The 25th anniversary of Authors Visiting in Des Moines (AViD) is upon us! This milestone year features a romance world superstar in Julia Quinn, a literary icon in Tayari Jones,a groundbreaking partnership with the Des Moines Arts Festival and Des Moines Art Center, and much more.
Mark your calendars for these six events and get ready for an incredible season of celebrating reading and the arts in Des Moines!
Julia Quinn
Tuesday, April 7 | 7 PM | Hoyt Sherman Place
(1501 Woodland Avenue)
#1 New York Times bestseller Julia Quinn is the author of the wildly popular Bridgerton novels, which were the basis for the Netflix series of the same name. Her books have been translated into 43 languages, and there are over 20 million in print in the United States alone.
Maria Semple
Thursday, April 16 | 7:00 PM | Central Library
Maria Semple is the bestselling author of Today Will Be Different, Where’d You Go, Bernadette, This One is Mine, and the upcoming Go Gentle (release date: April 14).
Her novels have been translated into 40 languages. Maria has also written for the TV shows Arrested Development, Mad About You, Ellen, and others.
TBA at the Des Moines Book Festival
Saturday, May 2 | Franklin Event Center
(4801 Franklin Avenue)
AViD is once again going to be part of the DSM Book Festival! Stay tuned for this year's headlining author.
Shannon Chakraborty
Thursday, May 14 | 7 PM | Central Library
Shannon Chakraborty is a New York Times bestselling, critically acclaimed author of The Daevabad Trilogy and The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi. Her new book, The Tapestry of Fate, is being published on May 12.
Her work has been translated into more than a dozen languages and nominated for major awards, including the Hugo, Locus, and World Fantasy Awards.
Tayari Jones
Monday, June 15 | 7 PM | Central Library
New York Times bestselling author Tayari Jones is the author of Kin, released in February, and An American Marriage, an Oprah’s Book Club selection that earned the Women’s Prize for Fiction, Aspen Words Prize, and NAACP Image Award. Jones teaches creative writing at Cornell and Emory Universities.
Patrick Bringley at the Des Moines Arts Festival
Saturday, June 27 | 11 AM | Central Library
Patrick Bringley is the New York Times bestselling author of All the Beauty in the World, a memoir about his decade as a guard at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Named a best book of the year by multiple outlets, it has been translated worldwide and adapted by Bringley into an Off-Broadway solo play.
This program is occurring in partnership with the Des Moines Arts Festival and the Des Moines Art Center.
