Special Programs

Northern Michigan authors Chad V. Broughman and John Mauk talk literature, publishing, and the pursuit of dreams
Tuesday, July 29th, 7-8pm
Alanson Area Public Library

Alanson Area Public Library welcomes authors Chad V. Broughman and John Mauk.

Chad V. Broughman was the recipient of the Rusty Scythe Prize Book award in 2016 and in 2017 was awarded the Adobe Cottage Writers Retreat honor in New Mexico. In the spring of 2018, Chad was awarded a chapbook contract for his collection of short stories, "the forsaken," which was published by Etchings Press and again in spring 2022 for short story collection "slighted," and he was one of three winners in the "First Chapter" contest, hosted by Arch Street Press. As well, Chad's short story "Check Mate" was published in a collection of stories entitled "On Loss, an anthology." His fiction can be found in print magazines nationwide-- Carrier Pigeon, East Coast Literary Review, River Poets Journal, From Whispers to Roars and Burningword-and in several on-line journals--Faith, Hope & Fiction, Sky Island Journal, Wild Violet, and Darling Axe. He is a Best of the Net and Pushcart Prize nominee and a Hummingbird Prize winner from Canada's highly regarded magazine, PULP Literature. Additionally, he has served as a guest judge for the Dorlis Gott Armentrout Award and the Write Michigan Contest via Kent County Library. In August 2022, Chad was shortlisted for the First Novel Prize and named a 2023 Screencraft Cinematic Book Competition Finalist. Chad won the 2023 Amity Literary Prize for his historical novel, "The Fall of Bellwether" published in April 2024 and most recently hailed as "first among equals" as the 2024 Hawthorne Prize winner, ranking as a finalist for the 2024 International Book Award and winning the 2024 American Writing Award for historical fiction. Chad holds an MFA from Spalding University and served as co-editor for the fiction/poetry blog, Café Aphra, based in the United Kingdom. He lives in northern Michigan with his wife and two sons, teaching English and Creative Writing.

John Mauk grew up on the Ohio flatland, a stone's throw from both Michigan and Indiana. He taught college writing courses for twenty-four years. During his academic career, he developed several widely used textbooks, worked with teachers around the country, and was twice elected professor of the year. After first reading Gabriel Garcia Marquez, he pivoted to fiction. His stories have appeared in journals such as Salamander, Arts and Letters, The Forge, New Millennium Writings, Main Street Rag, and The Dunes Review; his nonfiction in Rumpus, Beatrice.com, Writer's Digest, and various anthologies. He has two full-length story collections, Field Notes for the Earthbound and Where All Things Flatten. He has judged for national writing contests, consulted for publishers, and read for magazines. He currently hosts Prose from the Underground, a free video series for active writers.

In the small town of Bellwether, where
prejudice and judgment prevail, five
harrowing life paths collide and a saga of
survival, defiance, and unyielding human
spirit unfolds. —Winner of the Hawthorne Prize, 2024

Broughman has created an American epic, a grand story
that stretches across land and water, time and race, gender
and religion. As characters go off to war, fl ee to cities, and
escape the terrors of slavery, we encounter the awesome
forces of mercy, hope, even forgiveness. Broughman’s prose
sweeps from achingly tender to brutal and bare-knuckled,
his prowess managing multiple voices and tensions.
Brazenly beautiful writing. —John Mauk, author of Where All
Things Flatten

Author Ron Sadler: Grim Paradise: The Cold Case Search for the Mackinac Island Killer
Thursday, July 17th, 7-8:30pm
Littlefield Alanson Community Building

Alanson Area Public Library welcomes U.P. Notable Book author Rod Sadler

Rod Sadler is a retired police officer who served in Mid-Michigan for thirty years. After discovering a brutal 1897 murder in Williamston, where his great-grandfather was the sheriff, he began researching true crime. While earning his bachelor’s degree, he found a passion for writing. His book, Killing Women: The True Story of Don Miller’s Reign of Terror, inspired three documentaries. His latest work, Depraved Obsession: The Gripping True Story of Law Enforcement’s Hunt for a Sadistic Serial Killer, launched on May 6. Rod has published five Michigan-based true crime books, known for their meticulous research and detail, including one that takes place in a setting we are all familiar with, Grim Paradise: The Cold Case Search for the Mackinac Island Killer.

Ladies of the Lights: Michigan's Female Lighthouse Keepers
Thursday, June 19th, 7-8:30pm
Littlefield Alanson Community Building

Presentation by Dianna Stampfler of Promote Michigan

For nearly 30 years, Dianna Stampfler – an author, freelance writer, and armchair historian – has been researching lighthouses around her home state of Michigan.

During that time, she’s been drawn to the stories of the dozens of women who served as keepers of these majestic beacons. As government employees, these women worked alongside men and were well respected within the industry. While keeping the lights burning, many also were wives and mothers, leaving a bright legacy in their wake.

They were women before their time, taking on the romantic, yet dangerous and physically demanding job of tending to the beacons that protected the shoreline. In all, some 40 women have been identified who excelled in this profession over the years — dating back as early as the 1840s and as recent as present day. Nearly 70 images of keepers, their families and their lights make up this presentation. The program includes readings from newspapers and autobiographies, as well as handouts including the list of featured ladies and additional reading references for attendees.

A Cloud Over the Land
Tuesday, November 19th, 6-7:30pm
Littlefield Alanson Community Building

Presentation by Deborah Richmond, Historian
Burt Lake Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians

As the tribal historian of the Burt Lake Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians, Deborah Richmond brings a wealth of knowledge and dedication to preserving the rich cultural heritage of her community. Together with historian and author Rick Wiles, the Burt Lake Band recently published a book, “A Cloud over the Land,” about a historic and tragic event in the band’s history – the Burt Lake Burnout of 1900.

In this presentation, Richmond will discuss the difficult story of how the Native American village at Burt Lake in Brutus, Michigan, was mercilessly reduced to ashes, rendering families homeless and stripping them of their ancestral lands, by a wealthy land developer and the local sheriff.

Location: Littlefield Alanson Community Building
7631 US-31
Alanson, MI 49706

“A Cloud Over the Land” tells the story of the Burt Lake Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians and the terroristic event on October 15, 1900 that would change the course of history and their future in Northern Michigan forever.

On October 15, 1900, the Native American village at Burt Lake in Brutus, Michigan, was violently burned to the ground, leaving families homeless and landless. The perpetrators of this crime were a wealthy land developer and the local sheriff. “A Cloud Over the Land” tells of the events leading up to this tragic day and the timeline of acts that left this thriving village in ruins, and its people stripped of their treaty rights to their ancestral lands.

The hidden history of the Burt Lake Band is a story that should be as familiar to us as the story of the building of Mackinac Bridge or the wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald. But this tale of violence, discrimination and racism has been known to only the Band itself and a handful of historians, until now.

Over the past 10 years, author Richard Wiles has thoroughly researched and uncovered the details of this tragic event and its long-lasting repercussions for the original people of this area of Northern Michigan. He is a former high school American history instructor and a former college research instructor. He is an honorary member of the Burt Lake Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians.