Birch Clump Portfolio is a collection of poems and short stories of the northern Great Lakes region. Many of them reflect the culture and ambiance of the Village of Birch Clump made famous in Seidl’s previous novels. Winter’s frozen jeweled forest created from an ice storm, stories of a bumbling Baby Boomer teenager, and the antics of Grandmothers Helga and Ria will delight you. The dark musings of a fugitive, snakes in the outhouse and reflections from the American Indian Termination and Relocation Era draw on the best and worse of human nature and we are reminded that: Mitakuye oyasin / We are all related / Niin inawendwag