The WISCONSIN chapter of WDA is a collaboration of writers, readers, editors, and booksellers, standing together to champion democracy everywhere, and the institutions that embody and protect it. We defend civil liberties: the right to vote and have our votes counted, to gather and protest, to write and read, and to access learning that informs and enriches the lives of citizens. We battle censorship in all its guises. A nation can only be strong if it invites a multitude of perspectives into its decision-making process, educates its citizens, and treats the least of them as equal in value to its most powerful.

A Call to Action in Wisconsin

Join Us

We, as Wisconsin Writers for Democratic Action, understand BOOK BANNING to be a strategy of authoritarian governments to restrict personal freedoms, a strategy preliminary to what we witnessed in totalitarian regimes of the twentieth century. We are grateful to partner with Wisconsin bookstores and libraries in their efforts to provide access to titles that have been banned across our state. “To allow a group of people or any individual, no matter how powerful or loud, to become the decision-maker about what books we can read or whether libraries exist is to place all of our rights and liberties in jeopardy” (Deborah Caldwell-Stone, director of ALA’s Office for Intellectual Freedom).
Let us act now, while we can, to protect our democracy, our books, and our right to read what we choose!
Please consider joining WDA and our Wisconsin Chapter.
The Wisconsin Chapter of Writers for Democratic Action is participating in The Milwaukee Central Library's Banned Wagon event, September 24, 10am - 2pm.

The Banned Wagon is hitting the road for its second Banned Wagon tour, stopping in communities across the Midwest and the South that are impacted by book banning. Powered by Penguin Random House, Unite Against Book Bans (UABB), First Book, and Little Free Library.
WDA will have a resource table and staff at The Banned Wagon, meeting and greeting writers and authors.. WDA will also present a short, modern, professional performance of Nobel Prize winner Sinclair Lewis' play It Can't Happen Here - Again, a protest against censorship and authoritarianism. This very current version was presented at 6 venues in and around Milwaukee and across the USA in 91 cities and towns during and immediately following the RNC Convention this past July. Nearly 400 people attended our MKE area performances.
Find out more about the Banned Book Wagon here.

Here’s What’s Going Down

It Can’t Happen Here — Again in Wisconsin

NEW Venues & Times in October & November

Fond du Lac: Fond du Lac County Labor Council, 50 Bank Street, October 27, 7pm.

Milwaukee: Calvary Church near Marquette University, 935 W. Wisconsin Avenue, October 21, 6pm.

Milwaukee: Sugar Maple in Bay View, 441 E. Lincoln Street. in the front room, October 30, 7pm.

Milwaukee: Anodyne Coffee Roasters, 224 W. Bruce Street. in Walker’s Point, November 3, 6pm.

Schofield: Sconni's Alehouse and Eatery, 1239 Schofield Avenue, October 29, 5:30pm.

Check out the Milwaukee Public Library Linktree

The Milwaukee Public Library has been awarded a Peabody nomination for their social media presence, check out their Instagram, TikTok, as well as all the many many resources they have available all in one place.

Join Milwaukee Public Library on September 24 at their Central Library for the Banned Wagon

Don’t miss your chance to pick up a banned book and be part of this important conversation about censorship and the right to access information. The Banned Wagon is powered by Penguin Random House and in partnership with Unite Against Book Bans (UUAB), Little Free Library, and First Book. Join us in celebrating the freedom to read.

September 24, 2024

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Don't think fascism could happen here? You haven't tracked the school book bans.

by Jacki Lyden, Barry Wightman & John Norcross

May 9, 2024

Rehearsing in Milwaukee

Venues & Times

July 19, 2024

Milwaukee: Milwaukee Central Library, with the Banned Bookwagon, 814 W. Wisconsin Ave, September 24, 11am

Bayview: Community Room of 1st Unitarian Society of Milwaukee, 1342 N. Astor St, September 25th, 7pm.

Fort Atkinson: Cafe Carpe, 18 Water St, September 27, 8:15pm.

Milwaukee: Front Room, 441 E. Lincoln Ave., October 30, 7pm, featuring music by Frogwater

Rehearsing in Milwaukee

Reading IT CAN’T HAPPEN HERE - AGAIN in Anodyne

A Reading at Zao Community Church in Milwaukee

A Reading in Woodland Pattern

Our Partners

Writers for Democratic Action is able to do the work we do because of our partners, the independent bookstores, libraries, and literary organizations who offer so much support, community, solidarity, information, and free expression to all of us. Please show up at one of our partner bookstores or libraries for conversations, readings, books, voter registration drives, and comradery. Thank you to our WISCONSIN partners: