Author Visit with Jill Sherman

Featuring "The Land of Everlasting Sky"

Join us for a visit with Jill Sherman, author of "The Land of Everlasting Sky: A Memoir of Loss and Legacy on Lake of the Woods," about the history and heritage of two Minnesota families.

Join us for an evening presentation about the history and heritage of two Minnesota families – one Indigenous and one immigrant –  which are the subjects of a new book, "The Land of Everlasting Sky: A Memoir of Loss and Legacy on Lake of the Woods. The author, Jill Swenson, is the great-granddaughter of Swedish immigrants who homesteaded on what had been Red Lake Reservation land near Warroad. She will be in conversation with Karen Kakaygeesick-Dethmers, Moorhead resident and the great-granddaughter of Kakaygeesick (1844-1968), an Ojibway spiritual leader whose name means Everlasting Sky. They will discuss how in 2012 Karen and her mother and brothers were removed from the allotment issued to their great-grandfather to build a new casino and what that had to do with white settlers like Swenson's great-grandparents. There will be a short reading and time for questions and answers. Books will be available for purchase with a book signing following the presentation. This event is free-of-charge and open to the public, with no reservation required. 

Jill D. Swenson grew up in the Twin Cities and moved to Wisconsin in high school. She graduated from Lawrence University and earned an MA and PhD from The University of Chicago before going on to teach journalism and media studies at the University of Georgia-Athens and earn tenure at Ithaca College. For a decade she lived off the grid on a small-scale sustainable farm in upstate New York; now she lives in Appleton, Wisconsin, where she works as an editor and literary consultant, belongs to a curling club and a poetry group, and enjoys walking her dog.

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