www.wonderofwordsfest.com/schedule

WOW! Voices – Stories of Diverse Human Experience: WOW! Voices will feature several well-known yet highly-diverse authors with an array of perspectives and life experiences to share. Authors will include Pat Mora, Will Fellows, Emily Rapp and Jenny Barker Devine. 1 p.m. – Jenny Barker Devine is the author of On Behalf of the Family: Iowa Farm Women’s Activism since 1945, which examines the roots of rural feminism and the impact post-war women had on agricultural development and rural lifestyles. Jenny is an assistant professor at Illinois College and received the Carrie Chapman Catt Prize for Research on Women in Politics, as well as a Phi Alpha Theta Doctoral Scholarship. 2 p.m. – Pat Mora is a writer and cultural preservationist who documents the lives of Mexican Americans and US latinas and latinos through varying genres such as children’s books, poetry, and nonfiction. Pat is well-known as well for founding “El día de los ninos/El día de los libros,” a celebration of books, children, languages, and cultures. Her book, Tomás and the Library Lady, was the basis for the play of the same name being presented by Des Moines Performing Arts during the WOW! Festival. 3 p.m. – Will Fellows is a Professor at the University of Wisconsin (Madison). He is the author of Farm Boys: Lives of Gay Men in the Rural Midwest, and a finalist for the Lambda Literary Award. Farm Boys was hailed as a best-seller by Esquire, The Minneapolis Star Tribune, and The Advocate. He is also author of Gay Bar (2010), and A Passion to Preserve (2005). 4 p.m. – Emily Rapp is the author of Poster Child, and the recently released best-seller The Still Point of the Turning World. Born with a congenital defect, her left leg was amputated at age 4, and she has worn a prosthetic limb ever since. Emily is a Fulbright Scholar, was educated at Harvard University, and has written for The Atlantic Monthly, The Los Angeles Times, and Salon.com among others.