Rebecca Kauffman | The Mysterious Ordinary

Registration required online.

Part of the 2026 Chippewa Valley Book Festival!

Award-winning author Rebecca Kauffman will read from and discuss her latest novel, The Reservation. The book follows the staff of a fine dining restaurant where 22 steaks have gone missing on the same day that a celebrity author has made a reservation to dine.

Kauffman will talk about mysterious absences. She’ll explore the mysteries that drive the plot of her book (for instance, the mystery of the missing steaks), as well as the universal mysteries that drive all of Kauffman’s work and guide her in developing characters. Attendees leave with a sense of the book and the areas of most urgent fascination as a writer, and some thoughts about the mystery that exists within even the most ordinary-seeming lives.

About the Author

REBECCA KAUFFMAN received her MFA in Creative Writing from NYU. She is the author of Another Place You’ve Never Been, which was long-listed for the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize; The Gunners, which received the Premio Tribùk dei Librai; The House on Fripp Island; Chorus, and The Reservation. Originally from rural northeastern Ohio, Kauffman now lives in Virginia.

Learn more about Rebecca Kauffman at rebeccakauffman.net.

Disclaimer(s)

If you need a sign language interpreter or other special accommodations, please notify Information & Reference (715-839-5004, [email protected]) at least 48 hours before the program.