Upcoming Events

Birchbark Bizhiw
1629 Hennepin Avenue #275
Minneapolis, MN 55403
(entrance map)

Join us or a special evening with acclaimed and beloved Michi Saagiig Nishnaabeg scholar, writer, musician and artist Leanne Betasamosake Simpson as she disscusses her most recent book, Theory of Water: Nishnaabe Maps to the Times Ahead.

A genre-bending exploration of that most elemental force—water—through Indigenous storytelling, personal memory, and the work of influential artists and writers.

Theory of Water is a resonant exploration of an intricate, multi-layered relationship with the most abundant element on our planet—one that, as Simpson eloquently shows, is shaping our present even as it demands a radical rethinking of how we might achieve a just future.

Birchbark Bizhiw
1629 Hennepin Avenue #275
Minneapolis, MN 55403
(entrance map)

Please join Birchbark Books as we celebrate Julian Brave NoiseCat's debut book, We Survived the Night. A stunning narrative from one of the most powerful young writers at work today, We Survived the Night interweaves oral history with hard-hitting journalism and a deeply personal father-son journey into a searing portrait of Indigenous survival, love, and resurgence. Julian Brave NoiseCat is an Oscar-nominated filmmaker, champion powwow dancer, and student of Salish art and history.

He will be in conversation with Allison Waukau, cohost of the podcast Books are Good Medicine, Tribal Liaison and Native Relations Coordinator for the Metropolitan Council, and most importantly, a dear friend of Birchbark Books!

This event is FREE and open to the public!

We Survived the Night is now available to preorder and will also be available for purchase at the event.

“Written in gorgeous, sparse prose, We Survived the Night reads like a novel. Told with a blistering honesty, the truth and grit create a beautifully woven coyote story we haven’t heard before. This is a love letter to Oakland, to the Canim Lake Band Tsq’secen of the Secwepemc Nation, to a father from his son, to the act of being a Native person in the twenty first century finding ways to love even through all that wounds have opened and wrought. With this, Julian Brave NoiseCat has written a book I’ve been waiting my whole life to read.” —Tommy Orange

Birchbark Bizhiw
1629 Hennepin Avenue #275
Minneapolis, MN 55403
(entrance map)

Please join us for this lovely event with beloved author and illustrator Maybell Eequay as we celebrate her newest book, The Little Frog's Guide to Life.

The two attendees that wear our favorite pair of boots will have a chance to win a swag bag full of Little Frog merch - so if you have a pair in your closet that you only wear on occasion or you bought a pair inspired by Little Frog's beautiful boots, this is the event to wear them to!

Copies of Maybell's first book, The Little Frog's Guide to Self-Care, as well as other Little Frog treats, will be available before and after event.

The little frog is back! Brimming with beautiful affirmations to live by and essential pearls of wisdom, the internet's most adorable amphibian returns to help you move through your days with self-love and kindness. Whether you're looking for hope, motivation or encouragement, let the little frog inspire you to embrace life - with all its ups and downs - and fill your world with the people and things that bring you joy. With gentle humor and pureness of spirit, this beautiful book is here to warm your heart and support you when you need it most.

Maybell Eequay is an artist who works in many different media. Born and raised in the breathtaking St. Croix River Valley, Maybell draws inspiration from her own childhood as well as her love of vintage children’s books and knickknacks. Growing up in a creative household as the daughter of two artists, Maybell has been making art since she was old enough to hold a pen. Today, she enjoys making art that has a vaguely nostalgic feel paired with tender messages and light humor.

Minneapolis Central Library
Pohlad Hall, 2nd Floor
300 Nicollet Mall
Minneapolis, MN 55401

Please join Birchbark Books and Native Arts alongside Hennepin County Library for this special event!

Angeline Boulley, author of New York Times bestselling YA novels Firekeeper’s Daughter and Warrior Girl Unearthed, will discuss her brand new novel, Sisters in the Wind, with Ari Tison, winner of the Pura Belpré Award and Walter Dean Myers Award for Young Adult Literature for Saints of the Household.

FREE and open to the public! Books will be available for purchase before and after event.

Sisters in the Wind is a daring new mystery about a foster teen claiming her heritage on her own terms.

Ever since Lucy Smith’s father died five years ago, “home” has been more of an idea than a place. She knows being on the run is better than anything waiting for her as a “ward of the state”. But when the sharp-eyed and kind Mr. Jameson with an interest in her case comes looking for her, Lucy wonders if hiding from her past will ever truly keep her safe. Five years in the foster system has taught her to be cautious and smart. But she wants to believe Mr. Jameson and his “friend-not-friend”, a tall and fierce-looking woman who say they want to look after her. They also tell Lucy the truth her father hid from her: She is Ojibwe; she has – had – a sister, and more siblings; a grandmother who’d look after her and a home where she would be loved. But Lucy is being followed. The past has destroyed any chance of normal she has had, and now the secrets she’s hiding will swallow her whole and take away the future she always dreamed of.

The Parkway
4814 Chicago Ave
Minneapolis, MN 55417

Bestselling author Danica Nava celebrates her new romantic comedy Love is a War Song, in conversation with fellow author Lyla Sage. Described as a “swoony love story that deftly explores identity, redemption, and the complexities of cancel culture,” the new book is funny, though-provoking, and heart-melting. A must-read for all romance book lovers!

All ages welcome
- $29 ($36.92 w. taxes/fees) Advance General Admission (admission includes a copy of Love is a War Song!)
- $34 ($39 w. taxes/fees) At The Door General Admission (admission includes a copy of Love is a War Song!)

Click the button for further details and to purchase tickets!

Birchbark Bizhiw
1629 Hennepin Avenue #275
Minneapolis, MN 55403
(entrance map)

Join us as we welcome Aaron John Curtis, author of Old School Indian! He will be joined in conversation by Mona Susan Power (A Council of Dolls, Sacred Wilderness).

OId School Indian is a coming-of-middle-age novel about an Ahkwesáhsne man's reluctant return home and what it takes to heal.

Abe Jacobs is Kanien'kehá ka from Ahkwesáhsne--or, as white people say, a Mohawk Indian from the Saint Regis Tribe. At eighteen Abe left the reservation where he was raised and never looked back. Now forty-three, Abe is suffering from a rare disease--one his doctors in Miami believe will kill him. Running from his diagnosis and a failing marriage, Abe returns to the Rez, where he's convinced to undergo a healing at the hands of his Great Uncle Budge.

“With its profound exploration of identity, language, and cultural survival, Old School Indian is a novel of pure heart and mastery. Through the vivid and deeply human lives of a Mohawk family, Curtis weaves a narrative that is both urgent and timeless, drawing us into a world where every word, every action, carries the weight of history and the hope for the future.” -- Morgan Talty, author of Night of the Living Rez

Birchbark Bizhiw
1629 Hennepin Avenue #275
Minneapolis, MN 55403
(entrance map)

Join us as we welcome author Dennis Staples (This Town Sleeps) to explore his new novel, Passing Through a Prairie Country.

Passing Through a Prairie Country is a darkly humorous thriller about the ghosts that haunt the temples of excess we call casinos, and the people caught in their high-stakes, low-odds web.

For decades, a dark force has terrorized the Languille Lake reservation. Spoken of only in whispers as “the sandman,” he lurks in the Hidden Atlantis Lake Resort and Casino, the reservation’s main attraction and source of revenue, leeching its patrons’ dreams and preventing the ghosts that linger there from moving on. Fleeing a breakup, Marion Lafournier, a midtwenties Ojibwe, seeks solace in the slot machine’s siren song. Here he falls afoul of the sandman, an encounter he barely escapes through the timely intervention of his cousins Alana and Cherie, who both work at the casino and are intimately aware of the sandman’s power. Meanwhile, Glenn Nielan, recently out of the closet and an aspiring documentarian, hopes to capture the faces of the Ojibwe land while experiencing the casino’s thrills. But he will learn that all who choose to play the sandman’s games are in danger of falling into his grasp.