National Writers Series and Anne-Marie Oomen

Twenty-five days until The Waters Splashes down!

My January book tour is very full, but nothing makes me more excited than my visit to Traverse City, Michigan for the National Writers Series event January 27. They hosted me for Mothers, Tell Your Daughters in summer 2016 and I had a wonderful conversation with Thomas Lynch.

I’m a bit nervous about driving up there in January, but if I allow enough time, it should be all right. And if I get snowed in when I’m there, well, that is a city that knows how to handle snow and cold.

The Record-Eagle article announcing their entire lineup, including the info is behind a paywall, but here is a graphic:

(note they used Fran Dwight’s photo of me). Anyway, inquiring minds sent me this paragraph from behind the paywall. o

Jan. 27: An Evening with Bonnie Jo Campbell

Bonnie Jo Campbell is one of our most highly acclaimed authors in Michigan — a national bestseller, a finalist for both the National Book Award and the National Book Critics Circle Award, and a Guggenheim Fellow Award winner.

In her newest book, “The Waters,” the young and beautiful Donkey Zook’s mother leaves her to grow up wild in the Great Massasauga Swamp near Whiteheart, Michigan. The 11-year-old spends her days immersed in the lush woods and her math books, waiting for her wayward mother to come back. Soon her idyllic days are broken by family secrets, love, and rough men. Our guest host for this event is author Anne-Marie Oomen.

And what’s thrilling is that last part, that Anne-Marie Oomen will be interviewing me! The most meaningful thing about putting together this novel is that so many people I love have become involved in it, whether by proofreading it, or letting me consult with them for information, or in some other way. And my goal is to have everybody I love somehow involved in the book release.

Anne-Marie Oomen is one of the best people in the world, and she is somebody I love. Some of you know her as a faculty member at Interlochen Arts Academy. Others know her by her books, listed below, while some just know her as a graceful, gracious, and adventurous woman of Michigan, who is always doing something exceptional. Here are a couple of pictures of us when we hung out at Rally of Writers in Lansing this year.

And just last week she was just named the Library of Michigan’s author of the year. Here’s the link to the Library of Michigan site. Let me reprint here the first few paragraphs of the announcement,

Oomen is the founding editor of Dunes Review; former president of Michigan Writers, Inc.; and instructor at Solstice MFA in Creative Writing at Lasell University in Massachusetts and at Interlochen College of Creative Arts. She appears at conferences throughout the country.

After nearly 20 years teaching all levels of students from junior high to graduate school, Oomen became writer-in-residence at Interlochen Arts Academy from 1997-99, and then chair of the creative writing department from 1999-2008. She oversaw the program development of The Writing House, which was dedicated in April 2003. She continued as instructor of creative writing (poetry, playwriting, and nonfiction) and supervising editor of Interlochen Review until 2014.

Her 2022 memoir As Long as I Know You: the Mom Book won Association of Writers & Writing Programs’ Sue William Silverman nonfiction award, a Michigan Notable Book Award in 2023, and a Silver IPPY. The Long Fields: Essays of Comfort and Home is her latest work. 

Other Michigan Notable Book selections authored by Oomen include Pulling Down the Barn, House of Fields, and The Lake Michigan Mermaid (with Linda Nemec Foster). Her edited work ELEMENTAL: A Collection of Michigan Nonfiction was also a Michigan Notable Book title. Additional works include American Map: Essays, Uncoded Woman, and Love, Sex and 4-H. 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 Community Theatre Association of Michigan Playwriting contest. Oomen has developed scripts for two recent video projects, When Water Moves (with a Michigan Arts and Culture Council grant) and Plague Phase (with NatureChange), both of which reflect her interest in water justice and environmental issues.

Congratulations, Anne-Marie, and thank you!