Meaghan Garvey

This is an excerpt from Meaghan Garvey’s Midwestern Death Trip , a memoir. It will be available from Panamerica on May 12th, 2026. “More poetry is said to come from Wisconsin than from any other state in the Union,” read a clipping from an 1885 issue of the Badger State Banner, erstwhile paper of … Continue Reading

Just north of Black River Falls was where the bald eagle descended, cannonballing at the lump of deer decomposing on the shoulder of WIS 27. I screeched the car to a halt on the empty two-lane road as the bird coolly appraised me, fanning its six-foot wingspan. Tornado warnings had been issued from … Continue Reading

The howl of a train whistle instantly places me in the moonless bedroom of my childhood, its distant sob unlocking in me a loneliness I have no answer for. We are halfway to Iowa before I realize that I am, in fact, inside the sound that I am hearing. I am a passenger on the train.  We left Chicago … Continue Reading

It’s been said that Wisconsin has more ghosts per square mile than any state in America, a claim I can’t substantiate but buy nevertheless. It seems like every town has its own ghost story: haunted hotels, haunted theaters, haunted steakhouses and saloons. Some have seen the apparition of a … Continue Reading

I knew just how the motel would be: “groovy” in that Austin way; retro but millennial in schemes of pink and orange; perhaps a neon sign that spelled in cursive, “Y’all Means All!” or “In Willie We Trust.” Nevertheless, I’d found a room for half the going rate, and I’m hardly in the business of … Continue Reading

I’m no Canada apologist. I once moved there for a spell, inspired by my latest crack-up — Vancouver, more exactly, where I lived with my toothless, jobless lover in the vacated studio apartment of a newly canceled member of the record industry. I made no friends, spent my days walking around. At … Continue Reading