Lincoln Memorial University (LMU) Associate Professor of Creative Writing and author Patrick Wensink will release his new nonfiction book, The Great Black Swamp: Toxic Algae, Toxic Relationships, and The Most Interesting Place Nobody’s Ever Heard Of, November 11 through Belt Publishing.
The book explores the environmental and personal impact of a 2014 toxic algae outbreak in Lake Erie with equal parts investigative nonfiction, memoir, and cultural commentary. The ecological disaster left nearly 400,000 residents of Toledo, Ohio, without safe drinking water and led Wensink back to his own family’s farmland.
“This book started with curiosity,” Wensink said. “I grew up in rural Northwest Ohio, and when I began looking into the Lake Erie algae disaster, I discovered my own family had contributed to it. That changed everything.”
Alongside topics like agricultural runoff, wetland destruction and ecological collapse, Wensink shares stories from his small-town upbringing, like having Kenny Rogers as an imaginary friend and learning that Toledo once threatened to kill John Denver.
“I’m not a scientist, so the best way for me to unpack something like microcystin poisoning is to make the reader laugh and care at the same time,” he said.
A first-generation college student, Wensink majored in communications at the University of Dayton. A freelance writing course led to the publication of his first book in 2009. Since then, his storytelling style has earned him national praise. His 2012 novel Broken Piano for President became an Amazon bestseller after a viral cease-and-desist letter from Jack Daniel’s. Fake Fruit Factory was named one of NPR’s best books of 2015. He has also written nonfiction for The New York Times, Esquire and Oxford American, and authored two children’s books.
Now in his fifth year at LMU, Wensink is known for his energetic, unorthodox classroom approach. From game show quizzes to writing-themed scavenger hunts, he brings the same sense of fun and curiosity to teaching as he does to his books.
“Writing is blue collar work,” he tells his students. “Like working in a soda can factory, something my dad did his whole life, and I did during college. You show up, you do the job, and if you keep at it, you get better.”
The book is available for pre-order now at Amazon, local bookstores, and directly from the publisher at beltpublishing.com. For every pre-order of The Great Black Swamp, one dollar will be donated to Black Swamp Conservancy, an environmental nonprofit that restores Ohio wetlands to help prevent future algae outbreaks.
Lincoln Memorial University is a values-based learning community dedicated to providing educational experiences in liberal arts and professional studies. The main campus is in Harrogate, Tennessee. For more information about the undergraduate and graduate programs available at LMU, contact the Office of Admissions at 423-869-6280 or email at admissions@LMUnet.edu.
