Located in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Woodland Pattern is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit gallery, book center, and performance space. Each year we host hundreds of activities and events—including workshops, readings, concerts, exhibitions, film screenings, and programs for children and youth. To learn more about current 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. Unlike a commercial bookseller, our acquisitions have never been based on profitability but on mission fit, which also means we hold on to titles indefinitely, as we believe in their permanent value. As a result, Woodland Pattern is home to the largest collection of small-press poetry available for purchase in the United States. Our book center also houses the largest collection of haiku in North America, the largest Native American literature section in Wisconsin, and a significant collection of works by writers from Wisconsin and the Upper Midwest.

If you live in our region, please come visit us! We welcome visitors who are interested in spending a day exploring and reading on site (no need to make a purchase). If you are not able to visit our physical location, we hope you will enjoy browsing here and discovering books, authors, and presses you may be unfamiliar with. When we launched this site during lockdown, we worked hard to frame and organize our inventory in ways that we hoped would 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 note, too, that items listed here represent only a fraction of our inventory—you should feel free to reach out to us 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, we hope you will be in touch. Thank you for supporting our work and the work of poets, writers, and independent publishers from Milwaukee and everywhere.