The authors selected for SPEAK 2025 encourage us to reflect on our individual and shared pasts. Through their works, these authors address themes of identity, history, and personal or collective struggle. Their stories encourage us to connect through past human experiences and inspire us to build a more thoughtful future.
More information about each event, including related EVPL programming, book discussions, and VIP reception details, will be added as the date approaches.
Thanks to the generosity of the EVPL Foundation, each of these author presentations are FREE and open to all.
Timothy Egan
Wednesday, March 19, 7:00 p.m.
First Presbyterian Church
Timothy Egan’s most recent book, A Fever in the Heartland: The Ku Klux Klan’s Plot to Take Over America, and the Woman Who Stopped Them, is a New York Times Bestseller. This book describes the rise of the KKK in Indiana (Evansville is featured many times), and how one brave woman brought about its downfall. Egan is also the author of several other bestsellers, including The Worst Hard Time: The Untold Story of Those Who Survived the Great American Dustbowl, which won the 2006 National Book Award and was featured prominently in Ken Burns’ 2012 documentary, The Dust Bowl.
Ralph Shayne
Wednesday, April 16, 7:00 p.m.
Victory Theatre
EVPL, CYPRESS, and the Rechnic Foundation are partnering to bring Ralph Shayne to Evansville for a series of public and educational presentations. His graphic novel, Hour of Need, pays tribute to the heroes who saved the Danish Jews during the Holocaust, and reminds readers of how humanity can triumph in the darkest hours.
Angela Jackson-Brown
Saturday, June 21, 2:00 p.m.
EVPL Central
Angela Jackson-Brown is an award-winning writer, poet, and playwright who is also an Associate Professor in the Creative Writing program at Indiana University. Her books tell stories about family, love, and perseverance in the 20th century. Some of her best-known works include When Stars Rain Down and The Light Always Breaks.
Kwame Alexander
Thursday, October 2, 7:00 p.m.
Victory Theatre
Kwame Alexander is a poet, educator, publisher, Emmy® Award-winning producer, and #1 New York Times bestselling author of 40 books, including This is the Honey, Why Fathers Cry at Night, An American Story, The Door of No Return, Becoming Muhammad Ali (co-authored with James Patterson), Rebound, which was shortlisted for the prestigious UK Carnegie Medal, and The Undefeated, the National Book Award nominee, Newbery Honor, and Caldecott Medal-winning picture book illustrated by Kadir Nelson. His book, The Crossover, has been made into a sports drama series on Disney+.
