Lit Chat 2023

Are you ready to fall in love with the international bestselling Jacksonville Rays hockey romance series? Local author and TikTok sensation, Emily Rath, joins us for a Galentine’s Day chat with local novelist Jessica Hatch live at the Library! They will talk about all things romance, the Jacksonville Rays, and what it's like to be BookTok famous.

The New York Times bestselling author of the 2022 memoir, I Came All This Way To Meet You, is coming all the way from New Orleans to meet you, her readers and fellow writers, at Jacksonville Public Library for two back-to-back bookish events! First up: Aspiring writers will learn how to best serve their own creative processes, find inspiration, and carve out a life in the business of art in a hands-on Writer's Lab workshop. Then, after lunch, Jami Attenberg returns for a Lit Chat interviewer and local author Nikesha Elise Williams.

It's going to be a busy January here at the Library! Whether you're resolving to read more, challenging yourself to (finally) write that novel that's been kicking around in the back of your head for years, or just continuing your pursuit of lifelong learning: We've got a great lineup of adult programs this month! Improve your day-to-day life with one of ten Life Lit workshops, get inspired with a Writer's Lab workshop and Lit Chat Interview featuring bestselling author Jami Attenberg, come together as a community for a thought-provoking Forward Thinking panel discussion, or check out a brand new Library Book Club.

Saturday, November 25, 2023, is Small Business Saturday – a day to celebrate and support small businesses, artists, local authors, and other creators! Of course, we hope you support local authors all year long! In addition to our annual Jax Book Fest which features dozens of local authors, we also invite local authors and creators to talk about (and sign) their books at Lit Chat Author Talks and Interview programs. While these events are free to attend, they are a great way for authors to find new readers and for readers to find new authors! 

We're closing out the year with some very cool programs and a ton of great book clubs! Get caught up in a good book with "Tangled Webb," a brand new Book Club meeting at Webb Wesconnett Regional Library. If you're interested in local history and memoirs, don't miss the Lit Chat Interview with Nat Glover.  At seventeen, he unknowingly headed into an angry white mob and the Ku Klux Klan attacking young black protestors staging a sit-in at a downtown whites-only lunch counter. Known as “Ax Handle Saturday,” this harrowing encounter with racism would commit him to a lifetime of fighting for justice. December is also the last month to check off 12 books and win a cool prize for the 2023 Jax Stacks Reading Challenge. A new challenge (and new categories) start January 1, 2024!

Nat Glover was born in 1943, in segregated Jacksonville, Florida. At seventeen, he unknowingly headed into an angry white mob and the Ku Klux Klan attacking young black protestors staging a sit-in at a downtown whites-only lunch counter. Known as “Ax Handle Saturday,” this harrowing encounter with racism would commit him to a lifetime of fighting for justice. He joined the Jacksonville Police Department in 1966 where he was promoted to detective, rose to sergeant, and was appointed the city’s first hostage negotiator. In 1995, Duval County voters elected him the first Black sheriff in Florida since Reconstruction. Hear more about his incredible work and his new memoir, Striving for Justice: A Black Sheriff.

November is National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo). Have you been planning and plotting your first novel? Or maybe you've been hoping to craft the next great American novel by the seat of your pants? Whether you're a plotter or pantser starting your first draft or you have a completed manuscript ready to go, the Library has some great workshops coming up that can help you cross the finish line to publication!

We start out the month with a Lit Chat Interview with local author, Tim Gilmore. He's written 22 books and even cofounded the Jax-by-Jax Literary Arts Festival. There are also free Writer's Lab workshops starting in November and continuing into early December that are focused on revising your first draft and then self-publishing the polished final product through Kindle Vella and Amazon KDP.

A prolific local history author, Tim Gilmore, has written extensively about Jacksonville. The writer and creator of www.jaxpsychogeo.com, he has told more than 700 stories of strange and historic locations in and around Jacksonville, Florida. He is also the founder of JaxbyJax. A literary arts festival, now in its 10th year, JaxbyJax was built on the theme of “Jacksonville Writers Writing Jacksonville.” Few have written about Jacksonville more. He joins us this November to talk about his latest book, The Culture Wars of Warren Folks.

Before writing, Cat Sebastian was a lawyer and a teacher and did a variety of other jobs. But she liked those jobs much less than she enjoys writing happy endings for queer people. Her latest book, We Could Be So Good has been described as "Casey McQuinston meets The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo." And if you like that, she's got over a dozen other queer historical romance novels and glowing reviews from bestselling authors like Julia Quinn, the #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Bridgerton series. The best part? You can also meet her live and in person, right here in Jacksonville!

It's October... which means you have just three months left to finish the 2023 Jax Stacks Reading Challenge. But don't worry. You've got this! There are three Lit Chats Interviews coming up soon. Besides the obvious ("A book by a 2023 Lit Chat author"), their books could fit a few different categories. Plus, there are thirteen Library Book Clubs meeting and discussing their recommendations this month! There's even a book club dedicated solely to recommending and discussing books that meet the Jax Stacks Reading Challenge categories. We also have a new community partner offering free workshops for budding entrepreneurs!