Welcome to the 2023 Chippewa Valley Book Festival

Schedule of Events

October 11, 2023

6:00 PM-8:00 PM: Cooking with Variety and Seasonality: A Meal Event

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.

Cost: $65 including taxes/fees

Location: The Good Wives, 2161 Eastridge Center, Eau Claire, WI, 54701

October 12, 2023

5:00 PM-6:00 PM: Hiding in Plain Sight: Embracing the Truth in Fiction

First novels are stereotypically autobiographical for a reason; while Ginsberg thought she was writing about made-up people in a made-up place, in the aftermath of finishing her first novel, she discovered how naive that viewpoint was, and why her blissful ignorance made for a better book. She will share how vulnerability forges connections between readers and writers, that it's worth it to write the hard stuff, and that no writer or reader should feel as if their particular experience of the world isn't interesting or valid.

Location: L.E. Phillips Memorial Public Library, Riverview Room, 400 Eau Claire Street, Eau Claire, WI, 54701

6:30 PM-7:30 PM: The World through Weird Eyes

Join award-winning author Shelby Van Pelt as she discusses how non-human perspectives can make us better humans. You don't often read a book with an octopus as a main character, but that's exactly what you get with Van Pelt's debut novel, Remarkably Bright Creatures. It's not easy to turn a non-verbal animal into a curmudgeonly mystery-solver, but it is possible!

Location: L.E. Phillips Memorial Public Library, Riverview Room, 400 Eau Claire Street, Eau Claire, WI, 54701

October 13, 2023

10:00 AM-11:30 AM: Pizza and Taco: Dare to Be Scared!

Celebrate the release of the newest book in the Pizza and Taco series! Enjoy pizza and an interactive presentation by the author. A book signing and related activities for kids and families will follow.

10:00 a.m. - 11:00 a.m.: Author Presentation, Book Sales, and Signing at Riverview Room (3rd floor)

10:00 a.m. - 11:30 a.m.: Pizza at Innovation Lab (3rd floor)
Pizza sponsored by Toppers

10:00 a.m. - 11:30 a.m.: Graphic Novel Activities at Youth Services Program Room (1st floor)
Create your own comic, bookmark-making, and graphic novel button-making

Location: L.E. Phillips Memorial Public Library, Riverview Room, 400 Eau Claire Street, Eau Claire, WI, 54701

6:00 PM-7:00 PM: When Memory Becomes History: Mourning and Remembrance in Writing

We all have power when it comes to the stories we choose to tell, and should be aware of how the ones we tell will continue to echo. There's this place where memory crosses over into history, but getting there takes time, effort and structure. Vo will discuss how her fourth Singing Hills Novella, Mammoths at the Gates, makes the historical personal, and the personal historical, and why it's always worth thinking about what stories we want to tell going forward.

Location: L.E. Phillips Memorial Public Library, Riverview Room, 400 Eau Claire Street, Eau Claire, WI, 54701

7:30 PM-8:30 PM: Owls of the Eastern Ice

There are still wild places in the world; places that we should celebrate and protect. Jonathan Slaght led a five-year study of an endangered and little-known owl species in Russia called the Blakiston's fish owl. These salmon eaters are the largest owls in the world and live in some of the most difficult-to-access forests of northeast Asia. Slaght will describe the owls and his project, the adventures and struggles of fieldwork, writing Owls of the Eastern Ice, and on-going conservation efforts with this endangered species.

Location: L.E. Phillips Memorial Public Library, Riverview Room, 400 Eau Claire Street, Eau Claire, WI, 54701

October 14, 2023

9:30 AM-10:30 AM: Nature's Best Hope

Recent headlines about the declining global insect population and three billion fewer birds in North America are a bleak reality check about how ineffective our current landscape designs have been at sustaining the plants and animals that sustain us. Such losses are not an option if we wish to continue our current standard of living on Planet Earth. The good news is that none of this is inevitable. Tallamy will discuss simple steps that each of us can—and must—take to reverse declining biodiversity, why we must change our adversarial relationship with nature to a collaborative one, and why we, ourselves, are nature's best hope.

Location: L.E. Phillips Memorial Public Library, Riverview Room, 400 Eau Claire Street, Eau Claire, WI, 54701

11:00 AM-12:00 PM: Wisconsin Waters: The Ancient History of Lakes, Rivers, and Waterfalls

Explore Wisconsin's many and varied waterways and learn how they came to be as they are today. From the placid Mississippi to waterfalls crashing over hard rock ledges near Lake Superior, to life bursting forth in one of the world's largest freshwater marshes, these waterways each have a fascinating story to tell. Spoolman will sample a few of the nearly 20 stories from his new book Wisconsin Waters: The Ancient History of Lakes, Rivers, and Waterfalls, sharing his appreciation for their beauty and fragility.

Location: L.E. Phillips Memorial Public Library, Riverview Room, 400 Eau Claire Street, Eau Claire, WI, 54701

1:00 PM-2:00 PM: The Craft of Writing Lives—Our Own and Others

Melissa Faliveno will present her debut essay collection, Tomboyland, named a Best Book of 2020 by NPR, New York Public Library, Oprah Magazine, and Electric Literature, and recipient of a 2021 Award for Outstanding Literary Achievement from the Wisconsin Library Association. Faliveno will read from the collection and discuss the craft and process of writing our own lives and the lives of others. The reading and talk will be followed by a Q&A.

Location: L.E. Phillips Memorial Public Library, Riverview Room, 400 Eau Claire Street, Eau Claire, WI, 54701

2:30 PM-3:30 PM: Writing Off the Grid: What Can Nature Teach Us About Bearing Hardship?

There is more help available to us in this world than we know. The study of biomimicry looks to nature for solutions because every problem known to man has already been solved by Mother Earth. In her debut novel, The Net Beneath Us, author Carol Dunbar looks to the trees to see what they can teach us about bearing loss. Building on the groundbreaking work of German biologist Peter Wohlleben and her personal experiences living deep in the woods, Dunbar will share the true story behind the writing of her first book and why, in all her novels, she looks to nature to find what it can teach us about becoming better human beings.

Location: L.E. Phillips Memorial Public Library, Riverview Room, 400 Eau Claire Street, Eau Claire, WI, 54701

4:00 PM-5:00 PM: A Writer's Journey to Publication: A Conversation with Laura Warrell

Writing a novel can be just the beginning—getting it published can be a journey all its own. Laura Warrell had a long, challenging ride to getting her first novel, Sweet, Soft, Plenty Rhythm published. Along the way, she learned the ins and outs of the business and developed skills that helped her persevere. In this talk, she shares her story, offering a behind-the-scenes look at the publishing process and tools any aspiring artist can use to stay in the game.

Location: L.E. Phillips Memorial Public Library, Riverview Room, 400 Eau Claire Street, Eau Claire, WI, 54701

October 15, 2023

1:00 PM-3:00 PM: Young Writers Showcase

At the Young Writers Read Showcase, on Sunday, October 15, selected students will read their winning entries from the stage of the Grand Theatre. The celebration includes poetry and prose from students in grades 3-8, and each participant receives a gift certificate to buy a book of their choice from Dotters Bookstore.

The Showcase will be divided into two separate parts again this year:
Readers in grades 3, 4, and 5 will read from 1:00-1:40 p.m.
Readers in grades 6, 7 & 8 will to read from 2:00-2:40 p.m.

Location: Grand Theatre, 102 W Grand Ave, Eau Claire, WI 54703

October 16, 2023

4:30 PM-5:30 PM: Brotherless Night: Political Fiction of the Recent Past

Thorough research is not just for non-fiction books; a great deal of research goes into most historical fiction novels as well. Ganeshananthan will discuss how she created a realistic and historically appropriate setting for her novel by researching 1980s Sri Lanka. She’ll also delve into themes and style, emphasizing its place in the larger tradition of literature addressing war, feminism, and ethnicity.

Location: University of Wisconsin–Stout, Harvey Hall Theater, 721 3rd Street East, Menomonie, WI, 54751

6:00 PM-7:15 PM: Poetry and Conversation

Poems and conversation with Wisconsin Poet Laureate Nicholas Gulig (Orient, North of Order) moderated by bestselling author, Nickolas Butler.

Location: L.E. Phillips Memorial Public Library, Riverview Room, 400 Eau Claire Street, Eau Claire, WI, 54701

Date: October 11-16, 2023

Locations:
The Good Wives, 2161 Eastridge Center, Eau Claire, WI 54701
L.E. Phillips Memorial Public Library, 400 Eau Claire Street, Eau Claire, WI 54701
University Of Wisconsin, 712 South Broadway Street, Menomonie, WI 54751

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