2007 Wisconsin Book Festival Announces Authors
Madison, WI, June 11, 2007 — The Wisconsin Humanities Council is pleased to announce that critically acclaimed writers Michael Cunningham, Terry Tempest Williams, Rick Bass, Rabbi Harold Kushner, and Jane Hirshfield will appear at the sixth annual Wisconsin Book Festival, Oct. 10 to 14, 2007.
In honor of the Festival’s theme of “Domestic Tranquility,” speakers at the 2007 Wisconsin Book Festival will explore historical and present-day issues regarding this concept. Who determines what are “domestic” concerns? What begets tranquility? And what role does the government play in protecting it?
From immigration and border disputes, to violence and the right to bear arms, to religion and public life—novelists, poets, journalists, and others will gather to explore what a tranquil home might look like to them.
- Novelist Michael Cunningham received the Pulitzer Prize and the PEN/Faulkner Award in 1999 for his novel The Hours, which was later made into an Academy Award-winning film. His other books include: At Home at the End of the World, Flesh and Blood, Specimen Days, and a nonfiction work, Land’s End: A Walk Through Provincetown. His work has appeared in numerous publications including The New Yorker, The Atlantic Monthly, and The Paris Review.
- A naturalist and fierce advocate for freedom of speech Terry Tempest Williams is the author of the environmental literature classic, Refuge: An Unnatural History of Family and Place. Her other works include: An Unspoken Hunger: Stories from the Field; Desert Quartet; and The Open Space of Democracy. Pantheon Books will publish her new book Mosaic: Finding Beauty in a Broken World in 2008.
- Nature writer Rick Bass is the author of many acclaimed works of fiction and nonfiction. His first short story collection, The Watch, won the PEN/Nelson Algren Award, and his 2002 collection, The Hermit’s Story, was a Los Angeles Times Best Book of the Year. The Lives of Rocks was a finalist for the Story Prize and was chosen as a Best Book of the Year by the Rocky Mountain News. Bass’ stories have also been awarded the Pushcart Prize and the O. Henry Award and have appeared in The Best American Short Stories.
- Rabbi Harold Kushner, author of When Bad Things Happen to Good People, will make his second appearance at the Wisconsin Book Festival. A lively and engaging speaker, and the congregational rabbi of Temple Israel of Natick, Massachusetts, Kushner has also penned: How Good Do We Have to Be?; To Life!; and Overcoming Life’s Disappointments.
- Esteemed poet Jane Hirshfield is the author of six collections of poetry, including: After (which was short-listed for England’s T.S. Eliot Prize and nominated for the Northern California Book Award in Poetry); Given Sugar, Given Salt (finalist for the 2001 National Book Critics Circle Award, and winner of the Bay Area Book Reviewers Award); The Lives of the Heart; and The October Palace. She has also published a book of essays, Nine Gates: Entering the Mind of Poetry, and edited and co-translated several books, including The Ink Dark Moon: Love Poems by Komachi & Shikibu.
The Wisconsin Book Festival takes place each year in Madison, and is a multi-day public celebration of reading, writing, and literature. The Festival offers author readings, workshops, and roundtables that foster lively discussion and insight into provocative issues. All events are free and open to the public.
For more information contact:
Alison Jones Chaim
Director, Wisconsin Book Festival
(608) 265-5595
Alison@wisconsinbookfestival.org
www.wisconsinbookfestival.org
The Wisconsin Humanities Council
Established in 1972 as an independent affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Wisconsin Humanities Council supports public programs that engage the people of Wisconsin in the exploration of human cultures, ideas, and values. To accomplish its mission, the Council awards grants to support programs in libraries, museums, universities, historical societies, schools, and other nonprofit settings throughout the state.