“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.

The Future of Writing: The Potential for AI To Benefit Writers Rather Than Replace Them

McKenna Dutton

Over Christmas break, I heard about this new AI called ChatGPT. It’s a natural language processing tool driven by AI. To use it, you need only to Google it, create an account, and then make ChatGPT take on the heavy lifting from there. Ask any question from “What should I do today?” to “Write me a 500-word essay” and AI will provide you a written answer. I think I asked ChatGPT to give me book recommendations and as soon as it answered it weirded me out. I immediately logged off the account and hoped to never interact with it again.

            Unquestionably, ChatGPT has the potential to change the way writers write. What does it mean for the future of writing?

            I started my search by digging into how AI can affect story writing. Not specifically ChatGPT but other software that is used to help students, teachers, or anyone interested in learning how to write. I found an article from April 2023 that was published by the Springer Journal and was authored by four researchers: Xiaoxuan Fang, Davy Ng, Jac Leung, and Samuel Chu.

            “…people have encountered various challenges when writing their digital stories. First, people lack creativity and fail to brainstorm story settings (e.g., characters, time, place), themes attempted, and consequences, climax and resolution,” the authors state.

“AI can benefit writers rather than replace them”

— McKenna Dutton

            Writers know the frustration of staring endlessly at a blank page in search of perfect words. This article argues that this frustration can be minimized with a little help from AI. AI can benefit writers rather than replace them. The once tedious routine of staring at the blank page can now be relieved with an AI co-author.

            “Nowadays, many story authoring software, story animation, and storytelling tools are empowered by AI, which helps users generate suggestions to write parts of or even a fully coherent story,” the article continues. “It helps users to produce story settings (e.g., storylines, plots, characters), analyze and generate sentences, and paragraphs, and adapt to writing styles….”

            You might not even realize you’re using smaller versions of this kind of AI. Grammarly is a commonly used writing assistant that helps with spelling, and sentence structure, and can even check for plagiarism. And even though the idea of AI seems scary, the authors argue, AI seems to be making a positive outcome for writers.

            “Writers can ask the AI to create suggestions or ideas based on specific vocabulary or phrases. We can see that AI has made significant contributions to collaborating with human writers to generate stories…” the authors note.

            While the human author and AI co-author can produce great results, there’s something about a human author that an AI system can never fully capture. The human spirit. It’s cheesy, sure (and perhaps an AI co-author could help me alleviate some of that cheese), but the truth is that human readers rely on human writers to help them find solace in words. The swooning feeling of when the two main love interests finally fall for each other, the intrigue of reading any mystery or true crime novel, and the understanding and empathy that comes from reading incredible true stories. AI systems can never connect emotionally with readers like a human author.

            What will be the future of writing? I think it will lead to a human author and an AI co-author writing partnership. While there is nothing like the pure emotion a human author can create, most authors would appreciate a little help from AI that can work with the tedious side of writing: the endless spell checks, typos, and sentence structure. The future of writing will be different, but maybe it doesn’t have to be as intimidating as we think.

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.  

"Kuv Yog Hmoob": Coming Together To Celebrate Hmong Writers and Storytellers

McKenna Dutton

What makes a writer? Is it the number of words they write? The stories they tell? The number of rejections they get? I think writers are those courageous enough to proclaim that they are one. For S.Z. Putnam, her love for writing blossomed through reading. At the age of eight or nine, she had read almost the entirety of books in her house. Reading helped her feel seen, heard, and inspired. Witnessing others who achieved the dream of publishing made it seem possible for her.

S.Z. Putnam hopes to bring that same inspiration to the Hmong community of writers in Eau Claire. On May 6th at 2:00 PM, in partnership with the Eau Claire Area Hmong Mutual Assistance Association, she will host “Kuv Yog Hmoob (I Am Hmong): Hmong Writers and Storytellers”, an event celebrating and showcasing Hmong writers and storytellers in our community and beyond. I recently had the chance to chat with S.Z. about writing, community, and the Kuv Yog Hmoob event.

McKenna Dutton: Can you share a bit about your background in writing?

S.Z Putnam: I was one of those kids who had a very active imagination. I absolutely loved reading. Anything I could read I was reading. I think I had read all the books in my house by the time I was eight or nine. I am a first generation born child of my parents here in the U.S. and I just realized that I would never pursue a career in journalism because I was never going to leave town. Because I could never leave my parents behind. Giving up writing is what I thought I needed to do to “grow up.” I’ve come full circle and I feel like writing is something that I was meant to do. I’ve always been passionate about it and what I’m hoping for is to show other young writers, or just any writer that may feel like they can’t have a voice in this space that they can. I want to help champion that and leave some footprints behind for them.”

MD: Tell me more about the structure of this event.

S.Z: I was a part of another event that I thought was amazing. We had a bunch of Chinese individuals that were here reading poetry and it was really in that space that I was really able to connect with so many of them.  [BJ Hollars] said, “Why don’t we host something?” I just jumped on it because there’s something about wanting to connect with other individuals and kind of wanting to lead them. Because when I started writing again about two years ago, my biggest fear was: “It’s been so long. I haven’t written anything in so long. What if I’m not any good anymore? I’m not saying anything people want to hear. How do I judge myself amongst my peers?” It’s a terrifying thing to put your work out there and have people you know judge it much less strangers judge it. That for me was really huge and I’m just hoping that by hearing my story and how I felt about my own writing I hope it really gives them hope that they have words that need to be heard. That needs to be shared and it’s only through the sharing of our words as humans that we really can realize how much more similar we are than we are different.

MD: What is your intention for this event?

“I would love to showcase the talent we have in the Eau Claire area, you know, especially with the Hmong community. Because we are a people of folklore, stories, and everything in my culture has been passed through language forever.”

— S.Z. Putnam

S.Z: I’m hoping to get writers out. I’m hoping that they see other writers like themselves. That they can see themselves as each of these writers come out and share either pieces of themselves or of other people. I just hope they feel inspired to write more or they bring a friend along who’s maybe a closeted writer or journals, and that that individual starts to do something. I would love to showcase the talent we have in the Eau Claire area, you know, especially with the Hmong community. Because we are a people of folklore, stories, and everything in my culture has been passed through language forever. Because our written language is fairly new, and they’re all in American letters, and they were never like that before because our language was destroyed. I know we have a lot of storytellers out there because our ancestors were storytellers. We just have to get them there.” 

MD: What do you hope your audience gets out of this event?

S.Z: I tend to write about trauma, mental health, and healing. Those are things I touch on a lot because generational trauma is a huge thing. My parents grew up in wartime. They came to the U.S. with barely anything while carrying all these images of trauma with them. I just want their voices to be heard. I want the kids growing up who don’t think they are Hmong enough and don’t know if they are American enough, I want them to know that their voices are heard. And that we are just like them and there is compassion in this world. Even with so much division, there is so much love to be found. I would love to bridge that somehow and if I can do it with my writing then that’s how I’m going to do it. If I can inspire others to do it too, that would help me push this movement. I think it’s also so important for this community, which has a fairly large Hmong population, to know that there is beauty in being different and there is beauty in sharing different cultures, different viewpoints, and different words.

 “Kuv Yog Hmoob (I Am Hmong): Hmong Writers And Storytellers” will take place on May 6th from 2:00 - 3:30 p.m. at the Eau Claire Area Hmong Mutual Assistance Association. Come and join to celebrate Hmong writers! For additional information about the event, click here!

Rediscovering Family: Behind-the-scenes of "Searching for Mike Teclaw: An Unauthorized Biography"

By McKenna Dutton

For some, “family” has an enduring meaning. For others, “family” might feel distant. Whether your family is blood or found, everyone needs one and it’s nice to know where you come from. That’s what motivated the Eau Claire writer-in-residence Ken Szymanski to learn about his late grandfather Mike Teclaw. Before Szymanski was born his grandpa Teclaw passed away. Later in life, Szymanski’s son was born around the same time his own father passed away. Szymanski knew he wanted his son to better understand his late father in the same way he wanted to better understand his late grandfather. Ken grew curious about the infamous grandfather he never knew, and over the years, he began collecting stories from family members and friends. So many that he wrote an unauthorized biography of the grandfather he never met.

“It took a long time,” Szymanski says of the project. “-My son was born sixteen years ago and that’s when I started… I thought only my relatives would be interested in this, but I showed it to someone outside of the family and she said this is really interesting. There was a more universal appeal than just my family,” Szymanski says.

Over time, Szymanski realized this story was too big to be told on the page. That’s where musician Derick Black came into the picture. Szymanski and Black met through their mutual passion for teaching. When Szymanski pitched the idea of creating his manuscript into a live reading with music, Black was skeptical.

“When Ken originally pitched the idea to me I thought, ‘“So I’m kinda like the commercial between the different acts of your story.’”

 Szymanski clarified that the music was, in fact, foundational to the story. After a bit of practice, the pair found their groove, with the words and music complementing each other.

“It’s a pretty cool marriage between the two,” Black says.

“Searching for Mike Teclaw” is a celebration of life to the people we call family. Those we know now, and those we wish we could’ve known better.

““What I’m doing with these types of stories is a form of genealogy.””

— Ken Szymanski

 “What I’m doing with these types of stories is a form of genealogy,” Szymanski says, “Instead of just the names and dates [I] find the stories behind [them]. The stories of [peoples] lives are what should be worth searching for and I hope people reflect on their own grandparents and their own ancestors… If the person isn’t around or if they never met them it’s still not too late to get to know them and discover their story,” Szymanski says.

“Searching for Mike Teclaw: An Unauthorized Biography” will be performed live on April 20th, 6:30-7:30 in the Riverview Room at the L.E. Phillips Memorial Public Library. Come for a great show and leave inspired to explore what family means to you.

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!

Celebrating Poetry at the UW-Eau Claire Campus: Naomi Shihab Nye at The Forum

Atalissa Wells

As we turn to the month of April on our calendars, National Poetry Month officially begins. The University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire campus is ready to kick off poetry month with Naomi Shihab Nye! Nye, an acclaimed poet and author with multiple publications, was also a Young People’s Poet Laureate from 2019-2022. She will be joining the Eau Claire community on Thursday, April 6th. The event, which begins at 7:30 pm in Schofield Auditorium, is open to students and community members. Tickets can be purchased at the UW-Eau Claire Ticket Office Home page.

Kate Hinnant, who works as a professor, librarian, and is the head of Instruction and Communication at UW-Eau Claire, has been organizing this Forum event in collaboration with the annual Frederick and Joan Christopherson Schmidt Robert Frost Celebration of American Poetry. After having the opportunity to speak with Hinnant, here’s important information for future attendees of The Forum poetry event.

Atalissa Wells: What can attendees expect from this Forum?

Kate Hinnant: Naomi Shihab Nye writes poetry that is both direct and often provocative, but with a wide range of subject. She uses the personal to open up questions about the clashes that occur between different cultures and people.  As a long-time resident of San Antonio, Texas and a Palestinian American, she has a lot of experience to draw upon, and has written quite a bit about the Middle East and Muslim Americans.  But her poetry can take a much more internal focus, such as with "Boy and Egg" which captures the singular focus of a child's attention.

AW: Why was Naomi Shihab Nye chosen as a Special Forum guest? What unique things will she bring to the series?

KH: One of the things we considered heavily was our audience.  We wanted to bring a nationally acclaimed poet to campus, but we wanted someone who students would be interested in hearing: she is political, she is personal, and I think students will enjoy her writing. Nye has worked, almost ambassador-style, for poetry for many years.  She has reached many different audiences.  In addition to her 14 books of adult poetry, she has many for both children and young adults.  She was the Poetry Foundation's Young People's Poet Laureate from 2019-2022.

AW: How will the Forum tie into the Robert Frost celebration occurring on the UW-Eau Claire campus?

KH: We wanted to invite an acclaimed poet for the 10th anniversary of the Robert Frost celebration, so we decided to mix up the format and collaborate with the forum to bring Naomi Shihab Nye here.

AW: What else should audiences be aware of before attending this event?

KH: Both the Eau Claire Public Library and McIntyre Library on campus have copies of Nye's books available.  Readers can also sample a selection of her poems at the Poetry Foundation and at the Academy of American Poets site.

Get your tickets now for the April 6th event, highlighting Naomi Shihab Nye and the Robert Frost Celebration of American Poetry to uplift the art of poetry during National Poetry Month. The event begins at 7:30 pm in Schofield Auditorium on the UW-Eau Claire campus.

Poetry and the Planet Coming into Alignment with Local Reading Event

McKenna Dutton

Living in the Midwest we appreciate the transition into spring. After a much-too-long winter, the endless snow finally thaws and the elusive sun finally returns. Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Eau Claire will host “Poetry for the Planet,” not only to spring us into the new season but to employ poetry as a means to shine a light on sustainability. April isn’t just National Poetry Month; its also the month for Earth Day. By hosting this event, UUC Eau Claire reverend Julianne Lepp plans to bring these two great celebrations together.

Readers for this event represent a diverse array of our literary community. The line-up includes Lopamudra Basu, Laurel Kieffer, Erna Kelly, Jan Carroll, Jessi Peterson, Woody Myers, Karen Loeb, and Max Garland. Many of the readers have published full-length collections, including Carroll (Enough of a Path To Get Through), Peterson (Century Farm), and Garland (whose latest collection, Into the Good World Again was just released in March). Additionally, Laurel Kieffer recently published a piece in Barstow & Grand, Karen Loeb served as Eau Claire’s Writer in Residence (among other accolades) and Erna Kelly has edited the Wisconsin Fellowship of Poet’s annual calendar.

By bringing these talented writers and poets together, Lepp hopes to encourage the community to participate in something new; exposing them not only to Eau Claire's illustrious writing community but, to the potentially unknown areas of poetry and planet sustainability.

“I hope people get a chance to see the talents of local writers. We have a really strong writing community in Eau Claire,” says Lepp. “We can showcase people's creativity for a good cause which is Earth Day and environmentalism and help people remember that they should be mindful and love the world around them.”

“Listening to poets read is a transformative experience because you hear it in their own words, in their own piece, their own inflection, their own voice.”

— Rev. Julianne Lepp

While acknowledging that some people tend to find poetry intimidating, Lepp hopes that this event will diffuse any such feelings. “Listening to poets read is a transformative experience because you hear it in their own words, in their own piece, their own inflection, their own voice.” Lepp hopes community members will come out, not only to support local writers, but also to be reminded of, and inspired by, Mother Earth.

Join the Unitarian Universalist Congregation and fellow writers and poets on April 2 at 7:00 p.m. in person or virtually to celebrate Poetry for the Planet.

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 Home Beyond the Pages: How Young Adult Fiction Helps Audience Find a Home in the World

Atalissa Wells

One of the many incredible abilities of books is how readers can find a home among the pages. Worlds that only exist in paper and ink, characters that validate personal experiences, and that sense of escapism that many readers treasure whenever they pick up a book. However, there is also the importance of using literature to show readers how to find their place in the world we live in. This is especially prevalent in Young Adult (YA) fiction.

 On Thursday, March 16th from 7 pm – 8 pm, YA authors Ellen O’Clover and Nicole Kronzer will be virtually conversing about the concept of using YA fiction to teach teen readers how to find a home in the world during their book talk Finding a Home in the World. They’ll also cover topics like what it takes from a writing standpoint to focus on the genuine lives of teenagers in their current climate.

““[R]eading has the unique magic of transporting you somewhere else. Introducing you to new ideas that you might resonate with in ways that curb your loneliness or assure you that you do belong.””

— Ellen O'Clover

 For Ellen O’Clover, a large part of the power of literature, or art of any kind, is its ability to relate a situation, feeling, or person to something else, diminishing the sense of isolation that is prevalent in anyone’s life, but especially those of teenagers. “Any feeling you’ve ever had–even the ones you might think are ugly–has been felt by someone else too,” O’Clover says. “There’s a lot of power and peace in that.”

 Through writing YA fiction, O’Clover hopes to connect readers, understanding the feeling of being young and having limited information on the big world surrounding teenagers. She finds that the importance of YA fiction comes from the fact that “reading has the unique magic of transporting you somewhere else. Introducing you to new ideas that you might resonate with in ways that curb your loneliness or assure you that you do belong.”

 Nicole Kronzer, an Eau Claire native, was born in the city, moved around for a couple of years, and then lived here through high school graduation. She credits the city and how her home shaped who she is. “Eau Claire is a big reason I ended up as a confident person who believed she could do anything she set her mind to,” Kronzer says.

 Utilizing her experience as both a part-time high school English teacher and part-time YA author, she can witness and understand the lives of teenagers. She spends time surrounded by her high school seniors and her own teenage children, allowing her to be “tapped into the universal feelings of that exciting, difficult time.”

 Both authors have recently published a YA novel. Ellen O’Clover’s Seven Percent of Ro Devereux is about a girl who dreams of working in tech, but also depicts the fear of what it means to be eighteen. Ro creates an app that predicts the future, causing more problems than anticipated.  O’Clover hopes readers will remember that “we don’t need to have all the answers–or even a solid plan–to be worthy or to find joy. That we can give ourselves the grace to make mistakes and trust ourselves to figure it all out as we go.”

 Nicole Kronzer’s novel, aptly named The Roof Over Our Heads, follows a seventeen-year-old boy who is trying to figure out who he is within a theatrical family and how to earn his place among them. She admits that sometimes the protagonist can be their very own antagonist, a commonplace thing in the world of teenagers when your worst enemy can be yourself. Kronzer says, “Ellen and I both wrote books about kids feeling like they have to do specific things in order to be loved,” and she looks forward to discussing both books with Ellen as they comment on the differences and similarities.

Join Ellen O’Clover and Nicole Kronzer on March 16th from 7 pm– 8 pm. This is a virtual event and registration is required. Registration is open now, so head to the L.E. Phillips Memorial Public Library website to sign up.

Regional Writers Converge to Connect with Life Stories

McKenna Dutton

Come one, come all to “Life Makes Art: Three Writers on How Life Experiences Shape Writing”—a panel discussion featuring three Wisconsin writers coming together to talk about, you guessed it, how their life experiences have shaped their work. Join in on the excitement on April 13th at 6:30 PM at the L.E. Phillips Memorial Public Library!

Eau Claire writer-in-residence Ken Szymanski is excited to moderate this event.

“We have three diverse authors, a panel discussion, and there'll be some readings as well,” Syzmanski says, “so I think it’ll really give people the idea of how the authors write about their personal experiences and we get to hear examples of that.”

The “Life Makes Art” discussion is an attempt to connect community members with local writers. It’s also a way for people in the community’s budding writers to learn from experienced writers about their process. It’s a change from the usual one-presenter craft talk model.

““It’s different from a [craft talk and Q&A] with one author because hopefully you’re getting three different perspectives that can challenge each other and play off of each other.””

— Ken Szymanski

“It's different from a [craft talk and Q&A] with one author because hopefully you’re getting three different perspectives that can challenge each other and play off of each other,” Szymanski says. “As the moderator, I’ll throw myself into the mix and hopefully we’ll get a lively discussion rather than a lecture.”

One of the three panelists is Cathy Sultan. She is the author of seven books ranging from fiction to nonfiction. Some of her work includes: An Ambassador to Syria, The Syrian and Damascus Street. Sultan expresses that being able to collaborate with her fellow Eau Claire writers is an exciting opportunity.

“Just being able to talk with fellow writers I find that very energizing and intellectually stimulating,” Sultan says, “I think my fellow authors at the event feel the same way...”

The two other panelists are Patti See and Bruce Taylor. Patti is the author of Here on Lake Hallie: In Praise of the Barflies, The Fix-it Guys, and Other Folks in Our Hometown.  See is also an academic advisor and teaches an honors class in creative nonfiction at UWEC. Bruce Taylor is a poet, an emeritus English professor at UWEC, the city’s former poet laureate, and has published several collections of poetry, including Pity the World  and The Longest You’ve Lived Anywhere.

And so, we invite you again: come one, come all, to this lively exchange on writing life experiences featuring Cathy Sultan, Patti See, and Bruce Taylor. Mark your calendars for April 13th at 6:30 at the L.E. Phillips Memorial Public Library!

Step Right Up For Some “Death-Defying Acts!”: A Sneak Preview!

McKenna Dutton

The Sound & Stories “Death-Defying Acts” show is coming to Eau Claire! It’s an event for stories and music that will leave you on the edge of your seat. Storytellers Sheng Elizabeth Lor, Kaia Simon, Billy Felz, and Garrett Denney, plus musician Jerrika Mighelle, are stepping onto the stage to share their talents.

CVWG founder and director B.J. Hollars is excited about the latest installment of this popular series.

“The Sound and Stories series has been a hallmark of the Chippewa Valley Writers Guild for the past five years,” Hollars said. “We selected the theme ‘Death-Defying Acts’ to showcase a few of the more harrowing stories from our region’s residence.” He’s particularly thrilled by the thematic collaboration between storytellers and musician Jerrika Mighelle. “It is such a pleasure to watch how the music weaves alongside the stories,” Hollars said.

Jerrika Mighelle is a musician from the Eau Claire area. She has two albums: Like the Sea and Brightest Star. Both albums were outlets for the singer. In 2016 Mighelle’s mother passed away and as a way to cope, Mighelle’s turned to music. The 2017 release of her album Brightest Star was an ode to her grief and loss from her mother’s death the year before. Volume One’s Eric Christenson wrote in his 2021 article about the emotional strength behind Mighelle’s second album, “…she found a way to channel that anger, that regret, that anguish into something real and tangible.” With her raw connection between emotion and music Jerrika Mighelle will be able to let the authenticity of the other “Death-Defying Act'' stories come through.

Another creative showing emotional strength on the stage is storyteller Sheng Elizabeth Lor.  

Lor has a podcast called the Social X Change. It’s a platform where creatives and underrepresented voices in the community can speak out. Lor especially takes pride in representing her Hmong culture on her show. Lor’s other passions involve helping people of creative backgrounds find opportunities to display their craft. Lor explained how bringing the community of Eau Claire together through art can serve as a form of activism. This will be Lor’s first time stepping into the storytelling spotlight.

“I’m a consumer and a producer not a performer,” Lor said.  “This is a moment for me to be vulnerable.”

Lor plans to share a story that captures the experience of people who face every day trauma. She hopes that sharing this will be a way for the audience to “...connect to the families and victims who face trauma in any form. To remind everyone that anyone struggling deserves to feel seen and loved,” Lor said.

Her story centers on mental health, and how though it may not seem like someone is struggling, there is often something going on behind the scenes unknown to others. It’s a story of empathy that she hopes the community can relate to.

 “It's about being a warrior,” Lor said.  “And the ability we have to normalize these stories.”

Sounds and Stories presents, “Death-Defying Acts” on February 21 from 7:00-8:30 p.m. in the Riverside Room at the Pablo Center! Tickets for the show are $10 (fees included) and are available here. Please join us in welcoming Sheng Elizabeth Lor, Jerrika Mighelle, and the other artists take the stage!

"Writing OUT”: A Conversation With Charles Payseur

Atalissa Wells

When we read books or watch movies, we often find ourselves searching for someone who can represent us, someone we can look at, and feel as if we fit in their shoes, their story. However, this is not the case for everyone, including members of the LGBTQ+ community.

Charles Payseur, an Eau Claire resident who has written a plethora of stories and poems, has experienced the difficulty of lacking representation for the queer community.  However, his short fiction pieces contain queer characters, providing him experience as both a receiver and influencer of LGBTQ+ representation in media.

I had the pleasure of interviewing Charles, addressing questions about the event, as well as information about his journey in writing out.

Atalissa Wells: The title of the event is “Writing OUT.”  What does writing out mean to you?

Charles Payseur: So the title was meant to pull double duty, being both about writing out—writing and publishing while being an out LGBTQ+ person—and writing out—using writing as a tool to educate about, advocate for, and feature LGBTQ+ characters and themes in stories and books. Both things are important, and LGBTQ+ writers have to navigate the complexities of both, from how out to be personally and as an author (online and in business spaces) to how to portray LGBTQ+ themes and characters in their works. To me, writing out is a messy but interesting idea that I really want to talk about and examine.

AW: Can you tell me a little more about the panel's authors and publishers (J.M. Lee, Catherine Lundoff, and Kat Weaver)?

CP: All three are amazing writers, and all three are in rather different points in their careers and do a bit different things. I’m a big fan of all of them and I’ll allow them to sort of introduce themselves:

J.M. Lee spent his formative years searching for talking animals and believing he could control the weather. After pursuing nerdy interests in comparative film studies, screenwriting, and Shakespeare, he graduated with a much nerdier degree in linguistics. In addition to writing novels, he enjoys teaching his dog new vocabulary words and updating his snooty coffee blog.

Catherine Lundoff is an award-winning writer, editor, and publisher. Her books include Silver Moon, Blood Moon, Out of This World and Unfinished Business and, as editor, Scourge of the Seas of Time (and Space). Her short stories and essays have appeared in such venues as Queer Weird Western Stories, Divergent Terror, Sherlock Holmes and the Occult Detectives, Fireside Magazine, Nightmare Magazine, the SFWA Blog, and several World of Darkness anthologies and games. She is the publisher at Queen of Swords Press and teaches writing and publishing classes at the Loft Literary Center, the Rambo Academy and Clarion West Online. Websites: www.catherinelundoff.net and www.queenofswordspress.com

Kat Weaver is a writer and illustrator whose short fiction has been published in Apex Magazine, Timeworn Literary Journal, Lackington’s, and elsewhere. Currently, she is one of the senior fiction editors at Strange Horizons, a Hugo-nominated speculative fiction magazine. Neon Hemlock Press recently published her debut novella Uncommon Charm, co-written with her wife, Emily Bergslien. The two of them live in Saint Paul, Minnesota. You can find her on Twitter @anoteinpink.

AW: As the moderator, what do you hope to bring to your role in the discussion?

CP: A lot of my work as a critic, writer, and editor focuses on LGBTQ+ and LGBTQ+ authored works. And in my work as a part of the Chippewa Valley LGBTQ+ Community Center, I’m constantly thinking about ways both to help LGBTQ+ people find safety and success and ways to educate people about the complicated ways that LGBTQ+ media and LGBTQ+ themes and characters in media are related, and how things have changed over time, both for the better and, well, not so much. I hope to be able to guide the conversation through these rather thorny topics and give the panelists room to dig into what they do and how it’s amazing.

AW: What is one aspect of the importance of LGBTQ+ representation in media that you are most looking forward to the panel discussing?

CP: I am eager to get a bit more into the idea that LGBTQ+ representation goes beyond the characters that exist in stories and their identities. While that’s a hugely important thing, I also think when talking about representation we have to discuss presence outside the fiction, and how LGBTQ+ representation without LGBTQ+ presence (in the various creative and technical levels of publishing and media) can and has worked historically, and what progress might be getting made to work toward a wider and more diverse vision of what representation is and can be.

AW: Who is someone in the media (fictitious or real) that has impacted or inspired your own life and understanding of representation for the LGBTQ+ community?

CP: The works of LGBTQ+ creators have been incredibly impactful in my life. The short works of Sam J. Miller and R.B. Lemberg not only showed me what was possible to write about and portray, but also gave me characters and language that helped me to better understand myself. And they opened a door that had been largely closed to me because of the suppression of LGBTQ+ works, revealing histories and communities I hadn’t known I was a part of.

AW: How has the idea of representation in media influenced your own writing and the queer characters in your stories?

“It’s such a complex thing, because on the one hand there are stories you want to write to speak your truth, to really show something about yourself that doesn’t ever really get portrayed. On the other hand, those stories often have very difficult roads to publication, and can face resistance from editors and even readers who either aren’t comfortable with those stories, or feel they might lose business or revenue by publishing them.”

— Charles Payseur

CP: It’s such a complex thing, because on the one hand there are stories you want to write to speak your truth, to really show something about yourself that doesn’t ever really get portrayed. On the other hand, those stories often have very difficult roads to publication, and can face resistance from editors and even readers who either aren’t comfortable with those stories, or feel they might lose business or revenue by publishing them. There can be a kind of pressure to tone things down, or write trying to appease an assumed “general reader” whose opinions on LGBTQ+ issues might not be compassionate or informed. And sometimes you write precisely out of anger and frustration about that assumed “general reader,” refusing to hide or take fewer risks. And sometimes that really pays off, and sometimes you end up with a story that never gets published.

AW: What is something you’d want people to know about the event before they arrive?

CP: That the panelists are amazing and that we’re all very lucky to have them here to speak! Beyond that, if people aren’t familiar with the panelists yet, I think there will be a chance not only to ask questions, but to purchase some of their work or get something signed. It’s going to be wonderful!

Join Charles, J.M., Catherine, and Kat in the Riverview Room at the L.E. Phillips Memorial Public Library on February 25, 2023 from 11 am-1 pm to discuss the important topic of LGBTQ+ representation in media at the event Writing OUT.

Ron Davis Revs Up on Book Two: Rubber Side Down

Thomas DeLapp

When Ron Davis mounts up on one of his motorcycles, he’s not just there to have a good time and burn some rubber: he’s ready to rev up and write. His new book, Rubber Side Down: The Improbable Implication to Travel on Two Wheels, comprised of columns, memoirs, and other essays, takes readers on the road with him.

Why is it so improbable to ride a motorcycle, you might well ask.

“It really expresses the way I feel about it,” Davis shared. “When you look at motorcycling, there’s really no good reason to ride a motorcycle. I mean, you’re exposing yourself to the elements, it’s incredibly dangerous, it's not the greatest form of transportation. It’s improbable that so many people would be drawn to it. But, on the other side, there are some very special things about it that I think attract people to motorcycling, to keep them in the saddle, to keep them riding.”

 Riders: read! But Davis assures those who haven’t chugged down highways on two wheels of their own that there’s still plenty to love and relate to.

“I feel like, in my own small way, I’m writing about what makes us human, and using motorcycling as — I hate to say this — as a vehicle. Excuse the pun. That’s what I enjoy the most. Writing about motorcycles has given me the chance to write about my family, it's given me the chance to write about my father, it's given me the chance to write about girlfriends.”

Over the years, Davis has made plenty of contributions to various motorcycle magazines and Wisconsin Public Radio, as well as a column for BMW Owners News.

“I got hooked into writing for motorcycle magazines, basically because I started writing reviews, and I ended up with a lot of free stuff,” Davis said.

After the reviews and free stuff, Davis had to get used to writing a regular column. Most everything you can say about motorcycles has been written, he said — so where could he innovate?

“I ran across a book by Peter Egan, who’s a motorcycle rider — and I’m by no means an expert motorcyclist, I haven’t ridden around the world or anything like that — but reading his book was kind of a revelation because he’s one of the preeminent writers when it comes to writing about motorcycles. The thing that struck me was that most of his stories are about the human side.”

Rubber Side Down, and its predecessor, Shiny Side Up, carry a lot of heart in their saddlebags.

Davis, a rider and a writer, knows there’s plenty out there on the road to see — but there’s even more when you ride back home.

“I just gave a copy of the book to my grandson, he’s only nine years old, but I feel like someday, he may look at that and want to know what his grandpa was like. That book reveals a lot of what I’m like and not so much about motorcycling.”

Ron’s new book, Rubber Side Down: The Improbably Inclination to Travel on Two Wheels, is available at The Local Store and wherever books are sold in print, Kindle, and Nook formats.

A Creative Life: Thomas King on Taking the Time to Create Every Day

Thomas King

By Gracie Schutte

Thomas Wayne King leads a creative life, one that manifests itself from novels to textbooks and songs to family stories. He’s been in the creating business since he was young and has no intention of slowing down the creative cogs in his head anytime soon.

“Almost everyone has creative ideas or thoughts, but they don’t act on them. My rule is … create every day.”

— Thomas King

“I think everyone creates,” King said. “Almost everyone has creative ideas or thoughts, but they don’t act on them. My rule is … create every day. The corollary to that is make it tangible. … Create all you can, but in order to get to that, make whatever pops through your head tangible, get up and work on it.”

That’s exactly what King has done. Since retiring as a professor of Communication Sciences and Disorders at UW-Eau Claire back in 2005, King has spent his time putting those creative juices to work—he’s even applied them in academia.

As a Speech Language Pathologist, King specialized in two areas of study in the field: professional and performative voice disorders and assistive technology. Back in the day, King’s work was some of the first of its kind, leading him to publish a textbook on assistive technology and human factors. Since then, he’s gone on to write more textbooks and revise others, and is considered an expert in the field.

“That requires a lot of creativity,” King said, “to come up with creative solutions. My work now is applying what I know from science, from clinical research and scientific experience in creative and innovative ways, then writing about it. That’s one side of my life.”

The other side, though, looks much different: it’s full of stories of the north, the environment, and vocal and instrumental songs. In his multiple series, King explores fiction and nonfiction, life and science in ways that are new, different, and local.

All of King’s books can be found and purchased on Amazon, including his Redpump Chronicles, Tales of the Northland, and my personal favorite Oh My Gosh…. Have We Got Squash! But be sure to keep an eye out, because King has more stories percolating.

“I’ve got so many more book ideas, I’m just trying to live long enough to get them all out,” King said.

The life of a creative, folks.  

A Celebration of Chinese Poetry and Music at Artisan Forge Studios

By Carlee Shimek

For poet enthusiasts, Chinese cultural enthusiasts, and enthusiastic people in general, come and experience the magnificence that is Chinese poetry at “A Celebration of Chinese Poetry and Music.” This Sunday, December 18 from 2-3:30pm at Artisan Forge Studios, a culmination of Chinese poetry, local poetry writers, and an accompanying Chinese musical group will be hosted by local tea (and of course poetry) enthusiast Xin Obaid.

“I want to show the difference between Chinese poetry reading and American poetry reading,” Obaid said. “For myself, I feel Chinese poetry is more musically than English. It’s really a performance.”

Xin Obaid, event organizer

Obaid owns a tea shop—MingXin Chinese Cultural Exchange—in Artisan Forge Studios, teaches a Chinese language class at Artisan Forge, and is herself a popular poet and writer published in China. The event is also an early celebratory exchange for the upcoming Chinese New Year on January 23. Obaid said that every time Chinese New Year comes around, she has wanted to do something with the Eau Claire community in celebrating it. Now, her opportunity has arrived.

““I just want to let Eau Claire people know more about the Chinese culture.””

— Xin Obaid

“I just want to let Eau Claire people know more about the Chinese culture,” Obaid said.

Two long-distance travelers, friends of Obaid, will be coming to Eau Claire, purely for this event: Fan Xiaoming all the way from China and Dr. Li Xiaohong from New York. They love poetry that much and are excited to showcase it with Obaid.

Local writers, Karen Loeb, Yvette Flaten, Sara Bryan, SZ Putnam, and BJ Hollars will all be reading some of their own work along with their favorite Chinese poem.

In addition to poetry, a Chinese musical group from Minneapolis will be performing. Music and Chinese poetry are often intermingled, Obaid shared with me over a delicious cup of tea made from her family’s tea farm back in the Hunan province of China.  This tradition will be continued during Sunday’s show.

Xin Obaid

In addition to contemporary poems, readers will also feature Chinese poetry from the Tang and Song Dynasties. This event truly has it all: local poetry, ancient Chinese poetry, and music—a culturally rich way to spend a Sunday in Eau Claire.

“If you want to learn or know Chinese culture, or special Chinese poetry, you need to come here, it’s totally different [from] American culture and American poetry reading,” Obaid said. With 5,000 years of history residing in the vastness of Chinese culture, it is certainly worth it to promote and showcase it to the world. Obaid is bringing her Chinese home to her second home of Eau Claire.

As far back as the Song Dynasty, a saying has persisted throughout Chinese history: “firewood, rice, oil, salt, sauce, vinegar, and tea”. It is the Seven Necessities, where if you have these seven things when you wake up, you will have a decent day. Obaid would like to add one more thing to the list: poetry. 

“[When] I moved here from China, some people told me Eau Claire is a diverse city, that make me love Eau Claire more. So then I thought if it’s that way, then we shall share every kind of culture.””

— Xin Obaid

“I feel honored to share my motherland culture,” Obaid said. “[When] I moved here from China, some people told me Eau Claire is a diverse city, that make me love Eau Claire more. So then I thought if it’s that way, then we shall share every kind of culture.”

To learn more about the event, go to Chippewa Valley Writers Guild.