In Other Words: Wisconsin Authors

These authors, with Wisconsin ties, offer a wide variety of great reads. This is not a complete list, by any means, so feel free to add your own favorite Wisconsin author(s) to the list:

Thornton Wilder, born in Madison: In addition to the play Our Town, Wilder also wrote The Bridge of San Luis Rey, which won him the first of his three Pulitzer Prizes. The novel opens in the aftermath of an inexplicable tragedy--a tiny footbridge in Peru breaks, and five travelers hurtle to their deaths. For Brother Juniper, a Franciscan friar who witnesses the event, the question is inescapable: Why those five? Brother Juniper is committed to discover what manner of lives these five disparate people led--and whether it was divine intervention that took their lives, or capricious fate.

Edna Ferber, brought up in Appleton: Ferber wrote the novel Giant, a Texas saga which was made into a movie (available at the library) starring Rock Hudson, Elizabeth Taylor, James Dean, and Dennis Hopper, among other film greats. She also wrote Come and Get It, a lusty, sprawling novel of Wisconsin's logging days, when fortunes -- and families -- were made and broken over king lumber.

Lesley Kagen, former owner of a Bayside sushi restaurant: Kagen wrote Whistling in the Dark, set in 1950s Milwaukee. Her latest novel, Tomorrow River, set during 1969 in rural Virginia, chronicles the dramatic changes in the lives of 11-year-old Shenny and her twin sister, Woody, a year after their mother's disappearance. Woody doesn’t talk any more, and their father, a renowned judge, spends most of his nights in a drunken stupor, often turning violent and cruel.  Shenny tries to locate their beloved Mama, learning many heart-wrenching lessons, not least among them that first impressions "can be dead wrong”.

Ann Packer, lived in Madison for two years, and wrote The Dive from Clausen’s Pier, set partially in Wisconsin. Her latest book is Swim Back to Me, a collection of stories framed by two novellas.  The first is Walk for Mankind about teenager Richard Appleby and his bittersweet relationship with Sasha Horowitz, a rebellious 14-year-old, who has a clandestine affair with a drug dealer; the second, Things Said or Done, is set three decades later, when Sasha, now 51 and divorced, has become Richard's caretaker.

Peter Straub, born and raised in Milwaukee, has collaborated with author Stephen King. His latest is Dark Matter, but he also wrote Mr. X. Ned’s mother is dying and before she does, she tells Ned the name of his father, and warns Ned that he is in grave danger. Ned is determined to learn as much as possible about his absent father and discovers that he is shadowed by an identical twin brother can defy the laws of nature. Finally, Ned must call upon everything he has learned to save his own life.