Event Search

The Owls Are Not What They Seem

Brad Dukes

8:00 PM - Come as your favorite Twin Peaks character for a night of books, music, coffee, pie, and donuts.

Regina Anderson Andrews, Harlem Renaissance Librarian

7:00 PM - BIography of Regina Andrews, first African American to head New York Public Library branch.

As You Wish

Cary Elwes

6:30 PM - Celebrate Valentine's Day with one of the greatest love stories of our time, The Princess Bride!

The Little French Bakery Cookbook

Susan Holding

5:30 PM - A délicieux party you won't want to miss! Parisian attire encouraged!

What Burns Away

Melissa Falcon Field

7:00 PM - Melissa Falcon Field alights on the literary fiction scene with her debut novel!

Ever Your Friend

Anna Campbell

5:00 PM - Campbell discusses the images she abstracted from the collection of the Lesbian Herstory Archives

The Little Edges

Fred Moten

7:00 PM - The Festival and FELIX celebrate poetry month with Fred Moten reading from his new poetry collection

Poetry Month Celebration

Joan Murray, Cynthia Marie Hoffman

7:00 PM - The Wisconsin Book Festival celebrates National Poetry month with a joint reading.

Mrs. Wheelbarrow's Practical Pantry

Cathy Barrow

7:00 PM - Cathy Barrow introduces practical techniques, tools, and recipes for all kinds of preserving!

Novel Publication Celebration

Quan Barry, Judith Claire Mitchell

7:00 PM - Presenting the publication of two novels by University of Wisconsin creative writing professors!

The Given World

Marian Palaia

6:30 PM - A stunning debut novel from a UW MFA graduate

Beer for All Seasons

Randy Mosher

5:30 PM - Celebrate Craft Beer Week with the Wisconsin Book Festival and Wisconsin Brewing Company

A Court of Thorns and Roses

Sarah J. Maas

6:30 PM - Kick off Teen Summer Reading with a new series by bestselling author, Sarah J. Maas

Startupland

Mikkel Svane

7:30 PM - A book about three guys who risked everything to turn an idea into a global business.

Delicious!

Ruth Reichl

7:30 PM - Read with Ruth!

Dry Bones

Craig Johnson

7:00 PM - The Wisconsin Book Festival and Mystery to Me present Craig Johnson for the 13th Longmire book!

The Rainy Season

Maggie Messitt

7:00 PM - Step across the border of a former, apartheid-era homeland and into a community dealing with change.

The Jesus Cow

Michael Perry

7:00 PM - For the first time, beloved Wisconsin author, Michael Perry, turns to fiction with The Jesus Cow.

An Intimate Conversation with Sheryl WuDunn

Sheryl WuDunn

3:00 PM - Ms. WuDunn will share her experiences as a woman, journalist, author, women's rights advocate

Summerlong

Dean Bakopoulos

7:00 PM - See Dean Bakopolous, former Wisconsin Book Festival Director, read from his brand new novel!

A Beach Tail

Karen Lynn Williams

10:00 AM - During a fun day at the beach Greg loses track of his father. How will he find his way back to Dad?

The Horror Of It All

Adam Rockoff

8:00 PM - Join (Camp) Bubbler & the Wisconsin Book Festival for a thrilling night of horror, camp, and crafts

The Distance Between Us

Reyna Grande

7:00 PM - Join Centro Hispano as we present a WBF event with Reyna Grande!

Edible Memory & The Big Jones Cookbook

Jennifer Jordan, Paul Fehribach

7:00 PM - Join us for a reading celebrating the importance of cultivating and cooking with heirloom vegetables

Summer Library Carnival

10:30 AM - Celebrate reading, enjoy Miller & Mike performances and stop by for carnival games, crafts and more!

The End of All Things

John Scalzi

7:00 PM - Earth’s guardians race to reconcile with Earth and keep humanity's union intact.

Barbara the Slut and Other People

Lauren Holmes

7:00 PM - Holmes tackles eros and intimacy with a genius for revealing our most vulnerable, spirited selves.

Fall Barn Soiree with Nickolas Butler

Nickolas Butler

5:30 PM - A spectacular evening out with author Nickolas Butler and his unforgettable novel Shotgun Lovesongs.

Self-Publishing Basics Workshop

2:00 PM - Learn the basics of self-publishing – from creation to distribution of your work.

Read Local! Indie Author Showcase

9:00 AM - Meet and hear local authors in this one day indie author festival.

Celebrate Dyslexia Awareness Month

Children's Dyslexia Center-Madison

5:30 PM - Awareness event for families featuring light dinner, film and discussion.

Pinney Mini Book Fest 2015

1:00 PM - Meet and hear local authors in this three day mini festival.

Kitchens of the Great Midwest

J. Ryan Stradal

6:30 PM - An incredible tale of how the food we eat and the people we meet shape the world around us.

2015 Charlotte Zolotow Lecture

Yuyi Morales

7:30 PM - Children's book illustrator, Yuyi Morales, will be presenting the 2015 Charlotte Zolotow Lecture.

Water Tension and the Great Lakes Compact

Peter Annin

9:00 AM - Important analysis of the future of Great Lakes water diversion management.

Indigenous Traditions, Multilingual Voices in Hip Hop Today

First Wave Hip Hop Theater Ensemble, Telmary Diaz, Baba Israel, J. Ivy, Frank Waln

3:30 PM - A panel discussion featuring Frank Waln, Telmary Diaz, J. Ivy, and Baba Israel

Mayakovsky's Revolver

Matthew Dickman

4:00 PM - A dazzling, award-winning young poet paints life as a celebration in the dark.

What We're Writing Now

Richard Keller, Caroline Levine, Scott Straus

5:30 PM - UW faculty of various fields convene to talk about their recent, field-shaping publications.

The Cherry Harvest

Lucy Sanna

5:30 PM - During WWII, an American family begins to fall apart when they take on German POWs for labor.

Failure: Why Science Is So Successful

Stuart Firestein

6:00 PM - Failure shows us that the scientific enterprise is riddled with errors - and that is a good thing.

The Big Burn

Timothy Egan

7:00 PM - Egan pairs the stories of the 1910 forest fire and President Roosevelt’s push for conservation.

Homemade for Sale: How to Set Up and Market a Food Business from Your Home Kitchen

Lisa Kivirist & John D. Ivanko

7:00 PM - Homemade for Sale provides a clear roadmap to go from idea and recipe to final product.

All Elements Hip Hop Arts Showcase

First Wave Hip Hop Theater Ensemble

7:00 PM - Come hear visiting youth poetry slam champions and hip hop artists from cities across the Midwest.

Fortune Smiles

Adam Johnson

7:30 PM - This surreal and darkly comic collection of stories gives voice to perspectives we don’t often hear.

High School Friday 2015

First Wave Hip Hop Theater Ensemble, David Crabb, Anthony Breznican

9:00 AM - A day of education through meaningful interaction with authors, performers, storytellers, and peers.

Whispers & Shadows

Jerry Apps

11:00 AM - Jerry Apps reminds us to slow down, turn off technology, and allow our senses to reconnect.

The Only Woman in the Room: Why Science Is Still a Boys' Club

Eileen Pollack

2:30 PM - This brazenly honest book shows the struggles female scientists face, and provides hope for change.

Wisconsin Agriculture: A History

Jerry Apps

3:30 PM - Celebrated rural historian Jerry Apps examines everything

The Mathematician's Shiva

Stuart Rojstaczer

3:30 PM - An moving and funny novel that captures humanity's drive to achieve the impossible.

First Wave Spoken Word Showcase: Indigenous Traditions, Multilingual Voices

First Wave Hip Hop Theater Ensemble, J. Ivy, Frank Waln, Telmary Diaz, Baba Israel

5:00 PM - First Wave poets put their unique poetic spin on the global languages of hip hop.

Seven Bad Ideas

Jeff Madrick

5:30 PM - Explanations of economic theories-why they’re wrong, the harm they’ve done and how to improve them.

Strange Tools: Art and Human Nature

Alva Noë

5:30 PM - Alva Noë raises a number of questions about art, its value, and what it reveals about human nature.

Wisconsin People & Ideas Writing Contest Reading 2015

Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts, & Letters

5:30 PM - Readings from this year's poetry and prose Wisconsin People & Ideas Writing Contest.

Time Salvager

Wesley Chu

5:30 PM - Criminal James Griffin-Mars is no one’s hero, but humanity must depend on him to delay its demise.

Celebrating Ten Years of OMAI

Baba Israel, First Wave Hip Hop Theater Ensemble

7:00 PM - A showcase featuring OMAI’s new website and an excerpt of Baba Israel’s “The Spinning Wheel

Scrapper

Matt Bell

7:30 PM - In the ruins of Detroit Kelly avenges an unsolved kidnapping and is forced to confront his own past.

Bon Appétempt: A Coming-of-Age Story (With Recipes!)

Amelia Morris

7:30 PM - Bon Appétempt is a funny and poignant memoir about collapsing cakes and coming of age.

Baddawi

Leila Abdelrazaq

7:30 PM - A graphic novel exploring the author's father's childhood in the Baddawi refugee camp.

Bad Kid

David Crabb

9:00 PM - David Crabb memoir tells a resonant story about growing up gay and Goth in San Antonio in the 80s.

Friends of the CCBC Fall Book Sale

Friends of the CCBC

9:00 AM - Tons of exciting, diverse titles will be available for sale.

Folks, This Ain't Normal

Joel Salatin

9:00 AM - A farmer’s advice for happier hens, healthier people and a better world.

Friends of the Madison Public Library Book Sale

Friends of Madison Public Library

9:00 AM - Join us for a book sale during the Wisconsin Book Festival at Central Library!

The Man Who Painted the Universe: The Story of a Planetarium in the Heart of the North Woods

Avi Lank, Ron Legro

10:00 AM - The story of a stargazer from Wisconsin's North and the Kovac Planetarium.

Part of Our Lives: A People's History of the American Public Library

Wayne Wiegand

10:30 AM - Discover why Americans love their libraries.

Waiting

Kevin Henkes

10:30 AM - Five animals wait for marvelous things to happen in this irresistible picture book.

Local Food Solutions

Ali Berlow, Alan Guebert & Mary Grace Foxwell

10:30 AM - A discussion of how we can all engage with the food we eat.

2015 Friends of UW-Madison Libraries Book Sale

Friends of UW Libraries

10:30 AM - The largest used-book sale in Wisconsin.

Little Author in the Big Woods

Yona McDonough

10:30 AM - This biography details Laura Ingalls Wilder’s life as a young pioneer homesteading with her family.

This Wonderful Year: The Adventures of Mr. Edward Pamprill

Mark Benno

10:30 AM - Young Mr. Pamprill is forced to leave behind London and experience the life of the common sailor.

The Man Who Wasn't There

Anil Ananthaswamy

11:00 AM - Anil Ananthaswamy explores the fascinating minds of individuals with complex neurological disorders.

Dickey Chapelle Under Fire

John Garofolo

11:00 AM - The remarkable story of the first female American war correspondent to be killed in action.

Between You & Me: Confessions of a Comma Queen

Mary Norris

12:00 PM - With humor and wit, Norris expertly guides readers through common and confusing grammatical issues.

2015 CWW Winners Reading

Council of Wisconsin Writers

12:00 PM - Readings from a variety of genres featuring this year’s Council for Wisconsin Writers Winners.

Another Time and Place

Jennifer Chiaverini, Mary McNear

12:00 PM - Authors read from books that transport the reader to worlds with a particularly deep sense of place

Kate Walden Directs: Bride of Slug Man

Julie Mata

12:00 PM - Kate and Tristan are both making films and classmates eager to join the cast and crew are divided.

Meet Me Halfway: Milwaukee Stories

Jennifer Morales

12:00 PM - With humor and compassion Morales raises questions about a “postracial” society and how to get there

Bird

Crystal Chan

1:30 PM - Secrets, mysterious spirits, and friendship weave together in this story about loss and moving on.

Beneath the Bonfire

Nickolas Butler

1:30 PM - This collection of stories captures memorable characters of the back roads and highways of America.

Brutal Youth

Anthony Breznican

1:30 PM - Three freshmen join forces to survive high school bullies and a faculty that's worse.

Once in a Great City: A Detroit Story

David Maraniss

1:30 PM - Maraniss shows that the shadows of collapse were evident in Detroit even when it was at its peak.

The League of Outsider Baseball

Gary Cieradkowski

1:30 PM - A truly unique look at the players that exist in the obscure corners of baseball’s history.

Picto-Poems

Kimberly Blaeser

3:00 PM - Blaeser’s “Picto-Poems,” intersecting layers of text/image inspired by Native American pictographs

Love, Always: Partners of Trans People on Intimacy, Challenge and Resilience

Helen Boyd, Miriam Hall, Shawnee Parens

3:00 PM - Witty, and moving essays, letters, and poems from the partners of transgender people

Unfair: The New Science of Criminal Injustice

Adam Benforado

3:00 PM - Unfair reveals the hidden forces that distort our criminal justice system and offers solutions.

Cold War on Maplewood Street

Gayle Rosengren

3:00 PM - A powerful and hopeful story about what it means to grow up in a world full of uncertainty.

Music for Wartime

Rebecca Makkai

3:00 PM - Makkai brings together a collection of sweeping, powerful, spellbinding stories.

The Limits of Truth

Matthew Gavin Frank, B. J. Hollars

4:30 PM - How far can a writer stretch a fact before it becomes a fiction?

Being Nixon: A Man Divided

Evan Thomas, David Maraniss

4:30 PM - Thomas creates a three dimensional portrait of the complex president Nixon.

This Angel on My Chest

Leslie Pietrzyk

4:30 PM - Unconventionally linked stories, each about a different young woman whose husband dies.

Patternalia : An Unconventional History of Polka Dots, Stripes, Plaid, Camouflage, & Other Graphic Patterns

Jude Stewart

5:00 PM - Patternalia delves into the deep trove of history and culture unique to each pattern.

Science Cafe: Red All Over

Jennifer Angus, Jude Stewart

6:00 PM - What's in a color?

Secular Faith: How Culture Has Trumped Religion in American Politics

Mark Smith

6:00 PM - Demonstrations of how, in the long run, boundaries of secular and religious cultures converge.

We Are Not Ourselves

Matthew Thomas

6:00 PM - Using the Learys Thomas charts the expectation of domestic bliss and economic prosperity post WWII.

Survival of the Storied: Why Science Needs Art and Art Needs Science

Lauren Gunderson

7:00 PM - Discover the synchronicities of science and story

Saving Capitalism: For the Many, Not the Few

Robert Reich

7:30 PM - Reich gives a myth-shattering breakdown of America’s failing economic system, and how to fix it.

Showcase Performance Celebrating 10 Years of OMAI

First Wave Hip Hop Theater Ensemble

8:00 PM - This event will feature J. Ivy, Telmary Diaz, Frank Wain, and First Wave artists

Nerd Nite 2015

Pupa Gilbert, B. Venkat Mani, Dietram Scheufele

8:00 PM - Be there and be square.

The Brewer's Tale : A History of the World According to Beer

William Bostwick

8:00 PM - This is the story of brewers gone by and one brave writer’s quest to bring them back to life.

Hand Drawn Jokes for Smart Attractive People

Matthew Diffee

9:00 PM - Ingeniously designed sequences of funny drawings and writings from recent years with new additions.

The Republic of Imagination: America in Three Books

Azar Nafisi

11:00 AM - Through three American novels, Nafisi invites us to her “Republic of Imagination.”

The Little Free Library Book

Margret Aldrich

11:00 AM - A charming history of Little Free Libraries and guide for how to best use them.

Strong Inside: Perry Wallace and the Collision of Race and Sports in the South

Andrew Maraniss

12:30 PM - This is the story of the first African-American basketball player in the Southeastern Conference.

Poetry and Social Justice

Ruben Medina, Peggy Rogza, Thomas Smith, Sarah Busse, Wendy Vardaman

12:30 PM - Madison’s Poets Laureate host a reading and conversation featuring three Wisconsin writer-activists

Dreams of the Hmong Kingdom: The Quest for Legitimation in French Indochina, 1850-1960

Mai Na M. Lee

12:30 PM - A pioneering history of the Hmong people in the colonial era.

The Unmapped Sea

Maryrose Wood

1:30 PM - The fifth book in the hilarious Victorian mystery series, The Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place

Future Perfect

Jen Larsen

2:00 PM - A distinct, complex debut from a new voice in YA with an unforgettable main character

Turning Inward

Blake Bailey, Kate Christensen

2:00 PM - These brilliant authors will read and discuss why they wrote memoir after their successes.

Go Big Read: Just Mercy

Bryan Stevenson

7:00 PM - Go Big Read presents an inspiring argument for compassion in the pursuit of true justice.

Bream Gives Me Hiccups

Jesse Eisenberg

7:30 PM - Eisenberg delivers a collection of forty-four hilarious, moving, and inventive stories!

Lafayette in the Somewhat United States

Sarah Vowell

7:00 PM - An insightful account of Marquis de Lafayette and a portrait of a nation’s idealism and its reality.

Mothers, Tell Your Daughters

Bonnie Jo Campbell

2:00 PM - Memorable heroines are determined to shape their futures with—or despite—the men in their lives.

Atmosphere of Hope

Tim Flannery

5:30 PM - An engaging and practical alternative plan to deal the climate crisis with achievable goals

Need

Joelle Charbonneau

6:30 PM - This chilling YA thriller examines the dark side of social media and the dark side of human nature.

Gustafer Yellowgold

Gustafer Yellowgold

1:30 PM - Join us for this very special performance for children of all ages.

The Great Forgetting

James Renner

2:00 PM - This book blends science fiction and conspiracy thrillers with a touch of pure fantasy

Of Beards and Men

Christopher Oldstone-Moore

8:00 PM - Books, music, drinks, and activities all in celebration of all things facial hair