On an Inland Sea

Writing the Great Lakes
Edited by Michael Welch

March 10, 2026

Now available for pre-order! 

“As a man who long convinced himself that he lived on the edge of the world, here’s my wish for you: Embrace the awe. Allow yourself to feel alone. Then remember you are not.”

The thirty-two writers in this collection grapple with the vastness of the lakes and the vastness of experience living alongside them. Gabriel Bump explores how his relationship with Lake Michigan changed after losing a friend. For another writer, the water provided the freedom to explore a romance that would have been too complicated on land. Come dive for shipwrecks, harvest manoomin, and visit the disappearing ice caves. Witness the chickadees, smelt, and cattails, but also zebra mussels, factory runoff, and algae. Each writer’s relationship with the lakes is personal and unique, but that relationship to the water is also one shared by so many of us.

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Michael Welch is the editor in chief of the Chicago Review of Books. His work was named the winner of the 2024 Salamander Magazine Fiction Prize among other awards and has appeared in Electric Lit, Los Angeles Review of Books, Scientific American, Prairie Schooner, North American Review, and elsewhere. He received his MA in Creative Writing at University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

ANTHOLOGY | 6 x 9 | Paperback