Episodes
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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 Miller
In more fiction, Gil recommends Northwoods by Daniel Mason, Jade recommends Wandering Stars by Tommy Orange, and David recommends Intermezzo by Sally Rooney.
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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.
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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!
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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 policies
10/14/24 TONE article, "Wisconsin prison officials furtively changed a library book donation policy while dodging questions" by Scott Gordon
9/25/24 TONE article, "Wisconsin escalates its long tradition of prison book-banning" by Scott Gordon and Dan Fitch
NB: 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.
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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 - YouTube
Tammy 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.”
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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!
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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
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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 they
moved to the Fox Cities. Joan developed a successful Interior Design program at Fox
Valley Technical College in 1971.
In 1986, Joan was contacted by a member of The Friends of Hearthstone Board and
invited to become involved with the restoration of Hearthstone. Rob was also invited
because of his background in electronics and electricity. Realizing the Edison
connection 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 lower
level of Hearthstone. The exhibit increased public awareness of the role of electricity in
daily 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 when
the home was built in 1882. The Rolfs worked with the Edison National Historical Park
in Orange, NJ and one day during their visit met Chad Shapiro, a collector and historian
of early lighting. He shared his knowledge and provided the Rolfs with copies of original
Bergmann 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 were
the original Sigmund Bergmann fixtures dating to 1882. The significance of these
fixtures is they are the earliest surviving examples of Bermann electroliers and sconces
in the world! This inspired the Rolfs to write Hearthstone: America’s Electrical National
Treasure.
In this episode, Lisa discusses the Rolfs passions for all things Thomas Edison, their
volunteerism at Hearthstone, antique phonographs, records, writing and their shared
love for research.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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