2020 Book Releases and Awards

Art by Ryan Miller.

2020 Book Releases

Seeing-Eye Boy by Terence Winch
Published by Sturgeon Bay’s Four Windows Press, Seeing-Eye Boy comes out of Winch’s gritty upbringing in the Irish ghetto, bringing to life the Irish-immigrant world of 20th-century urban America and offering an inside look at a place where the two cultures blended.

Sarah’s Cross by Dean M. King
King’s tale is one of innocent life interrupted, family tragedy and the kindness of a stranger who balks at the horrific darkness that surrounds Wisconsin’s Northwoods.

Time WARped: A Preserver & Protector Novel by Valerie J. Clarizio
When veteran Blake Cornelius visits his great-grandfather’s Civil War grave, he’s whisked back in time to Gettysburg, where his mission is to preserve his family’s decorated military record. Fighting requires unrelenting vigilance, but the gods have sent Cornelius a guardian angel to help him.

In Pursuit of Meaning to Riddles by Robert Mazibuko
This memoir by a Washington Islander seeks to account for behavior by relating it to the associated principle of life and tracing such patterns insofar as they explain the inner principle or the deviation from it.

From the Lookout: Memories of Peninsula State Park’s Summer Camp for Girls by Kathleen Harris
Brimming with nostalgia, the book brings to life the sights, sounds and smells of an idyllic summer retreat – one that lived on as a place of respite in the memories of those who loved it, even long after it closed.

Our Generation by Various Authors
Students at Southern Door High School created this poetry collection, proceeds from which promote AP literature scholarships.

40 Thieves on Saipan by Joseph Tachovsky, with Cynthia Kraack
This true story of Frank Tachovsky – a former Sturgeon Bay mayor and platoon leader of the Sixth Marine Regiment’s “Forty Thieves” – weaves remembrances, historical documentation, rare photographs, personal diaries and letters to create an unforgettable story.

Good Night, Door County by Ann Heyse
As a nighttime companion book to Good Morning, Door County – which the Baileys Harbor author published four years ago – this children’s book highlights places that are familiar to most visitors and residents.

Portraits of Door County by Thomas Jordan
During nearly a year of traveling from Southern Door to Washington Island, Jordan captured the portraits of the peninsula’s farmers, musicians, blacksmiths, dancers and others from many walks of life.

Lainey of the Door Islands by Judy DuCharme
It’s late-1800s Door County. Lainey’s aunt and uncle, the lighthouse keepers on Pilot Island, demonstrate their ruggedness, but Lainey adds her own spunk and grace to become a shining light to everyone around her.

It’s How You Catch the Light by Charlotte Johnston
Johnston’s collection of poetry, prose and photography celebrates family, heritage and Wisconsin living.

Earth Messages by Jill Harding
This story for children, mothers and people of all ages invites readers to feel love from the universe through the beauty of nature.

A Brush with Death by Valerie J. Clarizio
In the most recent installment in Clarizio’s Crime & Passion Stalk City Hall series, Ben has secretly been in love with Cori for years, and knowing about her wounded heart has him waiting impatiently for the right time to make his move. The time arrives, and Cori seems receptive … but Ben’s past still haunts him.

Cedar Hollow Farm by Amanda Schwantes
This romantic comedy set in Namur – the first in a planned series – is inspired by Schwantes’ Door County heritage. Wes Jacquemart is living his dream life in the city when he receives devastating news: His beloved hometown library is slated to close, and he’s the only one who can save it.

Halfway to the North Pole by Various Authors
The Door County Poetry Collective has released this new anthology of poetry: a collection full of surprises that takes readers “behind the scenes” to explore the county’s geology, geography, history, flora, fauna, island culture, ethic of work and family, night sky and remote places.

Quilters of the Door by Ann Hazelwood
The first in a planned series, Hazelwood’s book centers around quilting and the relationships, romance and intrigue that surround her quilting characters and their families and friends.

The Captured, the Sick, and the Dead: Confederate Soldiers at Camp Randall by Laurence Desotell
Union soldiers captured 1,200 Confederate soldiers near the Tennessee/Missouri border and took them to Madison in 1862 to be held as prisoners at Camp Randall. This is their story.

Men of God by J.P. Jordan
Nick Hayden, a former Air Force pararescuer, reluctantly accepts a job from a family friend. He quickly transitions from rescuing soldiers in Afghanistan to desk jockeying at an insurance company, where he’s asked to close a failing division that insures religious institutions.

The Velocity of Love by Kathryn Gahl
This poetic memoir is about wonder, loss and longing. Gahl earned first place in both the Poetry and Fiction categories of the 2020 Hal Prize.

Meditation on the Ceremonies of Beginnings by Thomas Davis
Using poetic verse, Davis captures the dreams and vision of Indigenous leaders in higher education in this informal history of the tribal college movement and the World Indigenous Higher Education Consortium.

2020 Book Awards

In the Unsettled Homeland of Dreams by Thomas Davis earned the 2019 Edna Ferber Fiction Book Award. The work follows Joshua Simpson and seven other families as they escape from slavery before the Civil War and arrive on Washington Island.

Ridge Stories: Herding Hens, Powdering Pigs, and Other Recollections from a Boyhood in the Driftless by Gary Jones received first place in the Biography category of the Midwest Independent Publishers Association’s annual awards.

The Studio Tree by author and illustrator Janet Toonen earned second place in the Art and Music category of the Purple Dragonfly Book Awards. Her book Cozmo’s Wish also took an honorable mention in the Children’s Picture Book, Ages Six to Eight category.