Neighbors Read

A Conversation with Ellen Airgood

Hear from Ellen Airgood, author of this year's community read pick, Tin Camp Road! The interview will take place at Dexter District Library. No tickets or registration required to attend

Author Interview:

Michelle Tuplin, owner of Serendipity Books, will interview Ellen Airgood as part of this year's Neighbors Read: Dexter-Chelsea Community Read.  This 45 minute interview will be followed by a Q&A from the audience and then a book signing. Books will be available for sale from Serendipity Books. 

About Neighbors Read and the book: 

Neighbors Read brings together readers from the cities of Dexter and Chelsea and the surrounding townships of Lyndon, Sylvan, Dexter, Lima, Scio, and Webster. We will focus specifically on books set in our beautiful state, Michigan, or books by Michigan authors. This year’s book is the Michigan Notable Book Award winner Tin Camp Road by Ellen Airgood. Tin Camp Road is set in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula in a fictional but realistic small town on the shores of Lake Superior. Single mother Laurel loves the lake and the town her family has resided in for generations, but the lack of job opportunities and housing starts affecting her daughter, Skye. As she struggles with rural poverty, Laurel learns that you need more than grit and determination to survive: you need community.

About the author:
Ellen Airgood grew up on a farm in Michigan’s thumb, where her favorite things to do were read books, ride horses, swing in her tire swing, and write stories. She almost left the University of Michigan after her first year to go back home and farm, but did return to school after her parents offered to cosign the loan for the new fencing she’d need to raise beef cattle on their eighty acres, the only crop they considered feasible. (She was a vegetarian at the time.) She graduated with a Bachelor’s Science from the School of Natural Resources and Environment and now lives on the shore of Lake Superior in the Upper Peninsula, where she writes and owns a diner along with her husband. She is the author of three novels published by Penguin Books, including Michigan Notable Book and Midwest Bestseller, SOUTH OF SUPERIOR (also featured on National Public Radio’s Radio Reader), the award-winning PRAIRIE EVERS, a Bank Street Best Book for middle grade readers, and THE EDUCATION OF IVY BLAKE, a companion book to PRAIRIE EVERS. Her work also appears in THE WAY NORTH: NEW UPPER PENINSULA WRITINGS, from Wayne State University Press; HERE: WOMEN WRITING ON MICHIGAN'S UPPER PENINSULA, from Michigan State University Press; and the upcoming BOB SEGER'S HOUSE, also from Wayne State University Press.