Dozens of authors are scheduled to appear during the 2018 Wisconsin Book Festival. To see them all, pick up the handy guide inserted into last week’s Isthmus or visit wisconsinbookfestival.org. Need help choosing? Here are some of the standouts.
Thursday, Oct. 11: Rebecca Makkai
Central Library,The Bubbler, 5:30 pm
Makkai’s latest novel, The Great Believers, is an ambitious story that bridges 1980s Chicago with contemporary Paris to tell the story of survivors whose lives were forever changed by the AIDS epidemic.
Friday, Oct. 12: Anthony Salvanto
Central Library, Community Room 301, 7 pm
As CBS News’ director of elections and surveys, Salvanto conducts political polls and projects election outcomes. Who better to explain what our fellow Americans are thinking — and why? Salvanto’s new book, Where Did You Get This Number? A Pollster’s Guide to Making Sense of the World, offers an unexpected peek behind the data.
Saturday, Oct. 13: Megan Monday and Brijetta Hall Waller
Wisconsin Historical Museum, 1:30 pm
The documentary filmmakers and co-founders of the Love Wisconsin digital storytelling project — featuring first-person tales from regular Wisconsinites — have compiled some of their best content into Love Wisconsin: Stories from the Place We Call Home, a colorful 170-page photo-heavy book of relatable stories.
Sunday, Oct. 14: Dessa
Central Library, Community Room 301, 10:30 am
It’s been quite a year for Minneapolis-born rapper Dessa. Six months after she released Chime, a critically acclaimed album of electro-pop hip-hop, she delivered My Own Devices: True Stories from the Road on Music, Science, and Senseless Love — a charming and inspired memoir in essay form that even Tegan and Sara love.
Tuesday, Oct. 16: Leif Enger
Central Library, Community Room 302, 7 pm
Promoting his first novel in a decade, the author of the 2001 national bestseller Peace Like a River returns to that book’s fertile Minnesota ground in Virgil Wander, in which the titular small-town movie theater owner survives an icy car crash but has no memory of his previous life.
