ONLINE: Tom Davis

press release: In the Unsettled Homeland of Dreams (All Things That Matter Press), Thomas Davis’s fourth published novel, won the 2019 Edna Ferber Fiction Award sponsored by the Wisconsin Council for Writers. In addition to his four novels Davis has had two epic poems, The Weirding Storm, A Dragon Epic (Bennison Books) and An American Spirit, An American Epic (Four Windows Press), published along with one non-fiction book about the Menominee Tribe’s sustainable forestry, Sustaining the Forest, the People, and the Spirit (State University of New York Press).

Two new books are currently in the production process:  Meditations on the Ceremonies of Beginning, poetry written during the early years of the founding of two significant movements in education, the tribal college and universities movement in the United States and the World Indigenous Nations Higher Education Consortium, which will be published by Tribal College Press and Apples for the Wild Stallion, a young adult novel with an severely autistic hero who cannot talk, which All Things That Matter Press is bringing out.

During his distinguished career as an educator, Davis worked for six tribal colleges across the United States in leadership positions and was a leader in STEM education both in Wisconsin and nationally. He has written grants for tribal colleges and Wisconsin tribes, helped found College of the Menominee Nation in Keshena, Wisconsin, and served as President or Chief Academic Officer of Lac Courtes Oreilles Ojibwa Community College in Hayward, Wisconsin, Fond du Lac Tribal and Community College in Cloquet, Minnesota, and Little Priest Tribal College in Winnebago, Nebraska.

Before retirement, he served as Provost for Navajo Technical University, which has campuses in the Navajo Nation in New Mexico and Arizona.  At Bay Mills Community College in Northern, Michigan, he worked with Indian Head Start to develop one of the first degree-granting virtual colleges in the United States.  He has helped found a number of national and international projects and organizations that have affected the lives of American Indians and indigenous peoples from around the world. 

A 12 series podcast about his work with tribal colleges and universities is currently available at https://tribalcollegejournal.org/our-history-memories-of-the-tribal-college-movement-podcast-1/tom-davis-podcast.

Since 2011 Shake Rag Alley has partnered with the Council for Wisconsin Writers (CWW), Wisconsin People & Ideas, and the Wisconsin Poet Laureate Commission through the Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts & Letters to offer week-long residencies to their annual writing contest winners.

In the tradition established by Edenfred, the Terry Family Foundation’s artist residence in Madison, writers and poets are provided with a week of uninterrupted time to focus on a project of their choice.

Between the months of December through 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 workshops, readings, and/or community outreach activities, including Wednesday evening Winter Writers Reading Series author talks and discussions.

2020-21 readings and discussions offered virtually via Zoom.