Willa Hammitt Brown with Matt – April 21, 2025

Best of Interviews - AM950 The Progressive Voice of Minnesota

Willa Hammitt Brown first had her picture taken with Paul Bunyan when she was four years old in Akeley, Minnesota, and she grew up spending summers on Deer Lake in Itasca County in the heart of the Northwoods Vacationland. She is a writer and historian specializing in American cultural, gender, and environmental history and holds a PhD in history from the University of Virginia. She has taught history, gender studies, and expository writing at the University of Virginia, Harvard University, and onboard the MV Explorer for Semester at Sea. Her writing has been published in The Atlantic, American Jewish History, Western Historical Quarterly, and Environmental History. She lives in Minneapolis.