Authors Writing Badly and Inviting Us to do the Same (Part 2)

Marci Glaus, English language arts consultant at Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction, contributed this post.

I love perusing the “What are you Reading” Literacy Booth blog posts for several reasons, but mostly because I like to see the diverse genre and topic choices. I have made more of an effort not only to track what I am reading, but to purposefully break out of what has become my established reading norm which is usually fiction, preferably with a strong female lead. The Wisconsin Writes project was an excellent method to help me branch out. By making it a point to read something from each writer before meeting with them, I not only experienced new and different genres/topics, but found a heightened sense of appreciation for the excellent work produced in the state of Wisconsin.

The biggest reading stretch for me was Patrick Rothfuss because he writes fantasy which is a genre in which I tend not to partake. Once I did my research, I very quickly found out how big of a deal he and his beard are and I ordered his first book. I (somewhat grudgingly) started it, but 722 pages later decided that I really was a geek (in the best way possible—watch his writing process video), and declared myself a fan. When I bought his second book, I geeked out with the cashier at Barnes and Noble for as long as it takes for people waiting in line to become annoyed.

A second reading stretch for me came through the works of two Wisconsin authors who (among other things) write for the Wisconsin Historical Society Press Badger Biography Series. Both Karyn Saemann and Stuart Stotts have published in the series. At first I was leery because again, here are texts that are not catering to my established genre and character needs, but I ended up learning so much about Wisconsin’s first public school teacher, Electa Quinney, and activist Father Groppi through texts that are written for younger readers. Coming in to these books with very little background knowledge, I appreciated the writing style for the series and the assumed audience.

Beyond the texts above, I viewed the Wisconsin Writes project as a method for taking stock of how many Wisconsin authors I have actually read. I obviously loved to meet some of the writers from our state in person, but I also loved meeting them in their writing.