The Glen Arbor Sun was named local news media publication of the year and won 18 awards in 11 different categories from the Michigan Press Association’s 2025 Better Newspaper Contest for stories published between August 1, 2024, and July 31, 2025. The awards were unveiled on Thursday, April 23, at MPA conference at the Kellogg Center in East Lansing.
It takes nerve to write a biography about such a revered, almost mythological northern Michigan writer as Jim Harrison. Kudos to Todd Goddard for taking on such an important project for posterity with sensitivity, level appreciation, and a North Star dedication to accurately portraying this gigantic personality and prolific writer of master works of poetry and fiction. As well, it takes some daring to share one’s impression of the Harrison biography, writes Tim Mulherin. I’ve long been a fan of Harrison’s work. I’m in awe of his vast intellect and artistic range, his turn-of-phrase genius and ability to connect so deeply with his ardent readership.
“By the time you read this, I’ll be gone for the year. I left with the annual southbound migration. Songbirds, hummingbirds, raptors, monarch butterflies, hand-sized common green darner dragonflies, downstaters, out-of-staters, and me,” writes Tim Mulherin, author of This Magnetic North: Candid Conversations on a Changing Northern Michigan. “About 10 p.m. on a Sunday night in September, a Cedar neighbor excitedly posted, ‘The northern lights are on!’ So I forced myself out of bed and went outside. Peering through the stand of towering sugar maple trees on the northside of our property, I instantly discerned that telltale ghostly glow. Minutes later, I was leaning against my car in a nearby vacant lot, awed by the incredible celestial light show.”
We chatted with the experts, the bookworms, and bookstore owners, and here’s our roundup of local books—or books written by local authors—that were published in 2025. All make great holiday gifts! Find them at Leelanau County’s locally owned, independent bookstores: Cottage Book Shop in Glen Arbor, Bay Books in Suttons Bay, Dog Ears Books in Northport, and Leelanau Books in Leland; or at your local library. Happy reading!
In 1974, an important book about an obvious yet quite overlooked subject was published: Studs Terkel’s “Working: People Talk About What They Do All Day and How They Feel About What They Do.” An NPR piece on September 6, 2004, called it “the quintessential book about Labor Day.” Terkel, the renowned Chicago radio broadcaster, interviewed more than 130 “ordinary men and women about their jobs,” NPR reporter Susan Stamberg said. Thanks to Terkel’s deft interviewing and storytelling, the ordinary turned out to be extraordinary. Indeed, people often don’t realize how interesting their work is to others, no matter how mundane it might appear to be at first glance. At the time Tim Mulherin read Working, back in the mid-eighties while working full time on an English degree in nonfiction writing, he was a bar manager in Indianapolis. He had also remarried and had two small children. Indeed, he had a visceral understanding of what working was all about.
When I pulled into the Alligator Hill Trail parking lot, it was just me, writes Tim Mulherin. Then the heart-rousing ascent did the trick. When I arrived at the Islands Lookout’s panoramic northern view of the Manitou Passage about 30 minutes later, I ignored the impulse to immediately pull out my iPhone and begin snapping photos. Instead, I just looked. And looked. Then I sat down on the bench and looked some more, imprinting the breathtaking scene for future reference. There would most always be an iPhone in my pocket whenever I felt the need to point and shoot. This moment of my being there, however, would not repeat itself. So, for a change, I wanted to be fully present, not somewhat removed by staring through my smartphone screen’s viewfinder. More participant, less observer.
The very mention of the name “Borkovich” in the region always seems to get a strong reaction, one way or the other, writes author Tim Mulherin in this excerpt from his book “This Magnetic North: Candid Conversations on a Changing Northern Michigan,” which is currently available at local bookstores. “When I told several of my more liberal acquaintances that I would be meeting with the Leelanau County sheriff as part of my research, they greeted the news dismissively, eyes rolling, heads shaking from side to side. Yet my more conservative friends commended me for reaching out to the county’s chief law enforcement officer, collectively giving him plaudits. With such extreme polarities being openly shared, I was eager to meet the man responsible for ‘protecting paradise’. Indeed, Sheriff Mike Borkovich did not disappoint.”
The Cottage Book Shop in Glen Arbor, which Jenny Puvogel acquired last year, will celebrate its 40th birthday with an author signing on Saturday, June 28, from 5-7 pm. “We will have several local authors signing books under the tent outside—some new books, some older books—and some light refreshments,” said Puvogel. The author lineup includes: Sue Boucher (Sleeping Bear Dunes Day), M Christine Byron (Perfect Omena Day), Bryan Gruley (Bitter Frost), Mark Lindsay (The Soul of Sleeping Bear), Tim Mulherin (This Magnetic North), Steve Reddicliffe (The New York Times Essential Book of Cocktails), Kit Robey (The Sleeping Bear Wakes Up), Barbara Siepker (Historic Cottages of Glen Lake) and more.
“I met Sam Worden, owner of Showtime Xtreme Charter, in 2019 when I booked his charter out of Grand Traverse West Bay. For years, I wanted to try charter fishing. However, my go-to Up North fishing buddy always talked me out of it, saying there’s no guaranteed catch (understood, after a lifetime of fishing), the weather could be questionable since you must schedule ahead of time (again, understood, that’s fishing), and that it’s expensive (what isn’t; and if it’s worthwhile, who cares). But, despite the well-intended warnings, I decided now that I was in my 60s, I wouldn’t deny myself the experience any longer,” writes Tim Mulherin in this excerpt from his book “This Magnetic North: Candid Conversations on a Changing Northern Michigan,” published by Michigan State University Press and available now at local bookstores.
With so many reports of bear sightings in northern Michigan—the Michigan Department of Natural Resources estimates there are 2,000 black bears living here, with more than 10,000 in the Upper Peninsula—author Tim Mulherin selected the black bear as a subject of interest as part of his research for a book on Michigan’s wildlife. The Empire “sugar bear” made headlines when it broke into Grocer’s Daughter Chocolate this past April; in our May edition of we examined how humans struggle to coexist with black bears as our encroachment upon their habitat continues. Last spring, the DNR connected Mulherin with researchers from Utah State University, who are conducting a study called the Baldwin Bear Project. The project “aims to understand the ecology and human dimensions of black bears in Michigan,” with an emphasis on examining the growing population here.