Writing wasn’t Kent Nerburn’s goal. He just happened to be very good at it.

“I fell into it by accident,” Nerburn says.

Nerburn discovered his writing talent while working on the Red Lake Ojibwe reservation in Northern Minnesota. His work with the Ojibwe has spawned five books; two of oral history and three on various Native American subjects.

Nerburn will be at Big Table Books tonight for a reading of his current book, “A Haunting Reverence: Meditations on a Northern Heartland.”

In “Haunting,” Nerburn’s essays explore the land from the Great Plains to the northern woods, paying homage to the land that raised him and his family.

Nerburn knows none of his success may have happened without the Ojibwe tribe.

“I found my skill. I was giving voice to the voiceless,” Nerburn says.

Surprisingly, Nerburn had no intentions of ever being a writer. The work on the reservation came out of his role as an educator.

“I wanted to live my life as a sculptor. That’s where my heart was,” Nerburn said.

“But now I’ve found a moral imperative to write,” Nerburn added. ” I’m trying to fill the missing link in the American consciousness.”

Nerburn will be at Big Table Books tonight at 7:30 p.m. The event is free and open to the public.