Elizabeth (Beth) Tornes will read from her poetry and from her oral history collection, Memories of Lac du Flambeau Elders, at the Mercer Public Library on August 18, at 6:00 p.m.
The oral histories are interviews with the 15 oldest tribal members in 1996, who tell stories of enormous changes in their lifetimes, and discuss the traditions and beliefs that the Lac du Flambeau Ojibwe continue to maintain, testimony to their enduring way of life. Refreshments will be served, and books will be available for purchase after the reading.
Elizabeth Tornes has published four award-winning poetry collections, Northern Skies (Muriel Press, June 2022), Between the Dog and the Wolf (Five Oaks Press, 2016) New Moon (Finishing Line Press, New Women’s Voices, 2013) and Snowbound (Giiwedin Press, 2011). She has been awarded residencies at MacDowell Colony and Yaddo Colony for the Arts. Her poems have been published in many journals and anthologies, including The American Poetry Journal, Boulevard, Bramble, Main Street Rag, The Missouri Review, North American Review, Poetry Daily, Ploughshares, and Solstice Literary Magazine. She has also published a collection of Ojibwe oral histories, Memories of Lac du Flambeau Elders (2014, U of WI Press) and has lived in Lac du Flambeau, home of the Lac du Flambeau Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Indians, for the past 26 years.
This program is sponsored by the Mercer Public Library, and is free and open to the public. For more information, call the Mercer Library at 715-476-2366.
