South Dakota Historical Society Press, 2022) and a book-length collection of poems from each of South Dakota's 66 counties, 'Rattlesnake Summer' (Badger Clark Publishing, 2020). He works as a journalist, covering agriculture, for the Star Tribune in Minneapolis, Minnesota, where he lives with his wife and daughter. He also plays piano and writes music with his brother in the indie-pop band, The Golden Bubbles. Vondracek holds an MFA in Creative Writing from Hamline University (2017), as well a master's in English Literature (2009) and bachelor's in Journalism (2007) from the University of South Dakota. He grew up the son of an English teacher and band director in Wells and Kiester, Minnesota, two farm towns near the Iowa border.