Presenters for adult programs
Swimming in the Daylight: An American Student, a Soviet-Jewish Dissident, and the Gift of Hope is the story of the improbable friendship between Lisa Paul, an American college student, strong in her Catholic faith, and Inna Kitrosskaya Meiman, a Soviet-Jewish dissident, which takes place in the repressive 1980s Moscow, just Read more…
Wisconsin author Deb Baker writes the humorous Yooper/backwoods mysteries, centering around a fictitious town in the Michigan Upper Peninsula where Gertie Johnson, mother of the local sheriff, solves murders the old fashioned way with friends Cora Mae and Kitty. Deb is working on the sixth in the series. Under her Read more…
Editor and award-winning author J.R. Turner is a huge fan of all things fun and thrilling. She gets a kick out of surprising her kids and loves to tell goofy jokes—that aren’t always funny. She lives in Wisconsin, a state known for cheese, bratwurst, and beer—and 1001 recipes for Cheesy Read more…
Bruce Dethlefsen has been appointed Wisconsin Poet Laureate for 2011-2012. His mission is to promote Wisconsin poets and poetry. He is the author of two chapbooks, Decent Reed and Something Near the Dance Floor, which won the Posner Award Honorable Mention. His latest book of poems, Unexpected Shiny Things, is published Read more…
John Galligan is the author of The Wind Knot (February, 2011), fourth in a series of mysteries featuring a wandering trout bum who becomes a reluctanct sleuth when bodies turn up on the stream. The first in the series, The Nail Knot, is “a real treat” (Library Journal) set in Read more…
Mary Rickert grew up in Fredonia, Wisconsin. She is the author of the World Fantasy Award winning short story collection, “Map of Dreams.” Her work has been anthologized in The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year, The Very Best of Fantasy and Science Fiction, Interfictions 2, Best American Fantasy 2, Poe’s Children, and Read more…
Called the noir poet laureate in the Huffington Post and a hard-boiled poet by NPR’s Maureen Corrigan, Reed Farrel Coleman is the former executive vice president of Mystery Writers of America. He has published thirteen novels in three series and one stand-alone, Tower, co-authored by award-winning Irish author Ken Bruen. Read more…
Jeff Poniewaz received a B.A. and M.A. in English from UW-Milwaukee, where since 1989 he’s taught “Literature of Ecological Vision,” a course he devised. His eco-activism spans from local urban greenspace struggles to the global rainforest crisis. Since his first published poems appeared in Kaleidoscope and Beloit Poetry Journal in 1968, Read more…
Antler’s epic poem Factory was published by Lawrence Ferlinghetti in the City Lights Pocket Poet Series in 1980. Antler’s book Last Words was published by Ballantine in 1986. Antler: The Selected Poems was published in 2000. Allen Ginsberg called Antler “one of Whitman’s ‘poets and orators to come’.” Antler won Read more…
Joseph J. Foy is an assistant professor in the Department of Political Science, Law, and Philosophy at the University of Wisconsin-Parkside. Foy is the editor of the books Homer Simpson Goes to Washington: American Politics through Popular Culture and SpongeBob SquarePants and Philosophy: Soaking Up Secrets Under the Sea. Read more…