ROAD TO

winona

A sweeping Finnish-American saga of survival and sisu, tracing one family from famine-stricken Finland to Michigan's copper mines and lumber camps. Across generations, love, loss, and resilience carve a legacy rooted in the wild beauty of Winona.

about the author

Shirley Williams

Shirley J. Peterson Williams was born in Hancock, Michigan, in the years following World War II, and spent her earliest childhood with her grandparents, James and Eileen Riippa. She later grew up in a home built on her great-grandparents' farm, surrounded by stories of copper mining, homesteading, and the family's own lumber mill. Dr. Williams went on to build a distinguished career in higher education, serving as a teacher, department chair, dean, and provost. In her later years, she turned her scholarly curiosity inward, researching her own family's history through archives, oral accounts, and childhood memory. The Road to Winona is the result, a tribute to the Finnish immigrants whose courage and sisu shaped the family she comes from.

LATEST BOOKS

Audio book

Step into The Road to Winona through its audiobook edition, where three generations of a Finnish immigrant family come to life through narration that carries the full weight of famine, migration, and hard-won survival. From the shores of Lake Ladoga to the copper mines and pine forests of Michigan's Upper Peninsula, follow Daniel, Marija, and the generations who came after them as they carve a home out of almost nothing. Rooted in real family history and years of patient research, the audiobook draws out the sauna traditions, the immigrant boarding houses, and the quiet, unshakable strength the Finns call sisu that runs beneath every chapter. Whether you're driving, walking, or winding down for the night, The Road to Winona is a story meant to be heard.

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The latest press release

New Novel “The Road to Winona” Traces One Finnish-American Family’s Journey from Famine to the Copper Country

“The Road to Winona” Preserves a Vanishing Chapter of Finnish-American History

From Provost to Novelist: Dr. Shirley Williams Spends Her Retirement Years Writing Her Family Into History

Michigan’s Upper Peninsula Takes Center Stage in New Historical Novel “The Road to Winona”

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