Laura Jean Baker

press release: Since 2011 Shake Rag Alley, has partnered with the Council for Wisconsin Writers, the Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts & Letters, Wisconsin People & Ideas magazine, and the Wisconsin Poet Laureate Commission to offer week-long residencies to their annual writing contest winners. From December through March, contest-winning writers and poets are provided with a week of uninterrupted time in Shake Rag Alley’s inspiring lodging facilities surrounded by the nurturing environment of historic Mineral Point’s artist community.

Enjoy the chance to meet and hear from the following award-winning authors during the upcoming free Winter Writers Reading Series. Each reading will end with a half-hour open mic:

7 p.m. Jan. 22, 2020: Laura Jean Baker, Council for Wisconsin Writers Norbert Blei/August Derleth Nonfiction Book Award. Raised by therapists and married to a defense attorney, Baker writes where mental health, crime and family intersect. She earned her MFA in creative writing from the University of Michigan, where she was a Colby Fellow. Her essays have been published widely, her work has been twice nominated for a Pushcart Prize, and her essay “Year of the Tiger” was a Notable Essay in “Best American Essays 2013.” Her memoir, “The Motherhood Affidavits,” was released by The Experiment in April 2018. and she is at work on her second book.=