Looking for the best products made in northern Minnesota! Do you produce natural fibers or dyes? Children’s toys? Hand-knit sweaters? Useful tools? Home decor? Jewelry? Furniture? Bicycles?

We are looking to hear from or about small businesses (less than 10 full-time employees) or at-home crafters who make products for sale. Panelists will pick the winners, who will be featured in the July-August 2012 issue of Northwoods Woman, our biggest issue of the year!

There’s no cost involved on your part. This is an effort to promote our talented men and women of northern Minnesota.

To nominate a product: Email a description, photo and contact information to editorial (at) northwoodswoman.com. Put “Top Ten” in the subject line. Call 218-556-7626 for more information.

Linda Kastl has one of America’s most daunting commutes. Four days a week, she travels by snowmobile or ATV through a roadless swamp or by boat down a river, often before dark, to reach the one-room school where she has taught for a quarter-century. Read about her school in the Northwest Angle, as well as a serious challenge she now faces,  in the May-June issue of Northwoods Woman, available now on shelves in Bemidji, Walker, Park Rapids, Cass Lake and Nevis, and soon in all other locations.

Also, don’t forget our search for the Top Ten Products made in northern Minnesota! Do you make quality goods from your home or small business? Let me know! You could get some great free publicity in our tourist-heavy summer issue. Email editorial_at_northwoodswoman.com.

   Our January-February issue features our first Cover Horse. His name is Prince, a retired jumper, and you should have seen him get all drowsy when the ladies did reiki on him.

One of the big deals in this month’s issue is on Page 44. Do you make a consumer product in northern Minnesota, or do you know someone who does? Here’s a chance to get FREE publicity for your stuff! Northwoods Woman will feature TEN of the best products in the tourist-heavy July-August issue. Tourists are always looking for those great locally made items, so don’t be afraid to toot your horn. Are you into textiles or toys? Clothing or collectibles? Vehicles or vinos? Let us know. Email a picture and description of your item to Northwoods Woman, P.O. Box 1694, Bemidji MN 56619, or email editorial_at_northwoodswoman.com. Men and women from the following counties may submit their items for consideration: Becker, Beltrami, Cass, Clearwater, Hubbard, Itasca, Koochiching, Lake of the Woods, Mahnomen, Marshall, Pennington, Polk, Red Lake, Roseau, St. Louis or Wadena. March 30 is the deadline.

Also, check out a story on Peacemaker Resources, a Bemidji organization getting some international attention for its use of children to spread peaceful means to end conflict. After the magazine went to print, I learned that a couple of its members will talk about the organization at the 2012 Nobel Peace Prize Forum in Minneapolis on March 1-3. So, congratulations to them.

This issue’s cover story features a tough,dedicated group of women who experience broken legs, broken arms, concussions and broken collarbones all in pursuit of a sport they love — Roller Derby. Find out the lengths one woman went to to stay in the game.

Also, we have a new reader’s contest! You can win $70 worth of paint and painting supplies from Hirshfield’s if you correctly identify the cities that are home to eight outdoor murals. It’s a matching game–what have you got to lose? See magazine for contest details.

Also in this issue: The story of a woman who is celebrating 60 years of deer hunting this year, tips on how to to channel your Christmas shopping  to benefit the environment and the local economy, and expert assessment of the value of your antiques. Gardeners will enjoy a piece on how to save seeds.

Happy holidays, everyone!

…aanndd, the winner of the 2011 Northwoods Woman Fiction Contest is:

Patricia Kester of St. Paul for her story Possessions on Loan. Patricia writes nonfiction articles and essays, short stories and children’s literature. Her children’s manuscript, The Riven Stone, won honorable mention at the 2004 Minnesota Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrator’s fall conference.

Judge Lisa Kennedy of Alabama called Possessions on Loan “beautifully understated and elegant in its simplicity. The author takes an ordinary life event and charges it with meaning, using language that is sparse and economical while still providing nice details and strong, evocative images. I loved the sense of wholeness in the story, the sense of coming full circle.”  

You can find Lisa’s volume of poetry, Bright Somewhere, at www.amazon.com.

Congratulations, Patricia! And thanks to everyone who submitted entries to this year’s contest. There were some excellent pieces.

Hello, everyone! Our latest issue is on newsstands in Bemidji and Park Rapids and will be shortly everywhere else.

This issue features Myrtle Palm, an 82-year-old yoga teacher who proves that aging does not have to result in loss of flexibility. Her story will make you want to sign up for the nearest yoga class.

Also:

• Our Zone 3 gardening ace, Anne Morgan, gives you 8 Great Tips for growing garden vegetables.
• Experts Kathy & John Eggers explain your antique’s worth.
•  Where’d all those lady bug-looking things come from? Biologist Jenilyn Bohm gives us the dirt.
• Baskets! Baskets! Baskets!

Bemidji artist Alice Blessing is known locally for her unusual approach to painting. Fewer know about her passion for using artwork to help girls growing up in America. 

Also in this issue: 

• Visitors to one woman’s Park Rapids cabin are not always the most welcome sort.
• Readers from Brainerd, Bemidji and Fosston have submitted photos of antiques to our antique experts John & Kathy Eggers. Wonder about something you own? If you live in Minnesota, submit your own pictures to them at envision@paulbunyan.net.

Also,  a Bemidji woman couldn’t say “No” to a powerful vision that sent her to Kenya.

Don’t forget about Northwoods Woman’s 2011 Fiction Contest! Details on this page!

Once again, we are running the Northwoods Woman Short Fiction Contest. $200 cash prize plus a one-year subscription to the magazine plus publication! Check out the link on the right side of this page for details.

Past winners:

2010 “My Only Number One,” by Linda M. Johnson of Esko. A woman on the verge of moving on finds herself contemplating the past.

2009 “Dear Prudence,” by Judy Merritt of Nevis. A poignant encounter between heart-broken parents and a woman on a spiritual quest.

Good news! Barnes & Noble is now carrying Northwoods Woman magazine. So if you moved away from northern Minnesota and now live in the Twin Cities, you can get it at any B&N location.

You can take the woman out of the northwoods, but you can’t take the northwoods out of the woman.

Wondering where exactly to find the magazine? Just click the link on the right side of this page and you’ll find an alphabetical listing of all locations.