Garrison Keillor wants to revive his radio program ‘The Writer’s Almanac’

Garrison Keillor, the author and “A Prairie Home Companion” host who was fired by Minnesota Public Radio in November following accusations of sexual misconduct, wants to bring his program “The Writer’s Almanac” back.

MPR News reports that Keillor posted his intentions on his Facebook page Monday, writing, “I’m ready to start up The Writers [sic] Almanac again. I get the idea that public radio stations will never carry it again and so we’ll need to find a way to do it through social media. There are smart people who can manage this and make it easy.”

That post appears to have been removed, or is unavailable to the public, but on Monday, a Facebook account “curated by Garrison Keillor and his staff” posted, “When you fire a retired person, you’re apt to irritate him ... With that, he announced his intention to bring back The Writer’s Almanac via social media channels along with his hope to tour A Prairie Home Companion!”

Garrison Keillor prepares to record installments of “The Writer’s Almanac” in St. Paul, Minn., in 2014.

(Ann Heisenfelt / Associated Press )

“The Writer’s Almanac,” produced by American Public Media, was a mainstay of public radio for more than 20 years. The five-minute-long daily program, which prominently featured poetry and literary trivia, first aired in 1993 and ceased broadcasting last November after MPR cut ties with Keillor.

Keillor’s attorney, Eric Nilsson, confirmed to MPR that the radio personality is interested in bringing “The Writer’s Almanac” back.

“Garrison would like very much to bring back what his audience would love to have — daily doses of poetry and ‘almanac narrative,’” Nilsson said. “As to ‘A Prairie Home Companion,’ the stage beckons back. With regard to ‘rights’ to ‘The Writer’s Almanac’ and ‘A Prairie Home Companion,’ no one disputes that they’re all very much his.”

Keillor has stated that he was fired from MPR for touching the bare back of a woman co-worker, although the network said that wasn’t the case. In January, MPR released the results of an investigation that determined that Keillor was responsible for “a years-long pattern of behavior that left several women who worked for Keillor feeling mistreated, sexualized or belittled.”

In addition to his radio work, Keillor is a prolific author who has published more than 20 books, including the Lake Wobegon novel series, the recent anthology “The Keillor Reader” and a poetry collection titled “O, What a Luxury: Verses Lyrical, Vulgar, Pathetic & Profound.”