MSU Press will be attending the 2026 Annual Symposium of the Society for the Study of Midwestern Literature (SSML) on May 28-29, 2026 at the Kellogg Hotel & Conference Center in East Lansing, Michigan. We will be featuring books related to Michigan and Michigan history along with other midwest-related titles. As well, check out two of our recent releases: Possession(s) by John Smolens and Late Invocation for Magic by Jim Daniels.
In settings familiar and foreign, from the shores of the Great Lakes to rural Ireland and Scotland, the boulevards of nineteenth-century Paris, and an ancient Italian hill town, John Smolens’s stories delineate our fears, doubts, and uncertainties, tempered by irony, humor, and tenacity. The collection’s title, Possession(s), suggests an overarching duality that connects these fourteen disparate narratives, which include stories first published in magazines such as the North American Review, the Madison Review, and the Southern Review. In “prose that is an understated marvel” (Publishers Weekly) and through a wide range of compelling voices, each story resonates with compassion and honesty, often turning on unexpected encounters with a stranger, a place, the past, and sometimes with oneself, offset by a recognition that the future holds few assurances other than the promise of mortality. In their search for love, reconciliation, and acceptance, the characters in Possession(s) strive to find understanding and peace.
Late Invocation for Magic by Jim Daniels
In poems selected from his long career, Jim Daniels focuses on Detroit and other Rust Belt cities, where issues of class and race and justice play out in the streets and kitchens and backyards and garages of the Americans trying to live and make a living there. Known for his courage, clarity, and accessibility, Daniels examines the tension between our idealized country and the messier cultural and economic divides, often focusing on those who can’t afford or have access to “magic.”
Use code MSUP20 for 20% off book purchases.
| Title | Author | Sale | Sale Price |
|---|---|---|---|
| As Sacred to Us | Morseau | $24.95 | $19.96 |
| Babimose | Razor | $29.95 | $23.96 |
| Dead Moose on Isle Royale | Holden | $24.95 | $19.96 |
| Indigenous Journeys, Transatlantic Perspectives | Brígado-Corachán | $39.95 | $31.96 |
| Ink Trails | D. Dempsey & J. Dempsey | $19.95 | $15.96 |
| Late Invocation for Magic | Daniels | $24.95 | $19.96 |
| Louise Erdrich’s Justice Trilogy | Jacobs & Peterson | $39.95 | $31.96 |
| Michigan Salvage | DuRose, Tangedal & Oler | $39.95 | $31.96 |
| Picturing Worlds | Stirrup | $19.95 | $15.96 |
| Possession(s) | Smolens | $19.95 | $15.96 |
| Retracing the Dragoon Trail in Iowa | Mason | $34.95 | $27.96 |
| Stick Houses | Fletcher | $24.95 | $19.96 |
| This Magnetic North | Mulherin | $34.95 | $27.96 |
| Title | Author | Price | Sale Price |
|---|---|---|---|
| 16th Michigan Infantry | Crawford | $49.95 | $39.96 |
| A Cold, Hard Prayer | Smolens | $29.95 | $23.96 |
| A Place in Common | Marrero & Sturtevant | $44.95 | $35.96 |
| Accidental Reef and Other Ecological Odysseys | Heasley | $27.95 | $22.36 |
| Alexis Rockman | Friis-Hansen | $34.95 | $27.96 |
| Anarchist, The | Smolens | $19.95 | $15.96 |
| Applewood | Newhof | $40.00 | $32.00 |
| Around Lake Michigan | van Bussel & Hemenway | $75.00 | $60.00 |
| Bkejwanong Dbaajmowinan/Stories of Where the Waters Divide | McGahey II | $24.95 | $19.96 |
| Cleveland Architecture 1890-1930 | deNobel Love | $59.95 | $47.96 |
| Cold, Clear, and Deadly | Visser | $24.95 | $19.96 |
| Contested Territories | Beatty-Medina & Rinehart | $39.95 | $31.96 |
| Day of Days | Smolens | $29.95 | $23.96 |
| Detroit | Darden & Thomas | $38.40 | $30.72 |
| Detroit’s Hidden Channels | Marrero | $44.95 | $35.96 |
| Eight Mile High | Daniels | $19.95 | $15.96 |
| Environmental Ethics in the Midwest | Smith & Ferkany | $44.95 | $35.96 |
| Everyday Klansfolk | Fox | $38.40 | $30.72 |
| Fishing Line, The | Meints | $39.95 | $31.96 |
| Forever in the Path | Dagbovie | $49.95 | $39.96 |
| Forging Identity | Draus & Nielbock | $29.95 | $23.96 |
| Founding Mothers of Mackinac Island, The | Weller | $32.95 | $26.36 |
| French and Indians | Englebert & Teasdale | $25.95 | $20.76 |
| Great Lakes Champions | Hartig | $24.95 | $19.96 |
| Great Water, The | Thick | $26.95 | $21.56 |
| https://msupress.org/9781611862676/the-great-water/ | Croghan | $37.95 | $30.36 |
| Half Wild | D. Dempsey | $27.95 | $22.36 |
| Heart of the Lakes, The | D. Dempsey | $19.95 | $15.96 |
| Imprints | Low | $29.95 | $23.96 |
| Incarceration and Race in Michigan | Scott & Stokes | $9.99 | $7.99 |
| Ink Trails II | D. Dempsey & J. Dempsey | $19.95 | $15.96 |
| Invasion | Lewis | $24.95 | $19.96 |
| Luck of the Fall, The | Daniels | $24.95 | $19.96 |
| Manoomin | Barton | $29.95 | $23.96 |
| Mémoires of Michilimackinac | Brandao | $54.95 | $43.96 |
| Merchant John Askin, The | Carroll | $39.95 | $31.96 |
| Michigan’s Con-Con 11 | Liberato | $32.95 | $26.36 |
| Michigan Railway Company | Krentel | $69.95 | $55.96 |
| Michigan’s Company K | Cassidy | $44.95 | $35.96 |
| Mid-Michigan Modern, Expanded Edition | Bandes | $39.95 | $31.96 |
| Nearly Nuclear | Smith | $29.95 | $23.96 |
| Northern White-Cedar | Storm & Kenefic | $34.95 | $27.96 |
| Ogimaans | de Saint-Exupéry | $22.95 | $18.36 |
| Once Upon a Time at the Opera House | Harris | $39.95 | $31.96 |
| Ottawa Stories from the Springs | Webkamigad | $24.95 | $19.96 |
| Our Precious Corn | Webster | $34.95 | $27.96 |
| Out | Smolens | $26.95 | $21.56 |
| Pere Marquette | Meints | $44.95 | $35.96 |
| Pewabic Pottery | Brunk | $55.95 | $44.76 |
| Railroads for Michigan | Meints | $68.40 | $54.72 |
| Reconciliation in a Michigan Watershed | Heffner & Warners | $29.95 | $23.96 |
| Remarkable Rebirth | Aprahamian | $29.95 | $23.96 |
| RESPECT | Daniels & Lieber | $29.95 | $23.96 |
| Roads to Renewal | Anderson | $21.95 | $17.56 |
| Roy Reuther and the UAW | Reuther | $39.95 | $31.96 |
| Sail, Steam, and Diesel | Hirsimaki | $79.95 | $63.96 |
| Sailing into History | Boles | $39.95 | $31.96 |
| Ships and Shipwrecks | Gebhart | $29.95 | $23.96 |
| Sixty Years’ War | Skaggs & Nelson | $24.95 | $19.96 |
| Soldiers of Fort Mackinac, The | Porter | $39.95 | $31.96 |
| Something Spectacular | Tanner | $39.95 | $31.96 |
| Spirit of the City, The | Jones | $29.95 | $23.96 |
| Sweetness of Freedom, The | Bloomfield & Ostrander | $29.95 | $23.96 |
| Thirty-Year War, The | Lehto | $39.95 | $31.96 |
| To Your Posts! | Nelson | $37.95 | $30.36 |
| Tragedy and Triumph on the Great Lakes | Gebhart | $29.95 | $23.96 |
| Transboundary Environmental | Brooks & Olive | $39.95 | $31.96 |
| Tribal Administration Handbook | Webster & Bauerkemper | $39.95 | $31.96 |
| Twelve Twenty-Five | Keefe | $49.95 | $39.96 |
| Visiting Mackinac | Boles | $37.95 | $30.36 |
| Waterfront Porch | Hartig | $24.95 | $19.96 |
| We Kept Our Towns Going | Wong | $19.95 | $15.96 |
| Western Journals, The | Lewis | $49.95 | $39.96 |
| Wilderness, Water, and Rust | Elder | $39.95 | $31.96 |
| Wolf’s Mouth | Smolens | $19.95 | $15.96 |
| Wrecked | Nelson | $29.95 | $23.96 |