The first Midwest Small Press Festival will be held in Milwaukee from June 1-3. This innovative event aims to celebrate regional accomplishments in the growing small-press movement and serve as an avenue to share literary works. Opening-night events will take place at <strong>Woodland Pattern Book Center</strong> on June 1; a number of artists will be on hand to discuss their writings. Beginning at 6:30 p.m., authors Russell Jaffe, Lesley Wheeler and Nick Demske—published by Iowa City's Strange Cage Press—will read from their respective works. Jaffe is a co-editor of Strange Cage. His newest collection, an online chapbook, is available from The Red Ceilings Press. Wheeler is a poet and recent graduate of the University of Iowa Writers' Workshop. Demske is the author of a self-titled manuscript that won the Fence Modern Poets Series prize.<br /><br />At 7:30 p.m., contributors to the anthology <em>New Stories from the Midwest</em> will read excerpts from their works and discuss surrealism and its place in Midwestern literature. Featured readers include Michael Czyzniejewski, editor-in-chief of <em>Mid-American Review</em>, whose stories have appeared in literary magazines including <em>American Literary Review</em>, <em>Quick Fiction</em> and <em>New Orleans Review</em>, among others; Rebecca Makkai, a Chicago-based author whose first novel, <em>The Borrower</em>, is a Booklist Top Ten Debut; and Rachel Swearingen, recipient of the 2011 Mississippi Review Prize in Fiction. More information about the Midwest Small Press Festival can be found online at <a href="http://www.midwestsmallpressfestival.org" target="_blank">www.midwestsmallpressfestival.org</a>.
