Bob Wake as illustrated by Spencer Walts for “Caffeine & Other Stories” (CBR Press 1997)
Coffee excites and enlivens. Culture is impossible to imagine without it, n’est-ce pas? You’ll be reading a book, listening to music, or watching a movie. Epiphanies arrive like taser shocks. Like coffee spewed on your computer screen, your precious manuscripts, your son, your spouse …
Bob Wake received his M.A. in English literature from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. In 1985-87 he hosted WORT-FM’s Breakfast Special, an often surreal experience that he later fictionalized in a short story, “Caffeine,” collected in Caffeine & Other Stories. Two of his short stories have won first-place writing awards: “The Sacred Grove” in Madison Magazine (August 2000), and “Knights of Pythagoras” in Wisconsin People & Ideas (nee Wisconsin Academy Review; Summer 2002). In 2004, his essay on August Derleth, “Walden West and the Twilight of Transcendentalism,” won the Council for Wisconsin Writers Rediscovering Wisconsin Writers Award. He works as a teaching assistant in special education, edits Cambridge Book Review, and, with his wife, autism consultant Kathleen McGinnity, runs CBR Press. Bob and Kate live outside of Madison with their teen-age son, Augie.
Email Coffee Spew and Cambridge Book Review.
I just want to say I really enjoy reading your blog. Keep up the great work.
Dear Bob:
Thanks for the great post about Mom’s Canoe. I am glad that you liked the book. Guess what, that really IS my mom in her canoe on the cover! Not clip art, the real deal.
Becky
Haven’t touched bases with you for far too long. Spent an hour reading some fine work on CBR and a few of your blog listings. Hope you remain well, active and creative.
Chris J.
Sent you an email earlier today with some photos I took of Bob doing his morning show Oct 1985; I just wanted to follow up via this venue so you didn’t think the email was a scam. Cheers,
Steve Stellmacher