Upcoming Events

Birchbark Bizhiw
1629 Hennepin Avenue #275
Minneapolis, MN 55403
(entrance map)

Join us for an evening with Staci Drouillard as she discusses her debut children's book A Family Tree and her recent memoir Seven Aunts.

Grandma’s garden was not just any garden. It was where a spruce tree, only as tall as baby Francis, reached her roots into the soil and stretched her branches toward the sky. Here, on the shore of Gichigaming, is where Francis and the sapling felt right at home. But when Grandma and Grandpa decide to move away, Francis wants to take the tree with them—can they?

Brimming with tenderness, A Family Tree traces the journey of one family, and a little tree, as they adapt to change by drawing on the strength of their roots.

Seven Aunts is an inspired patchwork of memoir and reminiscence, poetry, testimony, love letters, and family lore. In this multifaceted, unconventional portrait, Staci Lola Drouillard summons ways of life largely lost to history and reveals the true heart and soul of that history: women who defied expectations and overwhelming odds to make a place in the world for the next generation.

Minneapolis Central Library - Pohlad Hall
300 Nicollet Mall
Minneapolis, MN 55401

Join Birchbark Books along with Milkweed Editions for a special conversation between award-winning authors Debra Magpie Earling and Louise Erdrich about the power of reclaiming narrative! Debra will discuss her novels The Lost Journals of Sacajawea and Perma Red, both published by Milkweed Editions.

Earling’s novels are powerful stories about the strength and resilience of indigenous women in the wake of colonial violence. Her most recent novel reclaims Sacajewea’s life story, bringing this mythologized figure vividly to life and recentering Sacajewea as the arbiter of her own history. Written in lyrical, dreamlike prose, The Lost Journals of Sacajewea is an astonishing work of art and a powerful tale of perseverance—the Indigenous woman’s story that hasn’t been told.

Free and open to the public!

Minneapolis Central Library - Pohlad Hall
300 Nicollet Mall
Minneapolis, MN 55401

Join Birchbark Books for a lively reading and discussion with Anton Treuer about his new book for young adults, Where Wolves Don't Die!

Ezra Cloud hates living in Northeast Minneapolis. His father is a professor of their language, Ojibwe, at a local college, so they have to be there. But Ezra hates the dirty, polluted snow around them. He hates being away from the rez at Nigigoonsiminikaaning First Nation. And he hates the local bully in his neighborhood, Matt Schroeder, who terrorizes Ezra and his friend Nora George. Ezra gets into a terrible fight with Matt at school defending Nora, and that same night, Matt's house burns down. Instantly, Ezra becomes a prime suspect. Knowing he won't get a fair deal, and knowing his innocence, Ezra's family sends him away to run traplines with his grandfather in a remote part of Canada, while the investigation is ongoing. But the Schroeders are looking for him. . .

From acclaimed author Anton Treuer comes a novel that's both taut thriller and a raw, tender coming-of-age story, about one Ojibwe boy learning to love himself through the love of his family around him.

Birchbark Bizhiw
1629 Hennepin Avenue #275
Minneapolis, MN 55403
(entrance map)

We are thrilled to host the publication event for Marcie Rendon's new poetry collection, Anishinaabe Songs for a New Millennium. Marcie will be joined in conversation by Lyz Jaakola with an opening song by Mark Erickson, an Anishinaabe traditional singer

In Anishinaabe Songs for a New Millennium, Marcie R. Rendon summons her ancestors’ songs, and her poem-songs evoke the world still unfolding around us, reflecting our place in time for future generations. Bringing memory to life, the senses to attention, she breaks the boundaries that time would impose, carrying the Anishinaabe way of life forward in the world.

"This collection undoubtedly sings through and for generations to come! These powerful poems ask us to trust the wind to catch and carry our songs and prayers. Through each page, Marcie R. Rendon guides us to radically dream a future of strength and reminds us that ‘Win or lose, there’s dancing to be done." - Tanaya Winder, author of Words Like Love

Minneapolis Central Library - Pohlad Hall, 2nd floor

In-person registration for this event is full. Register for the virtual Zoom event below.

A standby queue will also be operated outside Pohlad Hall the night of the event, should any last minute seats become available. Standby space is not guaranteed, and likely to be limited.

First print, first edition copy of Wandering Stars is now available. Click here to order yours today!

Presented in collaboration with Talk of the Stacks, Birchbark Books is proud to welcome award-winning author Tommy Orange. In 2019, the author published his debut novel, There There, to widespread critical acclaim. A winner of the PEN Award and the American Book Award, as well as a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, the breakout bestseller follows twelve characters from Native communities: all traveling to the Big Oakland Powwow, all connected to one another in ways they may not yet realize.

In his new work, Wandering Stars, Orange traces the legacies of the Sand Creek Massacre of 1864 and the Carlisle Indian Industrial School through three generations of a family in a story that is by turns shattering and wondrous. He once again delivers a story that is piercing in its poetry, sorrow, and rage, serving as a devastating indictment of America’s war on its own people.

Of the new book, Louise Erdrich raves: “No one knows how to express tenderness and yearning like Tommy Orange. With an all-seeing heart, he traces historical and contemporary cruelties, vagaries, salvations, and solutions visited upon young Cheyenne people, who cope with the impossible. In them, Tommy finds the unnerving strength that results when a broken spirit mends itself, when a wandering star finds its place, when, in spite of everything, Native people manage to survive.”

Minnesota Humanities Event Center
987 Ivy Avenue East
St. Paul, MN 55106

Join AmazeWorks for the launch of author Kao Kalia Yang’s new children’s book, The Rock in My Throat, from Lerner Publishing. After an introduction from Carol Hinz (Lerner Publishing) and Rebecca Slaby (AmazeWorks), Kao Kalia Yang will read from her new book, followed by a conversation, Q&A, and book signing. Book sales by Birchbark Books. See the Eventbrite page for more details!