‘The Sky Watched:’ Local author re-releases poetry book

Next week, Linda LeGarde Grover will re-release her poetry book, “The Sky Watched.”

“This is a collection of poems that’s really almost like a collective biography of an extended Ojibwe family in northeastern Minnesota from the beginning of creation all the way through today,” LeGarde Grover said.

It’s an extended and revised version that the University of Minnesota Press is publishing.

“I write about some of the traditional things, my reaction to them, kind of retelling stories, and then it goes into impact, European impact into a lot of this is about the Indian boarding school experiences and about the aftermath of that and then being Anishinaabe today,” she said.

Some Ojibwe words, phrases, and poems are included.

“I have tried to make this something that is accessible to people who may not care that much — or they don’t think they do — for poetry,” LeGarde Grover described. “The writing is, I try to make it poetic. But I also try to keep it in the way that older people used to speak when Ojibwe people were speaking in English. So it’s kind of like being invited in to a world that some readers may not be familiar with but that they I hope can feel comfortable with.”

There is a launch party at 7 p.m. Tuesday at the Duluth Folk School.