Menomonie writer Kelly McCullough.

If you like writing, reading, or both, the Mabel Tainter has an event for you!  The Mabel Tainter Center for the Arts in Menomonie will host A Mid-Winter Gathering of Writers and Readers from 1 to 4 p.m. on Saturday, Jan. 19. The gathering will be a book fair of sorts with booths for a number of regional writers. Published authors who hail from western and central Wisconsin will sell their books and visit with readers. Notable authors will include Jay Gilbertson, Nancy Bjornson, Kelly McCullough, and Kristi Schumacher, to name a few. The event, the first of its kind, came out of a desire at the Mabel Tainter to focus more on the literary arts. It was largely organized by Dick Edwards, a member of the arts center’s board. Part of the mission of the event is to promote all the arts and bring them to central and western Wisconsin. Edwards says that this area “is a hotbed of published authors that have national and international acclaim.” The event will feature 15 to 20 authors. It will be a leisurely afternoon with plenty of time to mix and mingle with writers and readers. Authors will have individual booths to sell their works and chat with interested readers. Writers from a full gamut of genres will be featured, including fiction, nonfiction, children’s literature, poetry, and memoirs. The event will launch with a presentation by internationally known award-winner author Kelly McCullough of Menomonie, a writer of popular fantasy and science fiction books. His talk for the event is titled From Codex to Kindle: Writing, Publishing and Reading in the Modern Era, a presentation that will focus on writing and reading and how they have changed in recent times. Admission is free, but donations are appreciated. If you need nourishment, desserts and beverages will be available.