From 2001-2005, Dr. James J. Lorence served as Eminent Scholar of History at Gainesville State College in Gainesville, GA. Lorence is currently Professor Emeritus of History at the University of Wisconsin-Marathon County, where he taught United States History for thirty-five years. In 2000, he received the Wisconsin Humanities Council’s Governor’s Read more…
Julie Bowe grew up just outside of Luck, WI, within a Danish-American community called West Denmark. As a young Dane she learned that blue plates are hung on walls, not set on tables, Christmas trees are danced around, and the secret to a great pot of coffee is a raw Read more…
**Sadly, poet Todd Moore passed away unexpectedly in March. The Festival will remember and honor the work of this fine poet with a reading of some of his poems. Please watch for details in our forthcoming schedule of events. ** Todd Moore has had more than a hundred books and chapbooks published Read more…
Jacqueline Houtman spent much of her life in training as a scientist, earning a PhD in Medical Microbiology and Immunology. After leaving the lab, she began a career as a freelance science writer. She has written for scientific journals, educational publishers, magazines, and nonprofits. Her middle grade novel, The Reinvention 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…
Janet Halfmann is an award-winning children’s author who strives to make her books come alive for young readers and listeners. She has written more than thirty books, both fiction and nonfiction. Her Civil War era nonfiction picture book, Seven Miles to Freedom: The Robert Smalls Story (Lee & Low Books, Read more…
Margaret Rozga‘s book, 200 Nights and One Day, won a bronze medal for poetry in the 2009 Independent Publishers Book Awards. 200 Nights and One Day tells the story of Milwaukee’s open housing marches in a series of dramatic poems. Milwaukee played a key national role in the civil rights movement, Read more…
Susan Firer is the recipient of this year’s Lorine Niedecker Award. Her most recent book is Milwaukee Does Strange Things to People: New & Selected Poems 1970-2007. Her book The Lives of the Saints and Everything won the Cleveland State Poetry Center Prize and the Posner Award, and The Read more…
Milwaukee native Paul McComas is the author of four critically acclaimed books: his comprehensive genre collection Unforgettable: Harrowing Futures, Horrors, and Dark Humor (2011), the deal for which was made at last year’s SEWI Book Fest (and which features the Bradbury Award-winning story “Levitation”); the comedic coming-of-age novel Planet of the Dates (2008; Read more…
Jerry Apps, born and raised on a Wisconsin farm, is Professor Emeritus at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the author of more than 25 books, many of them on rural history and country life. His nonfiction books include: Living a Country Year, Every Farm Tells a Story, When Chores Were Read more…