About

Image by Hunter Zhuikov

Nature Fascinates

Marie Zhuikov has had a long interest in environmental issues and helped with efforts to restore piping plovers to Wisconsin Point in Lake Superior. She has written extensively about Lake Superior, the St. Louis River, the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, the Superior National Forest, and many local environmental issues. She cut her teeth in journalism as a newspaper environmental reporter in college and has carried that interest throughout her life.

Writing Day and Night

In her former day job (retired!), Marie was an award-winning science writer and communications project manager, specializing in environmental and medical topics. She has published hundreds of articles, publications, videos and podcasts, as well as coordinated production of many web sites.

Marie also has experience in media relations, communications consultation and grant writing for organizations such as the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Mayo Clinic, the U.S. Forest Service, Sea Grant, the St. Louis River Alliance, the University of Minnesota, the Lake Superior National Estuarine Research Reserve, and the City of Superior. Marie’s poetry has been published in several anthologies and regional magazines.

At night, Marie writes eco-mystic romance novels for new adults. Her first, Eye of the Wolf, was published in 2011. The sequel, Plover Landing, was published in 2014. Her first short story, “Water Witch,” was published in the Going Coastal anthology in 2017. The book earned honorable mention in the Northeastern Minnesota Book Awards. In 2022, her northern Minnesota blog-memoir Meander North was published by Nodin Press. It earned a silver Midwest Book Award, nature category. In 2025, her first magical realism short story collection, The Path of Totality, was published by Cornerstone Press, and her first poetry collection, High Fire Danger, was published by Poetry Harbor.

Marie began her blog in 2013 to keep from going crazy during winter. Marie’s Meanderings features a variety of topics, but the most frequent are musings, travel, and details of life in northern Minnesota and Wisconsin. Excerpts appear in Marie’s column in the Cotton Chronicle newspaper in northern Minnesota.

Photography

In 2021, Marie took her first landscape photography class with prodding from her boss. The encouragement she received boosted her confidence. She began taking her images as seriously as her writing.

Marie’s photos focus on the grandeur and power of nature to inspire. She continues to travel extensively and lugs her Nikon and cell phone with her wherever she meanders.

Use the “contact” page on this site to get in touch with Marie.

19 thoughts on “About”

  1. Looking forward to meandering with you!

    “The practice of art isn’t to make a living. It’s to make your soul grow.”
    ― Kurt Vonnegut

    Reply

    • Thank you, Pete! I look forward to hearing more of your stories on your blog. When I was 10, I left my appendix in London, but that’s a long story.(Hmmm, could make a good blog post.) I plan to travel to Scotland in a year or two, and hope to keep all my body parts intact. Your dog is cute. Mine is a goldendoodle – 80 lbs, so he needs a lot of exercise to keep him happy and out of trouble. Cheers.

      Reply

  10. Hello Marie, my names is James and I lived in Northern Minnesota for over a decade and my wife is from there. I love your work and was curious if you had any photographs from the iron range/ pits and mine dumps. And I was also curious if you sell a digital print of any of your work? I would love to put a few of your photos on glass or metal prints. I think this would be an awesome addition to our home to remember where we came from and love so much!

    Reply

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