New book shines spotlight on Lake Superior's South Shore
Jan. 1—Award-winning author Sue Leaf turns her lens on Lake Superior's South Shore, a shifting landscape she has experienced for decades, in the new book "Impermanence: Life and Loss on Superior's South Shore."
What began as a bicycling adventure on the coast of Lake Superior in 1977 led to a lifelong connection with the area. Leaf and her husband lived in Ashland for a year in 1983. After moving back to Minnesota, their yearning for "the top of the world" led to the purchase of a rustic cabin on Lake Superior near Port Wing in 1989. They recently built a new cabin near the old one, which is creeping closer to the bluff's edge every year due to erosion.
Part memoir, part environmental and cultural history, the book explores the area in myriad ways.
"With her training in zoology, Sue has a keen eye for observation and an infectious curiosity about the natural world," said editor Kristian Tvedten with University of Minnesota Press. "I appreciated the fact that the book is both highly personal for her, even as it conveys the very real and complex situation of life on this often forgotten shore of Lake Superior."
Tvedten's family also has a cabin on the South Shore.
"Like many readers, it's an area I have fond memories of, so I jumped at the opportunity to work with her on this book," the editor said.
Leaf has been journaling since the age of 10. She uses her personal story to connect with regional history, geography and ecology in "Impermanence."
"I really didn't write the book with a pointed message," she said. "I think one of the messages that comes away though is that life is short and stay awake. I also want people to see Lake Superior is really big. ... I hope people can get the appreciation that even though Lake Superior is really big it's still very vulnerable. The human handprint on nature now is so big, and Lake Superior is kind of at our mercy."
During the four years she worked on it, Leaf said she explored too many topics to fit in one book. Everyone, she said, likes to talk about Lake Superior.
"I can't tell you how much fun I had with this book," Leaf said.
Some topics required significant research, including copper mining and the Superfund sites left in their wake, shipwrecks and the "bobber" ice fishing community.
"Bobbers live a life on the wild side," Leaf said.
Her curiosity and connections netted her a chance to talk to a bobber — a wildlife artist and EMT who lives in Ashland. It was, she said, utterly fascinating.
"Now I see the allure," Leaf said. "That's a wilderness out offshore from the Bayfield peninsula along the Apostle Islands and it's an interesting wilderness because it changes all the time. The wind can shift and all of a sudden the ice you were on is off and floating. And you have to have certain skills in order to navigate this wilderness."
"Impermanence" is a chance to showcase a regional treasure that rarely gets the spotlight. The book touches on Lake Superior's allure for kayakers and swimmers, discusses efforts to
protect the endangered piping plover
, offers an overview of the Apostle Islands and chronicles a visit to a slough that supports intact wild rice beds central to Anishinaabe culture.
"Lake Superior's South Shore hasn't received nearly as much attention as its north, so this book really fills a gap that we hope readers will appreciate," Tvedten said. "The South Shore is a place where one can witness the effects of climate change in stark relief, something Sue is forced to reckon with daily. My hope is that the book will not only introduce readers to this wonderful Midwestern landscape, its natural and human histories, but also help them understand how fragile its ecosystem has become over the last 50 years."
The book, published by University of Minnesota Press, will be released Jan. 9. Copies are available online through
, Amazon, and Barnes and Noble; it will also be available at local bookstores. An in-store author event featuring Leaf will take place at 7 p.m. Jan. 23 at Zenith Books in Duluth.
Leaf is author of "The Bullhead Queen: A Year on Pioneer Lake"; "A Love Affair with Birds: The Life of Thomas Sadler Roberts"; "Portage: A Family, a Canoe, and the Search for the Good Life"; and 2021 Minnesota Book Award winner "Minnesota's Geologist: The Life of Newton Horace Winchell."
