Author Events

Did you know we have the biggest, number one author event series in the country? Each month the St. Louis County Library Foundation brings bestselling and award-winning authors from a variety of genres to the library, offering readers exclusive opportunities to meet and engage with their favorite writers.

Unless otherwise noted, all events are free and open to the public. Doors open at 6:00 p.m. Seating is limited; early arrival is highly recommended. Books for signing will be available for purchase at the events. For more information, please call 314-994-3300.

Ticketed Events   July Events   August Events   September Events

By Audience
By Date
“Women in the Valley of the Kings: The Untold Story of Women Egyptologists in the Gilded Age” by Kathleen Sheppard - book cover

Kathleen Sheppard

The history of Egyptology is often told as yet one more grand narrative of powerful men striving to seize the day and the precious artifacts for their competing homelands. But that is only half of the story. In “Women in the Valley of the Kings,” historian Kathleen Sheppard shares the stories of some of the earliest European women who ventured to Egypt as travelers. Their travelogues, diaries and maps chronicled a new world for the curious. “Women in the Valley of the Kings” upends the grand male narrative of Egyptian exploration and shows how a group of courageous women charted unknown territory and changed the field of Egyptology forever.

Tuesday, July 16, 2024
7:00 p.m.-9:00 p.m.
Clark Family Branch
Daniel Silva - "A Death in Cornwall" book cover and color author photo

Ticketed Event: Daniel Silva

Daniel Silva has been called his generation’s finest writer of international intrigue and one of the greatest American spy novelists ever. With “A Death in Cornwall,” Silva presents the year’s most anticipated thriller. In this latest fast-paced international thriller starring art restorer and secret agent Gabriel Allon, a brutal murder and a missing masterpiece lead to a dangerous hunt across Europe.

Friday, July 19, 2024
7:00 p.m.-9:00 p.m.
Clark Family Branch
“The Bright Sword: A Novel of King Arthur” by Lew Grossman - book cover

Lev Grossman

The #1 bestselling author of the Magicians trilogy returns with a triumphant reimagining of the King Arthur legend. A young knight named Collum arrives at Camelot to compete for a spot on the Round Table, only to find that he’s too late. The king died two weeks ago, leaving no heir. Only a handful of the knights of the Round Table survive. They aren’t the heroes of legend, like Lancelot or Gawain. They’re the oddballs of the Round Table, from the edges of the stories. Led by Morgan le Fay, the fairies, monsters, and old gods are returning. It is up to Collum and his ragtag fellowship to reclaim Excalibur and rebuild Camelot in a world that has lost its balance.

Sunday, July 21, 2024
4:00 p.m.-6:00 p.m.
Clark Family Branch
“Built from the Fire: The Epic Story of Tulsa’s Greenwood District, America’s Black Wall Street” by Victor Luckerson - book cover

Victor Luckerson

When Ed Goodwin moved with his parents to the Greenwood neighborhood in Tulsa, Oklahoma, his family joined a community at the center of black life in the West. But just a few years later, the teenaged Ed hid in a bathtub as a white mob descended on his neighborhood, murdering as many as three hundred people in one of the worst acts of racist violence in U.S. history. The Goodwins and their neighbors soon rebuilt the district into “a Mecca,” in Ed’s words, where nightlife thrived and small businesses flourished. In “Built from the Fire,” a New York Times Best Book of the Year, journalist Victor Luckerson weaves an epic tale about a neighborhood that refused, more than once, to be erased.

Thursday, July 25, 2024
7:00 p.m.-9:00 p.m.
Clark Family Branch
“The Tree Collectors: Tales of Arboreal Obsession” by Amy Stewart - book cover

Amy Stewart

Bestselling author of “The Drunken Botanist,” nature writer Amy Stewart presents fifty vignettes of remarkable people whose lives have been transformed by their obsessive passion for trees. When Stewart discovered a community of tree collectors, she expected to meet horticultural fanatics driven to plant every species of oak or maple. But she also discovered that the urge to collect trees springs from something deeper: a longing for community, a vision for the future, or a path to healing and reconciliation. Illustrated with Stewart’s own hand-drawn watercolor portraits of these extraordinary people and their trees, “The Tree Collectors” is a stunning tribute to a devoted group of nature lovers making their lives—and the world—more beautiful, one tree at a time.

Monday, July 29, 2024
7:00 p.m.-9:00 p.m.
Clark Family Branch
Shari Lapena - “What Have You Done?” book cover and color author photo

Shari Lapena

Bestselling author of “The Couple Next Door” and “Everyone Here is Lying,” Shari Lapena presents an addictive and disquieting thriller. Nothing ever happens in sleepy little Fairhill, Vermont. The teenagers get their kicks telling ghost stories in the old graveyard. The parents trust their kids will arrive home safe from school. But Diana Brewer isn’t lying safely in her bed where she belongs. How quickly a girl becomes a ghost. How quickly a town of friendly, familiar faces becomes a town of suspects, a place of fear and paranoia.

Thursday, August 1, 2024
7:00 p.m.-9:00 p.m.
Clark Family Branch