Events and Appearances
In recent years I’ve grown to embrace my talents as a creative community builder.
I love bringing people together, whether I’m working with collaborators to run community open mics, or joining forces with writers and artists for engaged readings and conversations.
In spaces such as these, I burn brightest!
Join me for the 39th annual A Rally of Writers, April 11, 2026 for my craft talk, “From Hanna to Hell: Writing Stories from Place”!
Using Hanna, Indiana, and Hell, Michigan, as workshop touchstones, I will explore with participants how deep curiosity about a place can be an active force that shapes characters, themes, conflict, and the emotional core of fiction, nonfiction, and hybrid work.
April 9th, Cornerstone Press, University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point
A Green Glow on the Horizon book launch
April 4th, Defiance Public Library, Defiance, Ohio
with Mary Catherine Harper and Jan Bechtel
MARCH 26th, 6:30 PM – This is a Bookstore/Bookbug, Kalamazoo, MI
In conversation with Bonnie Jo Campbell and Melissa Fraterrigo
MARCH 14th LANSING BOOK LAUNCH FOR A GREEN GLOW ON THE HORIZON AT EVERYBODY READS BOOKS AND STUFF!! WITH MY BOOKSTORE FRIEND SCOTT HARRIS!!
March 7th, 6-9 PM, Motor House, Baltimore, Maryland
Off-site reading with Cornerstone Press authors.
Also come see me at the Cornerstone book fair booth where I’ll join Colleen Alles on March 5, 12:00-1:00!
Many thanks to the Arts Council of Greater Lansing for funding me through the Chris Clark Fellowship!
Join Sara Moslener, Sarah Carson, and me at A Novel Concept for a special (anti)Valentine’s Day event at 4:30, February 14th! We’ll talk about leaving purity culture, do some erasure poetry, and more!
With Hannah Allen, Bex Miller, Carol Arnold, and Tracie Swiecki at the Conference on Writing and Wellbeing in Tucson, January 2026
Our workshop “Frames: How They Open and Close What We See” had participants join us on a walk focusing on framing and noticing — keeping in mind that so much of our academic experience is framed.
With Ben Curl, Elise Jajuga, and Mike Copperman at the Conference on Community Writing in Detroit, October 2025.
Our roundtable “Intentional Design: Inclusively Linking Creativity and Community” sparked good conversation, and included the voices of Cheryl Caesar and Sally Burns who were unable to join us.
Andy Oler, Ross Tangedal, Olga L. Herrera, Leah Milne, and me talked about Literary Landscapes of the Midwest at Proof: A Midwest Lit Fest.
Many thanks to Andy Oler for bringing us together both in person and in print in Lingering Inland: A Literary Tour of the Midwest and through New Territories’ Literary Landscapes.
A special Many Voices, featuring Society for the Study of Midwestern Literature (SSML) creative writers in town for the annual SSML Writing the Midwest symposium!
At the Popular Culture Association conference April 16-19th in New Orleans, reading “Go to Hell” from A Green Glow on the Horizon.
Thankful to Cait West, Sarah Moslener, Sarah Carson, Jessica Jernigan, Zee the Goblin and members of their creative tribe, and Bex Miller representing Beasties and Bungalows for joining me for the day. Thankful, too, for Hell’s founder and mayor John Colone and wedding officiant Reverend Vonn for having us!
Dawn Burns 