Corey Geiger, author of On a Wisconsin Family Farm (2021) and The Wisconsin Farm They Built (2023)

Tell us a little about your books. What made you decide to write your books?

I’ve always been a storyteller. When our family farm turned 150, I wanted to have a party to celebrate. Still fully employed running the farm, my parents weren’t up the preparation that would require so I decided to have my own “party in the paper” to tell stories of our six-generation family farm.

We are a nation of immigrants who came to America to establish a better life for themselves and future generations. My books honor those immigrants, and the writing found within the books represent a life-long journey that began on my family’s dairy farm in Northeast Wisconsin. Unlike most farms, our family business went through the women of our family for three generations — (great grandmother), generation four (grandmother), and generation five (mother) with my mother and father purchasing the farm in 1981. For perspective, my great grandmother was a landowner before women even earned the right to vote via the U.S. constitution in 1920.

With my family members as the central characters, I employed creative nonfiction to explain what was happening in Wisconsin, the U.S., and the world that caused the events to unfold for our farm and other families in that time. I extensively conducted research at libraries and historic centers regarding the events that touched our farm family and, I creatively wove that into the narrative. That opened the doors wide open to both good and tragic events.

With copies now sold to all 50 states, readers have shared, that the books have been great conversation starters for multiple generations in their families as I used our family to bring to life pioneer stories and farming stories. Both books feature over 70 historic images as well and that’s enhanced the believability and adds color.

As for the actual process of writing the books … even though my grandparents moved two miles away to town upon their retirement in the early 1980s, they never truly left and were often at the farm four, five, six, and even seven times a week. My grandmother was literally born in the farmhouse and lived there the first 62 years of her life.

While other youth went off to play with their friends, I worked on the farm. All three generations pitched in. I heard stories, I asked questions, and I eventually kept journals. Because my great grandmother (generation three) and grandmother were the youngest in their family, they had great family history documentation. These two women took copious notes and farm records. I had access to all that material.