Anyone Can Become a Caretaker, All They Need is a Little Help.

Luke Gentile

For two and a half years, Jim Alf wrote a monthly essay regarding his experience becoming a caretaker for his wife. He did this at the request of his friend, Lisa Wells, who works as a Dementia Care Specialist for the Aging and Disability Resource Center (ADRC) of Eau Claire County and published the essays in the ADRC newsletter. After retiring from the column, Mr. Alf compiled all 26 of his essays into a single book, The Caretaker’s Corner, which was published by his friend Dennis Miller. The book is currently available at The Local Store. I had the privilege to meet with Mr. Alf to talk about his newest book.

The essays in The Caretaker’s Corner are diverse in message and execution. Mr. Alf covers a wide variety of topics in his essays, from little-known information on caretaking strategies to obtaining legal and medical advice. He conveys his messages by writing about his personal experiences and the experiences of others in similar positions and relaying advice he has learned from professionals along the way.

Mr. Alf is not alone in his caretaking. One in nine people ages 65 and older live with Alzheimer's. In 2020, Mr. Alf became unable to take full care of his wife, so, he admitted her into a memory care facility. He struggled with this decision, but was determined to make the right choice for his wife to ensure she got the care she needed.Through the newsletter essays, Mr. Alf passed his experiences long to others who were caregiving.

““What I want people to take away is not only the basic functions of caretaking but to recognize it early on. And to learn when the person they are caring for should go to a facility.” ”

— Jim Alf

“What I want people to take away is not only the basic functions of caretaking but to recognize it early on,” Mr. Alf explains. “And to learn when the person they are caring for should go to a facility.”

Each essay offers a variety of lessons and strategies; however, there were two lessons Mr. Alf highlighted during our conversation. One of which is already in the book, and the other will be added in the second edition of The Caretaker’s Corner which will be released within a week or so. The first lesson is to ensure you don’t do this alone and the second is to have a crisis plan, which is someone you can rely on to perform the task of caretaking when you cannot. The two go hand and hand with each. Throughout Mr. Alf's time as a caretaker, he had a whole group of people whom he could ask for help, including neighbors, family, friends, and caretakers from organizations such as Visiting Angels.

“New caretakers seldom think about that,” Mr. Alf explains. “I wrote one essay, where I tell what happened when I had to be hospitalized and family and friends and everybody else, all of a sudden, had to become caretakers for my wife and had to find a place for her to go for a week. So that crisis plan is extremely important and will be found in the next copy.”

The Caretaker’s Corner is a rich and advice-filled book that will help any new caretaker on their journey. These essays cement Mr. Alf’s message that anyone can become a caretaker, and all they need is a little help from friends, family, and The Caretakers Corner.

Steeped in Realism, with a Supernatural Twist: An Interview with Fortune Falls Author James L. Peters

Luke Gentile

James L. Peters is a Chippewa Valley resident who, throughout his life, kept himself busy by doing a multitude of creative endeavors. He was in a band that performed all over Wisconsin; he designs board games and he has written three novels: Shrugging, Turntable, and his newest novel, Fortune Falls.

Fortune Falls begins with a man driving home after having the best day of his life. He is detoured down a dark road  and to a slot machine that gives him a dark, foreboding message. Soon after, his life will  change forever…

I recently had the chance to sit down with Mr. Peters and learn more about his newest novel, writing style, inspirations, and future plans.

Luke Gentile: The last two novels you’ve written were loosely related to personal experiences. Could the same be said for Fortune Falls?

James Peters: I will say that Fortune Falls is the least relevant to my personal life... That being said, there are definitely elements that are relevant. But this was the furthest extreme I have ever gone. In my other two novels, the main characters are very strong elements of me. Jason is not me. Jason is kind of a jerk for a while. He had some things to deal with, but some of the things that he is facing are things that I, as a human being and as an individual, also face. Regrets in life and that idea of mortality. His milquetoast catholic background is certainly an element of my life as well, and something that he brings up several times and reflects back on. I feel in some ways, Jason is the me if I had not continued to pursue the bohemian lifestyle–music, writing, board games, whatnot– and focused solely on my career instead. In some ways, I see that as what could’ve been.

LG: Did you start off with Jason’s character as a version of  you or did you start writing him, and it took off in that direction?

JP: It’s kind of interesting. I actually started this novel a little over thirteen years ago knowing that I was approaching my forties and wanting to deal with that, and so the basic idea of confronting mortality and the overt symbolism was all there. But … after a couple of chapters, I just didn’t see where it could go. So I just let it sit. After publishing my first two novels and deciding what I was going to work on next, I went back to a lot of my ideas …, then, I looked back at Fortune Falls and immediately reflected on the relatively unique past couple of years we’ve had. 2020, 2021, and it was like, “oh my God, this is what this novel has been waiting for,” and that just took it over right there and I knew exactly where it was going. That being said, … I do not plot out my novels. I’m not plot-driven, I’m character-driven. My characters tell me where the novel is going. I may have sketchy ideas and intentions, but typically I want a theme, and I want a character who is going to have to face something that is … critically important for him to deal with. That’s the impetus for anything that I write, and then a plot develops around that. In this case, I knew the character, I knew the basic theme, … it was almost like an ivy. An ivy can grow on its own but it needs that wall to grab onto and the tendrils to grasp. I didn’t have the “wall” yet. The ivy was growing, but it didn’t have anything to attach to. When those events happen, in these past few years, it was like, “ah there’s the wall, there’s where my ivy is going to grow.” 

 LG: Is Fortune Falls, the town in the novel, based on a town that you’ve been to and or lived in?

JP: In my previous two works, they are heavily based on location. This is more generally representative of … your typical small northern Wisconsin town. Upper-middle-class suburb… I wanted to take a deeper dive into all the major holidays that western civilization experiences but not through an idealized look. Instead, through trauma and through some levels of threat and instability and whatnot. That was another driving force of this. … I knew I wanted to touch on all these holidays and see how they go when life isn’t exactly going perfectly.

LG: Really give it that real-life aspect. 

JP: I had a large number of advanced readers read this and some of them said “As much as they enjoyed it, they almost had a little bit of PTSD reading through it and remembering in depth some of the things they had recently gone through.” Definitely very steeped in realism.

LG: Is the extensive use of imagery a strategy you utilize with all of your novels?

“Symbolism is not there to go ‘Oh, I hid something and now you have to find it,’ symbolism is the framework that an author really has to build upon and add flesh to a story. ”

— James L. Peters

JP: It’s incredibly important to me that, as much as possible, every sentence and every word chosen reinforces a theme, a symbol, an analogy, and yet doesn’t weigh down the novel at all. I’ve been to several book clubs with my previous books, and honestly--nothing against the readers--a lot of people didn’t pick up on the symbolism and the themes and that's fine. Symbolism is not there to go “Oh, I hid something and now you have to find it”, symbolism is the framework that an author really has to build upon and add flesh to a story. I don’t see your skeleton right now, I don’t know what your skeleton looks like but it has been the basis of the framework of who you are, how you move, how you look, how you act. That to me, is what symbolism and analogy are in a novel, they’re hidden but yet they supply the larger framework of any piece of literature. And so typically, when I choose a word, I’m choosing a word because it is somehow referencing a seed I planted early on that I want to develop. A lot of the time when you do that, it’s amazing how much your subconscious takes over and you don’t even realize everything that has come out of there until you write it and you go “Oh wow, okay, I didn’t see that coming until that came down on the page.” And for me, that's part of the joy of writing,–you’re kind of closing your eyes, holding your nose and diving down into the depths of your own subconscious and saying, “Okay let's see what happens. Let’s see what I find out about myself.”

 LG: Could taking a deep dive into yourself be an analogy of the theme/plot of the book?

 JP: Definitely. The character sinks deep before he starts to pull himself up to the surface again. What I will say, I was really concerned when I finished this. I thought, “This is going to be too hard for people.” Because this character is a hard character to deal with, … I had forty-five advanced readers on this and I was really surprised with not only how accepting people were with the character, despite acknowledging the flaws and the difficulty. but also how many people also read this even though this isn’t the kind of story they normally read and were still highly engaged.

LG: Are any characters in Fortune Falls based on people in your life or history?

JP: There’s always inspiration to some degree on actual people, but in this one it’s probably the lightest that it’s ever been in my novels. You need something as a basis when you start writing a character just to get a face and to get an attitude and to get how they’re presenting themselves--the dialogue and whatnot. So certainly, I use that as a seed, but there is really not much else. They are a little bit more supportive of the plot, or I should say, to the development of the main character, rather than them being a reflection of existing people. 

LG: Are you working on anything new, and if so, what can we expect?

JP: Hopefully, it’ll be finished within the next year or two. I just started it, but it’s been an idea that has been mulling around for a long time. Actually, one of the challenges with this one will be the fact that it is kind of the most plot-driven that I’ve ever had to write. And yet I still want it to be primarily character driven. But there is a very clear plot and a very clear mystery.

James L. Peters will be making appearances for book signings and readings from Fortune Falls on Thursday, March 14, from 6:30 to 8:00 p.m. at The Local Store in Eau Claire, on Thursday, April 4 from 6:00 to 7:00 p.m. at the Chippewa Falls Public Library, and on Saturday, April 6, from 11:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. at Dragon Tale Books in Menomonie.

Searching for "The Soul of the Outdoors": Q&A with David Greschner on His Debut Book

Dan Lyksett

Rice Lake writer Dave Greschner, who recently introduced his acclaimed first book, Soul of the Outdoors, will host a book talk on Thursday, Feb. 1, at 6:15 p.m. at Dotters Books, 307 S. Barstow St., Eau Claire.

Soul of the Outdoors is a new addition to The Back Home Series published by UW-Stevens Point’s Cornerstone Press and is a collection of Greschner’s updated columns from his newspaper career and newer work.

Greschner agreed to answer a few questions in advance of his reading.

 Dan Lyksett: You are writing about land and all it contains that you’ve been traversing since childhood. How does that lifetime perspective impact what you discover and reflect on?

David Greschner

David Greschner: There has come over the years a realization of how the land I grew up on and the places I have enjoyed since led to my appreciation of nature and wildlife. Discoveries of childhood—squirrel nests, pollywog eggs, a honey bee hive in winter—fuel an intense fire in me to enjoy such discoveries again, now with more knowledge of what I’m seeing and experiencing while revisiting those carefree days. I like to think of the land as a friend, a sanctuary, I can visit for peace of mind, and a place where nature and wildlife flourish if we are stewards of the land.

 DL: Some of your essays deal with the experience of performing specific tasks, like cutting firewood, but sometimes you go into nature to just “practice seeing.” Do you notice a difference between the two in what you end up putting on paper?

“There are times I go outside, to the woods or to the water, to simply ‘see,’ with no expectation of what I’m going to see or experience. It’s like, ‘Surprise me!’”

— David Greschner

DG: No, I don’t see a difference, because I never know where the next story may surface. There are times I go outside, to the woods or to the water, to simply “see,” with no expectation of what I’m going to see or experience. It’s like, “Surprise me!” But it’s really no different than when I’m cutting firewood, mending a fence, removing buckthorn, etc. I keep my eyes open, my hopes expectant. My tasks are not urgent, and so they are often pleasantly interrupted by the discovery of an orb weaver spider’s web, the den of a fox or badger, or colorful hepatica leaves beneath the snow in the dead of winter.

 DL: You refer to a diverse collection of writers and thinkers throughout the book, ranging from Emily Dickenson to Jackson Browne. If you could share a hot chocolate around a campfire with any one of them, who would it be and why?

DL: The proper answer from the names that show up in the book would be Annie Dillard. It was her book, Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, that has influenced how I look at nature and how I write about it. However, I’m going to go with Jackson Browne for the campfire (and perhaps he would play a song or two!). Readers and reviewers refer to “lyrical poetry” in my writings. I do not work at the poetry that crops up, instead, I think it’s something that is in my subconscious from years of enjoying music and studying song verses. I think that the most influential poets of my lifetime have been songwriters, from Browne to Kristofferson, Dylan to Willie. I always hear descriptive song verses going through my mind, such as from the Beach Boys—I hear the sound of a gentle word on the wind that lifts her perfume through the air—or Al Stewart—She comes out of the sun in a silk dress running like a water color in the rain. These songs aren’t about nature, but the words have the flow and description all writers strive for. Browne says his songwriting has to be about the listener because the song’s details, even if about his experiences, are somewhat universal. Of his song “These Days,” he talks about the gravity the song can hold. I would hope my writing has a measure of gravity for the reader.

DL: How much of where your essays lead are thoughts that occur to you in the moment of experience as opposed to what you discover later while writing?

DG: It comes from both the moment and later when putting thoughts on paper. My writing method, even in my newspaper days, has normally been to let the story simmer a bit in my thoughts. I often take notes when I’m outdoors, but not always. What is constant is that the thoughts, sentences, and direction of the story are forming mentally in the “moment of experience.” I find that what has been etched in my mind, sometimes subconsciously, on a hike or other outdoors activity, resurfaces later proportionate to the strength of that imprint on my emotions.

 DL: You mention some traditional “outdoor writer” topics like hunting and fishing but never in the context of a harvest or a how-to. Is that intentional or just your natural bent? Does that relate to the title, “Soul of the Outdoors?”

“...at this point in my life, even while hunting, I will often choose not to pursue or kill, but simply watch. Perhaps ‘soul,’ in part, derives from how an outdoors experience plays out, including in hunting, on an emotional, somewhat spiritual, basis.  ”

— David Greschner

DG: It is rather intentional as I respect the readers who are not hunters and may have strong feelings regarding that. But I don’t hide the fact that I do hunt, and believe in the biology of hunting while at the same time having a reverence for all wildlife. I feel no need to go into the details of the outcome of the hunt. Instead, I prefer to describe what I and other hunters experience in nature when we spend hour after quiet hour in the woodlands and fields. Further, at this point in my life, even while hunting, I will often choose not to pursue or kill, but simply watch. Perhaps “soul,” in part, derives from how an outdoors experience plays out, including in hunting, on an emotional, somewhat spiritual, basis.     

DL: You shy away from anthropomorphizing the critters you encounter, but you don’t shy away from trying to consider what they may be perceiving at the time. Is it difficult to balance those two approaches?

 DG: Yes, I do shy away from assigning human traits and intentions to animals, mostly for the animal’s sake because I don’t want to burden them with something that may seem to subtract from their innocence and natural instincts. When I walked up on a deer in the wild this summer, it appeared calm and showed little fear of me. I didn’t take this as a human trait of the deer being a friendly animal wanting to meet me. I think that the deer somehow knew I meant no harm, and that we just happened to be sharing the same trail. I didn’t try to determine what human trait the deer was displaying because it was a wild animal, no matter what. Instead I wondered how the deer perceived me.

DL: The book’s illustrations look like exquisite woodcuts but are derived from your own photographs. What was the process and where did the idea come from?

DG: I did not want the books to have photos, per se, but instead black and white graphics of a line art nature. I enjoy photography, and have always veered to the power of black and white photos, going back to my darkroom days. For the book, I found photos—most of them color photos—that connected with the writings, many of them actually taken when I was experiencing what I wrote about. I selected the photos that would lend themselves to black and white—those that had plenty of blank spots and were not “busy”—and removed the color. At that point I added contrast and posterization to get the black and white graphic I wanted. All photos in the book are mine, except for the “author photos,” which my wife, Cathy, took, and the photo leading off the first chapter, of me sitting by a snowman with a country school in the background. Incredibly, that photo was taken by my mother, with a box camera in 1957.

DL: What do you hope readers take away from your book?

DG: I’d like to think that readers will think about how our interaction with nature and our experiences outdoors have a positive effect on our daily emotions and well-being; nature can awe and calm at the same. Several readers have said the book has inspired them to make a conscious effort to become more involved with the outdoors, as in hiking or simply something like birdwatching. For those who have physical limitations, I hope the book provides a vehicle to tag along with me on the experiences I have and describe—I hear this “tag along” comment often. My hope is that some of the book’s essays reveals and ponders nature’s wonders and mysteries, while providing a variety of stories, including about rural life, that is entertaining and resonates with many readers’ own experiences.

Gen Z Might Just Save Reading As We Know It

Laura Carew

I’ve had a book under my arm since I could walk. I still swear that my sister taught me to read, and that my mother is the reason my heart skips a beat when I walk past a bookstore. I never noticed how lonely the act of reading could be until I got to high school. English class was the least sought after, and classmates opted to watch a film adaptation rather than read the book itself. As I made my way through college, the landscape of reading changed again. People who once scoffed at my admiration for literature now host a library within their bedrooms. Other avid readers have lost their passion for cracking open a book. I look around and realize that as a nation, we’re witnessing a reading renaissance—now it’s up to us to redefine what reading truly means.

Over the last ten years, the perpetual growth of social media platforms has fundamentally changed the ways we interact with books. Within spaces like YouTube and TikTok, bookish “corners” exist on the internet for readers to congregate and find community amongst fellow readers, no matter where they may be across the planet.

While BookTube (YouTube’s corner for books) truly began in 2013 and continues to flourish today, BookTok (TikTok’s answer for literary content) has grown exponentially since the pandemic of 2020, giving us the large faction of readers on TikTok that continues to get larger, one video at a time.

Centered around creating a space for readers to share their favorite books, praise their favorite authors, or find recommendations for new books, BookTok offers a wide range of content to enjoy.

This phenomenon has even come home to the Chippewa Valley, felt especially by Margaret Leonard, co-founder and owner of Dotters Books.

“I think that people have genuinely found community on social media. I’m so mystified by it, but I think it’s really genuine for some people to go online and talk about books that way. I want to believe that this is the hopeful way forward.”

— Margaret Leonard

“I think that people have genuinely found community on social media,” she says. “I’m so mystified by it, but I think it’s really genuine for some people to go online and talk about books that way. I want to believe that this is the hopeful way forward.”

The rise of literary social media began in the COVID-19 era. As libraries and bookstores shuttered their doors, millions of people found ways to combat cabin fever and isolation through alternative ways to enjoy reading.

For several years following a peak of 778 million print books sold in 2008, US book sales don’t see a significant increase again until 2020, growing once more to 843 million copies sold in 2021, per this Words Rated article. With BookTok emerging during the height of the pandemic, readership in the US grew exponentially, and has remained at staggering heights.

As the way we engage with books has changed, so, too, has the identity attached to it. In the 21st century, reading looks more different than ever.  

Leonie (who goes by The Book Leo) is a prominent BookTuber and TikTok enthusiast who took it upon herself in a video essay to discuss her experience on BookTok and how she sees this online forum as both a benefit and hindrance to readership.

In her video, she opens up a wider discussion about the intersection of a hobby that requires little to no internet use, and a platform that fundamentally lives and breathes in technology.

“Finding people who identify as readers, or who openly say that they read, is more difficult than finding people who, say, watch movies.”

— Leonie (The Book Leo)

“Finding people who identify as readers, or who openly say that they read, is more difficult than finding people who, say, watch movies,” Leonie shares. “An online community like BookTok offers this sense of belonging.”

The difficulty of finding friendships as a reader is something that many young people have faced during the 21st century with the rise of technology, where hobbies like video games and movie-watching have perhaps overtaken reading.

Not only is reading a traditionally solitary activity, but it attracts predominantly introverted individuals. When readers want to share their love for a book they’ve just read, who can they talk to, if no one in their physical environment also identifies as a reader? Where can they go?

BookTok fills this void for so many readers. With millions of videos tagged #BookTok—some from right here in Eau Claire—people can find their corner of the internet where readers of all authors and genres coexist, creating a unified front within a solitary hobby, unlike anything we’ve seen before.

While finding a sense of belonging is undoubtedly a great benefit of BookTok, we cannot ignore the potential pitfalls that involve readership entering the social media arena.  

Barry Pierce—a former BookTuber himself—wrote an article for GQ that reflected on the uses of BookTok, ultimately calling it a “shallow world,” and asking if, given the time it takes to curate their videos, “any [BookTok creators] have the time to read.”

Pierce shares a valid criticism. Many videos under the hashtag #BookTok feature beautiful bookshelves sprawling massive rooms, and colorful spines peer out for the viewer to feast their eyes upon. An alarming number of videos will also feature the creator admitting that they haven’t actually read most of the books on their shelves—some, none at all.

The romanticization of reading has existed for decades. But Pierce poses an important question to young readers: has owning books, thus sounding more “intellectual” than one’s peers, overcome the appeal of actually reading?

Has identifying as a reader turned into a lifestyle aesthetic rather than a hobby for people to enjoy? Dotter’s Margaret Leonard feels similarly.

“Books are beautiful, and they’re getting more and more beautiful,” she says. “If we think that that’s not because of social media, we’re wrong. There’s definitely a certain level of aesthetic that’s necessary to [BookTok].”

“As much as we hear the age-old rule of not judging a book by its cover, we can’t help it.”

— Laura Carew

As much as we hear the age-old rule of not judging a book by its cover, we can’t help it. Book covers are the first thing that engage a potential reader, so it makes perfect sense that content creators on BookTok attach to that engagement by sharing the gorgeous covers of books they own, whether they’ve read them or not.

This effect is a direct result of United States consumerism, which includes a rise in materialism surrounding books. As a reader, I’ve got plenty of books on my shelf that I haven’t read yet. But as countless videos show on BookTok, some readers have shelves boasting hundreds of unread books. So what’s the point of having them? Is it a trophy case? A boast of wealth?

“As a bookseller,” Leonard continues, “there’s a real disconnect there. Am I selling books to people who want to take pretty pictures of them? Or am I selling books to people who want to read them and learn?”

Countless debates have occurred over the last fifteen years that denote reading as a “dying art,” but what’s getting in our way from celebrating an unmistakable uptick in book sales and readership nationwide? And who’s leading the charge? The 25-and-under demographic, better known as Gen Z.

 As a member of Gen Z myself, I have long witnessed my peers lose their passion for reading, one new technological advance at a time. It was mystifying as a kid who’d grown up on books. But now, we are witnessing the intersection of two contradicting entities—literature and the online world.

 Due to the exposure that books get through social media, BookTok has become a necessary outlet for recommending contemporary titles by diverse voices, working to subvert the white-dominant culture of the publishing world.

 “[The goal and intention of Dotters] was to highlight traditionally marginalized voices,” Leonard says. “I feel like so often people are left out of those conversations [who] shouldn’t be. As a reader, I want to hear from the people who haven’t been amplified. I want to go outside my own experience.”

 Thanks to the charming shop that brims with books of the popular and unheard-of variety, Dotters has been a space for readers to explore outside their own lived experiences since 2018, when the shop opened at its first location on Hogeboom Avenue.

 With books like these at young readers’ disposal in Eau Claire, it’s not hard to see how Gen Z is at the front of this changing readership culture. Books of all kinds are becoming more and more accessible thanks to places like Dotters and social media, inspiring young people all over the country—and right here at home—to crack open a book again.

 “Through [the lockdown in 2020] social media was our sole way to communicate with people,” Leonard reflects. “I do think that [the pandemic] created this space for people to read and spend time with books in a way that they hadn’t been able to before…we’re seeing people prioritize keeping that as part of their world now.”

 Leonard’s sentiment is proven over and over with each recent year of record-setting book sales. Through social media, reading has come upon a brand new wave of popularity, proving that it is anything but a dying art.  

It might feel counterintuitive that technology so closely aligns with the modern reader. But the world is always evolving, as is our relationship with literature. A love for reading among young people is returning in droves, so why criticize how someone chooses to enjoy an age-old hobby? Nothing can whisk readers away from their reality quite like a book. With our phones in our left hands and a book in our right, Gen Z is saving—and redefining—literature as we know it.

Highlighting Literary Wonders: A Sneak Peek into Chloé Cooper Jones’s Easy Beauty

credit: Matty Davis

Chaya Gritton

Of all the books out there, memoirs impress me most. They have the ability to grab you by the shirt and pull you into their world. Chloé Cooper Jones is a writer who does just that with her debut book Easy Beauty. The first line of her book captivates you instantly,: “I am in a bar in Brooklyn, listening to two men, my friends, discuss whether my life is worth living.” I was barely a sentence deep, but I was hooked. Easy Beauty explores growing up with a disability in a world with unrealistic beauty standards and one where things that she has experienced are taboo to talk about. However, she subverts these myths in her memoir. She recounts how she’s navigated the world with a disability in the midst of toxic beauty standards. 

The book has received rave reviews, including from the author of Call Me By Your Name, André Aciman. "Easy Beauty  is bold, honest, and superbly well-written,” Aciman wrote.  “Chloé Cooper Jones is ruthless in probing our weakest and darkest areas, and does so with grace, humor, and ultimately, with something one seldom finds: kindness and humanity". It’s hard not to be mesmerized by her book.  

In support of her memoir, Cooper Jones was the recipient of two grants, the 2020 Whiting Creative Nonfiction Grant and the 2021 Howard Foundation Grant.  Beyond these accolades, Cooper Jones has also published notable works including a piece titled "Fearing For His Life", which was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for freelance reporting. In the article, she wrote about the person who recorded Eric Garner’s death, Ramsey Orta. Garner was killed by the NYPD and the Orta was the person who witnessed his friend get killed by the police and exposed the truth. Jones highlighted his story and helped spread his voice, and not letting Garner be forgotten.  Additionally, she’s also a contributing writer to the New York Times.  

If you want to learn more about writing a memoir from Jones and get more insight into her memoir Easy Beauty, be sure to check out our virtual event Thursday, November 9th, at 6 pm. You can register on the Chippewa Valley Writers Guild website here. 

Picturing the Past: New Book Highlights Rich Eau Claire History

When driving around Eau Claire, the attentive observer may notice the aging architectural remnants of a once-emerging industrial city: an abandoned sanatorium, a funeral home along the Chippewa River, a historic “cottage style” gas station. Over the years, a few such structures have been updated to fit with the rest of the modern-day scenery, though much of the history of these buildings (and those no longer standing) is preserved by way of photographs archived at the Chippewa Valley Museum.  

Jodi Kiffmeyer and Diana Peterson work at the Chippewa Valley Museum as the archivist and editor/assistant curator, respectively.  Together, they collaborated to research and write a book using a small fraction of the 27,000 photos in the museum’s collection. Reflections of Eau Claire: A Photo History of the City, 1870-1998, is the product of extensive research that combines historical photographs with short descriptions of related events and people. 

““Jodi and I work really well together because we like very different eras...So, Jodi’s really into the 1880s through the 1920s, and I’m more into the 1930s through the 1960s.” ”

— Diana Peterson, editor and assistant curator

“Jodi and I work really well together because we like very different eras,” Peterson says. “So, Jodi’s really into the 1880s through the 1920s, and I’m more into the 1930s through the 1960s.” Their passion can be seen on every page of the book, from Eau Claire’s beginnings as a lumber town to the development of industry and downtown entertainment. Iconic landmarks like The Joynt and the Hollywood Theatre are included in its pages, along with surprising historical facts. “If you’ve only been here the last ten years, you have absolutely no idea of the history of [The Joynt] regarding guests and the unbelievable jazz musicians that came to Eau Claire and performed here,” Peterson says.

In addition to the included photographs, Kiffmeyer and Peterson found other sources to help tell the stories of iconic buildings. One of the more interesting sources is Ralph Owen, an Eau Claire resident in the first half of the 1900s. “Ralph Owen was a guy who grew up in Eau Claire, and he had copious notes of what went on in Eau Claire, [including] a couple thousand pages of a manuscript that were donated to the archives,” Kiffmeyer says. “That’s where I get a lot of information.” Even the city directories lack a lot of the information that residents like Owen have otherwise documented.

Many of these buildings included in the book can no longer be found standing in Eau Claire. However, their stories are preserved in other ways, often through the work of volunteers or people passionate about preservation. “[In] a lot of ways this book is the story of success, and what you might call failure of people trying to preserve the history of Eau Claire,” Kiffmeyer says. The Soo Depot, destroyed in 1997, was an important stop for train routes through Eau Claire but no longer had a use as demand for public transportation waned. Its legacy is now preserved through photos and records kept by the history museum even though the building is no longer standing. The Depot occupied the S Dewey and Eau Claire streets, near the L.E. Phillips Public Library.

Despite having so many sources of information to draw from, much of the information had to be left out to present the photos effectively. “For a lot of these [photos] I could have written three or four times as much as I did,” Kiffmeyer says. “This is just scratching the surface of some of these stories.” Kiffmeyer and Peterson view this as a great opportunity for those interested in local history to support the Chippewa Valley Museum since a membership allows access to the entirety of its archive for Eau Claire and further information on each picture in the book. 

Reflections of Eau Claire: A Photo History of the City, 1870-1998, is available for purchase through the Chippewa Valley Museum’s website, and members can get an additional 10% off through the Museum store. Take some time to reflect on the rich history of Eau Claire by picking up a copy today.

“Goodbye, UWEC”: Voices of the 2023 Graduating Class

Credit: Khill Photography

Atalissa Wells

As the weather turns warmer and the calendar shifts to May, the students on the UW-Eau Claire campus flock outside. There’s a buzz of impending summer, of free time and no homework, and the sun that we’ve all desperately missed over the past few months of winter. There’s also the buzz of the graduating class, picking up their graduation cap and gown, submitting their last essay, taking their last test. A series of lasts that snuck up on them.

 As a third-year student who is graduating a year early, my lasts came up on me a lot faster than I had expected. We returned from spring break and suddenly there were only six weeks left. I remember staring at myself in the mirror thinking, surely, this is not the face of someone who is ready for the real world.

I do not have a post-graduation plan. I will be walking across that stage on May 20th, accepting my diploma, and then figuring it out as I go. It’s a terrifying feeling; this freefall into adulthood and the real world. Lately, my mantra has been, “I do not know what I’m doing”, which I’m learning is actually a mantra for most people, no matter how put together they seem.

Despite this, I know that I’ve made the most of my time here at UW-Eau Claire. Majoring in English with an emphasis in creative writing and minoring in Spanish, I’ve been able to pursue the things that I’m most interested in. I also became involved in the Navigators, a campus ministry organization, and started working for the University Activities Commission (UAC), planning events for campus. I’ve volunteered through the Eau Claire school district and through campus and have met some of the most amazing people through it all. I think, as the graduation date looms ahead of us, it’s important to focus on the great times that Eau Claire has brought the graduating class of 2023.

 With that in mind, I interviewed other graduating seniors, asking them this question: What is something that Eau Claire has taught you?

 Connor Garland, an economics major, focused on “the value of community”, which a lot of other Blugolds supported.

 For example, Jordan Retting, who is studying accounting, management, entrepreneurship, finance, and kinesiology, stated “that you can build a community wherever you are.”

 Isaac Gabriel, a percussion performance major, also supported the community sentiment. “The support you can give your community and what the community can give you,” he says. “It’s important.”

 Noucee Thao, majoring in psychology with a minor in family studies, addressed the continuous impact of a strong community. “I will take away so much from my time here at UWEC,” she says, “but the things that will always reign supreme are the people and places that have cultivated my success, as they will continue to live within me. 

 Victoria Essmann, a percussion performance major, spoke about how her four years at UW-Eau Claire has equipped her to create healthy, strong relationships within a community. “It has provided a platform for me to learn how to reach out to others successfully and realize how needed it is in my life.” 

 Community has been a large aspect of many graduating seniors’ lives, including my own. Starting college during the pandemic created challenges, especially with trying to build relationships in a new area. I had to get creative with how I made my community and pushed myself out of my comfort zone to get involved in things like the Navigators, UAC, the Chippewa Valley Writers Guild internship, and my volunteer opportunities. I’ve met some of my life-long friends here at UWEC, and I can always find friendly faces on campus.

 Another theme prevalent in seniors’ responses was centered around the opportunities that UWEC has provided them with.

 Grace Schutte, a double major in English-creative writing and Spanish, says “the two departments I’ve interacted with have taught me to get involved with the community and be curious. For the English department, getting involved with your craft, there’s so much you can do. With the Spanish department, that opened it up to a much bigger frame, like other countries, cultures, and ways of life.”

 Quincy Kabe, a double major in accounting and finance, focused on Eau Claire’s emphasis to [AND]. “It’s taught me about the importance of taking the advantage of opportunities,” he says. “The power of [AND] thing was tacky coming in, but I’ve learned a lot from it, like adding a major, to being an athlete, an RA, doing an internship, and a job.”

 Jack Stewart, an accounting major addresses the multiple aspects in which he has grown. “Eau Claire has taught me to be a more well-rounded individual. Be it from my positions in UAC to Greek life I have been able to become a more dynamic person,” he says. “I feel that I have a very business-first mentality…but being able to facilitate events like homecoming or volunteering for my fraternity has helped me gain other perspectives. I think going to Eau Claire forces you to develop other skills and even if you have strengths, you will gain new ones while here.”

 Ella Baudek, an integrated strategic communications and public relations major with a minor in multimedia communications, commented on how UWEC has taught her to take a chance on herself. “What I mean by this is, when there were times that I felt under qualified or unsure about something new (classes, jobs, involvement, etc.), I learned that it’s important to take a chance on that opportunity and utilize it to its fullest potential,” she says. “You’ll never know what you’re capable of until you try.”

UW-Eau Claire’s main motto is the power of [AND], and the school truly ensures that this is taken advantage of. I was able to pursue multiple interests, and even discovered new ones. For example, I studied abroad in Valencia, Spain during the summer of 2022. Living in another country was never something I thought I would do, but my Spanish minor and the opportunities that Eau Claire provides for the students made it possible. I have a new-found appreciation for the Spanish language and my own confidence in what I’m capable of. Even my internship with the Guild was an opportunity that pushed me outside of my comfort zone but closer toward my future career goals. While I’m graduating without a plan, I feel confident in my abilities as a writer and as a person to figure something out. Eau Claire has opened so many doors and helped shape me into someone is embracing the uncertainty of the future, instead of shying away from it.

“ Even with feeling like I’ve utilized many experiences offered to me by the university, it can still be nerve-wracking heading into a new phase of life. It’s change, and I’ve yet to meet someone who genuinely enjoys change. ”

— Atalissa Wells

 Even with feeling like I’ve utilized many experiences offered to me by the university, it can still be nerve-wracking heading into a new phase of life. It’s change, and I’ve yet to meet someone who genuinely enjoys change. The unknown is scary, regardless of how prepared we feel to face it. However, multiple seniors stated that UWEC has prepared them for the next steps of their lives and are looking forward to the post-graduation adventure of figuring things out.  

 Dawson Jollie, an English-creative writing major with a minor in journalism, says that Eau Claire taught him “to accept the nervousness, the nervous feeling in your heart, to accept that more often.” He learned that the feeling of being nervous led him to many great opportunities, like an internship with Volume One and his post-graduation plans. The outcome is worth being nervous, not something to stop you from trying.

 Colton Weitzel, a graphic communications major, is looking towards the larger picture, the multiple areas that UWEC encouraged him in. UW-Eau Claire “has taught me so many things about academic success, career readiness, and personal growth,” he says. “I am very proud of the person that UWEC has helped shape me to be.”

 Claire Bradley, an English-creative writing major with a business management minor, focused on her own career readiness. “It’s nice that they give us resources to help us find jobs. I feel like I’d be pretty lost applying for jobs if it weren’t for my internship and the ENGL 498 class,” she says. “Each department works towards the goal of preparing students for jobs.”

 While I may not have a plan in place for myself, I am leaving feeling equipped to take on life outside of college. I’ve spent the past semester writing articles about writing and books (and have loved every second of it). I’ve spoken with career counselors and favorite professors about what achieving my dreams might look like. My classes have challenged me and encouraged me. My writing portfolio is practically bulging at the seams and will only continue to grow. I have skills that round me out as a person, from social media experience to speaking Spanish and everything in between.

 And, perhaps most importantly, I have a community behind me who will support me. Professors who are only an email away, ready and willing to read pieces or write letters of recommendations. My employers and mentors who have taught me so much about who I am. My friends, who, regardless of distance, will always be there for me. So, when I stand in the mirror, thinking that I’m not ready or repeating my mantra, I will remember that UWEC has prepared me and provided me with a village of people who will support every misstep and every success.

 When you go to college, you create a new community, a new family, to surround yourself with. As my fellow graduating seniors can attest to, the community, the opportunities, and the resources have shaped many of us into well-rounded people who are ready to go out into the world. While that doesn’t mean we aren’t nervous about what’s waiting for us, it does mean that UW-Eau Claire has given us a few years that have impacted us profoundly and prepared us for whatever is next.

Friendship, Art, and Honoring Your Seasons: In Conversation with Toya Wolfe

Elan Mccallum

In her debut novel, Last Summer on State Street, Toya Wolfe chronicles four friends experiencing the life-changing summer the Chicago Housing Authority demolishes their neighborhood and how they must reckon with the fallout years later. Poignant and engaging, it was named a 2023 PEN/Open Book Award finalist, a Stephen Curry Underrated Literati Book Club Pick, and a Best Book of Summer by Good Housekeeping, Chicago Magazine, The St. Louis Post Dispatch, Chicago Tribune, Veranda, The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Publishers Weekly, and more–-and did I mention that the paperback is coming out? It’s been a busy year for Toya.

And things haven’t slowed down yet. Fresh from the Merky Books Literature Festival in the UK, Toya took a moment to let me ask some questions while preparing for an event in Eau Claire.

Elan Mccallum: So the first question I had is about your portrayal of girlhood friendship. It was so authentic and really resonated with me. Were there friendship dynamics in your own life that inspired this–did you mine those kinds of dynamics from your life or was this something that you drew from other spheres of your life, other people?

Toya Wolfe: Yeah, I have always been a part of so many different friends circles–I joke that I'm a floater. I am so extroverted, which is not typical of most novelists. But when I think back to my childhood, I always had a group of girlfriends. And I wanted to explore in this book the dynamics of friendship–what it's like to have one friend and then you and that one person do everything together. What it's like when you invite someone into this duo, you become a trio. Sometimes with that things can fall apart. In this specific story it just so happens that the person who's doing all this inviting is Fe Fe. Her friend Precious is real chill, she's a Christian–she's very inviting. She's trying to be like Jesus and just kind of welcome people in. And they have a friend who is not going to behave that way when they invite a fourth person in. So I wanted to explore the dynamics of friendship and how private a group of friends can be–and what kind of happens when you've got people in the friend group who don't really like each other very much. So you'll see a whole lot of those dynamics of what it means to have a best friend and then if those best friends are going to share or if they're going to just be total jerks about it.

EM: Yeah, I mean, trying to balance an already developed friendship while developing a whole new friendship–especially within a group–can be so tenuous because things are shifting, right? 

TW: And also think about places like a housing project, right? You think those people are poor, but there are levels to it. You've got people who–because their family is a part of the neighborhood gang that gives them a kind of like hood royalty–they have status. And then what does that mean for them to be friends with somebody who doesn't have that level of status. So there’s all this different socio-economic stratification. And imagine when you smash some people together who feel, you know, “I'm cooler than this person,” or “You shouldn't be breathing the same air as me”--that happens even amongst people who don't have a lot of money.

EM: If you have potential friends who are scattered across these different socio-economic strata, then there are different levels of personal and emotional development. One of the things that really jumped out at me at the beginning of the book was this sort of  retrospective observation. And that was, “We didn't know then that the practice of burying emotions created adults who struggled to build meaningful relationships. Some of us would eventually completely forget how to access true feelings.” So was this an observation that you knew from the beginning that you would include, or did it come later on in edits? 

TW: I started this book so long ago, so… I feel like that's a line I added later because I have a very hands-on literary agent, and she would ask me these questions. I'd write a line, and she'd say, “Well, how does that affect these characters?” and “What do you think that means for them?” or just whatever. I feel that line came out of her pushing me, asking me a question, and then me deciding. There's this balance, right? When you're writing a story, and the narrator has distance and knows what's going to happen. You have this challenge of not telling too much, but reminding the reader that the narrator is not in that moment anymore. And this was one of those literary devices where I took the narrator and let her be in her 30s and be wise–because essentially what she's saying is that some of these folks are never going to learn how to let people in. I actually think that comes from being single and being someone who's been on the dating scene, dating guys who don't have any emotional intelligence, or they're working so hard to keep these walls up. And I imagine that somewhere in their childhood they had to put up those walls, but they never took them down. I think that's what it looks like. I think as a child you decide you're going to pretend you don't have feelings, but you do that for so long that you never come back from it. I think that's kind of where that line came from.

EM: So what was your approach writing the adult characters who struggle with meaningful relationships?

TW: For the longest time this book was just in a kid’s perspective, and everybody kept telling me “Toya, you should age them up.” People I respect–teachers, my thesis advisor–telling me if I made them older, I can do a lot more with the narration. And so for many, many years, the story was told by a 14-year-old about a time when she and her friends were 12. I'm a person who will take advice, but I'll also take a minute to digest it. So I decided to try out a draft where the narrator was older, and at the very end or close to the end, we jumped to her adult life. I think because I started this book when I was about 25 and knew very little about life, or men, or anything about writing, this book sort of grew up with me. I got wiser, my narrative got wiser. We're not the same, but I think when you're in your 30s you know a lot more than when you're like 20 years old, and definitely when you're 12 years old, right? So I think when I decided to include adult characters in this book, and when I decided to change the narrative to an adult perspective very, very late, it was… Hmm, I probably started this book in 2005, and I think it would have been about 2016 or 2017 when I decided to make the narrator in her early 30s and have chapters where characters were adults. So way, way later, I think. And yeah, by the time I started adding sort of wisdom into the book, it was stuff I already knew. I think I became wiser, and then as a writer I started making my narrator wise.

EM: It's interesting that you say that because I feel there's a lot of emphasis placed in publishing on the up-and-coming young writer. You know, they’re hot and easy-to-market. The “wunderkind.” But there are incredible writers at every age. What are your thoughts on that, being an incredibly successful writer not in your 20s? What is your experience and your thoughts on that aspect of publishing?

TW: I think this is a beautiful question, Elan, and I'm so excited to talk about this. I wanted this book published back when I was 25. But I'm 42 right now. When the book was sold, I was 41, which means the last few years of polishing the manuscript happened when I was in my late 30s, turning 40–all of that. This would not be the book that we know if I had gotten a book deal back when I was 26 years old. Even the way that we've promoted this book, the conversations I've been able to have–they're all a direct result of my work experience. I've been on the literary scene in Chicago since the year 2000. That means I've shown up for so many fiction writers, having three jobs, leaving a shift at a restaurant sweaty, and I pop up to a bookstore to hear somebody read from their debut novel. I've been in this game for over two decades, right? I've sat in so many workshops. I've paid for one-off workshops where you spend two weeks with a celebrity writer, learning everything you can. I have an MFA in Creative Writing, which means I spent years sitting in workshops, getting stuff torn down and built up. I studied with Audrey Niffenegger, and that's because I went to school when she just happened to have left the art department and moved to the fiction department. I just think so many stars had to align for this manuscript to have this much wisdom in it from other people. For me to watch other writers and their careers. Famous writers showing up to empty bookstores, and then me asking the question, “What happened there?” so then when I set up my tour, I made sure there were 10 people who said, “Yes, I'm coming” from my inner circle to show up and have butts in the seats of these bookstores. And then if nobody else came, there were 10 people in this bookstore. So I  think we are obsessed with youth–I'm gonna go ahead and step on my soapbox right now–but what youth does not have is wisdom. Because when you've only been on earth for a couple decades, if you compare that to somebody who's in their late 30s, or in their 40s, or in their 50s, we know a lot more people. We have had a lot more marked up short stories and novels, and that makes a more well-informed, well-adjusted person. And if you can find a way to take all of that and put it in your work, I think it makes your work so much richer. And sometimes people say, “Yeah, I'm looking for ideas,” but you live and you learn and you find ways to write about it, whether it’s a memoir or fiction, whether it's essays or poetry. So, I think to answer your question, I am so glad that God did not give me what I had been begging for, which was a book deal since I was 25 years old, because I got to mine not just my life–I am a fiction writer, I did create these characters–but I lived in all the places that I write about in this book. And it's one thing to live in a place and to write about it. It's another thing to live in a place and have the distance to reflect on it, meditate on it and then write about it. 

EM: I mean, I feel like a lot of times when you're writing fiction, oftentimes the conflict is really just a question and the ending is some attempt at an answer. But if you are writing a novel, there's going to be a central question that is being asked. So then having that wisdom, that experience, the time to reflect… Would you say that is what's necessary sometimes to more effectively answer the question?

“Yeah, things happen. You’ve got to work your way through the trauma, and then you’re going to process what happened.”

— Toya Wolfe

TW: I think it's the time, but it's also the practice of reflecting. We don't all live examined lives. I think stuff happens to you, and then you have to think it over. It takes time to deal with the trauma of the thing that happened to you, whether it's something really major or just a terrible breakup. Yeah, things happen. You've got to work your way through the trauma, and then you're going to process what happened. And I think that we don't all have the practice of that. Of having things happen to us, acknowledging that a thing happened to us, and then trying to figure out what happened. And then the fourth step is to actually write about what happened. I didn't know how to do that when I was in my early 20s. There are a lot of young talented people. That's why you do have these debut novelists who are fresh out of the MFA programs, and they are praised for it. But I just think it's harder. Even dealing with success–it's harder if you've never experienced what it means to say no, or to understand what you as a human need. Everybody wants something from you. I think that comes with time. It comes with working. I've had so many different kinds of jobs. I had to communicate to my bosses what I think ought to be paid–or if something happens, how to sit down and really talk about how they've offended me and how we're going to move forward. There's just all these life skills that you don't even know that you don't have until you've lived for a while.

EM: Okay, this is making me think about how the personal inspires art. But I've heard a number of different writers say that while writing is art, publishing is business. What has been your experience with that? 

TW: So let's say that's mostly true. And I think one of the reasons that I've had a pleasant publishing experience is because I have communicated. I think I learned from having regular jobs. I communicated with the powers that be what my expectations were, and what my thoughts are about different things. Case in point, my contributions to the book cover. When you do final copy edits you–for lack of a better phrase–you have to fight for your words. And oftentimes the final copy edits get shipped out to someone who's not your actual editor, who doesn't know you at all. And sometimes they question you about things that you've said, or places that you've mentioned, if they can't verify with research. Like, “Are you sure about this place?” And so you have to put on really thick skin during so many phases of the publishing conversations. I didn't design the cover–there was a very brilliant artist at HarperCollins who designed the cover–but I sent a Pinterest board with colors and other covers, fonts that I liked, and kind of like the feelings that I thought would be really cool based on creating and spending years in this manuscript. I thought that there should be colors that represent the sunset on the cover because the book is really about sunsetting a neighborhood, but there's also several sunsets that the narrator witnesses herself. I also thought about little girls in the summertime, especially little Black girls. We’re wearing the brightest colors you can find, right? So this cover needs to look like it's ablaze, and that's kind of how I pitched it to them. But then, whoever you're talking to at your publisher, they have to go back and have several other conversations with people that you'll never see or you'll never meet. Those people don't know you. Oftentimes those people haven't even read your book yet. So when your editor or whomever goes back to convey your vision, they're only thinking about what they've done before and dollars essentially. And I don’t say that to demonize them–they've got a job to do, right? Every decision that's made in publishing is so that they can sell books. Before you get to that conversation, it's your job as a writer to take what's in your head and put it in the book. At that stage, you shouldn't be thinking about your cover, and you shouldn't be thinking about all these random people you're gonna have a conversation with. It's a really great case of staying in your lane. When it's time to talk business, talk business about the thing, right? Let them be business people, you are still an artist. Then when it's time for you to add the things that help them do their job better, that's where you take your artistic self and help them translate your vision so that you can sell books. Because you guys all have the same goal at that stage to sell books. And for my book specifically, people look at my cover and they want to pick it up. They're drawn to this beautiful work of art that's not even my words yet. I mean, if they did take any of your suggestions about the cover, then your vision’s on it a little bit, but it's your name and somebody else's art and the title. I think sometimes we demonize the business side. You hear a lot of people who go to a lot of conferences and they're like, “Publishing’s all about business,” and yeah, because you gotta get paid–like, we have to sell these books. But don't let them stray too far from your artistic vision and respectfully find ways to fight for what you want.

EM: That's a great point because, I mean, a business is looking at their bottom line. But of course you as a writer, the artist, you're looking out for your vision. So there's a kind of collaboration that has to occur, and you do have the same goal in mind to sell the book.

TW: There is a way to have balance. If you have industry people who are not hearing you, then it's your job to go figure out how to get them to hear you, how to speak their language. I think throwing tantrums or not saying what you feel is not helpful. You have to advocate for yourself. I've never had a job where I didn't negotiate my salary, even when I was working at a restaurant because I know my worth. And I knew it's also my employer’s job to pay me as little as they can because they have a budget that has to stretch very far or whatever. I took those skills from my regular life and used them in publishing. Like, "What is the goal we're trying to accomplish here and how do I get you to hear me?"

EM: Ooh, so you said that when you’re in your lane, you shouldn't be thinking about all the things that will happen until after you start working with the publisher. But at what point do you really get a sense that your time in your lane is coming to an end and it's time to start merging?

TW: I think once you've sold the book. Once you get industry people involved, it's time to think like them. But I think the problem is when it's just you and your computer or your story, we've got other people in the conversation who don't belong there. I have a friend who recently decided that she's going to write a story, and one of the things I'm going to drill into her head is that only you and this story exists right now. Do not share pages with no body. Okay? You don't think about who's gonna publish it. You're in a season where it's just you. You know what, I'm gonna quote CV Peterson. CV is a visual artist, right? And the two of us, our worlds of art cannot be further apart. I'm a writer. She's a painter, sculptor. Like, she's a visual artist. We get together and we talk process in a very pulled back way so that we can encourage each other and kind of have art therapy. We really are art therapy for one another. And I have been on a tour longer than I thought I would be. I was having a lot of conversations, speaking engagements, just ripping and running all over the place at a time when I thought I'd be working on my next book. January, February is always the time when I start a new thing. It's cold and stupid outside. I got my cup of cocoa, I'm writing down and looking at the snow–it's great. This year, I was traveling, I was speaking, I was exhausting myself. So I'm up visiting CV in Eau Claire, we're chatting and she's like, “Toya, the problem is you're not acknowledging that you're still in "showing season," and you're trying to go to "making season" when you're not in "making season."” She has "showing season," "making season," and "research season"–that's kind of the chunks of her artistic life. We call it book promotion or the tour or whatever, but essentially, I have been in "showing season" longer than I ever thought. And it's a privilege and it's an honor. And I have to just fall back and acknowledge that I'm not in a season where things are still and quiet and it's just me, and I can start writing my next book. People want to ask you, “What's next? What are you working on?” And no one wants to hear you say, “I'm working on telling more people about this book,” but it's real. I was in the UK because the book came out on March 23rd. I was able to go to a string of bookstores in London, and I was able to sit on a panel about girlhood. And the other folks on the panel were from London, they were from Jamaica, they were in their 60s, I'm in my 40s, and the other girl’s probably in her late 20s, if I had to guess. So whatever season you're in, you have to stay in it and honor that. Man, I forgot your original question. Why did I go off on this tangent?

EM: The question was–oh my gosh, I was just so swept up. Oh yeah! When do you know that it's time to come out of your lane?

TW: Yeah, so right now I am still technically in the publishing lane. All up in it. I have an independent publicist. I have a publicist at my American publisher, HarperCollins. I have a publicist at Penguin UK. I spend most of my time talking to publicists because we are still promoting all the versions of Last Summer on State Street. The paperback version is going to be out. So I'm still in the publishing lane right now, and I am hoping that this summer I get to come out of their world and back into my very small, quiet space, where I'm just creating and throwing a mess on the wall and being like, “Oh, I like how that's dripping!” I'm so excited because that's the stuff I love. But it's also a privilege to have a book–to still be in conversation. The book was published on June 14 of last year, and people still want to talk about it, people are still finding it. And I think for people who are writing a book there is this temptation to think about who's going to buy it. What publisher, who's the audience–all those things. But you're gonna have people whose specific job is to think about that stuff. They can't write the book–you have to write the book, you know. So that is your first lane, first and foremost. And if you decide to change lanes for a time because it's necessary, don't forget that you're gonna go back into the lane of writer. And then again, you've got to box out and keep everybody out until it's time to have to let them come over into your lane.

EM: I love that interweaving answer! But, okay, you are probably one of the most outgoing and friendly creatives–particularly a writer–that I've ever met. Being in your lane, writing your book, your story–that's just you and the chair, interacting with the page or the screen. But eventually, your creative community is going to be a part of that. You've been in the game for over 20 years. What's been your journey building a creative community? And how does your community sustain and influence your work, especially since you have an ever-expanding circle of friends? I feel like I could look away for five minutes and you've made 10 new friends. 

TW: You know what it is? I think you have to hold on to people. When I studied creative writing as an undergrad, I went to a school called Columbia College Chicago, and it was one of the only schools in the country that had a bachelor's degree in fiction writing. I always knew that this program existed, but it was in Chicago and I was trying to flee Chicago. I wanted to get out of the housing projects and get as far away from Chicago as possible. I failed, but it was a good thing. So I always knew that Columbia had an actual fiction writing major, and I was so fascinated by that. I would be in workshops, and I would always pay attention to who got excited. Because in our program you had to actually write in your notebook in class, and then you would read a little bit of it back. So over the course of 16 weeks you really get to know somebody’s work really well. You're like, “Oh, we're back to that same monster.” You will look up and see whose eyes are twinkling when you're reading your stuff. And those are the people you want to stay in touch with because they get what you're trying to do and are excited about it. I learned early on that you need to grab a few writers who are going to make up your sort of writing community. Maybe you'll be in a workshop with them, or maybe sometimes you'll talk process with them on a break. You'd be sharing, “Yeah, I'm really struggling with this character. I just don't like them.” And I think I learned in childhood about friendship–when you connect with people, you should keep them. I think when I started studying writing, it became that you need to figure out which writers you want to hold on to. I have a mentor friend who jokes that my life is full of these concentric circles of friends and community, and it's because I don't let good people go. Whether they are creatives or just folks who have a similar faith tradition. It’s just the practice of holding on to good people that I learned a long time ago, and I sort of apply it to my creative life as well.

EM: That's a powerful way of being. That's not just art-sustaining, that's life-sustaining.

TW: Yeah, yeah. I think now that I have a book out, there are people who genuinely are cheering me on because they know I showed up for them but also know this is a big deal. I've been working on it for a long, long time, and they're all “Look at you go!” and they're informed cheerleaders. They're not just here for the magic of it all. They're saying, “Man, this woman–she held onto this book forever!” I mean, I have friends who had a book they worked on for a while and they set it aside and started a new thing. But for some reason, I just decided to keep hammering away at this thing obsessively. So, people know my story. They know this. I started a long time ago, and a lot of them have read drafts, they've given me notes. A lot of them are on my acknowledgments page because it's been such a journey. I've kept some of the same people, but along the way I picked up some new folks too. 

EM: I remember the first time I read any of your words, I had never met you in person. In fact, I don't think I met you until months after. I was staying at Envisage Retreat for one weekend, and when I walked in, I saw the “They landmarks” quote and asked, “Who wrote that?” because I thought it was so powerful. And CV said, “Oh, that's from my friend Toya. She's from Chicago. She's working on this manuscript,” and I knew I had to read it. From then to now, it's been so incredible to see you come along and blow up!

TW: And Eau Claire and Chippewa Falls–these towns have been such an important part of the creation of this book. Because since 2018, I've been coming up just to work on it in the winter. It's sort of full circle.

Join Toya Wolfe for a reading and conversation Thursday, May 4 at 6:30 PM at the L.E. Phillips Memorial Public Library.

"What Did You Do Yesterday?" A New Publication that Takes a Look at Yesterday

Atalissa Wells

With the growing social media presence prevalent in society, it’s easy to believe that we hold previews of others’ lives in our hands. We think that the Instagram post, Facebook update, Twitter tweet, or TikTok video provides the full story. The truth is that social media doesn’t even come close to what happens in people’s lives. But what if there was a way to see the mundane moments of artists, athletes, writers and more? Their moments of yesterday.

Elizabeth de Cleyre, an Eau Claire resident who is the Prose Editor for Barstow & Grand and helped launch Dotters Books, has started a new quarterly interview series called Yesterday Quarterly, a print publication that can be purchased at the Read Write Books website. This publication is an accumulation of yesterdays, with four issues being released each year.

De Cleyre developed the idea following a writing workshop in which the instructor recommended she read Peter Hujar’s Day, an interview conducted between Linda Rosenkrantz and her friend, Peter Hujar, asking him to record everything he did for a day. “It was a lovely little snapshot in time and I loved reading it,” de Cleyre says. She had been wanting to do an interview series but had yet to find the thread that would tie the interviews together. “I’m more interested in the process, the mundane and day-to-day,” she says. “So when I read Peter Hujar’s Day, I was like this is such a cool idea for an interview series.”

Then came the process of figuring out how this idea would work. She started with an interview with Soren Staff, lead singer of Them Coulee Boys, a folk-rock band based in Eau Claire. Staff’s yesterday will be the first issue published. The second interview was with Bianca Valenti, a big wave surfer located in San Francisco who has advocated for and won equal pay for men and women in surfing. Valenti’s yesterday will be released as the second issue.

““There’s a certain level of excellence, but it’s the commitment to the process that I admire.””

— Elizabeth de Cleyre

De Cleyre hopes to capture the yesterdays from a broad range of people, not just artists or athletes like Soren Staff and Bianca Valenti, respectively. Regardless of whose yesterday the publication is about, each piece will follow the same format, picking a day and tracking it. Capturing their yesterday. Ultimately, the issues will be about “people who are passionate about what they do,” she says. “There’s a certain level of excellence, but it’s the commitment to the process that I admire.” De Cleyre hopes to capture the small moments that lead up to their successes.

When de Cleyre mentioned her idea to a friend in the early planning stages of this project, he commented that she needed to interview normal people too, not just those who stand in the spotlight. However, de Cleyre believes that this “undermines the idea that artists and athletes and writers are not normal people, and they don’t deal with things like time management or daily stressors with their job or family,” she says.  “That’s also part of it, is demystifying what anyone does in a given day.”

This project of documenting what someone does in a day has been a year-long process, full of experimenting with publication format and interviews. Soren Staff’s issue will be published almost a year after his interview, with other interviews occurring closer to their release date. “It becomes a kind of time capsule,” de Cleyre says. “I love that idea of the conversations happening quickly and then coming out or conversations happening years before and then being released.”

“Yesterday is a measure of time that has already happened. And quarterly is a measure of time that continues to happen. So I liked that juxtaposition.””

— Elizabeth de Cleyre

This time capsule publication challenges not only what we think we know about people, but also our concept of time. With the ironic title of Yesterday Quarterly, de Cleyre places two contradictory measurements of time together. “Yesterday is a measure of time that has already happened,” she says. “And quarterly is a measure of time that continues to happen. So I liked that juxtaposition.” This print publication provides readers with a chance to peer into the yesterdays of other people, realizing that we are all “normal” people, with our own successes and failures, big moments and small ones.

Yesterday Quarterly was launched on April 22nd at Zine Fest in Milwaukee. The first issue can be purchased here as a one-time issue purchase or a yearly subscription, which includes an enamel pin. You can also follow their Instagram and keep updated on what Yesterday Quarterly is up to. There will be a launch party in Indianapolis, which is where Read Write Books, the publishing company that is releasing Yesterday Quarterly, is located. There will hopefully be another launch party in Eau Claire to celebrate life’s moments. Purchase your copy or subscription today,  and enjoy a look back at yesterday.  

An Unfaltering Flame of Faith: Discussing the New Book by Stephanie Nesja

 By Atalissa Wells

Life is too generous in doling out heartache. Often, it can feel like we’re constantly getting knocked down. But the important thing is how we get back up. And who helps us along the way.

For Eau Claire native Stephanie Nesja, God serves as her primary pillar of support through difficult times. Her faith journey is the subject of her debut book, Unfaltering Flame: A Linked Essay Collection, which follows her experiences after the passing of a close friend, Dave, the death of her aunt, Kathy, a mission trip to Honduras, and her father and stepmother’s divorce. Through each of these life moments, Nesja comments on her faith, the small mustard seed that remained with her during those tough moments and eventually blossomed. “I always had that faith but after my Aunt Kathy I felt my faith growing and growing,” Nesja says. “Every day God teaches me something new.”

This book began as a thesis for her master’s program at UW-Eau Claire. Through the help of her mentors, UWEC professors Molly Patterson and B.J. Hollars, she complied a collection of four essays, all centered around the same theme of reaffirming faith despite dark times. “The whole book is a lot of vulnerability,” Nesja says, “It’s about grief in so many different forms and figuring out the big Who Am I question.”

Unfaltering Flame is a testament to God’s strength during hardships. Throughout the book, Nesja comments on her struggles with faith; grappling with a lack of understanding on why bad things happen, dealing with grief and feeling lost, but despite it all, she circles back to God. Nesja’s hope for this book is that it “reaches people in a way that’s relatable and in a way to show God’s love.” In the book, she honors God, highlighting how she wrestled with her faith but acknowledges that His strength and love is what got her through it all. 

Reflecting on the finished product, Nesja acknowledges that the process of writing her book was not an easy one. “The reality of it…writing brought everything back in vivid detail so I, in a way, kind of re-grieved through them,” she says. “Even though it was cathartic it was still very difficult.”

By using her writing to process her own grief, Nesja is able to share her story with the world. “There is hope. We all go through hardships. When Dave died, I was questioning my faith, but God never left me,” Nesja says. “I was angry but there is hope and there’s joy and it’s such a deep feeling when you find God and have Him in your heart like that, that’s the feeling I want everyone to feel.”

As the book’s release date approaches, Nesja looks forward to sharing her story and how God worked through the good and the bad moments in her life.  “It’s emotional but it’s a heartwarming story,” Nesja says. “I want everyone to find hope in it.” Nesja’s book is being self-published through Amazon. The book is categorized as a nonfiction collection of essays with a Christianity theme.

The book will be available for purchase on April 28th at the Local Store, Drewmark Boutique, Jacob’s Well Church Bookstore, and Amazon. The local stores are selling the books at a discount, so support Eau Claire area local businesses. There will also be a book launch party on April 29th in the Renew Church basement from 2 pm – 5 pm with a special reading from Stephanie Nesja herself beginning at 2:45. Support this local author and look for Unfaltering Flame, available April 28th!

Retreat Into Writing: Meet the Writer-in-Residence for the CVWG’s Next 12-Hour Writers Retreat

Atalissa Wells

In twelve hours, a lot can happen. 720 minutes, 43,200 seconds. Imagine having the space to devote 12 hours to writing amidst the craziness of an overwhelming schedule. The Chippewa Valley Writers Guild 12-Hour Writers Retreat is designed to do just that! Envelop yourself in a community of other writers from the area who are ready and willing to work and refine their craft, setting aside distractions and the inevitable writer’s block to spend time writing.

With the Chippewa Valley Writers Guild’s 12-Hour Writers Retreat on May 13th from 9 am – 9 pm, writers will get the opportunity to devote 12 hours to their craft–discussing with other writers in the community, engaging in guided writing exercises, and getting direct support from the retreat’s writer-in-residence, Amy Fleury, the author of two published poetry collections with more work on the way. 

Amy Fleury is relatively new to the Eau Claire area but has deep ties to the community through her husband and his family. They moved to the Chippewa Valley in August 2022 after an extended time in Louisiana where Fleury was the director of the M.F.A. creative writing program at McNeese State University. In the 90s, she was a student in the program and then had the opportunity to take over her mentor’s position. “That meant a lot to me because he was very inspiring and influential,” she says. “I cared a lot about the program, and I welcomed the opportunity to perpetuate something so important to me.”

While at McNeese State, Fleury published two poetry collections: Beautiful Trouble, focusing on the intricacies and intimacies of life in the Midwest, and Sympathetic Magic, which centers on the idea that all things that come into contact with each other are bound across space and time. She’s currently working on a manuscript called Stardust and Luck. One poem from this yet unpublished collection is PICU Pietà. Another sample of Fleury’s work is The Summer of Small Boys.

“Being a poet helps with prose writing because it makes me concentrate on my choices on a microlevel. Writing prose can help expand the storytelling aspect of poetry.”

— Amy Fleury

In addition to poetry, Fleury is currently working on a memoir titled What We Call Home, about the short but incredible life of her son, Graham. With her experience in multiple genres of writing, Fleury utilizes skills needed for prose and poetry to amplify her art. “Being a poet helps with prose writing because it makes me concentrate on my choices on a microlevel,” she says. “Writing prose can help expand the storytelling aspect of poetry.”

Even Fleury’s writing process pays homage to her skill sets in both prose and poetry. She comments on being language-driven, keeping a notebook on her so she can write down phrases or individual words that spark inspiration throughout the day. “As a poet, I’m a line writer. As a prose writer I’m a sentence writer,” Fleury says. “I tend to follow one link after the other.”

“Let the material find the genre.”

— Amy Fleury

Due to Fleury’s multi-faceted interests in genre, writers of all kinds will be able to find something helpful and encouraging by working with Amy Fleury. “Let the material find the genre,” she says. “The way I talk about writing applies to prose and poetry both.”

At the 12-Hour Writers Retreat, Fleury aims to achieve a spirit of curiosity, exploration, and openness, supporting individual writers and the community of writers in attendance. There will be a focus on appreciating language with writing activities and intentional freewriting time. Amy Fleury’s advice for writers who are considering attending is to take the leap. “We are often the biggest obstacles to our own writing and openness to the process,” she says. “Get out of your own way.”

January 2023 Retreat

 Take Amy’s advice and register for the 12-Hour Writers Retreat on May 13th from 9 am – 9 pm at Forage. She is excited for this opportunity to work with fellow writers. “It makes me happy to have moved to this community and found such a vibrant group of people who are interested in writing,” she says. Don’t let this invaluable writing community and experience go to waste and register starting March 31st at 8 am. There are only 20 spots so sign up to secure yours. The cost is $85 which includes meals throughout the day, reservation of space, and instruction from Amy Fleury. Writers 21+ are encouraged to apply.

Re-Introducing The Sawdust City Writers: Creating a Community, One Writing Session At A Time

Whether you’re a private journaler or a published author, all are welcome to participate in the Sawdust City Writers — a writing collective established in 2017 by Kate Venit. Diana Peterson joined the group in the inaugural year, and now serves as its lead organizer. She also is the curator for the Chippewa Valley Museum and has her own website where she writes about classic television. Diana is passionate about the writing community in Eau Claire and hopes to fuel it by fostering new writers with the Sawdust City Writers. The group meets at the L.E. Phillips Memorial Public Library once a month. From working on your next novel to writing out your grocery list, any level of writer is encouraged to come. I had the pleasure of interviewing Diana and she let me in on everything that makes The Sawdust City Writers special.

McKenna Dutton: Who created the Sawdust city writers?

Diana Peterson: Back when it was created it started in 2017 and Katie Vennit started that. At the time we were called “Writers Anonymous” and then during the pandemic we started meeting more online and Katie was actually the one who said we should have a different title cause people were getting a little confused about what kind of group they were coming to and then it became the Sawdust City Writers in 2017.

MD: How long have you been involved in The Sawdust City Writers and what’s your position?

DP: I’ve been involved with them for the entire six years. I started attending and then Katie decided her personal life was getting really busy so she had to step away from the group and so I took on the management role. Making sure we have a place to meet, reminders are being sent out on Facebook, and events are being set up. So that’s my role right now with the group.

MD: What do you think is the intention for The Sawdust City Writers?

DP: We want to be a welcoming and encouraging group for anyone who has just begun writing or for someone who’s been writing for decades. We have people who have been in all aspects of that, whether it’s journaling and they’ve never written anything else or they’ve written three books and they have been querying them but received no response or they’ve actually been published. We have representatives from all those areas and I think we like to share our joys and sorrows of going through publishing. We can commiserate with people who have been querying for forever who aren’t getting responses but then being really happy for anyone who gets published. One of the biggest things is that writing can be really solitary. This gives a chance for writers to come together. During a session, the group is writing most of the time but we don’t do critiques. We do talk about things and bounce questions off of each other but we don’t critique each other's work. We can still write and not be solitary and if you’re having a hard time finding time to fit writing in your schedule at least you get an hour to an hour and a half once a month to dedicate towards that.

MD: What advice would you give to anyone who is nervous to join?

DP: We’ve all been there. Don’t feel bad. I remember my first time going and I walked in thinking “what am I doing?” So everybody’s been a new person at times, but I think they will fit in quickly and after a couple times they’ll feel like they’ve been with us all along.

The upcoming Sawdust City Writers meeting is on April 19th at the L.E. Phillips Memorial Public Library from 6-7:45. If you have any questions about details leading up to future meetings you can check out the Sawdust City Writers Facebook or contact Diana!

Turning a Lens on the Land: Michael Perry on Publishing, Promotion, and Writing Through Creative Blocks

Elizabeth de Cleyre

Every so often, I’ll come across a book that absolutely ruins reading for me, a book so good I can’t read anything else for months. On my first-ever trip to Eau Claire, Wisconsin, I bought and brought home a copy of Michael Perry’s memoir, Population 485. I read it a few months later, around the same time I was mulling over whether to relocate from Oregon to Wisconsin. After reading Perry’s essays, I didn’t pick up another book for three months. Nothing could live up to his prose, at once somber and sidesplitting. By the time I was ready to read again, I was already moved into a one-bedroom apartment in downtown Eau Claire. I’m not saying I moved to Wisconsin because of a Michael Perry book, but I’m not not saying that either. Like Didion writing about her native state of California and its subcultures, Perry has a particular way of writing about Wisconsin, about the land and the people of this particular time and place. Most of the nation knows this region as ‘flyover country,’ only seeing it through the porthole of a plane. Perry’s prose turns a lens onto the land and those who tend to it, mixing darkly serious subject matter with moments of unexpected yet necessary levity. His characters may represent archetypes, but they never feel one-dimensional.

When I read Population 485, I thought it was an impressive debut. But this wasn’t Perry’s first rodeo; he’d self-published a few titles prior to this traditionally-published release. In recent years, he’s returned to his DIY roots, choosing to publish certain projects under his own press, Sneezing Cow Publishing. His latest, Forty Acres Deep, is a short novella that winds up being a wild ride.

Michael Perry can be hard to pin down. He pens and publishes essays, columns, and books (and music, too, recording and touring as The Long Beds). There are speaking engagements. Stage plays. Sometimes it seems like Michael Perry puts out a new project quicker than I could clean the snow off my car. Thankfully, he made time in his busy schedule to generously answer questions via email about writing, publishing, and his latest book, the novella Forty Acres Deep.

Elizabeth de Cleyre: Your publishing track record is a mix of traditional and self-published works. You decided to publish Forty Acres Deep through your own press, Sneezing Cow Publishing. What goes into making that decision? Does it depend on the finished book, or do you start a project with a clear sense of where it will one day live (traditional press or your own)?

Michael Perry: It’s a situational thing. The publishing industry has evolved—or devolved—into a business that doesn’t do much for mild mid-listers like me. I’m not terribly distressed about it. Similar to the protagonist of Forty Acres Deep, for quite a while now I’ve been trying to remain pliable in the face of change. It’s so easy to grow brittle and bitter. Rather, I view it as an exciting opportunity to rev up the ol’ DIY machine—I self-published my first four books, and I used to sell my homemade humor cassettes at Kwik Trip, so I’ve been down this road before. Let’er rip.

Ever since Population 485, HarperCollins has treated me tremendously well. But certain projects—collections of regional newspaper columns, for instance, of which I have self-published several—just don’t fit their big machine. In the case of Forty Acres Deep, my agent—who is not known for blowing sunshine—told me it was the best writing I’d done in years, but in light of the content and novella form, the odds of it selling to one of the “bigs” were virtually nil. There was the option of smaller presses (I’ve had some wonderful experiences publishing with Wisconsin Historical Society Press), but—and I guess I’m risking coming off as crass here but business is part of the business—my youngest child just had her braces removed, so I’ll say it: This little novella recouped its expenses in about 48 hours. I can sell far fewer books for a far better return. I’m not gonna get rich off it, but neither am I waiting six months to a year for a check accompanied by an impenetrable royalty statement that is by definition partially fiction.

This is not some screed against traditional publishing. I have a book under contract with HarperCollins and another with Sourcebooks. The editors on each project are terrific. Both publishers have vast distribution channels and contacts that I can’t possibly match with my Toyota van and email list. So I’m very excited about those two projects. In fact I should be working on them right now. But for some projects, a return to my DIY roots just makes more sense.

It also allows me to work with local talent. I hired a local editor, copyeditor, and proofreader. I hired a local graphic artist—RT Vrieze of Knorth Studios—to design the cover. I hired a local audio engineer—Jaime Hansen—to produce the audiobook. We print all of our webstore and road merch books locally. Our distribution and fulfillment has long been handled locally, and still is. It’s nice to know when we sell one of those self-published books some modest amount of that money is cycling back into the local economy.

credit: Justin Patchin

EDC: You mentioned the inspiration for this book came in part from your own struggles to save a few pole barns (or sheds, to us commoners) on your property one winter, and wondering about farmers whose livelihoods are at risk when barns collapse, losing expensive and necessary equipment, or even livestock. Can you talk a little more about the inspiration for the book?

MP: Yah, there have been two winters out here when the snow got so heavy on my pole barns I feared they would collapse. The most recent time there were sheds and farm buildings going down all over the place. My brother lost one of his sheds. Farmers lost cattle and equipment. People died. So I was yanking torpedo heaters back and forth through the drifts one night, sweating and saying bad words and worrying, when it hit me that I was just a softhanded writer with two sheds mostly full of junk. Some valuables, but certainly nothing critical to my livelihood. Whereas there were farmers all around me with their entire livelihoods at stake. This got me to thinking how that would alter my perception of the struggle.

“This then spun into a yarnball of other thoughts: the loss of family farms, the mental health crisis, the effects of our struggles on those who struggle beside us, the sense of powerlessness, fear, and anger in the face of change and general social nastiness, and so on. And how sometimes we so desperately long to simply clean the slate. Start over. ”

— Michael Perry

This then spun into a yarnball of other thoughts: the loss of family farms, the mental health crisis, the effects of our struggles on those who struggle beside us, the sense of powerlessness, fear, and anger in the face of change and general social nastiness, and so on. And how sometimes we so desperately long to simply clean the slate. Start over. Also, the character is an amateur student of philosophy, and throughout the novella he wrestles with the conundrum of how this appreciation helps him cope and grow and navigate and find beauty in harshness…but is essentially powerless in the face of brute force change.

Tra-la-la, as my farmer father used to say!

EDC: Once you had the idea for this book, what did the writing process look like? How was that similar or different from previous books, and as a writer of both fiction and nonfiction, does your process change when you work in different genres?

MP: When I started, I thought it would be a short story. I had written a couple of winter-driven spoken word pieces already: “Old Guys Surrender the Jukebox,” which I cowrote with Geoffrey Keezer for a jazz festival performance, and “WinterSleeper,” which I performed with S. Carey and others at Eaux Hiver a couple years ago. I figured this story would be slightly longer than those. Once I started writing, I realized it was going to be longer than a short story, but shorter than a novel, i.e., a novella. This was exciting because the author Jim Harrison was one of the signal influences on my writing in the early days, and he was known for his novellas (the most popular of which was Legends of the Fall, thanks to the film featuring Brad Pitt). I’d always wanted to try my hand at the form.

Mainly I just had these scenes I so wanted to write. The feel of hoar frost mornings and what happens when the first breeze stirs. Deer as black holes in moonlit snow. Or yarded up under pines, on a mat of needles and poop marbles, just like I’ve found on our back forty. The fantasy of firing up a bulldozer to go all mondo Marie Kondo on every bit of trash cluttering your house and heart. The sound your ankle makes when it clicks in a quiet house. An underdog putting the run on a boss dog.

So I started with scenes. And lines. I did a lot of the writing and revising during the lockdown year. Once I had a rough draft I’d leave it for a month or two then sit down with a red pen and get real picky. That’s my favorite part. Revision. I love it so. Just dwelling in the line, toying with the words, listening for the beat, choosing the silences. It’s an affliction I picked up during my yearning poet days. I had such hair back then.

One thing I did do differently with this book was send it to outside readers. A farmer. A couple of people who work in ag-related mental health. An acquaintance whose life experience Venn diagram overlaps with mine in several respects and departs from it in significant others. An attorney who specializes in estate law. Each offered critically helpful comments and perspectives, and all encouraged me to go ahead at a time when I wasn’t sure I should.

EDC: The landscape features prominently and beautifully in this book. Can you tell us more about how living in rural Wisconsin impacts or influences your writing? And any thoughts on how living outside literary cities like New York might influence your perspective on publishing?

MP: Landscape is vernacular. The topography of Forty Acres Deep is pretty much what I see when I look out the window of my writing room. It didn’t have to be. But it fit the work. And it gives you this set, this structure, on which to present the play. The ravine in Forty Acres Deep? “Goldmine Gully” in The Scavengers? They’re the same place—and right out behind my pole barn.

“Regarding New York publishing, now and then I enjoy gently reminding those from the coasts that sometimes out here in the Midwest, we think things up all by ourselves. They’re terribly worried about us provincials and our cultural blind spots, but—like when I had to explain to them why Montaigne should be wearing a blaze orange ear-flapper cap on the cover of Montaigne in Barn Boots—they have blind spots of their own.”

— Michael Perry

Regarding New York publishing, now and then I enjoy gently reminding those from the coasts that sometimes out here in the Midwest, we think things up all by ourselves. They’re terribly worried about us provincials and our cultural blind spots, but—like when I had to explain to them why Montaigne should be wearing a blaze orange ear-flapper cap on the cover of Montaigne in Barn Boots—they have blind spots of their own.

So yah, I have a whole bunch of fun stories like how they try to book my flights out of Milwaukee “because you’re from Wisconsin,” or how they tell me they don’t think volunteer firefighters will buy books or go to plays (so I just sell them books and play tickets myself—DIY!), or how when I had RT Vrieze send the Manhattan-based book jacket designer the Pantone code for blaze orange and the designer went with a pale substitute because “we don’t think folks will notice the difference.” (RT and me, we set him STRAIGHT, just check the glowing orange hardcover spine on that one!)

So. We yank their chain a tad. But there is more than enough silly tribalism in the world, and I am equally pleased to say the folks in the East Coast publishing world changed my life forever. When allowed by the machine employing them, they do tremendous work. My first-ever Manhattan publicist—a former dancer from Canada—still buys my books, including the self-published ones. A Harper sales rep I had never met decided she loved Population 485 and brought it to the attention of half the bookstores in California. I have had four Harper editors, and every one of them has raised my writing far beyond what I brung’em. So I enjoy poking fun now and then, but these folks are pros and have my everlasting thanks and respect.

One other aside: Thanks to my agent—who is still based in New York and actively representing names you’d recognize in the New York Times book reviews or bestseller lists—I know that life in the upper echelons of the literary scene is increasingly desperate. I don’t say that with any joy. I have a vested interest in a vibrant, thriving literary world. But it does lead me to count my blessings in that I’ve got recourse to self-publishing and boots-on-the-ground hustling to make up the difference. And it all starts with me sitting down at the keyboard in a room over my garage in rural Wisconsin. Lucky me, and I don’t ever forget it.

EDC: In the past, writers relied on traditional publishing, or legacy publishers, to get their work out into the world. Now, there are more options, including self-publishing and “hybrid publishers,” which some view as “vanity publishing” in disguise. Any thoughts or advice for folks who are trying to navigate this changing industry and figure out a way forward?

MP: There’s no question that a deal with a “legacy” publisher is still a big deal. I’d be a dumb-faced disingenuous liar if I said being able to say I’m published by HarperCollins isn’t thrilling for a dude who grew up cleaning calf pens in Chippewa County. And yes, self-publishing is full of pitfalls—I’ve run into folks who’ve paid thousands—in one case tens of thousands—of dollars to get a book “published” when in fact someone was just robbing them by leveraging their dreams. And yep, some self-published books only reinforce why the professionals are the professionals. But when I self-published those first four books, I wasn’t thinking about cachet, I was thinking about how to get started. How to learn the business. The basics, like ISBNs and shelf space and distribution and 60/40 splits and on and on. My first two self-pubbed books were pretty bad. I was learning in public. But they were essential steps in the process. They got me here. And now that I’m here, I find there are times when self-publishing just makes more sense—financially, logistically, realistically.

“The bottom line is, it’s not about traditional publishing versus self-publishing. It’s about ears and eyeballs. And hearts. ”

— Michael Perry

The bottom line is, it’s not about traditional publishing versus self-publishing. It’s about ears and eyeballs. And hearts. And the way to ears and eyeballs and hearts is to go to the keyboard, to the notebook, to whatever it is you use to turn your spirit and your visions into words, and put those words in a line. And then make another line. And another, and another. When you have a bunch of those lines, re-read them. Read them aloud. Listen to see if you hear your heart. Your voice. If not, get out that red pen. Literally, in my case, figuratively if you prefer otherwise. The writing. The revision. That’s what I love. That’s what makes my heart jump. The nature of the publisher is secondary.

EDC: When you choose to publish a work through your own press or outlets, what does that process look like? After the book is done, what are the next steps?

MP: Oh shnikies, that’s a four-day workshop. OK super-short version of the self-publishing process: Write, revise, etc. Get manuscript print-ready. Obtain and assign ISBN. Record audiobook (in my garage—yay!). Finalize cover art (another salute to Knorth Studios). Order print copies for web and event sales. Upload print-on-demand and ebook files to KDP (Amazon and Kindle, basically). Upload print-on-demand and ebook files (for all non-Kindle platforms) to IngramSpark (they distribute to independent bookstores who—quite understandably—ain’t gonna order your self-published book from the monster that is squashing them). Upload audio files to ACX (Audible, basically) and Findaway Voices (indie audiobook distribution…although recently purchased by Spotify). Go through several maddening cycles of files being rejected for arcane reasons. Get a bunch of social media posts ready. Get your email blast ready (we use MailChimp…don’t really like ‘em but kinda locked in and nothing else we’ve found is any better). Add book to webstore. Do a “soft release” with a quiet post here and there (a good way to make sure all the links are working before a ton of orders come rolling in and you’re up to your eyeballs in customer service mayhem). Send out that email blast. See if anybody bites.

That’s super-abbreviated and there are a multitude of variables and micro-promoting I’m not addressing. Like I said, a workshop. My manager Ben Shaw has become an expert at the self-publishing process and does take on some freelance clients. I don’t know his rates, but should you wish, inquire within.

EDC: Do you approach the marketing any differently when you’re releasing your own book versus going through a traditional publisher?

MP: Unless you’re an established star or irritating influencer or political flame-tosser, traditional publishers are surprisingly ham-fisted at marketing books. Montaigne in Barn Boots was a real turning point for me. When it was finished, I went to New York on my own dime and met with the marketing and publicity team. This was—I think—my seventh book with them. I had a multi-page compilation detailing the geographic coverage of my mailing list, charts of which bookstore events had been particularly successful in the past, page after page of media contacts who actually sought out my work, etc., and so forth. They raved about it. Said how useful it was gonna be. And then sent me on the same ineffective book tour to essentially the same handful of bookstores they’d sent me to for the previous book.

I’ve long understood that even with a major publisher you’re going to do most of your own promotion, and I’m fine with that, but to have presented them with all this actionable, proven intel only to see it ignored reinforced my commitment to spending my time and pinning my hopes elsewhere. Again, in defense of these folks, they have done great things for me and are working under the constraints of the industry. I ain’t mad, I’m just gonna get busy elsewhere.

EDC: In the announcement for the book launch, you mentioned feeling “nervous” and unsure if you should publish it. That sounds like a common creative impulse, to doubt one’s work or its place in the world. Can you tell us what about this particular book made you nervous to release it?

MP: The sources of my nerves were various. The subject matter—suicide, death of spouse, death of a child—is heavy. I’ve written about all of those things in my nonfiction, but I didn’t want to appear to be exploiting tragedy in the name of fiction. There is also the idea that I was—through the characters—bumping up against political and social issues that might draw some fire. The worry that I might be unintentionally insulting or condescending or misrepresenting the issues and persons portrayed. The fact that there were some heavy duty swears (I did get a note regarding this from my mother, but she has earned the right and otherwise liked the book).

“Separately, it seems nearly everyone who releases creative work—and I’ve talked at length about this with both writers and musicians, including some who have been wildly successful—goes through a form of postpartum depression and anxiety. ”

— Michael Perry

Separately, it seems nearly everyone who releases creative work—and I’ve talked at length about this with both writers and musicians, including some who have been wildly successful—goes through a form of postpartum depression and anxiety. In my case, I just assume everyone’s going to find something problematic or offensive or reportable to the IRS or who knows what, but there is always this point where I feel bare naked and windburned and want to gather up all the books and take them back and burn them in my room. I’ve been doing this for I guess around 30 years and one negative comment will knock me off my stride for two days, no matter how many glowing reviews preceded it. But here’s the cool thing, and perhaps the cure: the itch to write never completely subsides, and in short order you’re back at it. It’s like love, in other words.

EDC: When you come up against creative blocks in your work, how do you move through them?

I have two answers, neither of them artful. The first is a call-back to what I said earlier about paying for the offspring’s orthodontia. The last time I had a predictable paycheck—every two weeks, withholding and social security and all that—was 1992. So if I stop creating I stop earning. I generally just push through. Write cruddy stuff until something good comes of it. I also always have more than one project in process. If one goes comatose, I just switch saddles. And I’m fortunate to work in a variety of formats.

credit: Justin Patchin

The second answer is a product of the first: I am a shy, intensely private person by nature. And yet here I am, making a living by telling stories on myself in public. So, as noted above, when I encounter a creative block I am putting our family income in jeopardy. This leads to feelings of fear and dread. This renders me vulnerable. Which puts a quake in my soul. Which releases thoughts and feelings I’d prefer to keep to myself but tend to connect with folks. So I go ahead and write ‘em up, and before you know it that block is in the rearview mirror.

EDC: What are your hypotheses for the future of publishing? Any future plans for Sneezing Cow Press you can share?

MP: I don’t have any grand thoughts about it. My only response is to—as long as I am physically and mentally able—keep writing and finding a place for that writing, whether with a traditional publisher or keeping it local. For all my yip-yap about the state of the industry, the book world is a wonderful world. Daily I receive uplifting, meaningful correspondence from readers. People who love books and want more books. Today I emailed back and forth with one of my favorite independent booksellers. This triggered a truckload of lovely book tour memories, but also reminded me of all the groovy little stores out there that have survived clear into these Tik-Tok times. They are welcoming spaces filled with words and the people who seek them.

“I do sometimes wish I was writing in an age when books were central to society. When a novel might actually drive a national—rather than niche—conversation. Then I realize I am living in an age when books are filled with a richer array of voices than any time in our history… and I’ve been allowed to join that chorus. That’s low-key glorious. Let’s go write some more.”

— Michael Perry

I do sometimes wish I was writing in an age when books were central to society. When a novel might actually drive a national—rather than niche—conversation. Then I realize I am living in an age when books are filled with a richer array of voices than any time in our history… and I’ve been allowed to join that chorus. That’s low-key glorious. Let’s go write some more.

For more information about Mike's writings, recordings, and live events, please visit: SneezingCow.com. For more information about the weekly audio Substack, "Michael Perry's Voice Mail," please visit: https://michaelperry.substack.com/

Also, click here to learn more about PBS Wisconsin’s newly released show “Michael Perry: On The Road.”

Elizabeth de Cleyre is a writer and editor. She founded the forthcoming interview series Yesterday Quarterly, and is the current prose editor for Barstow & Grand (open for submissions March 1 - April 30).

A Voice for the Upper Midwest: Barstow and Grand Submissions Now Open

Atalissa Wells

Within the Upper Midwest, there are many opportunities to share stories about the region we call home. From the bluffs to dairy farms, to large cities and unincorporated ones, to each cheese curd and local distillery, this region has much to offer to inspire local writers. These lived experiences describe the people, places, and pride that exists here, and Barstow & Grand, a literary journal based in Eau Claire, is looking for those stories to share.

“The hope was that B&G ‘felt like the bigger national publications, but was a little more approachable.’ ”

— Eric Rasmussen

Barstow & Grand was started about eight years ago, following the inspiration of BJ Hollars and the Chippewa Valley Writers Guild. The literary journal was created by Eric Rasmussen, a high school English teacher and Eau Claire native. He used his experience as a submitter and editor for other literary journals to build B&G into something unique. Rasmussen recognizes that learning the processes of submitting creative writing can be difficult. The hope was that B&G “felt like the bigger national publications, but was a little more approachable,” he says. Rasmussen wants the journal to be beneficial towards the Guild’s mission of education and support.

Grace Schutte

B&G models after many other literary journals, ensuring that writers’ experiences and stories vary, while also supporting local authors.  The local emphasis is a significant aspect of what makes B&G special. As Grace Schutte, current intern for the journal, says, “the Midwest in one of the cornerstones of Barstow & Grand– it’s an identity we all share, it’s what unites us as a publication.”

If you’re a seasoned submitter or brand new to the process, don’t worry! Eric Rasmussen and Grace Schutte put their heads together to come up with some excellent advice for the submission process in general as well as tailored to B&G. Rasmussen acknowledges that submitting is hard. “Rejections are inevitable and dealing with discouragement is definitely the most challenging part of the process,” he says. “If you keep at it, if you keep working, the publications will come.”

“We’re looking for the voices of the Midwest, so come tell the stories of our home,” she says. “The honest, funny, uffda-inducing ones, and everything in between.”

— Grace Schutte

As for Schutte, she looks more towards the submission guidelines of B&G, honing in on the aspect that makes this literary journal unique to the Upper Midwest. “We’re looking for the voices of the Midwest, so come tell the stories of our home,” she says. “The honest, funny, uffda-inducing ones, and everything in between.”

B&G, Fall 2020

Between now and May 1st , Barstow & Grand is accepting fiction, non-fiction, poetry, and hybrid texts that contain any sort of connection to the Upper Midwest. Barstow & Grand is looking for work that showcases engaging stories skillfully told, regardless of type or genre.

To submit, head to the Barstow & Grand website and sign in/create a Submittable account. Take care to read submission guidelines, such as prose pieces with up to 4,000 words and only 3-5 poems in a single document. Once you’ve submitted, trusted Barstow & Grand readers will select the pieces for Issue No. 7. If you have any writing related to the Upper Midwest and you’d like to try your hand at submitting, head to the Barstow & Grand website and submit.

If you’d like to support B&G but have creative talents outside of writing, get in touch! There are social media, marketing, design, and visual art opportunities, so reach out to support this local literary journal. You can also support the journal and its contributors by purchasing a copy. “Nothing validates the work of writers and artists as much as finding new audiences and making connections with new communities,” Rasmussen says.

Whether you submit, purchase a copy, or get involved another way, Barstow & Grand appreciates you supporting their local literary journal and voices for the Upper Midwest.

A “Joy to the Word” Sneak Preview: Love, Belonging, and Community for the Holidays

Thomas DeLapp

Wintertime in Eau Claire came hard and fast last week, tossing new snow and cold temperatures at us just two days after it was a balmy 65 degrees. Luckily for us, this signals that the Chippewa Valley Writers Guild’s favorite holiday event: Sound & Stories: Joy to the Word is less than a month away!

Combining spoken word stories with festive music from the Eau Claire UKE Klub, Joy to the Word is a cozy holiday get-together. Bundle up and trundle down to the Pablo Center on December 15 to share some cheer with the CVWG. This year’s readers are Allyson Loomis, Nicole Kronzer, Justin Patchin, and Ken Syzmanski — all ready to deliver some stellar seasonal stories.

Syzmanski, Eau Claire Writer-in-Residence, and Joy to the Word veteran will share a family story set to live music by Derick Black. Szymanski’s 81-year-old uncle, he explained, still owns and runs a Christmas tree farm. Customers pick out trees, and he will deliver them straight to their living rooms.

Kronzer, an Eau Claire native who now lives in Minneapolis, is returning to share a story about her love of historic homes.

“My best friend and I love going to historic homes whenever we visit a city,” Kronzer said. “She lives in Milwaukee, and I live in Minneapolis, which is way too far away. So sometimes we’ll meet in the middle, in some small town and then we’ll just have a long weekend in a town we’ve never been to.”

Historic home exploration ties in deeply to Kronzer’s forthcoming second novel, The Roof Over Our Heads, whose main character’s family lives in and takes care of a historic home (based on the James J. Hill house in St. Paul).

One of the reasons historic homes so engage Kronzer is the importance of understanding history itself, especially the overlooked roles of women during now-romanticized times like the Victorian era and the Gilded Age.

In comparison to Europe, Kronzer said, “where an Aldi could actually be a two-thousand-year-old castle,” American architecture and history are much more recent and quickly forgotten. Historic homes are one of our few places to connect with that history.

“These largely female spaces are some of the only actual [historical sites] we have in America, but because they are female spaces, we discount them,” Kronzer said. “But they’re vitally important.”

Maybe a trip through historic homes doesn’t sound particularly holiday-centric, but it’s all about connection and love — perfect for Joy to the Word.

“I can’t even begin to explain how happy making this is, coming back to Eau Claire and being involved in the CVWG. It has filled this hole in my heart that I didn’t know was there. They say you can’t go home again, but I’m coming home in a new way. ”

— Nicole Kronzer

“I can’t even begin to explain how happy making this is, coming back to Eau Claire and being involved in the CVWG,” Kronzer said. “It has filled this hole in my heart that I didn’t know was there. They say you can’t go home again, but I’m coming home in a new way. This isn’t who I was when I left Eau Claire. Everyone has been so accepting and loving and generous. You look at Roof, you look at Unscripted [Kronzer’s first novel]: love and belonging are really the backbone of everything I write. It's just so special, being accepted and loved by your hometown.”

As Syzmanski sagely put it, there’s just something about the holidays that makes people crave stories. New ones, old ones, and even the same stories year after year. It’s being together and celebrating that makes the season.

“I just love the combination of music and the spoken word, “Syzmanski said. “They just elevate each other. As the universal language that music is, they’re just a natural fit together. If it’s all music, it can be one-dimensional. If it’s all story, it can be one-dimensional. Together, it’s magic.”

The CVWG Sound & Stories: Joy to the Word is at 7 pm on December 15th at the Pablo Center. Buy tickets online at the Pablo Center website.

S.Z. Putnam's Poetry Book "Loose Change: Picking up the Pieces" Available Now

By Carlee Shimek

A fresh and brand new voice comes to life here in Eau Claire with the release of Loose Change: Picking up the Pieces by S.Z. Putnam. Putnam’s debut poetry book was released in June of 2022 from Read or Green Books in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Fear not, though, you don’t have to go all the way there for a copy. The book is available through Putnam’s website and at Dotters Books right here in Eau Claire. I had the opportunity to sit down (virtually) with Putnam to discuss her book’s content, how it came about, and her journey back into writing after a ten-year hiatus.

Following a mainly linear pattern with free-verse poems telling the story (some rhyming, some not), Loose Change encompasses Putnam’s discovery of her husband’s substance abuse addiction, her trauma and process with that knowledge, and her and her family’s recovery from the ordeal. Powerfully spoken with passionate poetry, Putnam reveals the inner workings of her mind in connection with addiction’s painful effect on its victims and their families.

“For me, it just felt really good and cathartic to write it out and just release these energies so that I wasn’t holding onto them,” Putnam said about the emotional journey through writing her book. “It was just a really good and healthy way to let it go. And it really helped me to heal and reach out for other sources of help. I just want that for everybody else. Just so that they know that they can do it as well.”

A braided combination of many writing styles is found within this creative storyteller’s debut book. It entails Putnam’s discovery of her husband’s substance addiction, the events and aftermath of the journey out of the situation, and her emotions and thoughts. The beginning does include some love poetry about how Putnam and her husband first met and fell in love, as well as prose sections placed throughout the book. The prose pieces act as anchor points when shifting to the next phase of the story told within the poems.

“[The book’s] more or less highlighting how to get back into a place where you no longer feel alone, like you’re connected again to the community and people you love,” Putnam said.

Putnam was always a writer at heart, writing personal prose pieces for years. She took a break from writing during her career in marketing, after which she suddenly decided to start writing again around May of 2021, this time as a poet. Without prior poetry experience, and with some assistance from her younger relatives, Putnam set up an Instagram account and started posting mini-poems on the site. With a wide range of content, she soon earned over 1,500 followers.

While getting back into writing, she became acquainted with a publisher and managed to become one of their debut authors in 2022. Though she mentioned wanting her debut book to be about her parents’ journey from Vietnam, she found herself just writing and going through her emotions with that writing regarding her husband’s substance addiction and how she and her family worked through that part of their lives.

Putnam writes about not just interesting or entertaining topics, but ones that can be triggering, difficult, and serious. And that’s important.

“I hope that what [readers] get out of this book is that this is something that happens a lot. And that there is no shame in feeling the way they feel or wanting to get out of it.”

— S.Z. Putnam

“I hope that what [readers] get out of this book is that this is something that happens a lot. And that there is no shame in feeling the way they feel or wanting to get out of it,” Putnam said. “That’s really what I hope, because if they can free themselves from an addictive state whether they are the person with the substance abuse issue or if they are the family member, I think that is the number one thing. I find that addiction itself takes not just the person but the entire family and for generations. It’s not a one time thing, this is a disease that can affect multiple generations down the road.”

Available through Putnam’s website for $20 (each book is autographed!) or Dotters Books for $15, Loose Change: Picking up the Pieces is available to anyone interested in Putnam’s storytelling through poetry or anyone who may have the desire to deal with trauma and find courage like Putnam does in her book.

Hopefully, through Putnam being so open, honest, and creative with her perspective, she will shine a light on such a heavy topic in a manner that can help someone affected by their loved one’s struggle with addiction or the individual themself.

“[It] may trigger [readers] to feel certain emotions, but at the same point it’s good to release emotions,” Putnam said. “And if they’re able to read my book and find the pieces that really resonate with them and will help make them feel stronger and less alone, I think that is really important.”

UWEC Center for Writing Excellence Tutors (and Chippewa Valley Writers Guild Interns!) Take On Vancouver Conference!

By Grace Schutte, Carlee Shimek, and Thomas DeLapp

The International Writing Center Association (IWCA) conference began Oct. 26 and ran through the 29th with Writing Center Directors and students — both graduates on the road to director-hood and passionate undergrads — gathering from around the world to join us in rainy Vancouver for three days of discussion, reflection, and overall nerdy goodness. 

“While attending the multitude of presentations scheduled at the conference was important to us as participants and fellow presenters, immersing ourselves in the atmosphere of our host city, Vancouver, was quite an experience as well.”

While attending the multitude of presentations scheduled at the conference was important to us as participants and fellow presenters, immersing ourselves in the atmosphere of our host city, Vancouver, was quite an experience as well. It was the perfect city for the first IWCA conference held outside the United States.

Vancouver of British Columbia, Canada, regardless of its fancy, modern skyscrapers, possessed a calming air, probably thanks to being a seaport city. We managed to stroll along one of its proudest features, the longest waterfront path in the world, The Seawall. We didn’t have the time (nor the quads) to traverse all 17.5 miles, but we enjoyed the miles, with many beaches and ships in the water, along Stanley Park, a wonderful public park that’s larger than Central Park.

Though not directly along the ocean shore, Vancouver is a marvelous water city with the English Bay, Vancouver Harbor, and Burrard Inlet surrounding it. For some reason, the neighborhood around our conference’s hotel was quite fond of water decor too. We saw at least 6 beautifully structured waterfall architectures while walking to different attractions and locales for lunch.

Speaking of lunch, many delicious, diverse eateries were abundant throughout the city. From Thai chicken to Mexican burritos to Canadian poutine, there was no lack of options for tastebuds. The city prides itself on being one of the most diverse in Canada.

 Another alluring attraction we visited was Granville Island. It’s a misnomer as the location is a peninsula attached to the southern part of Vancouver. The northern peninsula of the city (where our conference was) is separated from Granville by an inlet, False Creek. You can take a teeny ferry to the location (though you literally could swim, it’s that close) where we visited a farmers market, some artists’ galleries, and many local shops.

It felt like the Eau Claire Downtown Farmers Market, just on a larger scale. The view of the city from Granville Island, with its lights twinkling in the darkening sky was very relaxing after days of hard, philosophical thinking on the ethics and innovations of writing centers.

With a progressive and inclusive style, Vancouver is perfect as a weekend getaway for an anniversary or serene family vacation. It has something for everyone, and all with manageable distance from each other (by foot and car). Perhaps we may one day be able to visit again (for another conference, let’s hope!) and experience the Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese Garden or the Pacific Arts Market and more.

Within the glass castle-like hotel where the conference took place, many astounding discussions and innovative ideas relating to writing centers were enjoyed.

Those in attendance wore their best button ups, comfortable presenting shoes, and super-dooper official IWCA issued lanyards — an academic sea of smart blazers and slacks. With the schedule posted online, people could choose which sessions they wished to attend. But with twelve different presentations to select from each hour, it was nearly impossible to decide with so many exceptional options.

Sessions began every day at 9 a.m. in the various ballrooms and meeting halls found throughout the conference's hotel. While scurrying from one room to the next, folks would grab a cup of coffee and maybe a little snack between sessions — sometimes a fruit kabob, a semi-gelatinous chia seed yogurt, or a classic peanut-butter cookie. The Wall Center took good care of us.

The last round kicked off at 4:30 p.m., giving us Writing Center folk many opportunities to sit in on various presentations and roundtables — shorter presentations followed by an open discussion between the presenters and audience members (as is our Writing Center nature).

A de facto theme we noticed throughout was the colonial nature of writing: How academia has implemented rigid expectations and standards that invalidate multilingual students, those who don’t fit into the white-sounding “American”-English standard, and who may find sitting down and writing at a desk for extended periods to be inaccessible. 

Throughout the conference, directors and students alike advocated for the decolonizing of writing, spoke on the shifting of societal perceptions of “perfect English” and grammar, and how to ensure Writing Centers can be harborers of this change in not only our spaces and departments but in the world.

It was also brought to our attention how strongly our pedagogy and manner of speech are strongly United States-oriented. On several occasions, directors from Canada and Mexico commented on the U.S.-centered nature of the literature. There is work to be done, not only in how we tutor student writers but in how we continue and grow our scholarship.

“By happy coincidence, we three CVWG interns this semester are colleagues in the university Center for Writing Excellence. Together with our director (and Guild board member), Dr. Jonathan Rylander, we presented a roundtable: “Invisibly Here: The Future of Life Writing in Writing Centers.””

 We, too, wanted to talk about these big issues in our own Eau Claire ways. By happy coincidence, we three CVWG interns this semester are colleagues in the university Center for Writing Excellence. Together with our director (and Guild board member), Dr. Jonathan Rylander, we presented a roundtable: “Invisibly Here: The Future of Life Writing in Writing Centers.”

 One of the reasons we wanted to write to you all today is because each member of the CVWG is doing life writing in their own way, every day. But what is life writing?  That’s precisely what we talked about. Though it’s been used in various contexts for a couple of decades, the term “life writing” doesn’t have a particularly good definition.  And we struggled to come up with one, too.

 Basically, we decided that life writing means any writing involving the writer's life. We typically think about it in academic contexts, where students are writing critical essays, rhetorical analyses, and generally not having any fun at all. We know that students thrive and learn more from meaningful writing projects. Meaningfulness is calculated by the student's engagement with the project, the lasting transfer (will I be able to use this in my life?), and whether or not they feel personally connected to it.

Personal connection to a piece can be most easily accomplished by including some aspects of the writer’s life. Surprise! That can be hard, though. Without getting too into the details, our presentation argued that writing centers have a unique opportunity to be places where students can engage more with themselves, with the person and voice inside their writing. And, we argue, writing centers have already been doing this kind of life writing work all along, without realizing it.

 But life writing isn’t purely in academic contexts. It’s for every writer. How do your identities, insecurities, and personality affect your writing process? How do they affect your writing? No matter how hard you might try to make a piece as dry and ineffectual as you can, spoiler alert: you are still writing it. You are still going to be there.

“Writing matters only because you matter.  ”

 What can we learn if we embrace ourselves in our writing instead of running away?  How will our writing and writing process change? The three of us think these are questions every writer should ask themselves. From historical fiction to journalism, to fantasy, sci-fi, and memoir, you, the author, should be present and comfortable in that text. Your writing is important because of the life that writes it.  Writing matters only because you matter. 

Carlee’s Top 5 Hangout Spaces at The L.E. Phillips Memorial Public Library

Carlee Shimek

If the steady influx of folks entering the newly renovated L.E. Phillips Memorial Public Library at 9am on a Saturday is any indication, Eau Claire’s residents are ecstatic to have the library back up and running for business. After an extensive sixteen-month renovation, the downtown community space officially re-opened to the public at the end of September. We thought it’d be fun to share some of the cozy spots for reading (or even napping!) that I investigated throughout the building’s upgraded layout. Read on for Carlee’s Top 5 Hangout spaces!

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#1 Atkins and Shea Teen Lounge

Teens and tweens, this one’s just for you! This neat little rectangular space on the first floor provides privacy on cool cushions to study, hang with friends, or peruse the latest YA bestseller. The soft blue color tones exude a sense of tranquility.

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#2: Jay and Rose Phillips Family Foundation Tween Lounge

This open-air spot, nicknamed “The Lookout”, is on the first floor right next to the children’s play area. This space is available to adults who are accompanying minors, with a combination of tables for laptop work or uniquely structured chairs for lounging, as the space’s title encourages one to do so. It also has computers available for those who may need a better bandwidth than what the house offers. The view of outside will look glorious in all seasons, from the spring buds to winter snow.

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#3: Front Door Lounge Space

To the very right of the front door lies a not-hidden gem. This is the perfect spot for groups of people who want to hang in an environment quieter than say a cafe. The view of the front of the building from the windows and the rest of the first floor allows for casual people-watching, if you enjoy such a hobby. It has a multitude of seating, from singular chairs to tabletops to elongated benches.

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#4: Second Floor Viewing Lounge

This space didn’t have a name, so I made one up. The view comes from the lovely site of its windows that catch a glance of the river cutting underneath the streets of Barstow, Farwell, and Dewey. This space is certainly quieter and possesses a vibe of independence, being on the second floor. It lies nestled behind the Large Print and Graphic Novels sections of the second floor.

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#5: Children’s Cave

Okay, yes, by its name and the fact that it’s right next to the children’s books, this was built for the kiddos to enjoy. But I couldn’t help putting it on this list, it looks too comfortable. I could curl up here for hours and forget about my problems easy-peasy. So if you want to crawl into that cave and not care if youngsters look on indignantly, you do you. If you have a bad back, however, I would refrain for safety reasons. The grass-green bench attached to the cave looks just as cool. We should petition the library to incorporate more of these so there’s more of them to share.

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These were my admittedly biased top picks, but that doesn’t mean the library has no other hidden gems for all folks, if these five don’t pique your interest. The library’s third floor includes a beautiful art gallery with benches and even an outdoor patio, though it probably won’t get much use until spring comes next year. Right outside the front doors of the building are more outdoor tables to soak in the skin-tanning rays while reading, at least for when the sun comes back full-throttle. The basement also has its own hangout chairs and coffee tables, for those who enjoy the groundhog-feeling of being underground.

Along with relaxing spaces for lounging, as an individual or a group, the library has wonderful, additional amenities. They have printing services, computer-access areas, children recreational activities and rooms, private meeting/study rooms, conference rooms for events, and even a “Library of Things” where you can rent out objects like tools, sporting equipment, and cooking utensils just like you would a book.

There’s truly something for everyone at this innovative, updated community space. Come explore the maze of books and more at the L.E. Phillips Memorial Public Library.

History and Fiction Coalesce: Phong Nguyen Brings Ancient Warrior Sisters To Life in His Latest Novel, Bronze Drum

Carlee Shimek

Within the mind of Phong Nguyen lies an adventurous true telling of the ancient Trung sisters of Vietnam, who rebelled against the Chinese occupation of their home in the first century AD. Spanning years of research and writing, Nguyen seamlessly combines fiction and nonfiction in his latest novel Bronze Drum. Hailed as “a riveting bildungsroman about Trung Trac and Trung Nhi,” by NPR, the book’s “nuanced yet visceral reimagining of the sisters’ trajectory fully captures the shifting nature of war and peace, life and death, feminine and masculine.” Released in August, this historical fiction novel is based on the true events involving a pair of warrior sisters whose memory lives on in modern Vietnam as symbols of patriotism, feminism, and bravery.

In a recent interview with the Guild, Nguyen shared that he’d wanted to write about the Trung sisters, Trung Trac and Trung Nhi, for years. Now, he’s sharing their story. Join the Chippewa Valley Writers Guild at 6 pm on Monday, Oct. 10, at the L.E. Phillips Memorial Public Library for the chance to meet Nguyen and learn about Bronze Drum. Read below to get a sneak peek into the author's mind before the upcoming event this Monday. 

Carlee Shimek: The Trung sisters, the protagonists of your book, are iconized in Vietnam as national heroines and hallmarks of Vietnamese independence and culture. What was your inspiration for writing such a book about them?

Phong Nguyen: Their story always appealed to me ever since I was young, and I have always wanted to read books and stories about the Trung Sisters, but there weren't any written or published in English when I was growing up, so it became clear to me that if I wanted to read them, that I would have to write them myself. It took me many years to feel up to the task of writing such a big-canvas story as this, so even though this is my fifth book, it has been on my radar for decades.

CS: The book’s genre is classified as historical fiction, but the Trung sisters were real figures in Vietnamese history. Which aspects of the story remain true, and which aspects were fictionalized?

PN: To properly answer this question would take very long-- perhaps another book in itself!-- but the short answer is that the Trung Sisters and their family members (Trung Trac, Trung Nhi, Lord Trung, Lady Man Thien, Thi Sach) as well as those who participate in the battles (Phung Thi Chinh, Phat Nguyet, and the rest of the thirty-six generals; as well as, on the other side, Governor To Dinh and General Ma Yuan) are all historical; other characters such as Kha, Duy, Phan Minh, Mai, and Wan Fu are all invented. Importantly, the tiger-hunting scene is historical; as is the episode of Phung Thi Chinh giving birth on the battlefield and continuing to fight.

CS: What kind of research did you have to do for this book, and how did you go about meshing together fictional aspects and nonfictional ones?

PN: Most of my research on this episode of history came from three books that pertain to the ancient history of what is now known as Viet Nam. I struck up a correspondence with the author of one of those books, named Nam C. Kim, and worked with him extensively on building up a base of knowledge about this period. Beyond that, I have several documents in Vietnamese translated into English, and of course I worked from sources that included individual chapters on the Trung Sisters. As far as meshing it together with fiction, that was the task before me over the span of about 4-5 years, in which I tried to balance the mythic dimension of the story with a kind of contemporary psychological realism. I had to choose many times between the contemporaneous historical Chinese account and the national myth of Vietnam, so adding a fictional dimension felt like just making another narrative choice except instead of choosing between history and myth, I was choosing invention.

CS: The story is about fighting for and taking pride in one’s country and home. Besides this, what do you hope people experience from your book? How do you hope they feel or react after they read it?

“One thing I hope that people take away from the story is that the power of women is not new, nor is it an invention of the Western progressive tradition. It is deeply ingrained in civilizations around the world”

— Phong Nguyen

PN: One thing I hope that people take away from the story is that the power of women is not new, nor is it an invention of the Western progressive tradition. It is deeply ingrained in civilizations around the world, but especially in the ancient history of Viet Nam. I would hope that readers come away from reading the book inspired, or at the very least with a greater acceptance of women leaders and leadership.

CS: You’ve written many genres, from historical and experimental fiction to alternate history to dirty realism. What is your purpose for writing such multifaceted and versatile stories?

PN: In order for me to get excited about a new book project, it needs to be a departure from everything else I've done. If it's not a departure, it feels stagnant. When it represents an exciting new direction, then I find it easier to throw myself full-body into the next project and focus on it exclusively. I also enjoy writers, like Italo Calvino, for whom every book is a different sort of adventure; so that is the kind of writer that I aspire to be.

CS: You’ll be at Eau Claire’s L.E. Phillips Memorial Public Library this Monday, Oct. 10, at 6pm for an author reading and conversation. What do you hope to discuss or share with the people coming? What do you hope to accomplish with the event?

PN: I hope to entertain and even inspire people. But more importantly, I hope to share this journey with like-minded people who take an interest in history, literature, or storytelling in general. I'm open to discussing any questions about the book, or writing fiction, or the writer's life. I live for this stuff!

CS: What advice do you have for anyone wishing to write historical fiction like the Bronze Drum?

PN: Know yourself. Stay curious. In your dark moments of doubt, just remember what a blessing and a gift it is to be sentient and literate-- to be capable of this strange striving to create literary art.

Click here for more information on Nguyen’s reading and presentation at the L.E. Phillips Memorial Public Library at 6pm, Monday, Oct. 10. Books will be available for purchase.

Love, Life, and Writing in the Driftless: A Q&A with author Maggie Ginsberg on her debut novel Still True

Grace Schutte

Some 10,000 years ago, when glaciers hop-scotched across the world like children at recess, a patch of land was left unscathed from their icy trail in the modern-day Midwest. The 25,000 sq/mi area retains its unique landforms of old: lush forests and springs, deep caves and sinkholes, winding hillsides and streams—driftless to this day.

It is here where the Madison Magazine senior editor and author Maggie Ginsberg grew up, on the outskirts of the Driftless.

I had the great pleasure of discussing Ginsberg’s debut novel Still True, set to be released Sept. 27, and the crucial role the Midwest plays in the text—how it shapes and forms the lives of the characters as they explore the joys and complications of love and life in the Midwest.

Join Maggie Ginsberg and Nickolas Butler for a conversation on her debut novel Still True, craft, and writing about place and home at 6pm on Wednesday Sept. 28 at the L.E. Phillips Memorial Public Library. Read on for the complete interview.

Grace Schutte: Midwestern culture and setting play a foundational role in Still True—what is your relationship with the Midwest? Has it evolved over the span of your life?

Maggie Ginsberg: I was born and raised in the Midwest in a small town on the edge of the driftless, and the Midwest has shaped me in ways I am still uncovering. There are so many great things about growing up in a smaller community in rural Wisconsin—there are also some challenging things I didn’t realize at the time, things I am still unpacking today. But I have a ton of love for the Midwest.

GS: How does your Midwestern background influence how you write and think about literature?

MG: I think the Midwest is sometimes overlooked, dismissed or stereotyped by New York Publishers. They might think of our work as regional but not that we’re writing deeply, thoughtfully, and authentically from the Midwest in universal ways. And of course, there are exceptions, but that’s why I think it is so important what BJ Hollars has done in the Chippewa Valley: Bringing together a community of readers and writers and bringing validity to it. There is something really magical about being seen in literature. 

GS: You are an editor for Madison Magazine. What was the transition from non-fiction to fiction like? Do you feel your background in non-fiction brings something unique to the page?

“For a while, I was in my own way because the story I was telling myself was that only a certain kind of writer knew how to write fiction and that I wasn’t that writer. Once I got out of my own way and questioned myself about that, then I was open to learning and being taught...”

— Maggie Ginsberg

MG: When I first got my agent, she suspected my many years of journalism had given me an access to people’s interiority in a way that has helped me write fiction. I agree with that. For a while, I was in my own way because the story I was telling myself was that only a certain kind of writer knew how to write fiction and that I wasn’t that writer. Once I got out of my own way and questioned myself about that, then I was open to learning and being taught—I am so glad, because it has been a lot of fun.

GS: What compelled you to write a novel? As this is your debut book, what has your writing experience looked like so far?

MG: I accidentally took a fiction writing class in 2016. There was a course I took every year and I had already taken all of the nonfiction tracks, and I didn’t want to miss out on the course because I enjoyed it so much, so I thought I’d try fiction. I sat there like a sponge. For some reason, it opened my mind to not just what was possible, but that it was possible for me. I love the freedom I am learning through fiction writing and hope to continue doing that as well.

GS: In the opening pages, we are introduced to our protagonist, Lib, a 58-year-old woman living alone—or alone as you can live in a small midwestern town—in her childhood home, of which she has renovated until it is unrecognizable. How does Still True complicate, or enrich, how readers perceive 50-some-year-old independent women?

MG: I saw [Lib] very clearly, and I think a lot of readers can appreciate protagonists who aren't 35. I think you need to have done a little living to tell an interesting story—I know I had to do quite a bit of living to write one. It’s complicated for Lib. It’s not just that she is living on the edge of town because she’s an independent woman—she’s also protecting herself. You could call it hiding, but those are the tools that have been working for her—or so she thinks.

GS: There is an undeniable chemistry between the characters—it is honest, passionate, and sensual. In what ways does Still True comment on female sexuality, especially the sexuality of “older” women.

MG: I thought about this book in terms of questions, not answers. It starts with this premise of “Do you lose independence if you’re going to have real intimacy with a partner? Can you have both, or not?” I wanted to know what might challenge that understanding. Because of her generation and her trauma, she has a hard earned relationship with her sexuality.

GS: Some would argue family is one of the cornerstones of Midwestern life—you complicate that concept in your book, where secrets are kept and maintained for decades all to come to a head years down the line. How does this serve as a commentary and what does it propose?

MG: I wasn’t setting out to make any kind of statement or anything like that, I just wanted to write people true, write how we really are. For me, the challenge was to do right by [my characters], to really make sure I kept asking them—almost like with my journalism—who they were, where they came from, and to explain themselves to me so I could help them explain themselves to each other.

GS: Who inspires you in life and in your writing?

MG: Nickolas Butler is someone I think of. When I read Shotgun Lovesongs, it wasn’t just that I loved that story and his voice, but that I felt seen as a born and raised Midwesterner in ways that I usually didn’t see reflected in a lot of other literature. That was a big deal to me.

GS: Do you have plans to write another book?

MG: I started working on another book the minute I went out on submission with this one. It was a way to distract myself from the painful process of having a book out on submission—I’m still working on it, five years later. Publishing is a tough business, writing is glorious.

Join Maggie Ginsberg and Nickolas Butler for a conversation on her debut novel Still True, craft, and writing about place and home at 6pm on Wednesday Sept. 28 at the L.E. Phillips Memorial Public Library.