Join us this July First Friday for a signing with author and poet Mike Orlock. Mike will be available here at Yardstick from 5-7pm to chat and sign copies of his latest book of poetry, TOES, TOADS, TURTLES, AND TULIPS, as well as his other works. The event is free and open to the public.
Mike Orlock is a retired high school teacher and coach. He and his wife Liz retired to Sturgeon Bay in 2008. He enjoys travel, reading, writing, films, and spending time with his two children and five grandchildren. From 1989 to 2001, he wrote film reviews for the Reporter-Progress newspapers in suburban Chicago and was a contributing member of the Chicago Film Critics Association. His short fiction has appeared in TriQuarterly, the literary journal of Northwestern University, and Another Chicago Magazine. He has twice been honored with Illinois Arts Council Awards for his short fiction. His poetry has appeared online in “Your Daily Poem” website, in the WFOP yearly calendars, Verse Wisconsin, the Los Angeles Times, the Blue Heron Review, Moss Piglet, the Peninsula Pulse, and various anthologies. In 2014 he won the Wisconsin Writers Association “Jade Ring” award in the Free Verse category, and in 2016 he won the WFOP Muse Prize. He has released five books of poetry: You Can Get Here from There: Poems of Door County & Other Places; Poetry Apocalypse & Selected Verse; Mr. President! Poems, Polemics and Fan Mail from Inside the Divide; Con/verse/sations with Myself; and Toes, Toads, Tulips & Turtles: A Miscellany of Verse. He edited the anthology 7 By Seven: The Poet Laureates of Door County while serving as Door County’s seventh Poet Laureate from 2021 – 2023. He currently writes the “Mike at the Movies” column for the Peninsula Pulse.
