Jane Rotonda, Wisconsin Book Festival Director
Jane Rotonda began work on the Wisconsin Book Festival in February 2023. Jane joined the team after eight years at the nonprofit Wisconsin Public Radio, where she worked closely with numerous author guests on WPR programming, and her love of reading inspired her to found WPR’s first-ever book club. She graduated from the UW-Madison School of Journalism and Mass Communication.
Steven Espada Dawson, Wisconsin Book Festival Communications & Events Associate
Steven Espada Dawson joined the Wisconsin Book Festival in August of 2025. He is the author of Late to the Search Party (Scribner, 2025) and has received fellowships from the Academy of American Poets, the Poetry Foundation, and the Wisconsin Institute for Creative Writing. His poems appear in many journals and have been anthologized in Best New Poets, Best of the Net, Pushcart Prize, and Sarabande’s Another Last Call. He currently serves as poet laureate of Madison.