Hi folks. My name is Aaron Brown and this is my first post here. I run a blog up on the Iron Range called MinnesotaBrown.com and wrote a book called “Overburden: Modern Life on the Iron Range” that came out recently.

This Friday, April 17, my “Don Quioxe de l’Iron Range” tour returns to the Twin Ports. I’ll be giving a lecture and reading from the book during a special appearance at the Manion Theater in the Holden Fine Arts Building on the campus of my alma mater University of Wisconsin at Superior.

I like Superior. It reminds me of the Iron Range and enjoys some of the same reputation for some of the same reasons. It’s a blue collar place that grew quickly about 100 years ago with a huge influx of immigrant workers. Now the critics call it dirty and downtrodden, but I think there’s a charm in its gritty ways. Like many Range towns, they combat their foes with a dazzling logo. I write often about the same ideas in regard to the Iron Range. In any event, UWS is a fantastic small liberal arts public university and I’m proud to return as an author instead of as an out-of-work grad student.

I talk a lot about the challenges facing Gen Y professionals in rusty places like the Iron Range. As a fifth generation Ranger I’ve learned to love the place and its potential, but bang my head on many walls along the way.

The lecture begins at 2 p.m. and will be followed by a book signing and what the university is calling “light refreshments.”

Read more from UWS.

My blog explains more about the book and the travails of modern life on the Iron Range. It’s part humor, part politics … if there is, in fact, a difference.