Great Authors at the Library

3 smiling fans at Lisa Scottoline talk

Last fall, Lisa Scottoline fans arrived early to wait in line for a good seat—and were delighted to discover a free copy of Lisa’s latest thriller waiting on their chairs.

SINCE 2016, the Great Authors at the Library series has brought 16 award-winning, New York Times bestselling authors to Champaign, where they have been welcomed by more than 3,000 community members.

Grace Lin and Scott Turow will be our special guests during the 2021 National Library Week celebrations. And we look forward to welcoming Matt de la Peña later in 2021!

During their visit, each author presents a public talk about their writing, signs books, and meets local readers. We arrange book giveaways in advance, sharing ”Read and pass along” copies of the author’s books with community members. For authors of children’s books and teen titles, we set up school visits and workshops so that area schoolchildren can meet these literary giants. We also provide books to our partnering Champaign Unit 4 school libraries. And for our community’s youngest readers, we give out books at storytimes to help families build home libraries.

Other acclaimed speakers in the Great Authors at the Library series have included New York Times bestselling authors Terry McMillan, Colson Whitehead, Lisa Scottoline, Nnedi Okorafor, Gregory Maguire, Luis Alberto Urrea, Nikki Grimes, Jamie Ford, Javaka Steptoe, Elizabeth Berg, and David Sheff.

The Great Authors at the Library visits are made possible with support from the Library Foundation and the Library Friends.