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<p><strong><span style="color:#006400"><font color="#000000">U.P.
Notable Book Club features Phyllis M. Wong author of "We
Kept Our Towns Going: The Gossard Girls of Michigan's Upper
Peninsula"</font><br>
</span></strong></p>
<p><strong><span style="color:#006400">UP Notable Book Club</span>:</strong>
the Crystal Falls Community District Library in partnership with
the U.P. Publishers & Authors Association (UPPAA) has
scheduled author events with winners of the <em>UP Notable Book
List</em>. The 27th event is with Phyllis Michael Wong whose<em>
</em>book <em>We Kept Our Towns Going: The Gossard Girls of
Michigan's Upper Peninsula</em> presents a history of the H.W.
Gossard company and the thousands of women they employed in
Ishpeming and Gwinn. These jobs changed both the lives of the
workers and the entire community itself. The book club events are
open to all Michigan residents free of charge.<br>
<br>
<em><strong>When: </strong></em>Thursday, March 9th, 2023 at 7pm
Eastern / 6pm Central<br>
<em><strong>Where: </strong></em>on the Zoom platform -- please
contact Evelyn Gathu in advance by <a
href="mailto:egathu@crystalfallslibrary.org?subject=UPNotableBooks&body=Please-send-me-the-zoom-link"
target="_blank" style="mso-line-height-rule:
exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust:
100%;color: #007C89;font-weight: normal;text-decoration:
underline;">egathu@crystalfallslibrary.org</a>, or by phone
(906) 875-3344. We recommend you borrow a copy of these books from
your local library or purchase from your local bookseller in
advance to get the most out of these events.
</p>
<div class="about_content" id="about_author">
<div id="about_author_v">
<div class="textmodulecontent">
<p style="margin: 10px 0;padding: 0;mso-line-height-rule:
exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust:
100%;color: #202020;font-family: Helvetica;font-size:
16px;line-height: 150%;text-align: left;"><strong><img
alt="Portrait of Phyllis Michael Wong"
data-file-id="7802768"
src="https://mcusercontent.com/b1016c5c910959a236f2ff48f/images/5e469cc5-c2b9-0034-2241-bdfdcfeeec87.jpg"
style="border-image: none 100% / 1 / 0 stretch;width:
200px;height: 264px;margin: 0px 0px 0px 5px;border:
0;outline: none;text-decoration:
none;-ms-interpolation-mode: bicubic;" width="200"
height="264" align="right">PHYLLIS MICHAEL WONG </strong>says
that oral histories provide the nuances help make history
more vibrant. As a researcher who has spent much of her life
listening, recording, and reacting to the stories of
people’s lives, she has consistently proven this assertion.
Among her early historical research was her graduate thesis
focusing on the history of childhood in the United States
during the 19th and early 20th centuries. Later, she would
take oral history interviews of Great Plains residents for
Barnes (N.D.) County Historical Society. Her latest book is
about women working at the Gossard Company factories in the
U.P. in the 20th century, and what impact they had
economically and socially on their small, rural hometowns.<br>
Phyllis, a native of the San Francisco Bay area, would
follow her father’s sage advice of “listen, talk little,
listen” in her roles as a historian; educator, including as
a writing instructor and director of online learning; and
30-year member of the university-level academic world,
including as First Lady at Northern Michigan University
(2004-12) and San Francisco State University (2012-19).
Among her favorite First Lady accomplishments is co-founding
a <em>One Book, One Community </em>county-wide reading
program at NMU.<br>
<br>
<a
href="https://UPPAA.us3.list-manage.com/track/click?u=b1016c5c910959a236f2ff48f&id=49880be2d3&e=2efc3cf0fe"
title="click to buy at amazon"
style="mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust:
100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color:
#007C89;font-weight: normal;text-decoration: underline;"><img
alt="Cover of "We Kept Our Towns Going" book"
data-file-id="7802776"
src="https://mcusercontent.com/b1016c5c910959a236f2ff48f/images/734250fd-c915-8c66-a1bf-76e776a322da.jpg"
style="border: 0px;width: 200px;height: 299px;margin:
0px 12px 0px 0px;outline: none;text-decoration:
none;-ms-interpolation-mode: bicubic;" width="200"
height="299" align="left"></a>"Wong’s brand-new book
deserves to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with Allan Koski’s
comprehensive <em>Empire Mine Cascade Range: Michigan’s
Largest Iron Mine</em><a
href="https://UPPAA.us3.list-manage.com/track/click?u=b1016c5c910959a236f2ff48f&id=660804d130&e=2efc3cf0fe"
style="mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust:
100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color:
#007C89;font-weight: normal;text-decoration: underline;"><em>
</em></a>as a document of immense sociological and
historical importance in U.P. labor history. Indeed, there
is a fascinating synergy of the two industrial giants as
many women signed up as Gossard Girls to manufacturer
corsets, brassieres, and foundation garments when their
husbands were involved in strikes at Empire Mine and other
CCI job sites. But let’s back up a bit first… Wong’s quest
to document the working life of Gossard Girls began in 2008
when she was a researcher at Northern Michigan University
and would crystallize a few years later at Women’s History
Month lecture where the idea for a comprehensive history was
born. Over the next 10 years, she would research primary
sources, such as letters written by union organizers, but
more importantly she took a staggering number of oral
histories from the surviving women—nearly 100 are preserved.
As such, she has knowledge at a system level of how the
assembly line worked from top to bottom to produce complex
products with up to 40 assembly steps. But more
importantly, she knows the unique human story behind the
story—the motivations and trials of women who in the
aggregate produced more than a million undergarments per
year at the peak. <br>
—Review by Victor R. Volkman. <a
href="https://UPPAA.us3.list-manage.com/track/click?u=b1016c5c910959a236f2ff48f&id=b247af739d&e=2efc3cf0fe"
target="_blank" title="Read the whole review!"
style="mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust:
100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color:
#007C89;font-weight: normal;text-decoration: underline;">Read
the complete review at the <em>U.P. Book Review</em></a>.</p>
</div>
</div>
</div>
More information about the U.P. Notable Book list, <em>U.P. Book
Review, </em>and UPPAA can be found on <a
href="https://UPPAA.us3.list-manage.com/track/click?u=b1016c5c910959a236f2ff48f&id=e8d5e27ef1&e=2efc3cf0fe"
style="mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust:
100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #007C89;font-weight:
normal;text-decoration: underline;">www.UPNotable.com</a>
<div> </div>
<div style="text-align: left;"><strong><a
href="https://UPPAA.us3.list-manage.com/track/click?u=b1016c5c910959a236f2ff48f&id=ed2fbf9ce5&e=2efc3cf0fe"
target="_blank" style="mso-line-height-rule:
exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust:
100%;color: #007C89;font-weight: normal;text-decoration:
underline;"><img data-file-id="4246885"
src="https://gallery.mailchimp.com/b1016c5c910959a236f2ff48f/images/fdff6d7d-ca6e-4f62-80ad-49c5258d320e.png"
style="border-image: none 100% / 1 / 0 stretch;width:
225px;height: 150px;margin: 0px;border: 0;outline:
none;text-decoration: none;-ms-interpolation-mode: bicubic;"
width="225" height="150" align="right"></a>About the Upper
Peninsula Publishers and Authors Association (UPPAA)</strong></div>
Established in 1998 to support authors and publishers who live in or
write about Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, UPPAA is a Michigan
nonprofit association with more than 100 members, many of whose
books are featured on the organization’s website at <a
href="https://UPPAA.us3.list-manage.com/track/click?u=b1016c5c910959a236f2ff48f&id=65c618ebd8&e=2efc3cf0fe"
style="mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust:
100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #007C89;font-weight:
normal;text-decoration: underline;">www.uppaa.org</a>. UPPAA
welcomes membership and participation from anyone with a UP
connection who is interested in writing.
<div style="text-align: center;"># # #<br>
<br>
</div>
<pre class="moz-signature" cols="72">--
Regards,
Victor R. Volkman, President
L H Press Inc.
<a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="http://www.LHPress.com">www.LHPress.com</a></pre>
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