Fox Cities Book Festival: Connecting writers and readers across our diverse communities.

Melanie Radzicki McManus is a Lowell Thomas Award-winning travel writer who hails from Sun Prairie, Wisconsin. A writer and editor since 1994, her debut book, the memoir Thousand-Miler, was published in spring 2017. Thousand-Miler tells the story of McManus' record-setting thru-run of Wisconsin's 1,100-mile Ice Age National Scenic Trail, along with tales of the other hikers she met along the way. In prose that’s alternately harrowing and humorous, Thousand-Miler takes you with her through Wisconsin’s forests, prairies, wetlands, and farms, past the geologic wonders carved by long-ago glaciers, and into the neighborhood bars and gathering places of far-flung small towns. Woven throughout her story are details of the history of the still-developing Ice Age Trail—one of just eleven National Scenic Trails nationwide—and helpful insights and strategies for undertaking a successful thru-hike. Thousand-Miler also includes the never-before-told story of the Ice Age Trail’s first-ever thru-hiker, Jim Staudacher, details of the record-breaking thru-run of ultrarunner Jason Dorgan, and the experiences of a pair of young combat veterans who embarked on a thru-hike as a way to ease back into civilian life.