Sheila Packa, Suzanne Matson and Donna Salli will read their poetry writing.

Presenter Bios:

Suzanne Matson, whose grandparents immigrated from Lehtimäki, is a poet and writer. Selected as the 2023 Finlandia Foundation Lecturer of the Year, her volumes of poetry are Sea Level and Durable Goods, and her latest novel is Ultraviolet. Sheila Packa served as Duluth’s Poet Laureate. Her latest book, Surface Displacements, was a finalist in the 2023 Minnesota Book Awards in poetry. Her poems about migration have also been used by composer Olli Kortekangas for a cantata premiered by the Minnesota Orchestra. Donna Salli grew up in the western U.P. She holds an MFA in poetry and also writes fiction, essays, and drama.

Sheila Packa is a poet, writer, and teacher with Minnesota and Finnish roots. She has five books of poetry: Mother Tongue, Echo & Lightning, Cloud Birds, Night Train Red Dust: Poems of the Iron Range, and Surface Displacements. She has an MFA in Creative Writing from Goddard College and has taught creative writing and composition at Lake Superior College. She leads poetry and writing workshops in community settings and often performs her work in music and media installations with her creative partner Kathy McTavish.

Donna Salli is a native of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. She holds an MFA in creative writing from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and writes fiction, poetry, essays, and plays. She lives in Minnesota where she has taught college-level English. Among her artistic interests are family, heritage, spirituality, and changing gender roles and other social issues.