Marcia Bjornerud, Rebecca Jamieson

media release: Shake Rag Alley Center for the Arts will welcome nine writers in residence at the start of 2026. Marking the fifteenth year of the Winter Writers Reading Series, this upcoming year will feature award-winning Wisconsin writers reading from their work on select Thursday evenings. Shake Rag Alley is excited to partner with Republic of Letters Books, Mineral Point’s independent bookstore, for our 2026 reading series, with additional programming at the Mineral Point Public Library, and Rountree Gallery in Platteville, Wisconsin. Unless noted, readings will be held at Republic of Letters Books, 151 High St., Mineral Point, at 6 p.m. 

Since 2011 Shake Rag Alley has partnered with a number of Wisconsin writing organizations to provide residencies to their annual writing contest winners. For 2026, these organizations include Wisconsin People & Ideas, the Wisconsin Poet Laureate Commission through the Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts & Letters, Arts + Literature Laboratory. and the Wisconsin Fellowship of Poets.

From January to March, writers stay in Shake Rag Alley’s inspiring lodging facilities surrounded by the nurturing environment of historic Mineral Point’s artistic community. Visiting writers participate in community outreach activities, including readings, workshops, and school visits. See the full schedule to enjoy the chance to meet award-winning authors during the upcoming free Winter Writers Reading Series. More information available at www.ShakeRagAlley.org/writers-reading-series/ 

Thursday, March 26 at the Mineral Point Public Library: Marcia Bjornerud & Rebecca Jamieson

Marcia Bjornerud was awarded the Wisconsin Writers Blei/Derleth Nonfiction Book Award. A structural geologist whose research focuses on the physics of earthquakes and mountain building,  Bjornerud combines field-based studies of bedrock geology with quantitative models of rock mechanics. She has done research in high arctic Norway (Svalbard) and Canada (Ellesmere Island), as well as mainland Norway, Italy, New Zealand, and the Lake Superior region. Bjornerud is a Fellow of the Geological Society of America and has been a Fulbright Senior Scholar at the University of Oslo, Norway and University of Otago, New Zealand. A contributing writer to The New Yorker, Wired, The Wall Street Journal and the Los Angeles Times, she is also the author of several books for popular audiences — Reading the Rocks: The Autobiography of the Earth; Timefulness: How Thinking Like a Geologist Can Help Save the World and Geopedia: A Brief Compendium of Geologic Curiosities. Timefulness was longlisted for the 2019 PEN/E.O.Wilson Prize for Literary Science Writing, and was a finalist for the LA Times Book Prize in Science and Technology.

Rebecca Jamieson was awarded the Wisconsin Writers Kay W. Levin Short Nonfiction Award. Rebecca Jamieson is the author of The Body of All Things (Finishing Line Press, 2017). Her writing has appeared in numerous publications, including Entropy, Mid-American Review, The Offing, Rattle, and she is a regular contributor to Isthmus. She is the recipient of the Tupelo Press Prose Prize, a Wisconsin Writers Award, and is a Pushcart Prize nominee. Rebecca holds an MFA in Writing and Publishing from the Vermont College of Fine Arts. She is also the founder of Contemplate Create, where she teaches creative writing through a mindfulness-based lens. She lives on Ho-Chunk land in Madison, Wisconsin. When she’s not writing, you can find her hiking, baking, or cuddling her two cats.