Join us for an engaging Author Talk with Tashia Hart (https://tashiahart.com/), an Anishinaabe author, ethnobotanist, and storyteller. Tashia will take us on a journey through her debut romance novel Native Love Jams.

The event is faciliated by Staci Drouillard (https://mnwritersdirectory.org/drouillard-staci/), author of Walking the Old Road: A People’s History of Chippewa City and the Grand Marais Anishinaabe (https://birchbarkbooks.com/products/walking-the-old-road), Seven Aunts (https://www.upress.umn.edu/9781517912857/seven-aunts/), and A Family Tree (https://drurylanebooks.com/book/9780063242463) .

In Native Love Jams, main character Winnow travels to the rural Minnesota village of Rainy Bay to help with its first Indigenous Food Days, where she finds herself working alongside Niigaanii, a host as unwelcoming as he is irresistible. Can they overcome their pasts and find love among the berries?

As an ethnobotanist, Tashia studies a region’s plants and their practical uses through the traditional knowledge of local cultures and people. In The Good Berry Cookbook, Tashia honors the Anishinaabeg people’s deep connection to the land by exploring wild food foraging, storytelling, and the concept of food as medicine. As you explore her recipes, such as Bison and Sunchoke Stew, Manoomin Chocolate Pie, and more, you’ll discover the cultural traditions that inspire them. The cookbook also offers helpful tips for foraging and preparing these wild foods, connecting you to the rich heritage of the land.

Come discover Tashia’s creative process, the inspiration behind her work, and the meaningful connections between food, culture, and love.

This event is hosted by the Library Friends of Cook County (https://www.facebook.com/WeSupportLibraries), offering a chance to learn more about their vital work in supporting local libraries and community programs.

Resources:

• Tashia Hart is a writer and artist from the Red Lake Nation (https://www.redlakenation.org/) of Anishinaabe in northern Minnesota. Her writings include the modern romance Native Love Jams (https://bookshop.org/p/books/native-love-jams-tashia-hart/20531043?ean=9781735345307); The Good Berry Cookbook: Harvesting and Cooking Wild Rice and Other Wild Foods (https://bookshop.org/p/books/the-good-berry-cookbook-harvesting-and-cooking-wild-rice-and-other-wild-foods-tashia-hart/16014737?ean=9781681342023); the middle-grade illustrated book Gidjie and the Wolves (https://birchbarkbooks.com/products/gidjie-and-the-wolves); and Girl Unreserved (https://www.indigenousfirst.org/product-page/girl-unreserved), a fictional tale of her own coming of age.
• Tashia has also created illustrations for 3 books in the Minnesota Native American Lives (https://www.mnhum.org/program/minnesota-native-american-lives-series/) series; and Gaa-pi-izhiwebak (https://shop.mnhs.org/products/gaa-pi-izhiwebak). She is also a jewelry maker working in beads, birch bark and metal.
• New Short Fiction : “Clay Woman Falls in Love With the Lake”: https://tashiahart.com/2025/01/26/read-my-newestr-short-story-clay-woman-falls-in-love-with-the-lake/
• Once Upon A Shore group exhibit at the MMAM Minnesota Marine Art Museum in Winona, MN through 2025. The exhibit is curated by Heid Erdrich and features work by Courtney M. Leonard, Cole Redhorse Taylor, Jonathan Thunder, and Minnesota’s Poet Laureate, Gwen Nell Westerman. Learn more about the exhibit: https://mmam.org/once-upon-a-shore
• https://www.filmindependent.org/talent/elizabeth-day/
• https://nacdi.org/about-us/staff/john-williams/
• https://filmfreeway.com/MFFPitch
• https://zeitgeistarts.com/mff/
• https://tashiahart.com/indigenous-food-producers-and-suppliers-list/
• https://dreamofwildhealth.org/indigenous-food-network
• Ojibwe Language Dictionary https://ojibwe.lib.umn.edu/Reminder language learning opportunities:
• https://www.facebook.com/N8VCLAN
• https://shop.mnhs.org/products/manitous
• https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/3618240-moose-meat-wild-rice
• https://glifwc.org/publications/