provided to The Santiva Chronicle
The Sanibel Public Library is thrilled to announce its 2024-2025 Author Series lineup. For more than a decade, the library, partnering with the Sanibel Public Library Foundation, has connected local readers to award-winning authors by bringing in high caliber writers for an intimate evening, followed by a champagne reception. Past guests include Joyce Carol Oates, Sue Monk Kidd, Jodi Picoult, David Baldacci, Dennis Lehane, Amor Towles, Erik Larson, Margaret Atwood, and Marie Benedict.
This season’s Author Series begins with Sarah Penner. She is the New York Times and internationally bestselling author of The Lost Apothecary and The London Séance Society. Her books have been translated into more than forty languages and her debut, The Lost Apothecary, has sold over one million copies worldwide.
A graduate of the University of Kansas, Sarah spent thirteen years in corporate finance and now writes full-time. In her free time, Sarah enjoys hiking, yoga, and cooking. She also sits on the Board of Directors at her local animal shelter, Friends of Strays. Sarah and her husband, Marc, live in Florida. She will speak at the Sanibel Public Library on Thursday, December 12, 2024. Ticket requests for Penner’s evening event starts at 9 a.m. on Tuesday, November 5, 2024, at 9 a.m. and will be closed on Tuesday, Nov. 12, at 5 p.m.
The next speaker in the Library’s Author Series is Kate Quinn, who will speak at the Library on Tuesday, January 14, 2025. Kate Quinn is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of historical fiction.
A native of southern California, she attended Boston University where she earned a Bachelor’s and master’s degree in Classical Voice. She has written four novels in the Empress of Rome Saga, and two books in the Italian Renaissance, before turning to the 20th century with The Alice Network, The Huntress, The Rose Code, The Diamond Eye, and The Briar Club. She is also a co-author in several collaborative novels including The Phoenix Crown with Janie Chang, Ribbons of Scarlet with Stephanie Dray, Laura Kamoie, Eliza Knight, Sophie Perinot, and Heather Webb. All have been translated into multiple languages. Kate and her husband now live in Maryland with three rescue dogs.
Ticket requests for Kate Quinn will be accepted online at sanlib.org from Friday, December 13, 2024, at 9 a.m. through Friday, December 20, 2024, at 5 p.m.
Author David Grann will speak at Sanibel Public Library on Tuesday, February 11, 2025. David Grann has written seven novels and is a #1 New York Timesbestselling author and an award-winning staff writer at The New Yorker magazine.
Grann’s first book, The Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon, was #1 New York Times bestseller and was adapted into a critically acclaimed film directed by James Gray and starring Charlie Hunnam, Sienna Miller, Robert Pattinson, and Tom Holland. Grann is also the author of Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI, which documented one of the most sinister crimes and racial injustices in American history. The book has been adapted into a major motion picture directed by Martin Scorsese and starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Lily Gladstone, Robert De Niro, and Jesse Plemons. For middle schoolers, Grann has also released Killers of the Flower Moon: A Young Reader’s Edition, which the School Library Journal called as “imperative and enthralling as its parent text.”
One of Grann’s New Yorker stories, The White Darkness, was later expanded into a book. Mixing text and photography, it documented the modern explorer Henry Worsley’s quest to follow in the footsteps of his hero, Ernest Shackleton, and traverse Antarctica alone. The story is currently being adapted into a series for Apple starring Tom Hiddleston. His newest book, The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny, and Murder, was published in April of 2023.
Over the years, Grann’s stories have appeared in The Best American Crime Writing; The Best American Sports Writing; and The Best American Nonrequired Reading. His stories have also been published in the New York Times Magazine, Atlantic, Washington Post, Boston Globe, and Wall Street Journal. Grann holds master’s degrees in international relations (from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy) and creative writing (from Boston University). After graduating from Connecticut College, in 1989, he received a Thomas J. Watson Fellowship and did research in Mexico, where he began his career in journalism. He currently lives in New York with his wife and two children. Ticket requests will begin at 9 a.m. on Friday, January 3, 2025, and will run through Friday, January 10, 2025, at 5 p.m.
Kristy Woodson Harvey is the New York Times, USA Today and Publisher’s Weekly bestselling author of eleven novels including A Happier Life, The Summer of Songbirds, and The Peachtree Bluff Series. Many of her books have been optioned or are in development for television and film and have received numerous accolades, including Good Morning America’s Buzz Pick, Southern Living’s Most Anticipated Reads, Katie Couric’s Featured Books, and Joanna Garcia Swisher’s The Happy Place Read. She is the winner of the Lucy Bramlette Patterson Award for Excellence in Creative Writing and a finalist for the Southern Book Prize. Her writing has appeared in numerous publications, including Southern Living, Parade, Traditional Home, USA TODAY, and many more.
Kristy is the cocreator and cohost of the weekly web show and podcast Friends & Fiction with fellow New York Times Bestselling authors Mary Kay Andrews, Kristin Harmel, and Patti Callahan Henry. She is also the co-founder of the interiors site Design Chic, with her mom, Beth Woodson.
A Phi Beta Kappa, summa cum laude graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s school of journalism, she lives on the North Carolina coast with her husband, son, and dog, Salt, where she is (always!) working on her next novel. She also holds a master’s in English, with a concentration in multicultural and transnational literature. She will speak at Sanibel Public Library on Tuesday, March 11, 2025. Ticket requests will start at 9 a.m. on Wednesday, February 12, 2025, and will end on Wednesday, February 19, 2025, at 5 p.m.
Major funding for the Author Series is provided by the Sanibel Public Library Foundation and its generous donors.
Each Author Series event will start at 7 p.m. – doors will open at 6:15 p.m. After an intimate evening with the author, a champagne reception will follow with light Hors D’oeuvres and a book signing opportunity. You must present a physical ticket to Library staff to enter the event.
How to obtain tickets:
The Sanibel Public Library will continue to utilize a “lottery system” ticketing procedure to meet high demand and to ensure as many as possible can attend an Author Series event. Requests for Author Series tickets may be made at the library’s website beginning on the dates listed (one month prior to each Author Evening). The names of those requesting tickets will be placed in a lottery and selected at random, and then be notified by email. Requests made before or after that time will not be honored. Tickets are distributed at no charge to Sanibel Public Library cardholders; one card per person; two tickets per card. Tickets must be requested online at http://www.sanlib.org. If you are unable to access the online form or if you would like assistance using the online form, call or come into the Sanibel Public Library for assistance from staff.
Patrons need to have a current library card before requesting tickets. Library cards are available to Sanibel and Lee County residents at no charge. Visitor cards may be obtained for a $10 annual fee.
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