CORRECTION: When I wrote this I meant to say Bukoski’s Ironworld lecture was Saturday, Feb. 21, the week after his radio interview.
A great working class writer, Anthony Bukoski, is going to be venturing north from his Superior, Wis., base to appear on the Iron Range next week. Bukoski writes short stories about the people of his native East End Polish neighborhood in Superior, focusing especially on the travails of hard working people in hard times. I mention this partially because Bukoski is a compelling writer and lecturer, worth an Iron Rangers time, but also because he was my creative writing professor at the University of Wisconsin-Superior. I continue to cite him as a major influence on my writing (more aptly, my attitude about writing about place). One of the things I loved about going to college in Superior was the similarity to my native Iron Range: a flawed blue collar place with deep humanity.
Bukoski will be on tonight’s RealGoodWords with Heidi Holtan on 91.7 KAXE (6 p.m. tonight, 9 a.m. Sunday morning, or archived here afterward). He’ll be talking about his new or newly expanded books “Twelve Below Zero” and “North of Port.” Heidi tells me it’s a good interview. KAXE has an online stream for those who aren’t in the area.
Bukoski will also be part of the Ironworld Lecture Series next weekend with a 2 p.m. Saturday lecture at Ironworld. I read there last weekend for my book “Overburden: Modern Life on the Iron Range,” a work that might not have been possible without Anthony Bukoski. (Figuratively because of his teaching, literally because I met my publisher in his graduate creative writing workshop in 2004).
UPDATE: I failed to mention “North of Port” in an earlier version of this post. That’s his newest book, while “Twelve Below Zero” is an older book that has been expanded and re-released.
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