Spring is arriving, and that means Green Bay’s annual UntitledTown Book and Author Festival, now in its third year, is just around the corner. Sporting 100+ free literary events in downtown Green Bay, including readings, discussions, panels, workshops, and other events of interest to writers and readers, UntitledTown celebrates “all aspects of book culture.” With events for people of all ages, interests, and walks of life, the festival truly has something for everyone. This year, UntitledTown will be held April 25-28. As part of the festival, Jill Swenson will moderate a discussion on parenting memoirs featuring authors Laura Jean Baker, author of The Motherhood Affadavits, and David McGlynn, author of One Day You’ll Thank Me. It will be held on April 26 from 4-4:45 p.m. at the Brown County Library’s Central Branch. See the event listing for more details. UntitledTown has a history of bringing in big-name authors like Margaret Atwood and R.L. Stine, and this year will be no different. The author lineup includes headliners Susan Orlean, Nickolas Butler, Rebecca Makkai, Walter Mosley, Joelle Charbonneau, Andrea Gibson, Jamie Ford, Michael Moreci, William Kent Krueger, Miranda Paul, Michael Perry and Long Beds, and Baptiste Paul. All headliner events, with the exception of the Michael Perry fundraising event, are free with general access admission tickets, but with a $30 donation, festival-goers can get priority access to the author signing line and closer seating. Getting to see your favorite authors up close is one of the best opportunities UntitledTown has to offer.…

Linda J. Spielman’s A Field Guide to Tracking Mammals in the Northeast is a wonderful reference tool for the backyard enthusiast or the back-to-the-woods survivalist. Countryman Press published her book on July 4 and her distributor W.W. Norton sent a copy I donated to a Little Free Library here in Appleton, Wisconsin. Little Free Libraries began in Wisconsin and grew into a global movement based on a simple premise: take a book, leave a book. Now a nonprofit organization, Little Free Libraries, inspires a love of reading, build community, and spark creativity by fostering neighborhood book exchanges. Here in Appleton there are hundreds of Little Free Libraries scattered across many neighborhoods. There is a new one on Winona Way where I used to live. Across from City Park, there’s one that looks exactly like the house it sits in front of in the historic district. Most elementary schools have one on the playground or near the main entrance. They’re everywhere. Recently I stopped at the Little Free Library on Pacific Street to leave a new copy of Linda Spielman’s new field guide and took an old paperback edition of Barbara Pym’s Excellent Women. First published in 1952, this comedy of manners is a favorite of mine. The book details the everyday life of a “spinster” in her thirties in 1950s England and her witty spoof on gender relations in a self-deprecating voice with the sharpest wit is something to reread. There is a certain irony in that Linda Spielman reminds me…

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…