Thelma Receives Grant To Host Best Selling Author

Thelma Sadoff Center for the Arts (THELMA) recently announced  that it is one of four organizations to receive a mini grant from the Wisconsin Humanities Council.

The $2,000 grant assists THELMA in bringing national bestselling author Bonnie Jo Campbell. Campbell will provide a reading and sign copies of her books at THELMA February 22. Her visit is part of THELMA’s Lake Reading Series.

“We are so thankful to the Wisconsin Humanities Council for assisting us in bringing Bonnie Jo Campbell to Fond du Lac,” said Jacqui Corsi, THELMA Executive Director. “This grant is key in providing arts experiences for our community.  

Campbell is the author of the novels including Once Upon a River, a National Bestseller, and soon to be a feature film set to be released in 2018. Her critically-acclaimed short fiction collections include American Salvage, which was a finalist for both the National Book Award and the National Book Critic’s Circle Award; Women and Other Animals, which won the AWP prize for short fiction; and Mothers, Tell Your Daughters, her recent short story collection. Her story “The Smallest Man in the World” was awarded a Pushcart Prize and her story “The Inventor, 1972” was awarded the 2009 Eudora Welty Prize from Southern Review. She was a 2011 Guggenheim Fellow.

“We’re delighted to help bring Bonnie Jo Campbell to Wisconsin for an event that will bring people together to share their responses to her work, and to reflect on stories that illuminate the joys and struggles of all of our lives,” said Dena Wortzel, executive director of Wisconsin Humanities Council.

Opening for Campbell will be a reading by Marian University Associate Professor of English, Christina Kubasta. Kubasta will read from her novella Girling, her winning selection of the Driftless Unsolicited Novella Series from Brain Mill Press.

Kubasta is the author of books, All Beautiful & Useless and the newly released, Of Covenants. An active member of the Wisconsin Fellowship of Poets, she is also Assistant

Poetry Editor at Brain Mill Press. She is the coordinator for THELMA’s Lake Reading Series which works to engage the larger community in a dialogue about writing and its uses –how literature speaks to our shared humanity.

In addition to the readings by Campbell and Kubasta, the evening includes a cash bar, and open mic. Admission is free. Campbell will also sign books following her reading. The event begins at 6 pm. For more information visit thelmaarts.org.