A Slice of Literary Orange is a series featuring keynote speakers throughout the year at various venues across the county, with no cost for attendees. These events take place at library locations or with the support of community partners.
We continue to celebrate literacy and promote books and reading!
Author
Ace Atkins
In conversation with Robert Crais
Thursday, December 4, 2025 at 6:30pm
Ace Atkins is an award-winning New York Times bestselling author of more than thirty novels and numerous short stories. A former college football player and newspaper reporter, he's a recipient of the Richard Wright Literary Excellence Award, the Harper Lee Award, and is a member of the Alabama Writers Hall of Fame. He lives with his wife Angela and two children in Oxford, Mississippi.
Author
David Rosenfelt
Wednesday, November 5, 2025 at 6:30pm
David Rosenfelt is the Edgar-nominated and Shamus Award-winning author of 31 Andy Carpenter novels, including Dog Day Afternoon; several stand-alone thrillers; nonfiction titles; and several K Team novels, a series featuring some of the characters from the Andy Carpenter series. Rosenfelt and his wife live in Maine with an ever-changing pack of rescue dogs.
Author
Mitch Albom
Tuesday, October 28, 2025 at 6:30pm
Mitch Albom is an internationally renowned and best-selling author, journalist, screenwriter, playwright, radio and television broadcaster and musician. His books have collectively sold 42 million copies worldwide; have been published in 51 territories and in 48 languages around the world; and have been made into Emmy Award-winning and critically-acclaimed television movies.
Author
Coltan Scrivner, PhD
Monday, October 27, 2025 at 6:30pm
Dr. Coltan Scrivner is an author and psychologist at Arizona State University. He is an internationally recognized expert on morbid curiosity and the psychology of horror and true crime. He is the Founder and Executive Director of the Nightmare in the Ozarks Film Festival, and the author of Morbidly Curious: A Scientist Explains Why We Can't Look Away.
Author
Carolyn Huynh
Wednesday, October 1, 2025 at 6:30pm
Carolyn Huynh loves writing about messy Asian women who never learn from their mistakes. Her debut book, The Fortunes of Jaded Women was a Good Morning America book club pick and is being adapted for television by Heyday Studios and Universal. Her sophomore book is The Family Recipe. When she's not writing, Carolyn daydreams about having iced coffee on a rooftop in Ho Chi Minh City.
Author
Alka Joshi
Thursday, September 25, 2025 at 6:30pm
Alka Joshi is the internationally bestselling author of the Jaipur Trilogy: The Henna Artist, The Secret Keeper of Jaipur, and The Perfumist of Paris. Six Days in Bombay is her fourth novel. Her debut novel, The Henna Artist, immediately became a New York Times bestseller, a Reese Witherspoon Bookclub Pick, and an LA Times bestseller. It has been translated into 29 languages and optioned as an episodic series.
Author
Louis Sachar
Friday, August 22, 2025 at 6:30pm
Louis Sachar is author of the #1 New York Times bestseller Holes, which won the Newbery Medal and the National Book Award. His other books include Small Steps, winner of the Schneider Family Book Award and There's a Boy in the Girls' Bathroom, which won more than twenty-four state children's choice awards voted on exclusively by children. For younger readers he's written the Wayside School books. His first book for adults, The Magician of Tiger Castle, will be published in August 2025.
Author
Kaira Rouda
Wednesday, August 6, 2025 at 6:30pm
Kaira Rouda is an award–winning USA Today and Amazon Charts bestselling author of contemporary fiction that explores what goes on beneath the surface of seemingly perfect lives. Her latest thriller, Jill Is Not Happy, promises to shock, surprise and satisfy.
Author
Lisa Scottoline
Thursday, July 24, 2025 at 6:30pm
Lisa Scottoline is the #1 bestselling and Edgar Award-winning author of 37 novels. She is the President of Mystery Writers of America and her previous novel is a finalist for Best Standalone Thriller by International Thriller Writers and is a Barnes & Noble and Amazon Best Book of the Year. There are 30 million copies of her books in print, and she is published in 35 countries. She lives on a Pennsylvania farm with an array of disobedient pets, and she wouldn’t have it any other way.
Author
Daniel Silva
Saturday, July 19, 2025 at 6:30pm
Daniel Silva has been called his generation's finest writer of international intrigue and one of the greatest American spy novelists ever. Compelling, passionate, haunting, brilliant: these are the words that have been used to describe the work of award-winning #1 New York Times bestselling author Daniel Silva. He is best known for his long-running thriller series starring spy and art restorer Gabriel Allon. Silva's books are critically acclaimed bestsellers around the world and have been translated into more than thirty languages.
Author
Julie Clark
Thursday, June 26, 2025 at 6:30pm
Julie Clark is the New York Times bestselling author of The Lies I Tell and The Last Flight, both of which were also #1 international bestsellers and have been translated into more than twenty-five languages.
Author
Martha Hall Kelly
Wednesday, June 18, 2025 at 6:30pm
Martha Hall Kelly is the New York Times bestselling author of Lilac Girls, Lost Roses, Sunflower Sisters, and The Golden Doves. She's received Journalism degrees from both Syracuse and Northwestern Universities and worked as an advertising copywriter for many years before becoming a novelist. Her fifth book, The Martha's Vineyard Beach and Book Club is her most personal work to date, as she based the narrative on many aspects of her mother's heritage.
Author
Katherine Center
Wednesday, May 28, 2025 at 6:30pm
Katherine Center is the New York Times bestselling author of twelve novels, including The Rom-Commers, Hello Stranger, The Bodyguard, Things You Save in a Fire, and her summer 2025 book, The Love Haters. Katherine writes deep, nuanced rom-coms that brim with hope and healing. The movie adaptation of her novel Happiness for Beginners became a Netflix movie in 2023 and hit the Global Top Ten in 81 countries, and the movie of her novel The Lost Husband hit #1 on Netflix in 2020.
Author
Matthew Quick
Monday, May 12, 2025 at 6:30pm
Matthew Quick is the New York Times bestselling author of The Silver Linings Playbook, which was made into an Oscar-winning film, and eight other novels, including We Are the Light, a #1 Indie Next Pick and a Book of the Month selection. His work has been translated into more than thirty languages, received a PEN/Hemingway Award Honorable Mention, was an LA Times Book Prize finalist, and a New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice.
Author
Brad Taylor
Monday, April 28, 2025 at 6:30pm
Brad Taylor, Lieutenant Colonel (Ret.), is a twenty-one-year veteran of the U.S. Army Infantry and Special Forces, including eight years with the 1st Special Forces Operational Detachment-Delta, popularly known as Delta Force. Taylor retired after serving more than two decades and participating in Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom, as well as classified operations around the globe. His final military post was as assistant professor of military science at The Citadel. He is a New York Times bestselling author of eighteen Pike Logan thrillers.
Author
Luis Alberto Urrea
Tuesday, April 15, 2025 at 6:30pm
Luis Alberto Urrea is a prolific and acclaimed writer who uses his dual-culture life experiences to explore greater themes of love, loss and triumph. A 2005 Pulitzer Prize finalist for nonfiction and a Guggenheim fellow, Urrea is the critically acclaimed and best-selling author of 19 books, winning numerous awards for his poetry, fiction and essays.
Author
Jennifer Weiner
Monday, April 14, 2025 at 6:30pm
Jennifer Weiner is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of nineteen novels, including Good in Bed, In Her Shoes, Mrs. Everything, and The Breakaway. She lives with her family in Philadelphia.
Author
Ilyon Woo
Wednesday, April 9, 2025 at 6:30pm
Ilyon Woo is the Pulitzer-Prize-winning, New York Times bestselling author of Master Slave Husband Wife: An Epic Journey from Slavery to Freedom, one of the New York Times's "10 Best Books of 2023" and People Magazine's "Top Ten Books of 2023," also named a best book of the year by The New Yorker, Time, NPR, and Smithsonian Magazine. Ilyon has been featured on such programs as NPR's Morning Edition, All Things Considered, and CBS Sunday Morning.
Author
Rick Steves
Tuesday, April 8, 2025 at 6:30pm
Rick Steves is a popular public television host, a best-selling guidebook author, and an outspoken activist who encourages Americans to broaden their perspectives through travel. He is the founder and owner of Rick Steves' Europe, a travel business with a small-group tour program that brings more than 30,000 people to Europe annually.
Author
Mary Alice Monroe
Tuesday, April 1, 2025 at 6:30pm
Mary Alice Monroe is the New York Times bestselling author of over 30 books, including the beloved Beach House series and her forthcoming novel, Where The Rivers Merge. Monroe has also published children's books which complement the environmental themes she is known for in her adult novels. More than 7.5 million copies of her books have been published worldwide, and she's earned numerous accolades and awards.
Author
Viet Thanh Nguyen
Thursday, March 6, 2025 at 6:30pm
Viet Thanh Nguyen is author of The Committed, which continues the story of The Sympathizer, awarded the 2016 Pulitzer Prize in Fiction, alongside seven other prizes. He is a University Professor and the Aerol Arnold Professor of English and American Studies and Ethnicity at the University of Southern California and recipient of fellowships from the Guggenheim and MacArthur foundations.
Author
Jenifer Lewis
Friday, February 21, 2025 at 6:30pm
Jenifer Lewis is one of Hollywood's most familiar faces, with more than 300 appearances in film and television. Her bestselling memoir, The Mother of Black Hollywood, was named "2018 Book of the Year" at the National Book Club Conference. Jenifer's accomplishments as an entertainer and community activist have been recognized by the NAACP Lifetime Achievement Award in Theatre, the American Black Film Festival Career Achievement Award, and the Human Rights Campaign Ally Award.
Author
ReShonda Tate
Thursday, February 13, 2025 at 6:30pm
ReShonda Tate is the national bestselling author of more than 53 books, she writes both adult and teen fiction, as well as nonfiction. A highly sought-after motivational speaker and award-winning poet, ReShonda is the recipient of an NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literature. Considered one of the top African-American authors in the country, her books remain a staple on Bestseller's lists and have been featured in USA Today, The Washington Post, Jet, People, Essence, and Ebony Magazines.
Author
Alexis Daria
Thursday, February 6, 2025 at 6:30pm
Alexis Daria is the award-winning and international bestselling author of You Had Me at Hola, A Lot Like Adiós, Take the Lead, and more. Her books have been featured on several "Best of" lists from outlets like Oprah Magazine, Entertainment Weekly, NPR, Buzzfeed, and Washington Post, and have received starred reviews from trade publications like Publishers Weekly, Kirkus Reviews, and Library Journal.
Author
Erika L. Sánchez
Monday, February 3, 2025 at 6:30pm
Erika L. Sánchez is the daughter of Mexican immigrants. Her debut young adult novel, I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter was a #1 New York Times bestseller, a National Book Awards finalist, and Tomás Rivera Award winner. Time has recognized it as one of the best YA novels of all time. Most recently, Sánchez published a critically acclaimed memoir-in-essays titled Crying in the Bathroom with Viking Books.
Author
Kevin Kwan
Wednesday, January 29, 2025 at 6:30pm
Kevin Kwan is the author of Crazy Rich Asians, the international bestselling novel that has been translated into 40 languages. The film adaptation became Hollywood's highest-grossing romantic comedy in over a decade. Sex and Vanity, hit the New York Times bestseller list in its first week of release and is being adapted into a feature film by Sony Pictures. Kevin has been named by Time Magazine as one of the 100 Most Infiuential People in the World.
Author
Robert Crais
Friday, January 17, 2025 at 6:30pm
Robert Crais is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of twenty-four novels, twenty of them featuring private investigator Elvis Cole and his enigmatic partner, Joe Pike. Crais was named a Grand Master by the Mystery Writers of America and has received numerous awards, among them an Anthony Award from the World Mystery Convention. His novels have been translated around the world and have received dozens of rave reviews and the highest praise.
Author
Brad Meltzer
Thursday, December 5, 2024 at 6:30pm
Brad Meltzer is the Emmy-nominated, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Lightning Rod, The Escape Artist, and eleven other bestselling thrillers. He also writes non-fiction books like The Nazi Conspiracy and the Ordinary People Change the World kids book series, which he does with Chris Eliopoulos and inspired the PBS KIDS TV show, Xavier Riddle and the Secret Museum.
Author
Stephanie Wrobel
Wednesday, October 16, 2024 at 6:30pm
Stephanie Wrobel is the author of This Might Hurt and Darling Rose Gold, an international bestseller that has sold in twenty-one countries and was a finalist for the Edgar Award for Best First Novel. Her third book, The Hitchcock Hotel, will be published in Fall 2024.
Author
Neal Shusterman
Monday, August 26, 2024 at 6:30pm
Neal Shusterman is the New York Times bestselling author of more than thirty award-winning books for children, teens, and adults, including the Unwind dystology, the Skinjacker trilogy, Downsiders, and Challenger Deep, which won the National Book Award. Scythe, the first book in his series Arc of a Scythe is a Michael L. Printz Honor Book. He also writes screenplays for motion pictures and television shows.
Author
Sandra Brown
Wednesday, August 14, 2024 at 6:30pm
Sandra Brown is the author of seventy-three New York Times bestsellers, including Blind Tiger, Thick As Thieves, Seeing Red, Sting and Mean Streak. Writing professionally since 1981, Brown has published over seventy-five novels and has upwards of eighty million copies of her books in print worldwide. Her work has been translated into thirty-four languages.
Author
James McBride
Tuesday, August 13, 2024 at 6:30pm
James McBride, renowned for his landmark memoir, The Color of Water, and his National Book Award-winning The Good Lord Bird, has captivated readers worldwide. With millions of copies sold of his New York Times bestsellers, McBride’s work has left an indelible mark on literature. McBride’s The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store is a runaway New York Times bestseller and named Best Book of the Year by numerous outlets. McBride brings his masterful storytelling skills and his deep faith in humanity to write a novel as compassionate as Deacon King Kong and as inventive as The Good Lord Bird. A former reporter for The Washington Post and People magazine, he holds a Masters degree in journalism from Columbia University.
Author
Jessica Knoll
Thursday, August 8, 2024 at 6:30pm
JESSICA KNOLL is the New York Times best-selling writer of Luckiest Girl Alive and The Favorite Sister. She adapted and executive produced Luckiest Girl Alive for the screen, starring Mila Kunis, released on Netflix in 2022. Her books have been published in over forty languages. Bright Young Women, her third novel, publishes on September 19th.
Author
Abby Jimenez
Wednesday, August 7, 2024 at 6:30pm
Abby Jimenez is the author of six popular romance novels, several of which have landed her on the New York Times and USA Today bestseller lists. Her books have won her the Minnesota Book Award as well as Book of the Month Club's Book of the Year. Before becoming a writer, Jimenez founded Nadia Cakes, an award-winning cupcake shop and custom cake studio, out of her home kitchen. She went on to win Food Network's Cupcake Wars and was featured on two seasons of TLC's hit show Fabulous Cakes.
Author
Henry Winkler
Thursday, August 1, 2024 at 6:30pm
Henry Winkler celebrates over 50 years of success in Hollywood and continues to be in demand not only as an actor, producer, and director but as a best-selling author. His autobiography, BEING HENRY... The Fonz and Beyond, was published last October. It was on the New York Times best-seller list for 11 weeks and was a Good Reads Award winner for Best Humor book.
Author
Peng Shepherd
Thursday, July 18, 2024 at 6:30pm
Peng Shepherd is the nationally bestselling author of The Cartographers, The Book of M, and the forthcoming All This and More. A graduate of New York University's MFA program, Peng is the recipient of a 2020 fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts.
Author
Michael Finkel
Wednesday, July 17 2024 at 6:30pm
Michael Finkel is the author of "The Art Thief," "The Stranger in the Woods," and "True Story," which was adapted into a 2015 motion picture. He has reported from more than 50 countries and written for National Geographic, GQ, Rolling Stone, Esquire, Vanity Fair, The Atlantic, and The New York Times Magazine.
Author
Daniel Silva
Friday, July 12, 2024 at 6:30pm
Daniel Silva has been called his generation's finest writer of international intrigue and one of the greatest American spy novelists ever. Silva is an award-winning New York Times bestselling author, his books are critically acclaimed bestsellers around the world and have been translated into more than thirty languages.
Author
Julia Quinn
Sunday, May 19, 2024 at 11:00am
Julia Quinn is the author of nineteen consecutive New York Times bestsellers, her books have been translated into 42 languages. She is author of the wildly popular Bridgerton books, now a Netflix original series. Quinn is a graduate of Harvard & Radcliffe Colleges and briefly attended Yale School of Medicine before deciding to pursue a full-time writing career.
Author
Don Winslow
Tuesday, April 9, 2024 at 6:30pm
DON WINSLOW has written twenty-one novels, including The Border, The Force, The Kings of Cool, Savages, The Winter of Frankie Machine and the highly acclaimed epics The Power of the Dog and The Cartel. In addition to his novels, Winslow has published numerous short stories in anthologies and magazines such as Esquire and LA Times Magazine. His columns have appeared in Vanity Fair, Vulture, Huffington Post, CNN Online, and other outlets.
Author
Tommy Orange
Sunday, April 7, 2024 at 6:30pm
Tommy Orange is the author of the bestselling There There, a multi-generational story about a side of America few of us have ever seen: the lives of urban Native Americans. There There was a finalist for the 2019 Pulitzer Prize and received the 2019 American Book Award. His newest work, Wandering Stars, conjures the ancestors of the family readers fell in love with in There There, asking what is means to be the children and grandchildren of massacre.
Author
A.J. Finn
Wednesday, March 13, 2024 at 6:30pm
A.J. Finn is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of the global phenomenon The Woman in the Window, which was published in more than forty languages and is the basis for the hit film starring Amy Adams. His second novel, End of Story, was released in February 2024.
Author
C.J. Box
Wednesday, February 28, 2024 at 6:30pm
C.J. BOX is the author of twenty-four Joe Pickett novels, eight stand-alone novels, and a story collection. He has won the Edgar, Anthony, Macavity, Gumshoe, and two Barry awards, as well as the French Prix Calibre .38, the Western Heritage Award for Literature, and two Spur Awards. An avid outdoorsman, Box has hunted, fished, hiked, ridden, and skied throughout Wyoming and the Mountain West. He has been executive producer on shows based on his books, including ABC TV's Big Sky and Joe Pickett on Paramount+.
Author
Jasmine Guillory
Tuesday, February 27, 2024 at 6:30pm
Jasmine Guillory is a New York Times bestselling author of novels including The Wedding Date, the Reese's Book Club selection The Proposal, and Drunk on Love. Her work has appeared in The Wall Street Journal, Cosmopolitan, Bon Appetit, and Time, and she is a frequent book contributor on The Today Show.
Author
Nicola Yoon
Tuesday, February 6, 2024 at 6:30pm
Nicola Yoon is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Instructions for Dancing, Everything, Everything, The Sun Is Also a Star, and a co-author of Blackout and Whiteout. She is a National Book Award finalist, a Michael L. Printz Honor Book recipient, a Coretta Scott King New Talent Award winner and the first Black woman to hit #1 on the New York Times Young Adult bestseller list.
Author
Silvia Moreno-Garcia
In conversation with Marytza Rubio
Thursday, February 1, 2024 at 6:30pm
SILVIA MORENO-GARCIA is the author of a number of critically acclaimed novels, including Gods of Jade and Shadow, Mexican Gothic, and Velvet Was the Night. She has won the Locus, British Fantasy and World Fantasy awards. She writes in a variety of genres including fantasy, horror, noir and historical.
Author
Douglas Preston
In conversation with Paddy Hirsch
Wednesday, December 6, 2023 at 11:30 am
DOUGLAS PRESTON is the author of 36 books, both fiction and nonfiction, 29 of which have been New York Times bestsellers, with several reaching the number 1 position. He has worked as an editor at the American Museum of Natural History in New York and taught nonfiction writing at Princeton University. He is former president of the Authors Guild, the nation's oldest and largest association of authors and journalists.
Author
Mitch Albom
Thursday, November 30, 2023 at 6:30 pm
MITCH ALBOM is an internationally renowned and best-selling author, journalist, screenwriter, playwright, radio and television broadcaster and musician. His books have collectively sold more than 40 million copies worldwide; have been published in 49 territories and in 48 languages around the world; and have been made into Emmy Award-winning and critically-acclaimed television movies.
This project is funded in part through a grant from the California Department of Aging, as allocated by the Orange County Board of Supervisors.
Author
Janelle Brown
Thursday, October 5, 2023 at 6:30 pm
JANELLE BROWN is the New York Times bestselling author of the novels I'II Be You, Pretty Things, Watch Me Disappear, All We Ever Wanted Was Everything, and This Is Where We Live. Her books have been sold in two dozen countries around the world. Pretty Things - named a Best Book of 2020 by Amazon - and I'II Be You are both currently being adapted for television.
Author
Karin Slaughter
Wednesday, August 23, 2023 at 6:30pm
KARIN SLAUGHTER is one of the world's most popular storytellers, and the author of more than 20 instant New York Times bestselling novels. Coming this August is After That Night, the next installment in her bestselling Will Trent series - which is also now a hit series on ABC and streaming on Hulu.
Author
Daniel Silva
In conversation with Jamie Gangel
Monday, July 24, 2023 at 6:30 pm
He has been called his generation’s finest writer of international intrigue and one of the greatest American spy novelists ever. Compelling, passionate, haunting, brilliant: these are the words that have been used to describe the work of award-winning #1 New York Times bestselling author DANIEL SILVA.
Author
Nancy Horan
Tuesday, July 11, 2023 at 6:30 pm
Nancy Horan is the New York Times bestselling author of Loving Frank and Under the Wide and Starry Sky. Loving Frank remained on the NYT list for over a year, has been translated into sixteen languages and received the 2009 Prize for Historical Fiction from the Society of American Historians. A native Midwesterner, Horan was a teacher and journalist before turning to fiction. She lived for 25 years in Oak Park, Illinois, where she raised her two sons, and she now lives with her husband on an island in Puget Sound.
Author
David Grann
Tuesday, June 13, 2023 at 6:30pm
DAVID GRANN is the New Yorker writer and bestselling author of Killers of the Flower Moon and The Lost City of Z. Known for his compelling stories, Grann has been called "The man Hollywood can't stop reading," with four of his New Yorker articles adapted for the screen.
Author
Steve Berry
Thursday, June 8, 2023 at 6:30pm
STEVE BERRY is the New York Times and internationally bestselling author of twenty-one novels. His books have been translated into 41 languages with over 25 million copies in 52 countries. They consistently appear in the top echelon of The New York Times, USA Today, and lndie bestseller lists.
Author
Adriana Trigiani
Friday, April 21, 2023 at 6:30 pm
ADRIANA TRIGIANI is the New York Times best-selling author of twenty books in fiction and non-fiction, published in 38 languages around the world. She is also an award-winning playwright, television writer/producer and filmmaker.
Author
Susan Orlean
In conversation with Samantha Dunn
Wednesday, April 19, 2023 at 6:30 pm
SUSAN ORLEAN is a journalist, television writer, and bestselling author of The Orchid Thief and The Library Book. She has been a staff writer for The New Yorker since 1992, and has contributed articles to many magazines including Vogue, Rolling Stone, Esquire, and Outside.
Author
Marie Benedict
Wednesday, February 1, 2023 at 6:30pm
MARIE BENEDICT is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of Her Hidden Genius, The Mystery of Mrs. Christie, The Only Woman in the Room, Lady Clementine, Carnegie's Maid, and The Other Einstein. All have been translated into multiple languages.