Presenting Perfect Duluth Day’s annual rundown of books by Duluth-area writers and/or about Duluth-area topics that are new to bookstores and e-commerce sites. It’s early in the year, so this list will grow as 2025 continues.
I love talking about the literary writing world here, but I rarely talk about academic writing. I’d like to, this time, because I just finished c0-editing a freshly published book with articles by some of your neighbors. They were intentionally written to be accessible to a broad readership.
Climate>Duluth host Tone Lanzillo interviews award-winning science writer Gaia Vince, author of Nomad Century: How Climate Migration Will Reshape Our World, published in the United States by Flatiron Books in 2022.
Nine books have been recognized for this year’s Northeastern Minnesota Book Awards, which celebrate books that substantially represent the history, culture, heritage or lifestyle of northeastern Minnesota.
In the late 1930s, the world was on the brink of war. In 2024, Alexis Pogorelskin is well aware that the threat has returned.
Her book Hollywood and the Nazis on the Eve of War: The Case of The Mortal Storm details the events preceding World War II. It was released in August by Bloomsbury Press.
Another thrift store find: I would love it if anyone with stories about this book, about its poetry or the art or the press, would post below or email dbeard @ d.umn.edu.
I’m still slowly writing the literary history of Duluth and would love if anyone with stories of Savage Press would post below or email me at dbeard @ d.umn.edu.
Foxes & Fireflies begins to take shape as tables and bookshelves are set up in the space on Tower Avenue in Superior. (Photo via Foxes & Fireflies Facebook page)
A new independent bookstore will soon be part of a business incubation facility in Superior.
Foxes & Fireflies will be Superior’s only bookstore carrying an inventory of new books. The city does not have a chain bookstore and hasn’t had a notable outlet for new books since the locally owned JW Beecroft store closed in 2007.
Bart Sutter in the apple trees.
“Lake Superior is God.” Bart Sutter wrote that declaration in his 1998 book Cold Comfort, a collection of essays about “life at the top of the map.” The work was well received by readers, culminating in a Minnesota Book Award for creative nonfiction, and Sutter’s permanent status as a northern force.
Judy Gibbs introduced me to The Will and the Way series of books about the creation of a number of Duluth institutions.
During the Twin Ports Festival of History, my friend Phil Sher gave a speech about the history of the Lithuanian Jewish community in Duluth. Phil is the author of a recent book, Adas Israel, available on Amazon, that was a product of a unique partnership between the University of Minnesota Duluth and the community.
One of Carl Gawboy’s earliest memories is seeing a muskrat skin hanging on the wall in his house. “My father trapped animals and sold them to a fur buyer,” Gawboy said. “That’s when my fascination with trapping began.” Decades later, that interest became the subject of Gawboy’s latest book, Fur Trade Nation: An Ojibwe’s Graphic History, published by Animikii Mazina’iganan: Thunderbird Press. The release date is April 30.
Every year a gob of books by Duluth-area writers and/or about Duluth-area topics hit the shelves of local bookstores and warehouses of e-commerce corporations. Here’s a look at what’s new and coming soon in 2024.
I met a new local author in the wild over the weekend at Gabriel’s Book Store in Lakeside. Riley Grace Brett volunteers there; she has also released a new novel.
Lake Superior Writers is seeking nominations for the 2024 Northeastern Minnesota Book Awards. NEMBA celebrates books that substantially represent the history, culture, heritage or lifestyle of northeastern Minnesota.
The six categories are: nonfiction, fiction, children’s literature, middle grade / young adult, poetry and memoir.
