Wisconsin Book Festival, UW share symbiotic relationship

One trip to the Wisconsin Book Festival will convince anyone that we are a community of readers.

This year’s festival, Thursday-Sunday, Oct. 13-17, is the fourth. With sessions running the literary gamut from mystery, biography, visual novels, oral literature, history, essay, fiction and nonfiction, cookbooks, children’s books, poetry and more, this year’s festival will celebrate all manner of books, writing and reading. In addition, forums will be offered on the business of publishing.

The book festival has been organized since its inception by the Wisconsin Humanities Council, whose executive director, Dean Bakopoulos, is an acclaimed novelist (“Please Don’t Come Back From the Moon,” Harcourt, 2005). He says he conceives of the festival as a way to showcase and underscore the importance of the printed word.

“Reading is the way we are often exposed to new ideas, the way we reflect on our own opinions and values, and the way we vicariously experience the triumphs and challenges of our fellow human beings. Printed material frees the mind from information overload — your thoughts are more focused, more vivid, more intense. You willingly give your mind over to a thorough and careful examination of an idea,” he says.

UW–Madison plays a sponsorship role in the festival through the Division of Continuing Studies, the Center for the Humanities, UW Press, UW Extension and the Center for the History of Modern Print Culture. A number of faculty authors also will take part in some of the sessions.

One of them, Craig Werner, professor of Afro-American studies, currently is at work on a new book with Vietnam veteran Doug Bradley of UW System about how music of the day influenced the experiences of soldiers serving in Vietnam. With colleague Tim Tyson (“Blood Done Sign My Name”), Werner will take part in a discussion about American justice at 11 a.m. on Saturday, Oct. 15, at the State Historical Society on Library Mall on the UW–Madison campus.

Werner says that the humanities can show us much about strategies for dealing with real-life situations.

“The humanities show us how to think through the problems that are absolutely fundamental to a healthy democracy,” Werner says. “I hope the festival audience comes away with a sense of how much the humanities can help us process the day-to-day problems of the real world.”

Judith Claire Mitchell, UW–Madison assistant professor of creative writing in the Department of English and author of the novel, “The Last Day of the War” (Pantheon, 2004), says the festival is a wonderful educational resource. She says that through it, her students can gain insights from and make contact with prominent publishing professionals and authors. Mitchell is especially delighted that Joan Silber, author of “Ideas of Heaven” (W.W. Norton & Co., 2004) will speak at 1 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 15, at A Room of One’s Own on Johnson Street.

“The story collection was a National Book Award nominee in 2004 and was my favorite book of that year. I am teaching the book in my fiction workshop, and thanks to the festival, my students will get to hear the author reading from the work that they are studying. They also are going to be able to meet with her — she has agreed to come to campus to speak with our students about her work,” Mitchell says.

Distinguished poet Ron Wallace, professor of creative writing and co-director of the Creative Writing Program, says that students and the general public will come away from book festival events with a renewed appreciation for Madison’s vibrant a literary community. Perhaps not surprisingly, Bakopoulos himself is an alumnus of the Creative Writing Program.

“The university plays an essential role in the festival because it gives us a built-in audience of curious, literary types, people who are drawn to events that are creatively and intellectually stimulating,” says Bakopoulos. “Increasingly, the Wisconsin Humanities Council is using events like the book festival to highlight the importance that active and engaged scholars play in our communities.”

Indeed, novelist and Chilean-in-exile Isabel Allende will speak about “Stories and Dreams” as part of the Wisconsin Union Directorate’s Distinguished Lecture Series. The event takes place at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 13, at the Wisconsin Union Theater. The lecture is free, but tickets are required; obtain them at the Wisconsin Union Theater Box Office, 262-2201.

Visit the web for a complete schedule of book festival events.