Michigan State University Press is excited to announce our upcoming attendance at the Michigan Library Association’s 2026 Annual Conference, Beyond Buzzwords: An Enduring Public Good. We will be in Novi, Michigan from October 28th through 30th showcase our Michigan-based titles, including (but not limited to!) those in history, non-fiction, fiction, and poetry, alongside our collection of scientific studies and guide books. Learn more about our featured books below!
A Guide to Flint, the Saginaw Valley, and the Thumb
Edited by Mary Jo Kietzman & Paul M. Gifford
Inspired by the iconic American Guide Series published by the Federal Writers Project in the 1930s, this new guide to Flint, the Saginaw Valley, and the Thumb showcases the industrial-agricultural heart of Michigan, which has been beating irregularly for the last three decades, but whose importance to its people has lasted millennia. The ten counties featured in the book have lost population, industries, small farms, natural resources, and clean water. Instead of focusing on loss, the authors uncover the region’s unique history and culture, characterized by the productive tension between factories and farms, urban and rural spaces, labor and management, migrants and the mainstream, conservatives and progressives. The book documents the genesis of an ecological awareness that grew out of deforestation, habitat and species loss, and a succession of water crises. Encyclopedic in scope like their WPA forebears, the book is a functional guide that offers suggestions and strategies for enriching travel while celebrating the tenacity of those who came, worked, and stayed: lumberjacks, farmers, foundry workers, labor activists, judges, Indigenous peoples, African Americans, artists, poets, and environmental warriors.
Following Michigan’s Ink Trails
Writing Michigan, Reading Michigan
By Dave Dempsey, Jack Dempsey and Patrick Dempsey
Michigan is renowned for its natural beauty and automotive history, yet its rich literary heritage often goes unrecognized. This engaging and extensively researched book aims to change that by providing vivid portraits of both well-known and overlooked authors. It also offers an enjoyable tour through the state’s libraries and bookstores. The book takes readers on a fascinating journey across the back roads and highways of Michigan writing, showcasing the remarkable diversity of authors who have called the state home as well as those who have found it inspirational. It is perfect for anyone interested in reading, Michigan’s literary heritage, and its culture.
By Rachel Elisa Moreno
In 1928, nine-year-old Teresa leaves everything she knows in San Antonio—including her beloved cat Diamante—and boards a train bound for Michigan, where her parents have found work in the vast sugar beet fields of Saginaw. The long train north is a source of fascination, but stepping into Michigan feels like entering a different world—the cold wind, the strange houses, and the long days helping on the farm instead of going to school. Teresa cares for her little sisters while her parents tend to the sugar beets. She learns to navigate a life shaped by hard work, migration, and constant change. After the harvest, a new season begins, and the whole family must pack up and make the long trip back to Texas, to plant new roots. Based on the stories the author’s grandparents told her about their lives as Texas migrants in Michigan’s Thumb, My Sugar Beet Summer pulls the reader into Teresa and her family’s life in a new land, on a sugar beet farm on the eve of the Great Depression.
The Untold Story of the Jupiter Explosion
By Joey Oliver
On September 16, 1990, the tanker ship Jupiter exploded while unloading gasoline at a Bay City pier on the Saginaw River. The blast killed one worker, injured eleven others, and triggered what the U.S. Coast Guard later described as an unprecedented crisis on the Great Lakes. For weeks, the disaster commanded national attention as officials worked to contain the damage and investigate the cause. Then, like so many industrial accidents, the story faded from public memory.
When the River Burned tells the story of this overlooked chapter in Great Lakes maritime history. Drawing on newspaper archives, Coast Guard investigations, and eyewitness accounts, Joey Oliver reconstructs how a series of small oversights—in equipment, procedure, and human judgment—aligned to produce catastrophe.
The book places the Jupiter explosion within a broader history of the Saginaw River, tracing its evolution into a vital artery of Michigan industry. Oliver examines the fragile interdependence of ships, piers, and river traffic, revealing how disasters emerge not from single causes but from the breakdown of complex systems. When the River Burned is not only the account of a deadly tanker explosion; it is a reflection on what caused it, on the safety changes that followed, and on changes that never came.On September 16, 1990, the tanker ship Jupiter exploded while unloading gasoline at a Bay City pier on the Saginaw River. The blast killed one worker, injured eleven others, and triggered what the U.S. Coast Guard later described as an unprecedented crisis on the Great Lakes. For weeks, the disaster commanded national attention as officials worked to contain the damage and investigate the cause. Then, like so many industrial accidents, the story faded from public memory.
When the River Burned tells the story of this overlooked chapter in Great Lakes maritime history. Drawing on newspaper archives, Coast Guard investigations, and eyewitness accounts, Joey Oliver reconstructs how a series of small oversights—in equipment, procedure, and human judgment—aligned to produce catastrophe.
The book places the Jupiter explosion within a broader history of the Saginaw River, tracing its evolution into a vital artery of Michigan industry. Oliver examines the fragile interdependence of ships, piers, and river traffic, revealing how disasters emerge not from single causes but from the breakdown of complex systems. When the River Burned is not only the account of a deadly tanker explosion; it is a reflection on what caused it, on the safety changes that followed, and on changes that never came.
| Title | Author | Price | Sale Price |
|---|---|---|---|
| Exploring Mid-Michigan | Kietzman & Gifford | $39.95 | $31.96 |
| Following Michigan’s Ink Trails | D. Dempsey, J. Dempsey & P. Dempsey | $29.95 | $23.96 |
| My Sugar Beet Summer | Moreno | $14.95 | $11.96 |
| When the River Burned | Oliver | $29.95 | $23.96 |
| Title | Author | Price | Sale Price |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dead Moose on Isle Royale | Holden | $24.95 | $19.96 |
| Great Lake Ships of Frank E Kirby, The | Gebhart | $29.95 | $23.96 |
| Late Invocation for Magic | Daniels | $24.95 | $19.96 |
| Many a Hand | Rosentreter | $39.95 | $31.96 |
| Michigan’s Con-Con 11 | Liberato | $32.95 | $26.36 |
| Possession(s) | Smolens | $19.95 | $15.96 |
| Retracing the Dragoon Trail | Mason | $34.95 | $27.96 |
| Roy Reuther and the UAW | Reuther | $39.95 | $31.96 |
| To Your Posts! | L. Nelson | $37.95 | $30.36 |
| Visiting Mackinac | Boles | $37.95 | $30.36 |
| Wrecked | T. Nelson with Podair | $29.95 | $23.96 |
| ISBN | Title | Price | Sale Price |
|---|---|---|---|
| 9780870135835 | African Americans in Michigan | $12.95 | $10.36 |
| 9780870135842 | Albanians in Michigan | $12.95 | $10.36 |
| 9780870135972 | Amish in Michigan | $12.95 | $10.36 |
| 9780870136672 | Arab Americans in Michigan | $12.95 | $10.36 |
| 9780870136214 | Asian Indians in Michigan | $12.95 | $10.36 |
| 9780870138126 | Belgians in Michigan | $12.95 | $10.36 |
| 9780870137426 | Chaldeans in Michigan | $12.95 | $10.36 |
| 9780870138249 | Copts in Michigan | $12.95 | $10.36 |
| 9780870137877 | Cornish in Michigan | $12.95 | $10.36 |
| 9781611860948 | Danes and Icelanders in Michigan | $12.95 | $10.36 |
| 9780870136207 | Dutch in Michigan | $12.95 | $10.36 |
| 9780870135811 | Ethnicity in Michigan | $12.95 | $10.36 |
| 9780870138447 | Finns in Michigan | $12.95 | $10.36 |
| 9781611860306 | Finland-Swedes in Michigan | $12.95 | $10.36 |
| 9780870135828 | French Canadians in Michigan | $12.95 | $10.36 |
| 9781611861983 | French in Michigan | $12.95 | $10.36 |
| 9780870136191 | Germans in Michigan | $12.95 | $10.36 |
| 9780870136795 | Greeks in Michigan | $12.95 | $10.36 |
| 9780870138812 | Haitians in Michigan | $12.95 | $10.36 |
| 9781611861198 | Hmong Americans in Michigan | $12.95 | $10.36 |
| 9780870136443 | Hungarians in Michigan | $12.95 | $10.36 |
| 9780870137648 | Irish in Michigan | $12.95 | $10.36 |
| 9780870135996 | Italians in Michigan | $12.95 | $10.36 |
| 9780870135989 | Jews in Michigan | $12.95 | $10.36 |
| 9780870136450 | Latinos in Michigan | $12.95 | $10.36 |
| 9780870137549 | Latvians in Michigan | $12.95 | $10.36 |
| 9780870138133 | Lithuanians in Michigan | $12.95 | $10.36 |
| 9781611860191 | Maltese in Michigan | $12.95 | $10.36 |
| 9780870136665 | Mexicans and Mexican Americans in Michigan | $12.95 | $10.36 |
| 9780870138782 | Norwegians in Michigan | $12.95 | $10.36 |
| 9780870136184 | Poles in Michigan | $12.95 | $10.36 |
| 9781611863406 | Romanies in Michigan | $14.95 | $11.96 |
| 9780870137754 | Scandinavians in Michigan | $12.95 | $10.36 |
| 9780870136894 | Scots in Michigan | $12.95 | $10.36 |
| 9781611861419 | Serbians in Michigan | $12.95 | $10.36 |
| 9781611862546 | Slovenes in Michigan | $12.95 | $10.36 |
| 9780870136436 | South Slavs in Michigan | $12.95 | $10.36 |
| 9781611860412 | Swedes in Michigan | $12.95 | $10.36 |
| 9781611864472 | Ukranians in Michigan | $12.95 | $10.36 |
| 9780870138256 | Yankees in Michigan | $12.95 | $10.36 |
USE CODE MSU20 FOR 20% OFF!