Breakaway Northland Writers of Distinction

Linda LeGarde Grover is a member of the Bois Forte of Ojibwe and professor emeritus of American Indian studies at the University of Minnesota Duluth. Her mixed-genre memoir Gichigami Hearts: Stories and Histories from Misaabekong was released in October 2021. Grover’s award-winning works include the novel The Road Back to Sweetgrass (Wordcraft Circle of Native Writers and Storytellers Fiction Award; Native Writers Circle of the Americas First Book Award), The Dance Boots (Flannery O’Connor Award; Janet Heidinger Kafka Prize); The Sky Watched: Poems of Ojibwe Lives (Red Mountain Press Editor’s Award; 2017 Northeastern Minnesota Book Award for Poetry) and Onigamiising: Seasons of an Ojibwe Year (2018 Minnesota Book Award for Memoir and Creative Nonfiction; Northeastern Minnesota Book Award).

Sheila Packa is a poet and writer. She has taught creative writing and composition at Lake Superior College and she also leads poetry and creative writing workshops in community settings. She received a 2020 MSAB Arts Initiative Award for Poetry, a fellowship from the Finlandia Foundation in 2014, two Loft McKnight Awards (in poetry and in prose) a Loft Mentor Award, and fellowships and grants from the Arrowhead Regional Arts Council. She has four books of poetry and edited the book Migrations: Poetry & Prose for Life’s Transitions, an anthology of Lake Superior writers. She served as Duluth’s Poet Laureate in 2010-2012.

Margi Preus is the New York Times bestselling author of the Newbery Honor book Heart of a Samurai and other notable books for young readers. Awards and honors include ALA/ALSC Notables, Notable Books for a Global Society, Minnesota Book Award, NPR Backseat Book Club pick, and inclusion on many “best-of” lists. Forthcoming in 2022 are Lily Leads the Way (Candlewick) and Windswept (Abrams/Amulet). Formerly a playwright, she has co-written dozens of shows for kids, thirty-some comedy revues, a couple of re-envisioned Shakespeare plays, and the libretti for a handful of comic operas. At home in Duluth, she likes to hike, ski, paddle a canoe, or sit quietly with a book on her lap.

Alex Messenger is a Duluth, Minnesota, author, marketer, and photographer who, at seventeen, was mauled by a grizzly bear. In the decade afterward, he’s worked as a wilderness guide, marketing specialist, photographer, and volunteer search-and-rescue operator. His love of adventure, nature, and cultures has taken him all over the globe, but the north woods and canoe country have always been among his favorite subjects. His memoir, The Twenty-Ninth Day: Surviving a Grizzly Attack in the Canadian Tundra was a Wall Street Journal Bestseller and finalist for the Minnesota Book Awards, among other accolades. His work has appeared in The New York Times, Men’s Journal, National Parks magazine, Outside Online, and Backpacker magazine.