The Lake Huron Mermaid with Linda Nemec Foster and Anne-Marie Oomen

Two acclaimed Michigan authors are back with a dazzling tale of sisterhood and the healing power of nature embodied in the Great Lakes.

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About the Book:

A dazzling tale of sisterhood and the healing power of nature embodied in the Great Lakes.

A young girl faces turmoil when she must rise to the challenge of caring for her sister suffering a long-haul case of COVID-19. Brooding over her sister's precarious condition, Dawn seeks solace in free diving in Lake Huron, where she discovers a presence in the gray-blue waters who also knows the pain of loss and loneliness. The Lake Huron mermaid reaches out to Dawn, starting a chain of events that set the human sisters on a wild journey to the Straits of Mackinac. A new tale in the spirit of the award-winning The Lake Michigan Mermaid, this collection of poems introduces another beautifully illustrated freshwater mermaid to the world, fluidly shifting between Dawn and the mermaid's voice. Their voices resonate with a parallel sense of longing and isolation, interrupted by the hope, compassion, and restoration found in sorority. Through this poetic adventure, Dawn and the mermaid unearth a deeper understanding of sisterhood and the significance of growing up together, making sense of the world together, and fighting to stay together.

Not able to join us? Order your copy here: https://www.schulerbooks.com/b...

About Linda Nemec Foster:

Poet and writer Linda Nemec Foster is the author of twelve poetry collections, including the critically acclaimed books The Lake Michigan Mermaid (2019 Michigan Notable Book), Amber Necklace from Gdańsk, Talking Diamonds, and The Blue Divide. Her first full-length book of prose poems, Bone Country, was published in 2023.

She has been published in over 350 magazines and journals such as The Georgia Review, Nimrod, North American Review, New American Writing, Witness, Quarterly West, and Paterson Literary Review. Her poems have also appeared in anthologies from the U.S. and Great Britain, been translated in Europe, inspired original music compositions, and have been produced for the stage and screen.

Foster has received over 30 nominations for the Pushcart Prize, and has been honored by the Arts Foundation of Michigan, ArtServe Michigan, the National Writer’s Voice, and the Academy of American Poets. From 2003-2005, Foster was selected to serve as the first Poet Laureate of Grand Rapids, Michigan. In 2015, she was given a Lifetime Achievement Award by the Dyer-Ives Foundation for her poetry and advocacy of the literary arts in Michigan. On multiple occasions, she has been awarded prizes in the Allen Ginsberg Poetry Contest sponsored by the Paterson Literary Review; in 2023, she won first prize in the prestigious competition. Selections from her book, Bone Country, have been honored in eleven competitions—including the Fish Anthology’s Flash Fiction Contest in Ireland and the Best Small Fictions 2022. After publication, Bone Country was nominated for 20 book awards including the Pulitzer Prize.

Foster is the founder of the Contemporary Writers Series at Aquinas College.

About Anne-Marie Oomen:

Anne-Marie Oomen was recently awarded the Michigan Author Award for Lifetime Achievement, 2023-24. Her book As Long as I Know You: The Mom Book won AWP’s Sue William Silverman Nonfiction Award (University of Georgia Press), a Michigan Notable Book Award, and a silver IPPY award. The Long Fields, from Cornerstone Press, is a just released retrospective: collected essays and shorts. Other titles include Love, Sex and 4-H, (Next Generation Indie Award for memoir); Pulling Down the Barn and House of Fields, (Michigan Notable Books)—all focused on rural Michigan culture; also An American Map: Essays, and a collection of poetry, Uncoded Woman (Milkweed Editions).

She co-wrote The Lake Michigan Mermaid with poet, Linda Nemec Foster (Michigan Notable Book 2019), and The Lake Huron Mermaid is forthcoming in 2024. She edited Elemental: A Collection of Michigan Nonfiction (Michigan Notable Book), and Looking Over My Shoulder: Reflections on the Twentieth Century (A Michigan Humanities Council Project).

She has written seven plays, including award-winning Northern Belles (inspired by oral histories of women farmers), and Secrets of Luuce Talk Tavern, winner of the CTAM contest.

She is founding editor of Dunes Review, former president and current board member of Michigan Writers, and serves as instructor at Solstice MFA in Creative Writing at Lasell University (MA) and at Interlochen College of Creative Arts. She appears at conferences throughout the country.

She and her husband, David Early, have built their handmade home on wild acreage formerly stewarded by the tribes of the Three Fires Confederacy near Empire, Michigan, and beloved Lake Michigan.