Midwest Literary Carnival

The Midwest Literary Carnival is a celebration of the Midwest literary voice -- the writing, culture and literary heritage of the Midwest. We aim to provide a perspective on this region and to showcase the magnificent work being produced here, the stories that need to be told and the words that need to be heard in fiction, poetry, song and essay.

5 Back-To-School Books Set In Midwest

Tuesday, August 4, 2015, 2:50pm

You may not want to think about it but summer will soon be winding down and school starting. With that in mind, we've pulled together some Midwestern books set in schools to put you in a studious mood.

5 Books Set In Twin Cities For Armchair Travel Reading List

Thursday, July 9, 2015, 8:45am

It’s summer and with everyone off on some kind of adventure, we’re taking to the page to discover destinations in our own backyard.

Continuing our look at books set in Midwestern cities (catch up on our rundown for Milwaukee here), this armchair traveler is headed to Minneapolis and St. Paul.

The Twin Cities are frequently ranked among the most literate cities, with their bounty of indie bookstores, notable publishers and the Loft Literary Center, the largest nonprofit literary center in the country.

Sure, it’s a great place to be a reader and writer — but what’s it like for fictional characters? Dark secrets, abusive families and...

Midwest Lit: 61 Books About Midwestern Music For Summer

Tuesday, June 23, 2015, 10:55am

With Summerfest kicking off this week in Milwaukee, it seemed only appropriate to delve into the rich musical legacy of the Midwest. Being bookish, I went to the written word.

There’s no shortage of writing about music or even writing by musicians, despite that old cliche that "writing about music is like dancing about architecture." But words have their place, particularly in making sense of something as diverse and ultimately personal as music. The list below is not a definitive be-all-end-all list nor is it a list of the "best." The wide range of musical styles, sounds, and formats (critical study, anthology, memoir, to name...

Midwest Lit: 5 Books For Your Summer Reading List That Take Place In Milwaukee

Wednesday, June 17, 2015, 1:35pm

It’s summer, and everyone seems to be off on an adventure. Maybe you already have something planned, but if not, might we suggest some Midwestern armchair travel?

Midwest Lit: Ben Percy's Howling Wilderness

Friday, June 5, 2015, 2:40pm

The latest novel from Benjamin Percy is a reason to keep the lights on. In the contemporary literary landscape, nobody writes fear the way he does — except maybe Stephen King, who is one of Percy’s many fans.

Percy's latest is "The Dead Lands", a frontier story with a twist: It’s set in a post-apocalyptic wasteland, an America that’s been wiped clean by a combination of superflu and nuclear warheads. Into this devastated wilderness rides a small band of desperate heroes, led by none other than Lewis and Clark — fictionally reincarnated as Lewis Meriwether and Mina Clark.

...

Midwest Lit: Midwestern Beach Reads

Thursday, June 4, 2015, 3:35pm

Who says you need an ocean for a beach read? Here are some newish books from Midwestern writers that we’re looking forward to curling up with by our salt-free seas.

"Beneath the Bonfire: Stories" by Nikolas Butler

Ten short stories set in Wisconsin and Minnesota featuring people struggling with each other, with the land, with change, and with themselves.

"Summerlong" by Dean Bakopoulos

The simmering tensions lying just beneath the surface of a contented marriage come to the fore one summer in an Iowa college town.

"What Burns Away" by Melissa Falcon Field

A burned out wife and...

Midwest Lit: Wisconsin Writers On The Landscape Of Home

Tuesday, April 28, 2015, 10:55am

Here are a few passages about Wisconsin places compiled from the delightful Wisconsin Literary Travel Guide that may ring true for you.

Midwest Lit: Three Great New Midwest Books for April

Wednesday, April 15, 2015, 12:40pm

"Listen And Other Stories" by Liam Callanan

Liam Callanan’s latest is a book of stories connected by, as the title suggests, a need to be heard. The stories range across the world and touch on fear, hope, and loss while also managing to be humorous.

Midwest Lit: Little Libraries, Lots Of Fun

Tuesday, April 7, 2015, 1:20pm

“It all started with a sign that read ‘Free Books.’” That’s how the first Little Free Library began, as well as how "The Little Free Library Book" by Margret Aldrich begins. It’s a simple idea—take a book, return a book—that’s been common in coffee shops, grocery stores, and other community places for decades.

Yet somehow putting those books inside quirky, usually adorable little “buildings” turned the concept into an international phenomenon. And as we like to remind people (only a little smugly), it all began here in Wisconsin.

Aldrich’s book tells the story of how the Little Free Library grew...

Midwest Lit: What Is The Midwest Anyway?

Tuesday, March 31, 2015, 6:25pm

You have your Southern Gothics, your Westerns, your New York down-and-outers, dreamers, and hustlers — but what’s the shorthand for the literary style of the Midwest?

Some of the most celebrated contemporary and classic American writers have roots here, from Ernest Hemingway, Edna Ferber and Saul Bellow to Jonathan Franzen, Marilynne Robinson and Jane Hamilton. Kurt Vonnegut claimed in a 1986 speech: “All my jokes are Indianapolis. All my attitudes are Indianapolis. My adenoids are Indianapolis. If I ever severed myself from Indianapolis, I would be out of business. What people like about me is Indianapolis."

And yet, who...

Midwest Lit: Paddling Through Midwest In Books

Tuesday, March 24, 2015, 10:55am

Human history in the Midwest happened first in our river valleys and lakes. These waterways provided easy transportation, rich soils for growing food and diverse habitats for game animals and birds. Water is how European explorers, traders and then settlers came to the Midwest. Alongside water is where we built our houses, towns and businesses. And on the water is how many of us continue to experience the Midwest despite a host of other means of exploration and travel.

The paddling epic may not be unique to the Midwest but it’s surely a rich vein of Midwestern lore, from Sigurd Olson’s "The Singing Wilderness" to Eric...

New Book Presents Collection Of Wisconsin's Folk Tales

Tuesday, March 10, 2015, 6:05pm

For today's writers, the Great Depression-era Federal Writers’ Program seems like an impossible dream. Writers paid by the government to collect and create stories?

The program not only existed, but it preserved many of the stories, legends, and traditional knowledge that would otherwise have disappeared if not for the Federal Writers’ Program. Some of the best of Wisconsin’s stories are collected in "Blue Men & River Monsters: Folklore of the North," edited by John Zimm and published by the Wisconsin Historical Society Press.

The Federal Writers’ Program was part of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal reforms to help the nation...

Minnesota Writer Searches For Meaning In 'A Northern Life'

Sunday, March 8, 2015, 7:50pm

I’m not sure where I first ran across the Irish word dinnseanchas. It means place-lore, though it’s also often literally translated as “topography” in English.

No matter, the idea captivated me and perhaps made me a natural target for Karen Babine’s new book of essays, "Water and What We Know: Following the Roots of a Northern Life," from the University of Minnesota Press.

Babine, an assistant professor of English at Moorhead’s Concordia College, is a Minnesota native with a deep personal connection to the state. Her story and the landscape of Minnesota are intimately connected into what she...

'News From The North': Poems Explain Winter As A Spiritual Exercise

Thursday, February 26, 2015, 2:45pm

“This far north, winter/ is a spiritual exercise, weight-/ training for the soul,” writes Wisconsin poet Catherine Jagoe.

Her new collection of poems, "News from the North," is a perfect companion to these late days of winter when the sight of a snow shovel can drop your heart through your (salt-crusted) boots.

Jagoe writes lyrically about the emotional and physical seasons of life in a northern climate and the annual cycle of freeze and release.

Here's one we love -- a poem for the end of March:

Wisconsin Poet Channels Ghosts Of Vietnam In Haunting Novel

Tuesday, February 24, 2015, 12:35pm

In a luminous debut novel, "She Weeps Each Time You’re Born," Wisconsin poet and writer Quan Barry explores wartime Vietnam through the eyes of a little girl with an uncommon gift.

Writer Explores Drama Of Ordinary Midwestern Life In Extraordinary Ways

Tuesday, February 17, 2015, 3:20pm

His latest book, "The Heart of Things: A Midwestern Almanac," John Hildebrand proves himself a master of the everyday. The book features 52 essays grouped by month that manage to engage all your senses in three short pages on such familiar topics as football games, family reunions, compost piles, and the end of gardening season. And yet, this familiar Midwestern terrain turns to magic in his hands.

5 Back-To-School Books Set In Midwest

Tuesday, August 4, 2015, 2:50pm

5 Books Set In Twin Cities For Armchair Travel Reading List

Thursday, July 9, 2015, 8:45am

It’s summer and with everyone off on some kind of adventure, we’re taking to the page to discover destinations in our own backyard. Continuing our look at books set in Midwestern cities (catch up on our rundown for Milwaukee here ), this armchair traveler is headed to Minneapolis and St...

Midwest Lit: 61 Books About Midwestern Music For Summer

Tuesday, June 23, 2015, 10:55am

With Summerfest kicking off this week in Milwaukee, it seemed only appropriate to delve into the rich musical legacy of the Midwest. Being bookish, I went to the written word. There’s no shortage of writing about music or even writing by musicians, despite that old cliche that "writing about music...

Midwest Lit: 5 Books For Your Summer Reading List That Take Place In Milwaukee

Wednesday, June 17, 2015, 1:35pm

It’s summer, and everyone seems to be off on an adventure. Maybe you already have something planned, but if not, might we suggest some Midwestern armchair travel?

Midwest Lit: Ben Percy's Howling Wilderness

Friday, June 5, 2015, 2:40pm

Midwest Lit: Midwestern Beach Reads

Thursday, June 4, 2015, 3:35pm

Who says you need an ocean for a beach read? Here are some newish books from Midwestern writers that we’re looking forward to curling up with by our salt-free seas. "Beneath the Bonfire: Stories" by Nikolas Butler Ten short stories set in Wisconsin and Minnesota featuring people...

Midwest Lit: Wisconsin Writers On The Landscape Of Home

Tuesday, April 28, 2015, 10:55am

People in New York, Los Angeles, and London are used to reading books set in their hometowns—or at least some fictionalized version of it. But what about those of us in smaller places far from the coasts and urban centers? Does a familiar setting make a book more appealing or change the way you read it? Here are a few passages about Wisconsin places compiled from the delightful Wisconsin Literary Travel Guide that may ring true for you.

Midwest Lit: Three Great New Midwest Books for April

Wednesday, April 15, 2015, 12:40pm

"Listen And Other Stories" by Liam Callanan Liam Callanan’s latest is a book of stories connected by, as the title suggests, a need to be heard. The stories range across the world and touch on fear, hope, and loss while also managing to be humorous.

Midwest Lit: Little Libraries, Lots Of Fun

Tuesday, April 7, 2015, 1:20pm

“It all started with a sign that read ‘Free Books.’” That’s how the first Little Free Library began, as well as how " The Little Free Library Book" by Margret Aldrich begins. It’s a simple idea—take a book, return a book—that’s been common in coffee shops, grocery stores, and other community places...

Midwest Lit: What Is The Midwest Anyway?

Tuesday, March 31, 2015, 6:25pm

You have your Southern Gothics, your Westerns, your New York down-and-outers, dreamers, and hustlers — but what’s the shorthand for the literary style of the Midwest? Some of the most celebrated contemporary and classic American writers have roots here, from Ernest Hemingway, Edna...

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Midwest Literary Carnival

5 Back-To-School Books Set In Midwest

5 Books Set In Twin Cities For Armchair Travel Reading List

Midwest Lit: 61 Books About Midwestern Music For Summer

Midwest Lit: 5 Books For Your Summer Reading List That Take Place In Milwaukee

Midwest Lit: Ben Percy's Howling Wilderness

Midwest Lit: Midwestern Beach Reads

Midwest Lit: Wisconsin Writers On The Landscape Of Home

Midwest Lit: Three Great New Midwest Books for April

Midwest Lit: Little Libraries, Lots Of Fun

Midwest Lit: What Is The Midwest Anyway?

Midwest Lit: Paddling Through Midwest In Books

New Book Presents Collection Of Wisconsin's Folk Tales

Minnesota Writer Searches For Meaning In 'A Northern Life'

'News From The North': Poems Explain Winter As A Spiritual Exercise

Wisconsin Poet Channels Ghosts Of Vietnam In Haunting Novel

Writer Explores Drama Of Ordinary Midwestern Life In Extraordinary Ways

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