The Lake Huron Mermaid

Linda Nemec Foster is the founder of the Contemporary Writers Series at Aquinas College and has taught poetry workshops throughout Michigan since 1980. She is the author of more than twelve collections of poetry and served as the inaugural Poet Laureate of Grand Rapids, Michigan (2003-5). Her poems have been widely praised and awarded nationally and abroad, including first prize in the Allen Ginsberg Poetry Awards, second prize in Ireland's Fish Publishing Poetry Prize, and Pulitzer Prize nominations for Bone Country and The Blue Divide. Anne-Marie Oomen teaches in the Solstice MFA program at Lasell University and at Interlochen College of Creative Arts and lives near Traverse City, Michigan. She has written eight books and is winner of the Association of Writers and Writing Program's Sue William Silverman Prize for Creative Nonfiction for As Long as I Know You: The Mom Book. She has written seven plays, and she is founding editor of Dunes Review; former president of Michigan Writers; and recipient of the Michigan Author Award for 2023-24. Meridith Ridl is an artist and art teacher with a BA in studio art from the College of Wooster and an MFA from the University of Michigan. Much of her painting and drawing work explores gestures that might suggest tenderness, humor, gentleness, loneliness--arrangements that might have a wobble, or that "aren't quite right." Her work ranges from meditative, delicate, and quiet to more tipsy and quirky. Meridith lives in West Michigan where she often wanders the woods and lakeshore. Her work is represented by LaFontsee Galleries in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

Brooding over her sister's precarious condition at the onset of a global pandemic, Dawn seeks solace in free diving in Lake Huron, where she discovers a presence in the gray-blue waters who also knows the pain of loss and loneliness. The Lake Huron mermaid reaches out to Dawn, starting a chain of events that set the human sisters on a wild journey to the Straits of Mackinac. Through this poetic adventure, Dawn and the mermaid unearth a deeper understanding of sisterhood and the significance of growing up together, making sense of the world together, and fighting to stay together. A new tale in the spirit of the award-winning The Lake Michigan Mermaid, this collection of poems introduces another beautifully illustrated freshwater mermaid to the world.