Author Events

On August 25th, two of Michigan’s greatest environmental authors—Dave Dempsey and Jerry Dennis—will join together on stage to talk about protecting the Great Lakes, the threats our water supply are facing, the dangers of climate change to our natural surroundings, and other topics covered in their books Great Lakes for Sale, Up North in Michigan and The Living Great Lakes.

In Great Lakes for Sale, updated in 2021 by author Dave Dempsey, we see how our Great Lakes are in danger of being privately exploited on a large scale by those with priorities other than stewardship. The Great Lakes are once again a target for the drought-ridden West, which is facing climate change, massive fires, and shrinking water supplies. And in a potentially far bigger threat, Wall Street is creating markets that could lead to the trading of freshwaters as a commodity like corn or oil. Great Lakes for Sale is an important part of the effort to remind people why the commercialization of Great Lakes water is a dangerous—and constant—threat.

Similarly, Jerry Dennis’s new book of essays, Up North in Michigan, looks at northern Michigan in a state of change. Over the past half-century, Michigan’s landscape has been bulldozed, subdivided, and built upon. Climate change warms the water of the Great Lakes at an alarming rate—Lake Superior is now the fastest-warming large body of fresh water on the planet—creating increasingly frequent and severe storm events, altering aquatic and shoreline ecosystems, and contributing to further invasions by non-native plants and animals.

It’s a natural extension of his classic book The Living Great Lakes, a bestselling account of Dennis’ epic journey on The Malabar, a two-masted schooner he helped sail from Lake Michigan to Bar Harbor, Maine. Released in 2003, the book received the 2004 Sigurd Olson Nature Writing Award, the Best Book of the Year from the Outdoor Writers Association of America, and was also a finalist for the Great Lakes Booksellers Association’s Book of the Year.

What can we do about the threats facing the Great Lakes? How can we protect the waters that surround our Pleasant Peninsula? And how can we ensure the security of our drinking water and aquatic industries for generations to come? Join us on Thursday, August 25th to learn more.

If you enjoyed our recent events with Dr. Robin Wall Kimmerer or Peter Heller, you’ll definitely want to be in the audience for this one!