Every year the Wisconsin Book Festival brings together bookworms and acclaimed authors from across genres to talk about their latest endeavors.
The Wisconsin Book Festival is put on by the Madison Public Library in partnership with the Madison Public Library Foundation and this year, the festival runs Oct. 19-22. The event features an array of in-person and virtual events that are free and open to the public.
While reading is often a solitary activity, festival director Jane Rotonda believes in the importance of bringing people together to build a strong literary community in Madison and beyond, she explained in a recent interview with City Cast Madison.
“We want to offer this beautiful and unique opportunity to take your solitary experience and blow it up and change the perspective that you're getting from kind of single perspective to a layered perspective that has community, that has conversation, that has learning, and [give] you that more holistic perspective of the book, the genre, the author, the one sentence you read that really stuck with you,” she said.
The Names
Here are just a few of the authors who will be discussing their work at this year’s festival.
- Craig Thompson, “Ginseng Roots” — Did you know that more than 90% of the cultivated ginseng grown in the U.S. comes from Wisconsin?
- Rebecca Fannin, “Silicon Heartland” — This chat is presented in partnership with the Wisconsin Science Festival, which also runs through Oct. 22.
- Barbara Joosse and Renée Graef, “Death’s Door” — This talk is great for young readers, plus you’ll receive a free copy of the book.
- Mary Bergin, Small-Town Wisconsin: Fun, Surprising, and Exceptional Road Trips — If this talk inspires you, check out these drives.
- Schuyler Bailar, “He/She/They” — This chat is especially relevant given the anti-transgender rights bills recently passed in the statehouse.
For more, see the whole schedule at a glance and go behind the scenes of the festival with City Cast Madison.
