Ever wish you could include a book’s author in your book club discussions? Now you can!

In our Book Club for Writers series, we bring a regional author to the table to talk about craft, what it took to write the book, or life as a writer for 30 minutes. Then we allow 60 minutes for a Q&A and book discussion.

This event is free and you do not need to be a member to attend.

For virtual events, we will be recording and making it available to those who register for one month afterwards. So even if you cannot attend, you can watch the session later!

We encourage you to support your local independent bookstores, who may have these books in stock or would be happy to order them for you.

Fitgers Bookstore – Duluth
Zenith Bookstore – Duluth
Foxes & Fireflies Booksellers – Superior
Honest Dog Books – Bayfield

David Hakensen, author of Her Place in the Woods: The Life of Helen Hoover

January 15, 2026 at 6:30pm via Zoom

The biography of one of Minnesota’s most beloved nature writers, from her career in the city to her rustic cabin on Gunflint Lake.

During the late 1950s through the early 1970s, Helen Hoover’s stories and essays of life in the wilderness on northern Minnesota’s Gunflint Lake, published in popular magazines and several bestselling books (including The Gift of the Deer in 1966 and A Place in the Woods in 1969), found millions of fans and earned her accolades alongside nature writers like Sigurd Olson, Rachel Carson, Sally Carrighar, and Calvin Rutstrum. Hoover’s own unlikely history of leaving a corporate career in Chicago for a small cabin without electricity or running water—with no interest in hunting or fishing—is just one chapter of the remarkable life that David Hakensen describes in Her Place in the Woods. This first complete biography illuminates how Helen Hoover (1910–1984) made a place for herself and for countless readers in, as she put it, the world of her time. Read more at the University of Minnesota Press website.

Join David Hakensen for a Book Club for Writers event where he discusses:

How he became interested in Hoover
Locating research resources – and using them
Writing – article first, then a book
Publishing process – proposal, submitting manuscript, editors, proofers and surprise! – an index

Free and open to the public! If you have questions, please contact writers@lakesuperiorwriters.org

David Hakensen is a writer and corporate communications consultant based in Minnesota. He has served on numerous nonprofit boards including Norway House and the Norwegian-American Historical Association, and was president of the Executive Council of the Minnesota Historical Society from 2018-2023.

He has written for Format, Minnesota History, Mpls.St. Paul, and Twin Cities Business. Her Place in the Woods is his first book.

David’s book was recently listed as a Duluth News Tribune Best Bet by Jay Gabler!

Operating support is made possible in part by the voters of Minnesota through a grant from the Arrowhead Regional Arts Council, thanks to a legislative appropriation from the arts and cultural heritage fund.