2025 NEMBA Awards Ceremony

This year we were excited to be able to invite all nominees and the public to an awards ceremony to announce the Winners and Honorable Mentions live!

Save the date: November 9 from 1pm-3pm at The St. Louis County Depot, 506 W Michigan St, Duluth, MN

On Sunday, Nov. 9, Lake Superior Writers and its partners will celebrate excellence in regional writing
with announcement of the winners of the Northeastern Minnesota Book Awards from 1-3 p.m. at The
Depot in Duluth.
Winners and Honorable Mentions were chosen in four categories from among 21 nominees by regional
Reading Teams. Those top picks will be announced during the afternoon program, which is free and open
to the public.
Lee Radzak, former keeper of the Split Rock Lighthouse, whose memoir “The View From Split Rock: A
Lighthouse Keeper’s Life” won the 2022 NEMBA award for memoir, will be keynote speaker. As the
resident site manager of the Split Rock Lighthouse historic site, Radzak and his family lived 36 years at
the remote site on the cliff overlooking Lake Superior. Among his legacy from those years is the annual
Nov. 10 commemoration of the sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald with the lighting of the Split Rock
beacon. He will be present for that ceremony this year.
Many of the authors will be on hand to sell and sign books and the Bookstore at Fitger’s will also sell
books from the nominees and others. The free Sunday NEMBA event will offer light snacks and sweets
from event partners Catering by Bellisio’s.
Other partners and support in come from The St. Louis County Depot, the Friends of the Duluth Public
Library, PBS North and from a private donor. This event, along with the workshops and presentations
offered this year by Lake Superior Writers, is thanks to operating support made possible in part by the
voters of Minnesota through a grant from the Arrowhead Regional Arts Council thanks to legislative
appropriation from the arts and cultural heritage funds.

The nominees are:

Fiction

• Shane Drift for “Sad Evil”
• Rowan Eira for “Winter Getaway”
• Aurora Lothbrok for “The Mermaid of Lake Superior”
• R. T. Lund for “The Ghost, a Lake Superior Mystery”
• Kristina Shuey for “The Day the World Burned”
• Candace Simar for “Sister Lumberjack”
• Cathy LaForge Tonkin for “Echoes of an Eta”

Nonfiction/Memoir

• Douglas Edmonson for “Norm Oakvik: The Inconspicuous Coach”
• Carl Gawboy for “Fur Trade Nation: An Ojibwe’s Graphic History”
• Cary J. Griffith for “Gunflint Falling: Blowdown in the Boundary Waters”
• Darrell J. Pedersen for “Who Will Carry the Fire? More Reflections from a North Woods Lake”

Youth Literature

• Erin Soderberg Downing for “Just Keep Walking”
• Staci Lola Drouillard for “A Family Tree”
• James L. Freeman for “The Classy Lumberjack Bar and Lounge: Stories of Life and Fantasy in
  Northern Minnesota”
• Minda Gomez for “Treasure of the North: A Bilingual Minnesota Adventure”
• Katharine Johnson for “Belzi’s Blizzard”

Poetry

• Rebecca Foust for “You Are Leaving the American Sector: Love Poems”
• Sandra Hisakuni for “The Northland Beckons: An Illustrated Haiku Journey”
• Patrick Stevens for “Natural Wonders”
• Bart Sutter for “Cotton Grass: New and Selected Poems of the North”
• Peggy Trojan for “Ma”

The NEMBA Awards are presented by Lake Superior Writers.

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