Susanna Daniel

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, Jan. 22: Susanna Daniel was awarded the Wisconsin Writers Zona Gale Short Nonfiction Award. Susanna Daniel’s third novel, Girlfriending, will be published in February of 2026 by Third Rail Press. Girlfriending is a spinoff of “The Goddess of Illicit Choices,” which won the 2024 Zona Gale award for short fiction. Her debut novel, Stiltsville, was awarded the 2011 PEN/Bingham prize, and her second novel, Sea Creatures, was a Target Book Club pick. A graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, she was a Teaching-Writing Fellow at the Writers’ Workshop as well as a MacDowell Fellow and UCross Fellow.