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The first-ever Wisconsin Book Festival, a program of the Wisconsin Humanities Council, was held in the capital city in October, 2002. Since its debut, the Festival has established itself as a beloved fixture in Wisconsin's rich cultural landscape. Through a unique partnership between the public, private, and academic sectors, the Wisconsin Book Festival celebrates our state's rich literary heritage, brings some of America's finest writers to the people of Wisconsin, and encourages Wisconsinites of all ages to read widely and to read well.
The Festival has attracted an eclectic mix of accomplished writers, including: Billy Collins, Grace Paley, Tim O'Brien, Edwidge Danticat, Edmund White, Richard Bausch, Charles Baxter, Audrey Niffenegger, Jeffrey Eugenides, Harvey Pekar, Nell Freudenberger, Colson Whitehead, Heidi Julavits, Stuart Dybek, Peter Straub, Jim Shepard, Anthony Doerr, Sarah Shun-Lien Bynum, Elizabeth Berg, Judith Claire Mitchell, Jesse Lee Kercheval, Jacquelyn Mitchard, and Tenaya Darlington.
The Wisconsin Book Festival is the state's largest literary festival, with approximately 15,000 annual attendees, and one of the largest in the nation. This unique event inspires book lovers from across the region to spend a weekend in downtown Madison and transforms State Street into a vast, public literary salon. In short, the Wisconsin Book Festival is a high-energy, high-profile, public literary arts and humanities program that makes an impressive cultural and economic impact each year.