Songs for Other People's Weddings

Jens Lekman, David Levithan

7:00pm - 8:00pm
A novel about connection, heartbreak, and the music that gets us through it.

Forward for the People

Senator Fred A. Risser, Doug Moe

6:00pm - 7:00pm
A unique peek behind the political curtain from the viewpoint of someone who saw it all.

Xicana Voices: A Valuable Part of the American Literary Landscape

Luz Schweig, Brenda Vaca, Angie Trudell Vasquez, Diana Pando, Amanda Rosas, Isabella Santana, Erika Vallejo, Xánath Caraza

7:00pm - 8:00pm
Virtual Hispanic Heritage Month event featuring the historical SOMOS XICANAS anthology.

Recording Available

A World Worth Saving

Kyle Lukoff

7:00pm - 8:00pm
A groundbreaking, action-packed, and ultimately uplifting examination of the impacts of transphobia.

The Unveiling

Quan Barry

7:00pm - 8:00pm
An astonishing ghost story about the masks we wear and the truths we hide even from ourselves.

2025 Charlotte Zolotow Lecture: Christina Soontornvat - The Universe and the Details

Christina Soontornvat

7:30pm - 8:30pm
Annual Charlotte Zolotow Lecture featuring Christina Soontornvat, author of over 20 children's books

The Story Won’t Tell Itself: The Cultural Legacy Of Jim From Adventures Of Huckleberry Finn

David F. Walker, Marcus Kwame Anderson

5:00pm - 6:30pm
Beautifully illustrated and superbly written, richly expanding an American classic

SCHOOL VISIT: Saving Our Sturgeon

Rebecca Hogue Wojahn, Titus Seilheimer, Anne Moser

11:00am - 12:00pm
Celebrates the conservation success story about one remarkable species of fish.

Far From the Rooftop of the World

Amy Yee

5:30pm - 6:30pm
Journalist Amy Yee follows ordinary Tibetan exiles in Dharamsala, India and across the globe.

Mutual Interest

Olivia Wolfgang-Smith

5:30pm - 6:30pm
A beguiling story of queer romance, empire, and power.

The Business Trip

Jessie Garcia

5:30pm - 6:30pm
takes you on a descent into the depths of a mastermind manipulator. But who is playing who?

Great Black Hope

Rob Franklin

7:00pm - 8:00pm
A propulsive, glittering story about what it means to exist between worlds.

Money, Lies, and God

Katherine Stewart

7:00pm - 8:00pm
Comprehensive political analysis that helps reframe the moral collapse American conservatism.

The Phoebe Variations

Jane Hamilton

7:00pm - 8:00pm
A stunning coming-of-age novel about girls, mothers, and finding one's way in the world.

A Season of Light

Julie Iromuanya

4:30pm - 5:30pm
A compelling novel about a Nigerian family living in Florida and their generation wounds.

Poet and Dreamers: My Life in Americana Music

Tamara Saviano

4:30pm - 5:30pm
Tamara Saviano’s remarkable journey through the rise of the Americana music genre.

The Lonely Veteran's Guide to Companionship

Bronson Lemer

4:30pm - 5:30pm
How one queer veteran managed to carve out a path that led him closer to the person he wanted to be.

The Wisconsin Whey: Cheesemaking In The Driftless

Kristin Mitchell, Nicole Bujewski, Keith Burrows

4:30pm - 5:30pm
Celebrates the authors' contributions to Wisconsin’s rich cheesemaking tradition.

Destroy This House

Amanda Uhle

6:00pm - 7:00pm
A heartfelt & utterly unique memoir capturing the boundless love between all parents and children.

Let's Make Bread

Sarah Becan

6:00pm - 7:00pm
An accessible and easy-to-follow comic book cookbook for baking delicious breads.

The Dream Hotel

Laila Lalami

6:00pm - 7:00pm
Explores the seductive nature of how technology shackles us even as it makes our lives easier.

The Tracks of My Years

Doug Bradley, David Maraniss

6:00pm - 7:00pm
Tells the story of a life lived with, and in, music.

Alanis: Thirty Years of Jagged Little Pill

Selena Fragassi

7:30pm - 8:30pm
Exploring the ground-breaking legacy of Alanis Morissette's iconic album Jagged Little Pill.

Dining Out

Erik Piepenburg

7:30pm - 8:30pm
Explores how gay people came of age, came out, and fought for their in restaurants.

Familiaris

David Wroblewski

7:30pm - 8:30pm
An unforgettable journey from the halls of a small-town automobile factory

The Wanderer's Curse

Jennifer Hope Choi

7:30pm - 8:30pm
A hilarious, whip-smart mother-daughter story that explores belonging and self-determination.

Joy Is My Middle Name

Sasha Debevec-McKenney

9:00pm - 10:00pm
About crawling through your twenties and emerging into your thirties.

WE READ Youth Voices Writing Contest: Authors Reception

Ash Gartler, Rowan Moran, Nina Pfeiffer

9:15am - 10:15am
Celebrate the winners of the 2025 We Read Youth Voices Anthology

¡Quijóteres!

Dragoncillo Puppet Troupe

10:00am - 11:00am
Bilingual shadow puppet adaptation of Miguel de Cervantes’ lovable lunatic, Don Quijote de La Mancha

Pushing the River

Frank Bures, Maggie Ginsberg

10:30am
Tales of ambition, adventure, rivalry, friendship, and love on the waters of the Mississippi River.

The Battle for the Black Mind

Karida L. Brown

10:30am - 11:30am
A critical investigation of the foundational roots of racial inequality in American education.

This is the Only Kingdom

Jaquira Díaz

10:30am - 11:30am
An epic novel of a mother and daughter wrestling with the aftermath of a murder.

Wisconsin Idols

Dean Robbins

10:30am - 11:30am
A unique perspective on transformative figures with often surprising connections to Wisconsin.

Fish Tales: Why Fresh And Saltwater Fish Are Worth Knowing And Saving

Rebecca Hogue Wojahn, Joe E Meisel, Anne Moser

12:00pm - 1:00pm
Rebecca Hogue Wojahn and Joe Meisel talk about the wondrous and intriguing lives of fish.

Homework

Geoff Dyer

12:00pm - 1:00pm
A portrait of a young boy, who keeps passing exams—and of a changing England in the 1960s and 1970s.

The Year Science Changed Everything

Mark O'Connell

12:00pm - 1:00pm
A historic collaboration offers a blueprint for tackling today's environmental challenges.

What's Left: Three Paths Through the Planetary Crisis

Malcolm Harris

12:00pm - 1:00pm
Shows us where we stand and how we got here, while also blazing a path toward a brighter future.

Middle Spoon

Alejandro Varela

1:30pm - 2:30pm
For anyone who has longed, nursed a broken heart, or grappled with love at its messiest.

Submersed

Matthew Gavin Frank

1:30pm - 2:30pm

The Dry Season

Melissa Febos

1:30pm - 2:30pm
tells a story that’s as much about celibacy as its inverse: pleasure, desire, fulfillment.

The Fight for Rural America: Confronting Big Ag And Building a Model for Protecting The Land And Its People

Curt Meine, Sonja Trom Eayrs, Norman Stockwell

1:30pm - 2:30pm

White Light

Jack Lohmann

1:30pm - 2:30pm
Invites us to renew our broken relationship not just with the Earth but with our own death

Big Chief

Jon Hickey

3:00pm - 4:00pm
An unforgettable story about the search for belonging.

Make Me Commissioner

Jane Leavy, David Maraniss

3:00pm - 4:00pm
Jane Leavy talks with baseball luminaries like Joe Torre, Dave Roberts, Jim Palmer, and Dusty Baker.

Relative Distance: a Poetry Reading with Kiyoko Reidy and Lily Someson

Kiyoko Reidy, Lily Someson

3:00pm - 4:00pm
An afternoon with local poets Lily Someson and Kiyoko Reidy.

Strata

Laura Poppick

3:00pm - 4:00pm
A journey through four global transformations that made our lives on Earth possible.

The Wisconsin State Park System 125th Anniversary: A Celebration In Books

Scott Spoolman, Betsy Korbinyr, Randy Hoffman

4:30pm - 5:30pm

Let Me Write Myself Here: Asian Poets in the Midwest

Saba Keramati, Meg Kim, Mandy Moe Pwint Tu

4:30pm - 5:30pm
A poetry reading and discussion by three debut Asian American writers with ties to the Midwest.

So Many Stars

Caro De Robertis

4:30pm - 5:30pm
A deeply personal, and moving oral history of a generation of trans and gender nonconforming elders.

The Wilderness

Angela Flournoy

4:30pm - 5:30pm
An era-defining novel about five Black women over the course of their twenty-year friendship.

Heart the Lover

Lily King

6:00pm - 7:00pm
A deeply moving story that celebrates love, friendship, and the transformative nature of forgiveness

Maggie; Or, a Man and a Woman Walk Into a Bar

Katie Yee

6:00pm - 7:00pm
A master class in transforming personal tragedy into a form of defiant comedy.

We Contain Landscapes

Patrycja Humienik

6:00pm - 7:00pm
Haunted by questions of desire, borders, and the illusion of national belonging.

Eco-Intimacy: Poems on Queering Kinship, Desire, & the More-than-Human World

Elizabeth Bradfield, Donika Kelly, Keetje Kuipers

7:30pm - 8:30pm

Indian Country

Shobha Rao

7:30pm - 8:30pm
A beautiful yet brutal novel about colonialism, westward expansion, and the ramifications of both.

Roman Year

André Aciman

7:30pm - 8:30pm
A deeply romantic memoir of his time in Rome while on the cusp of adulthood.

Birds of the Great Lakes

Dexter Patterson

10:30am - 11:30am
A birding guide that is the ideal travel companion for every trip to the region.

Digital Girlhoods

Kate Phelps

10:30am - 11:30am
Explores the nuanced and complex relationships that American tween girls have with social media.

Unabridged

Stefan Fatsis

10:30am - 11:30am
An illuminating journey through past, present, and future of the exotic world of Merriam-Webster.

Friends with Words: Adventures in Languageland

Martha Barnette, Grant Barrett

12:00pm - 1:00pm
A popular radio and podcast host shares her love of language.

Worth More: Gender Roles In The Home and Their Cost and Value

Emily Callaci, Allison Daminger , Pernille Ipsen

12:00pm - 1:00pm
A conversation about the undervalued and overly-gendered role of running a household in society.

Replaceable You

Mary Roach

1:30pm - 2:30pm
An exploration of the quest to re-create the impossible complexities of human anatomy.

The Cook's Garden

Kevin West

1:30pm - 2:30pm
An accessible, comprehensive, and inspiring guide to growing your own garden.

Wisconsin People & Ideas 2025 Poetry and Fiction Contest Winners

Elizabeth Hendricks, John Mulvihill, Hannah Greendale, Alison Thumel, Lex Williams Page, Breanna Grow

7:00pm - 8:00pm

UW-Madison Go Big Read: James

Percival Everett

7:00pm - 8:00pm
A brilliant, tender novel radically illuminates Jim’s agency, intelligence & compassion.