Roy, Moore, Urrea among a parade of authors visiting Milwaukee soon
Get your tote bag ready for a bumper crop of big-name authors and prizewinning writers visiting the Milwaukee area in the coming weeks.
Here’s a look at some (by no means all) top literary events on the local calendar in the near future:
Monday: In a ticketed event, Meg Wolitzer talks about her new novel “The Female Persuasion” with Wisconsin novelist Jane Hamilton (”The Excellent Lombards”) at 7 p.m. at Schlitz Audubon Nature Center, 1111 E. Brown Deer Road, Bayside. Tickets, at $30, include a copy of Wolitzer’s novel: wolitzer. bpt.me.
May 2: Nobody blends the outlandish and the otherworldly like comic novelist Christopher Moore. He’ll visit Boswell Books, 2559 N. Downer Ave., at 7 p.m. to promote his new novel, “Noir,” which spoofs private-eye tales as well as Roswellian men in black. Tickets, at $30, include a copy of “Noir”: moore mke18.bpt.me.
May 6: Paula McLain visits Brookfield’s Wilson Center, 19805 W. Capitol Drive, at 3 p.m. to talk about her new novel, “Love and Ruin,” a story about intrepid war correspondent Martha Gellhorn and that dude she married, Ernest Hemingway. McLain’s earlier books include “The Paris Wife.” Tickets, at $32, including a copy of “Love and Ruin”: visit mclain.bpt.me.
May 8: Man Booker Prize winner Arundhati Roy will speak at 7 p.m. at the UWM Union, 2200 W. Kenwood Blvd., on the paperback tour for her novel “The Ministry of Utmost Happiness.” She is equally well known for her political activism. Tickets, at $19, include a copy of “Ministry”: www. brownpapertickets.com/event/ 3357086.
May 11: Luís Alberto Urrea headlines the Spring Literary Luncheon, the Friends of Milwaukee Public Library’s biggest annual fundraising event. Urrea will talk about his new novel, “The House of Broken Angels,” a big family saga that spans the U.S.-Mexico border. Urrea’s literary honors include an Edgar award for best mystery story and an American Book Award for his memoir “Nobody’s Son: Notes From an American Life.” The event begins at 11 a.m. at the Wisconsin Club, 900 W. Wisconsin Ave. Tickets are $75; registration is required. Call (414) 286-8720 or visit mpl.org.
May 15: Katherine Applegate, author of “The Only and Only Ivan” and “Crenshaw,” will speak about her new middle-grade fantasy “Endling: The Last” at 6:30 p.m. at Greenfield Public Library, 5310 W. Layton Ave. Register for this free event at the Greenfield Public Library website.
June 15: Novelist Jennifer Egan visits Boswell Books for a ticketed event on her paperback tour for “Manhattan Beach,” her historical novel about a woman who becomes a Navy diver during World War II, despite a hierarchy that has no use for women in such dangerous roles. Reviewer Mike Fischer wrote that in “Manhattan Beach,” like Egan’s earlier Pulitzer Prize-winning novel “A Visit From the Goon Squad,” “ghosts from the past always linger, collapsing time while haunting us.” Tickets, at $19, include a copy of “Manhattan Beach.” Visit eganmke.bpt.me.