Shanna Wolf/S. Photography & Styling
Jane Rotonda, wearing a black shirt, at the Madison Public Library.
Jane Rotonda, new director of the Wisconsin Book Festival
Jane Rotonda is no stranger to the Wisconsin Book Festival, having attended many author events over the years. And she still has fond memories of the night in October 2018 when she and some friends saw National Magazine Award finalist Rebecca Traister, who was promoting her book, Good and Mad: The Revolutionary Power of Women’s Anger.
“It was exciting that she was going to be in Madison — talking for free to the public,” Rotonda tells Isthmus. The festival’s new 35-year-old director says it’s “fun to think back about that; I was in the audience then, and I’m still in the audience. But it’s a very different experience now.”
Rotonda grew up in Grand Haven, Michigan, graduated from the UW-Madison’s School of Journalism and Mass Communication, and moved to New York City to work in marketing. Eventually, she returned to Madison and spent eight years at the nonprofit Wisconsin Public Radio, where she most recently was project manager for The Ideas Network and executive producer of The Larry Meiller Show. She also was on-air fundraising manager and founded WPR’s first-ever book club.
In 2021, she temporarily relocated with her partner to New Zealand and had only been back in Madson for about 48 hours before hearing about the open festival director position.
“This job is super exciting for me,” says Rotonda, who succeeds Conor Moran, now executive director of the Madison Public Library Foundation (which presents the Wisconsin Book Festival). “It’s been one of those things where I couldn’t even imagine the possibility that I would get to read books and work with authors and the community.”
Isthmus: Why did you want this job?
Jane Rotonda: Books have been a big part of my life, always. They are how I’ve learned, how I’ve grown my perspective and how I connect with people. Reading has always been a little bit of an escape for me, too. I grew up within walking distance of a library, and my parents raised us to be appreciative of books. They’re wonderful tools to access new and unfamiliar worlds. I learned that at a very young age, and it just stuck with me. Plus, public service work has basically been my whole career, in one way or another. For me, the community service aspect of this work is so instrumental and so critical.
How did the Wisconsin Book Festival’s spring season prepare you for this fall and the annual four-day celebration?
It was excellent timing for me to start the job. Conor had this amazing spring lineup that I could walk into and see firsthand how things are run. That learning during the spring events was instrumental in setting me up for success for planning for the fall and feeling like I know what to expect, at least to a certain extent.
This fall’s lineup is pretty diverse.
The fall season began Sept. 9 with Madison children’s book author Pat Zietlow Miller and her book A Girl Can Build Anything. She has really carved out a space for herself in the community. That event is at Pinney Library, because that is Pat’s neighborhood, and I like the fact that we can reach different communities like that and not always be at the Central Library. Branching out to different locations is exciting.
What does the Wisconsin Book Festival do really well?
The programming is free, it’s approachable, and it features a wide variety of authors and genres. I think it’s exceptional in terms of meeting different audiences and having a little something for every reader. And I want to continue to push for that and make sure that variety and approachability continues. I want people to come to these events feeling very welcome — that they’re part of the community, part of this moment with other people. I also want to continue amplifying underrepresented voices. That includes authors and the subject matter of the books.
The Elliot Page event at the Barrymore Theatre comes to mind…
Yes. Elliot Page stands out for a lot of reasons. That event, June 12, was literally days after his book [Pageboy] was released, and he is part of a conversation that is circulating through communities all over the nation. We worked with A Room of One’s Own to pull the whole thing off. It was a true representation of a group of people in this community who are continuously working to be seen and heard, and it felt really great to invite Elliot and feature his story and his book in that particular moment.
It worked; that event was packed.
Right, and this is something I want to finesse: We offer these events that are free and open to the public, and there’s no registration — even when they’re really big events. It’s hard to know what the right space will be. We packed the Barrymore to capacity, with as many people as we safely could, but we still had to turn people away. I remember walking the line and making sure people who couldn’t get in understood that we were bummed that we didn’t have space for everyone. And I was nervous about how that message was going to be received. But everyone was really grateful. They were like, “Thank you for having this event and making it free and open.” They were gracious and understanding, and that stood out to me.
How do you convince people who’ve never attended a Wisconsin Book Festival event — or any author event — to give it a try?
Here’s the thing: There is something so special, unique and timeless about having a conversation with an author, or just listening to them present themselves. When that happens, we all have this common denominator, which is an interest in the author and the book. That’s the magic right there. We’re all sharing excitement around the fact that reading is an amazing outlet that will always be available to us. And it’s not to be taken for granted; it’s to be celebrated.
As for festival regulars, should they expect any major changes this year?
I think people are going to feel very comfortable. All of the elements that they expect and look forward to are going to be very much intact. They will find that the Wisconsin Book Festival is there for them, the way it has been. The newest thing is me, and I’m not trying to turn it all upside down in any way, shape or form.
The Wisconsin Book Festival hosts stand-alone events all year, culminating in the annual four-day fall celebration, which will be held Oct. 19-22.
