Madison BookBeat

In this edition of Madison Book Beat, host Lisa Malawski talks with Angela Trudell Vasquez, who until recently, was the City of Madison Poet Laureate.Trudell Vasquez is a poet, writer, performer, and activist. Her most recent chapbook, My People Redux (2022, Finishing Line Press) honors her heritage, contending with generational hardships immigrant families face in making a life in

Cynthia Marie Hoffman’s latest book of prose poetry, Exploding Head (Persea Books, February 2024) is described as an OCD memoir in prose poems.It chronicles her childhood onset and adult journey through obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), which manifests in fearful obsessions and counting compulsions that impact her relationship to motherhood, religion, and the larger world. It�

How do you make change at organizations that resemble hard granite, and aren’t designed to bend?Only by patiently and persistently nudging them forward day-by-day, one improvement at a time, according to the authors of Bending Granite: 30+ true stories of leading change (Acta Publications, 2022). It’s a compilation of stories from leaders, mostly in and around Madison, writing

In this edition of Madison Book Beat, host Lisa Malawski talks with local Madison author Ann Garvin.Ann Garvin became an author at age fifty. She has now written five books. Ann Garvin (https://anngarvin.com/) is a nurse, a professor, and USA Today Bestselling Author. She thinks everything is funny and a little bit sad. Ann writes stories about women with a good sense of humor who

Hallie Linden yearns to write for the New York Times. At the moment, she’s stuck at a daily newspaper in tiny Green Meadow, Indiana, a town known for its amusement park and nothing else. It’s 1989, and juicy reporting jobs are hard to find. She resolves to work hard, win a few awards, and then welcome the job offers.In this edition of Madison Book Beat, host David Ahrens speaks

In this edition of Madison Book Beat, host Andrew Thomas speaks with journalists Shibani Mahtani and Timothy McLaughlin for a conversation on their book Among the Braves: Hope, Struggle, and Exile in the Battle for Hong Kong and the Future of Global Democracy (2023, Hachette Books) (https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/shibani-mahtani/among-the-braves/9780306830365/?lens=hachet

In this edition of Madison Book Beat, host Lisa Malawski talks with prolific author Jacquelyn Mitchard. Mitchard is now a frequent lecturer and professor of fiction and creative nonfiction at the Vermont College of Fine Arts in Montpellier.She once worked as a journalist at several Wisconsin newspapers, including the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and the Capital Times, where her husba

For more than a decade, Greg Mickells led the Madison Public Library. He's responsible for a significant transformation of the Madison library system.His tenure as Director took him to three continents, and to the White House in 2016, when Madison Public Library was recognized with a National Medal for Museum and Library Service. Additional awards received under Mickells' leadershi

In this edition of Madison Book Beat, host Andrew Thomas speaks with Peter Coviello (https://engl.uic.edu/profiles/coviello-peter/) on his book of essays Is There God After Prince? Dispatches from an Age of Last Thing (https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/I/bo206057527.html)s (2023, University of Chicago Press).Exuberant, effusive, rye, and incisive, this collection of

In this edition of Madison Book Beat, host Lisa Malawski talks with local poet Shoshauna Shy.Shoshauna Shy has been involved in local poetry and literary events for decades. She founded the Poetry Jumps Off the Shelf (https://www.poetryjumpsofftheshelf.com/) program in 2004, a project with the mission of placing poetry in public places where it isn't expected.She's previously worke