North Wind books to host two literary events July 30

HANCOCK -- Finlandia University ’s North Wind Books will host two events on Thursday, July 30.

Children's event

From 10 a.m. to 11 a.m., Finnish educator Kaisa Randolph, a Finnish national, will read several children’s books with Finnish themes and engage the children in an activity related to the books.

Refreshments will be served.

Talk, book signing by Joy Ibsen, author of Unafraid

Also on Thursday, from 4 p.m. to 5 p.m., North Wind Books will host a presentation and book signing with writer, musician and lay minister Joy Ibsen, author of Unafraid.

Ibsen’s second book, Unafraid, features the sermon notes of her late father, Danish-American pastor Rev. Harald Ibsen. Each chapter of the book starts with one of his sermons, written between 1940 and 1960, followed by autobiographical and fictional accounts of parishioners’ thoughts and what may have been going on in their lives when they heard the sermons.

Ibsen is editor of the monthly periodical Church and Life, a publication of the Danish Interest Conference of the ELCA. She has published several articles in Church and Life and other magazines.

In 2006 she was awarded the prestigious Danish Heritage Preservation Award by Grand View College. Her first book, Songs of Denmark, was published in 2005; it was presented to Danish Royalty in March 2009.

Ibsen lives in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula.

Refreshments will be served

North Wind Books is located at 437 Quincy St., downtown Hancock. For information, call 487-7217.