Woodland Pattern is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit book center, gallery, and performance space located in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. For forty years and counting, we have been dedicated to the discovery, cultivation, and presentation of poetry, independent literature, and the arts. Each year we host 350+ programs and events—including workshops, poetry performances, concerts, exhibitions, film screenings, and programs for children and youth. To learn more about our programs, please visit our main site.

In addition to our programming efforts, the dissemination of independent literature—particularly poetry, unconventional texts, works that honor bookmaking as a visual art, books by small- and micro-press publishers, and literature by writers from historically marginalized backgrounds—has been central to our purpose since our founding. As a result of four decades of mission-driven inventory decisions, Woodland Pattern is home to the largest collection of haiku in North America, the largest Native American section in Wisconsin, and our collection of contemporary poetry is one of the most comprehensive of its kind in the United States. We also house a sizable collection of works by writers from Wisconsin and throughout the Upper Midwest, including hundreds of self-published books. Unlike a commercial bookseller, our acquisitions have never been based on profitability but on mission fit, which also means we hold onto titles indefinitely, as we believe in their permanent value.

After over a year of closure, we are happy to report that Woodland Pattern is once again open to the public—please come visit us! We welcome visitors who are interested in spending a day with us exploring and reading onsite (no need to make a purchase). If you are not able to visit our physical location for whatever reason, we hope you will enjoy browsing our collection here and discovering books, authors, and presses you may be unfamiliar with. In preparation for the launch of this online shop in 2020, we worked hard to frame and organize our inventory in ways that we hope will be educational. That said, we are a small staff and this site remains a work in progress. While our tagging system isn't perfect, we are committed to continually improving it.

Please also note that we have not yet been able to make all of our collection available online—at the time of this writing (September 2021) less than 15% of our inventory. We will continue to add more and more titles over time. Please check back for updates and feel free to reach out to us with questions about publications not featured here that we may have in stock. We also accept special-order requests. Finally, if you are an author or publisher and wish to consign with us, please be in touch. Thank you for supporting our work and the work of poets, writers, and independent publishers from Milwaukee and across the country.

Phone: (414) 263-5001
Email: woodlandpattern@sbcglobal.net

Hours:

Wed–Fri | 2-6 pm

Sat | 2-5 pm