Friday, September 22, 2006

Wisconsin Book Festival - Edgerton

The Edgerton Book Festival has an amazing line-up of speakers on Saturday, Oct. 21, in their 600-seat Edgerton Performing Arts Center.

The Keynote Speaker from 9:30 to 10:30 a.m. is Helen Thomas, is an internationally known Washington Press Corps reporter, a famous United Press International reporter covering every Presidential Administration from John F. Kennedy to George W. Bush. Helen has completed a book called "Front Row at the White House."

After Ms. Thomas, Wisconsin's own Michael Perry will speak from 11 a.m. to noon. Perry was raised on a small dairy farm in northwestern Wisconsin. As an author and humorist, his work includes humorous offbeat appearances as a commentator on Wisconsin Public Television's "Here and Now." He is a volunteer firefighter and EMT, can milk a cow in the dark, and says that you should never show up at the fire hall in tights.

Other speakers include Kevin Henkes, from Racine, Wisconsin, and David Maraniss, a Michigan native.

Henkes belongs to an elite group of authors who have won three of the highest honors in children's publishing: The Caldecott Medal in 2005 for Kitten's First Full Moon; the Newbery Honor award in 2004 for the novel, Olive's Ocean; and the 1994 Caldecott Honor award for Owen.

David Maraniss and his family moved to Madison when he was eight years old, and he attended the University of Wisconsin. His journalism career began in college. He has written for many newspapers, including The Washington Post, where he served as Southwest Bureau Chief for seven years and is currently writer-at-large on the national staff. He has won several awards for writing including the Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting in 1993.

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