2026 Author Series

Jenny Lawson

• When: Saturday, Jan. 31, at 2 p.m.
• Where: Larry J. Ringer Library, 1818 Harvey Mitchell Pkwy S., College Station, TX
• Cost: Free admission. The first 50 people to register will receive a free copy of the book, “Broken (in the Best Possible Way).” You must attend the event in person to receive your copy. 

Jenny Lawson (aka “The Bloggess”) is a #1 NYT bestselling author and award-winning humor writer best known for her inspiring candor in sharing her struggle with depression, anxiety and chronic pain. She lives in Texas with her husband and child and was constantly “buying too many books” (“Not a real thing,” she insists), so she decided to skip the middleman and open the Nowhere Bookshop, a beloved independent bookstore in San Antonio.

Her first book, “Let’s Pretend This Never Happened” is a top best-seller and was named Best Humor Book in the 2012 Goodreads Choice Awards. Her second book, “Furiously Happy,” a humorous but heart-breaking look at Lawson’s experience with depression and anxiety disorder, was also a #1 NYT bestseller. The audiobook of “Furiously Happy,” narrated by Jenny, won the Audie Award for best humor audiobook of 2016. Her third book, “YOU ARE HERE: An Owner’s Manual For Dangerous Minds,” was a popular adult coloring book/advice book illustrated and written by Jenny. Her most recent book of essays, “Broken (in the Best Possible Way),” debuted in the number 3 spot of the New York Times bestseller list. “Broken” was chosen as Best Humor Book of the Year in the 2021 Goodreads Choice Awards. Jenny was recognized by the Nielsen ratings as one of the Top 50 Most Powerful Mom Bloggers, and Forbes listed thebloggess.com as one of their Top 100 Websites for Women. Jenny’s upcoming book, “How To Be Okay When Nothing Is Okay” will be released in March 2026.

Lawson’s blog, TheBloggess.com, is award-winning and extremely popular, mainly dark humor mixed with brutally honest periods of mental illness and she is considered one of the funniest writers of our generation by at least three or four people. Her followers on social media sure think so – she has 210,000 Facebook followers, 164,000 Instagram followers and 309,000 Threads followers.

ReShonda Tate

• When: Monday, Feb. 9, at 5:30 p.m.
• Where: Clara B. Mounce Public Library, 201 E. 26th Street, Bryan, TX
• Cost: Free admission. The first 50 people to register will receive a free copy of the book, “With Love from Harlem.” You must attend the event in person to receive your copy. 

ReShonda Tate is a national bestselling author of more than 50 books celebrated for bringing powerful stories to life. Her acclaimed novel “The Queen of Sugar Hill” offers a captivating portrait of Oscar winner Hattie McDaniel, and her forthcoming release, “With Love from Harlem,” arrives in January 2026.

An NAACP Image Award recipient and inductee into both the Texas Literary Hall of Fame and the Arkansas Black Hall of Fame, ReShonda’s work has been featured in USA Today, The Washington Post, People, Essence, and Ebony. Her novels “Let the Church Say Amen” and “The Secret She Kept” were adapted into films, both featuring her on-screen cameos.

A veteran journalist, ReShonda serves as Managing Editor of the Houston Defender, a radio news anchor and talk show host for KTSU 90.9 FM, and works as an editor, ghostwriter and literary consultant. She is also co-founder of Brown Girls Books and Brown Girls Entertainment, dedicated to amplifying diverse voices in publishing and film.

A graduate of The University of Texas at Austin, ReShonda is a proud member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc., and Jack & Jill of America. She lives in the Houston area with her husband, Jeffrey Caradine, and their blended family.

Marcela Fuentes

• When: Wednesday, March 25, at 6 p.m.
• Where: Larry J. Ringer Library, 1818 Harvey Mitchell Pkwy S., College Station, TX
• Cost: Free admission. The first 50 people to register will receive a free copy of the book, “Malas.” You must attend the event in person to receive your copy. 

Marcela Fuentes is a Pushcart Prize-winning fiction writer and essayist. Her essays and stories have appeared in Texas Highways Magazine, Kenyon Review, Ploughshares and other journals. She is a graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop (MFA) and Georgia State University (Ph.D.). She was the 2016-2017 James C. McCreight Fiction Fellow at the Wisconsin Institute for Creative Writing. Marcela lives in Fort Worth, where she is a professor of creative writing at TCU.

Her debut novel “Malas” received starred reviews from Kirkus, Publisher’s Weekly, and Booklist, and was selected Good Morning America Book Club’s pick for June 2024 and is a 2025 American Book Award Winner. “Malas” was longlisted for the Center For Fiction’s 2024 First Novel Prize.

Her second book, the story collection “My Heart Has More Rooms Than a Whorehouse,” is forthcoming from Viking Books.

David Baron

• When: Wednesday, April 15, at 5:30 p.m.
• Where: Clara B. Mounce Public Library, 201 E. 26th Street, Bryan, TX
• Cost: Free admission. The first 50 people to register will receive a free copy of the book, “The Martians: The True Story of an Alien Craze That Captured Turn-of-the-Century America.” You must attend the event in person to receive your copy. 

David Baron is a best-selling author, journalist, broadcaster and public speaker who writes about astronomy and other sciences. His critically acclaimed new book is “The Martians: The True Story of an Alien Craze That Captured Turn-of-the-Century America,” praised as “deeply researched and witty” (Los Angeles Times) and “captivating and vivid” (Publishers Weekly). His previous, award-winning books are “The Beast in the Garden” and “American Eclipse.” A former science correspondent for NPR and Chair in Astrobiology at the Library of Congress, David has written for the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post and other outlets. His popular TED Talk, about his passion for chasing solar eclipses, has been viewed more than two million times. He lives in Boulder, Colorado.

Yangsze Choo

• When: Wednesday, May 6, at 6 p.m.
• Where: Larry J. Ringer Library, 1818 Harvey Mitchell Pkwy S., College Station, TX
• Cost: Free admission. The first 50 people to register will receive a free copy of the book, “The Fox Wife.” You must attend the event in person to receive your copy. 

Yangsze Choo is the New York Times bestselling author of “The Ghost Bride” (now a Netflix Original series) and “The Night Tiger,” a Reese Witherspoon Book Club Pick, Amazon’s Spotlight Pick, a Book of the Month Club selection, and one of Bookbub and USA Today’s best books of the year. It was also a Big Jubilee Read selection for Queen Elizabeth II’s Platinum Jubilee.

Her new novel, “The Fox Wife,” is a Time Magazine Best Book of February 2024, a Book of the Month Club, a Fresh Fiction pick for Oprah Daily, as well as a semifinalist for Jimmy Fallon’s Book Club on “The Tonight Show.” She lives in California with her family and loves to eat and read (often at the same time). “The Fox Wife” and all previous novels would not have been possible without large quantities of dark chocolate.

Darcie Little Badger

• When: Thursday, June 18, at 5:30 p.m.
• Where: Clara B. Mounce Public Library, 201 E. 26th Street, Bryan, TX
• Cost: Free admission. The first 50 people to register will receive a free copy of the book, “Elatsoe.” You must attend the event in person to receive your copy. 

Darcie Little Badger is a Lipan Apache writer with a Ph.D. in oceanography. Her critically acclaimed debut novel, “Elatsoe,” was featured in Time Magazine as one of the best 100 fantasy books of all time. “Elatsoe” also won the Locus award for Best First Novel and is a Nebula, Ignyte and Lodestar finalist. Her second fantasy novel, “A Snake Falls to Earth,” received a Nebula Award, an Ignyte Award and a Newbery Honor and is on the National Book Awards longlist. It is a breathtaking work of Indigenous futurism. Darcie draws on traditional Lipan Apache storytelling structure to weave another unforgettable tale of monsters, magic and family. It is not to be missed.

Her third book, “Sheine Lende,” is the prequel to “Elatsoe,” which is centered on Ellie’s grandmother, which deepens and expands Darcie’s one-of-a-kind world and introduces us to another cast of characters that will wend their way around readers’ hearts.

Darcie is an Earth scientist, writer and fan of the weird, beautiful and haunting; she is married to a veterinarian named Taran.

Katherine Center

• When: Saturday, July 18, at 2 p.m.
• Where: Larry J. Ringer Library, 1818 Harvey Mitchell Pkwy S., College Station, TX
• Cost: Free admission. The first 50 people to register will receive a free copy of the book, “The Shippers.” You must attend the event in person to receive your copy. 

BookPage calls Katherine Center “the reigning queen of comfort reads.” She is the New York Times bestselling author of twelve novels, including “The Bodyguard,” “The Rom-Commers,” and “The Love Haters,” among others. Katherine writes deep, nuanced laugh-and-cry rom-coms that brim with hope and healing. The movie adaptations of her novels “Happiness for Beginners” and “The Lost Husband” have both hit the global top ten on Netflix. Her books have made countless best-of lists, including Amazon’s Top 100 Books of the Year, Barnes & Noble’s best books of the year, the Indie Next Great Reads List, Goodreads’ Best Books of the Year, Library Reads Hall of Fame, People Best New Books, and more. Her spring 2026 book is “The Shippers” —and People says “Katherine Center’s The Shippers is the wedding romance you need.” Katherine lives in her hometown of Houston, Texas, with her husband and their fluffy-but-fierce dog.

Annie Hartnett

• When: Saturday, Aug. 22, at 2 p.m.
• Where: Clara B. Mounce Public Library, 201 E. 26th Street, Bryan, TX
• Cost: Free admission. The first 50 people to register will receive a free copy of the book, “The Road to Tender Hearts.” You must attend the event in person to receive your copy. 

Annie Hartnett is the bestselling author of three novels: “Rabbit Cake,” “Unlikely Animals” and “The Road to Tender Hearts.”

“The Road to Tender Hearts” is a national bestseller, USA Today Bestseller and the winner of the 2025 New England Book Award for fiction. It received starred reviews from Kirkus and Booklist and John Irving called it: “A miraculous novel—an actual and spiritual road trip you won’t forget.” “Unlikely Animals” was listed as one of the best books of 2022 by the Washington Post and BookRiot. It was the winner of the 2023 Julia Ward Howe prize for fiction, and was longlisted for the Joyce Carol Oates Prize. “Rabbit Cake” was listed as one of Kirkus Reviews Best Books of 2017, was a finalist for the New England Book Award, and was long-listed for the Center for Fiction’s First Novel Prize.

Along with the writer Tessa Fontaine, Annie co-runs Accountability Workshops for writers, helping writers commit to routines and embrace the long, slow, joyful, terrible process of doing the work. Annie lives in Massachusetts with her husband, daughter and dog.

Amanda Churchill

• When: Wednesday, Sept. 16, at 5:30 p.m.
• Where: Clara B. Mounce Public Library, 201 E. 26th Street, Bryan, TX
• Cost: Free admission. The first 50 people to register will receive a free copy of the book, “The Turtle House.” You must attend the event in person to receive your copy. 

Amanda Churchill is the author of “The Turtle House,” the 2025 winner of the Reading the West Award in Debut Fiction. Her work has been featured in Lit Hub, Hobart Pulp, Witness and other outlets. She was a Writer’s League of Texas 2021 Fellow, has received support from Tin House and Community of Writers, and holds a master’s degree in creative writing from the University of North Texas. She lives in Keller, Texas, with her family.

Sarah Beth Durst

• When: Wednesday, Oct. 14, at 6 p.m.
• Where: Larry J. Ringer Library, 1818 Harvey Mitchell Pkwy S., College Station, TX
• Cost: Free admission. The first 50 people to register will receive a free copy of the book, “The Spellshop.” You must attend the event in person to receive your copy. 

Sarah Beth Durst is the New York Times bestselling author of over 25 books for adults, teens and kids, including cozy fantasy “The Spellshop.” She’s been awarded the American Library Association’s Alex Award, the Libby Book Award for Best Fantasy and the Mythopoeic Fantasy Award. Several of her books have been optioned for film/television, including “Drink Slay Love,” which was made into a TV movie and was a question on Jeopardy! She lives in Stony Brook, New York, with her husband, her children and her ill-mannered cat.

Elle Cosimano

• When: Wednesday, Nov. 4, at 6 p.m.
• Where: Larry J. Ringer Library, 1818 Harvey Mitchell Pkwy S., College Station, TX
• Cost: Free admission. The first 50 people to register will receive a free copy of the book, “Finlay Donovan is Killing It.” You must attend the event in person to receive your copy. 

Elle Cosimano is a New York Times and USA Today bestselling author, an International Thriller Award winner, a Bran Stoker Award finalist, and an Edgar Award nominee. Her acclaimed young adult novels include “Nearly Gone,” “Holding Smoke,” “The Suffering Tree” and “Seasons of the Storm.” Elle’s debut novel for adults, “Finlay Donovan is Killing It,” kicked off a witty, fast-paced contemporary mystery series, which was a People Magazine Pick and was named one of New York Public Library’s Best Books of 2021. In addition to writing novels for teens and adults, her essays have appeared in The Huffington Post and Time. Elle lives with her husband and two sons in Virginia.