28

Sep

Presented in partnership with the Portland Book Festival, a long-forgotten letter sets off a charged encounter with the past in this poignant and gorgeously told tale masterfully written by Sandra Cisneros, the celebrated bestselling author of The House on Mango Street, in a beautiful dual-language edition. Cisneros will appear live on Crowdcast to discuss her newest book, Martita, I Remember You, in conversation with Kali Fajardo-Anstine. Join the event at: https://www.crowdcast.io/e/wbfpbf-martita. Before the event begins, you will see a countdown and the event image. 

30

Sep

A livewire debut from Dantiel W. Moniz, one of the most exciting discoveries in today's literary landscape, Milk Blood Heat depicts the sultry lives of Floridians in intergenerational tales that contemplate human connection, race, womanhood, inheritance, and the elemental darkness in us all. Set among the cities and suburbs of Florida, each story delves into the ordinary worlds of young girls, women, and men who find themselves confronted by extraordinary moments of violent personal reckoning. These intimate portraits of people and relationships scour and soothe and blast a light on the nature of family, faith, forgiveness, consumption, and what we may, or may not, owe one another.

30

Sep

Established in 1998, the lecture was named to honor Charlotte Zolotow, a distinguished children's book editor for 38 years with Harper Junior Books, and author of more than 65 picture books, including such classic works as Mr. Rabbit and the Lovely Present (Harper, 1962) and William's Doll (Harper, 1972). Ms. Zolotow attended the University of Wisconsin in Madison on a writing scholarship from 1933-36 where she studied with Professor Helen C. White. The Cooperative Children's Book Center, a library of the School of Education of the University of Wisconsin in Madison, administers the event which each year brings a distinguished children's book author or illustrator to the campus to deliver a free public lecture.

05

Oct

From the acclaimed author of Imagine Wanting Only This—a timely and moving meditation on isolation and longing, both as individuals and as a society. Kristen Radtke will appear live on Crowdcast to discuss her new book, Seek You. Join the event at: https://www.crowdcast.io/e/wbf-seek-you. Before the event begins, you will see a countdown and the event image. 

There is a silent epidemic in America: loneliness. Shameful to talk about and often misunderstood, loneliness is everywhere, from the most major of metropolises to the smallest of towns. In Seek You, Kristen Radtke’s wide-ranging exploration of our inner lives and public selves, Radtke digs into the ways in which we attempt to feel closer to one another, and the distance that remains. Through the lenses of gender and violence, technology and art, Radtke ushers us through a history of loneliness and longing, and shares what feels impossible to share.

07

Oct

The inspiring, dramatic, and heartwarming true account of an escaped convict and his wife of thirty-five plus years who never knew his secret, which captured the imaginations of millions on Humans of New York. Bobby and Cheryl Love were living in Brooklyn, happily married for decades, when the FBI and NYPD appeared at their door and demanded to know from Bobby, in front of his shocked wife and children: “What is your name? No, what’s your real name?” Bobby & Cheryl Love will appear on Crowdcast to discuss The Redemption of Bobby Love. Join the event at: https://www.crowdcast.io/e/wbf-redemption-love. Before the event begins, you will see a countdown and the event image.

11

Oct

A “stirring and brilliant” debut story collection, offering vivid portrayals of the men and women of modern China and its diaspora, “both love letter and sharp social criticism,” from a phenomenal new literary talent bringing great “insight from her years as a reporter with the Wall Street Journal” (Elle). Debut fiction author, Te-Ping Chen will appear live on Crowdcast to discuss her new collection, Land of Big Numbers. Join the event at: https://www.crowdcast.io/e/wbf-land-of-big-numbers. Before the event begins, you will see a countdown and the event image.

12

Oct

A gripping set of stories about the forces that shape girls and the adults they become. A wise and brilliant guide to transforming the self and our society. In her powerful new book, critically acclaimed author Melissa Febos examines the narratives women are told about what it means to be female and what it takes to free oneself from them.

When her body began to change at eleven years old, Febos understood immediately that her meaning to other people had changed with it. By her teens, she defined herself based on these perceptions and by the romantic relationships she threw herself into headlong. Over time, Febos increasingly questioned the stories she’d been told about herself and the habits and defenses she’d developed over years of trying to meet others’ expectations. The values she and so many other women had learned in girlhood did not prioritize their personal safety, happiness, or freedom, and she set out to reframe those values and beliefs.

21

Oct

From medical expert Leana Wen, MD, Lifelines is an insider's account of public health and its crucial role—from opioid addiction to global pandemic—and an inspiring story of her journey from struggling immigrant to being one of Time’s 100 Most Influential People. Dr. Wen will appear live on Crowdcast to discuss her newest book, Lifelines. Join the event at: https://www.crowdcast.io/e/wbf-lifelines. Before the event begins, you will see a countdown and the event image. 

“Public health saved your life today—you just don’t know it,” is a phrase that Dr. Leana Wen likes to use. You don’t know it because good public health is invisible. It becomes visible only in its absence, when it is underfunded and ignored, a bitter truth laid bare as never before by the devastation of COVID-19.

21

Oct

A stirring, witty, and poignant glimpse into the bewildering American immigrant experience from someone who has lived it. Also, a mirror held up to America. Hakakian will appear live on Crowdcast to discuss her newest book, A Beginner's Guide to America. Join the event at: https://www.crowdcast.io/e/wbf-beginners-guide-america. Before the event begins, you will see a countdown and the event image. 

21

Oct

A scientist’s manifesto addressing a soil loss crisis accelerated by poor conservation practices and climate change. This book by celebrated biologist Jo Handelsman lays bare the complex connections among climate change, soil erosion, food and water security, and drug discovery. Humans depend on soil for 95 percent of global food production, yet let it erode at unsustainable rates. In the United States, China, and India, vast tracts of farmland will be barren of topsoil within this century. The combination of intensifying erosion caused by climate change and the increasing food needs of a growing world population is creating a desperate need for solutions to this crisis.

21

Oct

In The Second, historian and award-winning, bestselling author of White Rage Carol Anderson powerfully illuminates the history and impact of the Second Amendment, how it was designed, and
how it has consistently been constructed to keep African Americans powerless and vulnerable. The Second is neither a “pro-gun” nor an “anti-gun” book; the lens is the citizenship rights and human rights of African Americans. Anderson will appear live on Crowdcast to discuss her newest book, The Second. Join the event at: https://www.crowdcast.io/e/wbf-the-second. Before the event begins, you will see a countdown and the event image.

21

Oct

This popular, fast-paced event featuring five-minute flash talks from some of UW-Madison’s biggest brains is back! Join us for a fun-filled evening as we explore how we know what we know. The oderated by Eric Wilcots, Dean of the College of Letters & Science.

Featuring:

• John Hawks, anthropology, Where did we come from and who are we?
• Amy Barger, astronomy, How do we know how old the universe is?
• Phil Newmark, Morgridge Institute for Research, How do we know how animals develop?
• Hilary Dugan, integrative biology, How do we know climate change is real? Lakes as a chronicle of our changing planet
• Keith Findley, law, How can we really know who dunnit – the Wisconsin Innocence Project
• Anne Pringle, botany, How can we know where fungi are – and aren’t?

21

Oct

Alternating between the exuberant, precocious voice of young Swiv and her irrepressible, tenacious Grandma, Fight Night, is a love letter to mothers and grandmothers, and to all the women who are still fighting—painfully, ferociously—for a way to live on their own terms. Author Miriam Toews will appear live on Crowdcast to discuss her newest book, Fight Night. Join the event at: https://www.crowdcast.io/e/wbf-fight-night. Before the event begins, you will see a countdown and the event image. 

22

Oct

This “beautiful tribute to a legendary artist” (Quincy Jones) is the first in-depth biography of Nipsey Hussle, the hip-hop mogul, artist, and activist whose transformative legacy inspired a generation with his motivational lyrics and visionary business savvy—before he was tragically shot down in the very neighborhood he was dedicated to building up. Rob Kenner will appear live on Crowdcast to discuss his new book, THE MARATHON DON'T STOP, in conversation with members of the First Wave Cohort from the University of Wisconsin. Join the event at: https://www.crowdcast.io/e/wbf-marathon-dont-stop. Before the event begins, you will see a countdown and the event image.

22

Oct

Authors Clemonce Heard and Tomás Morín will join the Wisconsin Book Festival for a virtual event to discuss their recent poetry collections, Machete and Tragic City. Join the event at: https://www.crowdcast.io/e/wbf-tragic-city-machete. Before the event begins, you will see a countdown and the event image. 

22

Oct

In this urgently needed guide, the PBS host, award-winning journalist, and author of We Need to Talk teaches us how to have productive conversations about race, offering insights, advice, and support. Author Celeste Headlee will appear live on Crowdcast to discuss her newest book, Speaking of Race. Join the event at: https://www.crowdcast.io/e/wbf-speaking-race. Before the event begins, you will see a countdown and the event image. 

22

Oct

An intimate, impertinent, and incisive collection about race, progress, and hypocrisy from Jill Louise Busby, aka Jillisblack. Busby will appear live on Crowdcast to discuss her newest book, Unfollow Me. Join the event at: https://www.crowdcast.io/e/wbf-unfollow-me. Before the event begins, you will see a countdown and the event image. 

23

Oct

American public universities were founded in a civic tradition that differentiated them from their European predecessors—steering away from the pursuit of knowledge for its own sake. Like many such higher education institutions across the United States, the University of Wisconsin’s mission, known as the Wisconsin Idea, emphasizes a responsibility to serve the needs of the state and its people. This commitment, which necessarily requires a pledge to academic freedom, has recently been openly threatened by state and federal actors seeking to dismantle a democratic and expansive conception of public service.

23

Oct

An ambitious and shocking exposé of America’s hidden empire in Liberia, run by the storied Firestone corporation, and its long shadow. In the early 1920s, Americans owned 80 percent of the world’s automobiles and consumed 75 percent of the world’s rubber. But only one percent of the world’s rubber grew under the U.S. flag, creating a bottleneck that hampered the nation’s explosive economic expansion. To solve its conundrum, the Firestone Tire and Rubber Company turned to a tiny West African nation, Liberia, founded in 1847 as a free Black republic.

23

Oct

There is an epidemic of bad thinking in the world today. An alarming number of people are embracing crazy, even dangerous ideas. They believe that vaccinations cause autism. They reject the scientific consensus on climate change as a "hoax." And they blame the spread of COVID-19 on the 5G network or a Chinese cabal. Worse, bad thinking drives bad acting--it even inspired a mob to storm the U.S. Capitol. In this book, Steven Nadler and Lawrence Shapiro argue that the best antidote for bad thinking is the wisdom, insights, and practical skills of philosophy. When Bad Thinking Happens to Good People provides an engaging tour through the basic principles of logic, argument, evidence, and probability that can make all of us more reasonable and responsible citizens.

23

Oct

This book provides a blueprint for using the arts—performing, visual, and multimedia—to rethink what good learning, teaching, and curriculum can be. The author presents a bold plan for saving education with an arts-based approach to teaching that focuses on risk-taking as the most important aspect of a successful classroom. Halverson offers new models for learning that embrace the social, cultural, and historical assets that kids bring to the classroom, with guidance for designing engaging learning experiences for all grades and subject areas. Featuring many evocative examples from Whoopensocker, the author’s in-school artist-in-residence program, this resource illustrates how classroom practices and school structures can be reorganized for more inclusive success. Readers will learn how to reframe learning as acts of metacognitive representation, identity, and collaboration. And lots and lots of joy.

Book Features:

23

Oct

Before the reality shows, and celebrity-filled parties at “the Mansion,” before Hugh Hefner became “Hef” and paraded around with multiple girlfriends on each arm, Playboy and its rabbit-head logo were world-renowned, thanks to the ubiquity of its clubs, casinos, and resorts. In Shoulder Season, Christina Clancy mines the fascinating history of the Playboy Resort in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, interviewing former Bunnies, resort personnel and patrons, to capture a fleeting moment in American history, and produce an evocative and nostalgic tale, about a small-town girl turned Playboy Bunny, and the way a place, and the brief, but intoxicating moments of our youth, stay with us and shape our identities. 

23

Oct

For most of human history the world was a magical and enchanted place ruled by forces beyond our understanding. The rise of science and Descartes's division of mind from world made materialism our ruling paradigm, in the process asking whether our own consciousness--i.e., souls--might be illusions. Now the inexorable rise of technology, with artificial intelligences that surpass our comprehension and control, and the spread of digital metaphors for self-understanding, the core questions of existence--identity, knowledge, the very nature and purpose of life itself--urgently require rethinking.

Meghan O'Gieblyn tackles this challenge with philosophical rigor, intellectual reach, essayistic verve, refreshing originality, and an ironic sense of contradiction. She draws deeply and sometimes humorously from her own personal experience as a formerly religious believer still haunted by questions of faith, and she serves as the best possible guide to navigating the territory we are all entering.

23

Oct

A chilling and blisteringly relevant literary novel of social horror centered around a brutal killing that takes place in a full-contact haunted escape room—a provocative exploration of capitalism, hate politics, racial fetishism, and our obsession with fear as entertainment. On April 27, 1997, four contestants make it to the final cell of the Quigley House, a full-contact haunted escape room in Lincoln, Nebraska, made famous for its monstrosities, booby-traps, and ghoulishly costumed actors. If the group can endure these horrors without shouting the safe word, “reprieve,” they’ll win a substantial cash prize—a startling feat accomplished only by one other group in the house’s long history. But before they can complete the challenge, a man breaks into the cell and kills one of the contestants.

23

Oct

In this searing memoir, Jaquira Díaz writes fiercely and eloquently of her challenging girlhood and triumphant coming of age. While growing up in housing projects in Puerto Rico and Miami Beach, Díaz found herself caught between extremes. As her family split apart and her mother battled schizophrenia, she was supported by the love of her friends. As she longed for a family and home, her life was upended by violence. As she celebrated her Puerto Rican culture, she couldn’t find support for her burgeoning sexual identity. From her own struggles with depression and sexual assault to Puerto Rico’s history of colonialism, every page of Ordinary Girls vibrates with music and lyricism. Díaz writes with raw and refreshing honesty, triumphantly mapping a way out of despair toward love and hope to become her version of the girl she always wanted to be.

23

Oct

From the New York Times-bestselling author of How Not to Be Wrong—himself a world-class geometer—a far-ranging exploration of the power of geometry, which turns out to help us think better about practically everything. How should a democracy choose its representatives? How can you stop a pandemic from sweeping the world? How do computers learn to play Go, and why is learning Go so much easier for them than learning to read a sentence? Can ancient Greek proportions predict the stock market? (Sorry, no.) What should your kids learn in school if they really want to learn to think? All these are questions about geometry. For real.

23

Oct

Larry Olmsted’s writing and research have been called “eye-opening” (People), “impressive” (Publishers Weekly, starred review), and “enlightening” (Kirkus Reviews). Now, the New York Times and Washington Post bestselling author turns his expertise to a subject that has never been fully explored, delivering a highly entertaining game changer that uses brand-new research to show us why being a sports fan is good for us individually and is a force for positive change in society. 

23

Oct

An extraordinary, strange, and startlingly beautiful exploration of smell, the least understood of our five senses. Overlapping with taste yet larger in scope, smell is the sense that comes closest to pure perception. Smell can collapse space and time, unlocking memories and transporting us to worlds both new and familiar. Yet as clearly as each of us can recognize different smells–the bright tang of citrus, freshly sharpened pencils, parched earth after rain–few of us understand how and why we smell.

23

Oct

Peter Ash tangles with dangerous enemies and terrifying technology in the “grand-scale actioner” (Booklist), The Breaker. This is the sixth and newest thriller from bestselling author Nick Petrie in his award-winning series featuring Peter Ash, a war veteran struggling with PTSD who travels the United States, stumbling into mysteries that only a man with his unique skill set can solve. 

23

Oct

Addressing timeless themes of The American Dream, friendship, loyalty, duty, Godspeed by Nickolas Butler, acclaimed author of Shotgun Lovesongs, balances sophisticated, beautiful prose with a page-turning, suspenseful plot.  Set in the stunning mountains of Wyoming, this is also new brand of Western. A 21st-century morality tale where the rugged landscape is as much a character as the uber-wealthy newcomers to Jackson Hole and the hardscrabble locals, hanging on, any which way they can.

23

Oct

He was seventeen when an all-white jury sentenced him to prison for a crime he didn’t commit. Now a pioneering lawyer, he recalls the journey that led to his exoneration—and inspired him to devote his life to fighting the many injustices in our legal system. Seventeen years old and facing nearly thirty years behind bars, Jarrett Adams sought to figure out the why behind his fate. Sustained by his mother and aunts who brought him back from the edge of despair through letters of prayer and encouragement, Adams became obsessed with our legal system in all its damaged glory. After studying how his constitutional rights to effective counsel had been violated, he solicited the help of the Wisconsin Innocence Project, an organization that exonerates the wrongfully convicted, and won his release after nearly ten years in prison.

23

Oct

This illustrated book of advice on love, dating, and friendship--written by and for queer women and people of marginalized genders-is the new go-to queer relationship handbook. Fix yourself a cup of non-caffeinated herbal tea and prepare to laugh, cry, reminisce, and feel your feelings as you read through these quintessentially queer dating dilemmas.

In The Ex-Girlfriend of My Ex-Girlfriend Is My Girlfriend, advice columnist Maddy Court (a.k.a. Xena Worrier Princess) answers anonymous queries from lesbian, bisexual, and queer women and people of marginalized genders. Illustrated by comics artist Kelsey Wroten and based on Court's viral zine of the same name, this book features never-before-published letters and responses about first loves, heartbreak, coming out, and queer friendship--all answered with the warmth and honesty of the gay big sister you wish you had.

24

Oct

Join "America’s funniest science writer," Mary Roach, on an irresistible investigation into the unpredictable world where wildlife and humans meet. Presented in partnership with the Wisconsin Science Festival, Roach will discuss her newest book, Fuzz, in conversation with Joshua Foer, author of Moonwalking with Einstein. Join the event at: https://www.crowdcast.io/e/wbf-fuzz. Before the event begins, you will see a countdown and the event image.

What’s to be done about a jaywalking moose? A bear caught breaking and entering? A murderous tree? Three hundred years ago, animals that broke the law would be assigned legal representation and put on trial. These days, as New York Times best-selling author Mary Roach discovers, the answers are best found not in jurisprudence but in science: the curious science of human-wildlife conflict, a discipline at the crossroads of human behavior and wildlife biology.

28

Oct

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 2020 Fiction & Poetry Contests, hosted by editor Jason A. Smith. Join the event at: https://www.crowdcast.io/e/wbf-wi-people-ideas-2021. Before the event begins, you will see a countdown and the event image. 

Fiction readings include:

1st-place story by Allison Uselman

2nd-place story by Kim Suhr

and 3rd-place story by Yvette Viets Flaten

Poetry readings include:

1st-place poem by Jennifer Fandel

2nd-place poem by David Southward

and 3rd-place poem by Paula Schulz

Join us in celebration and support of Wisconsin's creative writing community!

02

Nov

The story of Giannis Antetokounmpo's extraordinary rise from poverty in Athens, Greece to super-stardom in America with the Milwaukee Bucks—becoming one of the most transcendent players in history and an NBA champion—from award-winning basketball reporter and feature writer at The Ringer Mirin Fader, touching on universal themes of family, immigration, hard work, wealth, loss, and dreaming big.

03

Nov

Yaa Gyasi’s stunning follow-up to her acclaimed national best-seller Homegoing is a powerful, raw, intimate, deeply layered novel about a Ghanaian family in Alabama. Presented in partnership with Go Big Read.

16

Nov

Dear Azula, I Have a Crush on Danny Phantom is a crossover of our coming of age universes. Exploring the interplay of adolescence and media, Dear Azula is a masterclass on how Generation Z see themselves reflected on screen, how they find themselves in characters when the world does not grant them the possibility. 

These poems pay homage to the cartoon characters who made us the wicked lovestruck people that we are. These ubiquitous stories of teen ghost boys and water bending women gave wonder to a generation raised by recession. In illustrious villains we learned our own glamour. In chiseled chins and 2D teeth we learned desire. In Dear Azula, I Have a Crush on Danny Phantom we bring the early 2000s renaissance of animation into our modern lives to unpack, celebrate, revel, and remember.

20

Nov

Neal Stephenson’s sweeping, prescient new novel transports readers to a near-future world in which the greenhouse effect has inexorably resulted in a whirling-dervish troposphere of superstorms, rising sea levels, global flooding, merciless heat waves, and virulent, deadly pandemics. One man – visionary billionaire restaurant chain magnate T. R. Schmidt, Ph.D. – has a Big Idea for reversing global warming, a master plan perhaps best described as “elemental.” But will it work? And just as important, what are the consequences for the planet and all of humanity should it be applied.