A Room of One’s Own, Madison, WI

July 8th, 2006

Yesterday Ann and I drove from Minneapolis to Madison. Here I am driving her Saturn crossing the hot, flat expanse of Wisconsin.

In Madison, I did a radio interview with Matt Rothschild, the editor of The Progressive. Then I raced over to A Room of One’s Own, the excellent feminist bookstore here, where a hot, throbbing crowd was waiting.

That woman front and center is Rachel, who wore her Mo shirt for the occasion. Someone counted about 130 people. It was an utterly delightful audience. One woman, likely an English professor, compared my writing style to Melville. And being the radical Madisonians that they are, there was some discussion about the ethics of doing readings in the bookstore chains–Bounders, and Bunns and Noodle.

Here are the intrepid booksellers who brought me here. Nancy on the left, (me), Sandi, Hilary, and Sashe.

After the reading I went over to Ann’s house, the woman who’s been driving me around on this junket. We had Chinese food with her girlfriend Michele and their exceedingly charming, talented, and rather adorable neighbors. Here’s Gwen, Anna, and Michele.

Here’s Rachel and Ann.

Gwen showed us photos of a crazy taxidermized rodent museum that she recently went to. I think you can see them too on her myspace page. Lemme tell you, Wisconsin is a happening place.