Back in early July, on a windy Sunday, I woke before sunrise at the southern end of North Manitou Island and headed out onto the beach for the day’s work. There at Dimmick’s Point, a broad wing of dunes and wave-turned stones reaching out into the Manitou Passage, we find the largest nesting concentration of Great Lakes piping plovers in the world. Roughly a quarter of the population nests on the island, with another quarter nesting just across the passage. Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore is home to nearly half the breeding pairs of this endangered shorebird. At Dimmick’s Point, four days a week during nesting season from May to August, I walk the beach and monitor the plover activity. The point is closed to park visitors during that time, so I am typically the only human among the birds.

Prolific local poet, memoirist, essayist and playwright Anne-Marie Oomen creates an enduring sense of place and history. From her memoirs about growing up in Oceana County (100 miles south of Leelanau), to poems that capture the magic of the Sleeping Bear Dunes and the western Michigan lakeshore, to history plays that re-create local characters and bygone times, Oomen’s work is always infused with images of the hills and the forests, the barns and the orchards, and the dirt and the compost of her native land. This summer two of Oomen’s history pieces will be performed as part of the Port Oneida Fair, sponsored by Preserve Historic Sleeping Bear and the Port Oneida Fair Committee with a grant from the Michigan Humanities Council.

“Nearly four decades have passed since I first set foot in northern Michigan,” writes author Tim Mulherin in this humorous essay. “In that span of time, I’ve advanced from agog newbie to repeat tourist to seasonal visitor and property owner. Nonetheless, throughout my time Up North, I’ve noticed there are certain common traits in being a card-carrying, fully certified northern Michigander, and they have nothing to do with possessing a driver’s license issued by the Michigan Department of Motor Vehicles.”

Last month, I took swim lessons for the first time. Always a lover of the water and often the first person in Lake Michigan during a beach gathering with friends, this has been somewhat surprising information to share with people. Don’t I already know how to swim? But I want to do what I love better, perhaps with a bit more efficiency and definitely with better breathing techniques.

Athena Gillespie, age 20, won the Audience Choice award at this year’s Empire Asparagus Festival poetry contest, held on Saturday, June 4, for her poem “Green Force.” Gillespie also submitted a poem to the contest in 2012, when she was 10 years old. Both poems are published here.

The Glen Lake Library will help celebrate the return of the beloved Empire Asparagus Festival on June 4 with their Ode to Asparagus poetry reading and Asparagus recipe contest. Click here for more information on how to submit a poem or recipe.

The Boardman Review is an attempt to capture the essence of northern Michigan through an array of multimedia formats, presented in both a print and digital quarterly publication. After launching in July 2017, together with my brother, Nick, we found that the people and stories of this area have already surpassed our hopes and dreams for the project, and have started to fill in, piece by piece, the northern Michigan vibe puzzle.

For Empire resident Anne-Marie Oomen, Lake Michigan and all of our state’s water are part of her soul. The legend of the great Sleeping Bear is also embedded in her, as are legends of mermaids and mermen kept by indigenous peoples, particularly those along Lake Superior.

Here are the winners of this year’s Ode to Asparagus poetry contest at the Empire Asparagus Festival

The Glen Lake Library in Empire will once again host an Ode to Asparagus poetry contest as part of the upcoming Empire Asparagus Festival.