Learn more about the landscape of independent publishing in the Midwest region, including presses and magazines based in the area, local book fairs and festivals, and regional awards, as well as books set in or about the Midwest.
In keeping with the Midwest Independent Booksellers Association, CLMP defines the Midwest as including Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota, Wisconsin, and Michigan’s Upper Peninsula.
Books Set in the Midwest
Fiction
Near Strangers by Marian Crotty (Autumn House Press | October 11, 2024)
This short fiction collection “centers on resilient female protagonists and offers a view into queer life and love outside of its major coastal cities,” including South Dakota and Michigan.
(Distributed by Consortium Book Sales & Distribution. ISBN: 9781637681008)
Deserters by Jerry Gabriel (Acre Books | May 15, 2026)
This novel set during the American Civil War “follows four travelers as they cross the lower Midwest on horseback with little money and few possessions.”
(Distributed by Chicago Distribution Center. ISBN: 9781968209049)
In Their Ruin by Joyce Goldenstern (Black Heron Press | July 30, 2024)
This novel “opens in the colorful, parochial Chicago suburb of Cicero, beginning in the late 1940’s when the remnants of the gang once led by Al Capone still existed.”
(Distributed by Independent Publishers Group. ISBN: 9781936364442)
Annika Rose by Chery Johnson (Red Hen Press | May 21, 2024)
In this novel, “ancient and contemporary myths… overlay a coming-of-age story set in remote northern Minnesota.
(Distributed by Publishers Group West. ISBN: 9781636281209)
Ignoring Alva by Emilie Khair (Current Words Publishing | February 3, 2025)
In this cozy mystery, two sisters in their seventies and eighties “plan a road trip from Minnesota to Niagara Falls that doesn’t get past Wisconsin, where they solve a crime against seniors.”
(Distributed by Ingram. ISBN: 978-1957224466)
We Could’ve Been Happy Here by Keith Pilapil Lesmeister (EastOver Press | December 12, 2023)
Lesmeister “plows out a distinctive vision of the contemporary Midwest” in these short stories that “peer into the lives of those at the margins—the broken, the resigned, the misunderstood.”
(Distributed by Ingram. ISBN: 978-1-958094-46-4)
Dollartorium by Ron Pullins (Unsolicited Press | February 10, 2026)
This novel set in Kansas is, according to Kirkus Reviews , “a boisterous and thoughtful journey through the absurdities of modern capitalism.”
(Distributed by Asterism Books. ISBN: 9781963115666)
Again, Harder by Alice Stoehr (The Feminist Press/Amethyst Editions | May 12, 2026)
This debut short fiction collection “investigates the inner lives, evolving relationships, and often violent marginalization of a community of trans women in a large Midwestern town.”
(Distributed by Consortium Book Sales & Distribution. ISBN: 9781558613898)
Expedition by Valerie Vogrin (University of Tampa Press | December 8, 2025)
According to Caitlin Horrocks, this novella set in Chicago is an “exploration of what happens when a previous life is demolished” and “a mesmerizing cataloging of what we rebuild with.”
(Distributed by Ingram. ISBN: 978-1-59732-226-3)
Nonfiction
The Braille Encyclopedia: Brief Essays on Altered Sight by Naomi Cohn (Rose Metal Press | October 10, 2024)
In these essays, Cohn “writes evocatively about her childhood growing up in Chicago and her adulthood spent in Minnesota’s Twin Cities.”
(Distributed by Itasca Books. ISBN: 978-1-941628-33-1)
Strange Attractors: The Ephrem Stories by Janice Deal (New Door Books | September 12, 2023)
In these linked stories set in a fictional town in northern Illinois, “everyday people navigate the uncertainties of life in the American heartland, seeking order in chaos with a very human mix of resilience and folly.”
(Distributed by Pathway Book Service. ISBN: 978-1-7355585-4-7)
North Country: A Pedagogical Almanac by Carolyn Dekker (Black Lawrence Press | February 1, 2023)
This memoir-in-essays, set in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, “follows the cycle of seasons in this remote and beautiful place by the waters of Lake Superior during the years in which the author finds a place there.”
(Distributed by Independent Publishers Group. ISBN: 9781625570529)
Girl Gone Wild by Courtney Kocak (Trio House Press | April 1, 2026)
In this memoir-in-essays, Kocak “takes readers along on her heady metamorphosis from girl to woman and from dreamer to professional artist,” including periods in Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri, and Illinois.
(Distributed by Ingram. ISBN: 978-1949487541)
Commentary on the Birds by Jed Munson (Rescue Press | October 22, 2023)
In this debut essay collection, Munson “explores the ecology of the Korean DMZ in conversation with his youth spent in Madison, Wisconsin.”
(Distributed by Asterism Books. ISBN: 978-1734831672)
Brooding Upon the Waters by Howard Schaap (Slant Books | December 2, 2025)
This memoir “recounts not only a mental health crisis but also a crisis of the American Dream in the Upper Midwest, America’s lost landscape.”
(Distributed by Ingram. ISBN: 9781639822089)
Poetry
Signal Flow by William Fuller (Flood Editions | November 24, 2025)
These prose poems “draw on William Fuller’s Midwestern landscapes, or surreal versions of them.”
(Distributed by HFS Books and Wesleyan University Press. ISBN: 9798991889407)
A Brief History of the Midwest by Andrew Grace (Black Lawrence Press | May 27, 2025)
The poems in this collection “trace the trajectory of the middle of America from its colonization to the present day.”
(Distributed by Independent Publishers Group. ISBN: 9781625571588)
Crowd Surfing With God by Adrienne Novy (Half Mystic Press | December 18, 2023)
This coming-of-age poetry collection, which moves from the suburbs outside Chicago to the Minneapolis region, “tells a story of self-acceptance.”
(Distributed by Ingram. ISBN: 9781948552165)
World’s Largest Ball of Paint by Charlie Peck (Black Lawrence Press | April 5, 2024)
In this debut poetry collection, in which Nebraska features prominently, “Peck uses a cast of characters and poetic form to reckon with the past and the present, layer by layer.”
(Distributed by Independent Publishers Group. ISBN: 9781625570734)
Aurora by Thom Tammaro (North Dakota State University Press | April 1, 2026)
This poetry collection features poems that were written during the poet’s stays “in Kansas, then Indiana, then Minnesota, then North Dakota, and then back to Minnesota, with brief detours in Nebraska and Winnipeg, Manitoba.”
(Distributed by Ingram. ISBN: 978-1-946163-74-5)
Songs, Blood Deep by Gwen Nell Westerman (Holy Cow! Press | October 5, 2023)
According to Linda LeGarde Grover, this collection from the poet laureate of Minnesota “weaves English and Dakota language and spirit with personal memories and tribal histories in a collection that is lyrical and profound, a poetic gift to be treasured.”
(Distributed by Consortium Book Sales & Distribution. ISBN: 9781737405146)
Nest of Matches by Amie Whittemore (Autumn House Press | March 22, 2024)
This poetry collection, set in Illinois, is “a lavish declaration of the beauty of the natural world, queer identity, and of the imagination set free.”
(Distributed by Consortium Book Sales & Distribution. ISBN: 9781637680896)
Boy by Tracy Youngblom (CavanKerry Press | February 7, 2023)
In these poems, many of which are set in Minnesota, Youngblum “explores how death and loss color memory and influence the ways family members relate to each other and to their shared history.”
(Distributed by Chicago Distribution Center. ISBN: 9781933880990)
Independent Presses Based in the Midwest
Illinois
Bridge Books
Chicago Story Press
Flood Editions
Haymarket Books (Read our publisher spotlight here.)
Humans & Nature Press
Long Day Press
Lost Penny Press
Match Factory Editions
Meekling Press
Northwestern University Press
Soberscove Press
Swan Isle Press
Iowa
Green Linden Press
Middle West Press
Kansas
Brigids Gate Press
Choeofpleirn Press
Waywiser Books
Minnesota
Conduit
Graywolf Press
Half Mystic
History Through Fiction
Holy Cow! Press
Lost Kite Editions
Milkweed Editions
Shipwreckt Books Publishing Company
Spout Press
Trio House Press
Wordwhipper Press
Missouri
Amphorae Publishing Group
BkMk Press
Dorothy, a publishing project (Read our publisher spotlight here.)
Small Harbor Publishing
Nebraska
Ex Ophidia Press
Octopus Books
Split/Lip Press
South Dakota
Revolú Press
Wisconsin
Cornerstone Press
Hidden Timber Books
New American Press
Split Rock Review
Print Literary Magazines Based in the Midwest
Illinois
Allium, A Journal of Poetry & Prose
The Awakenings Review
Bridge Magazine
Chicago Quarterly Review
East on Central
Hypertext Review
Kaleidoscope
Lucky Jefferson (Read our publisher spotlight here.)
MAKE: A Literary Magazine
Ninth Letter
Obsidian: Literature & Arts in the African Diaspora (Read our publisher spotlight here.)
POETRY Magazine
Polyphony Lit
Sabr Tooth Tiger Magazine
Spoon River Poetry Review
Wax Paper
Iowa
Brink (Read our publisher spotlight here.)
Iowa Review
Kansas
Cottonwood Magazine
Flint Hills Review
StoryBottle Co.
Minnesota
Bent Pine
Conduit
Half Mystic Journal
Lost Lake Folk Opera Magazine
Rain Taxi Review of Books (Read our publisher spotlight here.)
Speck Magazine
Yellow Medicine Review: A Journal of Indigenous Literature, Art & Thought
Missouri
I-70 Review
LIGHT
Missouri Review
Skipjack Review
Nebraska
Corpus Callosum Journal
The Gilded Weathervane
Illuminations Literary Magazine
Plainsongs
Prairie Schooner (Read our publisher spotlight here.)
South Dakota
Belicosa Arts Magazine
Wanbli Ho Journal
Wisconsin
Either/Or
Midwest Review
Seems
Sheepshead Review
Book Fairs and Festivals in the Midwest
Heartland Book Festival
Kansas City, KS
2026: October 2-3
Nebraska Celebration of Books
Lincoln, NE
2025: November 15
North Dakota Book and Arts Festival
Jamestown, ND
2025: September 20
South Dakota Festival of Books
Spearfish, SD
2025: September 26-28
Twin Cities Book Festival
St. Paul, MN
2026: November 7
Unbound Book Festival
Columbia, MO
2026: April 16-19
Iowa City Book Festival
Iowa City, IA
2026: October 19-25
Great Lakes Writers Festival
Plymouth, WI
2025: November 6-7
Missouri Book Festival
Washington, MO
2026: April 18
Printers Row Lit Fest
Chicago, IL
2025: September 6-7
Wisconsin Book Festival
Madison, WI
2025: October 23-26
Regional Awards
Friends of American Writers Awards
The Friends of American Writers Awards, sponsored by Friends of American Writers, are given annually to books of fiction or creative nonfiction published in the previous year that are set in the Midwest or by a Midwestern author.
Heartland Booksellers Awards
The Heartland Booksellers Awards, given annually by the Great Lakes Independent Booksellers Association and the Midwest Independent Booksellers Association, celebrate books set in the Midwest or Great Lakes region, or books by authors from or currently living in the regions.
Kansas Notable Books
Kansas Notable Books, organized by the State Library of Kansas, recognizes 15 outstanding titles written by Kansans or about a Kansas-related topic.
Midland Authors Awards
The Midland Authors Awards, sponsored by the Society of Midland Authors, “recognize book writing excellence by Midwestern authors in several categories.”
Minnesota Book Awards
The Minnesota Book Awards, presented by the Friends of the St. Paul Public Library, honor books in multiple categories published by current Minnesota residents.
Missouri Literary Award
Given by the Missouri Library Association, the Missouri Literary Award “recognizes and promotes readership of works by living Missouri authors and/or authors with strong ties to Missouri.”
Nebraska Book Awards
The Nebraska Book Awards, sponsored by the Nebraska Center for the Book (NCB), recognize and honor “books that are written by Nebraska authors, published by Nebraska publishers, set in Nebraska, or concerning Nebraska.”
Wisconsin Writers Awards
The Wisconsin Writers Awards, administered by the Arts & Literature Laboratory, honor books by writers who currently reside in Wisconsin or have lived in the state for five or more years.
WLA Literary Award
The WLA Literary Award, given by the Wisconsin Library Association, honors “the highest literary achievement by an author with a Wisconsin connection, for a work written in the previous year.”
