Fresh Water: Women Writing on the Great Lakes

by Alison Swan (Editor), Loraine Anderson (Contributor), Judith Arcana (Contributor)

Fresh Women Writing on the Great Lakes is a collection of nonfiction works by women writers. These works focus on the living with the five interconnected freshwater seas that we know as the Great Lakes. Contributing to this collection are renowned poets, essayists, and fiction writers, all of whom write about their own creative streams of consciousness, the fresh waters of the Great Lakes, and the region's many Loraine Anderson, Judith Arcana, Rachel Azima, Mary Blocksma, Gayle Boss, Sharon Dilworth, Beth Ann Fennelly, Linda Nemec Foster, Gail Griffin, Rasma Haidri, Aleta Karstad, Laura Kasischke, Janet Kauffman, Jacqueline Kolosov, Susan Laidlaw, Lisa Lenzo, Linda Loomis, Anna Mills, Stephanie Mills, Judith Minty, Anne-Marie Oomen, Rachael Perry, Susan Power, Donna Seaman, Heather Sellers, Gail Louise Siegel, Sue William Silverman,Claudia Skutar, Annick Smith, Leslie Stainton, Kathleen Stocking, Judith Strasser, Alison Swan, Elizabeth A.Trembley, Jane Urquhart, Diane Wakoski, and Leigh Allison Wilson.

Contents:

Introduction

Homes

• HOMES: Living with Lake Michigan / Judith Minty
• Lake Erie as the Color of Hazel Eyes / Linda Nemec Foster
• Freshwater / Sue William Silverman
• Shiver Me Timbers / Sharon Dilworth
• Dunetop Dying / Gayle Boss
• Finding My Way Home / Beth Ann Fennelly
• Lake Effect / Linda Loomis
• Water Birds / Anne-Marie Oomen
• Chicago Waters / Susan Power

Trouble

• The Gray Lady of Lake Huron / Laura Kasischke
• Against the Law / Elizabeth A. Trembley
• Getting to Water / Claudia Skutar
• Lake Talk / Heather Sellers
• Water Lessons / Jacqueline Kolosov
• Elemental Fine / Leigh Allison Wilson

Gifts

• The Importance of Dunes / Annick Smith
• Aboard / Mary Blocksma
• Walking the Lake's Edge in Winter / Judith Arcana
• Getting to the Point / Leslie Stainton
• Leap / Anna Mills
• Bodies of Water / Lisa Lenzo
• The Salmon / Loraine Anderson
• Surfin' USA / Diane Wakoski
• Hunting the Moon / Gail Louise Siegel

Ghosts

• Manitou Passage / Gail Griffin
• In the Apostle Islands / Judith Strasser
• Ripples of Azure and Grey, An Excerpt / Rachel Azima
• The Souls of Trees / Susan Laidlaw
• Storm Light on Bois Blanc Island / Kathleen Stocking
• A Mother Reaches Satori on the Tenth Anniversary of Her Son's Drowning in Lake Michigan / Rasma Haidri
• Lake Huron's Tide / Rachael Perry

Uplake and Down

• The Kettle / Alison Swan
• Reflections from a Concrete Shore / Donna Seaman
• The Least Thing / Stephanie Mills
• Amphibians, Reptiles, and Boats: Excerpts from a Naturalist's Lake Huron Journals / Aleta Karstad
• Hunting and Fishing / Mary Blocksma
• Down the Drain / Janet Kauffman
• Littoral Drift / Mary Blocksma
• The Forest Pasture / Jane Urquhart

Notes on the Contributors
Acknowledgments

Genres: Nonfiction, Essays

262 pages, Paperback

First published July 19, 2006

Reviews

[Kate · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wanted to like this, but it needs more of Superior's ice water mansion.

[Lex · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you’re not a Great Lakes girlie, this book might not be for you, but if you grew up alongside the lakes and are missing HOMES, this books reads like a hug. Bravo!

[Dawn · Rating 2 out of 5]

I like the subject matter, but the writing here is too personal/introspective to get lost in, as you can with good fiction writing. I'd love to see a collection of writing about the Great Lakes that doesn't necessarily feature them as the main subject, and/or includes writings on related topics, such as shipwrecks, or invasive species. A couple of standouts in this collection were the story about finding the dead man at the lakeside park, and the one set on Bois Blanc Island. The rest were pretty self-focused/forgettable. I think I'm too far out of my meditation/self-help phase to appreciate this kind of writing anymore.

[Linda Robinson · Rating 3 out of 5]

I got this book from the library before and I didn't finish it last time. Perhaps an anthology is not my literary cup of tea. Maybe I'm not a short memoir reader. There's little sense of community; it's a bunch of lake stories that don't meet on the shore. As Stephanie Mills describes the oligotrophic Lake Michigan, it's cold and deep.

[Dawn · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book of essays written by women who live or have lived and been influenced by the Great Lakes is fun, nostalgic and sometimes thought-provoking. It's a must read for anyone who loves the great bodies of fresh water here in the Midwest, known as the inland seas.

[Lindy · Rating 5 out of 5]

A well edited anthology by a group of gifted female authors exploring their feelings about their time spent living on or near any one of the Great Lakes.