2012 Waupaca Book Festival Home

Erica Bauermeister is the author of the bestselling novel The School of Essential Ingredients. (Putnam, 2009) which follows the lives of eight students and their teacher in a cooking class held in a restaurant kitchen. Her new novel, Joy for Beginners (Putnam, June 2011) explores what happens to seven women who challenge one another to do one thing in the next year that is new or difficult or scary. The twist? - they don't get to choose their own challenges. Garth Stein, author of The Art of Racing in the Rain, has called Joy for Beginners "moving,

Peter Geniesse grew up in northeastern Wisconsin and graduated from the University of Notre Dame with a degree in journalism. During the 1960s he worked as a lay missioner in northern Chile and began developing his interest in social justice issues.

Brett Laidlaw is a writer, cook, bread baker, trout bum, mushroom hound, and gardener.  After spending most of his life in the Twin Cities area, he recently relocated (along with his wife, Mary Eckmeier, and two wire-haired pointing griffons, Annabel and Lily) to hilly northern Dunn County, Wisconsin.  He’s the author of two novels, Three Nights in the Heart of the Earth and Blue Bel Air, and his short stories, essays, and reviews have appeared in Gray’s Sporting Journal, the Star Tribune newspaper, Minneapolis Observer Quarterly and elsewhere.  He has also recorded essays on northern foods for the “Wisconsin Life” series on Wisconsin Public Radio.

Marissa Meyer is the New York Times bestselling author of CINDER: Book One of the Lunar Chronicles. She's a fan of most things geeky (Sailor Moon, Firefly, color-coordinating her bookshelf . . .), and has been in love with fairy tales since she was a kid. She may or may not be a cyborg.

Michael Perry is a humorist and author of the bestselling memoirs Population 485: Meeting Your Neighbors One Siren at a Time, Truck: A Love Story and Coop: A Year of Poultry, Pigs and Parenting, as well as the essay collection Off Main Street.Perry has written for Esquire, The New York Times Magazine, Outside, Backpacker, Orion and Salon.com, and is a contributing editor to Men’s Health. He has performed and produced two live audience humor recordings (I Got It From the Cows and Never Stand Behind a Sneezing Cow) and he performs regularly with his band the Long Beds.  Perry lives in rural Wisconsin, where he remains active with the local volunteer rescue service. He can be found online at www.sneezingcow.com.

Pat Schmatz is the author of four novels for teens.  Her early books were recognized by the Wisconsin Library Association, the Council for Wisconsin Writers, and Bank Street College of Education.  Her most recent book, Bluefish, won the PEN/Phyllis Naylor Working Writer Fellowship while still a work in progress.  It was published by Candlewick Press in 2011, and awarded Bank Street College of Education’s 2012 Josette Frank Award for fiction.  It is a Junior Library Guild Selection, a nominee for the E.B. White Read-Aloud Award, and an ALA Notable Children’s Book. Read More »

Matt Tavares was born in Boston, Massachusetts in 1975. He grew up in Winchester, a suburb just outside of Boston. 
Matt wrote and illustrated his first picture book, Sebastian's Ball, as his senior thesis at Bates College. Three years later, after much revision, Sebastian's Ball became Zachary's Ball, his first published picture book. Zachary's Ball went on to win an Oppenheim Gold Seal Award, a Massachusetts Book Award Honor, and was named one of Yankee Magazine's 40 Classic New England Children's Books. Read More »