Washington Island Literary Festival 2023:

space for the unexpected

SAVE THE DATES!

September 21 - 23, 2023

Thursday, September 21: Creative Lab

Friday, September 22: Writing Workshops

Saturday, September 23: Author Talks & Panel Discussions

2023 Presenting Authors

Amy Quan Barry, fiction

Born in Saigon and raised on Boston’s northshore, Quan Barry is the Lorraine Hansberry Professor of English at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the author of seven books of fiction and poetry, including the recent novel When I’m Gone, Look for Me in the East, which the NY Times described as, “Mesmerizing and delicate . . . a dazzling achievement.” Barry is one of a select group of writers to receive NEA fellowships in both poetry and fiction. In 2021, she was awarded the American Library Association’s Alex Award. She is currently Forward Theater’s first ever Writer-in-Residence. Her first play production, The Mytilenean Debate, premiered in spring 2022. Barry’s maternal grandparents, Ernest and Hedy Eller, are both interred on Washington Island.

Amy quan Barry

Fiction

Brenda Cárdenas, Poetry

Brenda Cárdenas is the author of Trace (Red Hen Press, 2023), Boomerang (Bilingual Press) and three chapbooks, including From the Tongues of Brick and Stone. She also co-edited Resist Much/Obey Little: Inaugural Poems to the Resistance (Spuyten Duyvil Press) and Between the Heart and the Land: Latina Poets in the Midwest (MARCH/Abrazo Press). Her poems and essays have appeared in many anthologies and journals, including Latinx Poetics: The Art o fPoetry; Kinship: Belonging in a World of Relations; Grabbed: Poets and Writers on Sexual Assault, Empowerment, and Healing; Ghost Fishing: An Eco-Justice Anthology and many others. Cárdenas taught the inaugural master workshop for Pintura: Palabra: A Project in Ekphrasis at the Smithsonian American Art Museum (2014) and has served as faculty for the CantoMundo writers’ retreat (2021) and as Milwaukee Poet Laureate (2010-2012). She currently teaches Creative Writing and U.S. Latinx Literatures at University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

Brenda Cárdenas

Poetry

Lan Samantha Chang, fiction

Lan Samantha Chang’s new novel, The Family Chao, was published by W. W. Norton in February, 2022. She is the author of two previous novels, All Is Forgotten, Nothing Is Lost and Inheritance, and a story collection, Hunger. Her short stories have appeared in The Atlantic Monthly, Ploughshares, and The Best American Short Stories. She has received fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation, and the American Academy in Berlin. Chang is the director of the University of Iowa Writers’ Workshop. She lives with her husband and daughter in Iowa City, Iowa. For more information, visit her website.

Lan Samantha Chang

Fiction

Meghan O'Gieblyn, nonfiction

Meghan O'Gieblyn is the author of God, Human, Animal, Machine and the essay collection Interior States, which won the 2018 Believer Book Award for nonfiction. Her essays have appeared in The New Yorker, Harper’s Magazine, The Guardian, The New York Review of Books, n+1, The Baffler, The New York Times, and elsewhere. She is the recipient of three Pushcart Prizes and her work has been anthologized in The Best American Essays 2017 and The Contemporary American Essay. She also writes the “Cloud Support” advice column for Wired.

Meghan O'Gieblyn

Nonfiction

Shelby Van Pelt, fiction

Born and raised in the Pacific Northwest, Shelby Van Pelt lives in the suburbs of Chicago with her family. Remarkably Bright Creatures is her first novel.

Shelby Van Pelt

Fiction

Festival Schedule

  • Thursday, September 21: FREE Community Creative Lab

    Thursday's Creative Lab is free; no registration required.

    Details coming by April 1, 2023!

  • Friday, September 22 For Writers: Writing Workshops

    Details coming by April 1, 2023!

  • Saturday, September 23: For Readers & Writers: Author Talks

    Details coming by April 1, 2023!

REGISTRATION OPENS MARCH 1, 2023

2023 Workshop Descriptions

DETAILS COMING SOON!

For other registration options, please call 920-868-1457 or email info@writeondoorcounty.org.

2023 Books click cover to order

About the Washington Island Literary Festival

The Washington Island Literary Festival is a moveable feast of writing, reading, discussion, and thought about the written word. Writers' workshops, author panels and presentations, readings and social activities are scheduled at various quaint, historic, and beautiful venues around the Island.

Participants have a unique opportunity to share time with prominent authors and dedicated readers in the intimate, friendly setting of Washington Island, a half-hour by ferry from the Door County mainland, in September's color and warmth.

If you aren't an Island resident, we recommend you secure your housing as soon as possible! Visit Destination Door County for a listing of accommodations. (Narrow your search to Washington Island.)

Come for all or just part of the Festival. We look forward to welcoming you to our community!

Thank you to our partners and sponsors

Fair Isle Books
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Nicolet

Connect and Celebrate with Literature:
What Past Participants Love

Marion Boyer

The venues chosen for all the events were just perfect. The barn was magical with its lights and chickens and beautifully laid tables. I appreciated being able to give my workshop on the veranda of such a lovely hotel!  The auditorium was perfect for the panel and readings. It was lit so well and the sound systems were flawless.  Believe me, as planning chair I appreciate these things. 

Paula Carter

An intimate engagement with world-renowned writers. 

Sandra Lindow

Intelligent and challenging workshops in an absolutely gorgeous setting.

Libby Sachs

Washington Island is a perfect place to read and write and therefore a perfect place to immerse one's self in the spoken and written word.