Society for the Study of Midwestern Literature

Become a Member

Recent News

2026 Symposium

We look forward to the 2026 SSML Symposium, which will take place May 28-29, 2026, at the Kellogg Hotel and Conference Center in East Lansing, Michigan. A call for papers and a registration form are available on the symposium page.

2026 Mark Twain Award

Margaret Rozga

Throughout her career as a poet, essayist, editor, teacher, and social activist, Margaret (Peggy) Rozga has challenged the national conscience on civil rights and civic duty. Her five full-length books of poetry have been praised for their ability to inspire and provide hope while honestly portraying the realities of racial discrimination, the lives of soldiers and their families, and environmental change and loss. Her first poetry book, 200 Nights and One Day (Benu Press 2009), relates the story of the fair housing marches in Milwaukee in 1967-1968 that led to the passage of a fair housing law. It received a bronze medal in poetry from the Independent Publishers Book Awards and was named an outstanding achievement by the Wisconsin Library Association. In 2019-2020 Margaret served as Wisconsin poet laureate. She has been an ambassador for poetry and social justice as a frequent reader of her own work and as a leader of numerous poetry workshops.

A Wisconsin native and resident of Milwaukee, Margaret Rozga was educated at Alverno College (BA) and the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (MA and PhD). She taught writing and literature at the University of Wisconsin-Waukesha as Professor of English and earned emeritus status upon retirement. Her most recent book of poetry is Restoring Prairie (Cornerstone Press 2024).

Margaret Rozga is the forty-eighth winner of the Mark Twain Award for distinguished contributions to Midwestern literature, given annually by The Society for the Study of Midwestern Literature since 1980. Past winners include Gwendolyn Brooks, Herbert Martin, Jonis Agee, Sandra Seaton, Ted Kooser, Tim O’Brien, Rebecca Makkai, and our 2025 recipient, Ana Castillo.

2026 MidAmerica Award

Roger Bresnahan

Dr. Roger Bresnahan is a highly deserving fifty-fourth recipient of the Society for the Study of Midwestern Literature’s MidAmerica Award, which honors “someone who has made distinguished contributions to the scholarship and/or study of Midwestern literature.” Emeritus professor of writing, Roger taught with distinction at Michigan State University for forty-three years, from 1978 to 2021. For more than four decades, Roger has pursued a laudatory career in the fields of writing, cultural studies, Midwestern studies, and anti-imperialism, with a focus on the Philippines and Filipino writers. The Society for the Study of Midwestern Literature has been integral to Roger’s professional life, and in turn, he has been vital to the life of SSML.

Most of us know Roger as SSML’s secretary-treasurer for thirty-five years, from April 1990 to the present, and a member of the Board of Directors for the past ten years, since 2015. Like key SSML members and distinguished MidAmerica Award winners—Robert Beasecker (1984), Phillip Greasley (1999), Marcia Noe (2003), Marilyn Atlas (2004), Mary DeJong Obuchowski (2005), and William Barillas (2013)—Roger remains part of the stalwart formative core of SSML. Roger was there in the early days with David D. Anderson, a founding member of the society. Throughout the preceding decades, Roger has warmly welcomed new SSML members and sustained deep friendships with long-term contributors—all while keeping the accounts and paying the bills, figuratively and literally. His scholarship in the society’s peer-reviewed journal, MidAmerica, is especially evident throughout SSML’s critical early years. Organizations like SSML exist due to the steady dedication and leadership of people like Roger. A man of grace, humor, and humility, Roger Bresnahan is a role model.

Among his service accolades, Roger served as MSU’s Fulbright Program Director from 2010 to 2015 and later as a program advisor. A Fulbright scholar himself from 1976 to 1977 at the University of the Philippines, Roger believes in the transformative power of the Fulbright Program. His efforts helped establish MSU as a perennial leader in producing US Fulbright students and scholars. Because of the efforts of people who share Roger’s vision and values, the Midwest is not only central to a vibrant, dynamic US culture and society but a cosmopolitan region of cross-cultural exchange and goodwill.

Janet Ruth Heller

SSML sadly reports the passing of Janet Heller, a longtime member and past President of the organization. Janet is well-known to attendees of the Society’s annual Symposium, always remembered for her kindness, good cheer, and deep interest in others’ creative and scholarly work.

Janet was a prolific poet, playwright, and author of children’s books as well as a scholar. She earned a PhD in English from the University of Chicago, and taught literature, creative writing, women’s studies, linguistics, and composition at eight colleges and universities, including Western Michigan University and the University of Chicago.

Obituary
Philip Greasley

SSML is deeply saddened to report the death of Philip A. Greasley. Phil was SSML Founder Dave Anderson’s student and completed a dissertation on Sherwood Anderson with Dave’s guidance; subsequently he was an early and very active Life Member of SSML. We have appreciated Phil throughout the years for his stalwart leadership in SSML: Founding Corporate Board member; General Editor of the Dictionary of Midwestern Literature, volumes one and two; SSML Corresponding Secretary; and many other duties too numerous to count. We have also admired his scholarship on Carl Sandburg, Gwendolyn Brooks, and other midwestern authors. But most of all, we have cherished and valued him as a beloved friend and colleague. His loss is inestimable.

Obituary
Statement on Equity and Justice
SSML and the Study of the Midwest

After police killed George Floyd in Minneapolis and protests erupted nationwide, we at SSML have been listening to the voices of equity sounding out across the country. We have been especially attentive to problems in academia, and the conversations surrounding #BlackintheIvory and #PublishingPaidMe have helped us to assess what changes we can make within SSML to ensure that we equitably support diverse scholarship and creative writing in our organization and throughout the Midwest. We hope not to offer empty words but a commitment and a plan on how we can improve our processes and activities to elevate and embrace diversity.

Full Statement

Recent Member Publications

Dawn Burns, A Green Glow on the Horizon (Cornerstone Press, 2026)
Marcia Noe, The Innocent Midwest (Ohio University Press, 2026)
Jon K. Lauck and Catherine McNicol Stock, eds., The Liberal Heartland (University Press of Kansas, 2025)
Jon K. Lauck, ed., Between Loving and Leaving (University of Oklahoma Press, 2025)
Patrick Kindig, Fascinations (Finishing Line Press, 2025)

Member Publications

John Beall, Hemingway’s Art of Revision (Louisiana State University Press, 2024)
Donald A. Daiker, Hemingway’s Earliest Heroes (Kendall Hunt Publishing, 2024)
Anita Skeen and Laura B. DeLind, Even the Least of These (Michigan State University Press, 2024)
RS Deeren, Enough to Lose (Wayne State University Press, 2023)
Dawn Burns, Evangelina Everyday (Cornerstone Press, 2022)
Sarah Carson, How to Baptize a Child in Flint, Michigan (Persea Books, 2022)
Jeff Vande Zande, Rules of Order (Montag Press, 2022)
Marcia Noe, Three Midwestern Playwrights (Indiana University Press, 2022)
Mary Catherine Harper, The Found Object Imagines a Life (Cornerstone Press, 2022)
Jon K. Lauck, The Good Country (University of Oklahoma Press, 2022)
Jeffrey Hotz, Longfellow’s Imaginative Engagement (Farleigh Dickinson University Press, 2022)
John F. Lavelle and Debbie Lelekis (eds.), The Working Class in American Literature (McFarland, 2021)
Janet Ruth Heller, Nature’s Olympics (Wipf and Stock Publishers, 2021)
D. A. Lockhart, Breaking Right (Porcupine’s Quill, 2021)
Adam Ochonicky, The American Midwest in Film and Literature (Indiana University Press, 2020)
William Barillas, ed., A Field Guide to the Poetry of Theodore Roethke (Swallow Press, 2020)
Mary Minock, A Time When You Know a House (Kelsay Books, 2020)
Ed Morin, The Bold News of Birdcalls (Kelsay Books, 2020)
Sherrin Frances, Libraries Amid Protest (University of Massachusetts Press, 2020)
Jon K. Lauck and Patricia Oman (general editors), The Making of the Midwest (Hastings College Press, 2020)
Jeff Vande Zande, The Neighborhood Division (Whistling Shade, 2020)
Anthony Harkins and Meredith McCarroll (eds.), Appalachian Reckoning (West Virginia University Press, 2019)
Robert W. Lewis and Michael Kim Roos, Reading Hemingway’s A Farewell to Arms (Kent State University Press, 2019)
John Beall, Self-Portraits (Finishing Line Press, 2019)
Jon K. Lauck and Patricia Oman (general editors), Pieces of the Heartland (Hastings College Press, 2018)
Jon K. Lauck and Patricia Oman (general editors), A Scattering Time (Hastings College Press, 2018)
Christian Knoeller, Reimagining Environmental History (University of Nevada Press, 2017)
Jon K. Lauck and Patricia Oman (general editors), The Midwestern Moment (Hastings College Press, 2017)
Jon K. Lauck, From Warm Center to Ragged Edge (University of Iowa Press, 2017)
Michael Cocchiarale and Scott Emmert (eds.), Flash Fiction (Salem Press, 2017)
Mary Catherine Harper, Some Gods Don’t Need Saints (Finishing Line Press, 2016)
Michael Copperman, Teacher (University Press of Mississippi, 2016)
Debbie Lelekis, American Literature, Lynching, and the Spectator in the Crowd (Roman & Littlefield, 2015)
Sara Moslener, Virgin Nation (Oxford University Press, 2015)
Nancy Bunge, The Midwestern Novel (McFarland, 2015)
Scott D. Emmert and Steven Trout (eds.), World War I in American Fiction (Kent State University Press, 2014)
Michael Cocchiarale and Scott Emmert (eds.), American Sports Fiction (Salem Press, 2013)
Todd Davis, In the Kingdom of the Ditch (Michigan State University Press, 2013)
Mary K. Stillwell, The Life and Poetry of Ted Kooser (Univ. of Nebraska Press, 2013)
Jon K. Lauck, The Lost Region (University of Iowa Press, 2013)
Todd Davis, ed., Fast Break to Line Break (Michigan State Univ. Press, 2012)
Ronald Primeau (ed.), Critical Insights: Midwestern Literature (Salem Press, 2012)
John Knoepfle, I Look Around For My Life (Burning Daylight Press, 2008)
Dan Guillory, The Lincoln Poems (Mayhaven Publishing, 2008)
David Radavich, America Bound (Plain View Press, 2007)
Todd Davis, Some Heaven. (Michigan State University Press, 2007)
Mary DeJong Obuchowski, Field o’ My Dreams (Kent State University Press, 2007)
Jeffrey Hotz, Divergent Visions, Contested Spaces (Routledge, 2006)
Janet Heller, How the Moon Regained Her Shape (Sylvan Dell, 2006)
Edward Watts, In this Remote Country University of (North Carolina Press, 2006)
Todd Davis, Kurt Vonnegut’s Crusade; or, How a Postmodern Harlequin Preached a New Kind of Humanism (SUNY Press, 2006)
Robert Dunne, A New Book of the Grotesques (Kent State University Press, 2005)
Barbara A. Burkhardt, William Maxwell: A Literary Life (University of Illinois Press, 2005)
Anthony Harkins, Hillbilly (Oxford University Press, 2005)
William Barillas, The Midwestern Pastoral (Winner of the 2005 SSML Book Award)
Ronald Primeau, Herbert Woodward Martin and the African American Tradition in Poetry (Kent State University Press, 2004)
Katherine Joslin, Jane Addams (University of Illinois Press, 2004)
Leonora Smith, Spatial Relations (Michigan State University Press, 2002)
Robert Beasecker, Michigan in the Novel, 1816-1996 (Wayne State University Press, 1997)

Review My Order

0

Subtotal

Taxes & shipping calculated at checkout

Checkout