The December NorthWords includes:
Notes from the Board Room
“You can always edit a bad page, but you can’t edit a blank page.”
This is my new inspiration line for the month, and a reminder to write something rather than nothing – every day if possible.
With that thought in mind … and fresh off our celebration at The Depot of regional authors at the Northeastern Minnesota Book Awards … I have a challenge for all of you. First, if you haven’t already read about our NEMBA winners, please check out the listing on NEMBA 2025 Winners page.
After you see that list – and make a few notes for Christmas gifts or for your own reading list – I challenge you to write a single paragraph (or more if you have the time and energy) describing something about our winter that might shock those from southern locales (and I’m talking farther than the Twin Cities).
In high school, I remember seeing winter through the eyes of our foreign exchange student, Bernie from Belgium. It was a good snow-stacked winter, and he delighted in the yards of snow (meters, by Bernie’s measure, I’m guessing) that accumulated. The first two or three storms, he was into shoveling (though that didn’t last, as all of us can understand). He got good and freaked out when we talked about that momentary nostril freeze-up you can experience in subzero temps. I sadly do not remember if he experienced that or not. Those nose-icing moments are ones I grew up with, so I hardly even think about it when it happens. Kind of like when a friend who moved to Duluth pointed out to me that her ears popped as she drove downtown from over the hill. I realized then that mine do, too, sometimes, but since I grew up with that mini-pop, it seemed natural and went unnoticed.
One thing I do remember about Bernie’s first Minnesota winter was when that frequent false spring arrived in February. You know, that one week or so when temperatures get weirdly, unseasonably warm and maybe there is even a wee thaw. Poor Bernie really, really thought winter had ended, and he was quite elated about it. We all knew there was more than a month of shoveling still ahead, maybe even three months. We could only shake our heads and sigh. No one had the heart to explain to Bernie.
Where we grow up and where we live should influence our writing. It’s kind of our obligation since we are gifted with the region and its quirks. You can sneak it into any genre, from fantasy to non-fiction. As writers, we can always be on the lookout for what seems quite normal – like a brief nose freeze – but that is actually a story in the making.
And I have one more tale about our winters … one that didn’t happen in winter at all (and you may have already heard a similar story). This came from another friend of mine a few decades ago on a trip down South (that’s South with a capital “S”). Several folks wondered out loud about a car accessory they had never seen before. It was an electrical plug coming out from the front of her vehicle. This was years before electric cars were a thing, mind you. Of course, my friend explained the function of the block heater that helped keep cars running in our subzero temperatures. “Hah!” the Southerners chuckled good naturedly at my Northerner friend. Then they added, “But what is it really for?”
Really, I wish you all great writing and the chance to edit a page – good or bad, but not blank – this month. Then get ready to tap some events in January to aid in your writing resolutions for 2026!
– Konnie LeMay, chair on the Lake Superior Writers Board
Lake Superior Writers News & Events
Virtual Writers’ Cafe
December 13 at 9:30 a.m. on Zoom
Join a group of local writers to connect about current writing projects, upcoming events, and general discussion. Virtual Writers’ Café at 9:30 a.m. Don’t forget to use the new registration form on the Virtual Writers’ Cafe page that sets you up for the Cafe through May 2026! This monthly event is free and open to all.
Writing Circles
Writing Circles are where writers of a particular genre like general fiction, memoir, fantasy, mystery and more can gather together to talk about writing and get feedback on their works-in-progress! We will be announcing new Writing Circles as volunteer leaders organize their groups. If you are interested in starting a Writing Circle — either online or in person in the region — please email writers@lakesuperiorwriters.org.
Literary Events
Author Reception – Trent Preszler – Evergreen
December 5, 2025 at 8pm at Honest Dog Books, 40 S 2nd St. Bayfield, WI
Join us for the most festive night of the year. Here’s what to expect:
Special Guest Author Trent Preszler will be signing copies of his latest release, Evergreen with a short talk at 8pm
Ben Thoen from the Good Thyme will be here selling gift certificates while serving appetizers.
Enter a drawing for $100 gift certificates from Honest Dog Books and the Good Thyme — $200 total. This is a one-night 5-8 house prize.
Book Signing for Natural Connections 3: A Web Endlessly Woven
December 6, 2025 from 4pm-6pm at The Bookstore at Fitger’s, 600 E Superior St., Duluth, MN
Meet and chat with author and naturalist Emily Stone while she signs her brand new book, Natural Connections 3: A Web Endlessly Woven.
Julianne Lepp Author Reading – Tend to Your Spirit
December 6, 2025 from 4pm-5pm at Honest Dog Books, 40 S 2nd St. Bayfield, WI
Join us for an afternoon with Julianne Lepp for a talk about making it through the seasons of chronic illness.
Living with chronic illness has many challenges, and the journey is not just a physical one. Tend to Your Spirit is a companion for this emotional and spiritual journey, offering tools to help readers practice self-compassion and self-care. With candor and vulnerability, spiritual leaders Julianne Lepp and Florence Caplow, themselves living with long-term illness, offer insights and practices that can benefit anyone facing the emotional impact of a new or ongoing condition.
Meet & Greet: Sarah Brokke & Kyle Leia
December 6, 2025 from 11am-1pm at Zenith Bookstore, 318 N Central Ave., Duluth, MN
Please join Zenith Bookstore as we welcome Sarah Brokke and Kyle Leia on Saturday, December 6th at 11-1 PM. They will talk one-on-one with customers about their book Irrevocable Wholeness: Poems and Meditations to Hold it All and accompanying oracle cards. Plus, Sarah and Kyle will personally sign them. This event is free and open to the public. Please invite a friend!
Irrevocable Wholeness: Poems and Meditations to Hold it All is a vessel for individual and collective healing and care through a book and set of oracle cards. This offering lifts up and holds space for our sacred, deep, messy, difficult, and beautiful human experience. At its core it is a compass that points us back to our irrevocable wholeness; a gentle reminder that it is our birthright to rest in our wholeness.
https://zenithbookstore.com/events/4101820251206
High Fire Danger Poetry Book Launch
December 9, 2025 from 7pm-8pm at Zenith Bookstore, 318 N Central Ave., Duluth, MN
Zenith Bookstore is delighted to help launch Marie Zhuikov’s brand new poetry book, High Fire Danger. Marie will share from this beautiful book and take questions about her thirty-eight-year journey in writing it. There will be fresh baked cookies and sparkling cider to add to the party. Please invite a friend or two to help us celebrate!
In High Fire Danger, Marie Zhuikov meditates on the transformative power of love and the magic and menace of nature. Written over the past thirty-eight years, Zhuikov’s enchanting poems offer unique insights and cutting humor. They take readers from her home in Minnesota to far-flung locales across the Great Lakes, Canada, Scotland, the Caribbean, and even to another planet. These accessible poems are filled with the heat and longing of romantic love, but also a deep love for family, community, and nature. They’ll scorch your soul like wildfire. https://zenithbookstore.com/events/4090220251209
Get It Local Craft/Art Fair
December 13, 2025 from 10am-3pm at Peace UCC, 1111 N. 11th Ave. E., Duluth, MN
Stanley Kusunoki will have a table at the fair highlighting his newest collection of poems, Natural Life: A Poetic Field Guide . His other books will also be available for sale. If you can not make it to the Fari, Natural Life is available at Foxes & Butterflies in Superior and Zenith Bookstore in West Duluth, and on Stan’s website http://www.poeteacher.com.
Meet & Greet: National Cookbook Author – Stephanie Hansen
December 13, 2025 from 2pm-4pm at Zenith Bookstore, 318 N Central Ave., Duluth, MN
Please join bestselling cookbook author and media personality Stephanie Hansen at Zenith Bookstore on Saturday, December 13th 2-4 PM. Stephanie will talk one-on-one with customers and autograph her latest book, True North Cabin Cookbook Volume Two: Seasonal Recipes from a Cozy Kitchen (Minnesota Historical Society Press). This cookbook is sure to be a huge hit this holiday season!
Stephanie Hansen’s first book, True North Cabin Cookbook: Recipes and Stories from a North Woods Table, transported readers to her family outpost on True North Island on Burntside Lake near Ely, Minnesota, to savor meals for the cabin months of May through September. Now, True North Cabin Cookbook Volume Two: Seasonal Recipes from a Cozy Kitchen broadens the invitation to include Hansen’s Twin Cities home as well as her Ely lodging during the balance of the year, commemorating “the cozy months” of October through April with friends and family and—of course—excellent food.
https://zenithbookstore.com/events/3820220251213
Shorelines of the Apostle Islands
December 14, 2025 from 5pm-6:30pm at Honest Dog Books, 40 S. 2nd St. Bayfield, WI
Geology professors Bruce Goetz and Tom Fitz will be talking about the geology of the Apostle Islands as well as signing books.
December Jammies’ Storytime
December 14, 2025 from 11am-11:30am at Zenith Bookstore, 318 N Central Ave., Duluth, MN
Join us for Zenith’s December Jammie’s Storytime on Sunday, December 14th 11:00-11:30 am. Wear your coziest pajamas and bring your favorite stuffed animal! Special guest: Retired teacher and grandmother Kathy Levine will be with us! We’ll read some festive winter books, make a holiday craft, and have a yummy treat together. This story time is FREE and is tailored for 1st grade and under, but all are welcome! https://zenithbookstore.com/events/3879320251214
High Fire Danger Reading and Book Signing
December 20, 2025 from 1pm-3pm at Foxes and Fireflies Booksellers, 1401 Tower Ave, Superior, WI
Marie will read from her first poetry collection, High Fire Danger: Poems of Love and Nature.
2nd Annual Procrastinator’s Shopping Day
December 21, 2025 from 10am-7pm at Zenith Bookstore, 318 N Central Ave., Duluth, MN
Did you forget to get a gift for your brand-new baby niece? How about your uncle the history buff? Maybe you just love to shop right before the holiday to get some awesome deals? Don’t worry. We’ve got you covered!
Join Zenith Bookstore for our 2nd Annual Procrastinator’s Shopping Event on Sunday, December 21st 10-7 PM (extended hours). We’ll have some nice holiday music, wine, cheese and crackers, gift wrapping, AND 10% off Zenith gift cards. Gift cards make the perfect gift for everyone on your list – we not only have great books but also a nice selection of gift items!
https://zenithbookstore.com/events/4115220251221
Opportunities
FDLTCC’s Thunderbird Review Accepting Submissions
Submissions accepted October 15-December 15
FDLTCC’s Thunderbird Review is accepting submissions from October 15-December 15. Visit the FDLTCC’s Thunderbird Review page on our website for more information. https://fdltcc.edu/community-engagement/thunderbird-press/the-thunderbird-review/
Writers’ Monthly Get Together
December 20, 2025 from 10am-11am at Foxes & Fireflies Booksellers, 1401 Tower Ave. Superior, WI
Looking for a place to talk about writing, share writerly advice, and hang out with other writers? Join fellow writers at Foxes & Fireflies Booksellers on the 3rd Saturday of each month from 10-11 a.m. in a spacious conference room, located at the back of the bookstore.
Refreshments aren’t available onsite, but feel free to bring in your own beverages and snacks if you wish. All writers are welcome. There is no fee or requirement to join anything, just a chance to be part of a writing community.
Call for Poems, Nonfiction Writing, and Artwork: “Going the Distance”
Deadline: January 10
Students enrolled in classes at the UM Duluth and at the USF Quito, Ecuador will edit and create a collection of creative works (visual art, poems and nonfiction writing) about “Going the Distance.”
The theme for the project takes it inspiration from the incredible distances that can separate us from our neighbors in both the United States and Ecuador. Rural areas are sometimes sparsely populated. For example, rural Cook County, Minnesota’s population density is 1.8 residents per square mile. Residents of rural areas are often miles from affordable access to fresh foods, healthcare, and other public services. Using Minnesota as our example again, some rural residents, close to the Canadian border and the Superior National Forest, are more than an hour, one way, by car, from a clinic providing basic heathcare. In many parts of the US and Ecuador, one must “go the distance” to have access to the services essential for life. In this sense, one must “go the distance” for basic survival.
The theme from the project, though, also takes inspiration from the metaphor’s association with never giving up. Living one’s best life often entails “going the distance.” Whether we mean setting a goal to run a marathon or completing what oncologists call “the cancer journey,” one must “go the distance.” Achieving any goal, from earning a university degree to creating a work of art, involves “going the distance.”
Submissions should be less than 5,000 words (20 typed pages) for essays, memoir, and journals; poetry submissions should include no more than five individual poems, and no one poem can be more than five pages in length. Artworks in any digital format are accepted. Because of our unique collaboration between our universities in Duluth, Minnesota and in Quito, Ecuador, we can this year accept submissions in both English and Spanish.
Submissions will be reviewed by students in Ecuador, in Duluth, or both. Additional evaluation will be offered by faculty with related expertise.
Authors retain all copyright of their work; we seek only permission for first publication in the collection, which will live online, for free, on the Minnesota Libraries Publishing Project and as book on Amazon. Previous collections in this series can be found here: https://www.amazon.com/stores/author/B0D43N82L8/about?ccs_id=273532a7-3a5f-4f69-af05-ce04ee8d4930
Please submit your work to: dbeard@d.umn.edu by January 10, 2026. In the Subject line, please indicate >Submission for “Going the Distance”<
Learn To Write Your Humor Stories Workshop
January 24, 2025 from 1pm-4pm at Foxes & Fireflies Booksellers
Learn To Write Your Humor Stories Workshop will be held on January 24th from 1-4 at Foxes & Fireflies Booksellers! We will discuss writing challenges and breaking writers block, observing and documenting the funny in life, the components of crafting a compelling story, and tips on continued writing success. Notebooks, pens, swag, refreshments, and laughter are included.
Registration is $47. Limited space available!
Register at this link: https://pci.jotform.com/form/250247150123140
KUDOS – News about our members
Rebecca Foust was the featured poet with five poems in the current issue of The Missouri Review, and her poem “Tacoma Narrows” is in the new issue of On the Seawall. The poems are from the second edition of Foust’s chapbook, You are Leaving the American Sector: Love Poems, reviewed in On the Seawall at and more recently in The Harvard Review. Another poem from the book, “The Golden Country” (inspired by the BWCA), was recently featured on Verse Daily.
Gavin Glen made his poetry book debut from Pine Tree Press entitled Dreams, Letters & Fears. Copies available from him and Foxes and Fireflies Booksellers in Superior, WI.
Dr. Thomas Wayne King, UW-Eau Claire professor emeritus of speech, language and hearing sciences, moderated the widely-viewed November 18, 2025 North Woods & Waters Zoom presentation, NWW LIVE! Featured expert naturalists were Greg Seitz (St. Croix 360) and Victoria Bradford Styrbicki (A House Unbuilt). North Woods & Waters of the St. Croix is based in Taylors Falls, MN, and seeks designation by the U.S. National Park Service for the St. Croix River Watersheds of Minnesota and Wisconsin as a combined National Heritage area. Along with his wife, author Debra Raye King, Thomas lives and writes in Solon Springs, WI, headwaters of both the Brule River, which flows into Lake Superior, and the Wisconsin St. Croix River, which flows into the Mississippi River. Please see the watershed map above.
Kathryn Garvin, an English student at the University of Minnesota Duluth, is pleased to announce her signing-on as an intern for Brule, WI publisher Savage Press. This position will give her an opportunity to participate in the publishing arena building hands-on experience.
Marie Zhuikov‘s story, “Flipping Fishing on its Head: Microfishing Gains Toehold Near Lake Superior,” was published in the Oct/Nov 2025 issue of Lake Superior Magazine.
Lake Superior Writers Blog
Lake Superior Writers invites members to submit guest posts for possible inclusion on our blog. Please visit our blog information page for more details.
Our blog currently features Minnesota Writers Spotlight on Margi Preus
Lake Superior Writers 