Filtering by: Nonfiction

Cooking with Variety and Seasonality: A Meal Event
Oct
11
6:00 PM18:00

Cooking with Variety and Seasonality: A Meal Event

Abra Berens

THIS EVENT IS SOLD OUT.

This meal event is being presented in person only. If possible, please register everyone in your party at one time to accommodate seating as best as possible.

Former Executive Chef and award-winning cookbook author Abra Berens will be hosting a cozy evening for food enthusiasts at one of Eau Claire's hottest new restaurants, The Good Wives. There will be a presentation by the author during the multi-course meal with a chance to mingle throughout the dining experience.

TICKETS: $65 including taxes/fees

Five-Course Dinner Menu (subject to change):

  1. A Welcome Snack to be at the table when guests arrive: Housemade Root Vegetable Chips with Dip

  2. Spiced Carrot Soup with Crispy Duck Shreds and Popped Sorghum
    Duck can be left off for vegetarians.

  3. Salad of Endives with Shaved Pears, and Pistachios. Dressed with a Buttermilk Bleu Cheese Dressing and Pink Peppercorns

  4. Chicken Thigh Confit with Parsnip Puree, Apple Fennel Salad, and Chili Crisp
    Chili crisp can be left off for spice-sensitive diners.

  5. Bavarois with Grapefruit Gelee and a Lace Cookie

JOIN THE WAITLIST

Enter your name and email below if you’d like to be on the waitlist in case tickets become available for this event as the date draws near.


ABRA BERENS’S first cookbook Ruffage was nominated for a Beard Award in 2020, and spotlighted vegetables in a way attuned to their growing seasons. Its follow-up Grist focused on grains and legumes while Beren’s latest Pulp highlights the use of fruit in sweet and savory recipes. Beren’s work is predicated on introducing people to the importance of agriculture. “Food is a joyful thing, and there’s a lot of work that goes into creating that joy.”

Learn more about Abra Berens at abraberens.com.


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Oct
27
7:30 PM19:30

Reclaiming Our Stories (Virtual)

Nadia Owusu

If you weren’t able to join us for Owusu’s live event or are interested in watching it again, click below to watch the recording.


This event is being presented virtually.

Writers of nonfiction often write to make sense of the world and to wrestle with questions about their own histories, and the histories of their families and the places they come from. They write to process trauma, grief, isolation, dislocation, and disconnection. Owusu will discuss what happens when we discover that so many of the stories that we’ve been given about our bodies, ourselves, our homes, and our places in them don’t serve us and how writing can help reclaim and remake our stories toward healing, self-love, and a radically reimagined world.

This program will include a live question and answer session at the end of the presentation moderated by Lopamudra Basu.

This virtual presentation is co-hosted by the University of Wisconsin–Stout and is made possible with technology assistance from L.E. Phillips Memorial Public Library.

Buy Owusu’s book locally at Bookends on Main. Not local? Place an order via email (info@bookendsonmain.com) or phone (715-233-6252).


NADIA OWUSU is a Ghanaian and Armenian American writer and urbanist. Her memoir, Aftershocks, was selected as a best book of 2021 by Time, Vogue, Esquire, NPR, and others. It was one of former President Barack Obama’s favorite books of the year and a New York Times Book Review Editor’s Choice. In 2019, Nadia was the recipient of a Whiting Award. Her writing has appeared in The New York Times, Granta, The Paris Review Daily, The Guardian, Slate, Bon Appétit, Travel + Leisure, and others. Owusu teaches at Columbia University and in the Mountainview MFA program and lives in Brooklyn.

Learn more about Nadia Owusu at nadiaaowusu.com.

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Here on Lake Hallie: What One Author Learned While Writing About the People and Places She Loves (In Person & Virtual)
Oct
25
7:30 PM19:30

Here on Lake Hallie: What One Author Learned While Writing About the People and Places She Loves (In Person & Virtual)

  • Pablo Center at the Confluence, Jamf Theatre (map)
  • Google Calendar ICS

Patti See

If you weren’t able to join us for See’s live event or are interested in watching it again, click below to watch the recording.


This event is being presented in person and virtually.

Growing up in the 1970s and 1980s as the youngest of eight children, Patti See never imagined she’d stay in Chippewa Falls as an adult. Now she has a new appreciation for all that comes with country living, from ice fishing and supper clubs to pontoon rides and tavern dice. Whether sending her son off to basic training, holding her mother’s hand through late-stage Alzheimer’s, or tiptoeing over thin ice with her best friend since childhood, See notices the comedy and beauty of life’s everyday moments. Join See as she discusses writing about the place she loves best: Lake Hallie. She’ll also read and chat about some of the brief essays in Here on Lake Hallie: In Praise of Barflies, Fix-it-Guys, and Other Folks in Our Hometown, a book that establishes that, above all else, it’s friends, family, and neighbors who provide us with a sense of belonging.

This program will be a view-only opportunity for virtual attendees. There will not be an opportunity to submit questions to the author.

CLICK HERE to buy festival books locally from Dotters Books.


PATTI SEE is the author of a new essay collection, Here on Lake Hallie: In Praise of Barflies, Fix-it Guys, and Other Folks in Our Hometown. Her work has appeared in Salon Magazine, Women's Studies Quarterly, The Wisconsin Academy Review, The Southwest Review, HipMama, Inside HigherEd, Volume One, and many other magazines. She writes a monthly column, Sawdust Stories, for the Eau Claire Leader Telegram, and she was a frequent contributor to "Wisconsin Life" on Wisconsin Public Radio. Her blog, Our Long Goodbye: One Family's Experiences with Alzheimer's, has been read in over 100 countries.


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The Social Responsibility of Historical Fiction (Virtual)
Oct
22
7:30 PM19:30

The Social Responsibility of Historical Fiction (Virtual)

Jamie Ford

If you weren’t able to join us for Ford’s live event or are interested in watching it again, click below to watch the recording.


This event is being presented virtually.

Known for his ability to weave fiction and history into compelling novels, Ford will discuss his latest book, The Many Daughters of Afong Moy, and what draws him to lost history. He’ll also examine the responsibility and challenges of presenting uncomfortable truths to a modern world and why he considers himself to be in the compassion creation business.

This program will include a live question and answer session at the end of the presentation moderated by B.J. Hollars.

This virtual presentation is made possible with technology assistance from L.E. Phillips Memorial Public Library.

CLICK HERE to buy festival books locally from Dotters Books.


JAMIE FORD’s debut novel, Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet, spent two years on the New York Times bestseller list and went on to win the 2010 Asian/Pacific American Award for Literature. Recently, that same novel has been optioned for a stage musical, and also for film, with George Takei serving as Executive Producer. His second book, Songs of Willow Frost, was a national bestseller. Jamie’s latest novel is The Many Daughters of Afong Moy.

His work has been translated into 35 languages. (He’s still holding out for Klingon, because that’s when you know you’ve made it).

Learn more about Jamie Ford at jamieford.com.

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Acquired Taste: Plant Families and the Flavors They Share (In Person)
Oct
22
3:30 PM15:30

Acquired Taste: Plant Families and the Flavors They Share (In Person)

  • L.E. Phillips Memorial Public Library, Riverview Room (map)
  • Google Calendar ICS

Alan Bergo

If you weren’t able to join us for Bergo’s live event or are interested in watching it again, click below to watch the recording.


This event is being presented in person.

Have you ever wondered why apple seeds taste like almonds? Did you know you can cook a sunflower like an artichoke? In this visual presentation combining cooking, botany, and cultural traditions from around the world, James Beard award-winning Chef Alan Bergo explains some of the paradigm shifting culinary concepts in his book The Forager Chef’s Book of Flora that have the potential to change the way you think about why some foods taste the way they do. Illustrated by the author's own images.


CHEF ALAN BERGO is one of America's leading voices in the world of foraging and wild food. Known for his website foragerchef.com, the internet's largest resource on cooking with wild mushrooms, his work has been featured on the Today Show, The Sundance Film Festival, and The Wallstreet Journal, with essays and recipe selections published in 15 books and counting. His online series “The Wild Harvest” (now called “Field Forest Feast”) won a 2022 James Beard Award in Instructional Visual Media as well as a Taste award for best Online Food Show in 2022. His first book, The Forager Chef's Book of Flora, now in its fourth printing was published through Chelsea Green Publishing in 2021.

Learn more about Alan Bergo at foragerchef.com.


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America’s Narrative Breakdown: Finding Meaning in a Post-Truth Climate (In Person)
Oct
22
2:15 PM14:15

America’s Narrative Breakdown: Finding Meaning in a Post-Truth Climate (In Person)

  • L.E. Phillips Memorial Public Library, Riverview Room (map)
  • Google Calendar ICS

Barrett Swanson

If you weren’t able to join us for Swanson’s live event or are interested in watching it again, click below to watch the recording.


This event is being presented in person.

Swanson will explore how the political and social tumult of the last decade has affected various communities around the United States and how they’ve tried to find meaning in their lives amid the instability and confusion. Discover how the breakdown of cultural narratives and consensus reality has affected citizens not only politically but also emotionally and psychologically.

CLICK HERE to buy festival books locally from Dotters Books.


BARRETT SWANSON is a contributing editor at Harper's Magazine and the author of the essay collection, Lost in Summerland. He was the 2016-2017 Halls Emerging Artist Fellow at the Wisconsin Institute for Creative Writing and was the recipient of a 2015 Pushcart Prize. His work has appeared or is forthcoming in Harper's, The New Yorker, GQ, The New York Times Magazine, The Believer, The New Republic, The Guardian, The Atavist, The Paris Review, and two editions of Best American Travel Writing, among other places.

Learn more about Barrett Swanson at barrettswanson.com.


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Cooking My Way Home
Oct
27
4:00 PM16:00

Cooking My Way Home

Beth Dooley

Chippewa_Valley_Book_Festival_In_Winters_Kitchen-SoldOut.jpg

SORRY, THIS EVENT IS SOLD OUT.

This event is co-sponsored by Forage.

How do we become at home in the world? By cultivating a deep relationship with our food, our farmers, our family, and the land. In foraging for goodness we look to traditional foodways as well as innovative technology to create a regenerative landscape that nourishes and delights. Dooley will impart an understanding of and appreciation for the New Agricultural Land Ethic.

Attendees will have the opportunity to hear Dooley and sample her cooking.

Schedule:

  • 4:00 - 4:30 p.m. arrival, meet Beth Dooley, and enjoy wine from Forage’s cash bar

  • 4:30 - 6:00 p.m. Enjoy a sampling of author Beth Dooley’s locally sourced recipes carefully prepared by Forage’s Chef Michelle Thiede, and served family style. Learn about Beth’s current research focused on perennial plants, cover crops, woody agriculture, and artisan grains.

TICKETS INFORMATION:
Tickets are $20 for this combined literary/food event.

Space Limited to 75 participants.

>> Our book sales committee will have copies of In Winter’s Kitchen: Growing Roots and Breaking Bread in the Northern Heartland available for purchase at this event. Please join us for an autographing session following the presentation.


BETH DOOLEY has covered the local food scene in the Northern Heartland for thirty years: she writes for the Taste section of the Star Tribune, and appears regularly on local television and radio. She co-authored The Sioux Chef’s Indigenous Kitchen with Sean Sherman, winner of the James Beard Award for Best American Cookbook.  Other titles include: Savory Sweet: Preserves from a Northern Kitchen, In Winter’s Kitchen: Growing Roots and Breaking Bread in the Northern Heartland, Minnesota’s Bounty: The Farmers Market Cookbook, The Northern Heartland Kitchen, and Savoring the Seasons of the Northern Heartland, coauthored with Lucia Watson.

bethdooleyskitchen.com

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A Verbal Feast of the Fest, served by ecWIT
Oct
26
4:00 PM16:00

A Verbal Feast of the Fest, served by ecWIT

  • Riverfront Room, Pablo Center at the Confluence (map)
  • Google Calendar ICS

ecWIT (Eau Claire Women in Theater)

ecWIT.jpg

SORRY, THIS EVENT IS SOLD OUT.

The ecWIT gals are back by popular demand for a reader’s theater performance of adapted excerpts from a sampling of this year’s festival authors.  Without costumes or elaborate props, the stripped-down performance is sure to add a whole new dimension to the festival’s characters and stories.

This event is FREE, but a ticket is required.

ecWIT, composed of Debbie Brown, Beverly Olson, Sue Fulkerson, Kathleen Sullivan, Ann Pearson, and Sara Bryan, presents the art form of dramatic reader’s theater, enlivening literature in a variety of genres without sets, costumes, or props. Since the group’s inception in January 2016, they have become a local favorite, having received commissions to perform from Chippewa Valley Learning in Retirement, the Waldemar Ager Association, and the Wisconsin Fellowship of Poets, to name a few. 2019 will be the third year that ecWIT has participated in the Chippewa Valley Book Festival, providing a unique experience of adapted excerpts from the works of festival authors.

ecwit.weebly.com | Facebook

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Oct
26
2:15 PM14:15

Change and Resilience in the Heartland

  • L.E. Phillips Memorial Public Library (map)
  • Google Calendar ICS

Art Cullen

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This event is co-sponsored by L.E. Phillips Memorial Public Library.

The small community of Storm Lake, Iowa, has changed dramatically over Art Cullen’s 30-year career in journalism. Cullen, co-owner of The Storm Lake Times and Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Storm Lake: A Chronicle of Change, Resilience, and Hope from a Heartland Newspaper, recognizes that rural communities are profoundly challenged and that climate change is already hampering food production. But he has also identified solutions, if we can accept changes such as immigration and a more resilient agriculture.

>> Our book sales committee will have copies of A Chronicle of Change, Resilience and Hope from a Heartland Newspaper available for purchase at this event. Please join us for an autographing session following the presentation.

ART CULLEN is editor of The Storm Lake Times in Storm Lake, Iowa, where he won the Pulitzer Prize for editorial writing in 2017 for a series of editorials on surface water pollution in Iowa caused by agricultural drainage. He is the author of Storm Lake: A Chronicle of Change, Resilience and Hope from a Heartland Newspaper. He owns the twice-weekly newspaper with his brother, John, who serves as publisher. He also works with his wife, Dolores, a photographer, and son Tom, a reporter. He is a graduate of the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minnesota.

artcullen.com

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An Evening With the Authors Featuring B.J. Hollars
Oct
25
5:30 PM17:30

An Evening With the Authors Featuring B.J. Hollars

B.J. Hollars

Chippewa_Valley_Book_Festival_Midwestern_Strange-SoldOut.jpg

SORRY, THIS EVENT IS SOLD OUT.

This event is co-sponsored by Forage.

Enjoy the opportunity to meet and mingle with some of our festival authors with delicious food ahead of B.J. Hollars’s presentation: Things that Go Bump When You Write: On Monsters, Martians, and the Search for the Truth in the Strange.

Part memoir and part journalism, Hollars’ latest book, Midwestern Strange, offers a fascinating, funny, and quirky account of flyover folklore. By confronting monsters, Martians, and a cabinet of curiosities worth of strange phenomena in our own backyards, Hollars challenges readers to look beyond their presumptions and acknowledge that just because something is weird doesn’t mean it’s wrong. A little bit X-Files, a little bit Ghostbusters, and a whole lot Sherlock Holmes, Hollars will describe his efforts to get to the bottom of many of our most tangled tales.

SCHEDULE:

  • 5:30 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. Meet some of our authors, enjoy a fall buffet and a cash bar, along with water and lemonade.

  • 7:00 p.m. Remarks and Introductions

  • 7:15 p.m. Hollars will present “Things that Go Bump When You Write”

TICKET INFORMATION:
Tickets are $35 and will include a fall buffet prepared by Forage’s Chef Michelle Thiede and a cash bar.

Space Limited to 80 participants.

>> Our book sales committee will have copies of newly released Midwestern Strange: Hunting Monsters, Martians and the Weird in Flyover Country available for purchase at this event. Please join us for an autographing session following the presentation.


B.J. HOLLARS is the author of several books, including his latest, Midwestern Strange: Hunting Monsters, Martians and the Weird in Flyover Country. Hollars is the recipient of the Truman Capote Prize for Literary Nonfiction, the Anne B. and James B. McMillan Prize, the The Wisconsin Writers Awards’s Norbert Blei/August Derleth Nonfiction Book Award , and the Society of Midland Authors Award. He is the founder and executive director of the Chippewa Valley Writers Guild and an associate professor of English at the University of Wisconsin–Eau Claire. He lives a simple existence with his wife, their children, and their dog.

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Small Animals: Parenting in the Age of Fear
Oct
24
7:00 PM19:00

Small Animals: Parenting in the Age of Fear

  • Riverfront Room, Pablo Center at the Confluence (map)
  • Google Calendar ICS

Kim Brooks

Chippewa_Valley_Book_Festival_Small_Animals.jpg

Changing patterns in family structure, rampant consumerism, and social panics spawned by the 24-hour news cycle have transformed child-rearing from an inherently private relationship into an all-consuming, competitive sport. Building on her own harrowing experiences, Brooks will reveal how expectations of parents have changed over the course of a single generation and how these expectations—fueled by fear rather than reality—pressure mothers to report one another. She will also share a fresh perspective on parenting and parenthood that shifts the focus away from individual parents to a broader social and historical perspective, highlighting the ways children can benefit from freedom and independence.  

Tickets are required for this FREE event.

>> Our book sales committee will have copies of Small Animals: Parenthood in the Age of Fear available for purchase at this event. Please join us for an autographing session following the presentation.

KIM BROOKS is a graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop and recipient of numerous fellowships. Her writing has appeared in many publications, including The New York Times, New York Magazine, Good Housekeeping, Chicago Magazine, and Salon. Brooks has spoken as a guest on CBS This Morning, PBS NewsHour, 20/20, NPR’s All Things Considered, Good Morning America, and The Brian Leher Show, as well as podcasts such as Note to Self, Mom and Dad Are Fighting, Femsplainer, and Matt Lewis and the News. Small Animals: Parenthood in the Age of Fear was designated A Best Book of 2018 by National Public Radio.

kabrooks.com

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Oct
23
7:30 PM19:30

Barstow & Grand: Issue #3 Release Reading

Chippewa_Valley_Book_Festival_Barstow_and_Grand_Issue_3.jpg

This event is co-sponsored by Lazy Monk Brewing and L.E. Phillips Memorial Public Library.

Barstow & Grand seeks to fulfill a humble mission—to support the writers of the Chippewa Valley by offering an outlet for their creative writing, and to help them grow and professionalize their craft through the process of submission.

Issue #3 offers as broad and impressive a mix as Issues #1 and #2 did, with novice and professional writers, folks who have lived in the Chippewa Valley their entire lives and those who have joined our community from afar. The release party for Issue #3 will feature readings from the journal, including fiction, nonfiction, and poetry, as well as commentary from the editors on the publication process and how the journal has grown in its third year. Stop down to hear some incredible writing, pick up an issue, enjoy a locally crafted beer (cash bar), and connect with the Chippewa Valley’s community of writers.

www.barstowandgrand.com

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Wild and Rare
Oct
23
12:00 PM12:00

Wild and Rare

Adam Regn Arvidson

Chippewa_Valley_Book_Festival_Wild_and_Rare-SoldOut.jpg

SORRY, THIS EVENT IS SOLD OUT.

This event is co-sponsored by the Chippewa Valley Museum.

Adam Regn Arvidson takes a look not only at the Midwest plants and animals on the endangered species list but at which ones we value, why we value them, and what we should take into consideration moving forward. During this interactive discussion and reading about endangered plants and animals in the upper Midwest, you will learn which species are endangered, the history of their conservation and protection in this country, and what you can do to help these fellow inhabitants of our beautiful planet.

  • 12:00 p.m. Lunch (ticket required) Lunch will be catered by French Press and will include vegetarian and gluten free options. Lunch will include a wrap, chips and a cookie. Coffee and apple cider will be provided.

  • 12:30 p.m. Program (free event)

MEAL TICKETS:
Tickets are $15.
Limit of 50 participants for the lunch event.

>> Our book sales committee will have copies of Wild and Rare: Tracking Endangered Species in the Upper Midwest available for purchase at this event. Please join us for an autographing session following the presentation.


ADAM REGN ARVIDSON is a landscape architect and writer living in Minneapolis. His written work has been featured in magazines ranging from Landscape Architecture and Metropolis to Michigan Quarterly Review and Utne Reader. He is currently the director of strategic planning at the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board. His most recent book, Wild and Rare: Tracking Endangered Species in the Upper Midwest, is a look at the landscape of the upper midwest through the lens of endangered plants and animals.

www.adamregnarvidson.com

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Long Way Round: Through the Heartland by River
Oct
22
7:00 PM19:00

Long Way Round: Through the Heartland by River

  • Riverfront Room, Pablo Center at the Confluence (map)
  • Google Calendar ICS

John Hildebrand

Chippewa_Valley_Book_Festival_Long_Way_Round-SoldOut.jpg

SORRY, THIS EVENT IS SOLD OUT.

Inspired by a mythic Round River, John Hildebrand set off in a small boat to rediscover his home state of Wisconsin. The result was a journey through a forgotten America—a land of great physical beauty but with struggling small towns and divided loyalties. From the broad and hard-working Mississippi to the wild and slender waters of Tyler Forks, Hildebrand searches for the values that connect us—neighborliness, a sense of fairness, and a belief in the common good. The program will combine photographs, discussion, and short excerpts from the book as Hildebrand shares the sense of both wonder and belonging he discovered through his travels.

>> Hildebrand is debuting this book at the festival. Our book sales committee will have copies of Long Way Round : Through the Heartland by River available for purchase at this event. Please join us for an autographing session following the presentation.

John Hildebrand is the author of five nonfiction books: the award-winning Mapping the Farm: The Chronicle of a Family, Reading the River: A Voyage Down the Yukon, and two collections of essays: A Northern Front: New and Selected Essays and The Heart of Things: a Midwestern Almanac. His latest book, Long Way Round: Through the Heartland by River, will be released at the festival. His articles and essays have appeared in Harper’s, Audubon, Outside Magazine, Sports Illustrated, GEO, Manoa: A Pacific Journal of International Writing, and The Missouri Review. He has won the Minnesota Book Award for Science and Nature writing and was awarded the Council of Writers' Blei-Derleth Award.

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Oct
17
5:00 PM17:00

Don’t Call Me Crazy: Navigating Mental Health with Compassion, Understanding, and Honesty

  • Schofield Hall, University of Wisconsin–Eau Claire (map)
  • Google Calendar ICS

Kelly Jensen

Chippewa_Valley_Book_Festival_Dont_Call_Me_Crazy.jpg

This event is co-sponsored by the Katherine S. Schneider Disability Issues Forum and the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire Foundation. Captioning and sign language interpreting will be provided by the L. E. Phillips Family Foundation. Sally Webb has provided additional support.

While roughly 20% of Americans live with a mental illness, more than half of those who suffer have gone untreated for the past year. Kelly Jensen, author of (Don’t) Call Me Crazy: 33 Voices Start the Conversation about Mental Health, will talk about her own experiences with depression and anxiety as well as where and how she decided to get help for herself when she turned 30. Using what she learned from her own life, Jensen will discuss where and how to talk about mental health, as well as tools and resources for cracking open those discussions.

>> The University of Wisconsin–Eau Claire Bookstore will have copies of (Don’t) Call Me Crazy: 33 Voices Start the Conversation about Mental Health for sale at a reception and book signing in the Davies Center immediately after the event. Light refreshments will be available.


KELLY JENSEN is a former teen librarian who worked in several public libraries before pursuing a full-time career in writing and editing. Her current position is with Book Riot, where she focuses on talking about young adult literature in all of its manifestations. Her books include Here We Are: Feminism for The Real World and (Don’t) Call Me Crazy: 33 Voices Start the Conversation about Mental Health, a collection of art, essays, and words to launch a powerful and important conversation about mental health. It was named a best book of 2018 by the Washington Post and earned a Schneider Family Book Award Honor.

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Oct
16
7:00 PM19:00

Girl Rising: Changing the World One Girl at a Time

  • Centennial Hall (Room 1614), University of Wisconsin–Eau Claire (map)
  • Google Calendar ICS

Tanya Lee Stone

Chippewa_Valley_Book_Festival_Girl_Rising.jpg

This event is co-sponsored by L.E. Phillips Memorial Public Library and the University of Wisconsin–Eau Claire McIntyre Library.

Why are 130 million girls around the globe not being educated, and what can we do about it? Inspired by the film of the same name, Tanya Lee Stone's Girl Rising tackles these questions. Stone will explore how educating girls is the single most powerful tool we have to make our world a safer, healthier, more functional place. She will unpack the major obstacles to education, including where and why they happen and how we can easily be activists. Q&A invited.

This talk will include a mini-screening (one chapter) of the film.

>> The University of Wisconsin–Eau Claire Bookstore will have copies of Girl Rising: Changing the World One Girl at a Time for sale at a reception and book signing in the Davies Center immediately after the event. Light refreshments will be available.


TANYA LEE STONE is passionate about telling the unsung true stories of people who have been left out of our histories. Her work has earned an NAACP Image Award, Robert F. Sibert Medal, Bank Street Award, and many other honors including NPR Best Books, Boston Globe-Horn Book, Publishers Weekly Best Books, Washington Post's Best New Reads, Smithsonian Magazine Best Books, Chicago Public Library Best Books, and multiple state awards. Stone is on the faculty of Champlain College and frequently travels as a guest speaker.

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Meet the School Authors: Book Sale & Signing
Oct
15
6:00 PM18:00

Meet the School Authors: Book Sale & Signing

  • Visit Eau Claire Experience Center at Pablo Center (map)
  • Google Calendar ICS

This event is co-sponsored by Dotters Books.

Students, parents and the entire community are invited to create lasting memories by meeting award winning authors presenting in area schools during the Chippewa Valley Book Festival.  Begin a collection of personally autographed books for yourself or a young person you love. They will be treasured for a lifetime!  And don’t forget your cameras!

6:00 p.m. - Book sales begin (10% of the sales will be donated to the Authors in the Schools program)
6:30 p.m. - Author introductions, comments, and autographing session

Visit Eau Claire's Experience Center is located in the heart of downtown Eau Claire on the first floor of Pablo Center at the corner of Gibson and Graham avenues.

The following books will be available for purchase and signing at the event:

Sarah Aronson
Just Like Rube Goldberg
The Wish List: The Worst Fairy
Godmother Ever

Judy Dodge Cummings
Rebels & Revolutions
Great Escapes

Maureen Fergus
Reptile Club
Buddy & Earl
Buddy & Earl: Go to School

Kelly Jensen
(Don't) Call Me Crazy

Susan Latta
Bold Women of Medicine: 21 Stories of Astounding Discoveries, Daring Surgeries, and Healing Breakthroughs

Baptiste Paul
The Field
Adventures to School

Miranda Paul
I Am Farmer
Nine Months

J.S. Puller
Captain Superlative

Kurtis Scaletta
Rooting for Rafael Rosales
Trailblazers: Jackie Robinson

Tonya Lee Stone
Elizabeth Leads the Way
Girl Rising

Jamie A. Swenson
Meet Woof & Quack
Woof & Quack in Winter
Fall Ball for All

 
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Oct
25
7:00 PM19:00

Where Honeybees Thrive: Stories from the Field

Heather Swan

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This event is co-sponsored by the Friends of the Chippewa Falls Public Library.

Heather’s hopeful book introduces us to an interdisciplinary force of people from all over the world working to change the fate of pollinators and to make the world a healthier place for humans too.

>> Our book sales committee will have copies of Where Honeybees Thrive: Stories from the Field available for purchase at this event. Please join us for an autographing session following the presentation.
 

HEATHER SWAN'S creative nonfiction has appeared in Aeon, ISLE, Resilience, About Place Journal, and Edge Effects. Her poetry has appeared in such places as Poet Lore, Raleigh Review, Phoebe, Basalt, Midwestern Gothic, Cold Mountain Review, The Hopper, and About Place Journal. Her book Where Honeybees Thrive: Stories from the Field (Penn State Press, 2017) received the Sigurd F. Olson Nature Writing Award from Northland College. She teaches at the University of Wisconsin–Madison.

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Oct
24
7:00 PM19:00

When the Hills Are Gone: Frac Sand Mining and the Struggle for Community

Thomas W. Pearson

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This event is co-sponsored by the Fall Creek Public Library.

Professor Pearson will discuss how anthropological research was used in writing his book about the impact of frac sand mining on sense of place, community, and local democracy in our area.

>> Our book sales committee will have copies of When the Hills Are Gone: Frac Sand Mining and the Struggle for Community available for purchase at this event. Please join us for an autographing session following the presentation.
 

THOMAS W. PEARSON is associate professor of anthropology and assistant director of the Honors College at UW–Stout. He is the author of When the Hills Are Gone: Frac Sand Mining and the Struggle for Community, published by the University of Minnesota Press. His writing has also appeared in several academic journals, including American Anthropologist, Cultural Anthropology, American Ethnologist, and Human Organization. He lives in Menomonie, Wisconsin.

Twitter: @AnthroPearson
 

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Oct
24
12:00 PM12:00

Dine with the Author | The Bride Price: A Hmong Wedding Story

Mai Neng Moua

This event is co-sponsored by the Chippewa Valley Museum.

Mai Neng Moua will discuss the importance of written literature in the Hmong community, which has only had a formal writing system since the 1950s, and share reactions to the memoir from members of her own community.

  • 12:00 p.m. Lunch (ticket required)

  • 12:30 p.m. Program (free event)

MEAL TICKETS:
$15.00 plus fees and tax
**Only 50 seats are available for this event. The deadline to register for meal tickets is Friday, October 10.**

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Tickets can be purchased online by clicking below. After September 22, tickets can also be purchased in person at Pablo Center at the Confluence box office.

>> Our book sales committee will have copies of The Bride Price: A Hmong Wedding Story available for purchase at this event. Please join us for an autographing session following the presentation.
 

MAI NENG MOUA is a writer spinning tales of what it means to be Hmong in America. Her memoir, The Bride Price: A Hmong Wedding Story, was published by the Minnesota Historical Society Press in March 2017. She is the founder of Paj Ntaub Voice Hmoob literary journal and editor of the first Hmong American anthology, Bamboo Among the Oaks: Contemporary Writing by Hmong Americans. Her artistic awards include the Bush Artists Fellowship, the Minnesota State Arts Board Artist Initiative Grant, the Jerome Travel Grant, the Loft Literary Center's Mentor Series, and Kundiman’s Creative Nonfiction Intensive. Mai Neng has taught creative writing to youth through the Jane Addams School for Democracy, COMPAS, and Success Beyond the Classroom. She graduated from St. Olaf College in Northfield and attended the Hubert H. Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs in Minneapolis. She lives in Minneapolis with her husband and two girls.

www.mainengmoua.com

 
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Oct
23
7:00 PM19:00

Prairie Fires: The True Story behind Laura Ingalls Wilder’s Little House Books

  • RCU Theater, Pablo Center at the Confluence (map)
  • Google Calendar ICS

>>PULITZER PRIZE-WINNER<< Caroline Fraser

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This is the 2nd Annual John, Elizabeth and Alison Morris Memorial Event, sponsored by Greg Morris and the University of Wisconsin–Eau Claire Foundation.

Behind Wilder’s beloved epic of pioneer life lies a complicated story of homesteading hardships and economic and environmental disaster.  Fraser will talk about the history behind the life—from the Plains Indian Wars and the settlement of the prairies to the Dust Bowl and the Great Depression—and how Wilder ultimately transformed pure struggle into an uplifting saga.

Tickets for this event, held at the new Pablo Center at the Confluence, are $10.

Tickets can be purchased online by clicking below. After September 22, tickets can also be purchased in person at Pablo Center at the Confluence box office.

>> Our book sales committee will have copies of Prairie Fires, The American Dreams of Laura Ingalls Wilder available for purchase at this event. Please join us for an autographing session following the presentation.
 

CAROLINE FRASER is the editor of the Library of America edition of Laura Ingalls Wilder’s Little House books and the author of Rewilding the World and God’s Perfect Child.  Her writing has appeared in The New York Review of Books, The New Yorker, The Atlantic, the Los Angeles Times, and the London Review of Books, among other publications. Her new biography, Prairie Fires, The American Dreams of Laura Ingalls Wilder, was the 2018 Pulitzer Prize Winner in Biography.  It was also named one of the New York Times’ 10 Best Books of 2017 and was nominated for both a National Book Critics Circle Award in Biography and a Plutarch Award by the Biographers International Organization.

www.carolinefraser.net | www.prairiefiresbook.com

 
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Prose and Poetry Alive
Oct
20
3:30 PM15:30

Prose and Poetry Alive

  • L.E. Phillips Memorial Public Library (map)
  • Google Calendar ICS

ecWIT (Eau Claire Women in Theater)

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This event is co-sponsored by the L.E. Phillips Memorial Public Library.

ecWIT (Eau Claire Women in Theater) is: Debbie Brown, Kathleen Sullivan, Ann Pearson, Sue Fulkerson, Sara Bryan, and Beverly Olsonn—a group of area women with backgrounds in education, theater and performance, who use dramatic reading to share their love of literature. ecWIT’s programs include plays, essays, fiction and poetry presented with interactive characterization without props, sets or costumes. They are proud to be a part of the 2018 Chippewa Valley Book Festival where they will explore a variety of selections from this year’s outstanding authors. 

www.facebook.com/eauclairewomenintheater
www.ecwit.weebly.com

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Oct
20
2:15 PM14:15

The Education of Will: Healing a Dog, Facing My Fears, Reclaiming My Life

  • L.E. Phillips Memorial Public Library (map)
  • Google Calendar ICS

Patricia McConnell

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This event is co-sponsored by the Friends of L.E. Phillips Memorial Public Library.

Patricia McConnell, former co-host of WPR’s Calling All Pets, will share the true story of her beloved border collie, Willie, and how helping him overcome his issues led to her finding resolution to her own traumas.

>> Our book sales committee will have copies of The Education of Will available for purchase at this event. Please join us for an autographing session following the presentation.
 

PATRICIA McCONNELL, PhD, CAAB, is an ethologist who has consulted with pet owners for over twenty five years. She taught "The Biology and Philosophy of Human/Animal Relationships” at the UW–Madison for over two decades and speaks around the world about canine behavior and training. Dr. McConnell is the author of thirteen books on animal training and behavior, as well as her newest book, The Education of Will: Healing a Dog, Facing My Fears, Reclaiming My Life, a memoir about healing from trauma in both people and dogs. Patricia and her husband live with their working border collies Willie and Maggie, and her Cavalier King Charles Spaniel, Tootsie, along with a very spoiled flock of sheep.

www.patriciamcconnell.com  |  www.theotherendoftheleash.com

Twitter: @McConnellWrites

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Oct
19
5:30 PM17:30

Dine with the Author | Recklessness, Obsession, and Wild Abandon

Tessa Fontaine

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Fontaine’s book debut is a memoir of five months in 2013 when she faced her largest fears. She joined “World of Wonders” as a fire-eating, snake-charming, escape-artist magician — with no prior snake or flame-eating experience! Why would a 28 year old join a traveling show? Two years earlier, Fontaine’s mother had a massive stroke leaving her unable to walk or talk. Tessa dealt with this trauma by looking fear in the face and joining the show, as a way of schooling herself in the character strength of bravery. If her mother could face her new life in a wheelchair, Tessa could face snakes and fire.

Much of the conventional wisdom around writing nonfiction concerns a careful adherence to predetermined rules, such as writing truthfully and ethically. In this talk the author will speak about nonfiction’s wild sister, and when she demands we throw caution to the wind.

  • 5:30 p.m. Cash bar (ticket required)

  • 6:30 p.m. Dinner (ticket required)

  • 8:00 p.m. Program (free event)

MEAL TICKETS:
$32.00 plus fees and tax
**The deadline to register for meal tickets is Friday, October 10.**

DINNER OPTIONS TO CHOSE FROM:

  1. Oven roasted chicken breast with garlic cream sauce and buttermilk mashed potatoes. Served with a fresh seasonal vegetable.

  2. Wild mushroom ravioli topped with fresh sauteed zucchini and roasted red peppers with a light garlic cream sauce. Served with a fresh seasonal vegetable.

  3. North Atlantic Salmon fillet seasoned and baked with white wine and butter, topped with a lemon and lime citrus cream sauce. Served with a wild rice pilaf and a fresh seasonal vegetable.

Tickets can be purchased online by clicking below. After September 22, tickets can also be purchased in person at Pablo Center at the Confluence box office.

>> Our book sales committee will have copies of The Electric Woman available for purchase at this event. Please join us for an autographing session following the presentation.
 

TESSA FONTAINE is the author of The Electric Woman, a memoir about performing in America’s last traveling sideshow. Other writing has appeared in PANK, Seneca Review, The Rumpus, and elsewhere. She holds an MFA from the University of Alabama and is working on a PhD in creative writing at the University of Utah. She has taught in prisons for five years, and founded a Writers in the Schools program in Salt Lake City. She currently lives in South Carolina.

www.tessafontaine.com

 
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Oct
18
7:30 PM19:30

Bunk: The Rise of Hoaxes, Humbug, Plagiarists, Phonies, Post-Facts, and Fake News

  • Schofield Hall, University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire (map)
  • Google Calendar ICS

Kevin Young

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This event is co-sponsored with the UW-Eau Claire Forum Series.

Building on his award-winning nonfiction book, Bunk, Kevin Young outlines the history of the hoax and the hoaxing of history that led us to this particular moment of “fake news” and “truthiness.” Young traces an American inheritance of fakery from P. T. Barnum to present-day impostors, like Rachel Dolezal, who reaffirm the hoax as rife with race and unreason, threatening our art, politics, and daily lives.

TICKET PRICES
$8.00 – General Public
$6.00 – UW System Faculty/Staff and Seniors Ages 62 & Over
$4.00 – UW System Student and Youth Ages 17 & Under

*Tickets can be purchased in person at the University of Wisconsin–Eau Claire W.R. Davies Student Center Service Center as well as online by clicking below.


KEVIN YOUNG is the Director of the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture and Poetry Editor of the New Yorker. He is the author of twelve books of poetry and prose, several of which have won awards or have been finalists for the National Book Award. His nonfiction book Bunk: The Rise of Hoaxes, Humbug, Plagiarists, Phonies, Post-Facts, and Fake News (Nov 2017, Graywolf Press) has garnered numerous accolades, including a “Best Book of 2017” by NPR, the Los Angeles Times, and Dallas Morning News

www.kevinyoungpoetry.com

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Oct
18
5:00 PM17:00

What Kindergarteners and Canines Know: Learning from Those Whose Wisdom We Underestimate

  • Woodland Theater, Davies Center, UW-Eau Claire (map)
  • Google Calendar ICS

Kathy Nimmer

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This event is co-sponsored by the Katherine S. Schneider Disability Issues Forum and the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire Foundation. Captioning and sign language interpreting will be provided by the L. E. Phillips Family Foundation. Sally Webb has provided additional support.

Kathy Nimmer shares stories of the children she has encountered in twenty-six years of teaching, as well as the assistance dogs who have partnered with her and others with disabilities. You will laugh, cry, and realize how much our lives are made better when we recognize the power that both young people and dogs have to change our lives.

KATHY NIMMER is the 2015 Indiana Teacher of the Year and a finalist for 2015 National Teacher of the Year. Recently, she received the Dollywood Foundation’s Chasing Rainbows Award and the NFB’s Blind Educator of the Year Award. Through a Lilly Teacher Fellowship, Kathy wrote and published an anthology called Two Plus Four Equals One: Celebrating the Partnership of People with Disabilities and Their Assistance Dogs. This followed a book of poetry called Minutes in the Dark, Eternity in the Light. Kathy teaches writing, mentors new teachers, and speaks at numerous events. She earned her BA in English Education from Trinity Christian College in 1991 and her MA from Purdue University in 1992.

 

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