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Imagining the Forest: Narratives of Michigan and the Upper Midwest by
Forests have always been more than just their trees. The forests in Michigan (and similar forests in other Great Lakes states such as Wisconsin and Minnesota) played a role in the American cultural imagination from the beginnings of European settlement in the early nineteenth century to the present. Our relationships with those forests have been shaped by the cultural attitudes of the times, and people have invested in them both moral and spiritual meanings. Author John Knott draws upon such works as Simon Schama's Landscape and Memory and Robert Pogue Harrison's Forests: The Shadow of Civilization in exploring ways in which our relationships with forests have been shaped, using Michigan---its history of settlement, popular literature, and forest management controversies---as an exemplary case. Knott looks at such well-known figures as William Bradford, James Fenimore Cooper, John Muir, John Burroughs, and Teddy Roosevelt; Ojibwa conceptions of the forest and natural world (including how Longfellow mythologized them); early explorer accounts; and contemporary literature set in the Upper Peninsula, including Jim Harrison's True North and Philip Caputo's Indian Country. Two competing metaphors evolved over time, Knott shows: the forest as howling wilderness, impeding the progress of civilization and in need of subjugation, and the forest as temple or cathedral, worthy of reverence and protection. Imagining the Forest shows the origin and development of both.
Ink Trails : Michigan's Famous and Forgotten Authors by
Long revered as the birthplace of many of the nation's best-known authors, Michigan has also served as inspiration to countless others. In this entertaining and well-researched book--the first of its kind--the secrets, legends, and myths surrounding some of Michigan's literary luminaries are explored. Which Michigan poet inspired a state law requiring teachers to assign at least one of his compositions to all students? Which young author emerged from the University of Michigan with a bestselling novel derided by some critics as "vulgar"? And from what Michigan city did Arthur Miller, Robert Frost, and Jane Kenyon draw vital inspiration? The answers to these questions and more are revealed in this rich literary history that highlights the diversity of those whose impact on letters has been indelible and distinctly Michiganian.
U. P. Reader: Bringing Upper Michigan Literature to the World by
Michigan's Upper Peninsula is blessed with a treasure chest of writers and poets, all seeking to capture the diverse experiences of Yooper Life. Now U.P. Reader offers a rich collection of their voices that embraces the U.P.'s natural beauty and way of life, along with a few surprises. The twenty-eight works in this first annual volume take readers on a U.P. road trip from the Mackinac Bridge to Menominee. Every page is rich with descriptions of the characters and culture that make the Upper Peninsula worth living in and writing about. Whether you're a native Yooper or just wish you were, you'll love U.P. Reader and want to share it with all your Yooper family and friends. "U.P. Reader offers a wonderful mix of storytelling, poetry, and Yooper culture. Here's to many future volumes " -- Sonny Longtine, author of Murder in Michigan's Upper Peninsula "Share in the bounty of Michigan's Upper Peninsula with those who love it most. The U.P. Reader has something for everyone. Congratulations to my writer and poet peers for a job well done." -- Gretchen Preston, Vice President, Upper Peninsula Publishers and Authors Association "As readers embark upon this storied landscape, they learn that the people of Michigan's Upper Peninsula offer a unique voice, a tribute to a timeless place too long silent." -- Sue Harrison, international bestselling author of Mother Earth Father Sky "I was amazed by the variety of voices in this volume. U.P. Reader offers a little of everything, from short stories to nature poetry, fantasy to reality, Yooper lore to humor. I look forward to the next issue." -- Jackie Stark, editor, Marquette Monthly "Like the best of U.P. blizzards, U.P. Reader covers all of Upper Michigan in the variety of its offerings. A fine mix of nature, engaging characters, the supernatural, poetry, and much more." -- Karl Bohnak, TV 6 meteorologist and author of So Cold a Sky: Upper Michigan Weather Stories U.P. Reader is sponsored by the Upper Peninsula Publishers and Authors Association (UPPAA) a non-profit 501(c)3 corporation. A portion of proceeds from each copy sold will be donated to the UPPAA for its educational programming. Learn more at www.UPReader.org
The Way North: Collected Upper Peninsula New Works by
Michigan's Upper Peninsula is distinct from the rest of the state in geography, climate, and culture, including a unique and thriving creative writing community. In The Way North: Collected Upper Peninsula New Works, editor Ron Riekki presents poetry, fiction, and non-fiction from memorable, varied voices that are writing from and about Michigan's Upper Peninsula. In all, this unique anthology features new works from forty-two writers, including rising star Ellen Airgood, Edgar Award-winner Steve Hamilton, Rona Jaffe Award-winner Catie Rosemurgy, Jonathan Johnson of Best American Poetry, Michigan Notable Book Award-winner Keith Taylor, and Michigan Author Award-winner John Smolens. In 49 poems and 20 stories-diverse in form, length, and content-readers are introduced to the unmistakable terrain and characters of the U.P. The book not only showcases the snow, small towns, and idiosyncratic characters that readers might expect but also introduces unexpected regions and voices. From the powerful powwow in Baraga of April Lindala's "For the Healing of All Women" to the sex-charged basement in Stambaugh of Chad Faries's "Hotel Stambaugh: Michigan, 1977" to the splendor found between Newberry and Paradise in Joseph D. Haske's "Tahquamenon," readers will delight in discovering the work of both new and established authors. The contributors range widely in age, gender, and background, as The Way North highlights the work of established writers, teachers, students, laborers, fishermen, housewives, and many others. The Way North brings the U.P.'s literary tradition to the awareness of more readers and showcases some of the most compelling work connected to the area. It will be welcomed by readers interested in new fiction and poetry and instructors of courses on Michigan writing.
Circulating books may be checked out in 3 week intervals.
Bloodstoppers and Bearwalkers: Folk Traditions of Michigan's Upper Peninsula by
Remote and rugged, Michigan's Upper Peninsula (fondly known as "the U.P.") has been home to a rich variety of indigenous peoples and Old World immigrants--a heritage deeply embedded in today's "Yooper" culture. Ojibwas, French Canadians, Finns, Cornish, Poles, Italians, Slovenians, and others have all lived here, attracted to the area by its timber, mineral ore, and fishing grounds. Mixing local happenings with supernatural tales and creatively adapting traditional stories to suit changing audiences, the diverse inhabitants of the U.P. have created a wealth of lore populated with tricksters, outlaws, cunning trappers and poachers, eccentric bosses of the mines and lumber camps, "bloodstoppers" gifted with the lifesaving power to stop the flow of blood, "bearwalkers" able to assume the shape of bears, and more. For folklorist Richard M. Dorson, who ventured into the region in the late 1940s, the U.P. was a living laboratory, a storyteller's paradise. Bloodstoppers and Bearwalkers, based on his extensive fieldwork in the area, is his richest and most enduring work. This new edition, with a critical introduction and an appendix of additional tales selected by James P. Leary, restores and expands Dorson's classic contribution to American folklore. Engaging and well informed, the book presents and ponders the folk narratives of the region's loggers, miners, lake sailors, trappers, and townsfolk. Unfolding the variously peculiar and raucous tales of the U.P., Bloodstoppers and Bearwalkers reveals a vital component of Upper Midwest culture and a fascinating cross-section of American society.
Elemental: A Collection of Michigan Creative Nonfiction by
Elemental: A Collection of Michigan Creative Nonfiction comes to us from twenty-three of Michigan's most well-known essayists. A celebration of the elements, this collection is both the storm and the shelter. In her introduction, editor Anne-Marie Oomen recalls the "ritual dousing" of her storytelling group's bonfire: "wind, earth, fire, water--all of it simultaneous in that one gesture. . . . In that moment we are bound together with these elements and with this place, the circle around the fire on the shores of a Great Lake closes, complete." The essays approach Michigan at the atomic level. This is a place where weather patterns and ecology matter. Farmers, miners, shippers, and loggers have built (or lost) their livelihood on Michigan's nature--what could and could not be made out of our elements. From freshwater lakes that have shaped the ground beneath our feet to the industrial ebb and flow of iron ore and wind power--ours is a state of survival and transformation. In the first section of the book, "Earth," Jerry Dennis remembers working construction in northern Michigan. "Water" includes a piece from Jessica Mesman, who writes of the appearance of snow in different iterations throughout her life. The section "Wind" houses essays about the ungraspable nature of death from Toi Dericotte and Keith Taylor. "Fire" includes a piece by Mardi Jo Link, who recollects the unfortunate series of circumstances surrounding one of her family members. Elemental's strength lies in its ability to learn from the past in the hope of defining a wiser future. A lot of literature can make this claim, but not all of it comes together so organically. Fans of nonfiction that reads as beautifully as fiction will love this collection.
Fresh Water: Women Writing on the Great Lakes by
Fresh Water: Women Writing on the Great Lakes is a collection of nonfiction works by women writers. These works focus on the Midwest: living with the five interconnected freshwater seas that we know as the Great Lakes. Contributing to this collection are renowned poets, essayists, and fiction writers, all of whom write about their own creative streams of consciousness, the fresh waters of the Great Lakes, and the region's many rivers: Loraine Anderson, Judith Arcana, Rachel Azima, Mary Blocksma, Gayle Boss, Sharon Dilworth, Beth Ann Fennelly, Linda Nemec Foster, Gail Griffin, Rasma Haidri, Aleta Karstad, Laura Kasischke, Janet Kauffman, Jacqueline Kolosov, Susan Laidlaw, Lisa Lenzo, Linda Loomis, Anna Mills, Stephanie Mills, Judith Minty, Anne-Marie Oomen, Rachael Perry, Susan Power, Donna Seaman, Heather Sellers, Gail Louise Siegel, Sue William Silverman, Claudia Skutar, Annick Smith, Leslie Stainton, Kathleen Stocking, Judith Strasser, Alison Swan, Elizabeth A. Trembley, Jane Urquhart, Diane Wakoski, and Leigh Allison Wilson.
Ghost Writers: Us Haunting Them --Contemporary Michigan Literature by
For Ghost Writers: Us Haunting Them editors Keith Taylor and Laura Kasischke asked twelve celebrated Michigan writers to submit new stories on one subject: ghosts. The resulting collection is a satisfying mix of tales by some of the state's most well-known and award-winning writers. Some of the pieces are true stories written by non-believers, while others are clearly fiction and can be funny, bittersweet, spooky, or sinister. All share Michigan as a setting, bringing history and a sense of place to the eerie collection. Ghosts in these stories have a wide range of motivations and cause a variety of consequences. In some cases, they seem to dwell in one person's consciousness, as in Steve Amick's "Not Even Lions and Tigers," and other times they demonstrate their presence with tangible evidence, as in Laura Hulthen Thomas's "Bones on Bois Blanc." Spirits sometimes appear in order to communicate something important to the living, as in James Hynes's "Backseat Driver" and Lolita Hernandez's "Making Bakes," to change the course of events, as in Anne-Marie Oomen's "Bitchathane," or to cause characters to look inside themselves, as in Elizabeth Schmuhl's "Belief." The supernatural stories in Ghost Writers visit a mix of Michigan locations, from the urban, to the suburban, and rural. Authors find ghosts in family farmhouses, downtown Detroit streets, an abandoned northern Michigan lighthouse, gracious Grosse Pointe homes, a mid-Michigan apartment complex, and the crypt of a Polish priest in the small town of Cross Village. Taylor and Kasischke have assembled a collection with a diverse mixture of settings, tones, and styles, ensuring that Ghost Writers will appeal to all readers of fiction, particularly those interested in the newest offerings from Michigan's best fiction writers.
Hemingway: Up in Michigan Perpectives by
In October 1991, the Michigan Hemingway Society convened in Petoskey, Michigan, to pay tribute to the famous writer. "Hemingway: " "Up in Michigan Perspectives" is a selection of the insightful scholarship and research presented at the conference. The collection begins with essays that examine the Michigan of Hemingway's youth, and its so-called "savage" and "civilized" aspects as portrayed in the Nick Adams stories. Next, a lively dialog about what happened as Hemingway moved away from Michigan in his life and his work takes place between Michael Reynolds and Linda Wagner-Martin as they discuss the unfinished, unpublished novel "Jimmy Breen." The collection also includes discussions of Hemingway and the wider world, bringing new perspectives to his novels "The Sun Also Rises"; "A Farewell to Arms"; "For Whom the Bell Tolls"; "Across the River and Into the Trees"; and his short stories "The Short Happy Life of Francis McComber, "and "Today is Friday.""
Jim Harrison by
This is the first study devoted exclusively to the life and work of Jim Harrison, author of Sundog, Farmer, and Legends of the Fall . Edward Reilly draws on an array of primary and secondary sources including personal interviews with Harrison and his family and friends to present a thorough biographical portrait of the subject and an in-depth analysis of the major works of fiction, poetry and nonfiction. This is a thoughtful, comprehensive study, with a bibliography that will be invaluable to Harrison fans.
Michigan in the Novel, 1816-1996: An Annotated Bibliography by
Michigan in the Novel records 1,735 novels published from 1816 through 1996 that are set wholly or partially in the state of Michigan. Consulting literally thousands of novels and visiting scores of libraries, Robert Beasecker spent more than twenty years researching this exhaustive bibliography. Works included are mainstream fiction, mystery and romance novels, juveniles, religious tracts, dime novels, and other marginal or popular genre literature. Omitted are short stories, poetry, drama, screenplays and pageants, and serially published novels with no subsequent separate publication. Through its six indexes, Michigan in the Novel provides literary and cultural access to Michigan novels, classifying novels by to title, series, setting, chronology, subject and genre, and Michigan imprints. Intended to serve as a guide for students, teachers, scholars, and readers to explore Michigan's vast, varied, and rich literary landscape, Michigan in the Novel is the most expansive compilation of its kind.
Poetry in Michigan / Michigan in Poetry by
Featuring poetry by: Tom Andrews, James Armstrong, Cullen Bailey Burns, Jackie Bartley, Elinor Benedict, Terry Blackhawk, Gladys Cardiff, Susanna Childress, Patricia Clark, David Cope, Jim Daniels, Mike Delp, Toi Derricotte, Chris Dombrowski, Jack Driscoll, Stuart Dybek, Nancy Eimers, Robert Fanning, Mary Jo Firth Gillett, Lisa Fishman, Linda Nemec Foster, Matthew Gavin Frank, Joy Gaines-Friedler, Dan Gerber, Linda Gregerson, Mariela Griffor, Robert Haight, Francine J. Harris, Jim Harrison, Bob Hicok, Conrad Hilberry, Dennis Hinrichsen, Amorak Huey, Austin Hummell, Lizzie Hutton, David L. James, D. R. James, Rhoda Janzen, Jonathan Johnson, Laura Kasischke, Josie Kearns, Elizabeth Kerlikowske, Judith Kerman, L.S. Klatt, Kimberly Kolbe, David Dodd Lee, Phil Levine, M.L. Liebler, Thomas Lynch, Naomi Long Madgett, Corey Marks, Peter Markus, Dave Marlatt, Gail Martin, Kathleen McGookey, Judith Minty, Ander Monson, Julie Moulds, Amy Newday, William Olsen, Anne-Marie Oomen, Miriam Pederson, Susan Blackwell Ramsey, Greg Rappleye, Josh Rathkamp, Christine Rhein, Jack Ridl, Ron Riekki, John Rybicki, Mary Ann Samyn, Teresa Scollon, Herb Scott, Heather Sellers, Diane Seuss, Patty Seyburn, Faith Shearin, Marc Sheehan, Don Stap, Phillip Sterling, Alison Swan, Keith Taylor, Matthew Thorburn, Russell Thorburn, Richard Tillinghast, Rodney Torreson, Robert VanderMolen, Diane Wakoski, Daneen Wardrop, Angela Williams, and John Woods Featuring art by: Mary Brodbeck, Michelle Calkins, Jean Canavan, Nathan Caplan, Martha Ceccio, Karin Wagner Coron, Steve Coron, Lori Feldpausch, Steve Gilzow, David Grath, Ladislav Hanka, Carol Hanna, Lois Lovejoy, Stephen Magsig, Alanna Pfeffer, Katie Platte, Meridith Ridl, Erin Scott, Craig Seaver, Tom Walsh, Mary Whalen, Nancy Wolfe, and Patrick Young. Cover: "Huron River Mist #2" by Martha Ceccio Designer: Paul Sizer, Sizer Design + Illustration
