Mark your calendars for the remarkable line-up of authors we have scheduled for the 2025 Speaker Series — New York Times bestselling authors, Pushcart Prize recipients, and Best American Food Writing Award winners among them. 

The series launches on January 13 with Ayana Mathis who is the author of The Twelve Tribes of Hattie (Knopf, 2012) and most recently, The Unsettled (Knopf, 2023), named a New York Times and Washington Post Notable Book of 2023, a best of 2023 by The New Yorker and Publisher’s Weekly, an Oprah Daily Best Novels of 2023, and a Kirkus Reviews Best Books of 2023. The New York Times calls the book as, “poignant, heartbreaking,” while The Minneapolis Star Tribune describes it as, “An ardent, ambitious, and carefully stitched tapestry of a novel, one that deserves and rewards our attention.” Ayana appears courtesy of the Key West Literary Seminar.

On January 20, Jimin Han will appear in conversation with Elise Hart Kipness. Jimin Han is the author of The Apology, which was a Barnes and Noble Discover Pick and was named best book of the summer by the Los Angeles Times, Vanity Fair, Shondaland, and Apple Books, among others. She is also the author of A Small Revolution. Born in Seoul, South Korea, she grew up in Providence, Rhode Island; Dayton, Ohio; and Jamestown, New York.

Cathy Salustri, takes the stage on January 27, in conversation with David Sloan. Cathy Salustri is the owner of The Gabber Newspaper, the oldest independent weekly newspaper in Florida, and the author of Florida Spectacular: Extraordinary Places and Exceptional Lives. Salustri writes about her travels through Florida on her website, GreatFloridaRoadTrip.com and is cohost of The Florida Spectacular podcast. She lives in Gulfport.

The hour-long programs are free, of course, and take place in the library’s Palm Garden at 6 p.m. on Monday evenings. We welcome audiences on a first-come, first served basis.