Faith Sullivan to Read, Lead Workshop in Door County

Award-winning novelist Faith Sullivan visits Door County to read from her most recent novel, Good Night, Mr. Wodehouse. The event is co-sponsored by The Friends of Door County Libraries, the Peninsula Bookman, and Write On, Door County. Sullivan will also lead a writing workshop in Fish Creek during her stay.

Named by the Wall Street Journal as one of the best fiction books of 2015, Sullivan will read from Good Night Mr. Wodehouse on June 16 at 7 pm, at the Miller Art Museum in Sturgeon Bay. The reading is free and open to the public. Light refreshments and a book signing follow the reading.

Sullivan is the author of seven award-winning novels, including the national bestseller, The Cape Ann. Hailed as the William Faulkner for the Upper Midwest, Sullivan’s novels chronicle the lives of the residents of Harvester, a fictional town in southern Minnesota. Five of her seven novels are set in Harvester. Her latest, Good Night, Mr. Wodehouse, published in September by Milkweed Editions, is perhaps the most ambitious yet of her novels. It spans 68 years, the entire life of Nell Stillman, the book-loving widow who briefly appeared in The Cape Ann, the first of the Harvester novels.

Through her novels, Sullivan has created a portrait of the lives of the people who lived in small towns of the Upper Midwest in the mid-part of the 20th century. The novels are companions to one another, not sequels, with minor characters in one novel becoming central characters in another. In her early 80s, Sullivan is well into the sixth Harvester book, with two more kicking around in her head.

On June 17, 1 – 4 pm, Sullivan will offer “Really? Write About That?!” – a writing workshop for writers at all levels of experience. The workshop will challenge participants to discover and explore the deeply held, possibly secret topic they’ve avoided – perhaps because they felt unequal to the challenge, or perhaps because the experience was too painful or embarrassing. To register, call 920.868.1457.