Nonfiction
Nonfiction writers from Minnesota.
Varla Ventura
Varla Ventura is an author, traveler, rotten botanist, and lover of the strange. She has written several books on bizarre and freaky things, from paranormal women’s history to werewolves and banshees to plants that smell like death. She is a committed supernaturalist, folklorist, and seeker of those shadowy things that scrape at your window in…
Michelle S. Phelps
Michelle S. Phelps is Professor of Sociology and Law at the University of Minnesota. Her research is in the sociology of punishment, focusing in particular on policing, probation, and prisons. Her writing has appeared in public outlets, including The New Republic, The Minnesota Star Tribune, and MinnPost, alongside academic journals, including American Journal of Sociology…
Sonja Trom Eayrs
Sonja Trom Eayrs, author of Dodge County, Incorporated: Big Ag and the Undoing of Rural America, is a farmer’s daughter, rural advocate, and attorney. She is involved in several rural advocacy organizations, including the Socially Responsible Agriculture Project, Farm Action, Land Stewardship Project, and Dodge County Concerned Citizens. Trom Eayrs also serves as the business…
Cheyenne Wilson
Cheyenne Wilson, BSN, founder of We are the Evidence, is on a mission to raise awareness about the reality of sexual assault, eliminate the stigma associated with being a victim of this violent crime, and make lasting changes in the justice and healthcare systems. Wilson earned her Bachelors in Psychology and worked in social services…
Mubanga Kalimamukwento
Mubanga Kalimamukwento is a Zambian lawyer, writer, and editor. She is the author of Shipikisha, Another Mother Does Not Come When Yours Dies: Poems, Obligations to the Wounded: Stories, unmarked graves, and The Mourning Bird: A Novel. Her creative work has also appeared in adda, Aster(ix), Isele Magazine, Contemporary Verse 2, Kweli, Overland, on Netflix,…
Michelle Sherman
Dr. Michelle Sherman is a licensed clinical psychologist who has dedicated her career to supporting families dealing with mental illness or trauma/PTSD. She has worked in diverse settings: the VA healthcare system, private practice, and academia as a Professor at the University of Oklahoma and University of Minnesota Medical Schools. She is a Fellow of…
Nicole Belle-Isle
Nicole Belle-Isle was born and raised in Minneapolis, MN. She has a Master of Education degree and is a licensed teacher in special education as well as in reading. She has been working in the education field since 2001, has worked with children of all ages, and currently works at a high school in St.…
Laurie Allmann
Laurie Allmann is an essayist and poet whose writing is inspired by the natural world. Her work has found expression in public radio commentary for MPR and KFAI, in song lyrics, video documentary, plays, and monologues designed for live performance. She received a Minnesota Book Award for her creative nonfiction book, Far From Tame: Reflections…
Erin Sharkey
Erin Sharkey is a writer, arts and abolition organizer, cultural worker, and film producer based in Minneapolis. She is the editor of A Darker Wilderness: Black Nature Writing from Soil to Stars. Sharkey is a founding coop member of the Fields at Rootsprings, a retreat and respite space in central Minnesota, and co-founder, with Junauda…