Adventure Pass Ending in 2025

Due to circumstances outside of our control, the Des Moines Public Library’s Iowa Adventure Pass service will no longer be available in 2025. Any reservation already made for 2025 will be honored, but we encourage anyone with a current reservation to print those passes immediately. Customers can make new reservations for passes that must be used by December 31, 2024. We hope to reintroduce the service at a later time, and we apologize for the inconvenience. 

AViD Presents R.F. Kuang

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Author Visits

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Adults
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Rebecca F. Kuang is the award-winning, #1 New York Times best-selling author of the acclaimed fantasy series, The Poppy War trilogy, and 2022’s Babel: An Arcane History, one of the year’s most acclaimed novels. Babel debuted at #1 on The New York Times bestseller list, and is set in an alternate 19th century where the professional work of translation generates magic that fuels and perpetuates an imperialist empire. In a review, The New York Times Book Review said the book “has earned tremendous praise and deserves all of it.” The book was named a top book of 2022 by Amazon, Kirkus Reviews, NPR, The Washington Post, and many more outlets.

Kuang is a Marshall Scholar who has an Master of Philosophy degree in Chinese Studies from Cambridge University, and a Master of Science degree in Contemporary Chinese Studies from Oxford University. She is currently pursuing a PhD in East Asian Languages and Literatures from Yale University. Her upcoming novel, Yellowface, being released in May, is one of the most anticipated novels of 2023.