Join us for the Central Wisconsin Book Festival, Sept. 17–26!
September 9, 2021
The following is a selection of books written by authors featured in the 2021 Central Wisconsin Book Festival (CWBF)! From fiction to nonfiction to poetry, this year's CWBF will be a great opportunity for members of the community to hear from notable writers with diverse backgrounds. Check out the following items before or after the festival to explore their creations:
July 7, 2021
Even though summer is officially upon us, the committee behind the Central Wisconsin Book Festival — including this author — have their eyes on the fall as we plan for the 5th annual fest! The festival, an initiative of the Marathon County Public Library (MCPL), has grown in several exciting ways since its humble beginnings in 2017: The number of authors hosted, the number of people who attend, and the reach of the festival beyond Central Wisconsin to other states and even countries! The biggest way we’re growing this year is geographically: For the first time, MCPL is collaborating with the Portage County Public Library in Stevens Point and the McMillan Memorial Library in Wisconsin Rapids to host...
April 8, 2021
Each year, the month of April is recognized as the National Poetry Month. To celebrate this, we at MCPL wanted to create a program that would inspire young patrons and students to learn more about poetry, and maybe even write a few poems themselves! The idea of a Poet-Tree came about from one of the children’s Library Specialists. She was inspired to create a program for tween and teen patrons to submit poems to display on a tree within the library. What could be more fun than hanging a leaf shaped poem you wrote on a 3D tree? With that thought in mind the mixed media Poet-tree was created! The poems currently being featured on our first-ever Poet-Tree were written by students from within the Wausau...
September 2, 2020
The fourth annual Central Wisconsin Book Festival (CWBF) takes place September 21–27, 2020, with events happening each of the six days, bringing authors and literature lovers together in exciting, creative and introspective ways! Although organizers felt it was necessary to make this year’s festival all-virtual, we’re still really excited about this year’s lineup and hope you will be, too. About a dozen volunteers have met monthly — first in person, then virtually — since the end of the 2019 festival to set up this year’s events. It’s been a challenge to reorganize the whole festival to take place online, due to the coronavirus pandemic. We’ll certainly miss the opportunity to gather together and...
September 1, 2020
The following is a selection of books written by authors featured in the 2020 Central Wisconsin Book Festival (CWBF)! From fiction to nonfiction to poetry, this year's "virtual" CWBF will be a great opportunity for members of the community to hear from notable writers with diverse backgrounds. Check out the following items before or after the festival to explore their creations:
August 27, 2020
The Central Wisconsin Book Festival will take place Sept. 21-27, 2020. Before it happens, we want to share a bit about some of the guests so we've asked a few to answer some questions that festival organizers have. Below is a back-and-forth between CWBF committee member Danielle Hale and Tiffany Midge, who will appear during two virtual events, Sept. 24 and Sept. 27. Quarantine Questions with Tiffany Midge I have a confession to make. I’m a bit of a fangirl when it comes to Tiffany Midge. I first heard about her just after I finished grad school in 2017. I was looking up Native American women writers because I wanted to read more from authors I could identify with. (Midge is a member of the...
April 22, 2020
April is National Poetry Month, and we have a fun and creative poetry-related project that you can make at home (and it might even help you write your next poem!) In this blog post, we'll walk readers through how they can make their own magnetic poetry set - with a twist. This magnetic poetry set is done in the style of a ransom note, made from cut out words from a variety of magazines or catalogs. Once completed, the set can be placed on any magnetic surface, such as a refrigerator, and you can then move the words around to create poems! Supplies: -Glossy magazines and catalogs (having a variety will work best) -Scissors (use a smaller scissors, which will help when cutting out smaller words...
September 25, 2018
Would you like to hear about Wisconsin politics from an author receiving national attention? Ask an award-winning mystery writer a question? Want to learn how to start your own blog or create your own podcast? Maybe you’d like to hear Wausau-area writers — teenagers to senior citizens — read their own, original work? Over the course of 4 days, a person has a chance to do any of that — maybe ALL of that — and much more during the 2nd annual Central Wisconsin Book Festival, taking place around the Wausau area September 27–30, 2018. The festival began in 2017 as a way to connect authors of all stripes with fans of the written word around Central Wisconsin. At the same time, it was meant to...
June 11, 2015
The United States has a new champion for poetry. On June 10, the Library of Congress announced it appointed Juan Felipe Herrera as the nation’s Poet Laureate, a position that dates back to 1937 and is aimed at raising awareness of the reading and writing of poetry. Perhaps most significant in the announcement is the fact that Herrera, 66, is the first Latino poet to be named to the post. You can read or listen to an NPR story here, but the short version is he’s the son of migrant farm workers and spent much of his earlier life on the west coast. He studied at both UCLA and Stanford, as well as the Iowa Writer’s Workshop. He has since written more than two dozen books. If you’re curious to read some of...
April 8, 2015
There are plenty of things to celebrate in April, but one of my favorite is poetry. Here at MCPL in Wausau, we’ve got two activities to encourage you to experience poetry every day. Come and build a poem with LEGO poetry in the TeenZone. Each LEGO has a word on it and you are invited to create a poem by using the words on the LEGOS. It’s like magnetic poetry, but in three dimensions. When you are done, take a picture with your phone, name the picture with the title of the poem (and your name if you want) and send it to us at teenzone@mcpl.us. We’ll post the poems to our Facebook page, so remember to like MCPL on Facebook to see your poem. Don’t have time to build a poem here? Take...
April 16, 2008
It's April and Spring is finally here and with it National Poetry Month sponsored by the Academy of American Poets. Poems speak to us in different ways, affecting our heart and soul. I know that I easily become engulfed in a poem, lingering, enjoying the sound and play of the words, drinking in its meaning. Poems often find a way into our busy lives when mere words are not enough, when we find it difficult to express the depth of our feelings and need something to soothe us, inspire us, give us hope—weddings, funerals, when we fall in love. Some of my favorite collections of poetry that you may also enjoy are: Good Poems—selected and introduced by Garrison Keillor—a nice...
April 16, 2008
It's April and Spring is finally here and with it National Poetry Month sponsored by the Academy of American Poets. Poems speak to us in different ways, affecting our heart and soul. I know that I easily become engulfed in a poem, lingering, enjoying the sound and play of the words, drinking in its meaning. Poems often find a way into our busy lives when mere words are not enough, when we find it difficult to express the depth of our feelings and need something to soothe us, inspire us, give us hope—weddings, funerals, when we fall in love. Some of my favorite collections of poetry that you may also enjoy are: Good Poems—selected and introduced by Garrison Keillor—a nice collection...
