You Really Ought to Learn Some Finnish

In this collection of stories, James T. Cottle draws freely from his Finnish American heritage growing up in Michigan's Eastern Upper Peninsula as well as from his experiences traveling and living in Western Europe and living and teaching in India. As a career educator, his decades-long teaching of languages and linguistics has given him a sensibility for the sounds and rhythms of everyday American English influencing his choice of free verse in which to tell his stories. As a craft artist, he has written, lectured, and conducted seminars and workshops on the craft of the fish decoy. He is the author of Carving Fish Decoys: A Traditional American Folk Art. Considering his multifaceted life, author Ann E. Dorbin in her book titled Saving the Bay: People Working for the Future of the Chesapeake describes him as a "man with a knack for integrating academia with an appreciation for the curiosities of everyday living." He received his PhD from the University of Maryland and lives in the Washington, D.C., metro area.