Upcoming events: Kirk Dietrich and Manty Ellis Trio at Jazz Estate, Michael Andreasen with C.J. Hribal, Christopher Moore, Orange Hat children's book night, Denise Kiernan at Pabst Mansion, Best of the Undergraduate Writers (two nights), and Paula McLain at the Sharon Lynne Wilson Center, with Books & Company

Monday, April 30, 7:00 pm, at The Jazz Estate, 2423 N Murray Ave:
Kurt Dietrich, author of Wisconsin Riffs: Jazz Profiles from the Heartland, with special guests The Manty Ellis Trio

The Jazz Estate and Boswell present a talk from Ripon College music professor Kurt Dietrich, followed by music from the Manty Ellis Trio. Admission is $5 at the door.

Although New York City, Los Angeles, and Chicago are often considered the epicenters of American jazz, this extensive, upbeat compilation of jazz musician biographies details Wisconsin’s rich association with the genre since its inception in the early 1900s. Iconic musicians Bunny Berigan, Woody Herman, Les Paul, and Al Jarreau all hailed from Wisconsin, as have many other influential players, composers, and teachers. Wisconsin Riffs features these musicians side-by-side to portray a comprehensive history of jazz in Wisconsin.

Through meticulous research and more than a hundred interviews, author Kurt Dietrich has assembled a group of musicians who represent a wide range of backgrounds, ages, stylistic schools, and experiences, from leaders of swing-era big bands to legendary Wisconsin Conservatory instructors to today’s up-and-coming practitioners of contemporary jazz and jazz rock. For aspiring musicians, jazz enthusiasts, and fans of Wisconsin culture alike, Wisconsin Riffs presents a compelling, complex, and multi-layered concoction, just like jazz itself.

Kurt Dietrich is a professor of music and the Barbara Baldwin DeFrees Chair in the Performing Arts at Ripon College. He is the author of Duke’s Bones: Ellington’s Great Trombonists, as well as numerous articles for publications including Annual Review of Jazz Studies and Black Music Research Journal. As a musician, he has performed on numerous recordings.

Tuesday, May 1, 7:00 pm, at Boswell:
Michael Andreasen, author of The Sea Beast Takes a Lover

Boswell is pleased to host Marquette graduate Michael Andreasen for a conversation with his Marquette mentor, C.J. Hribal, about the bewitching stories in Andreasen’s first book.

With its feet only slightly tethered to the world we know, The Sea Beast Takes a Lover explores hope, love, and loss across a series of surreal landscapes and wild metamorphoses. Just because Jenny was born without a head doesn’t mean she isn’t still annoying to her older brother, and just because the Man of the Future’s extramarital affair ends in alien abduction and network fame doesn’t mean he can’t still pine for his absent wife.

Romping through the fantastic with big-hearted ease, these playful stories cut to the core of how we navigate family, faith, and longing. Daring and deeply familiar, these stories unfold in wildly inventive worlds, using the supernatural and extraordinary to expose us at our most human.

Michael Andreasen is a graduate of Marquette University and holds a Masters degree in creative writing from the University of California, Irvine. His fiction has appeared in The New Yorker, Tin House, and Zoetrope: All-Story. C.J. Hribal is professor of English at Marquette University and a member of the fiction faculty at the Warren Wilson College MFA.

Wednesday, May 2, 7:00 pm, Boswell:
A ticketed event with Christopher Moore, author of Noir

The absurdly outrageous, sarcastically satiric, and always entertaining New York Times bestselling author Christopher Moore returns in finest madcap form with this zany noir set on the mean streets of post-World War II San Francisco. Elisabeth Clark in Library Journal raves: " Fans of noir film and fiction will find a lot to enjoy in this loving genre tribute, and those already familiar with Moore's books will simply be in love."

Gerald Bartell's review in the San Francisco Chronicle, notes that Moore categorizes the book as "perky noir": "Perky it is, and suffused with nostalgia for San Francisco in 1947, when the action takes place - and when language and attitudes, Moore forewarns us, were not politically correct. Moore’s characters could populate a sequel to Guys and Dolls. The troupe includes Eddie Moo Shoes; Pookie O’Hara ('260 pounds of crooked cop'); and a blonde named Stilton, a.k.a. 'The Cheese,’ whom protagonist Sammy 'Two Toes' Tiffin calls 'Toots.'"


Tickets are $30 and include admission and a copy of Noir. Tickets available at mooremke18.bpt.me. In lieu of the book, an $18 Boswell gift card is available on the night of the event only.

Christopher Moore is the author of fifteen previous novels, including Secondhand Souls, Sacré Bleu, and Lamb.

Thursday, May 3, 6:00 pm, at Boswell: Orange Hat Publishing presents Reginald Walton, author of My Daddy’s Hat, Betsy Moerschel, author of Look Out Gentry!, and Amy Runte, author of Look at How Big You Are Now

Though a fairly young company, the dedicated staff of Orange Hat Publishing has combined years of experience in publishing, editing, and web and book design to contribute to the publication of more than two hundred books. Orange Hat, a family owned and operated company based in downtown Waukesha, is proud to present an evening of Children’s book authors at Boswell.

Amy Runte is an HSE Administrator and lives in Brownsville, WI with her husband and their two boys, who are being raised to value kindness and hard work. Look At How Big You Are is a story about kids growing up in the blink of an eye.

Elizabeth Moerschel was born and raised in Waukesha and went on to earn a BA and MS from Northwestern University. She taught elementary school and served on the Kenilworth District 38 Board of Education. Look Out Gentry! is based on the true story of a bull who escaped his pen, ran through flowers and fields, and wound up somewhere completely unexpected.

Reginald Walton, aka "Mister Reggie," is a speaker with the Milwaukee Boys and Girls Club and Mister Reggie Productions, and an academic adviser with Bryant and Stratton College. My Daddy’s Hat is a rhythmic, vibrant tribute to the male role models in our lives.

Friday, May 4, 7:30 pm, at the Pabst Mansion, 2000 W Wisconsin Ave:
A ticketed event with Denise Kiernan, author of The Last Castle: The Epic Story of Love, Loss, and American Royalty in the Nation's Largest Home

While Denise Kiernan’s earlier event at the Pabst Mansion is sold out, she will be doing a second ticketed talk at 7:30 in the perfect setting for this history of the timeless Biltmore Estate. Tickets are $22 and include admission and a copy of The Last Castle. Purchase tickets to this 7:30 talk at kiernan730.bpt.me.

A New York Times bestseller with an "engaging narrative and array of detail” (The Wall Street Journal), the “intimate and sweeping” (Raleigh News and Observer) untold, true story behind the Biltmore Estate - the largest, grandest private residence in North America, which has seen more than 120 years of history pass by its front door. Kiernan's previous work of nonfiction, The Girls of Atomic City: The Untold Story of the Women Who Helped Win World War II, was also a national bestseller and was praised by Jon Stewart as "a phenomenal story."

The story of Biltmore spans World Wars, the Jazz Age, the Depression, and generations of the famous Vanderbilt family, and features a captivating cast of real-life characters including F. Scott Fitzgerald, Thomas Wolfe, Teddy Roosevelt, John Singer Sargent, James Whistler, Henry James, and Edith Wharton. This is the fascinating, “soaring and gorgeous” (Karen Abbott) story of how the largest house in America flourished, faltered, and ultimately endured to this day.

When Captain Frederick and Maria Pabst began construction of their new family mansion in June 1890, they could not have anticipated that it would survive and thrive into the twenty-first century as a testament to America’s Gilded Age. The Pabst Mansion was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1975 and has been open to the public since 1978.

Friday, May 4, 7:00 pm, and Saturday, May 5, 7:00 pm, both nights at Boswell:
Best of the Undergraduate Writers

Since 2009 it has been a tradition (almost annual!) to host the Best of the Undergraduate Writers from Milwaukee area colleges and universities. This is a program that is unique to Boswell – we can’t think of another bookstore in the country that celebrates creative writing by bringing together undergraduates from multiple schools to read together in a professional setting.

Friday, May 4 features Victoria Koenig and Jennifer Fierro-Padilla from Alverno College, Kathryn Skjoldager, Kyle Battle, and Lauren Singer from University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, and three writers to be announced from Marquette University

Saturday, May 5 feaures Rebekah Becker and Destiny Vang from Cardinal Stritch University, Sarah Stock and Joe Messink from Carroll University, Steffon Dixon and Sennessa Soukasserm from MIAD, and Lexie Kline and Star Willis from Mount Mary University

Sunday, May 6, 3:00 pm, at the Sharon Lynne Wilson Center for the Arts, 19805 W Capitol Dr in Brookfield:
A ticketed event with Paula McLain, author of Love and Ruin

The Sharon Lynne Wilson Center, Oconomowoc's Books & Company, and Milwaukee's Boswell Book Company present a very special afternoon with Paula McLain, the bestselling author of The Paris Wife, who returns to the subject of Ernest Hemingway in Love and Ruin, a novel about his passionate, stormy marriage to Martha Gellhorn, the fiercely independent, ambitious young woman who would become one of the greatest war correspondents of the twentieth century.

Tickets are $32.00 and include admission to the event, all taxes and fees, and a copy of Love and Ruin. The ticket link is mclain.bpt.me. Here's a taste from Joanne Kaufman's Wall Street Journal review last Saturday:

"In 1937, 28-year-old Martha travels alone to Madrid to report on the atrocities of the Spanish Civil War and becomes drawn to the stories of ordinary people caught in devastating conflict. She also finds herself unexpectedly falling in love with Ernest Hemingway, a man already on his way to becoming a legend."

In the shadow of the impending Second World War, and set against the tumultuous backdrops of Madrid, Finland, China, Key West, and especially Cuba, where Martha and Ernest make their home, their relationship and professional careers ignite. But when Ernest publishes the biggest literary success of his career, For Whom the Bell Tolls, they are no longer equals, and Martha must make a choice: surrender to the confining demands of being a famous man’s wife, or risk losing Ernest by forging a path as her own woman and writer. It is a dilemma that will force her to break his heart - and her own.

Glamour magazine raves: “Romance, infidelity, war - Paula McLain’s powerhouse novel has it all.”

Paula McLain is The New York Times bestselling author of the novels Circling the Sun, The Paris Wife, and A Ticket to Ride, the memoir Like Family: Growing Up in Other People’s Houses, and two collections of poetry. She has received fellowships from Yaddo, the MacDowell Colony, and the National Endowment for the Arts.

More on our upcoming events page.