Stroll through the gardens behind the Bath House (across the street from McIntosh Memorial Library) and read this nature-inspired book, printed on panels for all to enjoy. The Story Walk is open for the duration of the Ridges & Rivers Book Festival.
The Story Walk is sponsored by the McIntosh Memorial Library.
Local author Sue Berg will give an overview of the series and describe her writing process as well as illustrate how she develops ideas and share what she learned on the way to publication.
Nature writer Steve Johnson will lead a discussion of outdoor adventures in Wisconsin and beyond. Camping, backpacking, and anything outdoors will be highlighted.
Poets Cynthia Marie Hoffman, whose latest volume explores her OCD, and Sarah Kain Gutowski will read from their work and discuss how their work is informed, shaped, and inhibited by their mental health.
Chad Lewis takes the audience on a ghostly journey to some of the most haunted places in the state, from the Northwoods and its wandering ghosts to a haunted B&B in Milwaukee. From phantom creatures prowling the woods to graveyard apparitions located in your own backyard, ghosts haunt every corner of Wisconsin.
Grandma Riley (aka Jane Schmidt) will take readers of all ages on a trip in which Finnegan, her rat terrier mix, recounts his backpacking adventure on the Superior Hiking Trail.
Kevin and Patsy Alderson will discuss the history and purpose of round barns, and why they fell out of favor. Also included will be information about Algie Shivers, who along with his crew build many of the round barns in the area. Algie is the son of Thomas Shivers, who was born into slavery in Tennessee and came to Cheyenne Valley near Hillsboro after the Civil War. Patsy Alderson's paintings of Vernon County will be featured as well.
What “secret” knowledge do you hold? What stories do you carry from family and community? What languages do you know, what voices do you carry, what echoes from people, places, or spirits inhabit you? How can you “translate” these hauntings in your writing? This generative workshop will offer prompts, examples from other writers, and scaffolding exercises to inspire new work. We will experiment with a “jazz” poetry in which we join our disparate voices in one conversation, one creative piece.
Coptic bookbinding was developed by the Egyptian Copts in the 2nd century A.D. and represents the earliest known form of a true codex. This multisection, nonadhesive binding features an exposed spine that reveals the decorative, braid-like sewing of the binding—commonly known as a chain stitch. These books lie flat when opened, making them easy to write in and an ideal for journals and notebooks. This class will include a brief introduction to material considerations, and each participant will bind a book to take home.
Listen to book fair vendors and local authors read from their work. Stop by the community room inside Western Technical College during the festival hours on Saturday, April 27. Sit back and listen to writers sharing their unique stories, essays, and poetry.
Nothing brings families closer together—or farther apart—than a good old-fashioned road trip. Join author and traveler B.J. Hollars for a step-by-step guide to dreaming and planning your own family adventure and how best to document your experiences for wider audiences. In addition to inspiring you to hop in the car, this presentation will also offer travel tips and a discussion of various travel-writing approaches and opportunities.
Our favorite story-time characters Pizza and Taco are back! Designed for young children and their caregivers, the series of graphic novels by Stephen Shaskan starring best friends Pizza and Taco will be brought to life by local teachers and librarians during a delightful storytelling session. Essential for school and reading readiness, story times support healthy, play-based learning and whole-child development while fostering early literacy and social-emotional skills. Join us in celebrating the fun of reading!
Amy Sullivan uses her own story as a launching point to illustrate how the opioid epidemic has challenged longstanding recovery protocols in Minnesota, a state internationally recognized for pioneering addiction treatment. Through the voices of many people who have experienced opioid use, treatment, recovery, and loss, Sullivan exposes the devastating effects of a one-size-fits-all approach toward treatment of opioid dependency. Taking a clear-eyed, nonjudgmental perspective on every aspect of this issue, Sullivan questions current treatment models, health-care inequities, and the criminal justice system. Sullivan also imagines a future where anyone suffering an opioid use disorder has access to individualized care.
Join Inga Witscher, dairy farmer, cheese maker, and host of the PBS television series Around the Farm Table, for an entertaining and educational cooking demonstration featuring her favorite spring ingredients.
Christina Clancy will read from and discuss her novels The Second Home, set partially on the east side of Milwaukee, and Shoulder Season, a novel that takes place in 1981 in Lake Geneva.
Quan Barry will read from Auction and When I’m Gone, Look for Me in the East and answer questions from the audience.
After the death of his father, David Shih sets out to reflect upon the myriad and often contradictory meanings of being Asian American in the US. Chinese Prodigal knits together the personal, the historical, and the present, offering an incisive examination of a society and the people it has never made space for.
David Shih will read from his recent memoir, Chinese Prodigal: A Memoir in Eight Arguments.
Stephen Shaskan will demonstrate how he draws Pizza and Taco from his bestselling graphic chapter-book series. Audience members are encouraged to draw along and suggest new details to add as the presentation progresses.
In this presentation, directors from the Amara Rose Foundation will show a brief film and tell their poignant stories of how addiction and fentanyl poisoning have affected them personally. The presenters and representatives from Family & Children’s Center Viroqua will be available to offer information on local resources.
Reporter and columnist George Hesselberg will discuss his more than forty years of finding the extraordinary among the ordinary in writing about deaths.
Join two critically acclaimed, award-winning Wisconsin authors for a conversation about the writing life, their most recent novels, and the great state they call home.
Eric Schlehlein tells the heroic and bloody story of the Iron Brigade. Composed of three Wisconsin regiments, an Indiana regiment, and (later) a Michigan regiment, this unit suffered the highest percentage of casualties of any Union brigade during the Civil War while achieving unparalleled success on the battlefield.
In this presentation, directors from the Amara Rose Foundation will show a brief film and tell their poignant stories of how addiction and fentanyl poisoning have affected them personally. The presenters and representatives from Family & Children’s Center Viroqua will be available to offer information on local resources.
Join Ben Riggs and learn everything you need to know to start playing Dungeons & Dragons in just sixty minutes!
A dramatization of stories from Arnold Lobel’s beloved children’s books presented by the Wisconsin Family Theater.
Writing about difficult experiences can help us process our anguish, pain, and grief. It can even lead to healing. But how does the resulting work transcend our personal circumstances and compel readers? Essayists Jane Schmidt and Tamara Dean will read from their pieces about illness, injury, and loss. They'll discuss techniques for depicting difficult material boldly without alienating readers. They'll offer insights on making memoir and personal essays relatable and illuminating. After questioning each other in a lively back-and-forth, they'll welcome more questions from the audience.
Take the first step toward transforming your landscape into a more environmentally friendly space for you, the pollinators, and our community. Melinda Myers presents manageable strategies to approach your landscaping from the ground up with results that will fit your lifestyle and landscape goals. She will provide an overview of environmentally friendly lawn and garden maintenance and offer tips on creating a pollinator habitat, a water-wise landscape, and an organic food garden. During this presentation, Myers also will take a look at landscape design and management as a whole, with an eye on simple steps that can make a big difference.
“Home” is a simple word, but its meaning can be complicated. Authors Kimberly Blaeser and David Shih discuss the places we call home—whether by birth, choice, or consequence—and how these physical or emotional places inform how we think, talk, and even write about them.
Jeff Nania draws upon his careers in law enforcement and natural resources to captivate readers and keep them wondering who is on the right side of the law in his award-winning Northern Lakes Mystery series. Throughout his life, Jeff has taken the path less traveled. These adventures have provided fodder for his engaging crime fiction while grounding his storytelling in the things he holds dear: family, community, and natural resources.
Listen to book fair vendors and local authors read from their work. Stop by the community room inside Western Technical College during the festival hours on Saturday, April 27. Sit back and listen to writers sharing their unique stories, essays, and poetry.
Larry Scheckel reminisces about growing up with eight siblings on the family farm in the hill country of southwestern Wisconsin and attending the one-room school out on Oak Grove Ridge. Traditions such as the basket social in the fall, the Christmas program, and the end-of-the-year picnic made Oak Grove School the social heart of the community. Learn the joys and challenges faced by students in a country school with twenty-eight kids and one teacher for all eight grades.
Open to all, from seasoned adventurers to curious newcomers, this free event promises an afternoon brimming with fantasy, strategy, and community. Choose from one of three captivating campaigns led by our esteemed Dungeon Masters Merten and Josh. Whether you're rolling your first die or your thousandth, join us for a day of storytelling, strategy, and snacks—all in the spirit of imagination and camaraderie. Magical adventure awaits!
Chad Lewis will showcase his on-site investigations from the Bigfoot of the Northwoods and the lake monster of Lake Pepin to phantom chickens and hellhounds roaming rural Wisconsin. Filled with drawings, eyewitness testimony, weird photos, and bizarre sound clips, this presentation brings the investigation right to the audience.
Kathy Kuderer will share a bit from each of her books about the Amish culture.
Learn about eagle biology, ecology, natural history, and cultural connections in an engaging and entertaining presentation with a naturalist interpreter and a live eagle ambassador from the National Eagle Center.
Gary Jones will talk about his memoir, show slides of Pleasant Ridge, tell stories from the past, and read from his book, Ridge Stories: Herding Hens, Powdering Pigs, and Other Recollections from a Boyhood in the Driftless.
In this workshop, we'll discuss how and why we can hit creative walls when we're working on a novel, story, or essay. Come prepared to try some short writing exercises designed to help you smash through the wall. Open to writers of any level of experience. Please bring a pen and notebook.
Unfortunately, Ria Thundercloud is not able to attend the Ridges & Rivers Book Festival this year, and this event is canceled.