Love Letters and Legacies

Through our Lilja LifeStories™ work, we help people share their own stories, most often in a book form. We publish these stories under our Lilja Press imprint. Some of them are for public sale; others are passed along as family keepsakes.

We have just finished three LifeStories projects. The first book, a collection of stories about growing up on the Iron Range in Northern Minnesota, headed back to the printer for an update and a reprint. The original stock is gone and people from as far away as Europe were requesting copies! Published by the late author’s children, this book is a love letter that allows them to keep their father’s wonderful, witty voice alive and preserve a unique part of Minnesota history.

The next book was a beautifully written memoir of how the author grew up in Japan and came to America as a young scholar. It’s written for a very small audience: her own children and grandchildren, none of whom know these stories, except in bits and pieces. A love letter, indeed.

Finally, we published a collection of long-ago love letters, a book project lovingly edited and tended by the letter writers’ granddaughter. The project is her love letter to her family.

Indeed, all of these LifeStories books are love letters from one generation to the next. Back and forth; weaving the stories that hold precious family memories … and legacies.

It is an honor and a privilege to be involved in them all.

- Mary Lilja