Edinbrook Elementary School hosts author Erin Soderberg Downing

Edinbrook Elementary School hosted an engaging author visit Feb. 10, when Duluth native Erin Soderberg Downing came to the school to share about her life as an author. Soderberg Downing said she began writing when her three children were young, taking inspiration from her everyday life and from being an avid reader herself to generate book ideas and create characters in her mind. She has now written over 75 books for children, and one of her most recent books, “What Happened Then,” is a 2026 Minnesota Book Award Finalist. 

As she shared about her writing process, Soderberg Downing led the students through an imagination experiment where she asked them to picture themselves shrinking down to be small enough to walk through the door of a fairy garden shown on the screen. She encouraged children to imagine all the details of what they might find on the other side of that door, then share their ideas with a classmate. 

“Each of us have a different way of imagining things,” Soderberg Downing told the students. “We all started at the same door, but we each had a different world inside. Ideas are everywhere if you pay attention.”