If You Seek…

This is one of the many times of year when Michigan’s state motto keeps coming to mind: If you seek a pleasant peninsula, look about you. Hills and woods and water and sky — and everywhere, right now, in the sun and in the rain, cherry orchards in bloom. Although I know cherry blossoms were not that different when I photographed them last year (and will be equally beautiful next year), I can’t help grabbing for my camera again and again. Since they speak for themselves, however, I’ll let them do just that for the remainder of today’s post.

Another of last year’s themes that will repeat in 2019 is my Thursday Evening Author series (TEA). I’ll be welcoming back three guests from former years and introducing to my TEA audience two seasoned writers new to Northport, with one change: this year series guests will appear only every other week, for a total of five rather than last year’s eleven. 

We will begin with Kalamazoo poet Jennifer Clark on June 27. Jennifer is coming back with a new book of poetry, A Beginner’s Guide to Heaven. Her previous visit was lively and full of surprises, and I expect no less this year. We look forward to having her with us to kick off our 2019 season — so glad to have a returning poet as our opening headliner!

Leelanau’s own Kathleen Stocking is no stranger to Dog Ears Books, and you certainly won’t want to miss her event in Northport on July 11. Kathleen is a Leelanau treasure, and From the Place of the Gathering Light: Leelanau Pieces is destined to join Letters From the Leelanau as a Michigan classic. Need I say more?

Our third returnee is Dorene O’Brien from Detroit. Dorene’s new collection of short stories, What It Might Feel Like to Hope, has been gathering praise right and left, so we are delighted that she will be with us to do a reading and signing on July 25 on her annual Leelanau visit. Also, as a writer who also teaches writing, Dorene will no doubt have some words of wisdom in the Q&A following her reading.

Another Detroit writer, Michael Zadoorian, comes to us for the first time on August 8, with his new novel, Beautiful Music. Did you read The Leisure Seeker? (Maybe see the movie?) Michael’s reputation has been building for a while now, so it will be exciting to welcome him in Northport. 

Finally, on August 22, we will host Charles R. Eisendrath, a “reporter’s reporter” (according to Tom Brokaw), formerly on the staff of Time magazine and now making his home in northern Michigan. Charles comes to us with a beautiful nonfiction book, Downstream From Here: A Big Life in a Small Place, addressing experiences from fly fishing and making maple syrup to witnessing assassination. Really!

I’m very pleased with and proud of our TEA lineup for 2019 and proud to bring authors and new works of poetry, fiction, and nonfiction to my bookstore audience.  These events are an opportunity for those of us in a small town on the end of a quiet peninsula to hear seasoned, published writers from all over the state read their own work aloud to us in a live, intimate setting. Having guest authors sign the books you purchase adds another dimension to memories of each occasion, as does the general give-and-take of questions, answers, and conversation.

So please put all five dates on your summer calendar now! And if you do not usually read fiction or nonfiction or poetry, make this the season you will step outside your reading comfort zone and try something new, because all of our TEA guests have already given richly of themselves in their books and now give of themselves additionally with these guest appearances in Northport. We are so fortunate! 

A Colorful Riot

There is no single theme to my gardening this year. No limited color palette, as in some more restrained seasons.One summer, for instance, white, grey, blue, lavender, and purple were the only colors in my boardwalk garden. No red, no orange, no yellow. Subtlety was my guiding principle. 

This year I threw all restraint to the winds. Red and orange, pink and yellow, every shade of blue and violet from lightest to darkest, even tomatoes and herbs mixed in with perennials and annuals. Nothing ruled out, my boardwalk garden is a riot of diversity this summer, and I’m loving it! 

(Earlier season, grass not mowed)

(These photos are not the most recent or representative, owing to loss of my good camera.)

A similar broad brush paints my bookstore’s summer literary series, TEA, which stands for Thursday Evening Authors. My TEA guests are writers of fiction and nonfiction; books written for adults, for children, and for readers of all ages; poetry, history, travel, and memoir. Every week this summer will be something different, with no discernible theme other than that of celebration, as we celebrate books and writers, readers and reading, and 25 years of Dog Ears Books. I hope you will be able to join us for as many Thursdays as possible. 

Here, then, is my lineup of guest authors — all Thursdays, all beginning at 7 p.m.:

June 21 (last week) - Rachel May, An American Quilt (nonfiction)

June 28 - Fleda Brown, The Woods Are On Fire (poetry)

July 5 - Kim Schneider, 100 Things To Do in Traverse City Before You Die (travel)

July 19 - (Double-header!) Lynne Rae Perkins, Secret Sisters of the Salty Sea (middle grade novel), AND Anne-Marie Oomen, Lake Michigan Mermaid (narrative poetry)

July 26 - Dennis Turner, What Did You Do in the War, Sister? (novel based on true events during World War II)

August 2 - Virginia Johnson, Ira’s Farm (memoir)

August 9 - Karen Anderson, Gradual Clearing (radio essays)

August 16 -(2 books) Bill Smith, Chickadeeland & 4 A.M. December 25 (stories with pictures for all ages)

August 23 - Loreen Niewenhuis, author of three Great Lakes books, presenting “Isle Royale”

August 30 - Thomas Hooker, various books of geology and poetry, plus his own original music

All TEA guests are either northern Michigan residents or have summer roots here (the latter the annuals in our literary garden). Among Michigan towns represented in this summer’s TEAs are Marquette, Traverse City, Suttons Bay, Empire, Omena, and Battle Creek. Our first guest of the season, Rachel May, from Northern Michigan University in the U.P., was delighted with her Northport audience, and the feeling was decidedly mutual. 

Meeting authors in person is an opportunity not only to see the person behind the book but also to learn some of what is involved in the writing process, which varies from one writer to another. Whether you are a writer yourself or simply curious about how people do it, this aspect of TEAs should prove interesting.

I’ll post reminders as we go through the summer, (this list won’t be your only reference), but some of you might want or need to plan beyond the current week — hence the list. And do, by all means, plan to be with us this Thursday for Fleda Brown. You’ll thank yourself afterwards for having come to meet her!

Fleda as previous Dog Ears Books guest

Meanwhile, happy reading and happy gardening in this lovely month of June —