The Fox Cities Book Festival is April 20-26 in Appleton, Neenah, Menasha, Kaukauna, Little Chute, and Kimberly, Wisconsin. This book festival aims to connect writers with their readers and readers with those who write the books they read. During my first week of residency in Wisconsin, I plan to partake in this celebration of books. Throughout the week authors share their works through readings, panel discussions, writing workshops, school programs, and public conversations. Readers can participate in a sing-along, poetry slam, cooking demonstration, art exhibition, mini-ComiCon, and Earth Day events. Christina Baker Kline’s Orphan Train is the 2015 Fox Cities Reads selection. Interesting that my Brooktondale book club had read it recently so I feel as though I can participate in the community conversations about the book. Kline will appear at a half dozen public events scheduled between Monday April 20th and Sunday the 26th, 2015. Between 1854 and 1929, more than 200,000 orphaned, abandoned, and homeless children – many of them first-generation immigrants from Italy, Ireland, and Poland– were transported by train from coastal cities of the eastern U.S. to the Midwest for “adoption” (often indentured servitude). Kline’s historical novel creates interesting public conversations around history, family, ethnicity, and adoption. Kline is one of many authors – national, regional, and local – who represent their work directly to readers at the Fox Cities Book Festival. Fiction and nonfiction, Young Adult and humor, self-help and poetry. Even an asphalt cowboy poet, Doc Mehl. On Friday evening at 6:45 pm Doc…
Across the nation there are community reading programs that ask everyone to read and discuss the same book. For almost 20 years the American Library Association has developed resources for librarians to build community–wide reading programs. People who share a common reading experience come together to discuss the book. “The idea is that the city that opens the same book closes it in greater harmony,”… [Read More]
Filed Under: American Library Association, Black Lives Matter, Fox Cities Reads, Jim Crow, Marian Anderson, Sharon Draper, Stella by Starlight, Sundown Town
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If you watch a lot of movies, then you’ve likely seen continuity errors. In Jurassic Park, there is a scene where programmer-turned-thief Dennis Nedry converses live with an accomplice on his computer but the workstation clearly shows he’s speaking to a pre-recorded video instead. Plot hole. Arnold Schwarzenegger plays an action hero in Commando where he badly damages his Porsche giving chase and in the… [Read More]
What’s bookcamp? Think boot-camp for your book. Spend six days in an intensive program to help you finish a manuscript worthy of publication and figure out how to pitch it to win a successful publishing deal. Dave Rank, past president of the Wisconsin Writers Association, is the host and director of Bookcamp which he established four years ago to attract and encourage emerging novelists. Last… [Read More]
Let me introduce my guestblogger today, Ira Rabois. Rowman & Littlefield released his new book, Compassionate Critical Thinking, in late October 2016. I invited Ira to write a meditation for today because we all need compassionate critical thinking to write well. “How do you write well? Probably thousands have written about this. On the surface, it seems writing is about language, which to a large… [Read More]
If you seek traditional publication for your book manuscript, then it is incumbent upon you to obtain copyright permissions for any text or images which are not original. The book will not go to print until every written permission has been secured. Because publishing is a for-profit venture, an author cannot include the copyrighted work of others without permission and it is not covered under… [Read More]