THE NEED TO READ. The Chippewa Valley Book Festival will return with 12 fun events from Oct. 11-16, 2023. (Photos via CV Book Fest's Facebook)

The Chippewa Valley, Wisconsin, and the Midwest have an abundance of great authors, and the Chippewa Valley Book Festival gives the community a chance to learn from and appreciate them. Celebrating its 24th year, the festival is hosting 12 book-related events from Oct. 11-16, each with its own author.

Every event – other than the meal on Oct. 11 – is held in-person with live-streaming options. Featured authors this year include Abra Berens, Maggie Ginsberg, Shelby Van Pelt, Nghi Vo, Jonathan Slaght, Douglas Tallamy, Scott Spoolman, Melissa Faliveno, Carol Dunbar, Laura Warrell, V.V. Ganeshananthan, and Wisconsin Poet Laureate Nicholas Gulig (an Eau Claire native) with Nickolas Butler. All event info can be found online at VolumeOne.org/events.

All non-meal events are free, with registration required and available through the Chippewa Valley Book Festival website. Registration for the events won’t be open until late this summer. All books showcased in the festival can be purchased locally at Dotters Books (307 S. Barstow St., Eau Claire).

The Chippewa Valley Book Festival began in 1999 and is now a collaboration between The Pablo Center at the Confluence, UW-Eau Claire, UW-Stout, L.E. Phillips Memorial Public Library, area school districts, and the Chippewa Valley Museum. The event was created as an avenue for promoting reading and writing while getting to highlight some of the region’s – and the nation’s – bests writers, including novelists, non-fiction writers, and poets.

Go to one or go to all and enjoy the wisdom and talent of some of the area’s most prominent wordsmiths.

For more information on the festival, go to cvbookfest.org.