I told myself this would be small. A contained experiment. A “let’s see if I can pull this off” kind of project. I opened a spreadsheet and started listing events around me. A bookstore here. A library there. I figured I would map my area, feel accomplished, and close the tab. Instead I kept zooming out. Out past my city. Out past my state. Suddenly I was calculating drive times in hours instead of minutes and thinking, honestly, I would go to that. I don’t mean to inflate it. It is still, technically, a spreadsheet. But it’s also the beginning of something that won’t stop expanding in my head.
Most good things don’t look dramatic at the beginning. They look like this. A desk. A quiet room. A spreadsheet. And the decision to keep going.
The internet is very good at telling you what’s happening within walking distance. It is less good at telling you about the author conversation happening three hours away that you would rearrange your week for. I know those people exist because I am one of them. I’ve driven highways at dusk for an author I never imagined seeing in person. I’ve watched people walk up and connect with a debut novelist with a stack of books in front of them and thought, how cool it is to see a connection like that. Most of the time, I missed the chance to sign up for events I would have given anything to attend. It always took manual digging. Group chats. Someone remembering to forward a link. Lit Commons is my attempt to make that less accidental. To connect bookstores, libraries, festivals, pop-ups, signings, and the odd literary gathering that doesn’t fit a neat category with the right set of eyes.
What I didn’t expect was the reaction when I mentioned building this. I assumed I would do the Midwest, talk about it in videos, slowly build it up a little, use it for occasional content, and quietly move on. Instead people from other regions started asking for the same thing. Booksellers sent calendars. Authors sent leads. My manageable experiment became a forty-hour-a-week fixation with tabs open across multiple time zones. So now I’m trying to figure out sustainability. Better software. Less midnight copying and pasting. A way for this newsletter to support the infrastructure it’s building. You might see sponsors here eventually. You might see other regions come online. I’m trying to grow this without losing the scrappy heart of it.
I used to think being a writer meant publishing books with my name on the spine. I did not imagine it would look like this. But this is the first time in a long while that something has felt worth rearranging my days around. I get to pay attention to the rooms where stories are spoken out loud. I get to build a bridge between people who would happily cross state lines for the right conversation. That counts for something. Welcome to Lit Commons. I’m still adding rows.
Editor’s Picks
Mar 1, 2026: Writing North Winter Book Fest - Manistique, MI
Mar 3, 2026: An Evening with N.K. Jemisin - South Bend, IN
Mar 9, 2026: Cristina Rivera Garza: Confronting Gender Violence Through Literature -East Lansing, MI
Mar 9, 2026: Author Markus Zusak at Sari Feldman Auditorium - Parma, OH
Mar 10, 2026: The Demon of Unrest with Erik Larson and Barbara McQuade - West Bloomfield Twp, MI
Mar 11, 2026: Literati Presents: Patti Smith - Ann Arbor, MI
Mar 25, 2026: Ohio University Spring Literary Festival: Jeff VanderMeer - Athens, OH
Apr 6, 2026: A Ticketed Event with Imani Perry, author of Black in Blues - Milwaukee, WI
Apr 14, 2026: Roxane Gay Reading and Q&A - Ann Arbor, MI
Apr 18, 2026: Slay the Lake Kenosha LGBTQ+ Horror Book Fest - Kenosha, WI
Romance
Mar 4, 2026: Celebrate And Now, Back to You with B.K. Borison - Oak Brook, IL
Mar 4, 2026: Lyssa Fairbanks - Love Dramedy (Left Bank Books) - St. Louis, MO
Mar 4, 2026: The Best Little Motel in Texas with Lyla Lane + Meryl Wilsner - Grand Rapids, MI
Mar 5, 2026: Liz Tomforde in conversation with Meghan Quinn (In Her Own League) - Cincinnati, OH
Mar 7, 2026: Elle Wright with Beverly Jenkins - Detroit, MI
Mar 9, 2026: Romance Writers Mix & Mingle (The Well Red Damsel) - Wauwatosa, WI
Mar 11, 2026: Romance Panel: Under The Cover, Stories We’re Falling For - Madison, WI
Mar 13, 2026: Sports Romance Convention - Bloomington, MN
Mar 14, 2026: Jillian Meadows with Lyla Sage - No Place Like You - St. Louis, MO
Mar 16, 2026: Elle Wright - The Ex Dilemma (Sidetrack Bookshop) - Royal Oak, MI
Speculative
Mar 2, 2026: Author Event with Deanna Raybourn - Wichita, KS
Mar 3, 2026: James Rollins - Trust No One - St. Louis, MO
Mar 3, 2026: Ryan Cahill in conversation with M.L. Wang - Madison, WI
Mar 3, 2026: Sujata Massey - The Star from Calcutta - Minneapolis, MN
Mar 6, 2026: Sasha E. Sloan - The Ruins Beneath Us - Naperville, IL
Mar 9, 2026: Christopher Buehlman + Catriona Ward author event - Downers Grove, IL
Mar 17, 2026: Book Launch: Annie Neugebauer - You Have to Let Them Bleed - Saint Paul, MN
Mar 21, 2026: CORPSE TOUR 2026: James Tynion + Corpse Crew - Ann Arbor, MI
Apr 7, 2026: Author Event: Nnedi Okorafor - Madison, WI
Apr 11, 2026: V.E. Schwab & Cat Clarke - The Ending Writes Itself - St. Louis, MO
Festivals, Fairs & Crawls
Mar 1, 2026: Writing North Winter Book Fest - Manistique, MI
Mar 7, 2026: Akron Book Fest - Akron, OH
Mar 10, 2026: Get Lit: Grown-Up Book Fair (American Writers Museum) - Chicago, IL
Mar 12, 2026: Illinois Reads Author Panels (IRC Conference) - Springfield, IL
Mar 19, 2026: Indy Indie Book Crawl - Indianapolis, IN
Mar 21, 2026: Third Coast Author & Book Festival - Grand Haven, MI
Mar 27, 2026: C2E2 (Chicago Comic & Entertainment Expo) - Chicago, IL
Mar 27, 2026: Planet Comicon - Kansas City, MO
Apr 18, 2026: Unbound Book Festival - Columbia, MO
Apr 25, 2026: Illinois Reads & Young Authors Book Festival - Chicago, IL
Literary Conversations
Mar 2, 2026: Away to Me with Patricia McConnell - Stevens Point, WI
Mar 7, 2026: Barry Pearce & Garin Cycholl - The Plan of Chicago - Chicago, IL
Mar 9, 2026: Cynthia D’Aprix Sweeney in conversation with Leah Stewart - Lake Effect - Cincinnati, OH
Mar 10, 2026: Cynthia D’Aprix Sweeney & Shelby Van Pelt - Lake Effect - Naperville, IL
Mar 11, 2026: Norah O’Donnell - We the Women - Wilmette, IL
Mar 11, 2026: The Whole Earth Is a Garden of Monsters: Manuel Iris - Cincinnati, OH
Mar 12, 2026: Poetry & Poetics Reading by Urayoán Noel - Evanston, IL
Mar 30, 2026: Misty L. Heggeness Swiftynomics - Chicago, IL
Apr 2, 2026: Slavoj Žižek: On Liberal Fascism (Live in Chicago) - Evanston, IL
Apr 16, 2026: WBEZ Presents: Patrick Radden Keefe & Gillian Flynn - Chicago, IL
Worth the Detour
Mar 2, 2026: Hartland Public Library Book Sale - Hartland, WI
Mar 5, 2026: Peabody Public Library: Friends of the Library Book Sale - Columbia City, IN
Mar 6, 2026: Homebody MN Reading Retreat - Bayfield, WI
Mar 7, 2026: Friends of the Okemos Library Book Sale - Okemos, MI
Mar 10, 2026: TLC: Book Signing with Blackhawks Game - Chicago, IL
Mar 12, 2026: Friends of PWPL Winter 2026 Used Book & Media Sale - Marquette, MI
Mar 20, 2026: 2026 Destination Book Clubs at Garden Grove Inn - Union Pier, MI
Mar 27, 2026: Reading Room Omaha Present: Authors Against ICE – Omaha, NE
Apr 18, 2026: Midwest Literary Walk - Chelsea, MI
Apr 18, 2026: Indianapolis Rare Book Fair - Indianapolis, IN