Meet the Authors
We're very excited to welcome the following authors to the 2025 Chippewa Valley Book Festival. Peruse the authors here and then hop over to the 2025 schedule of events to learn more about where and when you can meet them.
Brenda Cárdenas
Brenda Cárdenas was born and raised in Milwaukee and has also lived in Beaver Dam, Appleton, Menasha, and Fond du Lac. She obtained her undergraduate degree at the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee and a Masters of Fine Arts (MFA) degree in Creative Writing (Poetry) at the University of Michigan.
A former City of Milwaukee poet laureate, Cárdenas has authored two full-length books: Trace and Boomerang. She has also authored or co-authored three chapbooks: Bread of the Earth/The Last Colors, Achiote Seeds/Semillas de Achiote, and From the Tongues of Brick and Stone.
Christina Clancy
CHRISTINA CLANCY is the author of the USA Today Bestselling novel The Snowbirds, Shoulder Season, and The Second Home. Her novels have been featured in People Magazine, Travel and Leisure, Buzzfeed and CNN, and her work has appeared in The New York Times, The Sun Magazine, The Washington Post, and in various literary journals. She lives in Madison.
Website: christiclancywrites.com
Instagram: @christinaclancyauthor
Facebook: @christinaclancyauthor
X: @christi_clancy
Leif Enger
LEIF ENGER grew up in Osakis, Minnesota, and worked as a reporter for Minnesota Public Radio before writing his bestselling debut novel Peace Like a River, which won the Booksense Award for Fiction and was named one of the Year's Best Books by Time Magazine and the Los Angeles Times. His second novel, So Brave, Young, and Handsome, was also a national bestseller. It was a Midwest Booksellers Honor Book, and won the High Plains Book Award for Fiction. His third novel Virgil Wander was longlisted for the Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction, and was named a best book of the year by Amazon, Library Journal, Bookpage, and Chicago Public Library. He lives with his wife in Duluth, MN.
Website: leifenger.com
Instagram: @leifenger
Facebook: @leif.enger.5
Goodreads Reviews
Lori Fredrich
LORI FREDRICH is an avid cook whose accrual of condiments and spices is rivaled only by her cookbook collection. Her passion for the culinary industry was birthed while balancing A&W root beer mugs as a teenage carhop, fed by insatiable curiosity and fueled by the people whose stories entwined with each and every dish.
She’s had the privilege of chronicling these tales through her work as Dining Editor at OnMilwaukee and in her books Milwaukee Food and Wisconsin Field to Fork. As a passionate champion of the local dining scene, Lori has reimagined the traditional restaurant critic’s role into that of a trusted dining concierge, guiding food lovers to new culinary discoveries and memorable experiences.
Her work has garnered journalism awards from entities including the Milwaukee Press Club. Lori is also a 2024 recipient of the Wisconsin Restaurant Association’s “Top 20 Women in Hospitality to Watch” award.
Website: lorifredrich.com
Instagram: @LoFredrich
Facebook: @LoFredrich
X: @LoFredrich
>> ATTEND HER EVENTS AT THE FESTIVAL <<
Savita Harjani
SAVITA HARJANI is an Indian American who grew up in India and has called the United States her home for the past 40 years. She is a lawyer by training, receiving her law degree from Hamline University in Minnesota. She has worked in corporate America, played in the world of high-tech start-ups, and been a legal consultant. She put her career on pause in 2016 to become a full-time caregiver for her mother and moved to India. Her caregiving experience served as inspiration for her memoir, Postcards from Within: Random Ramblings of an Ordinary Human. The memoir won several awards from National Indie Excellence Awards, Independent Publisher’s Book Awards, and Reader Views Literary Awards.
Website: savitaharjani.com
Instagram: @savitaharjaniauthor
Facebook: @SavitaHarjaniAuthor
YouTube: @savitaharjani
Liz Pelly
LIZ PELLY is a writer and editor based in New York. She is the author of Mood Machine: The Rise of Spotify and the Costs of the Perfect Playlist (One Signal Publishers). Her byline has appeared at The Baffler, Guardian, Harper's, NPR, Pioneer Works Broadcast, and many other outlets. She is an adjunct instructor at NYU Tisch.
Marcie Rendon
MARCIE R. RENDON, citizen of the White Earth Nation, is the best-selling author of Where They Last Saw Her, and acclaimed author of the Cash Blackbear crime series, the most recent of which is Broken Fields.
Rendon's poetry, Anishinaabe Songs for the New Millennium, was released in 2024; and Stitches of Tradition, a picture book was released in October 2024.
Mni Giizhik Theater is producing Rendon’s scripts Say Their Names and Sweet Revenge in 2025 and 2026.
Rendon was the 2020 Minnesota’s McKnight Artist of the Year, she was named a “50 Over 50: 2018 Arts Honoree” change-maker by Minnesota AARP and POLLEN in 2018, and was listed in Oprah’s 2020 list of 31 Native American Authors to read.
Website: marcierendon.com
Instagram: @marcierendon
Facebook: @MarcieRendonMN
Lorissa Rinehart
LORISSA RINEHART is a celebrated women’s historian, author, and public speaker. Her writing explores the powerful intersections of women’s history, politics, and war.
Her debut book, First to the Front: The Untold Story of Dickey Chapelle, Trailblazing Female War Correspondent, received rave reviews from The Wall Street Journal, The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, Publishers Weekly, among numerous other publications.
Her upcoming second book, Winning The Earthquake: How Jeannette Rankin Defied All Odds to Become America’s First Congresswoman, is set for release in November 2025.
Through her weekly newsletter and podcast, The Female Body Politic, Lorissa offers insightful analysis of contemporary events, drawing on 250 years of women’s engagement in American politics.
Website: LorissaRinehart.com
Substack: @lorissarinehart & thefemalebodypolitic.substack.com
LinkedIn: @lorissa-rinehart
BlueSky: @lorissa.bsky.social
Mary Catherine Starr
MARY CATHERINE STARR is a mother-of-two and a graphic designer, illustrator, yoga teacher, author, and the artist behind the viral Instagram account @momlife_comics. Mary Catherine's work focuses on the challenges of marriage, motherhood, double standards, and inequality in both the household and the workplace. She is passionate about speaking up for women and bringing awareness to the mental load and the invisible labor of motherhood. Her first book, a comic memoir entitled Mama Needs a Minute!, came out in March 2025. Mary Catherine lives in Massachusetts with her husband, her children, and her son’s large collection of plastic dinosaurs.
Website: marycatherinestarr.com
Instagram: @momlife_comics
Edward Underhill
EDWARD UNDERHILL grew up in the suburbs of Wisconsin, where he could not walk to anything, so he had to make up his own adventures. He studied music in college, spent several years living in very small apartments in New York, and currently resides in California with his partner and a talkative black cat. He is the author of The In-Between Bookstore, as well the YA novels Always the Almost, This Day Changes Everything, and In Case You Read This. His books have earned starred reviews, been named Indie Next selections and LibraryReads Top 10 picks, and been included on numerous “best of the year” lists, including from YALSA, School Library Journal, and Booklist.
Website: edward-underhill.com
Instagram: @edwardunderhill
Goodreads Reviews
>> ATTEND HIS EVENTS AT THE FESTIVAL <<
Christine Virnig
CHRISTINE VIRNIG is a children’s author who combines her child development expertise as a former pediatric allergist with her experience working in a children’s library to craft stories that make kids laugh, scream, and feel seen. On the fiction side, Christine’s spooky middle grade novels include A Bite Above the Rest and Phantom Academy. Christine also writes gross-but-educational middle grade nonfiction, including Dung for Dinner and Waist-Deep in Dung. Her first picture book launches in 2027. Christine lives in Madison, Wisconsin with her family, an exorbitant number of dust bunnies, and one incredibly lazy cat.
Instagram: @virnigchristine
