Event Schedule

Open to any page in this book and you’ll find a flexible framework designed to add intention and nuance to your next quilt. Unlike conventional how-to manuals, this book centers on the narrative of your quilt and offers practical step-by-step ideas to align every design decision you make to support the story your quilt tells. 

Enjoy an evening of visual storytelling, reflection, and action. Prior to Zak Foster's author talk, we welcome you to join The Bubbler at Madison Public Library for a pre-event artist reception at 6 p.m. in the Diane Endres Ballweg Art Gallery (third floor of Central Library). Light food and refreshments will be provided in celebration of the gallery opening.

Please note that this event will be held at The Orpheum Theater. It's free and open to the public on a first-come, first-served basis. Seating is by general admission. Doors open at 6 p.m. 

Pre-signed copies of Pitcher Perfect will be distributed for free to attendees courtesy of the Wisconsin Book Festival. Copies of Tessa's other books will also be available for purchase at the event. There will not be a signing line or personalizations at the event. 

#1 New York Times bestselling author Tessa Bailey is back with an all-new enemies-to-lovers, fake-dating sports romance about a playboy hockey rookie and the disciplined softball pitcher completely immune to his charms.

Boston Bearcats rookie Robbie Corrigan is living the dream. He’s made it to the NHL, his best friend/teammate and fellow “orgasm donor” is his roomie—and the women of Boston love them both. Life is sweet. That is, until he meets Skylar Paige, division 1 softball pitcher, girl least likely to take anyone’s bull…and the one member of the opposite sex immune to his charms. Robbie might be dazzled by the badass pitcher, but Skylar pegs him as a filthy player and wants nothing to do with him.

When he discovers she’s carrying a serious torch for her brother’s best friend, Robbie knows he should just go back to clubbing and whipped cream bikini parties, but he can’t seem to leave Skylar to flounder on her romantic quest to land another man. Nor can he miss out on the opportunity to spend time with her and hopefully redeem himself. Before Robbie knows it, he’s agreed to be Skylar’s fake boyfriend/love coach at an upcoming family wilderness competition where her crush will be in attendance. What could go wrong?

Through a series of contests that require them to trust each other, Robbie and Skylar grow closer and closer until their fake relationship starts to feel like the realest thing they’ve ever known and the sizzling lessons in sensuality burn out of control.

But it’s all just pretend…right?

In conversation with Brighton Walsh.

Presented in partnership with Lake City Books, Thirst Books, The Well Red Damsel, and Blue House Books.

Please note this event will be held at Bascom Music Hall. It's free and open to the public on a first-come, first-served basis. Seating is by general admission and limited to theater capacity. Doors open at 6 p.m. 

From award-winning, bestselling author David Levithan and beloved, acclaimed singer-songwriter Jens Lekman comes a charming, tender novel about an unlucky-in-love wedding singer trying to find the right words to save his relationship.

Songs for Other People's Weddings follows J, a heartbroken musician who writes custom love songs for couples on their wedding day. He’s great at capturing other people’s stories—but can’t seem to fix his own failing relationship. As love gets messy, J wonders if there’s any way to sing through the noise. Bittersweet, funny, and deeply romantic, this is a novel about connection, heartbreak, and the music that gets us through it.

In conversation with Steven Spoerl.

When Fred Risser retired from the Wisconsin Senate in 2021, his sixty-four years in state government made him the longest serving legislator in US history. Now, in this candid and illuminating autobiography, Risser shares his singular perspective on events that transformed the state and the nation over the course of his remarkable career. From his role in the “Joe Must Go” drive to recall US Senator Joseph McCarthy in the 1950s to his position as the senior senator among the “Fab Fourteen” Wisconsin Democrats who opposed Act 10 in 2011, Risser was a leader in state politics for decades, always maintaining an unwavering belief that political action can change people’s lives for the better.

Forward for the People provides a unique peek behind the political curtain from the viewpoint of someone who saw it all. Risser worked with thirteen governors and authored more than 240 bills that became law, championing public health and safety, environmental protection, women’s and reproductive rights, organized labor, civil rights, and social justice, among many other causes. Risser also recounts interactions with prominent national politicians, including Robert La Follette Jr., Hubert Humphrey, Jimmy Carter, and Bill Clinton.

Forward for the People also details Risser’s experiences out of state, from a stint in the Panama Canal Zone as a navy hospital corpsman to his undergraduate debate-team days at Minnesota’s Carleton College to his years studying law at the University of Oregon and his travels to all seven continents. Enhanced with details sourced from correspondence, personal notes,
newspaper accounts, and recollections from friends and former colleagues, Risser and coauthor Doug Moe have crafted an engaging account of an extraordinary life in public service.

This is a virtual event only. Register and join the event at: https://crowdcast.io/c/8avbcyk542ye. Before the event begins, you will see a countdown and the event image.

Join the Wisconsin Book Festival in celebrating Xicana Heritage with readings of resistance and resilience from Xicana authors who are invigorating the Xicana identity, culture and pride. Especially at this time of political unrest, when Mexican Americans are being targeted for deportation, the women authors of Somos Xicanas collectively assert their ancestral relationship to the land, and how place and landscapes shape us. These authors refuse to be erased. Hear what it means to be a Xicana, in all its beautiful complexity, multiplicity and might, and draw inspiration from Indigenous voices that will not be silenced. Be a part of our movement, as Xicanas claim their legitimate presence upon the American Literature Landscape.

This event is part of Banned Books Week 2025 and presented in partnership with Beyond the Page.

Covid lockdown is over, but A’s world feels smaller than ever. Coming out as trans didn’t exactly go well, and most days, he barely leaves his bedroom, let alone the house. But the low point of A’s life isn’t online school, missing his bar mitzvah, or the fact that his parents monitor his phone like hawks—it’s the weekly Save Our Sons and Daughters meetings his parents all but drag him to.

At SOSAD, A and his friends Sal and Yarrow sit by while their parents deadname them and wring their hands over a nonexistent “transgender craze.” After all, sitting in suffocating silence has to be better than getting sent away for “advanced treatment,” never to be heard from again.  

When Yarrow vanishes after a particularly confrontational meeting, A discovers that SOSAD doesn’t just feel soul-sucking…it’s run by an actual demon who feeds off the pain and misery of kids like him. And it’s not just SOSAD—the entire world is beset by demons dining on what seems like an endless buffet of pain and bigotry.

But how is one trans kid who hasn’t even chosen a name supposed to save his friend, let alone the world? And is a world that seems hellbent on rejecting him even worth saving at all?

Striker isn’t entirely sure she should be on this luxury Antarctic cruise. A Black film scout, her mission is to photograph potential locations for a big-budget movie about Ernest Shackleton’s doomed expedition. Along the way, she finds private if cautious amusement in the behavior of both the native wildlife and the group of wealthy, mostly white tourists who have chosen to spend Christmas on the Weddell Sea.

But when a kayaking excursion goes horribly wrong, Striker and a group of survivors become stranded on a remote island along the Antarctic Peninsula, a desolate setting complete with boiling geothermal vents and vicious birds. Soon the hostile environment will show each survivor their true face, and as the polar ice thaws in the unseasonable warmth, the group’s secrets, prejudices, and inner demons will also emerge, including revelations from Striker’s past that could irrevocably shatter her world.

With her signature lyricism and humor, Quan Barry offers neither comfort nor closure as she questions the limits of the human bonds that connect us to one another, affirming there are no such things as haunted places, only haunted people. Gripping, lucid, and imaginative, The Unveiling is an astonishing ghost story about the masks we wear and the truths we hide even from ourselves.

This event is a youth-visit only. Presented in partnership with the Wisconsin Science Festival. 

Participating youth attendees will join Rebecca Hogue Wojahn, author of the new book Saving Our Sturgeon: Protecting Wisconsin's Ancient Fish, as she recounts a conservation success story about one remarkable (and plenty peculiar) species of fish and shows young readers how they, too, can help protect these incredible creatures. Saving Our Sturgeon explores the natural history of lake sturgeon in Wisconsin and the factors that threatened their survival, and details how government agencies, conservationists, Native nations, and citizen groups worked together to protect the species. They will then join Anne Moser and Titus Seilheimer of University of Wisconsin Sea Grant for an interactive exploration of lake sturgeon anatomy, evolution, and behavior. 

For millennia, sturgeon swam the waterways of Wisconsin. Before the 1800s, an estimated eleven million sturgeon lived in Lake Michigan alone. But in the early 1900s, the lake sturgeon was near extinction. In Saving Our Sturgeon: Protecting Wisconsin’s Ancient Fish, author Rebecca Hogue Wojahn tells the remarkable story of lake sturgeon in Wisconsin, the conservation efforts to save the species, and what is being done to keep the population healthy and thriving today. Geared for readers ages eleven and up, Saving Our Sturgeon explores the natural history of the lake sturgeon and the factors that threatened its survival, from overharvesting to the building of dams that prevented sturgeon from reaching spawning areas. The book also explains how government agencies, conservationists, Native nations, and citizen groups worked together to save the sturgeon pop lation in Wisconsin.

A great resource for classroom use, Saving Our Sturgeon contains maps, photos, and diagrams, plus a glossary of terms, a timeline of events, a Who’s Who list of individuals and groups featured in the book, and a bibliography that highlights kid-friendly sources for further learning. Saving Our Sturgeon celebrates the conservation success story about one remarkable (and plenty peculiar) species of fish and shows young readers how they, too, can help protect these incredible creatures.

All attendees will receive free copies of the book, courtesy of the Wisconsin Book Festival. 

This semiannual sale is organized by the Friends of UW Madison Libraries to help to support public events and lectures, priorities identified by the Dean of Libraries, special purchases and preservation of library materials, and grants for the visiting scholar program. The Friends accept donations for upcoming sales on a continual basis. The sale is free (except the preview sale) and open to the public.

Wednesday, October 22

• Preview Sale:  4:00-8:00 P.M. ($5 entry)

Thursday & Friday, October 23 & 24

• Regular Sale: 10:30 A.M.-7:00 P.M. (no entry fee)

Saturday, October 25

• Bag Sale: 9:00 A.M.-1:00 P.M. ($5 per bag)

Bring your own grocery bag or purchase one for $1

• From 1:05-2:00 p.m. all remaining items are FREE
   

Wisconsin People & Ideas, the Wisconsin Academy’s magazine of contemporary Wisconsin thought and culture, presents a Wisconsin Book Festival reading featuring the winners of the statewide 2025 Fiction & Poetry Contests. 

2025 Poetry Contest Winners:

• First Prize: "Julia," by Alison Thumel
• Second Prize: "First draft of a letter of support, ghost-written by the patient," by Lex Williams Page
• Third Prize: "I realize too late this was a test," by Breanna Grow

2025 Fiction Contest Winners:

• First Prize: "Counting Crows," Elizabeth Hendricks
• Second Prize: "Full House," John Mulvihill
• Third Prize: "Waiting," Hannah Greendale

Presented in partnership with Go Big Read.

When Jim overhears that he is about to be sold to a man in New Orleans, separated from his wife and daughter forever, he runs away until he can formulate a plan. Meanwhile, Huck has faked his own death to escape his violent father. As all readers of American literature know, thus begins the dangerous and transcendent journey by raft down the Mississippi River toward the elusive and unreliable promise of the Free States and beyond.  

Brimming with the electrifying humor and lacerating observations that have made Everett a literary icon, this brilliant and tender novel radically illuminates Jim’s agency, intelligence, and compassion as never before. James is destined to be a major publishing event and a cornerstone of twenty-first century American literature.