In the summer of 2024, Meg Bortin (’71) happened upon a fortuitous “new issue” alert from UW–Madison’s College of Letters & Science.
“When the Sift & Winnow [newsletter] drops into my inbox, I always take a look — just to keep in touch — but I don’t always scroll down to the end,” says Bortin, a French and history alumna. “One day, when I did scroll, I happened upon an article about Michael Braun.”
The article was titled “A New Chapter.” It covered the story of Michael Braun (’06, MA’11, PhD’13), an English and communication arts alumnus who had just become the new owner and editor-in-chief of Orange Hat Publishing, a renowned independent book publisher based in Wauwatosa, Wisconsin. At this point, Bortin’s first novel, The Rites of Man, had been long in the making, evolving over time from a screenplay draft into a novel.
“The Rites of Man is a love story,” she describes, “But it also raises questions about truth versus fiction, honesty, betrayal and bedrock American values.”
Then came the hard part, as Bortin calls it. Looking for a publisher.
“At that point, I had the manuscript ready to go and had been looking for a publisher for quite a while,” she says. “So, I took a chance and wrote to Michael, saying something like, ‘From one Badger to another, how about it?’ He invited me to send in my manuscript and said he’d get back to me in three months.”
Orange Hat receives about 400 submissions per year, only 10% of which end up being published.
“Something has to be good to catch our attention,” says Braun. “I always say what I’m looking for is the feeling that the pages are turning themselves.”
The Rites of Man immediately stood out to Braun as a page-turner. He describes it as a well-written book with good characters, a compelling storyline and a prose that carries you right along. From one Badger to another, it was a resounding “yes” that traveled back to Bortin three months later.
“It’s amazing to discover these connections years later,” Braun says, describing the ways the Badger community enables connection through shared experience. “For me, UW–Madison has always been something that was meaningful, that gave me pride, and it’s something that has only increased in meaning the greater the number of years since I was there. This university has given me so much, especially the English department — and it’s extra special now, as a small business owner, to feel like I have something to give back.”
Unexpectedly, the Badger circle grew even wider. Last fall, Braun mentioned to Bortin that another Orange Hat author, celebrated film biographer and communication arts alumnus Patrick McGilligan (’74), would be traveling to Paris, where Bortin has lived for decades. Braun offered to connect the two, only to discover they already shared history.
“Pat had also worked at The Daily Cardinal [student newspaper] and remembered me from way back then,” says Bortin. “We had a great time reconnecting.”
That reunion later shaped the next chapter of The Rites of Man, which was published in December by Ten 16 Press, an imprint of Orange Hat. This spring, McGilligan joined Bortin as a conversation partner during her event at Boswell Book Company, one stop on her first U.S. book tour.
“It’s unusual for a relatively unknown author with a relatively unknown publisher to receive the opportunity to present a book at two great bookstores — Politics & Prose in Washington, D.C., and Boswell Books in Milwaukee,” says Bortin. “And this is all coming about thanks to Sift & Winnow.”