Practice reading and using tarot spreads! You may bring your own decks and books. If you don’t have a deck to use, one can be provided.

Hosted by Amanda Bergemann from COLORFLOW & Meg Rose.

Lyra is rushing to the cold, far North, where witch clans and armored bears rule. North, where the Gobblers take the children they steal--including her friend Roger. North, where her fearsome uncle Asriel is trying to build a bridge to a parallel world.

Can one small girl make a difference in such great and terrible endeavors? This is Lyra: a savage, a schemer, a liar, and as fierce and true a champion as Roger or Asriel could want--but what Lyra doesn't know is that to help one of them will be to betray the other.

Theresa L. Goodrich is an Emmy-winning author and content creator with a penchant for storytelling and a keen eye. As the author of more than a dozen books, both nonfiction and fiction, she’s a firm believer that self-publishing can be life-changing. She’s an accomplished public speaker, appearing regularly at libraries in the Chicago area, on stage across the country at the Travel and Adventure Show, and at the 2025 Mensa Annual Gathering. She also teaches the Midwest Travel Network Writing Workshop, which multiple attendees have called life-changing. When she’s not writing or speaking, she’s most likely planning her next adventure.  

Jennifer (Jenn) Walter is a writer, editor, and journalist living in the Sheboygan area. Her work has been published in a variety of local and national publications, including Milwaukee Magazine, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Discover, and Inverse. She is also the founder of Freshwater Words, a content studio that serves organizations looking to sharpen their message and build authentic connections with their audience.

You can find her on Instagram or LinkedIn at @jenngwalter. 

I’m Sarah Torfin, a transplant from the heart of central Appalachia. Although my profession is geology, my heart is deeply rooted in music. I was classically trained on violin using the Suzuki Teaching Method, where I was taught to trust my ear for music before I learned how to ever read a page of sheet music. I have always found peace in being able to convey the emotions of a piece of music on my violin (or fiddle), and occasionally add a little Appalachian twang when it feels as though a piece needs it! Through my music, I hope to bring everyone a sliver of peace that I always had growing up in the Shenandoah and New River Valleys.

https://torfinviolin.godaddysites.com

What if you could enter the mind of the person you love the most?

Enka meets Mathilde in art school and is instantly drawn to her. Mathilde makes art that feels truly original, and Enka—trying hard to prove herself in this fiercely competitive world—pours everything into their friendship. But when Mathilde’s fame and success cause her to begin drifting away, Enka becomes desperate to keep her close.

Enter SCAFFOLD. Purported to enhance empathy, this cutting-edge technology could allow Enka to inhabit Mathilde’s mind and access her memories, artistic inspirations, and deep-seated trauma. Undergoing this procedure would link Enka and Mathilde forever. But at what cost?

Blisteringly smart, thought-provoking, and shocking, Immaculate Conception offers us a portrait of close friendship—achingly tender and twisted—that captures the tenuous line between love and possession that will haunt you long after you turn the final page.

Practice reading and using tarot spreads! You may bring your own decks and books. If you don’t have a deck to use, one can be provided.

Hosted by Amanda Bergemann from COLORFLOW & Meg Rose.

Katrina Serwe is a joyful childless cat lady who loves poetry, art, and nature. Her poems have been featured in a variety of publications such as the Blue Heron Review, The Solitary Plover, Bramble, Portage Magazine, and Scrawl Place. She was the first-place winner of the 2024 Wisconsin Writers Association Jade Ring contest for poetry and the second-place winner of the Wisconsin Fellowship of Poets 2025 Muse Prize. Her chapbook, First Steps: Poemwalking the Ice Age National Scenic Trail in the Northern Kettle Moraine was released by Brain Mill Press May 27, 2025. Serwe’s current project is foraging poems on Wisconsin’s Ice Age National Scenic trail. You can follow her journey at www.katrinaserwe.com.

Writers Circle at WordHaven BookHouse offers local writers a comfortable place to share and develop their work, receive feedback and guidance, encourage and support other writers, and discuss all aspects of the writing process. Open to all forms of writing and all experience levels. Free to attend.

Writers Circle will meet at WordHaven the first Tuesday of each month, from 6-8pm. The circle will be led by published author and award-winning book designer, Erika Block, owner of Gray House Publishing.

Jennifer (Jenn) Walter is a writer, editor, and journalist living in the Sheboygan area. Her work has been published in a variety of local and national publications, including Milwaukee Magazine, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Discover, and Inverse. She is also the founder of Freshwater Words, a content studio that serves organizations looking to sharpen their message and build authentic connections with their audience.

You can find her on Instagram or LinkedIn at @jenngwalter. 

A New York Times, USA Today, and Time Best Book of the Year

Alison Bechdel’s Fun Home was a pop culture and literary phenomenon. Now, a second thrilling tale of filial sleuthery, this time about her mother: voracious reader, music lover, passionate amateur actor. Also a woman, unhappily married to a closeted gay man, whose artistic aspirations simmered under the surface of Bechdel's childhood . . . and who stopped touching or kissing her daughter good night, forever, when she was seven.

Poignantly, hilariously, Bechdel embarks on a quest for answers concerning the mother-daughter gulf. It's a richly layered search that leads readers from the fascinating life and work of the iconic twentieth-century psychoanalyst Donald Winnicott, to one explosively illuminating Dr. Seuss illustration, to Bechdel’s own (serially monogamous) adult love life. And, finally, back to Mother — to a truce, fragile and real-time, that will move and astonish all adult children of gifted mothers.

I’m Sarah Torfin, a transplant from the heart of central Appalachia. Although my profession is geology, my heart is deeply rooted in music. I was classically trained on violin using the Suzuki Teaching Method, where I was taught to trust my ear for music before I learned how to ever read a page of sheet music. I have always found peace in being able to convey the emotions of a piece of music on my violin (or fiddle), and occasionally add a little Appalachian twang when it feels as though a piece needs it! Through my music, I hope to bring everyone a sliver of peace that I always had growing up in the Shenandoah and New River Valleys.

https://torfinviolin.godaddysites.com

The extraordinary novel that asks: Can a name change the course of a life?

In the wake of a catastrophic storm, Cora sets off with her nine-year-old daughter, Maia, to register her son's birth. Her husband, Gordon, a local doctor, respected in the community but a terrifying and controlling presence at home, intends for her to name the infant after him. But when the registrar asks what she'd like to call the child, Cora hesitates...

Spanning thirty-five years, what follows are three alternate and alternating versions of Cora's and her young son's lives, shaped by her choice of name. In richly layered prose, The Names explores the painful ripple effects of domestic abuse, the messy ties of family, and the possibilities of autonomy and healing.

With exceptional sensitivity and depth, Knapp draws us into the story of one family, told through a prism of what-ifs, causing us to consider the "one . . . precious life" we are given. The book’s brilliantly imaginative structure, propulsive storytelling, and emotional, gut-wrenching power are certain to make The Names a modern classic.

KP Kaszubowski is a poet, educator, filmmaker, and astrologer based in Sheboygan. She holds an MFA in Creative Writing (Poetry) from Eastern Washington University and a BA in Journalism and Documentary Studies from UW–Milwaukee. Her work spans poetry, film, and community ritual, often exploring themes of memory, embodiment, and the unseen layers of personal and collective experience.

In addition to publishing poetry in literary journals, KP's debut feature film RINGOLEVIO premiered at Dances with Films (LA) in 2020.

With a background in both creative writing and ritual arts, she leads writing workshops that emphasize emotional depth, poetic form, and the healing potential of language. She believes in writing as a way to make meaning, build connection, and tend to grief with care and imagination.

Practice reading and using tarot spreads! You may bring your own decks and books. If you don’t have a deck to use, one can be provided.

Hosted by Amanda Bergemann from COLORFLOW & Meg Rose.

From New York Times bestselling author Christopher Moore comes a hilariously deranged tale of a mad scientist, a famous painter, and an undead woman’s electrifying journey of self-discovery.

Vienna, 1911. Gustav Klimt, the most famous painter in the Austrian Empire, the darling of Viennese society, spots a woman’s nude body in the Danube canal. He knows he should summon a policeman, but he can’t resist stopping to make a sketch first. And as he draws, the woman coughs. She’s alive!

Back at his studio, Klimt and his model-turned-muse Wally tend to the formerly-drowned girl. She’s nearly feral and doesn’t remember who she is, or how she came to be floating in the canal. Klimt names her Judith, after one of his most famous paintings, and resolves to help her find her memory.

With a little help from Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung, Judith recalls being stranded in the arctic one hundred years ago, locked in a crate by a man named Victor Frankenstein, and visiting the Underworld.

So how did she get here? And why are so many people chasing her, including Geoff, the giant croissant-eating devil dog of the North? Poor Things meets Bride of Frankenstein in Anima Rising, Christopher

Moore’s most ingenious (and probably most hilarious) novel yet.

CHRISTOPHER MOORE is the author of eighteen previous novels, including Razzmatazz, Shakespeare for Squirrels, Noir, Secondhand Souls, Sacré Bleu, Fool, and Lamb. He lives in San Francisco, California.

CONNECT ONLINE at www.ChrisMoore.com and on Facebook @TheAuthorGuy.

Found / Blackout Poetry is a type of poetry created by taking words, phrases, and sometimes whole passages from other sources and re-framing them as poetry by making changes in spacing and lines, by adding and/or deleting text, thus imparting new meaning.

A variety of materials will be included. Participants are welcomed to bring their own journal, notebook, or sketchbook to work in if they prefer. Instruction and examples will be provided, as well as personalized guidance as you work. We will reserve time at the end of the workshop for anyone who might like to share their poetry with the group.

Cost: $10 (due upon registration, non-refundable)
Limited seating available. Please stop in or register online to reserve your seat.

923 N 8th St, Sheboygan

E.L. Block is an award-winning designer, director, and author. Her work has been featured in the national media, including People Magazine, The View, Good Morning America, and The Today Show. Herdebut novel, American Gothic, went into its second printing within a month of its release in November 2022. Her second novel, Monstera (2023), was nominated for a Shirley Jackson Award and was a finalist for a Silver Falchion Award. She is published by TitleTown Publishing and agented by TTA. Block is also the owner of Gray House Publishing, an emerging independent press. In addition to short novels, Block also writes short stories, flash fiction, and poetry. Connect online: @elblockauthor

Writers Circle at WordHaven BookHouse offers local writers a comfortable place to share and develop their work, receive feedback and guidance, encourage and support other writers, and discuss all aspects of the writing process. Open to all forms of writing and all experience levels. Free to attend.

Writers Circle will meet at WordHaven the first Tuesday of each month, from 6-8pm. The circle will be led by published author and award-winning book designer, Erika Block, owner of Gray House Publishing.

E.L. Block is an award-winning designer, director, and author. Her work has been featured in the national media, including People Magazine, The View, Good Morning America, and The Today Show. Herdebut novel, American Gothic, went into its second printing within a month of its release in November 2022. Her second novel, Monstera (2023), was nominated for a Shirley Jackson Award and was a finalist for a Silver Falchion Award. She is published by TitleTown Publishing and agented by TTA. Block is also the owner of Gray House Publishing, an emerging independent press. In addition to short novels, Block also writes short stories, flash fiction, and poetry. Connect online: @elblockauthor

Practice reading and using tarot spreads! You may bring your own decks and books. If you don’t have a deck to use, one can be provided.

Hosted by Amanda Bergemann from COLORFLOW & Meg Rose.

Set over the course of a single day, an electrifying debut novel from “a powerful new literary voice” (Vogue) following one woman’s journey across a transformed city, carrying the weight of her past and a fervent hope for the future.

Last night, you and I were safe. Last night, in another universe, your father and I stood fighting in the kitchen.

Annie is nine months pregnant and shopping for a crib at IKEA when a massive earthquake hits Portland, Oregon. With no way to reach her husband, no phone or money, and a city left in chaos, there’s nothing to do but walk.

Making her way across the wreckage of Portland, Annie experiences human desperation and kindness: strangers offering help, a riot at a grocery store, and an unlikely friendship with a young mother. As she walks, Annie reflects on her struggling marriage, her disappointing career, and her anxiety about having a baby. If she can just make it home, she’s determined to change her life.

A propulsive debut, Tilt is a primal scream of a novel about the disappointments and desires we all carry, and what each of us will do for the people we love.

In this essential autobiographical account by one of the Civil Rights Movement’s most powerful figures, Melba Pattillo Beals of the Little Rock Nine explores not only the oppressive force of racism, but the ability of young people to change ideas of race and identity.

In 1957, well before Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech, Melba Pattillo Beals and eight other teenagers became iconic symbols for the Civil Rights Movement and the dismantling of Jim Crow in the American South as they integrated Little Rock’s Central High School in the wake of the landmark 1954 Supreme Court ruling, Brown v. Board of Education.

Throughout her harrowing ordeal, Melba was taunted by her schoolmates and their parents, threatened by a lynch mob’s rope, attacked with lighted sticks of dynamite, and injured by acid sprayed in her eyes. But through it all, she acted with dignity and courage, and refused to back down.

Warriors Don’t Cry is, at times, a difficult but necessary reminder of the valuable lessons we can learn from our nation’s past. It is a story of courage and the bravery of a handful of young, black students who used their voices to influence change during a turbulent time.

KP Kaszubowski is a poet, educator, filmmaker, and astrologer based in Sheboygan. She holds an MFA in Creative Writing (Poetry) from Eastern Washington University and a BA in Journalism and Documentary Studies from UW–Milwaukee. Her work spans poetry, film, and community ritual, often exploring themes of memory, embodiment, and the unseen layers of personal and collective experience.

In addition to publishing poetry in literary journals, KP's debut feature film RINGOLEVIO premiered at Dances with Films (LA) in 2020.

With a background in both creative writing and ritual arts, she leads writing workshops that emphasize emotional depth, poetic form, and the healing potential of language. She believes in writing as a way to make meaning, build connection, and tend to grief with care and imagination.

Practice reading and using tarot spreads! You may bring your own decks and books. If you don’t have a deck to use, one can be provided.

Hosted by Amanda Bergemann from COLORFLOW & Meg Rose.

Amy E. Casey is the author of the novel The Sturgeon’s Heart (2022), which earned honorable mentions at the Chicago Writers Association Book of the Year Awards and the Northeastern Minnesota Book Awards. Her short fiction and poetry have been published in literary journals throughout the United States. She holds a master’s degree from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Amy lives on the cold freshwater shore of Lake Michigan. 

Learn more about her work at www.amyecasey.com

Follow her on Instagram: @amy_e_casey

Melissa Gorzelanczyk is a writer, speaker, and sober artist inspired by rituals, meadows, and owls. Her first novel, ARROWS, was published by Penguin Random House. She holds an MFA in Writing from Vermont College of Fine Arts. A copywriter by day, she lives with her husband in Green Bay, Wisconsin.

Receive more of her writing: tinyurl.com/59mze2d4. 

Follow her on Instagram: @MelissaGorzela.

The A Line Meant Commemorative Collection features 60 poets from across the state and a set of found poems written by Dasha Kelly Hamilton, Wisconsin Poet Laureate Emerita and anthology editor. In this poetry anthology, Kelly Hamilton has solicited cosmopolitan voices across the state, from established poets to farmers, retirees, inmates, and more. Starting with single lines of existing poetry, participants not only crafted their own unique works, but also shared their poems and insights as a form of connective tissue with one another. Like a tree from many roots, A Line Meant threads together both the professional and hobbyist poet, growing new, powerful art from the margins between. 

Dasha Kelly Hamilton is a writer, performance artist and creative change agent. She has authored award-winning poetry, essays and fiction. She is a mainstage storyteller and host with The Moth, an alum of HBO's Def Poetry Jam,  Poet Laureate Emerita for both the City of Milwaukee and the State of Wisconsin and a National Laureate Fellow with the American Academy of Poets.

In 2024, Dasha was named a Living Legacy Honoree by the licensing agency for the legendary poet Gwendolyn Brooks. A skilled engagement practitioner and instructor, Dasha has facilitated initiatives in Botswana, Mauritius and Beirut as an Arts Envoy for the U.S. Embassy. Her nationally-touring stage show, Makin’ Cake, serves audiences a unique conversation on race, class and equity.

Her nonprofit literary arts organization, Still Waters Collective, celebrates its 25th anniversary this year. Dasha will release three books in 2025, a poetry anthology, A Line Meant (Jaded Ibis Press), and two novels Baker’s Dozen (Jaded Ibis) and a 10th anniversary reprint of Almost Crimson (Traitmarker Books). 

DashaKH.com