Lorine Niedecker Wisconsin Poetry Festival

Saturday, September 25

Lorine Faith Niedecker was born and lived most of her life on Blackhawk Island along the banks of the Rock River, south and west of Fort Atkinson, Wisconsin, not far from where the river flows into Lake Koshkonong. She is described as a "poet of place", but never as a "regional poet" because of the universality of her themes. 

Among poets and critics her reputation has soared since her death.

Basil Bunting, the late Northumbrian poet: "Lorine Niedecker is the best living poetess. No one says so much with so few words." In an interview, Bunting once compared her with Emily Dickinson: "Dickinson is good much of the time, but Niedecker is good all of the time."

See the Poetry Festival page for complete information. 


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Joshua Ferris, author of The Unnamed with Patrick Somerville, author of The Cradle

Boswell Book Company @ 2pm

 

The Unnamed: Tim Farnsworth is a handsome, healthy man, aging with the grace of a matinee idol. His wife Jane still loves him, and for all its quiet trials, their marriage is still stronger than most. Despite long hours at the office, he remains passionate about his work, and his partnership at a prestigious Manhattan law firm means that the work he does is important. And even as his daughter, Becka, retreats behind her guitar, her dreadlocks, and her puppy fat, he offers her every one of a father's honest lies about her being the most beautiful girl in the world. He loves his wife, his family, his work, his home. He loves his kitchen. And then one day he stands up and walks out. And keeps walking.

 

The Unnamed is a dazzling novel about a marriage and a family and the unseen forces of nature and desire that seem to threaten them both. It is the heartbreaking story of a life taken for granted and what happens when that life is abruptly and irrevocably taken away.

 

The Cradle: Early one summer morning, Matthew Bishop kisses his pregnant wife and sets out in search of the antique cradle that used to be hers. Although the cradle has been missing for many years, she is determined that Matt find it before the arrival of their first child. A decade later, Renee Owen, a successful writer of children's books, prepares for her only son's deployment to Iraq, and his departure brings to the surface memories of a lost love, an old truth, and a long-hidden life.

This widely acclaimed novel radiates with wry wisdom as it takes the reader on a surprising journey into the heart of marriage, parenthood, and what it means to be a family.

 

Author bios: Joshua Ferris's first novel, Then We Came to the End, won the Hemingway Foundation/PEN Award, the Barnes and Noble Discover Award, and was a National Book Award finalist. His fiction has appeared in The New Yorker, Granta, the Guardian, and Tin House, among other publications. He lives in New York.

Patrick Somerville grew up in Green Bay, Wisconsin, attended the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and later earned his MFA from Cornell University. He is also the author of the story collection Trouble. He lives with his wife in Chicago, where he teaches creative writing at Northwestern University.

  

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