Who: Tamara Dean
What: an evening celebrating her new work, Shelter and Storm: At Home in The Driftless
Where: Pulpit Rock Brewing
When: Monday, 7/28 at 7pm
Join Wisconsin author Tamara Dean (Shelter and Storm: At Home in the Driftless) and Keith Lesmeister, local writer and literary advocate, on Monday, July 28th, at 7:00pm in the Pulpit Rock Brewing Company events room at 207 College Dr., Decorah IA, for an engaging conversation followed by a book signing! Everyone is invited to this free event, sponsored by the Oneota Valley Literary Foundation with support from Pulpit Rock Brewing and Dragonfly Books.
What does it take to build a life in harmony with the land—especially when that land is changing before your eyes?
In Shelter and Storm, Tamara Dean chronicles her efforts to live sustainably amid the environmental crises of the early twenty-first century, drawing inspiration from Wisconsin's Driftless region—a uniquely unglaciated landscape of steep hills, deep valleys, and spring-fed streams. Through a series of soul-stirring and practical essays, Dean explores the challenges of meeting basic needs in a changing climate, blending personal experience with science, history, and a deep sense of place. Whether learning to forage, managing natural disasters, or building with earth, her curiosity and storytelling illuminate both the urgency of the climate crisis and the importance of community in confronting it. This compelling collection offers a thoughtful path forward for those seeking a more resilient, sustainable way of living.
Tamara Dean has been camping, fishing, hiking, and gathering wild foods from an early age, led and inspired by her parents. Her essays and stories have been published in The American Scholar, The Georgia Review, the Guardian, One Story, Orion, and The Progressive, and she is author of The Human-Powered Home: Choosing Muscles over Motors. She teaches writing independently and through writing centers across the nation.
Joining Tamara in conversation is Keith Lesmeister, author of Mississippi River Museum and We Could’ve Been Happy Here. Keith is the co-director of the Luther College Writers Festival, teaches writing and literature at Northeast Iowa Community College, and is currently serving as a 2023–2025 Rural Regenerator Fellow through Springboard for the Arts.
This event is part of the Oneota Valley Literary Foundation’s robust author event series, which brings top-notch writers of all genres to Northeast Iowa to lead in conversations about literature and writing. To learn more about this event and other events with the Foundation and Dragonfly Books, visit www.dragonflybooks.com.
If you find that you can't make it to the event but would still like to purchase any books from this author talk, give Dragonfly Books a call at 563-382-4275. Our staff will be glad to reserve a book, have it autographed for you, and shipped out as needed.
You may also like the following events from Oneota Valley Literary Foundation:
- This Thursday, 3rd July, 05:30 pm, Shelf Life: A BYOBook Club in Decorah
- This month, 15th July, 07:00 pm, Frank Bures | Pushing the River | Reading, Q&A, and Signing! in Decorah
- This month, 25th July, 01:00 pm, Kathleen Ernst | A Most Perilous Journey | Reading, Q&A, and Signing! in Decorah
Also check out other
Arts events in Decorah,
Literary Art events in Decorah,
Trips & Adventurous Activities in Decorah.
