Haley Blank is a Minnesota stay-at-home mother who left a career in recreation management to raise her son. She uses writing to explore trauma, healing, resilience, and personal growth.

Tracing the Exits 

Richard Sherry is a retired college professor who divides his time between Grand Marais, the Twin Cities, and Pelican Lake in northwest Minnesota.

Cedars

Brenda Charpentier is semi-retired from a career in journalism and education. She shares her love of nature through writing, photography, gardening, and as a Minnesota Master Naturalist volunteer.

Solace In the Spring Woods

Teri is a book lover and Substack blogger. The land she shares with her husband, John, in Zimmerman is a source of great joy and inspiration for many of her stories and poems.

A Rookie Reviews a Traditional Root Beer Recipe 

Laura Hansen is a lifelong “wordie” and former bookstore owner. She loves reading old-fashioned-hold-in-your-hands books, writing poetry, and being near water. She lives in Little Falls, MN. 

Reunion

Traci Neal is a neurodivergent poet residing in Columbia, South Carolina. In 2025, she had over fifty poems published in forty different publications. An excerpt of Neal’s poem was a part of the Letters to America project to highlight America 250 from the black woman’s perspective. The words were composed into a song sung by Soprano Karen Slack at Carnegie Hall. 

A Black Woman’s Guide to Baseball 

St. Cloud writer and teacher Bill Meissner is the author of twelve books, including five books of poems and four books of short stories. He has also published three novels.  

That Evening, the Fish I Caught