Jeffrey Eugenides appears Saturday evening at the Overture Center's Capitol Theater
The Wisconsin Book Festival has way too many things to see between Wednesday, October 19 through Sunday, October 23. Here are five good places to start.
Fiction Feature with Mary Gordon, Dwight Allen, Larry Watson
Wednesday, Oct. 19, 7:30 p.m.
Madison Museum of Contemporary Art
This event features three novelists who write with grace and gentle wit. Gordon reads from her new novel, The Love of My Youth; Madison writer Allen from a new story that updates his novel-in-stories The Green Suit; and Lrry Watson from his long-awaited novel American Boy.
Runaway / Fire: Diana Abu-Jaber and Jacquelyn Mitchard
Thursday, Oct. 20, 7:30 p.m.
Madison Museum of Contemporary Art
Madison's Mitchard reads from her new novel, Second Nature: A Love Story, which deals with the issue of face transplants; and Abu-Jaber from her novel Birds of Paradise, about a girl who runs away from home at 13. The event will be of special interest to local Mitchard fans, given her recent announcement that she's moving to the East Coast.
Friday, Oct. 21, 8 p.m.
Orpheum Theatre
Myla Goldberg (Bee Season, The False Friend) and John Burnham Schwartz (Reservation Road, Northwest Corner) start reading at 8 p.m., followed at 9:30 by Dean Bakopoulos, reading from My American Unhappiness, his crabby, big-hearted and often hilarious commentary of modern life, set here in Madison. Wrapping up will be Bonnie Jo Campbell, who reads from her widely acclaimed Once Upon a River, a coming-of-age story with an unforgettable 16-year-old heroine whose life model is Annie Oakley.
Jeffrey Eugenides: Reading from The Marriage Plot
Saturday, Oct. 22, 5:30 p.m.
Overture Center's Capitol Theater
The Pulitzer Prize winner will read from The Marriage Plot, just out this month and already garnering rave reviews as an absorbing modern love story with underpinnings in the Victorian novel, semiotics and Christian mysticism. Eugenides only publishes about a novel per decade (Virgin Suicides, 1993; Middlesex, 2002) and rarely makes personal appearances, so this would be one not to miss.
Passing the Mic: An Intergenerational Tribute to Sonia Sanchez and Danny Simmons
Saturday, Oct. 22, 8 p.m.
Overture Center's Capitol Theater
Renowned African American writers Sanchez and Simmons will read from their work and then pass the mike to poets from the UW's First Wave Hip Hop Theater and the Midwest Youth Poetry Slam All-Stars. Hosts include Mayda del Valle and Black Ice of HBO's Def Poetry Jam.
