A Wake

by Callen Harty

Life is not a comedy or drama. It is both. When Adam hits a cow on the highway and dies, his Irish-Catholic American family decides to hold an old-fashioned Irish wake, but they have no idea what that really means. Their intentions are good, but the results aren't always so good. In life, one moment can be a tragedy that we laugh about and the next may be something funny that makes us deeply ponder the meaning of life (and death). A Wake is the story of a family that suffers tragedy, but does so with humor and strength. They argue and make up, irritate each other and love each other. It is the way life goes. For most families.

169 pages, Paperback

Published September 10, 2020

About the author

Originally from Shullsburg, Wisconsin Callen Harty is the author of twelve books. He is also the author of 23 full-length plays, an adaptation, a one-act play, and 50 monologues that have been produced. Most of them have been produced at Broom Street Theater in Madison, Wisconsin where he has worked as an actor, writer, and director since 1983. He served as the Artistic Director of the theater from 2005-2010. Monologues that he wrote for the Wisconsin Veterans’ Museum won him awards from the Wisconsin Historical Society and the American Association of State and Local History.

His essays, poems, and articles have been published in newspapers and magazines around the country and he has taken the top prize in several photo contests. His writing has appeared in Out!, James White Review, Scott Stamp Monthly, Wisconsin State Journal, and elsewhere. He has had several essays published online for Forward Seeking, Life After Hate, and The Progressive. He has also published dozens of essays as Facebook notes and on his own blog, A Single Bluebird.

Callen has also been a community activist for many years. He was the co-founder of Young People Caring, UW-Madison’s 10% Society (now The Pride Society), and Proud Theater. He served as the first President of Young People Caring and as the Artistic Director for Proud Theater during its first five years. He served for two years on the Same-Sex Domestic Violence Committee of the Dane County Coordinated Community Response to Domestic Violence Task Force. In 2003 he won OutReach’s Man of the Year award for his queer community activism. OutReach is Madison, Wisconsin’s lesbian/gay/bisexual/transgender community center. In 2013 he won Community Shares of Wisconsin’s “Backyard Hero” award for his work on organizing Paths to Healing, a conference on surviving childhood sex abuse. In 2016 he won Wisconsin Coalition Against Sexual Assault's Courage Award. He has been invited to speak before many community groups, at a roundtable on queer community theater in New York City, as a child sex abuse survivor, and has emceed several events.