Blog Posts by Brianna Reed

3 Posts

Authors / Events

The Long Game: Balancing Medicine and Ceremony in the Western World

Brianna Reed — 03/26/2025

On March 18th, Becoming Little Shell author Chris La Tray partnered with Milkweed Editions and Bimosedaa—a supportive, culturally-relevant housing program serving vulnerable indigenous populations in Minneapolis—to tour their on-site location.

“Bimosedaa, it’s Ojibwe for ‘let’s walk together,’” Program Manager Heather Day says, welcoming Chris and Milkweed staff into their apartment-style housing program. Around us, sunlight filters in through sloping glass walls.

“Bimosedaa: It’s Ojibwe for ‘let’s walk together.’”

True to their namesake, Chris and Heather radiate into the very embodiment of the phrase. As they drift past tenant rooms and gathering spaces, Heather gestures to a traditional star…

Events

Surviving One Breath at a Time: Celebrating the Launch of Creature Needs

Brianna Reed — 03/06/2025

On February 27th, Milkweed Editions and the University of Minnesota Press hosted a book launch to celebrate Creature Needs: Writers Respond to the Science of Animal Conservation, in collaboration with the nonprofit organization Creature Conserve.

“Before we read, I want a moment to breathe with you.”—Claire Wahmanholm

“Before we read,” Claire Wahmanholm—author of Meltwater andbegan, “I want a moment to breathe with you.” Under her instruction, she coaxed the crowd into a gentle meditation of hummed breath. Within three exhales, she transformed the room into a living, vibrating singing bowl. By the final round, the…

What Matters Most

Community Partner Spotlight: Women's Prison Book Project

Brianna Reed — 02/18/2025

Milkweed Editions is an independent publisher of literary fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. Our mission is to identify, nurture, and publish transformative literature, and build an engaged community around it.

As a publisher, we join in thoughtful partnerships to “build an engaged community” around the books and authors we publish. Sometimes partners are community organizations, libraries, or independent bookstores who host readings with the authors we publish. And sometimes our partners are organizations with connections to specific communities of readers that we may not otherwise reach through bookstore, digital, library, or other traditional publishing channels. One such partner is the Women’s