Mary Helen Stefaniak

The 2025 Des Moines Book Festival is an all-day book-lovers' extravaganza, with featured authors, panels, children's activities, and more. Click on the image to get the full schedule.  

I will join Beth Howard, Amy Lee Lillard, and moderator Susan Stapleton in a lively, surprising, and no doubt informative panel discussion about Life Written, Turning Personal Stories into Memoirs at 1:15 PM in Room 145. 

Join Mary Helen on Tuesday, April 22, 2025, at 6:00pm, to capture a place, a person, or an experience from your life and bring it to new life on the page. We'll read, talk, share prompts from The Six-Minute Memoir, and then we'll write, diving into our own past experiences and bringing back treasure. Registration for this FREE all-ages workshop is required. To learn more and/or to register, CLICK on the image. 

You can also contact the Oak Creek Public Library by email at library@oakcreekwi.gov, or call 414 766-7900.

Books will be available for signing at in-person events. Or you can order a signed copy from the hosting bookstore. Pick it up at the bookstore or have it shipped to you. 

To order a signed and personalized copy from Prairie Lights, 15 South Dubuque Street, in Iowa City, call 319-337-2681 or toll free at 1-800-295-BOOK.  Mary Helen will come in and sign it for you.

Read Hillary Mohaupt's wide-ranging interview with Mary Helen for HIPPOCAMPUS MAGAZINE. 

https://hippocampusmagazine.com/2023/10/interview-mary-helen-stefaniak-author-of-the-six-minute-memoir/

LISTEN online to Avvy Mar's interview with Mary Helen Stefaniak on radio KBOO, Portland OR:

Between the Covers: Avvy Mar talks with author Mary Helen Stefaniak about The World of Pondside and The Six-Minute Memoir

Interview with Mary Helen on Lake Effect, WUWM 89.7 FM, along with a reading from The World of Pondside. The website features the interview, reading, photos and more about the novel in a story by WUWM's Chase Browning.

Link to the website & Lake Effect interview

YouTube recording of the April 21 VIRTUAL EVENT hosted by Boswell Book Company, Milwaukee

Mary Helen Stefaniak in conversation about The World of Pondside with Valerie Laken, author of Separate Kingdoms: Stories and Dream House.

Watch and listen here.

Mary Helen and Jenny teamed up at Convergence CiderWorks in Decorah, Iowa, last February for an evening of reading, writing, and conversation surrounding THE SIX-MINUTE MEMOIR: FIFTY-FIVE SHORT ESSAYS ON LIFE (University of Iowa Press) and Jenny's short fiction collection, HOIST HOUSE (Cornerstone Press). The event was sponsored by the Oneota Valley Literary Foundation with support from Convergence CiderWorks. Book sales by Dragonfly Books.             

At Dog-Eared Books in Ames, guests could choose a themed cocktail to enjoy with their copy of The Six-Minute Memoir: Fifty-Five Short Essays on Life. The ingeniously concocted and delicious "Slivovitz" recalls the cowherd Mary Helen met in her grandparents' village who went door to door each morning, collecting the cows and downing a plum brandy pick-me-up in each customer's kitchen. (See "Old Country, New Country" in The Six-Minute Memoir.) Thanks to everyone at Dog-Eared Books for a lively October evening of cocktails and conversation!

Mary Helen, who was born and raised in Milwaukee, joined other Wisconsin authors at the Meg Jones Author Fest in Oak Creek, Wisconsin, in August. Meg Jones was an Oak Creek resident, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Reporter, published author, and public library advocate. The Author Fest is dedicated to her memory.

Contact Mary Helen via this website to set up a visit--in person or online--for your book club, library, or festival.