CLAIMED BY PLACE. Tracy Chipman explores her love for Northern Wisconsin in her new book, Borealis Mundi: Resting in Place, Loss, and Grace, which was released in March. (Submitted Photos)

Following a series of losses in her life, writer Tracy Chipman compiled a host of several non-linear writings – from short stories to poetry to journal entries – all encapsulating her grief journey, connected to four geographical locations with intense meaning to her: Gad, Wisconsin, Lake Menomin, Lake Superior, and Scotland. Her book, Borealis Mundi: Resting in Place, Loss, and Grace, is made up of her work from 2010 to present.

“(I share) my experiences around these places and being claimed by them, my experiences of loss and longing after various series of losses, and how these places were instrumental in my healing and in part of, my lack of a better word, awakening to an interconnectedness with the living world rather than just being a human at the top of the food chain,” Chipman said. “I was not at the top of anything. I was completely immersed in a living animate world: nature.”

The first location, Gad, Wisconsin, was where Chipman’s mother was born and where her grandparents lived for over 90 years. After losing her both of grandparents within a month of each other, Chipman used the location to explore the feelings of grief while mourning both loved ones and a sense of home.

The second location is Lake Menomin, where Chipman went to try and heal her emotional wounds. She lived in Menomonie for 10 years. Chipman moved there to provide full-time care and support for her father for six months before he also sadly passed away, and five weeks after that, Chipman’s boyfriend at the time suddenly died from a heart attack which prompted her to move to Lake Superior in Washburn, living off-the-grid in a cabin for two winters.

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I had to leave Wisconsin to connect with a landscape that inspired me so that I was able to come back to Wisconsin

with a deeper and new appreciation for essentially the land of my birth.

tracy chipman

author of Borealis Mundi

The only place in the book not in Wisconsin is Scotland, which is where Chipman traveled to participate in folklore research in the 1990s.

“I had to leave Wisconsin to connect with a landscape that inspired me so that I was able to come back to Wisconsin with a deeper and new appreciation for essentially the land of my birth,” Chipman explained.

Chipman began compiling her pieces together during the pandemic and the book slowly turned from a small book of short stories turned into a larger multi-medium book of writing. She hopes that even though the stories she shares are all personal, people can identify with feeling connected to particular geographical locations that are a part of us and we can still find that connection through loss.

“We're alive and even though this book deals with loss, it's also a celebration of being alive and it's a celebration and a book of praise, really, towards the landscapes that we live in which are as alive as we are and obviously in trouble too,” Chipman said.

Borealis Mundi was released this March and Chipman has traveled around Wisconsin for book readings, one taking place locally at Dragon Tale Books in Menomonie. When not writing, Tracy Chipman is an oral storyteller and somatics/yoga instructor, currently living in northern Wisconsin on Anishinaabe lands, near Lake Superior.

You can purchase Borealis Mundi: Resting in Place, Loss, and Grace on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and on her website: tracychipman.net.