Lit Chat

The Library's biggest celebration of authors, books, and writing is back! Jax Book Fest returns September 20-21 to the Main Library in downtown Jacksonville featuring a Lit Chat Interview with Gabrielle Zevin on Saturday, September 21 from 2 - 3 p.m. Gabrielle Zevin is a #1 New York Times bestselling novelist whose books have been translated into forty languages. Her tenth novel, Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, was a New York Times bestseller, a Sunday Times bestseller, and a selection of the Tonight Show’s Fallon Book Club.

The Library's biggest celebration of authors, books, and writing is back! Jax Book Fest returns September 20-21 to the Main Library in downtown Jacksonville featuring a Teen Lit Chat Interview with Jason Reynolds, the #1 New York Times bestselling author of many award-winning books, including Look Both Ways: A Tale Told in Ten Blocks, All American Boys (with Brendan Kiely), Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You (with Ibram X. Kendi), Stuntboy, in the Meantime (illustrated by Raúl the Third), and Ain’t Burned All the Bright (with artwork by Jason Griffin).

Jax Book Fest returns September 20-21 to the Main Library in downtown Jacksonville with the #1 New York Times bestselling creator of Big, Little Leaders, Little Dreamers, and Little Legends and the illustrator of Andrea Beaty's I Love You Like Yellow, Matthew Cherry’s Hair Love, and Stephanie V.W. Lucianovic’s Hello, Star, among others. She received a Coretta Scott King Illustrator Honor for Lupita Nyong’o’s Sulwe and is also a two-time recipient of the NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literary Work for Children.

Chef Kenny Gilbert is best known for his appearance on “Top Chef” Season seven, where he displayed a big personality and instantly became one of the most likable "cheftestants" to date. He is also the author of the new cookbook, Southern Cooking, Global Flavors (2023), which includes international variations of over 100 iconic Southern dishes.

This month, we've got local restaurateur, Kenny Gilbert talking all things cooking and cookbooks, Life Lab gardening and civic literacy workshops, and a "Pop-Up" Writer's Lab for authors looking to "Polish Your Pitch." Keep reading to learn more! 

This month, catch up with Little House on the Prairie star Dean Butler for the release of his memoir and the show's 50th anniversary. Later in the month. learn how to make your own music fanzine with instructor Daryl Gussin in our Writer's Lab series. He returns later that same day for a Lit Chat Interview about music, zines and finding your community. Plus, there are 15 Library Book Club meetings, three Life Lit skills workshops, and more! 

Daryl Gussin is a writer and musician who has been awkwardly standing around at punk shows for the last twenty-something years. Thankfully at some point in his late teens, he decided to become a little more productive and has been working on zines, setting up shows, and playing in bands consecutively since then. In 2006, Daryl Gussin became integrally involved in the Razorcake fanzine where he is currently the managing editor.

Dean Butler is an actor, producer, and director best known for his role as Almanzo Wilder (the man Laura Ingalls married) in Little House on the Prairie, based on the beloved Little House book series written by Laura Ingalls Wilder. He appeared in the final four seasons of the show, the spin-off show Little House: A New Beginning, and the three post-series TV movies. Meet him live on Zoom as he talks about his new memoir, Prairie Man.

This month, you have the chance to meet a buzzed-about debut author and an award-winning graphic novelist in our popular Lit Chat Interview series. Or, you can make your first self-published zine or learn how to format any work for print with our Writer's Lab Workshop series. Plus, there are 15 Library Book Club meetings, Life Lit gardening and small business workshops, and more! 

Debut Florida author, Alejandro Nodarse, talks about his high-energy thriller, Blood in the Cut, at our next Lit Chat author interview program. He will be in conversation with local author, Michael Wiley live at the Webb Wesconnett Library on Monday, June 10. An audience Q&A and a book signing will follow the interview.