Celebrate the Wisconsin Book Festival!

This week we celebrate the Wisconsin Book Festival, which comes to our neck of the woods (it’s based in Madison at the branches of Madison Public Library) at the end of the week. The weekend is packed full of literary events, from author signings to writing workshops to poetry readings, and on and on. So, on the blog this week, I thought it would be fun to highlight some of the wonderful Wisconsin writers we have in our collection. 

Sidenote: our wonderful library clerk Barb N. has been setting up a little display next to the CD rack highlighting a different Wisconsin writer every couple of weeks, so keep an eye out for those!

Popular Wisconsin writers:

• Jerry Apps – a popular writer of Wisconsin farm and rural life, Mr. Apps writes both fiction and non-fiction/memoirs.
• Ilsa J. Bick – a young adult author from Wisconsin. Ms. Bick’s books are mysteries with a blend of fantasy and realism.
• Jacquelyn Mitchard – writes for all ages, including picture books, young adult mystery novels, and love stories for adults.
• Kathleen Ernst – Ms. Ernst’s books follow a range of Wisconsin cultural mainstays, from the American Girl stories to a mystery involving Old World Wisconsin!
• Ruth Ann Montgomery – Evansville’s own wonderful historian and former library director has a number of books that celebrate Evansville’s storied past.
• Jennifer Chiaverini – Ms. Chiaverini is the author of the popular Elm Creek Quilts novel series.

Other Wisconsin titles to enjoy:

• Uprising: how Wisconsin renewed the politics of protest, from Madison to Wall Street by John Nichols
• Bottoms Up: A toast to Wisconsin’s historic bars and breweries by Jim Draeger and Mark Speltz
• Cut from plain cloth: the 2011 Wisconsin workers rallies by Dennis Weidemann
• Putting Down Roots: Gardening insights from Wisconsin’s early settlers by Marcia C. Carmichael
• While America Sleeps: a wake-up call for the post-9/11 era by Russ Feingold
• Beyond the Trees: stories of Wisconsin forests by Candice Gaukel Andrews
• The Round Barn: a biography of an American farm by Jacqueline Dougan Jackson
• A Nation Within a Nation: voices of the Oneidas in Wisconsin edited by L. Gordon McLester III and Laurence M. Hauptmann
• A Short History of Wisconsin by Erika Janik
• The Flavor of Wisconsin: a history of food and eating in the Badger State by Harva Hachten and Terese Allen
• Star Lake Saloon and Housekeeping Cottages by Sara Rath
• Building Taliesin: Frank Lloyd Wright’s home of love and loss by Ron McCrea

There are many more where those came from, but we’re out of time for today! If you make it up to Madison this weekend, have a great time at the Book Festival!

P.S. Our assistant director Laura will be up at the Central Branch of the Madison Public Library hosting drop-in art-making workshops all day on Saturday October 19^th. Feel free to drop by and make some art with her!