Get out your calendar! The Seattle Public Library has an incredible lineup of book-related events and author talks this fall, from the kickoff of the Jaipur Literature Festival Seattle to Seattle Reads events featuring “True Biz” author Sara Nović to an evening with Douglas Stuart, Booker Prize award-winning author of “John of John.”
All Library events are free and open to the public. Find information and registration through the event links below or at spl.org/Calendar. Many of these events are supported by The Seattle Public Library Foundation and the Gary and Connie Kunis Foundation. Free and reduced access is supported by 4Culture.
Explore “Diaspora & Belonging” with Daniel Tam-Claiborne. In recognition of the 250th anniversary of the United States, the Library’s new Guest Curator Daniel Tam-Claiborne has created a series of three programs that invites you to reflect on the many diasporas that shape our collective story. Starting on Sept. 10, each program spotlights a distinct community — East African, Nordic, and Southeast Asian — through literature, journalism, film, music, and interdisciplinary dialogue.
Celebrate Jaipur Literature Festival Seattle with author Yann Martel. Friday, September 18, from 7 p.m. to 8:15 p.m. Central Library, Level 1 Microsoft Auditorium. Join the kickoff of the Seattle satellite of the internationally renowned Jaipur Literature Festival, often called the “greatest literary show on earth.” Yann Martel, bestselling author of “Life of Pi,” will give the keynote address on “Why Stories and Imagination Matter more in Uncertain Times.” Registration is required.
Deep dive into mycology, metaphors, and decay with T. Kingfisher and Daniel Winkler. Thursday, Sept. 24, from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. Central Library, Level 1, Microsoft Auditorium. From fungus to slime molds, nature has always held lessons for us in collapse, renewal, and connection. Author T. Kingfisher (“What Moves the Dead”), aka Ursula Vernon, has written over 50 novels for both children and adults, an epic webcomic called “Digger” and various short stories and other odds and ends. Winkler is author of “Fruits of the Forest – Field Guide to Pacific Northwest Edible Mushrooms.” Registration is required.
Meet Seattle Reads author Sara Nović: Every year, the Library’s citywide book club Seattle Reads encourages all of Seattle to read and discuss the same book, deepening engagement in literature and building community. This year’s selection is “True Biz” by Sara Nović, the New York Times bestselling novel about a seismic year at the River Valley School for the Deaf. Nović will visit Seattle on Friday, Sept. 25 and Saturday, Sept. 26 to discuss “True Biz,” with American Sign Language (ASL) interpretation and CART live captioning at all programs.
Learn about the Yurok tribe’s fight for justice and environmental stewardship. Tuesday, Sept. 29, from 6:30 p.m. to 7:45 p.m. Central Library, Level 1, Microsoft Auditorium. KUOW’s Katie Campbell will be in conversation with Amy Bowers Cordalis, a member of the Yurok Tribe in Northern California. In “The Water Remembers,” Bowers Cordelias discusses carrying forward the Yurok Tribe’s 170-year fight for justice and environmental stewardship. Registration is required.
Hear Claudia Castro Luna read from her new memoir. Wednesday, Sept. 30, from 6:30 p.m. to 7:45 p.m. Long before Claudia Castro Luna became the Washington State Poet or Seattle’s first Civic Poet, she was a 14-year-old girl fleeing political unrest and civil war violence in El Salvador. In her new memoir, “The Flowers Along the Way,” beauty, longing, fear, and joy entwine in a powerful story of love, self-determination, and the search for home.
Learn about the importance of soil health to global security. Thursday, Oct. 8, from 7 p.m. to 8:15 p.m. Central Library, Level 1, Microsoft Auditorium. Acclaimed geologist and University of Washington professor David Montgomery will discuss his book “ReGen,” which shows us how reforming the way we see and treat the land can help us restore the health of our land and secure civilization’s agricultural foundation. Registration is required.
Learn what it means to be in community with Layli Long Soldier. Tuesday, Oct. 13, from 7 p.m. to 8:15 p.m. Central Library, Level 1, Microsoft Auditorium. In “We,” Layli Long Soldier examines what it means to be in community, to be in relation with family, nation, history, and language. We is the first-person plural, the pronoun of inclusion in English. It is also Wé, the Lakota word meaning “blood” — what is shared and what is shed. Registration is required.
Deep dive into AI and medicine with Justin C. Key and Lakshmi Krishnan. Thursday, Oct. 15, from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. Central Library, Level 1, Microsoft Auditorium. In this Clarion West Deep Dives program, Justin C. Key (“The Hospital at the End of the World”) and Lakshmi Krishnan will discuss data privacy, innovation in treatments, and the promises and the horrors of unregulated futures in healthcare tech foretold by science fiction. Registration is required.
Live like a citizen with Eric Liu. Tuesday, Oct. 20, from 7 p.m. to 8:15 p.m. Central Library, Level 1, Microsoft Auditorium. Eric Liu, CEO of Citizen University, gives readers eight deep practices for rekindling our belief in democracy — and our own humanity. Registration is required.
Hear the story of a former Gonzaga basketball player and UW dean. Thursday, Oct. 22, from 7 to 8:15 p.m. Central Library, Level 4, Room 1. Seattle luminaries Ed Taylor and Reagan Jackson will discuss Taylor’s new memoir, “The Power of the River.” From a former Gonzaga basketball player and current University of Washington Dean and Vice Provost comes a memoir steeped in the universal truths and human pursuits of love, grace, forgiveness, and continued growth. Registration is required.
Meet the Booker Prize winning author Douglas Stuart. Tuesday, Oct. 27, from 7 p.m. to 8:15 p.m. Central Library, Level 1, Microsoft Auditorium. Douglas Stuart’s new book has been called “one of 2026’s literary triumphs.” “John of John” is a vivid, moving novel following a young man returning to his Hebridean island home, a portrait of a father’s expectations and a son’s desires. Registration is required.
Attend a KUOW Book Talk featuring Anne de Marcken. Wednesday, Oct. 28, from 6:30 p.m. to 7:45 p.m. The undead narrator at the center of Anne de Marcken’s novel, “It Lasts Forever and Then It’s Over,” is adrift, journeying west in search of a place where she might recover some part of herself. The result is a genre-defying meditation on mortality, transformation, and love. In conversation with Katie Campbell, de Marcken will explore what it means to be alive.