Award-winning Author Shelby Van Pelt Visits Champaign Public Library
An Evening with the New York Times Bestselling Author of “Remarkably Bright Creatures”
Champaign, IL – The New York Times bestselling and award-winning author Shelby Van Pelt will talk about her writing and life at the Champaign Public Library on Thursday, October 9 at 7 p.m., followed by a book signing. Books will be available for purchase both before and after the event. The library’s second floor offers seating for 350+ audience members. The talk and signing are free and open to everyone.
Shelby Van Pelt’s debut novel, Remarkably Bright Creatures (Ecco, 2022) was an Instant New York Times Bestseller and a Read With Jenna Today Show book club pick. In 2023, she was awarded the Heartland Prize for Fiction and the McLaughlin-Esstman-Stearns First Novel Prize from The Writer’s Center. Remarkably Bright Creatures has sold over a million copies. It has spent, in aggregate, a year-plus on the NYT Hardcover Bestseller list. Netflix has recently confirmed they are producing the book to film adaptation of Remarkably Bright Creatures, and filming for the movie has wrapped as of May 2025 with an official release date to be announced soon.
Charming, compulsively readable, and full of wit, Shelby Van Pelt’s debut novel is a beautiful exploration of friendship, reckoning, and hope–a reminder that sometimes taking a hard look at the past can help uncover a future that once felt impossible.
Praise for Remarkably Bright Creatures:
Shelby Van Pelt has done the impossible. She’s created a perfect story with imperfect characters, that is so heartwarming, so mysterious, and so completely absorbing, you won’t be able to put it down because when you’re not reading this book you’ll be hugging it.
— Jamie Ford, New York Times bestselling author of Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet
Remarkably Bright Creatures is the rarest of feats: a book that manages to be wry and wise, charming and surprising, and features one of the most intriguing and satisfying characters I’ve encountered in fiction in a very long time—Marcellus the Octopus. I don’t know how Shelby Van Pelt managed to make this uncommon tale sing so beautifully, but sing it does, and I defy you to put it down once you’ve started.
— Cynthia D’Aprix Sweeney, author of Good Company and The Nest
When Shelby Van Pelt isn’t writing, she’s herding cats and wrangling children. Born and raised in the Pacific Northwest, she’s now missing the mountains in the Chicago area with her family.
Both the Main Library and Douglass Branch will close at 5 p.m. on October 9 to prepare for the presentation. The Main Library will reopen at 6:30 pm exclusively for this event. Books will be available for purchase, and a book signing will follow the author’s presentation.
Shelby Van Pelt’s visit is part of the Great Authors at the Library series, bringing world-class authors to Champaign, Illinois, including Doris Kearns Goodwin, Terry McMillan, Ken Liu, Lisa See, Colson Whitehead, Lisa Scottoline, Eric Litwin, Scott Turow, Jamie Ford, Nnedi Okorafor, Luis Alberto Urrea, Nikki Grimes, Elizabeth Berg, and David Sheff.
The Great Authors at the Library series is presented in part through the generosity of the Champaign Public Library Friends and the Library Foundation.
Great Authors at the Library: Since 2016, the Great Authors at the Library series has brought 22 award-winning, New York Times bestselling authors to Champaign, where they have been welcomed by more than 4,700 community members. Each author presents a public talk about their writing, signs books, and meets local readers. For authors of children’s books and teen titles, the Library set up school visits so that area schoolchildren can meet these literary giants. Acclaimed speakers in the series have included New York Times bestselling authors Jamie Ford, Nikki Grimes, Doris Kearns Goodwin, Terry McMillan, Nnedi Okorafor, Lisa See, Lisa Scottoline, David Sheff, Scott Turow, Luis Alberto Urrea, and Colson Whitehead.
Links:
Shelby Van Pelt’s interview on PBS Books | Author Talk: Shelby Van Pelt | Season 2023, Episode 2