Spring Author Series

We held a spring author series at four different libraries within our system. We positioned these events as a series to gain broader exposure to the events.

Edgar Award-winning author David Housewright kicked off the series in April by discussing Stealing the Countess, the latest in his Mac McKenzie series. The audience was very engaged with the author and five of Housewrigh's books were checked out after the event, with many more checked out before the event. He even brought his own author crossword puzzle!

Naomi Kritzer Cat Pictures Please,'her short story about an artificial intelligence that comes to life and pulls all of its knowledge from the internet (including a large amount of cat pictures), won the 2016 Hugo Award for Best Short Story. At the awards ceremony, she sat one person away from George R. R. Martin! Kritzer talked about this experience as well as her fantasy series and her upcoming young adult series. Unfortunately, most of our author event regulars had a conflict because of other events going on in Janesville that night.

William Kent Krueger shared stories from Manitou Canyon, his fifteenth Cork O'Connor novel. We had a full, enthusiastic crowd.

Julie Klassen is the Minnesota Book Award-winning author of historical Christian romance novels who closed out our series. She talked about her new book The Innkeeper of Ivy Hill, in which a widow becomes the village inn's reluctant owner after her husband mysteriously dies. It was a small crowd due to it being scheduled the same night as the Elementary School concert as well as a beautiful night.
All of the authors read from their work, discussed their writing process, and answered questions about their work from event attendees.