Downtown Eau Claire, Inc. (DECI) announced the winners of the 13th annual Jump-Start Downtown Business Competition on Tuesday, and we were thrilled to accept the Innovative Idea Award for 2017. We received a scholarship to the Entrepreneurial Training Program at the Small Business Development Center, which will be an enormous help to us as we work to open Dotters Books in 2018.
The Jim Mishefske Award (grand prize award) was awarded to Blue Ox Running on South Barstow Street, and the Honorable Mention Award was awarded to Shantel Welk of Sky Yoga, a new studio on South Barstow Street. Congrats!
Come celebrate with us on October 22nd for the Tables of Content Book Fair!
The Chippewa Valley Book Festival will host its first Book Fair this fall on Sunday, October 22nd from 12-4pm. Aptly named “Tables of Content,” the book fair aims to provide access to books in a family-friendly environment. The new addition to the festival’s lineup allows a portion of the proceeds to benefit the book festival, and ensure its continued success.
Festival co-chair Mildred Larson said, “We're excited to add the Tables of Content book fair to the festival's repertoire for readers to buy books by visiting and local authors. We hope the fair will attract individuals and families who love the experience of browsing specially curated selections of books."
Tables of Content will take place at three venues in downtown Eau Claire: the Local Store at Volume One, the Gallery at the Oxbow, and Red’s Mercantile.
At the Oxbow Gallery, the Chippewa Valley Book Festival will highlight books written by the festival’s authors, including a yet-to-be-released poetry collection by Max Garland, a new poetry collection by Wisconsin Poet Laureate Karla Huston, the Pulitzer Prize-winning Evicted by Matthew Desmond, and many more.
Also at the Oxbow, the editors of Twig will teach people how to make their own zines. They’ll also have merch, issues of Twig, and literature-related goodies on hand. Dotters Books will feature a curated selection of children’s books for kids and young adults. Learn about upcoming events from the Chippewa Valley Writers Guild at their booth. And Literacy Chippewa Valley will be on hand to discuss the opportunities that it provides to adult learners, volunteer tutors and other literacy advocates.
Up at Red’s Mercantile, Dotters Books will hold a pop-up of art, design, home decor, and Scandinavian-themed books, in keeping with the selection of goods at Red’s.
At the Local Store, book fair attendees will receive 15% off their purchase when they buy a book. Chippewa Falls-based Bomb Tacos will serve freshly made tacos. The store will support the local literary community by highlighting a curated selection of Wisconsin and Midwest-based literature. They will also host signings with authors Nickolas Butler, Michael Perry, Molly Patterson, and Julie Bowe.
Michael Perry will be in attendance to sign copies of his new releases: Danger: Man Working (Wisconsin Historical Society, Aug. 2017) and Montaigne in Barn Boots (Harper, Nov. 2017). Though not released to the public until November 7th, the Local Store will have a special limited release of Montaigne in Barn Boots available for purchase. Kirkus Review writes, “Perry’s refreshing candor, the essence of the personal essay, serves him well…. ‘You read Montaigne, you feel like you have a friend,’ writes the author, and so readers are likely to feel about Perry.”
Molly Patterson will sign copies of her debut novel, Rebellion (Harper, Aug. 2017). Patterson is a Pushcart Prize-winning writer, and her first novel has drawn early praise; Kirkus raves in a starred review, “A talent to watch, Patterson manages to travel broad swaths of history and geography while creating intimate moments with a refreshing lack of sentimentality; and the novel’s sense of adventure makes it addictive reading.”
Nickolas Butler will be on hand to sign copies of his latest novel, The Hearts of Men (Harper, Mar. 2017), which People magazine called, "[A] tender, insightful book... Perfectly paced and leavened with humor, it's a wonderful read."
Julie Bowe will sign copies of her latest release, Big & Little Questions (According to Wren Jo Byrd) (Kathy Dawson Books, Mar. 2017). Bowe is the author of the Friends for Keeps series and the Victoria Torres, Unfortunately Average series. Her first novel, My Last Best Friend, won the Paterson Prize for Books for Young People and was a 2010 Barnes & Noble Summer Reading Program book. Her latest, Big & Little Questions, is a middle-grade novel that received praise in Booklist and Kirkus. A starred review in Publishers Weekly states, “… powerfully illustrates how deeply upsetting family changes can be. Bowe’s genuine portraits of the key relationships in Wren’s life...make for a warm and rewarding story about dealing with change.”
On Sunday, October 22nd from 12-4pm, Tables of Content hopes to draw a new audience of book lovers and readers into the Book Festival’s many offerings.