I’ll admit it… I wasn’t much of a reader. Like, at all. The last book I finished prior to last year was To Kill a Mockingbird… in high school. That was over ten years ago. (Yikes.)
But last year I picked up The Hellfire Club by Jake Tapper and actually finished it. This year, I read The Lords of Discipline by Pat Conroy — and I swear, that man doesn’t just write books, he paints movies with words. The way he can pull you into a scene and make you feel every sound, smell, and shadow… it’s wild.
Now I’m reading Red Rising by Pierce Brown and loving it, which made me realize something: I’ve been sleeping on one of Columbus’ greatest treasures — our library system — and there’s a good chance you’re doing the same.
Wake Up. Libraries are Cool as Heck
The Columbus Metropolitan Library isn’t just a building full of books. It’s basically a community superhero disguised as a library. Every single month, they host thousands of events across their many branches — chess clubs, toddler storytimes, after-school snacks for kids provided by the Children’s Hunger Alliance, creative writing workshops, computer classes, you name it.
It’s not just about reading, it’s about connecting.
And if you’re a bookworm (or a recovering non-reader like me), the library’s Authors at the Library series is your golden ticket. They bring in world-renowned authors to talk, answer questions, and sign books, all for free. Here are a few of the upcoming events you should absolutely mark on your calendar:
Desiree Cooper
📅 Saturday, August 15 | 2 p.m.
📍 Driving Park Branch | 1422 E. Livingston Ave.
Desiree Cooper spent years as a Detroit Free Press columnist, earning a Pulitzer Prize nomination along the way, before turning to award-winning fiction. Her collection Know the Mother won a Next Generation Indie Book Award, and she’s a Kresge Artist Fellow whose short work has landed in Best Small Fictions and been named notable in Best American Essays.
She’s in town talking about her newest project, a contribution to the anthology Black Summers: Growing Up in the Urban Outdoors, in a moderated conversation with writer Tyiesha Radford Shorts. Expect a real conversation, not a press-junket Q&A. This is a literary heavyweight in an intimate branch setting.
Books sold by Prologue Bookshop. RSVP here.
Kelly Anderson
📅 Sunday, August 16 | 2 p.m.
📍 Gahanna Branch | 310 Granville St.
Dr. Kelly Anderson spent her career as a family physician (fellowships in HIV and emergency medicine, years at Toronto’s Inner City Family Health Team) before her debut novel, The Wild Beneath, landed her a very different kind of credential: Reese Witherspoon just named it her Reese’s Book Club pick for August 2026.
The book’s already earned blurbs from Jodi Picoult and Christina Baker Kline. Catch her in conversation with Victoria Bordner before the book club buzz gets even louder.
Books sold by The Book Loft. RSVP here.
Alexandra Ammon Parthun
📅 Saturday, August 22 | 2 p.m.
📍 Reynoldsburg Branch | 1402 Brice Rd.
Alexandra Ammon Parthun is an Ohio State creative-writing grad whose debut novel, For the Love of the Quest, a sapphic historical romance built around a hunt for King Arthur’s Excalibur, hit shelves just 11 days before this event. Kirkus and Publishers Weekly both praised it right out of the gate.
If you like your history with a little more romance (and a lot more sword fighting), this is release-week energy landing in Reynoldsburg.
Books sold by Gramercy Books. RSVP here.
Will Hillenbrand
📅 Saturday, August 29 | 11 a.m.
📍 Main Library Auditorium | 96 S. Grant Ave.
Will Hillenbrand has been making picture books for decades (the library puts his count at nearly 80) and has collaborated with heavy hitters like Jane Yolen and Verna Aardema along the way. His resume includes an ALA Notable Book citation and two International Reading Association Children’s Choice Awards.
He’s bringing his new nonfiction bird book, Light as a Feather, to a family morning complete with Columbus Audubon crafts and real bird specimens. Bring the kids.
Nina Willner
📅 Thursday, September 3 | 6 p.m.
📍 Main Library Auditorium | 96 S. Grant Ave.
Before she was an author, Nina Willner was a U.S. Army intelligence officer running actual Cold War missions in Soviet-controlled East Berlin. Her bestselling memoir Forty Autumns told her mother’s story of escaping East Germany; her new book, The Boys in the Light, chronicles her father’s survival of the Holocaust and won the 2026 Christopher Award.
Extra incentive: the first 50 people through the door get a free copy of the book.
Vanessa Miller
📅 Saturday, September 5 | 10 a.m.
📍 New Albany Branch | 200 Market St.
Vanessa Miller is a USA Today bestselling author with more than 50 titles to her name, best known for weaving real Black history into page-turning fiction. Her novel The American Queen swept the Christy Award, two American Fiction Awards, and a spot on Good Morning America‘s must-read list.
She’s bringing her latest, The Ladies Hall, based on the real Black women who reshaped Oberlin College in the 1880s, to a small New Albany meeting room. Get there early.
Books sold by Gramercy Books. RSVP here.
Phill Branch
📅 Wednesday, September 9 | 6 p.m.
📍 Martin Luther King Branch | 1467 E. Long St.
Phill Branch is a regional Emmy winner and a 2018 Moth GrandSLAM Champion with an MFA in screenwriting from AFI. His memoir, The Double Dutch Fuss, is a raw look at growing up queer and Black under a strict, patriarchal father, and it’s already landed on bestseller lists.
He’ll sit down for a moderated conversation with Damon Mosley before signing books. This one’s a gut-punch in the best way.
Books sold by The Book Loft. RSVP here.
Casey Michel
📅 Monday, September 14 | 6 p.m.
📍 Main Library Auditorium | 96 S. Grant Ave.
Casey Michel directs the Combating Kleptocracy Program at the Human Rights Foundation and has testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee on dirty money and illicit finance. His reporting runs in The New York Times, The Atlantic, and The Washington Post, and he’s been on CNN, MSNBC, and the BBC more times than we can count.
He’s discussing his new book, United States of Oligarchy, on how American billionaires are cozying up to foreign autocrats. Heavy topic, essential read.
Books sold by Prologue Bookshop. RSVP here.
Alexis Nikole Nelson (Sold Out)
📅 Sunday, September 20 | 2 p.m.
📍 Main Library Reading Room | 96 S. Grant Ave.
If you spent any time on TikTok or Instagram during the pandemic, you know the Black Forager: James Beard Award winner, Emmy winner, and 2025 TIME100 Creator with millions of followers who turned foraging into a full-blown cultural moment. She’s bringing her debut book, Happy Snacking, Don’t Die!, to Columbus two days before it even hits shelves.
Heads up: free tickets for this one are already completely gone. We’re including it anyway because, honestly, you’ll want to know she was here, and her book drops September 22, so you don’t need a ticket to celebrate.
Event details here (check for a possible waitlist).
Andrew Welsh-Huggins
📅 Monday, September 21 | 6 p.m.
📍 Dublin Branch | 75 N. High St.
Longtime Columbus-based crime novelist Andrew Welsh-Huggins is back at CML, but with something new. This isn’t a repeat of his spring visit: he’s discussing Rescue Me, the latest in his Andy Hayes private-eye series, about a PI protecting a Black queer drag performer from harassment amid Ohio’s culture wars.
The Kenyon College grad has racked up Shamus, Derringer, and International Thriller Writers nominations, and edited the acclaimed anthology Columbus Noir. Homegrown talent, brand-new material.
Books sold by Gramercy Books. RSVP here.
Susan Beckham Zurenda
📅 Friday, October 2 | 4 p.m.
📍 Marion-Franklin Branch | 2800 Lockbourne Rd.
Susan Beckham Zurenda taught English for 33 years before becoming an award-magnet novelist. Her debut, Bells for Eli, won a national IPPY for Best First Book, and her follow-up, The Girl from the Red Rose Motel, took home the 2024 Patricia Winn Award in Southern Fiction.
Her new book, No Way Out But Through, tackles forced child marriage and domestic abuse across two eras of the South. The event is timed to Domestic Violence Awareness Month, with LSS CHOICES on-site offering real local support resources.
Books sold by The Book Loft. RSVP here.
Grace Lin
📅 Tuesday, October 6 | 6 p.m.
📍 Main Library, Children’s Area | 96 S. Grant Ave.
Grace Lin is one of children’s literature’s most decorated names: a Newbery Honor and Caldecott Honor winner, National Book Award finalist, and New York Times bestseller with more than 30 books including Where the Mountain Meets the Moon and A Big Mooncake for Little Star.
She’s doing a full family read-aloud of her brand-new picture book, The Little Stone Buddha, followed by Q&A and a signing. This is a rare, free, hands-on visit from an author whose books are a fixture in classrooms everywhere.
Books sold by Cover to Cover. RSVP here.
Katherine Reay
📅 Saturday, October 10 | 3:30 p.m.
📍 Gahanna Branch | 310 Granville St.
Katherine Reay built a devoted following on warm, literary novels like Dear Mr. Knightley and The Brontë Plot, earning praise from bestselling peers along the way. Her newest book, The Undercover Bookshop, trades cozy contemporary settings for a 1950s English village mystery centered on a suspected Soviet spy.
Perfect for the book-club crowd who wants their mystery with a side of charm.
Books sold by The Book Loft. RSVP here.
V.E. Schwab in Conversation with John Scalzi (Ticketed & Sold Out)
📅 Tuesday, October 13 | 6 p.m.
📍 Main Library, Reading Room | 96 S. Grant Ave.
This is the one event on the list that isn’t free: a ticketed evening with #1 New York Times bestselling author V.E. Schwab (The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue, the Shades of Magic series, 2025’s chart-topping Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil), in conversation with fellow bestseller (and fellow Ohioan) John Scalzi.
Schwab is touring for Victorious, the finale of her Villains trilogy, which released October 6. Tickets, sold through Eventbrite in partnership with Prologue Bookshop, are already sold out. We’re flagging it here so you know to watch Eventbrite for a possible resale, and so you’re not blindsided when your favorite fantasy author skips town without you.
Kristy Boyce
📅 Monday, October 26 | 6 p.m.
📍 Hilliard Branch, Pavilion | 4500 Hickory Chase Way
Kristy Boyce is a homegrown one: a New York Times and USA Today bestselling YA author who also teaches psychology at Ohio State. Her hit series (Dating and Dragons, Rolls and Rivalry, Dungeons and Drama) draws straight from real life; she’s been in the same D&D group since high school, and yes, she married the group’s Dungeon Master.
She’ll chat with fellow author Julia DeVillers, take questions, and run a raffle giveaway for teen readers.
Books sold by Cover to Cover. RSVP here.
Anna North
📅 Thursday, October 29 | 6 p.m.
📍 Whetstone Branch | 3909 N. High St.
Anna North is a Vox senior correspondent and former New York Times editor whose fiction has landed her a Reese’s Book Club pick (Outlawed) and a Lambda Literary Award (The Life and Death of Sophie Stark). Her newest novel, Bog Queen, is already a national bestseller.
A working journalist with a book club pick under her belt, in a small neighborhood branch — this is the kind of close-up access you don’t get at a big-box tour stop.
Books sold by The Book Loft. RSVP here.
Tara Pringle Jefferson
📅 Saturday, November 7 | 2 p.m.
📍 Barnett Branch | 3434 E. Livingston Ave.
Tara Pringle Jefferson is a Cleveland-born, Ohio-based wellness advocate and founder of The Self Care Suite. Her debut book, Bloom How You Must, won a Living Now Book Award and has been featured in Essence, Fortune, and The Cut.
She’ll dig into her guide to self-care and generational healing for Black women: a homegrown wellness voice, not an out-of-town import.
Meg Anderson
📅 Saturday, November 14 | 2 p.m.
📍 Hilltop Branch | 511 S. Hague Ave.
Meg Anderson’s debut novel, The Memory of Borrowed Books, hits shelves just weeks before this event. It follows a librarian who discovers a hidden room of patrons’ unfinished memories in a coastal library facing closure, and it’s already earned a blurb from bestselling author Kristin Harmel calling it “a magical love letter to the joy and magic of libraries.”
Anderson writes from experience: she lives with multiple sclerosis and focuses on stories for life’s hardest chapters. A brand-new voice worth getting in early on.
Books sold by The Book Loft. RSVP here.
Thao Thai
📅 Sunday, November 15 | 2 p.m.
📍 Main Library Auditorium | 96 S. Grant Ave.
Save the best local story for last: Thao Thai lives right here in central Ohio, and her debut novel Banyan Moon wasn’t just a “Read with Jenna” and Book of the Month pick: it won the 2025 Crook’s Corner Book Prize. She also picked up the Ohio Arts Council’s 2024 Individual Excellence Award.
WOSU’s own Christopher Purdy moderates a conversation about her new novel, The Seekers of Deer Creek, closing out the fall series with a genuine hometown literary star.
Books sold by Gramercy Books. RSVP here.
More Than a Library… It’s Columbus’ Creative Heartbeat
Nineteen authors, four months, a dozen neighborhoods. That’s not a normal library calendar: that’s a full-on literary festival happening one free evening at a time.
And as someone who only recently rediscovered the joy of reading, I can say this with full confidence: the best stories aren’t just in the books. They’re in the people, the events, and the connections happening at your local library every single day.
👉 Explore upcoming library events here
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