And Here: 100 Years of Upper Peninsula Writing, 1917–2017

by Ron Riekki (Editor), Thomas Lynch (Foreword)

Upper Peninsula literature has traditionally been suppressed or minimized in Michigan anthologies and Michigan literature as a whole. Even the Upper Peninsula itself has been omitted from maps, creating a people and a place that have become in many ways “ungeographic.” These people and this place are strongly made up of traditionally marginalized groups such as the working class, the rural poor, and Native Americans, which adds even more insult to the exclusion and forced oppressive silence. And 100 Years of Upper Peninsula Writing, 1917–2017, gives voice to Upper Peninsula writers, ensuring that they are included in Michigan’s rich literary history. Ambitiously, And Here includes great U.P. writing from every decade spanning from the 1910s to the 2010s, starting with Lew R. Sarett’s (a.k.a. Lone Caribou) “The Blue A Chippewa Medicine Dance” and ending with Margaret Noodin’s “Babejianjisemigad” and Sally Brunk’s “KBIC.” Taken as a whole, the anthology forcefully insists on the geographic and literary inclusion of the U.P.—on both the map and the page.

Genres: Poetry, Anthologies

363 pages, Paperback

Published August 1, 2017

About the author

Ron Riekki’s books include U.P.: a novel (Ghost Road Press) and Posttraumatic: A Memoir (Hoot ‘n’ Waddle/Four Chambers Press), as well as the upcoming hybrid collection My Ancestors are Reindeer Herders and I Am Melting in Extinction (Loyola University Maryland’s Apprentice House Press, 2019) and the poetry book i have been warned not to write about this (Main Street Rag, 2020). Riekki co-edited Undocumented: Great Lakes Poets Laureate on Social Justice (Michigan State University Press) and The Many Lives of The Evil Dead: Essays on the Cult Film Franchise (McFarland), and edited And Here: 100 Years of Upper Peninsula Writing, 1917-2017 (MSU Press), Here: Women Writing on Michigan’s Upper Peninsula (MSU Press, Independent Publisher Book Award), The Way North: Collected Upper Peninsula New Works (Wayne State University Press, Michigan Notable Book). He has anthologies upcoming with McFarland and WSU Press. His fiction has been published in The Threepenny Review, Bellevue Literary Review, Wigleaf, Prairie Schooner, Shenandoah, Akashic Books, Juked, New Ohio Review, Cleaver, Puerto del Sol, and many other literary journals. Riekki’s story “Accidents” received the 2016 Shenandoah Fiction Prize and “The Family Jewel” was selected for The Best Small Fictions 2015.

Reviews

[Steve's Book Stuff · Rating 5 out of 5]

And Here is an excellent anthology of of "poems, stories, essays and oddments" by Upper Peninsula writers. This collection is arranged chronologically and spans 100 years of writing from 1917 to 2017. While this is an excellent collection regardless of your background, these stories will especially resonate with anyone from Michigan's UP or with a connection to it.

My favorites from this collection were the short stories "What My Father Told Me" by Michael Delp, and "Marquette" by Justin Machnik, and the poem "A Daughter-in-Law Watches the Old Man Hesitate" by Elinor Benedict. The excerpt from the book "Ursula, Under" was especially gripping.

[Sean Kottke · Rating 5 out of 5]

Superb anthology of writing from and about the Upper Peninsula