The Herrin Area Historical Society presents author, Blaine Greer, who has just published a seven-hundred page chronicle non-fiction book,  Willow Sieve Chronicles – Eavesdropping from the Wilderness at the Herrin City Library on Friday, October 21, 2016, at 2:00 pm.  This is the story of his sixty plus day from the mouth of the Mississippi River to New Orleans in a canoe with his only companion, his dog, Shocker.  The author will have his books for sale at the event. 

He spent twenty-one years as a high school chemistry and physics teacher in Illinois, Wisconsin and Missouri, fourteen years as a public school administrator and six years as a university instructor and department chair in Missouri and Illinois.  He is a graduate of Johnston City High School and holds degrees from Southeast Missouri State and the University of Wisconsin.  He is the son of Ed and Bess Greer. Ed Greer was the top photographer at The Southern Illinoisan for decades.