Waukesha, Wisconsin, October 4, 2022 – Acclaimed Waukesha author Kathie Giorgio will kick off a full day of events at the thirteenth annual Southeast Wisconsin Festival of Books at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee at Waukesha at 9:00am on Saturday, November 5. Giorgio will celebrate the release of her thirteenth book, Olivia in Five-Seven-Five, Autism in Haiku, which started as a challenge to herself to write a haiku a day one April in recognition of both Autism Awareness Month and National Poetry Month. Giorgio will read selections from the collection, then will be joined onstage by her daughter, Olivia, an honors student at Mount Mary University and the subject of the collection, where both will be interviewed by Jim Higgins, Features Editor of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, on the topic of “Growing Together in Autism: A Mother and Daughter Write About the Experience.”
Giorgio, founder and director of AllWriters’ Workplace and Workshop, will also be sponsoring a series of four panel discussions for those interested in creative writing and those who are writers. These panels are geared toward poetry, fiction, nonfiction, and the writing life, and will feature several of the authors who have worked with the studio to produce more than one hundred traditionally published books since the studio’s founding in 2006. These interactive discussions are:
10:15 a.m. “Poetry Is Ageless” with Anna Esterle, Cara Wreen, Pete Koz, Elizabeth Harrahy and Anne Lehman. Poetry is not limited by age, as these five poets will show you! From teenager to octogenarian, you’ll hear the experiences that just had to be expressed, and expressed beautifully…through poetry.
12:15 p.m. “Pushing Boundaries: Relationships & Emotion in Fantasy” with Ross Hightower, Carrie Newberry, J.R. Konkol. Writing fantasy is all about the creatures, right? Dwarves, elves, witches, shapeshifters…creatures of imagination and legend. But there’s more human here than meets the eye. Listen as fantasy writers discuss how they create relationships and inject emotion into their characters.
1:45 p.m. “But Will My Family Still Love Me? Telling The Truth in Memoir” with Dale Ann Morgan and Anthony Perkins. Often, what drives writers to write memoir is an experience of trauma or difficult times. But what will those around them think of the tale? Morgan and Perkins talk about deciding to tell the truth in their memoirs, and how their families dealt with it.
3:15 p.m. “How Does She Do It?” Kathie Giorgio Talks About Publishing 14 Books in All 4 Genres in 13 Years with Kathie Giorgio. The most common question author Giorgio hears during readings, presentations, classes and lectures is “How do you do it?” In the last 13 years, Giorgio has sold seven novels, two short story collections, four poetry books, and a book of essays, for a total of fourteen books, hitting all three genres: fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. And she did it while raising four children and starting and running a small business. How did she do it? Come and find out!
The Southeast Wisconsin Festival of Books is free and open to the public at the UWM at Waukesha. Parking is free in all campus parking lots. A complete schedule is available at the website.
Microsoft Word – Press Release 05 – Saturday Morning and AllWriters Track.docx
About the Southeast Wisconsin Festival of Books
The Southeast Wisconsin Festival of Books is a project of the UWM at Waukesha Foundation and brings the UWM at Waukesha campus and community together to promote literacy and foster creativity at a free annual public event. Local, state and national authors, artists and educators collaborate and contribute to encourage intergenerational reading and learning. Festival sponsors make the event possible through their private support. Learn more about supporting the festival at www.sewibookfest.com/support/donate/. Visit sewibookfest.com or
email info@sewibookfest.com to find continuously updated information about the 2022 festival.
About the UWM at Waukesha Foundation
The UWM at Waukesha Foundation supports the campus and the academic activities of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee at Waukesha by raising, receiving and distributing funds to benefit and assist students, faculty, programs and community partners. The Southeast Wisconsin Festival of Books is central to the foundation’s mission of providing free and equitable access to educational and cultural experiences for all of its audiences.
