Pre-registration has filled to capacity. A very limited number of walk-up admissions will be accommodated for this event.

Join Chippewa Valley author B.J. Hollars for a reading, conversation and book release event at Chippewa Valley Museum. Learn the behind-the-scenes stories of little-known Wisconsinites who answered a call to work toward a better, more equitable future during John F. Kennedy’s presidential campaign. Copies of Wisconsin for Kennedy will be available for purchase at this event.

About the Book: Wisconsin for Kennedy: In early 1960, presidential candidate John F. Kennedy faced an uncertain path to the Oval Office. So he did something no winning candidate had done before: he leveraged the power of state primaries, appealing directly to the people to help clinch his party’s nomination. Before JFK could win the White House, he had to win Wisconsin. Wisconsin for Kennedy shares the history-making story of the 1960 Wisconsin primary, and how Kennedy’s nail-biting win in that hotly contested race propelled him all the way to the presidency.

About the Author: B.J. Hollars is the author of several books, most recently Go West Young Man: A Father and Son Rediscover America on the Oregon Trail and Year of Plenty: A Family’s Season of Grief forthcoming this spring. Hollars is the recipient of the Truman Capote Prize for Literary Nonfiction, the Anne B. and James B. McMillan Prize, the Council of Wisconsin Writers' Blei-Derleth Award, the Society of Midland Authors Award, and received a 2022 silver medal from the Midwest Book Awards. He is the founder and executive director of the Chippewa Valley Writers Guild and the Midwest Artist Academy, as well as an associate professor of English at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, and a columnist for The Leader-Telegram.