Lake Michigan Author Has Events in Northern Michigan

Feb. 8, 2011 - PRLog -- When Niewenhuis turned 45, she knew she wanted to seek out a big challenge so she looked to her favorite place: Lake Michigan. As she said, “Instead of having a mid-life crisis, I decided to have a mid-life adventure!”  The book about her 1000-mile hike around this Great Lake will be published by Crickhollow Books of Milwaukee this month.  

Niewenhuis will appear at Petoskey's McLean & Eakin Bookstore on February 24 at 6:30 pm as part of their Cabin Fever Series (go to http://www.mcleanandeakin.com/event/cabin-fever-series-2-loreen-niewenhuis for details).  The formal launch of the book will be March 11 at 7pm at Brilliant Books in Suttons Bay.  She will also give a lecture about Lake Michigan on March 15 at 7pm at the Inland Seas Education Center in Suttons Bay (go to http://www.schoolship.org/news_events/?id=969 for details).

Other events in March include a reading and book signing at Big Rapid's Great Lakes Books & Supply on March 16 from 2-4pm.  Go to http://LNiewenhuis.com for her full book tour schedule.  

Niewenhuis tackled the 1000-mile hike around Lake Michigan in 10 segments spread over 7 months. On the final days of winter, she took her first steps south from Chicago and, with brief breaks between segments, completely encircled the lake and approached the same spot from the north in the first days of fall.

It took 64 days of determined walking, averaging 16 miles a day. Niewenhuis said she, “encircled the lake with my footsteps, recorded it in my muscles and bones.”

Niewenhuis is an author of literary short stories (she was a finalist for the Flannery O'Connor Award for Short Fiction in 2009), a mother, scientist, and an individual who has lived in Michigan most of her life.  She has been constantly drawn to the shores of Lake Michigan and was the perfect person to undertake the adventure and to write about it with a clear voice, avoiding romanticizing the lake or her own undertaking.

A MFA graduate and a past medical researcher with a bachelors of science from Calvin College and a masters of science from Wayne State University, she offers witness to both the natural beauty of much of the lakeshore and a concern for the lake’s health as she explored the long and troubling pattern of ecological abuses and environmental challenges.

Niewenhuis discovered that Lake Michigan, like all great places, is not a single uniform experience, but is different each day, every step to round the next bend, each beach or bluff. The hike traces this incredible variety, from the urban blight of South Chicago to the popular state parks of dunes and vistas to small towns and lakefront cottages to the lonely isolated wild stretches where few people go.

She walked the lake in rain and snow, in gale-force winds and calm sunny days. She had to navigate around obstacles ranging from limestone cliffs to deep rivers to steel refineries, nuclear and coal-fired power plants.  The journey was filled with challenges that she had to overcome.  

Niewenhuis conveys a sense of the magnitude and diversity of the lake she loves, a place elemental to the four Midwestern states that form its shores. From a ground-level perspective, the book explores the natural and human history of Lake Michigan and raises important questions about preserving our wild places and protecting fragile ecosystems on which we all depend.

A 1000-Mile Walk on the Beach will offer inspiration to anyone interested in Great Lakes environmental issues (from invasive species to water quality to local tourism) and to anyone interested in what it means to take a really long walk and look closely at oneself and one’s place.  Niewenhuis continues to blog about Lake Michigan at LakeTrek.blogspot.com.

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Loreen Niewenhuis is the author of A 1000-MILE WALK ON THE BEACH (the account of her hike around Lake Michigan), the novella ATLANTA, and many literary short stories. She gives lectures about the Great Lakes and readings from her work.