We are fortunate to be part of the 17th annual Chippewa Valley Book Festival. Each fall the Festival brings a series of fabulous authors to the Chippewa Valley. Held in various locations around our area, there is something for everyone. The 17th annual Chippewa Valley Book Festival will run from Monday evening, October 10, through Thursday afternoon, October 20. watch video interview here
The Middle East will come alive in Eau Claire this fall when authors Sandy Tolan, (Children of the Stone: the Power of Music in a Hard Land), and Barbara Massaad, (Soup for Syria) kick off this year’s Festival Events on October 12, 13 and 14. But there’s much more! They will join fifteen other fiction and non-fiction writers, poets, and journalists who will visit public libraries, the UW-Eau Claire campus and community venues. There’s an author for everyone: farming, politics and music, public radio, pets, addiction, crime thrillers, historical fiction, science fiction, non-fiction, poetry and history. Ten authors will visit area schools. Adult writers may attend workshops on writing fiction, nonfiction, poetry and writing for young adults, and learn about publishing from a panel of published writers. Young writers may attend age-appropriate workshops for elementary, middle school and high school students. All activities, except meals with authors and the adult writing workshops are free.
Author Vu Tran will visit our library on October 19 at 7:00 p.m. Born in Saigon in 1975, Vu Tran fled Vietnam with his family, spent time in a refugee camp, then settled and grew up in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Tran holds an MFA in fiction from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop and a Ph.D. in English and Creative Writing from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Tran is currently an Assistant Professor of Practice in the Arts in English and Creative Writing, University of Chicago. Tran’s short fiction has been recognized with honors from Glimmer Train Stories and Michigan Quarterly Review. He is the recipient of a 2009 Whiting Writers’ Award. His debut novel, Dragonfish, includes material from “This Or Any Desert,” a story included in the Best American Mystery Stories 2009. For more information click here.