Chippewa Valley Book Festival Returns With Reads Every Person Needs
22nd annual book fest offers hybrid presentations from critically acclaimed regional and national writers
Looking for a book with a hook? The 22nd Annual Chippewa Valley Book Festival will offer local readers the opportunity to connect with regional (and national!) writers and their thrilling new reads from Oct. 24-29 as part of a hybrid event – including a virtual option for all programs and in-person presentations from three of the featured writers. A pivot from last year’s almost minimal programming as a result of COVID-19, festival organizers are excited to offer a diverse array of events – exploring topics from Hmong refugees and their struggle to adapt to American culture all the way to a woman’s journey in an insane asylum after her husband committed her in the late 1800s – which ultimately aim to broaden your perspectives.
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The Book festival is a great way to open your mind and really see a different side of the world.
– Sara Meeks
Marketing Chair of the Chippewa Valley Book Festival
“Sometimes, as a society, we get stuck in the tunnel vision of our experience and what we’re going through,” said Sara Meeks, marketing chair of the festival, “and the book festival is a great way to open your mind and really see a different side of the world, or of your interests, and branch out and recognize that there’s more out there.”
Featured authors include memoirist Lila Quintero Weaver, award-winning author Kao Kalia Yang, Wisconsin Poet Laureate Dasha Kelly Hamilton, mystery writer (who you might know from the Jason Bourne series!) Brian Freeman, nonfiction author Kate Moore, and novelist Madeleine Miller.
“If you’re a reader, you tend to gravitate toward one genre or another,” Meeks said. “This is a really good opportunity to expose yourself to different authors and different genres than are maybe in your wheelhouse.”
Students in local school districts will also have the unique opportunity to meet authors in the classroom, learn more about the writing process, and ask any questions they may have of the writing field. Winners of the Young Writers Read contest (students between third and eighth grade) will read their original work on stage at the Grand Theatre on Sunday, Oct. 24.
For more information about the Chippewa Valley Book Festival – and a full schedule of events – visit cvbookfest.org.
