Tyler Gross
Talking to Conor Moran, director of the Wisconsin Book Festival, is like disappearing into a good book. It’s possible to forget for a moment what’s going on around us: the maniacal ravings of an increasingly unstable leader, environmental cataclysms, the threat of nuclear annihilation and gut-wrenching accounts of sexual assault and harassment (#metoo).
Whether it’s escaping reality through fiction or diving deep into a topic from the day’s news, the act of reading a book is an empowering choice — a way to reclaim some intellectual territory from the rollercoaster of social media bombardment. And, if you talk with Moran, you’ll understand why he believes that spending time with writers and authors is one of Madison’s favorite pastimes.
There’s more than enough enthusiasm here to support a yearly festival with more than 73 events packed into four days — that’s happening starting on Nov. 2. But more than that, enthusiastic audiences have helped the Wisconsin Book Festival expand from a yearly celebration to a year-round celebration of literary culture. This year, the festival has hosted more than 40 events outside the confines of the special weekend.
“What I’ve seen grow is interest, which is fantastic,” says Moran. “I mean that both from a Madison audience point of view, from a book-buying point of view and from a publishing point of view.” All year long, Moran is fielding inquiries from publishers who want to be a part of the festival, and he’s taking them up on it.
“We’re celebrating our 15th anniversary this year, and it’s just light years away from what they did in 2002,” says Moran, “ — but it also has the same guiding principles.”
Those principles include highlighting Wisconsin authors and issues, and the festival still has plenty of homegrown talent. This year’s events include a new title by superstar essayist MIchael Perry, a new mystery by Door County author Patricia Skalka, and an appearance by UW Ph.D. candidate Sagashus Levingston, who will talk about her coffee table book Infamous Mothers.
While staying true to its roots, the festival has grown in scope and reputation. Just this year, it hosted events with Richard Russo, Margaret Atwood and Nathan Englander. Publishers of what Moran calls “the biggest names in fiction” are requesting an audience with Madison’s literati.
According to Moran, it’s not just fiction publishers that have good reason to target Madison. “I’ve learned a lot about what Madison’s audiences support that you might not see in other communities,” says Moran. “We have a really supportive poetry community. We have voracious nonfiction readers — and it doesn’t have to be just the stuff that’s on the front page of The New York Times Book Review. We have a pretty highly educated community, and you see people who want to spend their time coming to cultural events like this to learn a little bit, to push themselves, to ask a good question that advances something.”
Moran is especially pleased with this year’s lineup. “I’m really excited that there’s something on almost every major topic you’d hear discussed in the news: immigration from Central America, policing, North Korea, gender equity. And that’s not necessarily something I set out to do. I didn’t have a checklist of different topics that I need to get in, but I think it’s a reflection of what’s getting published and what’s getting talked about. I think the Madison audience has shown me these are the types of things we want to hear about.”
But hold the presses. Is Moran talking about a brand of Madison exceptionalism — an alternative universe where people actually still read books? Or is he talking about a nation that still cares about the printed word? “People are reading books and they are buying books,” says Moran. “People are reading more now than they ever have before, whether that’s on their phone or on paper. What the publishing industry is seeing is that people who read on their device are also buying paper books.” He cites articles based on a recent study from the Pew Research Center that shows that even those digitally obsessed millennials are reading paper books: More than 80 percent of 18-29 year-olds read a book within the last year.
The festival partners up with independent booksellers from A Room of One’s Own and Mystery to Me, which will vend at the upcoming events. Moran says book lovers have already snatched up more than 1,000 titles at the 40 events that have taken place in 2017.
“Like so many things these days, you want that curated experience, you want somebody who can cut through the noise and say okay, this is the one that is worth reading,” says Moran. “Or you want somebody to say ‘I know you. I know what you like to read based on our relationship; here’s what you should read next.’ I think the festival fills that role for people.”
