News from and of Michigan Writers

Word from Jerry Dennis, author of The Living Great Lakes; It’s Raining Frogs and Fishes, etc., is that his new work on the Great Lakes shoreline could be out in fall of 2011 or, possibly, not until sometime in 2012. An excerpt will appear before then, however, in Michigan Quarterly Review. And that reminds me to remind blog readers and bookstore customers that I still have copies of the MQJ issue with Benjamin Busch’s beautiful, moving and unforgettable essay, “Growth Rings.”

I contacted Jerry Dennis and got his news after a regular Dog Ears Books customer told me that he and his wife had enjoyed all the more a long road trip to Virginia because they passed the time reading aloud from The Living Great Lakes. Now these are people after my own heart! They read to each other!

Ellen Airgood is back in the U.P. after a trip to New York and meetings with her agent, editor, publisher and the marketing people who will be bringing her first published novel, South of Superior, to readers in the spring. Ellen is excited “to be doing what I’ve always wanted to do.” She also reports that “it was fascinating to watch the heart of the book business beating. It all happens at high speed, and constantly...,.” She asked if I could imagine it. No, I guess not, really. New York publishing is about as far from Northport as it is from Grand Marais--another world altogether.

Fans of Jim Harrison, former Leelanau resident, now of Montana and Arizona (the dust jacket information is incorrect), don’t have to wait until spring for a new book. The Etiquette of Freedom, conversations between Harrison and poet Gary Snyder, is available now, and even the poets’ dogs got into the act, as the photo section clearly shows. Because this book was first a documentary film, you get a DVD along with the hardcover, making it a pretty deal for $28.

Then there are the books you missed the first time around. One of my customers wanted Phil Caputo’s Indian Country, a novel set in the U.P., a request that brought to my attention the new paperback edition. Main character is a Vietnam veteran; the fictional landscape is geography I know and love, somewhat rearranged.

What’s it like here in the winter? Winter varies from year to year. This second week of December 2010 we have plenty of snow, with the wind to move it around. Need any snow where you are?

P.S. Sometimes, Mind on Topic // Dog on Bone (or Stick)


I can’t stop thinking about books, e-books, natural resources used and waste generated. Here is a whole list of sites looking at the question. A quick perusal revealed what I already suspected and wrote in my last post, i.e., that these comparisons are only between new hardcover books and new e-books. The most ecological option is still used print books, whenever available. Thinking of that, I can’t help wondering how many new hardcover books are bought and read by only one person. What do you think? If we compare readings to readings, rather than books to books, how does the LCA come out? The reading public needs this information!


This is the view from the bar at the Happy Hour. See my other blog for a more detailed look at the snowy exterior.