Category: Nonfiction
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Door County Writes: ‘My Welcome to Door County’
Story by Paul Brophy I can’t stand a crying baby in a restaurant, especially if it is mine. The wailing makes my skin crawl. That first night, my whole in-law Chicago family was just settling into Casey’s Bar in Egg Harbor, when my six-month-old, Maura, began to writhe and cry. I had to get her […]
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Door County Writes: ‘A Priceless Gift’
Story by Louise Endres Moore Certain gifts are valued beyond their price; very few are “priceless.” During Christmas ’44 of World War II, the 35th Infantry Division passed through Metz, France. Fifty-seven years later, I used an address from the back page of a tiny military booklet to find a soldier – a beloved friend of […]
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Hal Prize Announces Photography Judges
The Hal Prize organizers are excited to welcome back Coburn Dukehart as a 2021 photography judge, but this year, her father, Tad Dukehart, will join her to create a father-daughter judging team. Coburn has spent almost 20 years pursuing the craft of photojournalism and multimedia storytelling. She’s the digital and multimedia director for the Wisconsin […]
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Door County Writes: ‘Recollections of a German Christmas Market’
by Heidi Ross Writing prompt: Tell a story about a time when you were very cold. Help your readers picture exactly where you were and what you were doing. You’re allowed to use the word “cold” only twice! The winter air crackled with the warmth of Christmas cheer. Wandering around the Christkindlmarkt in my not-quite-warm-enough […]
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Door County Writes: ‘Valentine’s Anxiety’
by Michael Brecke For some reason, my memory doesn’t remember the fourth-grade Valentine’s Day party, but the fifth grade, that’s different. That is when my anxiety about which valentine to give to which person hit. More specifically, which valentine to give to which girl. I had a preadolescent crush on one of the girls in […]
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Door County Writes: ‘Black Ice’
by June Nirschl, written in response to: Tell a story about a time when you were very cold. Help your readers picture exactly where you were and what you were doing. You’re allowed to use the word “cold” only twice! I gave a sharp twist of the SUV steering wheel to the right, pulling the […]
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Door County Writes: ‘Bartenders’
Nonfiction by Michael Brecke Mamie Nyberg, John Padjen, Ted Tafelski, Nina Wiese, Old George, Matt Deverens, Jim Stadler, Mark Terry, Travis, J.B., Bonnie: and the list of some of the bartenders in my life goes on. Mamie Nyberg owned and operated a bar just off Main Street in my hometown. It was one of my […]
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Door County Writes: Writing through This Holiday Season 2020
Nonfiction by Albert DeGenova So, this is the 2020 holiday season in the year of COVID-19. The season of sentimentality. I’ve been fumbling and stumbling for too long now, day to day, under a fog of sadness and fear … exhausted (2020 has been a rough year). But then, reading in my favorite chair next […]
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Tales from the Trails: J.B. Sensenbrenner’s ‘The Love of Hunting’
by Mike Shaw, Peninsula Pulse contributor Few endeavors lend themselves better to storytelling – and in some instances, embellishment – than fishing and hunting. Jim “J.B.” Sensenbrenner of Appleton, a part-time Door County resident, certainly thinks so. He also felt that all of us reluctant shut-ins could use a good yarn or two, which is […]
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Door County Writes: ‘Preparing for Christmas’
NONFICTION by Michael Brecke About the middle of October, every year of my 18 years in my family home – assuming those years when I was too young to remember or experience it – my mother engaged in a ritual of earth-shaking importance. The ritual began with a trip to Ironwood, Michigan, approximately 24 miles […]
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‘Cannonball! Fearlessly Facing Midlife and Beyond’ Offers Women Encouragement, Confidence
Podcaster, author and part-time Egg Harbor resident Amy Schmidt had what she described as a “stop in my tracks” moment one morning when her husband asked, “Hey, Mom, can you pick up the laundry today?” Caught off guard by this slip of the tongue, Schmidt remembered thinking, “Mom? What happened to Amy?” As she cared […]
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Gary Jones’ Memoir Captures A Disappearing Way of Life
If writing a memoir is akin to capturing life’s fleeting moments on the page, then Gary Jones’ new book, Ridge Stories: Herding Hens, Powdering Pigs, and Other Recollections from a Boyhood in the Driftless, is time stoppered in a glass vacuum milk bottle. The memoir, a series of reflections, relies on the historically specific experience […]
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Three Health Books That Changed My Perspective for 2020
by Amanda Bourbonais I was initially drawn to the science of health last year to change how I lived with ulcerative colitis, but I quickly developed a genuine interest in the best ways to repair our bodies and minds. Throughout that initial learning process, I read a lot of health-related books and am sharing those […]
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Crossroads Teams Up with Door County Reads for Two Programs
Crossroads at Big Creek is partnering with Door County Reads to offer two programs. Tap into memories of your hometown to discover its stories through guided writing prompts during Hometown Writing – a program facilitated by Write On, Door County – on Jan. 30, 1-2:30 pm. Then at 7 pm, attend the Door County Reads lecture “Home […]
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Book Review: ‘UnDo It! How Simple Lifestyle Changes Can Reverse Most Chronic Diseases’
by Amanda Bourbonais The key tenets of Dean and Anne Ornish’s “UnDo It! How Simple Lifestyle Changes can Reverse Most Chronic Diseases” are these: eat well, move more, stress less, love more. This 506-page manual breaks down the actionable steps to get you on the road to better living. And the studies the authors present […]
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Community Voices: Writing Your Memories on Washington Island
Earlier this fall, Write On, Door County sponsored the Writing Your Memories program for senior citizens at the Washington Island Community Health Program. Ann Martin-Fornaciari led the program on Wednesday afternoons at Trinity Lutheran Church, where 25 people gathered to share memories of the people and places that had been important to them so far […]
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Acclaimed Authors Headline Island Literary Festival Sept. 19-22, 2019
Washington Island is the center of Wisconsin’s literary world this weekend. An exceptional group of nationally and internationally acclaimed authors this year who all live and work in the Midwest will be in attendance for the four-day festival, including Jane Hamilton, Rebecca Makkai, Bao Phi, Scott Russell Sanders, Luis Alberto Urrea, and Paula Carter. The […]
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Where We Write: Authors on Where they Find Inspiration
Ben Franklin did it in the bathtub. Toni Morrison in a motel room. Stephen King on a table between the washer and dryer. Where authors go to access their creativity often begins with their physical space. Whether it’s a bustling coffee shop or a secluded study, the end game for writers is the same: to […]
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Questions & Authors: JoAnn Balingit
by Jerod Santek, Artistic Director, Write On, Door County JoAnn Balingit, a former poet laureate of Delaware, will be in residence at Write On the week of Sept. 15. She is the author of the full-length collection Words for House Story and several chapbooks. I recently talked with her about her writing and her career. […]
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As of May 20, 2019, there is a new kilogram. The old kilogram was based on a platinum-iridium alloy – a shiny metal plug under a bell jar – housed at the Institutes of Standards and Technology. Its name is K4, the fourth copy of LeGrand K, housed at the International Bureau of Weights and Measures in […]