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Empire writer Anne-Marie Oomen has received the 2024 Michigan Author Award, an award given by the State Library of Michigan to a Michigan author for lifetime achievement. In celebration of this honor, the Empire Area Community Center and Glen Lake Community Library Friends of the Library will hold a reception in honor of her award and to celebrate her books on Sunday, Sept. 8, from 4-7 pm at the Empire Town Hall. Oomen is author of eight nonfiction books, editor of two anthologies, and co-author of two tales of fiction for young people. She has won numerous awards over the years. The Michigan Author Award is given through a nomination process from librarians and others, and David Diller of the Glen Lake Community Library was one of the nominators this year. “I’m so grateful to the librarians I’ve worked with over the years, but our local library has become particularly special to me,” said Oomen.

A-spear-ing poets are invited to come share their asparagus themed verse at the Ode to Asparagus, the Glen Lake Community Library’s contribution to the annual Empire Asparagus Festival, which will be held on Saturday, June 1 at 2 pm. Poems of all styles are welcome—sonnets, haiku, epic, even limericks. Submit your poems to the library by Friday, May 31, via mail, email, or drop them off at the library directly. The Glen Lake Library will also host Jane Elder, author or “Wilderness, Water & Rust” on May 30.

The four public libraries of Leelanau County are pleased to host William Kent Krueger on Saturday, May 18, at 7 pm at the Northport Performing Arts Center. Krueger is the author of more than 20 books, including the popular Cork O’Connor mystery series. He will discuss his latest book, The River We Remember. He will be interviewed by local writer Aaron Stander, author of the Ray Elkins mystery series. Copies of The River We Remember will be available for purchase at the event thanks to Dog Ears Books. Registration is required for this free author event.

The Leelanau Historical Society will offer a “Researching Digital Newspapers” workshop on Thursday, April 4, at 1 pm at the Glen Lake Community Library in Empire for the public to learn about Central Michigan University’s Digital Michigan Newspaper Portal. The portal is a free website for researching Michigan’s historic newspapers. Click here to register for the workshop.

A special holiday tradition continues on Nov 18 with the Glen Lake Community Library’s annual call for children’s books. The Friends of the Glen Lake Library are once again collecting donations of new children’s books for children whose families need assistance this holiday season. Any family can find themselves in hard times, and the goal is to make sure the children still have some holiday joy in the form of a special book. The list is compiled from Glen Lake Elementary School, Parenting Communities, The Benodjenh Center, Leelanau Children’s Center and Family Daycare Homes and is available at the Glen Lake Library in Empire and at the Cottage Book Shop in Glen Arbor.

The Glen Lake Library in Empire will host a presentation by photographer and birding expert Wayne Pope on Thursday, Oct. 5. He’ll share his new book Birds of Michigan: Notable Species Volume 1, a collection of photographs, natural history notes, personal observations and even poems. The Glen Lake Library will host photographer Rich Ackerman on Tuesday, Oct. 7. His new book The Dunes of Lake Michigan’s Eastern Shore is the result of a lifetime of photographing towering perch dunes, marshes and fens, forests, plants and wildlife.

The Glen Lake Library will host art lecturer Linda Young on Tuesday, Sept. 12, for an illustrated talk entitled “By the Sea,” highlighting works by 19th and 20th century artists. Her “arm chair traveler” program will cover paintings from around the globe including the Arctic “Sea of Ice.” Denmark coast, the Mediterranean, the eastern seaboard of the US, and the Caribbean.

The fourth annual Glen Arbor Cemetery Memorial Ceremony, commemorating the nearly lost site, will be held at 10 am on Friday, May 26. John Sawyer of Traverse City will deliver a eulogy detailing the life of one of the four Civil War veterans buried at the cemetery, James Lawrence Green. And on Wednesday, May 24, the Glen Lake Community Library in Empire will host a presentation about the history of the Glen Arbor Township Cemetery, which served the Glen Lake area from 1880-1927, and the renewed effort to reclaim this long-neglected resting place. Last week, ground penetrating radar revealed an additional mass grave of more than 50 bodies buried at the cemetery sometime between the late 1800s and early 1900s. This cemetery in the woods off Forest Haven Road, west of downtown Glen Arbor, was nearly lost to history before Glen Arbor Township regained control over it from the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore after the big storm of August 2015. Click on the story to watch a narrated video tour of the cemetery.

It’s a long way from Empire to Africa. Metaphorically speaking, it’s also a long way from clarinet to the 21-string African harp called the kora. Sean Gaskell has taken both journeys, and he will return to the Glen Lake Community Library on Monday, May 15, where he’ll play the kora, sing and tell stories in the tradition of the griots (kora masters).

Visit the Glen Lake Community Library in Empire on Feb. 23 at 7 pm to learn about the environmental health of our Great Lakes in a presentation by the Inland Seas Education Association. ISEA staff will describe the various monitoring activities they perform during their excursions on Grand Traverse Bay, and demonstrate some of the specialized equipment they use in this work. You can also learn about the various volunteer opportunities available with this dynamic local organization.