Council for Wisconsin Writers

Supporting Wisconsin writers from 1964 to 2022

Avi Lank

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Wisconsin Writers Abound in 100 Summer Reads

Congratulations to Council for Wisconsin Writers’ 2010 Kingery/Derleth Book-Length Nonfiction Award winner Ann Angel for making yesterday’s Milwaukee Journal Sentinel’s 100 Books for Your Summer Reading List for her new book, Things I’ll Never Say: Stories About Our Secret Selves, published by Candlewick Press. Ann not only edited this volume of fictional stories for young adults, she contributed a story as did her fellow Wisconsite and Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators member Emily Kokie. To find her listing, click on the link above or go to http://www.jsonline.com/entertainment/books/100-books-for-your-summer-reading-list-b99487141z1-305465031.html. Scroll down to the last catagory, BOOKS FOR CHILDREN and TEENS.  Things I’ll Never Say is the last entry.

Meet Me Halfway: Milwaukee Stories by CWW board member Jennifer Morales is included in the category of BOOKS BY WISCONSIN WRITERS.  Meet Me Halfway is published by the University of Wisconsin Press. Morales accompanied her recent book tour with fascinating blog posts that include reactions to and conversations prompted by her sitting in open spaces with a large sign that read,  “Please Talk With Me About Race.” Her blog is at http://moraleswrites.com/blog/.

CWW’s 2014 recipient of an Zona Gale Short Fiction honorable mention, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee professor Liam Callanan for his “Exhibit A” story, is also listed in the BOOKS BY WISCONSIN WRITERS category. His Listen & Other Stories is published by Four Way Books.

Other books in the category of Books by Wisconsin Writers are:

Beneath the Bonfire: Stories (Thomas Dunne Books), by Nickolas Butler.

Bike Battles: A History of Sharing The American Road (University of Washington Press), by University of Wisconsin, La Crosse, historian James Longhurst.

Children of the Stone: The Power of Music in a Hard Land (Bloomsbury), by Sandy Tolan.

Imaginary Things (Astor + Blue), by University of Wisconsin-Waukesha instructor Andrea Lochen.

The Jesus Cow: A Novel (Harper), by Michael Perry.

Long Black Curl (Tor), by Alex Bledsoe.

Man in Profile: Joseph Mitchell of The New Yorker (Random House), by president of Green Bay’s St. Norbert College Thomas Kunkel.

The Man Who Painted the Universe: The Story of a Planetarium in the Heart of the North Woods (Wisconsin Historical Society Press), by Ron Legro and Avi Lank.

Rise From the River (Main Street Rag), by Kathie Giorgio.

They Are All My Family (PublicAffairs), by John P. Riordan with Monique Brinson Demery.

The literary talent in this state is astounding!

Read more about CWW award winners at www.wiswriters.org/year.htm.

 

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Sholes Award Winner's Book Picks

Daniel Golden, who is Boswell Book Company owner and recipient of this year’s Christopher Latham Sholes Award to be presented at the Council for Wisconsin Writers’ Awards Banquet on May 16, has listed his favorite newly released books, all by authors with Wisconsin ties:

Fiction

“Almost Crimson” by Dasha Kelly
“The Jesus Cow” by Michael Perry
“Meet Me Halfway” by Jennifer Morales
“Days of Awe” by Lauren Fox
“Rise from the River” by Kathie Giorgio
“A Winsome Murder” by James DeVita

Nonfiction

“A Field Guide to Awkward Silences” by Alexandra Petri
“Children of the Stone: The Power of Music in a Hard Land” by Sandy Tolan
“Elsie de Wolfe’s Paris” by Charlie Scheips
“The China Mirage” by James Bradley
“The Man Who Painted the Universe: The Story of a Planetarium in the Heart of the North Woods” by Ron Legro & Avi Lank
“Strong Inside: Perry Wallace and the Collision of Race and Sports in the South” by Andrew Maraniss

For more information about the CWW Awards Banquet and to make reservations to help celebrate Daniel Golden’s award and the authors he helps promote, whose work is also being recognized, please go to www.wiswriters.org/2015%20banquet.htm

 

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WHS Press Publishes Book by Star-Struck Authors

Wisconsin Historical Society Press Logo
For Immediate Release

MAY 2015

New Book Reaches for the Stars 

 

The Man Who Painted the Universe by Ron Legro and Avi LankDiscover how Frank Kovac Jr.’s cosmic creativity turned an astronomical vision into reality in the new Wisconsin Historical Society Press book The Man Who Painted the Universe: The Story of a Planetarium in the Heart of the North Woods written by Ron Legro and Avi Lank. This “Field of Dreams” story describes how — with ingenuity, fervor, and endurance — a mild-mannered astronomy enthusiast from Wisconsin’s North Woods realized his galactic dreams of “touching” the stars.

 

As a young boy growing up in Chicago, Frank Kovac Jr. fell deeply in love with stargazing, painting constellations on his bedroom wall. Kovac never let go of that childhood dream and schemed throughout his adult life for a way to bring the universe home. Working tirelessly in his backyard, Kovac eventually found a way. He built a 22-foot rotating globe planetarium in his backyard. Despite failures and collapses, the amateur astronomer single-handedly built a North Woods treasure, painting more than 5,000 glowing stars, dot-by-dot, in glowing paints.

Today, Kovac and his unique planetarium take visitors to the stars every day, captivating a new generation of stargazers and dreamers with his one-man galactic show.

 

Steve Hartmann, the correspondent who featured Kovac in a CBS News interview, declares:”Nothing is as awesome as the universe, but the Kovac planetarium comes close. The tale of how it came to be will inspire you for light years.”
Media: For a review copy of “The Man Who Painted the Universe,” to interview the authors, or for more information, please contact Kristin Gilpatrick, Wisconsin Historical Society Press, 816 State St., Madison, WI 53706; 608-264-6465; email: kristin.gilpatrick@wisconsinhistory.org.

 

The Wisconsin Historical Society Press, publishing the best of

Wisconsin history and culture since 1855 as a division of the Wisconsin Historical Society

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About the Authors:
Ron Legro  is a freelance writer and former reporter, columnist, and editor for the “Milwaukee Sentinel” daily newspaper. He was editor in chief of “Wisconsin Reports,” a weekly public affairs journal covering the state legislature. His freelance articles have appeared in the “Milwaukee Journal Sunday” magazine, “Milwaukee” magazine, “Corporate Report Wisconsin” and other publications. He was a speechwriter for numerous lawmakers and public officials and served as the City of Milwaukee’s director of telecommunications. A native of Antigo, Wisconsin, he is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He lives in Whitefish Bay, Wisconsin, with his wife, Michele Derus .
Avi Lank is an essayist for Milwaukee Public Radio and panelist on the “Interchange” public-affairs program on Milwaukee Public Television. For almost 40 years he was an award-winning reporter, columnist, and editor at the “Milwaukee Sentinel” and later the “Journal Sentinel.” Born in Penn Yan in the Finger Lakes region of western New York State, he grew up in Rochester, New York, and holds degrees from Antioch College and the Medill School of Journalism of Northwestern University. He lives in Whitefish Bay, Wisconsin, with his wife, Dannette Lank.