The Wisconsin Book Festival, presented by Madison Public Library in partnership with Madison Public Library Foundation, presents free, public author events that celebrate books and spark conversations. Each year, the festival creates a robust schedule of accomplished and new writers whose fiction, nonfiction, and poetry books appeal to all ages of readers. The Festival presents stand-alone events throughout the year with a culminating celebration each fall. The 23rd Annual Fall Celebration will be Thursday, October 17 through Sunday, October 20, 2024.
The festival is committed to presenting a mix of in-person and virtual events that are free and open to the public.
The Wisconsin Humanities Council founded the festival in 2001; the library and foundation took over festival leadership in 2013.
Since then, we have hosted more than 900 writers, including:
- Amor Towles, author of New York Times bestselling novel A Gentleman in Moscow
- Charles Yu, winner of the National Book Award for Fiction for Interior Chinatown
- Chloe Benjamin, Madison-based winner of the 2014 Edna Ferber Fiction Book Award for The Anatomy of Dreams and New York Times bestselling author of The Immortalists
- Pushcart Prize recipient Celeste Ng
- Many UW-Madison graduates, such as 2021 USA Writing Fellow, Danez Smith, and Booker Prize finalist, Brandon Taylor
- US Senator Elizabeth Warren
- Pulitzer Prize winners David Maraniss, Jane Smiley, and Anthony Doerr
- the world’s bestselling author, James Patterson
- two-time Newbery Medalist Kate DiCamillo
- acclaimed food writer and cooking expert Mark Bittman
- Ambassador Samantha Power, Pulitzer Prize winner and one of TIME’s 100 Most Influential People for 2004
- Sarah Broom, author of National Book Award-winning memoir The Yellow House
- Political leader, voting rights activist, and New York Times best-selling author Stacey Abrams
- Tommy Orange, winner of the PEN/Hemingway Award and American Book Award for There There