Written by Chad Dally
Organizers behind the 2nd annual Central Wisconsin Book Festival are hard at work setting up a wide variety of (FREE!) community events, and this year’s festival is already shaping up to be BIGGER— and hopefully as good or BETTER — than last year’s festival!
What started as a 2-day book festival in 2017 with about 10 events has grown to at least 15 events (with more still to be added) over the course of 4 days featuring fiction and non-fiction authors, poets, and maybe even YOU!
The festival begins Thursday, September 27, 2018, and continues through Sunday, September 30.
One of the goals of the festival — besides bringing in well-known, lesser-known, or even unknown (to some) authors — is to spread the fun among different Wausau-area locations, including:
- The Marathon County Public Library
- The Center for Visual Arts
- Janke Book Store
- Barnes & Noble
- Sconni’s Alehouse & Eatery
So far, here are a few events we have scheduled:
- One of the most popular events of the 2017 festival is back! Our “Fact or Fiction” storytelling event encourages local people to submit true tales or made-up stories and then recite them onstage during a live event for the audience to decide if they are fact or fiction. The event will be held from 7:30 to 9:30 p.m. in the James F. Veninga Theater on the campus of the University of Wisconsin–Marathon County. Our host once again will be the delightful Charles Monroe-Kane, producer of the nationally syndicated radio show “To the Best of Our Knowledge.” As an added bonus, Charles will stick around through Saturday morning to give a presentation on how to produce a podcast! (Exact time TBD.)
- A poetry and art exhibit at the Center for Visual Arts in Wausau will feature more than 30 works of poetry and original artwork based around the theme “Trace” — as in, tracing a pattern or route, or trace in the physical sense of only a small amount. An opening gala reception will be held from 5:00 to 7:00 p.m. on Friday, September 28, and a reading of the poems will be one of the last events of the festival, from 2:00 to 4:00 p.m. on Sunday, September 30.
- Patricia Skalka, author of the popular Dave Cubiak Door County Mysteries, will give a reading and answer questions on the afternoon of Saturday, September 29.
- The guest who (so far) is travelling the farthest is poet Lowell Jaeger, a Wausau native who is a graduate of the prestigious Iowa Writer’s Workshop and is currently the Montana state poet laureate.
- Other events include a presentation on haunted places around Wisconsin (since Halloween is just around the corner from the festival) with authors Enid Cleaves and Craig Nehring, a workshop with Wisconsin cartoonist and illustrator Duachaka Her, and a presentation on Wisconsin jazz musicians with author Kurt Dietrich.
The above is just a sample of all that is planned for the Central Wisconsin Book Festival. More events will be added before the end of September, so check the Marathon County Public Library’s website soon for additional details.
Funding for the festival has been generously provided by the Community Foundation of North Central Wisconsin, the Marathon County Public Library Foundation, the Friends of the Marathon County Public Library, and the Wisconsin Fellowship of Poets.
Stay tuned for further details!
Chad Dally
Library Specialist | Marathon County Public Library
Chad Dally is a library specialist with the Marathon County Public Library, where he’s worked since 2012. He splits his time at the library between reference and programming, and generally prefers to read nonfiction over fiction. He’s heard chickens are smart, but the small brood he keeps at home provides evidence to the contrary. Email Chad Dally
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Save the Date image by darkmoon1968 via Pixabay.
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