participating authors
our authors all create works shaped by the unique landscapes
and people of the northern Great Lakes region.
ELLEN AIRGOOD grew up on a farm in Michigan's thumb area and loved reading, riding horses, and writing stories. She currently lives near Grand Marais, MI, where she and her husband Rick managed a diner for many years, and where Ellen served as waitress, pastry chef, and bouncer. Now they have converted a 1974 Airstream Argosy into a food trailer called The Uglyfish Baking Company, which they operate near Muskallonge Lake State Park, in Northern Luce County. She is the author of four books published by Penguin Random House, the adult novels Tin Camp Road and South of Superior, and the youth novels Prairie Evers and The Education of Ivy Blake. Visit her website at www.ellenairgood.com.
Ellen Airgood
STEVE AMICK is the author of You Shall See the Beautiful Things: a Novel & a Nocturne (Acre Books, 2023.) Previously, he published two novels with Pantheon, a division of Penguin Random House: Nothing But a Smile (2009) and The Lake, the River & the Other Lake (2004), which was a Washington Post Book of the Year, a BookSense Pick, and was cited in the Encyclopedia Britannica’s Britannica Book of the Year as one of three “standout” debuts of 2005. Both were Michigan Notable Books.
Steve is bi-peninsular, living in Ann Arbor and Manistique, where he is launching a summer generative writing retreat on Lake Michigan called The Writing Rock. Find Steve online at https://steve-amick.com.
Steve Amick
T. MARIE BERTINEAU was born amidst the copper mining ruins of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. Of Ojibwe-Anishinaabe and French Canadian/Cornish descent, Bertineau is a member of the Keweenaw Bay Indian Community of the Lake Superior Band of Chippewa Indians.
The Mason House, her debut memoir, was named a 2021 Michigan Notable Book by the Library of Michigan and received the 2021-2022 Stuart D. and Vernice M. Gross Award for Literature from Saginaw Valley State University.
The mother of two, she makes her home in the Upper Peninsula.
Learn more at: https://www.tmariebertineau.com.
T. Marie Bertineau
CHAD V. BROUGHMAN is the author of two award-winning short story collections—The Forsaken and Slighted—and the acclaimed debut novel, The Fall of Bellwether, which earned a top-ten status in ScreenCraft’s Cinematic Novel Competition, was shortlisted for the First Novel Prize, won the 2024 Hawthorne Prize, and was named Best Historical Fiction Novel by the American Writing Awards. It was also recognized by the International Book Awards.
Broughman teaches English in Harbor Springs and is a proud family man. When not writing, he’s usually pulling up bass from northern Michigan’s inland lakes—or being walked by his golden retriever, Biscuit.
Visit Chad at https://www.chadvbroughman.com.
Chad V. Broughman
MIKEL B. CLASSEN has written and photographed northern Michigan for more than forty years. His books include Lake Superior Tales, a 2020 U.P. Notable Book, and Points North, a 2021 U.P. Notable Book and a recipient of the Historical Society of Michigan’s Outstanding Michigan History Publication Award. He is also the author of True Tales, the Forgotten History of Michigan's Upper Peninsula, The Alexandria Code, and Piracy on the Great Lakes, True Tales of Freshwater Pirates, a 2025 U.P. Notable Book.
Classen is the founder of The U.P. Reader and a recipient of the Historical Society of Michigan’s George Follo Award for Upper Peninsula History. He makes his home in Sault Ste. Marie.
Find him at https://mikelbclassen.com.
Mikel Classen
DAVE DEMPSEY is the author of eight books and co-author of four others, with work spanning environmental history, biography, fiction, and literary criticism. His environmental titles include Great Lakes For Sale, Great Lakes: Fact or Fake? and Ruined by Dumping, which explore the challenges and stewardship of the Great Lakes region.
Dempsey is also the author of a biography of former Michigan governor William Milliken and has written both a collection of short stories and a volume profiling famous and forgotten Michigan authors. A longtime environmental advocate, Dempsey holds degrees from Western Michigan University and Michigan State University. He makes his home in Traverse City, Michigan. Find him at https://daviddempsey.org.
Dave Dempsey
KAREN DIONNE is the USA Today and #1 internationally bestselling author of the award-winning psychological suspense novels The Marsh King’s Daughter and The Wicked Sister, both published by G.P. Putnam’s Sons in the U.S. and in dozens of other countries. The Marsh King’s Daughter was named one of the best books of 2017 by iBooks and many other booksellers and reviewers, and released in 2023 by Lionsgate as a major motion picture starring Daisy Ridley and Ben Mendelsohn. Karen enjoys nature photography and lives with her husband on a small lake surrounded by forest in the middle of Michigan.
Find her at https://karen-dionne.com.
Karen Dionne
CAROL DUNBAR is a working writer and former actor who left her life in the city to live off the grid. Her debut novel, The Net Beneath Us, won the Edna Ferber Fiction Book Award, and her second novel, A Winter’s Rime, received a 2024 WLA Award for outstanding achievement in fiction. Her essays and stories have appeared in The New York Times, Brevity, Lit Hub, and on Wisconsin Public Radio. She writes from a solar-powered office on the second floor of a water tower where she lives in the woods with her family and a Great Pyrenees Mountain dog.
Find her at https://www.caroldunbar.com.
Carol Dunbar
MEAGAN FRANCIS, Writing North’s organizing director, has been writing and publishing essays and nonfiction for over two decades. Her most recent book, The Last Parenting Book You’ll Ever Read (Sourcebooks, 2025) explores the emotional impact of children growing up and leaving home.
Meagan was born in Munising and raised in Sault Ste. Marie. While she moved downstate as a teenager, the U.P. has been calling her home ever since, eventually leading her to Manistique where she co-owns The Mill Public Market, home to Paper Mill Books.
Meagan is currently working on a novel set in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.
Find her at https://meaganfrancis.com.
Meagan Francis
J.L. HYDE is the author of ten murder mystery novels. Her second book, Delta County, has been optioned for film. Although she remains an independent author, her sub-rights are represented by Helm Literary. In 2024, she was given the Delta County Ambassador award from the Chamber of Commerce for her continuing efforts to promote the area and its local businesses. She currently resides in Gladstone and is hard at work on her 11th novel.
Find her at https://www.jlhyde.com.
J. L. Hyde
ELLEN LORD grew up in the wilds of northern Michigan. Her writing is inspired by the exploration of the natural world and by the stories of folks she has met along the way. She is a confessional poet with a penchant for humor and melancholy. She is a Behavioral Health therapist and resides in Charlevoix and Trout Creek, Michigan.
Her publications include: VIGIL (2025) and Relative Sanity (2023), published by Modern History Press.
Visit her at www.ellenlordauthor.com.
Ellen Lord
SARA MAURER's critically-acclaimed debut novel, A Good Animal, is forthcoming from St. Martin's Press on February 24, 2026. Set in the farm country of Michigan's Upper Peninsula, A Good Animal is a deeply felt coming-of-age story that captures the ache of first love, the beauty and brutality of rural life, and how one decision can echo through generations and shape who we become.
Sara attended Albion College and Eastern Michigan University and completed the Stanford Continuing Studies certificate in novel writing in 2022. In 2023, she was selected as a Suzanne M. Wilson Artist-in-Residence at the Glen Arbor Arts Center.
She lives with her family in Sault Ste. Marie. Find her at https://www.saramaurerwrites.com.
Sara Maurer
ANNE-MARIE OOMEN is the recipient of the 2023–24 Michigan Author Award for Lifetime Achievement. Her memoir As Long as I Know You: The Mom Book won AWP’s Sue William Silverman Nonfiction Award, a Michigan Notable Book Award, and a silver IPPY. Her recent retrospective, The Long Fields, gathers essays and short works focused on rural Michigan culture, a theme that runs through earlier Michigan Notable Books Pulling Down the Barn and House of Fields. She is also the author of Love, Sex and 4-H and the poetry collection Uncoded Woman. Oomen co-authored The Lake Michigan Mermaid (Michigan Notable Book 2019), is a founding editor of Dunes Review, and teaches at the Solstice MFA and Interlochen College of Creative Arts.
Find her at https://anne-marieoomen.com.
Anne-Marie Oomen
HELEN RAICA-KLOTZ is a writer and teacher. Her short story collection, Superior Stories, was the 2025 winner of the Michigan Writers Chapbook Contest and selected as a 2025 UP Notable Book. Her essays, non-fiction, and fiction have appearedin over 30 literary publications, including The MacGuffin, Porcupine Literary, The Great Lakes Review, and MER; two of these pieces were nominated for the Pushcart Prize.
Helen teaches composition and literature courses at Saginaw Valley State University.
She’s also taught writing at a regional prison, a homeless shelter, an alternative high school, and other places where she can find people with stories to tell.
Learn more at https://raica-klotz.com.
Helen Raica-Klotz
Chef Lane (Iliana) Regan was awarded a Michelin star for each year Elizabeth Restaurant was open in Chicago from 2013-2020. The James Beard Foundation has nominated them on numerous occasions for Best Chef-Great Lakes, and in 2016, Food and Wine named them one of the Best Chefs in America. In 2019, they opened Milkweed Inn Bed and Breakfast in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula and published their first memoir, Burn the Place, which was longlisted for the National Book Award, the first time a food writer was listed since Julia Child in 1979. Their second memoir, Fieldwork, came out in 2023 and was a finalist for the Midland Authors Prize. They have an MFA in Writing from the Art Institute of Chicago and spend every moment they can with a pencil in hand, surrounded by the natural world, jotting down what they see.