Madison BookBeat

On this edition of Madison BookBeat, host Sara Batkie talks with author Denise S. Robbins about her debut novel The Unmapping.There is no flash of light, no crumbling, no quaking. Each person in New York wakes up on an unfamiliar block after the buildings all switch positions overnight. The power grid has snapped, thousands of residents are missing, and the Empire State Building is on Coney Island—for now. The next night, it happens again.Esme Green and Arjun Varma work for the city of New York's emergency management team and are tasked with managing the disaster response for “The Unmapping.” As Esme tries to wade through the bureaucratic nightmare of an endlessly shuffling city, she's distracted by the ongoing search for her missing fiancé. Meanwhile, Arjun focuses on the ground-level rescue of disoriented New Yorkers, hoping to become the hero the city needs. Denise S. Robbins is from Madison, Wisconsin, the city where she grew up and to which she returned after sixteen years of living and working in climate activism on the East Coast. In Madison, she lives with her husband in a yellow house circled by oaks and pines and two owls, and works as a consultant for several climate advocacy groups. She is a Pushcart Prize–nominated author whose stories have been published in literary journals including The Barcelona Review, Gulf Coast, and many more.

Stu Levitan interviews former U.S. Ambassador to Norway (1993-1997) Tom Loftus about his new book, Mission to Oslo, Dancing with the Queen, Dealmaking with the Russians, Shaping History (Mineral Point: Little Creek Press, 2024).Amb. Loftus served during a pivotal period in diplomatic and military history, following the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. It was a time of optimism, but it was fraught with uncertainty, a time of particular concern in neighboring Norway. Amb. Loftus's success helping forge the agreement among the U.S., Norway and the new Russia to start the clean-up of the nuclear waste the former Soviet Union had dumped for decades into the Arctic Ocean (a toxic legacy of its submarine fleet just across the border in Murmansk) is largely why the King of Norway bestowed upon him the Grand Cross, the highest order of the Norwegian Order of Merit, for outstanding service in the interest of Norway. Amb. Loftus also did a major solid for the incoming president of South Africa, Nelson Mandela, solving a looming trade crisis that saved his textile industry.Among the leading supporting players in this engaging and perceptive account are three powerful and impressive women:  First Lady Hilary Clinton, UW Chancellor Donna Shalala, and Norwegian Prime Minister Gro Harlem Brundtland, whose later selection as director general of the World Health Organization Amb. Loftus helped secure. There's also an inside account of his close relationship with Bill Clinton, whose presidential nomination he helped secure by leading his Wisconsin primary campaign in 1992.Grandson of Norwegian immigrants, Amb. Loftus writes and speaks with emotion and insight into the people and places of his ancestral homeland. He also gives a real sense of diplomatic nitty-gritty, from celebrating Syttende Mai with Their Majesties the King and Queen to posing for photos with Yassir Arafat.Amb. Loftus served in the Wisconsin State Assembly from 1977 to 1991, the final eight years as its speaker — the longest any Democrat has ever held that post. In 1990, he was the Democratic nominee for governor, finishing second behind Governor Tommy Thompson, who, 30 years later, as interim president of the University of Wisconsin system, would hire him as a senior policy advisor. By then, Amb. Loftus had already had a close relationship with the UW, graduating from the UW Whitewater, earning his master's from the UW Madison's La Follette School of Public Affairs, and serving on the Board of Regents from 2005 to 2011.

Jane Hirshfield—widely regarded as one of America's greatest living poets—joins Madison Book Beat for a rich conversation about poetry, the natural world, and the human condition. The New York Times Magazine has called her work “some of the most important poetry in the world today,” and her latest collection, The Asking: New & Selected Poems, showcases the depth and range of a life devoted to lyrical inquiry.In this episode, host David Ahrens and guest co-host Heather Swan, a poet and faculty member at UW-Madison and the Nelson Institute, delve into the themes that define Hirshfield's work: ecological awareness, tenderness amid grief, and poetry as a vehicle for transformation.In an intimate and expansive interview, Ahrens and Swan trace Hirshfield's poetic origins through six life-shaping jobs (as recently profiled by Swan on Lit Hub) and revealing her belief in poetry's ability to create moments of changed understanding—acts of witness, clarity, and care.Jane Hirshfield will give a public reading from The Asking tonight — Monday, May 12 — at 6 PM at the Madison Central Library, 3rd Floor. The event is sponsored by the Madison Book Festival and the Nelson Institute, with books available for purchase from Mystery to Me and a signing to follow.

A book club is a great way to build community—bringing people together around shared interests, while also introducing them to new perspectives and ideas.Today, Bill Tishler hosts his inaugural episode centered on community. Tishler, who is also a local elected official, has been hosting book clubs in his district. On today's episode, four area residents join him in the WORT studio to share their thoughts on recent book clubs they participated in this year and how the books they read raised awareness about issues in our city.Those issues range from pedestrian and bicycle safety to the health effects of loneliness and social disconnection, to the dangers of too much road salt and PFAS contamination in our area lakes and drinking water. The books discussed included The Art of Community: Seven Principles for Belonging by Charles Vogl (Oakland, CA: Berrett-Koehler Publishers, 2016); Silent Spring by Rachel Carson (Houghton Mifflin, 1962); and Killed by a Traffic Engineer: Shattering the Delusion that Science Underlies Our Transportation System by Wes Marshall (Washington, D.C.: Island Press, 2024).

In this edition of Madison Book Beat, host Andrew Thomas speaks with AJ Romriell on his debut memoir Wolf Act (University of Wisconsin Press, 2025).Wolf Act is a “memoir in essays,” and these essays take on a variety of forms. The work is divided into three different Acts, and each act is made up of chapters that are both interlinked but can also stand on their own as well. While the majority of the prose is narrative nonfiction, there are a number of chapters that include lengthy lists, definition entries like you would find in a dictionary, as well as passages that mirror a kind of Mormon liturgy and educational upbringing.As the title suggests, wolves are a central metaphor throughout the work, and Romriell seamlessly weaves in references to wolves from mythology, fables, fairy tales, and religious beliefs as a way of processing his exit from the Mormon faith and his intentional turn towards self-love and joy.AJ Romriell is a storyteller, photographer, and educator. His memoir Wolf Act is about his experience growing up queer and neurodivergent in the Mormon religion; it earned first prize in the Utah Original Writing Competition and was a finalist for the Writers' League of Texas Manuscript Contest. He is a 2025 Pushcart nominee, and his essays, stories, and poems have been featured in Electric Literature, The Missouri Review, Michigan Quarterly Review, Black Warrior Review, Brevity, New Delta Review, and elsewhere. He has been the recipient of the Vandewater Prize in Poetry, the Kenneth W. Brewer Creative Writing Award, and the Ralph Jennings Smith Creative Writing Endowment, and his work has been shortlisted for Ploughshares' Emerging Writer's Contest, CRAFT's Hybrid Writing Contest, and the Black Warrior Review and New Ohio Review contests for creative nonfiction.

On this edition of Madison BookBeat, host Sara Batkie chats with Wisconsin Poet Laureate Brenda Cárdenas about her new position and the exciting plans she has in the works during her service.Brenda Cárdenas was born and raised in Milwaukee and has also lived in Beaver Dam, Appleton, Menasha, and Fond du Lac. She obtained her undergraduate degree at the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee, and a Masters of Fine Arts (MFA) degree in Creative Writing (Poetry) at the University of Michigan. She recently retired from a 35-year career teaching Creative Writing to students at every level from seventh graders to doctoral candidates. From 2007 to 2024 she taught Creative Writing and U. S. Latino/x Literatures at the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee.A former City of Milwaukee poet laureate, Cárdenas has authored two full-length books: Trace (Red Hen Press) and Boomerang (Bilingual Press). She has also authored or co-authored three chapbooks: Bread of the Earth/The Last Colors, Achiote Seeds/Semillas de Achiote, and From the Tongues of Brick and Stone. Her three-year term as Wisconsin Poet Laureate began on January 15, 2025 and runs through December 31, 2027.Brenda will be doing many events and workshops throughout the state during her Poet Laureate term. You can see a full list by visiting her website here.

Tana Elias has more than three decades of experience at the Madison Public Library. After one year in the role, she's “just settling in” to the position as Director of the MPL.Elias sits down with Madison Book Beat host David Ahrens for a conversation about the history, funding, services and evolution of the Madison Public Library system, which has nine libraries in the city, operates the mobile Dreambus service, and is now building an “Imagination Center” on the north side.Elias and Ahrens also take up the changing role of libraries in the digital age. Contrary to the notion of a library dealing in books only, today's Madison Public Libraries function as a community hub and resource — giving everything from seeds to art to yes, digital and physical books to the community.They also discuss the threat of losing federal funding, and the significant milestone for MPL coming up this year: 150 years of service.

On this edition of Madison BookBeat, host Sara Batkie chats with author Christine Wenc about her new book Funny Because It's True: How The Onion Created Modern American News Satire.In 1988, a band of University of Wisconsin–Madison undergrads and dropouts began publishing a free weekly newspaper with no editorial stance other than “You Are Dumb.” Just wanting to make a few bucks, they wound up becoming the bedrock of modern satire over the course of twenty years, changing the way we consume both our comedy and our news. The Onion served as a hilarious and brutally perceptive satire of the absurdity and horrors of late twentieth-century American life and grew into a global phenomenon. Now, for the first time, the full history of the publication is told by one of its original staffers, author and historian Christine Wenc. Through dozens of interviews, Wenc charts The Onion's rise, its position as one of the first online humor sites, and the way it influenced television programs like The Daily Show and The Colbert Report. Funny Because It's True reveals how a group of young misfits from flyover country unintentionally created a cultural phenomenon. Christine Wenc was a member of The Onion's original staff from 1988 to 1990 as a UW–Madison undergrad. She has played central roles in highly regarded public history projects for Harvard University Libraries, Brigham and Women's Hospital, and the National Library of Medicine, and has received writing grants from the Awesome Foundation and the National Endowment for the Humanities. She is also trained in midwestern prairie ecosystem restoration and likes to spend time helping to revitalize one of the rarest, most diverse, most beautiful, and most ecologically beneficial landscapes on the planet. She grew up in rural Spring Green, Wisconsin.

In this edition of Madison Book Beat, host Andrew Thomas speaks with Steven Duong on his debut poetry collection At the End of the World There is A Pond (Norton 2025)."Tell all the truth but tell it slant." Taking Emily Dickinson's dictum as a guiding principle, poet Steven Duong delivers a collection startlingly clear, formally innovative, and consistently funny. At the End of the World There is a Pond is divided into four sections–The Jumpers, The Swimmers, The Sinkers, The Floaters--and throughout each Duong explores themes of addiction, mental health, climate change, diaspora, and popular culture.from "Anatomy":“there's no / point in writing nature poems anymore, / not unless you drown the verses in smoke / & oil & organophosphates–the Anthropocene / demands a new syntax” Steven Duong  is a writer from San Diego. His poems have appeared in the American Poetry Review, Guernica, and the Yale Review, among other publications, and his short fiction is featured in Catapult, The Drift, and The Best American Short Stories 2024.The recipient of fellowships and awards from the Academy of American Poets and the Iowa Writers' Workshop, he is currently a creative writing fellow in poetry at Emory University. He lives in Atlanta, Georgia. Photo courtesy of W.W. Norton and IfeOluwa Nihinlola

On this edition of Madison BookBeat, host Sara Batkie chats with author Theresa Okokon about her debut memoir in essays, Who I Always Was.When Theresa Okokon was nine, her father traveled to his hometown in Nigeria to attend his mother's funeral…and never returned. His mysterious death shattered Theresa as her family's world unraveled. Now a storyteller and television cohost, Okokon sets out to explore the ripple effects of that profound loss and the way heartache shapes our sense of self and of the world—for the rest of our lives.Using her grief and her father's death as a backdrop, Okokon delves deeply into intrinsic themes of Blackness, African spirituality, family, abandonment, belonging, and the seemingly endless, unrequited romantic pursuits of a Black woman who came of age as a Black girl in Wisconsin suburbs where she was—in many ways—always an anomaly.Theresa Okokon is a Pushcart Prize-nominated essayist. A Wisconsinite living in New England, she is a writer, a storyteller, and the cohost of Stories from the Stage. In addition to writing and performing her own stories, Theresa also teaches storytelling and writing workshops and classes, coaches other tellers, hosts story slams, and frequently emcees events for nonprofits. She is an alum of both the Memoir Incubator and Essay Incubator programs at GrubStreet.

As 2024 draws to a close, David Ahrens reflects on his bountiful year of reading. He's joined by Chali Pittman, Andrew Thomas, and callers throughout the hour to share their recommendations. New York Times bestseller James by Percival Everett is a clear favorite. It's a re-imagining of Huckleberry Finn from a distinctly different point of view. That's not the only retelling worth reading — Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver reimagines David Copperfield as well. Also recommended by David: The Lucky Ones, a memoir by Madison's own Sara Chowdhary, recounts a personal experience of anti-Muslim violence in India (Chowdhary was just interviewed by Madison BookBeat). Meanwhile, caller Gil recommends Shadows at Noon: The South Asian Twentieth Century by Joya Chatterji, recently interviewed on World View. David recommends a slate of books by Irish authors, including Prophet Song by Paul Lynch, The Bee Sting by Paul Murray, and Long Island by Colm Tóibín. Plus, the beautifully-written Say Nothing by Patrick Radden Keefe —which has now been turned into a TV series. As for nonfiction, Chali recommends Sing Like Fish: How Sound Rules Life Under Water by Amorina Kingdon. In the political sphere, Ringmaster: Vince McMahon and the Unmaking of America by Josephine Riesman gives insight into the rise of Donald Trump. And Doppelganger: A Trip Into the Mirror World by Naomi Klein begs not to be confused with Naomi Wolf. David recommends Reds: The Tragedy of American Communism by Maurice Isserman and Andrew recommends At the Vanguard of Vinyl by Darren MillerIn more fiction, Gil recommends Northwoods by Daniel Mason, Jade recommends Wandering Stars by Tommy Orange, and David recommends Intermezzo by Sally Rooney.  

Zara Chowdhary sits down with David Ahrens to talk about her exquisite memoir The Lucky Ones (Penguin, 2024).In 2002, Zara Chowdhary was sixteen years old and living with her family in Ahmedabad, India, when a train fire claimed the lives of sixty Hindu passengers — and upended the lives of millions of Muslims.Instead of taking her school exams that week, Zara is put under a three-month siege, with her family and thousands of others fearing for their lives as Hindu neighbors and friends transform overnight into bloodthirsty mobs, hunting and massacring their fellow citizens.The chief minister of the state at the time, Narendra Modi, was later accused of fomenting the massacre. Now, he is India's prime minister.Chowdhary's The Lucky Ones entwines lost histories across a subcontinent, as it prods open a family's secrets, and gazes unflinchingly back at a country rushing to move past the biggest pogrom in its modern history. Somehow, it also reflects the joy of two young sisters living their lives by resisting the bleakness of their home life and the dangerous world outside.It is a warning to the world by a young survivor, to democracies and to homes that won't listen to their daughters. It is an ode to the rebellion of a young woman who insists she will belong to her land, family, and faith on her own terms.About the guest: Zara Chowdhary is a writer and lecturer at UW-Madison. She has an MFA in creative writing and environment from Iowa State University and a master's in writing for performance from the University of Leeds. She has previously written for documentary television, advertising, and film. You can find more at zarachowdhary.com or follow her on Instagram @zarachowdhary.

On this edition of Madison BookBeat, host Sara Batkie chats with Madison booksellers Iris Tobin from A Room of One's Own, Hilary Burg from Mystery to Me, and Molly Fish from Lake City Books to see how their 2024 went. Take a listen to learn about the new releases they loved, event highlights from the past year, reads they recommend for people who want to get back into the habit, and what's in store for them in 2025. And for those still doing some holiday shopping, stick around until the end to hear their order deadlines and extra hours this December!

In this edition of Madison Book Beat, host Andrew Thomas speaks with folx from LGBT Books to Prisoners and A Room of One's Own bookstore on the Wisconsin Department of Corrections' recently-implemented restrictions on book donations, the condition of prison libraries, and the current state of abolition activism.“On the whole, people tend to take prisons for granted. It is difficult to imagine life without them,” she continues. “At the same time, there is reluctance to face the realities hidden within them, a fear of thinking about what happens inside them. Thus, the prison is present in our lives and, at the same time, it is absent from our lives.” --Angela Davis, Are Prisons Obsolete?Joining me for a conversation on this topic is Bryan Davis and Nicholas Leete of LGBT Books to Prisoners and Mira Braneck of A Room of One's Own bookstore.LGBT Books to Prisoners was born out of the Wisconsin Books to Prisoners (WI BtP) in 2007. LGBT Books to Prisoners is a prison abolitionist, volunteer-run project which primarily works to send books requested by queer people in prison in the United States. With me today are two volunteers, Nicholas Leete and Bryan Davis.Bryan Davis is a graduate from UW-Madison's School of Human Ecology with a degree in nonprofit management. He first became involved with LGBT Books to Prisoners as a volunteer in 2016 and eventually joined the board of directors. He also worked in the non-profit sector in fundraising, development, and communications for an organization serving children who experience neglect and teens in the foster care system. He currently serves on the Social Justice Center's board of directors located off of Willy Street which manages the building's operations and programming which includes renting space to numerous nonprofits like LGBT Books to Prisoners.Nicholas Leete has been a volunteer with LGBT Books to Prisoners since 2016, and has been a volunteer organizer with the group for the last few years. Additionally, Nicholas is a WORT volunteer and a worker at Rooted, a local food sovereignty non-profit.A Room of One's Own is a local, independent feminist bookstore, in Madison since 1975, currently on Atwood Avenue. They serve as the official bookseller for all books sent out by LGBT Books to Prisoners and also sponsor us through book donations and publicity.Mira Braneck is the receiving manager and books to prisoners programs coordinator at A Room of One's Own.Additional resources:10/16/24 WORT interview with Tone's Madison's editor in chief Scott Gordon on DOC's updated donation policies10/14/24 TONE article, "Wisconsin prison officials furtively changed a library book donation policy while dodging questions" by Scott Gordon9/25/24 TONE article, "Wisconsin escalates its long tradition of prison book-banning" by Scott Gordon and Dan FitchNB: Since airing, we discovered an inaccuracy in our conversation. Michigan state prisons allow publications purchased from seven internet vendors as well as direct from book publishers. You can read more about this here. Copyright free photo courtesy of Freepik.

In this edition of Madison Book Beat, host Lisa Malawski talks with local Madison author Tammy Borden. Tammy is a professional copywriter turned novelist. She has had a whirlwind of a year since releasing her novel, Waltraud. She has reached thousands of readers on 5 continents, had more than 70 speaking or book-related events, and approximately one thousand reviews! Waltraud was self-published by Tammy Borden in 2023. Waltraud is about a true story of Tammy's mom growing up in Nazi Germany. Tammy grew up hearing her mom's first-hand accounts of coming of age under Hilter's regime. Through the years, she secretly recorded these conversations fully intent on writing a book based on her mom's true story. Tammy's mom was 12 years old when the war broke out in Germany. Her father was forced to serve in a Nazi army. There was not enough money coming in and they had to live off of rations. A lot of people do not realize that the Nazis oppressed their own people. One story in the book which may come as a surprise to readers is that Waltraud helped to feed English airman hiding in a barn after their plane crashed until the war was over. Tammy spoke at the EAA (Experimental Aircraft Association) where she shared a story where an American pilot fell to his death after shooting down a German fighter plane. Tammy wanted to find out who the pilot was. Tammy went to the US Military archives and searched her mom's town in Germany which led to one man. Tammy found the man's niece and they have now connected. Author connects with WWII pilot's family through mother's story - YouTubeTammy initially wrote Waltraud in the third person and then had a revelation that she had to write this book in first person. Waltraud passed away at the age of 93 in 2020. Tammy wishes her mom could have seen the book. She is thankful that her mom was willing to share her stories. So many from Waltraud's generation hide the horrors of their past inside. A quote from author, Tammy Borden: “If you don't deal with your past, it's still your present. You have no idea the healing that your story can bring to someone else.”

On this edition of Madison BookBeat, host Sara Batkie speaks with author, geologist, and Lawrence University professor Marcia Bjornerud about her new book, Turning to Stone.Earth has been reinventing itself for more than four billion years, keeping a record of its experiments in the form of rocks. Yet most of us live our lives on the planet with no idea of its extraordinary history, unable to interpret the language of the rocks that surround us. Geologist Marcia Bjornerud believes that our lives can be enriched by understanding our heritage on this old and creative planet.Contrary to their reputation, rocks have eventful lives–and they intersect with our own in surprising ways. In Turning to Stone, Bjornerud reveals how rocks are the hidden infrastructure that keep the planet functioning, from sandstone aquifers purifying the water we drink to basalt formations slowly regulating global climate.Marcia Bjornerud is a structural geologist whose research focuses on the physics of earthquakes and mountain building. She combines field-based studies of bedrock geology with quantitative models of rock mechanics. She has done research in high arctic Norway (Svalbard) and Canada (Ellesmere Island), as well as mainland Norway, Italy, New Zealand, and the Lake Superior region. Her books include Reading the Rocks: The Autobiography of the Earth;  Timefulness: How Thinking Like a Geologist Can Help Save the World and Geopedia: A Brief Compendium of Geologic Curiosities. Timefulness was longlisted for the 2019 PEN/E.O.Wilson Prize for Literary Science Writing, and was a finalist for the LA Times Book Prize in Science and Technology.

In his 1979 Whole Earth Catalog, Stewart Brand wrote, “We are as gods, so we might as well get good at it.” Based on his time on the Mississippi River, however, Boyce Upholt concludes “that we do not make very good gods.” In the final pages of The Great River: The Making and Unmaking of the Mississippi, Upholt reflects, “The river is an unappeasable god, and to react to it with fear and awe is not wrong. . . . Perhaps what people learn after thousands of years of living along one of the world's greatest rivers is that change is inevitable, that chaos will come. That the only way to survive is to take care–of yourself and of everyone else, human and beyond.”Boyce Upholt is a “nature critic” whose writing probes the relationship between humans and the rest of the natural world, especially in the U.S. South. Boyce grew up in the Connecticut suburbs and holds a bachelor's degree from Haverford College and an MFA from the Program for Writers at Warren Wilson College. His work has been published in the Atlantic, National Geographic, the Oxford American, and Virginia Quarterly Review, among other publications, and was awarded the 2019 James Beard Award for investigative journalism. His stories have been noted in the Best American Science & Nature and Best American Nonrequired Reading series. Boyce lives in New Orleans.Book photo courtesy of Boyce Upholt.

In this edition of Madison Book Beat, host Lisa Malawski talks with local Madison author Ann Garvin.Ann Garvin became an author at age fifty. Ann Garvin Ph.D. is a nurse, a professor, and USA Today Bestselling Author. She thinks everything is funny and a little bit sad. Ann writes stories about people who do too much in a world that asks too much from them.Ann is the founder of the multiple award-winning Tall Poppy Writers where she is committed to helping women writers succeed. She is a sought-after speaker on writing, leadership and health and has taught extensively in NY, San Francisco, LA, Boston, and at festivals across the country and in Europe.Lisa had Ann on Madison Book Beat in March 2024 for her book There's No Coming Back from This which was published by Lake Union Publishing in 2024. Ann returned to the Madison Book Beat on 10/28 for her new book, Bummer Camp which was also published by Lake Union Publishing in September 2024.It is difficult to write two fiction novels in one year, and Lisa discusses with Ann the amount of work that goes into accomplishing this.One of the things that Lisa liked most about the previous interview with Ann was that she mentioned that a writer is an observer. Lisa has observed many things about Ann and their discussion takes a deep look at the loss of Ann's parents, love in Ann's life and an intense look at Ann's writing career.Ann teaches in the low-residency Master of Fine Arts program at Drexel University and lives in Wisconsin with her anxious and overly protective dog, Peanut. For more information, visit www.anngarvin.com. Also check out Ann Garvin's Please Come Sit By Me blog. 

Today on the show, incoming host Ella Saph speaks with the first-place winners in the 2024 Wisconsin People & Ideas Writing Contest. Cambridge writer Bob Wake took home the gold for his poem "Mending Ruth," and Madison poet Diya Abbas took home the prize for their poem “Al-Eashiq." Both will present at a reading next week at the Wisconsin Book Festival, which will feature all the winners of the statewide 2024 Fiction & Poetry Contests. That reading is on Tuesday, October 29 at 7pm at Central Library.About the guests: Bob Wake is a writer and small press publisher in Cambridge, Wisconsin. He is the first-place winner of the 2024 Wisconsin People & Ideas Fiction Contest, which he also won in 2017. His short stories have appeared in Madison Magazine, The Madison Review, Rosebud Magazine, and in Wisconsin People & Ideas. He is a recipient of the Zona Gale Award for Short Fiction from the Council for Wisconsin Writers.Diya Abbas is a first-generation Pakistani poet from the Midwest. She is the first-place poetry winner in the 2024 Wisconsin People & Ideas Writing Contest. Her poems are featured or forthcoming in RHINO, Foglifter, Adroit, diode, The Offing, BAHR Magazine, and others. She is currently studying Creative Writing and South Asian Studies at the University of Wisconsin Madison through the First Wave program. Find more of their work at diyabbas.com.

On this edition of Madison BookBeat, host Sara Batkie speaks with festival director Jane Rotunda and author Jessica Calarco about her book Holding It Together, ahead of Calarco's appearance at the Wisconsin Book Festival on Thursday, October 17th.Holding It Together: How Women Became America's Safety Net chronicles the devastating consequences of our DIY society and traces its root causes by drawing together historical, media, and policy analyses and five years of Calarco's original research. With surveys of 4,000 parents and more than 400 hours of interviews across the socioeconomic, racial, and political spectrum, Calarco illustrates how women have been forced to bear the brunt of our broken system and why no one seems to care.Jessica Calarco is a professor of sociology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. An expert on families, schools, and inequalities, and a mom of two, she is the author of multiple award-winning books and has written for The New York Times, The Atlantic, The Washington Post, and Inside Higher Ed, as well as appeared on CNN, CNBC, NPR, and the BBC to discuss her research.Learn more about Jessica's book and what this year's Book Festival has in store, and don't forget to check out the full calendar of events here!

In this edition of Madison Book Beat, host Andrew Thomas speaks with E.M. Tran on her debut novel, Daughters of the New Year (2022, Hanover Square Press).Daughters of the New Year is a novel about the three Trung sisters and their mother. It's also a novel about Vietnam and its long history of colonization at the hands of the Chinese, Japanese, and French. We catch glimpses of civil war and America's devastating war in Vietnam. It's a novel about diaspora and remembering an increasingly distant and fading homeland. It's also a novel about New Orleans and the US South and how immigrant communities navigate their everyday lives.E. M. Tran writes fiction and creative nonfiction. Her stories, essays, and reviews can be found in such places as the Georgia Review, Literary Hub, Joyland Magazine, Prairie Schooner, Harvard Review Online, and more. She has an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Mississippi and a PhD in English & Creative Writing from Ohio University. Born and raised in New Orleans, she returned and currently lives there with her family. She was born in the year of the Earth Snake. Currently, she is at work on her sophomore novel and also publishes a weekly newsletter about the show Gilmore Girls.Photo courtesy of E.M. Tran

On this edition of Madison BookBeat, host Sara Batkie speaks with author Jennifer Kabat about her memoir The Eighth Moon from Milkweed Editions, ahead of Kabat's appearance at A Room of One's Own on Tuesday, September 10th.A rebellion, guns, and murder. When Jennifer Kabat moves to the Catskills, she has no idea it was the site of the Anti-Rent War, an early episode of American rural populism. As she forges friendships with her new neighbors and explores the countryside on logging roads and rutted lanes—finding meadows dotted with milkweed in bloom, saffron salamanders, a blood moon rising over Munsee, Oneida, and Mohawk land—she slowly learns of the 1840s uprising, when poor tenant farmers fought to redistribute their landlords' vast estates. In the farmers' socialist dreams, she discovers connections to her parents' collectivist values, as well as to our current moment. Threaded with historical documents, the natural world, and the work of writers like Adrienne Rich and Elizabeth Hardwick, Kabat weaves a capacious memoir, where the past comes alive in the present.Jennifer Kabat's diptych The Eighth Moon and Nightshining are being published by Milkweed Editions in 2024 and 2025. She's been awarded a Warhol Foundation Arts Writers Grant for her criticism, and the books were supported by grants from the Silvers Foundation and NYFA. Her essays and criticism have appeared in 4 Columns, Frieze, Granta, The White Review, BOMB, Harper's, The Believer, and McSweeney's as well as Best American Essays. She lives in rural New York, serves in her local fire department and teaches in the Design Research MA program at SVA.

In this edition of Madison Book Beat, host Lisa Malawski talks with Kathleen Paris about her book Gentle Comforts For Women Grieving the Loss of a Beloved Life Companion.As an author, educator, and management consultant, Paris has assisted organizations over the past thirty years to plan for new realities and improve their systems and organizational climate. She currently holds the title of Distinguished Consultant Emeritus from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.Paris has consulted in the United States and internationally in Canada, Cyprus, France,Guam, Switzerland, Virgin Islands, and the UK Kathleen lost her beloved husband Matt Cullen, of twenty-five years in 2018. She has been reaching out ever since to other grieving women.The dedication of her book reads “To my husband, Matt Cullen the best person I ever knew.”One of the frequently asked questions of Kathleen, is why did you write Gentle Comforts?Kathleen's response is that she started journaling the day her husband died and from then on wrote to him every night. The journal was the foundation of Gentle Comforts. And as the months went on, it occurred to Kathleen that she could take the worst thing that ever happened to her and help others in the same situation.Gentle Comforts for Women Grieving the Loss of a Beloved Life Companion was published by ACTA Publications in 2024. The book is organized to follow a woman-in-mourning's experiences over time. There is journaling space with short prompt questions for each reflection. There are easy healthy recipes for one person included for each of the 50 topics. The book is written in a gentle and encouraging voice of one who has been there. So many of us have lost someone in our lives, and the hope was that this show could touch you in some way, ease your burden, and for you to know that there are so many of us struggling with our losses. Here is the Irish quote from the front of Kathleen's book: “Death leaves a heartache no one can heal. Love leaves a memory no one can steal.”A note from Kathleen Paris:Friday, August 30 is National Grief Awareness Day. Every year it is on August 30.Aimed at educating people about grief, providing resources and helping people feel less alone.

In this edition of Madison BookBeat, host Sara Batkie speaks with Milwaukee-based author Katharine Beutner about her Edna Ferber Award-winning novel, Killingly, which is out now in paperback from Soho Crime.Massachusetts, 1897: Bertha Mellish, “the most peculiar, quiet, reserved girl” at Mount Holyoke College, is missing. As a search team dredges the pond where Bertha might have drowned, her panicked father and sister arrive desperate to find some clue to her fate or state of mind. Bertha's best friend, Agnes, a scholarly loner studying medicine, might know the truth, but she is being unhelpfully tightlipped, inciting the suspicions of Bertha's family, her classmates, and the private investigator hired by the Mellish family doctor. As secrets from Agnes's and Bertha's lives come to light, so do the competing agendas driving each person who is searching for Bertha. Where did Bertha go? Who would want to hurt her? And could she still be alive?Katharine Beutner takes a real-life unsolved mystery and crafts it into an unforgettable historical portrait of academia, family trauma, and the risks faced by women who dared to pursue unconventional paths at the end of the 19th century. Katharine is an associate professor of English at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee; previously, she taught in Ohio and Hawai`i. She earned a BA in Classical Studies at Smith College and an MA in English (creative writing) and a PhD in English literature at the University of Texas at Austin. Her first novel, Alcestis, won the Edmund White Debut Fiction Award and was a finalist for other awards, including the Lambda Literary Association's Lesbian Debut Fiction Award.

In this edition of Madison Book Beat, host Andrew Thomas speaks with Henry Wise on his debut novel, Holy City (2024, Grove Atlantic Press).Holy City is a novel that grabs your attention by the opening sentence and propels you into a world of crime, guilt, unrealized desire, and vanquished hopes and dreams. The narrative shuttles between Richmond, Virginia–the eponymous Holy City–and the rural county of Euphoria. Anything but euphoric, it's peopled by a cast of characters both burned out on the passage of time and not very optimistic about the present. We encounter people enduring the harsh realities of poverty, the legacies of racism, the personal and historical ghosts of the past, as well as the fickleness of the small town legal system. Everyone's running from something, and everyone's got something to hide. We encounter this world through the eyes of Deputy Sheriff Will Seems, a prodigal son of sorts who returns to Euphoria from Richmond after a decade away. While immediately embroiled in the investigation of a brutal homicide, our brooding protagonist must navigate a guilty past, a fraught relationship with family, and an increasingly suspect county Sheriff. Its fast pacing is complemented by a striking poetic lyricism that demands regularly slowing down and relishing in the talents of this poet-turned-novelist.Henry Wise is a graduate of the Virginia Military Institute and the University of Mississippi MFA Program. His work has appeared in Shenandoah, Nixes Mate, Radar Poetry, Clackamas, and elsewhere. His nonfiction and photography have appeared in Southern Cultures. Holy City is his first novel.

In this edition of Madison Book Beat, host Lisa Malawski talks with Robin and Joan Rolfs about their book Hearthstone: America's Electrical National Treasure.Joan and Rob have been enthralled with Hearthstone since the 1970's when theymoved to the Fox Cities. Joan developed a successful Interior Design program at FoxValley Technical College in 1971.In 1986, Joan was contacted by a member of The Friends of Hearthstone Board andinvited to become involved with the restoration of Hearthstone. Rob was also invitedbecause of his background in electronics and electricity. Realizing the Edisonconnection and the historical importance of the house, the Rolfs accepted.In 1990, they were given the task to develop the Hydro-Adventure Exhibit in the lowerlevel of Hearthstone. The exhibit increased public awareness of the role of electricity indaily lives and the transformation which occurred in society as a result of Thomas A.Edison's inventions and Henry Roger's vision for implementation.Hearthstone contains all the original architecture and electrical light fixtures from whenthe home was built in 1882. The Rolfs worked with the Edison National Historical Parkin Orange, NJ and one day during their visit met Chad Shapiro, a collector and historianof early lighting. He shared his knowledge and provided the Rolfs with copies of originalBergmann lighting catalogs from 1882-1884.Approximately thirty years later, as the Rolfs researched the hanging light fixtures(electroliers) and wall sconces, they concluded the majority of these light fixtures werethe original Sigmund Bergmann fixtures dating to 1882. The significance of thesefixtures is they are the earliest surviving examples of Bermann electroliers and sconcesin the world! This inspired the Rolfs to write Hearthstone: America's Electrical NationalTreasure.In this episode, Lisa discusses the Rolfs passions for all things Thomas Edison, theirvolunteerism at Hearthstone, antique phonographs, records, writing and their sharedlove for research.

In her fourth collection, Driftless Area-based poet Nikki Wallschlaeger further proves herself as a singular poet of astonishing emotional depth and formal range. Hold Your Own is a steadfast search for peace, self-acceptance, and pleasure in a world that makes those basic rights an everyday challenge for Black women. It was published in May 2024 by Copper Canyon Press.Nikki joins host Sara Batkie for a conversation about getting the right rhythm, the joys of working with books every day, and the natural beauty of her home state.Nikki Wallschlaeger's work has been featured in The Nation, Brick, American Poetry Review, Witness, Kenyon Review, Poetry, and others. She is the author of the full-length collections Waterbaby (Copper Canyon Press, 2021), Houses (Horseless Press 2015), and Crawlspace (Bloof 2017), as well as the graphic book I Hate Telling You How I Really Feel (2019) from Bloof Books. She is also the author of an artist book called “Operation USA” through the Baltimore-based book arts group Container, a project acquired by Woodland Pattern Book Center in Milwaukee.

In this edition of Madison Book Beat, host Lisa Malawski talks with Richard Sweitzer about his book ODE The Scion of Nerikan. Richard is award-winning author and longtime morning radio host. He received his Master's of Arts degree in Creative Writing from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.Richard is the author and publisher of ODE The Scion of Nerikan which was published in 2023. The book is about an immortal monster who is searching for a way to die, and the little girl who gives him reason to live...for a little longer.Richard created an ODE Bingo card which he hands out at book signings and there is a tiny independent book store near his home that he places these cards in. Some of the boxes on the Bingo card ask the reader if they threw the book, hugged the book. laughed, cried and more.Richard always wanted to publish his books traditionally, but after three false starts working with literary agents, he decided to publish his own book. The agents he had worked with offered some great advice, but he felt the story was drifting away from the adventure which he created. When Richard is not writing, he hosts a popular morning radio show in central Wisconsin. He has been with this show for more than thirty years.In this episode, Richard reads from his book, discusses self-publishing, marketing, artificial intelligence, going to school at age thirty, being a radio host and his love of fantasy.Lisa thanks Richard for his message to the audience: Try something new even if it's scary. Take that course, make that change. Be afraid and do it anyway.

Richard Scott Larson's debut The Long Hallway (University of Wisconsin Press, April 2024) is a lyrical memoir that expresses a boy's search for identity while navigating the darkness and isolation of a deeply private inner world. Growing up queer, closeted, and afraid, Richard Scott Larson found expression for his interior life in horror films, especially John Carpenter's 1978 classic, Halloween. He developed an intense childhood identification with Michael Myers, Carpenter's inscrutable masked villain, as well as Michael's potential victims. In The Long Hallway, Larson scrutinizes this identification, meditating on horror as a metaphor for the torments of the closet.Richard joins host Sara Batkie for a conversation about the masks we wear, the horrors of suburbia, and finding the right home for your work.Richard Scott Larson is a queer writer and critic. His debut memoir, The Long Hallway, was published by the University of Wisconsin Press. Born and raised in the suburbs of St. Louis, he studied literature and film criticism at Hunter College and earned his MFA from New York University.He has received fellowships from MacDowell and the New York Foundation for the Arts, and his work has been supported by residencies from the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, Vermont Studio Center, Paragraph Workspace for Writers, La Porte Peinte, and the Willa Cather Foundation. He's an active member of the National Book Critics Circle, and his writing has been recognized twice by The Best American Essays.

In this edition of Madison Book Beat, host Andrew Thomas speaks with Priti Srivastava about their novel The Nagini Anarchy, self-published in 2023.Priti Srivastava lives in Madison, Wisconsin with their best friends working to create inclusive spaces so that one day everyone will feel as though they belong. When Priti isn't working or doing chores, they enjoy playing video games, making their friends laugh, eating samosas, and sitting quietly. Priti loves to connect with readers - check out thechaihouse.org to learn more or to request a virtual visit with your book club.The Nagini Anarchy is the fourth novel set in the world of The Chai House. As readers we follow three protagonists–Ana, Prem, and Jani–as they encounter the effects of a patriarchal society intent on environmental destruction for material gain. While each character's narrative occurs in three distinct time periods, storylines begin to blur and intersect as the novel gains momentum. At the novel's center is a stepwell. Designed as a place for weary travelers to find fresh water and rest, it also serves as an enduring nature preserve, particularly for snakes, against encroaching development. Tended to by the mercurial Manassa, the stepwell becomes both a place of mystery and supernatural transformation as the characters learn to shed their pasts just as a serpent sheds her skin.

In this edition of Madison Book Beat, host Lisa Malawski talks with Rachel Wernerabout her children's book, Moving and Grooving to Fillmore's Beat and her cookbook,Macro Cooking Made Simple.Rachel is a model, an author, a poet, a book reviewer, the founder of The Little BookProject, a freelance writer and digital medical consultant, teaching artist, certified holisticnutritionist, certified yoga instructor and mindfulness practitioner. Rachel has a daughternamed Phoebe and a dog named Butter.Moving and Grooving to Fillmore's Beat is a beautiful story about the historical FillmoreDistrict in San Francisco, CA. It teaches children about the Fillmore District's creativelegacy and names some of the famous artists at the Fillmore such as Carlos Santanaand Maya Angelou.Macro Cooking Made Simple has fifty plus recipes for clean eating and healthy living.Rachel has always had a love-hate relationship with food. Rachel was diagnosed withan eating disorder at the age of 19. Exploring the creative process of eating was acomplete game changer for Rachel in regard to her health and her career.In this episode, Rachel shares two of her poems and reads one of her daughter'spoems.Lisa thanks Rachel for sharing her many talents, and for always being curious in allthings.

Madison author Beth Nguyen's latest book Owner of a Lonely Heart (Scribner, July 2023) is a memoir about parenthood, absence, and the condition of being a refugee: the story of Beth's relationship with her mother.At the end of the Vietnam War, when Beth Nguyen was eight months old, she and her family fled Saigon for America. Only Beth's mother stayed—or was left—behind, and they did not meet again until Beth was nineteen. Over the course of her adult life, she and her mother have spent less than twenty-four hours together. It was named a Best Memoir of 2023 by Oprah Daily, and was selected by Time, NPR, and BookPage as a Best Book of 2023.Beth joins host Sara Batkie ahead of the paperback release for a conversation about the expectations of motherhood, changing her name, and the fallibility of memory.Beth Nguyen is the author of four books, most recently the memoir Owner of a Lonely Heart, published by Scribner in 2023. Owner of a Lonely Heart was a New York Times Editors' Choice pick and was named a best book of 2023 by NPR, Time, Oprah Daily, and BookPage. Nguyen's three previous books, the memoir Stealing Buddha's Dinner and the novels Short Girls and Pioneer Girl, were published by Viking Penguin. Her awards and honors include a Guggenheim Fellowship, an American Book Award, a PEN/Jerard Award from the PEN American Center, a Bread Loaf fellowship, and best book of the year honors from the Chicago Tribune and Library Journal. Her books have been included in community and university read programs around the country. Nguyen's work has also appeared in numerous anthologies and publications including The New Yorker, The Paris Review, The New York Times, Literary Hub, Time Magazine, and The Best American Essays.Nguyen was born in Saigon. When she was a baby, she and her family came to the United States as refugees and were resettled in Michigan, where Nguyen grew up. She received an MFA in creative writing from the University of Michigan and is currently a professor in the creative writing program at the University of Wisconsin–Madison.

In this edition of Madison Book Beat, host Andrew Thomas speaks with poet Daniel Khalastchi about hist new collection The Story of Your Obstinate Survival (2024, University of Wisconsin Press).The Story of Your Obstinate Survival is a propulsive collection. It's very funny, uncannily mundane and starkly surreal. The poems are a collision of juxtapositions and images, each one brimming with a vigor and vitality that demands re-reading, reading aloud, and maybe even setting to music. The lyrical wordplay will stop you in your tracks, either with laughter or with an appreciation for the delightfully weird scenes unfolding before you. The poems speak to an obstinate persistence, to enduring beyond a routinely felt sense of an ending.Daniel Khalastchi is an Iraqi Jewish American. A graduate of the Iowa Writers' Workshop and a former fellow at the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, he is the author of four books of poetry—Manoleria (Tupelo Press), Tradition (McSweeney's), American Parables (University of Wisconsin Press, winner of the Brittingham Prize in Poetry), and The Story of Your Obstinate Survival (University of Wisconsin Press). His work has appeared in numerous publications, including The American Poetry Review, The Believer Logger, Colorado Review, Denver Quarterly, Electric Lit, Granta, The Iowa Review, Poetry Northwest, and Best American Experimental Writing. Daniel has taught advanced writing, literature, and publishing courses at Augustana College, Marquette University, and the University of Iowa, most recently as a Visiting Assistant Professor at the Iowa Writers' Workshop. He currently lives in Iowa City where he directs the University of Iowa's Magid Center for Writing. He is the cofounder and managing editor of Rescue Press.Author photo courtesy of University of Wisconsin Press

In this edition of Madison Book Beat, host Lisa Malawski talks with Angela Trudell Vasquez, who until recently, was the City of Madison Poet Laureate.Trudell Vasquez is a poet, writer, performer, and activist. Her most recent chapbook, My People Redux (2022, Finishing Line Press) honors her heritage, contending with generational hardships immigrant families face in making a life in America. The chapbook won first place in the Wisconsin Fellowship of Poets Chapbook Contest for 2022.Angie began writing seriously when she was seven years old. Her grandmother purchased a diary for her, and this is where she would write her first few lines. Angie tells us that she learned the power of words make her feel whole, well-fed, and warm.Lisa discusses Angie's position as the former Madison Poet Laureate, poetry on the Madison Transit buses, Art Night Books, Angela's day job as Director of Human Resources for End Domestic Abuse Wisconsin, and her work on her memoir.Additionally, Lisa jokes with Angie about some things she has learned about her, such as her love for Etta James and why she sometimes wears two different colored tights to a poetry reading.

Cynthia Marie Hoffman's latest book of prose poetry, Exploding Head (Persea Books, February 2024) is described as an OCD memoir in prose poems.It chronicles her childhood onset and adult journey through obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), which manifests in fearful obsessions and counting compulsions that impact her relationship to motherhood, religion, and the larger world. It's been called “Magnificently propulsive and evocative” by Rebecca Morgan Frank. Megan Wildhood said, “I want someone to make a haunted house of these poems.” She joins newest host, Sara Batkie, for a conversation about mental health, poetry as personal history, and what it's like to be a working writer in Madison.In addition to Exploding Head, Cynthia Marie Hoffman is the author of three previous collections of poetry: Sightseer, Paper Doll Fetus, and Call Me When You Want to Talk about the Tombstones. She is the recipient of a Diane Middlebrook Fellowship in Poetry at the Wisconsin Institute for Creative Writing, an Individual Artist Fellowship from the Wisconsin Arts Board, and a Director's Guest fellowship at the Civitella Ranieri Center in Italy.Cynthia has taught creative writing and composition at George Mason University, the University of Wisconsin, and Edgewood College. She works at an electrical engineering firm in Madison, WI, where she lives with her husband and teenage child. You can find more about her at her website, cynthiamariehoffman.com and follow her on Instagram @cynthiamariehoffman.

How do you make change at organizations that resemble hard granite, and aren't designed to bend?Only by patiently and persistently nudging them forward day-by-day, one improvement at a time, according to the authors of Bending Granite: 30+ true stories of leading change (Acta Publications, 2022). It's a compilation of stories from leaders, mostly in and around Madison, writing about the organizations they loved and sought to improve.It's a book that promises “no big bang, no instant pudding, no quick fixes.” Nonetheless, it might lend insight for managers on effectively changing the status quo.On today's show, host David Ahrens speaks with Tom Mosgaller and Michael Williamson, two of the volume's co-editors.Mosgaller and Williamson join Ahrens in the studio to talk about the nature of leadership, the role of quality assurance, and the importance of paying attention to purpose, processes, and people.Michael Williamson has led many complex public organization, including stints as chief of staff for Madison Mayor Joe Sensenbrenner, assistant to UW-Madison chancellor Donna Shalala, and policy assistant to Wisconsin Governor Lee Dreyfus.Williamson is the former Executive Director of the State of Wisconsin Investment Board, which manages the Wisconsin Retirement System's trust funds. Now retired, he continues to serve on a variety of nonprofit boards.Tom Mosgaller describes himself as a “change agent by nature, and leader by nurture.” For more than a dozen years, he served as the City of Madison's Director of Organizational Development and Training. In his tenure, the city's quality assurance work received worldwide recognition as a pioneering effort and was recognized by the American Society for Quality (ASQ).Mosgaller later worked as Director of Change Management for NIATx, a division of the UW Madison School of Engineering that works to improve the delivery of community-based health services.He is past President and Chairman of the Board of the American Society for Quality and has served as a Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award examiner and judge for the Wisconsin Forward Award. He now works as a consultant through his business, Gnarly Oaks.Find more about Bending Granite – including interviews and resources – at bendinggranite.org. 

In this edition of Madison Book Beat, host Lisa Malawski talks with local Madison author Ann Garvin.Ann Garvin became an author at age fifty. She has now written five books. Ann Garvin is a nurse, a professor, and USA Today Bestselling Author. She thinks everything is funny and a little bit sad. Ann writes stories about women with a good sense of humor who do too much in a world that asks too much from them. Ann is the founder of the multiple award-winning Tall Poppy Writers where she is committed to helping women writers succeed. She is a sought-after speaker on writing, leadership and health and has taught extensively in NY, San Francisco, LA, Boston, and at festivals across the country and in Europe.Some may say that a nurse engages more with the left-brain which is analytical, calculated and orderly verses the right-brain which is supposed to be intuitive and creative. With this, there is also the thought that the nurse must step to the right of their left brains in order to be both data-minded and people focused. Lisa talks with Ann about her book journey and engages in conversation about Ann's nurse left brain moving to the right in order to be an author.There's No Coming Back from This was published by Lake Union Publishing in 2023.Ann will return to the airwaves on 10/28 for her new book, Bummer Camp.

Hallie Linden yearns to write for the New York Times. At the moment, she's stuck at a daily newspaper in tiny Green Meadow, Indiana, a town known for its amusement park and nothing else. It's 1989, and juicy reporting jobs are hard to find. She resolves to work hard, win a few awards, and then welcome the job offers.In this edition of Madison Book Beat, host David Ahrens speaks with Cynthia Simmons. She's author of a recent novel called Wrong Kind of Paper, the story of a young reporter in a small town who resists the corporate journalist demand to avoid “controversy.”The novel unexpectedly turns into a two track thriller — one uncovering the deadly corruption and the other is the fight to get the story published.Before her career as a reporter, novelist and professor of media law, Cynthia Simmons was the News Director of WORT-FM. Since then, she's held numerous prestigious reporting positions, and is now the Associate Teaching Professor at Penn State, where she teaches mass media law.In this interview, she also shares with Ahrens the special contribution of listener-supported radio by providing the information necessary for a democracy to function.

In this edition of Madison Book Beat, host Andrew Thomas speaks with journalists Shibani Mahtani and Timothy McLaughlin for a conversation on their book Among the Braves: Hope, Struggle, and Exile in the Battle for Hong Kong and the Future of Global Democracy (2023, Hachette Books).Among the Braves is a narrative history of the 2019 pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong told through the eyes of four activists named Finn, Tommy, Chu, and Gwyneth. Imbedded reporters Mahtani and McLaughlin give insight into the development and ultimate dissolution of a movement more than 150 years in the making. Among the Braves Deftly blends first-person accounts with the larger social, political, and historical forces shaping a popular movement. You can follow her @ShibaniMahtaniShibani Mahtani is an international investigative correspondent for the Washington Post. She was previously the Post's Hong Kong and Southeast Asia bureau chief and a correspondent for the Wall Street Journal based in Singapore, Yangon, and Chicago. Her Hong Kong coverage was honored with prizes including a Human Rights Press Award for an investigation into police misconduct. She is a graduate of the London School of Economics and Political Science and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. You can follow him @TMcLaughlin3Timothy McLaughlin is a prize-winning contributing writer for The Atlantic. Previously he worked for Reuters news agency. His work has also appeared in publications including WIRED, The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times, and Prospect. He has won multiple awards for his Hong Kong coverage, including two Best in Business Awards from the Society for Advancing Business Editing, and is a two-time finalist for The Livingston Award for International Reporting. He is a graduate of the University of Southern California. Mahtani and McLaughlin live in Singapore with their adopted Hong Kong village dog, Bean.Image courtesy of Timothy McLaughlin

In this edition of Madison Book Beat, host Lisa Malawski talks with prolific author Jacquelyn Mitchard. Mitchard is now a frequent lecturer and professor of fiction and creative nonfiction at the Vermont College of Fine Arts in Montpellier.She once worked as a journalist at several Wisconsin newspapers, including the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and the Capital Times, where her husband also worked before his sudden death - a tragedy that prompted her to write her first book.Lisa interviewed Jacquelyn for her book, A Very Inconvenient Scandal, published by MIRA/Harper Collins in November 2023. It's a title Jacquelyn says she hates and was forced to change.Lisa and Jacquelyn sit down for a conversation about the importance of titling, dreaming through your characters, and how Jacquelyn prompted Oprah to start her infamous Book Club.Jacquelyn loves telling stories. She tells Lisa she can't imagine a life without it, saying: "They say the history of humankind is shards of pottery, but it isn't. It's stories."You can find more about Jacquelyn Mitchard at her website, jacquelynmitchard.com, where you can also sign up for her newsletter. You can also follow her Substack accounts, Everything Explained.

For more than a decade, Greg Mickells led the Madison Public Library. He's responsible for a significant transformation of the Madison library system.His tenure as Director took him to three continents, and to the White House in 2016, when Madison Public Library was recognized with a National Medal for Museum and Library Service. Additional awards received under Mickells' leadership include a Wisconsin Innovation Award for "The Bubbler" program, and as a Top Innovator by the Urban Libraries Council in the Race and Social Equity category.Under his hand, the Library has transformed significantly over the last decade. Three libraries - Central, Meadowridge, and Pinney - have been expanded and renovated. The Library's taken over the Wisconsin Book Festival, launched The Bubbler program, launched the Dream Bus, and navigated safe library service during the pandemic. Dozens of community-based partnerships have been established under his leadership.As of February 2, Mickells is retired from his post as Director of the Madison Library System, after eleven years at the helm. He was feted earlier this month with a retirement party, where foundation Executive Director Conor Moran, Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway, Madison Public Library Board President Alyssa Kenney, staff, community partners, and friends praised Greg for his kindness, care for his staff, and vision for making Madison Public Library a national and even international leader in the library world.WORT host David Ahrens - who got the chance to work with Mickells as a former Madison alder - sat down with Mickells shortly before his retirement for this exit interview.

In this edition of Madison Book Beat, host Andrew Thomas speaks with Peter Coviello on his book of essays Is There God After Prince? Dispatches from an Age of Last Things (2023, University of Chicago Press).Exuberant, effusive, rye, and incisive, this collection of essays analyze a wide range of cultural objects in order to shore up some modicum of consolation against an intractable sense of impending doom. By focusing on beloved novels, films, and songs and the joyful connections they help foster between friends, families, and lovers, Coviello argues that these attachments are small mercies that buoy us up in light of what he terms “endstrickenness.” With verve and agility, Coviello surveys a large swath of contemporary culture in an effort to rethink what literary criticism can do and to assure us that not all of contemporary life is a wasteland of broken images. Joyful reading plain and simple.Peter Coviello is the author of six books, including Make Yourselves Gods, a finalist for the 2020 John Whitmer Historical Association Best Book Prize; Tomorrow's Parties, a 2013 finalist for a Lambda Literary Award in LGBT Studies; and Long Players, a memoir selected as one of ARTFORUM's Ten Best Books of 2018. His newest book, Is There God After Prince?: Dispatches from an Age of Last Things, was selected as a “Most Anticipated” title by both The Millions and the Lambda Literary Review, and appeared in year-end lists for 2023 from the Chicago Tribune, the Seminary Co-op Bookstore, and elsewhere. He taught for many years at Bowdoin College and since 2014 has been at UIC, where he is Professor and Head of English.You can follow him @pcoviell.Image courtesy of University of Chicago Press

In this edition of Madison Book Beat, host Lisa Malawski talks with local poet Shoshauna Shy.Shoshauna Shy has been involved in local poetry and literary events for decades. She founded the Poetry Jumps Off the Shelf program in 2004, a project with the mission of placing poetry in public places where it isn't expected.She's previously worked for the Wisconsin Humanities Council, where she helped create, coordinate and facilitate poetry programs for the Wisconsin Book Festival when it was just getting started.Shoshauna and Lisa met at Sequoya Library, during the 2024 Wisconsin Poets' Calendar Reading. They extend their conversation into the studio for this show, where Shoshauna reads some of her poems, talks about her foray into flash fiction, and shares how her 2017 book The Splash of Easy Laughter came to be.

On this edition of Madison BookBeat, host Cole Erickson interviews Heather Swan about her latest book Dandelion, a collection of poetry which explores our uniquely human relationship with this natural world, not only in its wondrous beauty, but also in its devastation and fragility.About the guest:Heather Swan is a poet, non-fiction writer, and educator in Madison. Her poetry includes the collection A Kinship with Ash,  which was a finalist for the ASLE Book Award, and her chapbook The Edge of Damage, which was the winner of the Wisconsin Chapbook Award.She is also the author of the non-fiction book Where Honeybees Thrive: Stories from the Field, which won the Sigurd F. Olson Nature Writing Award.   A companion book to Where Honeybees Thrive is expected to be released later this year, titled Where the Grass Still Sings: Stories of Insects and Interconnection.  

In this edition of Madison Book Beat, host David Ahrens talks with with Thomas Pearson.Thomas Pearson is a professor of anthropology at UW-Stout, where he also leads the social science department.As a cultural anthropologist, he understands and appreciates the diversity of cultures and expressions of a common humanity. After the birth of his daughter, who has Down's Syndrome, he documents his struggle towards broadening the concept of humanity to all people-including those who are differently able and thinking about how we can enable them to achieve their full capabilities.That complexity and exploration of evolving ideas of disability and difference is outlined in his new book and the subject of today's interview. It's called Margaret Mead, the Problem of Disability, and a Child Born Different, published in fall 2023 from the University of California Press.In addition to numerous academic articles and essays, Thomas Pearson is also the author of “When the Hills Are Gone: Frac Sand Mining and the Struggle for Community,” published by the University of Minnesota Press in 2017.

The Dane County Farmers' Market is the largest producers-only farmers market in the nation. Last year, it celebrated its 50th anniversary.In celebration of that significant milestone, the DCFM has released a hardcover, full-color, 258-page cookbook. The Dane County Farmers' Market Cookbook (published this year by Little Creek Press) features 125 recipes that give a global spin to locally-sourced ingredients.With a foreword written by chef Tory Miller, and photographs by Bill Lubing, the cookbook is written by Terese Allen. She's the author of a variety of local food columns, and author of several other books, including The Flavor of Wisconsin: An Informal History of Food and Eating in the Badger State, Fresh Market Wisconsin: Recipes, Resources and Stories Celebrating Wisconsin Farm Markets and Roadside Stands, and The Ovens of Brittany Cookbook. She's a co-founder and longtime leader of the Culinary History Enthusiasts of Wisconsin (CHEW) and past president of REAP Food Group.In this edition of Madison Book Beat, Terese joins host David Ahrens to talk about Madison's unique food culture, what it means to be a "foodist", and what makes the Dane County Farmers' Market so special.

Stu Levitan's guest is UW history professor Stephen Kantrowitz, whose new book should be of special interest to those of us here in Teejop. It's Citizens of a Stolen Land: A Ho-Chunk History of the 19th Century United States from the good people at the University of North Carolina Press.If you are like most Americans with an immigrant background, you probably think citizenship is a good thing, because it confers rights and privileges. But for Native Americans in the 19th century, it was something quite different – it was a way to destroy their collectivist culture and ultimately steal their land. Until some Native peoples – notably the Ho-Chunk – figured out how to use citizenship and private property rights to reclaim land and preserve their identity. The Ho-Chunk story in the Removal Era is one of both settler/colonial violence and conquest, but also one of Ho-Chunk resistance, persistence, and return.It is a story Stephen Kantrowitz is very qualified to tell. He is the Plaenert-Bascom and Vilas Distinguished Achievement Professor of History an affiliate faculty member in American Indian Studies and Afro-American Studies, here at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, teaching courses on race, indigeneity, politics, and citizenship. His previous books are More Than Freedom: Fighting for Black Citizenship in a White Republic, 1829-1889 (Penguin, 2012) and Ben Tillman and the Reconstruction of White Supremacy (UNC Press, 2000).And of particular interest to me, he co-chaired with Dr. Floyd Rose, president of 100 Black Men of Madison, the chancellor's committee in 2018 that produced a very knowledgeable and nuanced report on KKK on campus.

Al Jarreau is one of the most beloved musical artists to come out of Milwaukee, and his music – from jazz to pop to R&B – defies easy classification. He performed with a bevy of jazz musicians, and blended an eclectic mix of other styles into his work.But Jarreau is perhaps best known for his live performances and expressive vocal improvisation. When he passed away in 2017, the New York Times wrote of Jarreau's “virtuosic ability to produce an array of vocalizations ranging from delicious nonsense to clicks and growls to quasi-instrumental sounds.”On this edition of Madison Book Beat, host David Ahrens sits down with Kurt Dietrich, author of Never Givin' Up: The Life and Music of Al Jarreau (Wisconsin Historical Society Press, 2023). It's the first biography of Jarreau's life and career, and compiles details collected by Dietrich in interviews with Jarreau himself, alongside dozens of Jarreau's friends, colleagues, and family.Dietrich joins us to play examples of Jarreau's eclectic talent, virtuosic vocalization, and early life in Wisconsin.About the guest: Kurt Dietrich is professor emeritus of music at Ripon College, where he taught from 1980 to 2019. He received his master's degree from Northwestern University, where he studied trombone, and later was a trombonist with jazz fusion group Matrix.In addition to many articles, he's the author of three other books about jazz: Wisconsin Riffs: Jazz Profiles from the Heartland (Wisconsin Historical Society Press, 2018), Jazz ‘Bones: The World of Jazz Trombone (Advance Music, 2005), and Duke's ‘Bones: Ellington's Great Trombonists (Alfred Music, 1995). You can find more at his website, kurtdietrich.net.

In this edition of Madison Book Beat, host Andrew Thomas speaks with Tacey M. Atsitty about her poetry collection (At) Wrist, (2023, The University of Wisconsin Press Press).In a fever dream of metaphor and image, Atsitty explores themes of loss, romantic love, and faith. Drawing on the familiar poetic form of the sonnet, Atsitty demonstrates how vulnerability, nakedness, and risk are an essential part of the connections we build with others across time. Delicate and visceral, (At) Wrist is a collection which "amplifies silence, so you can hear/ every crunch or offering of self."Tacey M. Atsitty is of the Diné tribe and her clans are as follows: she is Tsénahabiłnii (Sleep Rock People) and born for Ta'neeszahnii (Tangle People). Her maternal grandfather is Tábąąhí (Water Edge People) and her paternal grandfather is Hashk'áánhadzóhí (Yucca Fruit Strung-Out-In-A-Line People) from Cove, AZ.She is the winner of the Wisconsin Brittingham Prize for Poetry and is a recipient of the Louis Owens Award, Truman Capote Creative Writing Fellowship, the Corson-Browning Poetry Prize, Morning Star Creative Writing Award, and the Philip Freund Prize. She holds bachelor's degrees from Brigham Young University and the Institute of American Indian Arts, and an MFA in Creative Writing from Cornell University. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in EPOCH, POETRY Magazine, Kenyon Review Online, Prairie Schooner, swamp pink, Literary Hub, New Poets of Native Nations, Leavings, and other publications. Her first book is Rain Scald (University of New Mexico Press, 2018). Her second book (At) Wrist is forthcoming (University of Wisconsin Press, 2023).She is the director of the Navajo Film Festival, a member of the Board of Directors for Lightscatter Press, a member of the Advisory Council for Brigham Young University's Charles Redd Center for Western Studies, and the founding member of the Advisory Board for the Intermountain All-Women Hoop Dance Competition.She is a PhD candidate in the Creative Writing Program at Florida State University, where she lives with her husband.Photo courtesy of University of Wisconsin Press

Stu Levitan welcomes UW history professor Stephen Kantrowitz, whose new book should be of special interest to those of us here in Teejop, it's Citizens of a Stolen Land: A Ho-Chunk History of the 19th Century United States from the good people at the University of North Carolina Press.If you are like most Americans with an immigrant background, you probably think citizenship is a good thing, because it confers rights and privileges. But for Native Americans in the 19th century, it was something quite different – it was a way to destroy their collectivist culture and ultimately steal their land. Until some Native peoples – notably the Ho-Chunk – figured out how to use citizenship and private property rights to reclaim land and preserve their identity. The Ho-Chunk story in the Removal Era is one of both settler/colonial violence and conquest, but also one of Ho-Chunk resistance, persistence, and return.It is a story Stephen Kantrowitz is very qualified to tell. He is the Plaenert-Bascom and Vilas Distinguished Achievement Professor of History at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He is also an affiliate faculty member in American Indian Studies and Afro-American Studies at UW-Madison, where he teaches courses on race, indigeneity, politics, and citizenship. His previous books are More Than Freedom: Fighting for Black Citizenship in a White Republic, 1829-1889 (Penguin, 2012) and Ben Tillman and the Reconstruction of White Supremacy (UNC Press, 2000). And of particular interest to me, he co-chaired with Dr Floyd Rose, president of 100 Black Men of Madison, the chancellor's committee in 2018 that produced a very knowledgeable and nuanced report on KKK on campus.It's a pleasure to welcome to Madison BookBeat UW Professor Stephen Kantrowitz.

On this edition of Madison BookBeat, host Cole Erickson interviews author Alison Townsend.  Alison is an award-winning author of two poetry collections, The Blue Dress & Persephone in America, and a volume of prose, The Persistence of Rivers. She is also a professor emerita of English at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater.She joined us in the studio to discuss her latest book of memoir-in-essays titled The Green Hour: A Natural History of Home, published by the University of Wisconsin Press in 2022. The Green Hour can be described as a collection of sparkling lyrical prose that moves effortlessly through time like a red-winged blackbird. Inspired by five beloved settings—eastern Pennsylvania, Vermont, California, western Oregon, and the spot atop the Wisconsin hill where she now resides—Townsend considers the role that Place plays in shaping the self. Through her attentiveness to nature, she reveals the ways that a fresh perspective or new experience in any environment can incite wonder, build unexpected connections, and provide solace and salvation.