University of Minnesota – Duluth students in David Beard’s Minnesota Writers class interviewed local writers and wrote spotlight articles that we will showcase in the coming months.

In a world so unapologetically permeated with stereotypes, assumptions, and negative messages about women and their societal roles, it was incredibly refreshing for me to discover Colleen Baldrica’s Tree Spirited Woman tucked away in a Canal Park art shop on one of the last straggling, sunny Duluth days. When I began thumbing through the slim pages, intrigued by the lacing, lonesome tree depicted on its cover, I never could have imagined how deeply Baldrica’s words would touch me or how desperately I needed to heed Tree Spirited Woman’s advice during that stressful first semester at the University of Minnesota Duluth: “Let go and trust.”

Tree Spirited Woman, for all its current articulateness and relevance to women, is a product of much time, strife, and trust. In the fall of 2024, I had the honor of speaking with Colleen Baldrica and hearing firsthand about the events and motivations that lead to the creation of her most acclaimed work. In her first year of college, Baldrica was a single mother struggling to balance her education and family as well as dealing with the weight of a recent divorce. However, one experience in the woods changed the trajectory of her entire life.

“I’m out [hiking in the woods] and praying and saying, ‘what do I do? What do I do?’” she explains, “and I am literally stopped by the trees … I could hear them, I could feel them … they said, ‘lift up your branches,’ and I could feel all this garbage being pulled from me … It was so powerful … I had to learn to trust that I would never be alone.” After this moment, she went to speak with her friend Charlie, who was a Lakota medicine man, and he told her, “I’m giving you the name, Tree Spirited Woman.”

A few years went by before Baldrica received another sign. “I had this dream that someday I would write this book. It would be in the style of Siddhartha and The Prophet … It would be between a young woman and an older woman, and it would all take place in the woods. But I had to grow into it.” Baldrica described to me how she had never considered herself a writer – she had just only just begun college – but over the next eight years, the dream kept coming to her. One day, she sat down and decided to start writing.

She began by organizing the book into fourteen different chapters, each of which address a different aspect or stage of womanhood. “I knew the first chapter had to be about the gift of listening … Listening is one of the most important things you can do. We have to quiet ourselves. We have to learn to listen without judgment.” Once she had the first section, everything else fell into place. She used her own life as a base, thinking about all the issues women face daily, and during the writing process, she continued to trust that the words would come when they were meant to. “I had to learn to let go, or I would destroy myself.”

Baldrica also described how marketing was the most difficult part of the entire operation. However, stopping to consider her target audience, doing her research, and following her gut instinct carried her through. She found that her books sell best in women’s gift shops and boutiques, and she encourages young authors to find a good editor and trust their instincts in the marketing process. “If you get that ‘uh oh’ feeling, trust it – take a moment to stop and reflect.”

Even throughout the difficult days and times when it felt like her efforts would all be in vain, Baldrica kept returning to Tree Spirited Woman because “the issues in the book are timeless … [Tree Spirited Woman] was a gift that I got that continues touching people.” Today, there are still moments when she wonders if it’s worth putting in another printing order or if it might be time for Tree Spirited Woman’s journey to close. But every time she thinks about shutting it down, she receives another letter or email thanking her for writing Tree Spirited Woman. These experiences particularly touch her and have been enough to continue Tree Spirited Woman’s success today.

Tree Spirited Woman is a call for women everywhere to reassess what it means to be female and to remember how uniquely important each of us truly are. As my time with Colleen Baldrica came to a close, I asked whether she had any words of wisdom for aspiring authors, and once again, she emphasized the value of confidence and trust. “Wherever you are put, look around and think, ‘what can I gain from this? I’m going to learn one new thing today.’ … Every tale is worth telling if you feel it strongly enough. Everybody has a story worth telling … Just write it; don’t worry about if it’s good enough for anybody else. You can be your toughest critic. Write it for you … Break it down if it’s overwhelming – just trust. Trust it’s going to come.”

Kaelyn Hvidsten is currently a first year English student at the University of Minnesota Duluth. She is an avid reader and writer with a concentration in nature-based poetry and classic literature. Kaelyn has won a variety of awards and scholarships for her writing, including an honorable mention from Penguin Random House for a short story she created in an effort to combat unjust book bannings. She was also the recipient of the English Departmental Award at the end of her senior year of high school and had several poems and short stories published in her local literary magazine, The Voice. Kaelyn gained editing experience through an internship as a beta reader for Utah author Lindsay Flanagan, and she hopes to explore a future career in this field, though her ultimate dream is to be a published poet. Beyond this, Kaelyn enjoys drawing, photography, playing with her cats, and has recently delved into songwriting. She’s looking forward to her years at UMD and learning all she can about writing and publishing!