Elemental: A Collection of Michigan Creative Nonfiction features twenty-three of Michigan’s most well-known essayists. A celebration of the elements, this collection approaches Michigan at the atomic level. This is a place where weather patterns and ecology matter. Farmers, miners, shippers, and loggers have built (or lost) their livelihood on Michigan’s nature—what could and could not be made of our elements. From freshwater lakes that have shaped the ground beneath us to the industrial ebb and flow of iron ore and wind power—ours is a state of survival and transformation. Elemental’s strength lies in its ability to learn from the past in the hope of defining a wiser future.