Genre:
Nonfiction

Elizabeth Verdick
Elizabeth Verdick writes a mix of nonfiction and fiction for children. Her main reading audience is toddlers and preschoolers. She has also written nonfiction for elementary-age kids. Verdick is a graduate of Hamline University’s MFA program in Writing for Children and Young Adults, and she has taught picture-book writing classes and done manuscript critiques to…

Beth Dooley
Beth Dooley has been writing about the Northern Heartland for over 20 years. She is the author of six books, including Minnesota Book Award finalist In Winter’s Kitchen. Her column, “Seasonal Kitchen,” appears weekly in the Star Tribune, and she contributes regularly to Minnesota Public Radio’s “Appetites.” Dooley is the co-author with Sean Sherman of…

Jon Lurie
Jon Lurie is the author of the memoir Canoeing with José and coauthor, with Clyde Bellecourt, of The Thunder Before the Storm, a Minnesota Book Award finalist. Lurie has worked as a wilderness guide, a teen mentor at a Native American journalism program, and an editor at the Anchorage Press and The Rake. A graduate of…

Caren B. Stelson
Caren Stelson is a Minneapolis writer for children and young adults, with a passion for nonfiction. Her work explores stories that struggle with issues of war and peace. Sachiko: A Nagasaki Bomb Survivor’s Story is such a book, revealing the horrors of nuclear war and Sachiko Yasui’s long arc toward peace. Stelson visited Nagasaki, Japan…

Heid E. Erdrich
Heid E. Erdrich is the author of five poetry collections, most recently Curator of Ephemera at the New Museum for Archaic Media. Her non-fiction memoir-in-recipes, Original Local, was a 2014 City Pages Top Food Book. She co-edited the anthology of Native American women’s writings Sister Nations and is editor of New Poets of Native Nations.…

Gwen Nell Westerman
Gwen Westerman is an award-winning writer and visual artist who lives in southern Minnesota, as did her Dakota ancestors. Her roots are deep in the landscape of the tallgrass prairie and reveal themselves in her writing through the languages and traditions of her family. She is an enrolled member of the Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate and…

Bruce White
Bruce White is a historian and anthropologist who lives in St. Paul. He writes books and articles on early Minnesota and Midwestern history. Through his company Turnstone Historical Research, he consults and does research for Indian tribes and government agencies. He testified in federal court in the landmark 1994 Mille Lacs treaty hunting and fishing…

Nancy O’Brien Wagner
Nancy O’Brien Wagner is a historian and partner at Bluestem Heritage Group, a museum consulting firm. In addition to her consulting work, she works as an independent writer. Her article “Awfully Busy these Days” about the role of Minnesota Red Cross women in France during World War I was a winner of the Solon J.…

Tom Rademacher
Tom Rademacher is an English teacher in Minneapolis. In 2014 he was named Minnesota Teacher of the Year. He teaches writing and has written about education in Education Week, Huffington Post, and Education Post. His debut book, It Won’t Be Easy: An Exceedingly Honest (and Slightly Unprofessional) Love Letter to Teaching, was a Minnesota Book Award finalist…

Lori Sturdevant
Lori Sturdevant retired in January 2019 after 43 years at the Star Tribune, 26 of them as an editorial writer and weekly columnist covering state politics and government. A native of South Dakota, Sturdevant is a graduate of Coe College in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and a member of that institution’s Board of Trustees. She has…