No matter what season, there is often no pastime more pleasant than curling up with a good book. However, this fall, readers will have the chance to not only read their favorite authors, but also to meet them as well. The eleventh annual Fox Cities Book Festival is happening from October 8 to 14 at venues all across the Fox Cities and continues in its mission to connect readers and writers. This year’s festival has something for everyone, including panel discussions, craft presentations, workshops, and author events in fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. There are even special events for the kids or for the entire family to enjoy together. There will be some familiar faces at the festival, including Carolyn Porter, author of Marcel’s Letters: A Font and the Search for One Man’s Fate, who will be there to talk about her award-winning book recounting her obsessive quest for answers about Marcel Heuzé, the World War II forced laborer whose handwriting inspired the font. She’ll be speaking on October 8 at 1:30 pm and 6:30 pm, at the Kaukauna Public Library and Gerard H. Van Hoof Memorial Library, respectively. Larry Scheckel will also be presenting at Fox Cities Book Festival. Author of four books, his most recent title, I Wondered About That, Too: 111 Questions and Answers about Science and Other Stuff, is a sequel to his widely popular book I Always Wondered About That and releases on November 1. During the Fox Cities Book Festival, Larry will be presenting his live Sensational Science…

For thirty years, the Minnesota Book Awards have recognized the best in writers, illlustrators, and book artists who are Minnesotans. Last Saturday evening in downtown St. Paul at the Intercontinental Hotel Riverfront, more than 800 people attended the awards ceremony emceed by Rohan Preston, theater critic for the Minneapolis Star-Tribune. With more than 250 books submitted for the annual award, a panel of judges narrowed it down to four finalists across eight categories in January. Carolyn Porter, for Marcel’s Letters, had been named a finalist in the category of Memoir and Creative Nonfiction. On Valentine’s Day, she gave a talk at the Hamline Midway Library as part of the Fireside Reading Series which highlights the work of the finalists for the Minnesota Book Awards. The awards are sponsored by Education Minnesota and presented by the Friends of the St. Paul Public Library. There are too few moments in an author’s career when you receive critical acclaim and professional affirmation. I encourage you to grab these moments when you can. When your book is a finalist in a prestigious award category, it’s appropriate to pop the champagne and celebrate. Even if it doesn’t take first place, it’s still a winner. Deeply touched to have been invited to join Carolyn Porter and her husband, Aaron, for the awards ceremony, I enjoyed the evening and the chance to meet so many literary artists in one place at one time. The full list of winners in all categories of the Minnesota Book Award can…

Carolyn Porter is a “graphic designer, typography geek, and founder of the graphic design company Porterfolio,” but you may know her as the author of Marcel’s Letters: A Font and the Search for One Man’s Fate. This memoir recounts Carolyn Porter’s journey through designing a font and her quest for answers about Marcel Heuzé, the World War II forced laborer whose handwriting inspired the font. Marcel’s Letters was nominated as a 2018 finalist in the Minnesota Book Awards and won a gold medal award in the category of Memoir/Biography at the Military Writers Society of America’s 2018 Medal Awards in South Carolina. On November 6, the paperback version of Marcel’s Letters was released, and I had the chance to interview Carolyn Porter for Swenson Book Development regarding this exciting news. Audrey Arnold: I can imagine that this journey from writing to publication to paperback release and beyond has been quite the whirlwind ride for you. How have you managed to balance everything? Carolyn Porter: I meet with a lot of book clubs, and I find it laughable when people greet me like some sort of celebrity. I remind them I’m just me. I still live in a small 1950s rambler in White Bear Lake. I still work full time as a freelance graphic designer. I still take my dog for a daily walk around the neighborhood (sometimes in my pajamas). My biggest client hasn’t read the book yet. I find that refreshing, actually. On a day-to-day basis we talk about…