Midwest Writers Room

Luella and Ken
  • 5.0 (13)
  • Books

Podcast from the Wisconsin Writers Association. We discuss all things writerly, with an emphasis on the unique flavor of works that originate in the Midwest.

  1. 1d ago

    Chapter Break with Ray Welling

    BIO: Ray Welling is an Australian-based author who grew up in Toledo, Ohio, where Byline for the Dead is set. He earned a journalism degree from Northwestern University and worked in Chicago before meeting an Australian woman and following her to Sydney, where he's lived ever since. He has worked in publishing, digital content and academia, and along the way he earned a PhD in marketing and published an article in the Journal of Celebrity Studies that name-checks the Kardashians. Byline for the Dead is his first novel and he is currently seeking a publisher for the sequel. SYNOPSIS:  Byline for the Dead interweaves stories from different eras as two journalists, five decades apart, work to unravel the truths about one of the most violent labor strikes in American history. In 1984, Gray Wheeler is a disillusioned young reporter working for The Toledo Sword. Assigned to cover the 50th anniversary of the real-life Auto-Lite strike—known as the “Battle of Toledo,” a bloody, five-day labor uprising involving 10,000 union workers and 1,300 Ohio National Guard troops—Gray stumbles across a mystery left unpublished a half-century earlier by another young reporter that connects the 1934 massacre to present-day political machinations. Putting together the pieces, past and present, the two reporters work in tandem across the decades, unravelling the corruption that led to the deadly strike. As the story proceeds, we learn of desperate workers, soulless political agitators, ruthless National Guard troops, suppressed government reports, buried testimonies, and suspicious deaths. Byline for the Dead explores themes of journalistic integrity, institutional memory, and the power of the past to shape the present. LINKS: raywelling.com https://thesagergroup.net/books/byline-for-the-dead

  2. Oct 12

    Season 4, Ep. 18 - Kristin Mitchell, October 2026

    BIO: Kristin is the founder and publisher of Little Creek Press. After nearly two decades in graphic design, she founded LCP and spent the next 14 years running both her publishing company and Kristin Mitchell Design before turning her full focus to publishing. Today, she brings more than three decades of creative experience to helping authors turn manuscripts into professionally published books.  Kristin is passionate about championing Wisconsin writers, building connections within the literary community, and creating a collaborative publishing experience that respects an author’s voice and vision. A committed community builder in Mineral Point, her goal is simple: to build a community where authors can thrive. LINKS: https://littlecreekpress.com/

  3. Oct 9

    Chapter Break with Kristen Alger

    BIO: Originally from Alabama, Kristen Alger’s connection to the Midwest is through marriage, dating back to the first settlers of Door County. After a decade enjoying the Midwest's landscapes and snow, she now calls the Emerald Coast of Florida home. With a background in mechanical engineering, Spanish, a master's in Public Health, and a decade teaching, Kristen brings an unconventional perspective to her writing. Historical research, genealogy, and photography come together in her latest book, Letters of a Traveling Architect, where she found a century-old adventure waiting for a storyteller to bring it back to life. SYNOPSIS: Letters of a Traveling Architect takes readers on an extraordinary journey through Europe and North Africa in 1925, following young architect Levi Alphonse Geniesse as he searches for the perfect cathedral. Traveling by train, bicycle, and on foot, Levi explores nine countries over eight months, encountering ancient churches, historic cities, political upheaval, and unforgettable people along the way. His journey includes an audience with Pope Pius XI and a surprising encounter with Benito Mussolini. Told through Levi’s letters, photographs, and journal, the book brings the sights, sounds, and spirit of 1920s Europe to life. It’s history that reads like fiction. LINKS: kristenalger.com @kristenalgerauthor

  4. Sep 30

    Chapter Break with Catherine Jagoe

    BIO: Catherine is a writer and translator based in Madison, Wisconsin. She has published ten books and four chapbooks across genres—poetry, criticism, fiction and poetry in translation, and most recently a memoir. Her poetry has aired on National Public Radio’s The Writer’s Almanac and To the Best of Our Knowledge, while her essays have won a Pushcart Prize and a Notable listing in Best American Essays. She is a contributor to Wisconsin Public Radio’s Wisconsin Life audio essay series. SYNOPSIS: UNBELONGING is a memoir in essays about Jagoe’s struggle to define home as a bilingual woman with three nationalities and divided allegiances. Her book spans a childhood of international moves, a career as a linguist, migration to the U.S., decades of traveling back and forth to Spain and England, and reckoning with the colonial legacy of her parents and grandparents. UNBELONGING tells the story of a woman who leaves behind her family and country of origin and longs throughout her life to feel at home in place, in language, and in her body. LINKS: https://www.catherinejagoe.com/

  5. Sep 28

    Season 4, Ep. 17 - Pat Scheckel, September 2026

    BIO: Although he's lived most of his life in Wisconsin, Pat Scheckel recently moved to Minneapolis. His debut novel, Time Stitchers, was published by WWA Press in the fall of 2026.  His short story collection, Frozen Chuck, is forthcoming from Cornerstone Press in 2027. His work has appeared in The MacGuffin, The Hemlock Journal, and Macabre Magazine.  LINKS: scheckel.com Instagram: @pat_scheckel

  6. Sep 25

    Chapter Break with BA Williamson, September 2026

    BIO:  B. A. Williamson is the overly caffeinated writer of the award-winning series The Chronicles of Gwendolyn Gray. When not doing battle with the demons in the typewriter, he can be found taming middle schoolers, doing something dramatic in a theatre, reading books, or spending way too much time decorating his house for Halloween. SYNOPSIS: The Chronicles of Gwendolyn Gray is a genre-hopping young adult fantasy series, blending elements of steampunk, faeries, horror, dystopia, and science fiction. It follows Gwendolyn Gray, a girl who can bring her imagination to life and now must learn to control her powers to save the stories of the multiverse from being erased by the Faceless Gentlemen, all while managing her bipolar disorder, saving her parents, and worst of all... growing up. In book 3, the Withering Trials of Gwendolyn Gray, she has saved her own world, but lost her hair, her friends, and even her parents, and has to travel the multiverse again, battling faeries, vampires, and dystopian governments to get them all back.  LINKS: bawilliamson.com

  7. Sep 23

    Chapter Break with Elise Posledni

    BIO: Elise Posledni is a bookkeeper by day and a writer by early mornings. A lifelong Wisconsin resident, she draws on her love of the state’s small towns and breathtaking natural landscapes to create fiction that feels rooted and real, even when the magic starts to surface. Her short stories have been featured in Creative Wisconsin Magazine and the anthology A Wisconsin Harvest of Horror. A New Witch in the Northwoods is her debut novel. Elise is the pen name for Jenna Dickson. She enjoys hiking with her rescue dog, snowboarding, and gardening. SYNOPSIS: When Mary Matherson inherits her late grandfather’s house in a close-knit northern Wisconsin town, she arrives expecting nosy neighbors and small-town gossip — the kind of curiosity she can handle from behind the counter of her coffee shop. What she doesn’t expect is the supernatural world lurking just beyond the treeline, or the unsettling discovery that she herself is a witch. As Mary begins to unravel the secrets her grandfather kept hidden, she finds herself drawn into a world of supernatural politics, an Other realm that is dangerously hard to resist, and a threat that has hunted her family’s magic for generations. Oh, and her new boyfriend? He’s a demon. LINKS: https://www.epwrites.com https://www.orangehatpublishing.com https://www.instagram.com/e.p.writes/

  8. Sep 18

    Chapter Break with Gary Goodman, September 2026

    BIO: Gary Goodman is a former rare book dealer from Stillwater MN, whose first book, The Last Bookseller, chronicled his life in the secondhand book trade. His new book, Longships and Sod Houses, focuses on his Icelandic ancestors, one of whom was a notorious Viking warrior and stone-cold killer sometimes called Egil the Bastard. SYNOPSIS: Gary Goodman first heard that his 24x great-grandfather was a tenth-century Viking pirate and mercenary at a family reunion, when a cousin told him that they were the direct descendants of an Icelandic poet and cold-blooded killer named Egil Skallagrímsson. Also known as “Egil the Bastard,” Goodman’s forefather was the subject of Egil’s Saga, one of the great Icelandic epics from the early Middle Ages. Spurred by this revelation of his family’s lineage, Goodman set out to discover the route his ancestors had traveled from Iceland in the 800s to the North Dakota plains in the later 1800s. LINKS: www.thelastbookseller.com

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5
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About

Podcast from the Wisconsin Writers Association. We discuss all things writerly, with an emphasis on the unique flavor of works that originate in the Midwest.

Information

  • Creator
    Luella and Ken
  • Years Active
    2023 - 2026
  • Episodes
    158
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © 2026 Midwest Writers Room
  • Show Website
    Midwest Writers Room

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