The Birchbark Books Reading Series returns on April 26 after taking a winter break. Please join us!

Margaret Hasse has published five books of poems: Stars Above, Stars Below (New Rivers Press); In a Sheep’s Eye, Darling (Milkweed Edition); Milk and Tides (Nodin Press); Earth’s Appetite (Nodin Press); and most recently, Between Us (Nodin Press). Her honors and awards include the New Rivers Press’ Minnesota Voices prize, Milkweed Editions’ Lakes and Prairies competition, and the poetry award of Minnesota Independent Publishing Association. Margaret has received fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, Minnesota State Arts Board, Jerome Foundation, and The McKnight Foundation. She lives in Minnesota as a “citizen poet” — an indefatigable supporter of other poets, the literary culture, and efforts to enrich people and communities through the arts.

Denise Lajimodiere is an enrolled Citizen of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa, Belcourt, North Dakota. She has been involved in education for forty years as an Elementary teacher and Principal, earning her Bachelor’s, Master’s, and Doctorate degrees from University of North Dakota. Dr. Lajimodiere currently works as an assistant professor in the Educational Leadership program, North Dakota State University, Fargo. Her poetry books include Thunderbird (North Dakota State University), Dragonfly Dance (Michigan State University Press),  Bitter Tears (Mammoth Press), and an academic book Stringing Rosaries, Stories From Northern Plains Boarding School Survivors (North Dakota State University Press, pending). She is a Birch Bark Biting artist, and a traditional Jingle Dress dancer.

Denise Low, 2nd Kansas Poet Laureate, is award-winning author of 25 books, including her 2017 memoir, The Turtle’s Beating Heart, about her grandfather’s Lenape heritage (University of Nebraska Press). Other recent books are Jackalope (short fiction, Red Mt. Press), Mélange Block: Poems (Red Mt. Press), and Natural Theologies: Essays (The Backwaters Press). She has won three Kansas Notable Book Awards and has recognition from Seaton Prize, Pami Jurassi Bush Award of the Academy of American Poets, Roberts Prize, and the Lichtor Poetry Prize. She teaches professional workshops and classes for Baker University’s School of Professional and Graduate Studies. Low is former board president of the Associated Writers and Writing Programs. She blogs, reviews, consults, and co-publishes Mammoth Publications. Low has an MFA (Wichita State U.) and Ph.D. (Kansas U.). www.deniselow.net

Thomas Pecore Weso’s Good Seeds: A Menominee Indian Food Memoir (Wisconsin Historical Society Press) is a finalist for the international Gourmand Award and national winner in the category of Historical Recipes. The Midwest Independent Booksellers picked Good Seeds as one of three November selections, and The Miller’s Tale selected it as one of the “Best of the Fall Cook Books.” Weso is co-author of Langston Hughes in Lawrence (Mammoth Publications) and articles, reviews, and personal essays. Weso has an M.A. in Indigenous Studies from the University of Kansas and teaches social sciences at Kansas City Kansas Community College. He is a speaker for the Kansas Humanities Council library program Talk about Literature in Kansas and co-publisher of Mammoth Publications. Weso is an enrolled member of the Menominee Indian Nation. www.tomweso.com