Wisconsin Book Festival reveals author slate for its “Fall Celebration”

The packed weekend will feature 54 authors, with nearly 20 having Wisconsin ties

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An award-winning Sudanese writer now living in Scotland, the first transgender athlete to compete on an NCAA Division I men’s team and a three-time Hugo Award-winning science-fiction writer. 

Those are just three — Leila Aboulela, Schuyler Bailar and John Scalzi — of the 54 authors who will appear during the four-day Wisconsin Book Festival Fall Celebration from Oct. 19-22, held at Madison’s Central Library and a handful of other locations. All events are free and open to the public.

“I finally get to share with the public what’s been going on behind the scenes,” new festival director Jane Rotonda said during a rooftop “Author Reveal Party” at the downtown law firm Godfrey & Kahn and attended by about 75 sponsors, festival ambassadors, volunteers and media members. She advised: “Pack plenty of snacks, and wear comfortable shoes.”

Now in its 22nd year, the festival will feature nearly 20 authors with Wisconsin ties, including: 

• Madison Writers’ Studio instructor Christopher Chambers (Kind of Blue: Stories)

• UW-Madison Educational Policy Studies associate professor Erica Turner (Suddenly Diverse: How School Districts Manage Race & Inequality)

• Madison-based journalist Mary Bergin (Small-Town Wisconsin: Fun, Surprising, and Exceptional Road Trips)

• Ripon College Professor Emeritus of music Kurt Dietrich (Never Givin’ Up: The Life and Music of Al Jarreau)

• Carol Dunbar, who writes fiction from a solar-powered water tower in northern Wisconsin (A Winter’s Rime). 

“Wisconsin writers are an incredibly important part of our programming, and a very healthy element of our Fall Celebration and our standalone events,” Rotonda tells Isthmus; she took over as festival director in February for Conor Moran, who now is executive director of the Madison Public Library Foundation. “Wisconsin is a very special place for authors and books, and we will continue to celebrate them as long as I am in this role.”

Bestselling novelist Dean Bakopoulos (Summerlong), who was the first director of the Wisconsin Book Festival when it began in 2002 as part of the Wisconsin Humanities Council and is now an associate professor of cinema and screenwriting arts at the University of Iowa, attended the event with writer friends. He credits the festival’s success, at least in part, to its Madison home. 

“From the beginning, it felt like a local event,” he tells Isthmus, adding that in the early days, other festival events were held throughout the state. “I had no idea it would become something that would last this long.” 

Here’s a partial rundown of other writers appearing at this year’s Wisconsin Book Festival: 

Thursday, Oct. 19

• Michael Waldman, former speechwriter for President Bill Clinton (The Supermajority: How the Supreme Court Divided America)

• B. Pladek, associate professor of English at Marquette University (Dry Land: A Novel)

• Craig Thompson, cartoonist and award-winning graphic novelist (Ginseng Roots) 

Friday, Oct. 20

• Dan Egan, two-time Pulitzer Prize finalist and former Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Great Lakes reporter (The Devil’s Element: Phosphorus and a World Out of Balance)

• Nabil Ayers, music and race writer (My Life in the Sunshine: Searching for My Father and Discovering My Family)

• Erin Carlson, culture and entertainment journalist (No Crying in Baseball: The Inside Story of A League of Their Own — Big Stars, Dugout Drama, and a Home Run for Hollywood)

Saturday, Oct. 21

• Children’s author Barbara Joosse and illustrator Renée Graef (Death’s Door: True Tales of Tragedy, Mystery, and Bravery from the Great Lakes’ Most Dangerous Waters)

• Katie Williams, assistant professor at Emerson College in Boston (My Murder: A Novel)

• Poet José Olivarez (Promises of Gold) 

Sunday, Oct. 22

• David Shih, UW-Eau Claire professor (Chinese Prodigal: A Memoir in Eight Arguments) 

• Cat Bohannon, researcher and author (Eve: How the Female Body Drove 200 Million Years of Human Evolution) 

• Nathan Hill (Wellness: A Novel) 

See the full festival schedule here.