Excavating Literary History in Duluth: Sally Ockwig Larson

I’m reading books secured at the most recent Duluth Public Library book sale. Over the next few days, I will ask about poets appearing in North Coast Review, a Poetry Harbor publication.

Today, Sally Ockwig Larson.

Sally has written several letters to the Duluth News Tribune (examples here, here, and here). But what about their life as a poet — can anyone share more?

About Poetry Harbor, from the Duluth News Tribune:

Poetry Harbor got started after David Hopkins organized a poetry open stage at Amazing Grace in 1989, she said.

Afterward, [Ellie Schoenfeld], [Patrick] McKinnon, Andrea McKinnon and Kelly Green were sitting around a table talking about what fun it would be to read poetry to each other on a regular basis, she said.

From there, the group decided to begin publishing local poets and received a grant for their first anthology, “Poets Who Haven’t Moved to Minneapolis.”

Other books were published, including a second poetry anthology, “Poets Who Didn’t Move to St. Paul,” and “Days of Obsidian, Days of Grace,” an anthology of the writings of four native American writers.

Poetry Harbor also published numerous chap books, including one by Nancy Fitzgerald, and founded a literary magazine, North Coast Review in 1992.

Schoenfeld still edits the magazine which has an international audience, McKinnon said. Schoenfeld and Louis Jenkins co-edited the latest issue, which includes poems by Robert Bly, Barton Sutter and Connie Wanek, he said. It’s available at all local independent bookstores.

and, again, the DNT:

Poetry Harbor [was] a nonprofit launched in 1991 that supported local poets with readings, a literary review and chapbooks, and a public access television program.