These events are made possible by Illinois Libraries Present, a statewide collaboration between public libraries offering high-quality events. Illinois Libraries Present is committed to inclusion and accessibility. To request accommodations, please email illinoislibrariespresent[at]gmail.com.
Funding for this grant was awarded by the Illinois State Library, a Department of the Office of Secretary of State, using funds provided by the U.S. Institute of Museum and Library Services, under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA).
Bringing History to Life with Jonathan Eig
Tuesday, January 13, 7-8 pm
This event is intended for adults. Jonathan Eig is the bestselling author of six books, including his most recent, Pulitzer Prize-winning King: A Life. Vividly written and exhaustively researched, it is the first major biography in decades of civil rights icon Martin Luther King Jr.―and the first to include recently declassified FBI files. In this revelatory new portrait of the preacher and activist who shook the world, Eig gives us an intimate view of King, who masterfully employed peaceful protest in the streets but was rarely at peace with himself. From the classroom to the pulpit to the streets of Birmingham, Selma, and Memphis, Eig dramatically re-creates the journey of a man who recast American race relations and became our only modern-day founding father―as well as the nation’s most mourned martyr.
Eig began his writing career at age 16, working for his hometown newspaper, The Rockland County Journal News (N.Y.). He studied journalism at Northwestern University and went on to work as a reporter for The New Orleans Times-Picayune, The Dallas Morning News, Chicago Magazine, and The Wall Street Journal.
Mark Bazer will join Jonathan in conversation. The host of The Interview Show, Bazer also frequently moderates events for Chicago Humanities and is a contributing writer for Chicago magazine.
Still Afraid of the Dark: R.L. Stine
Tuesday, February 24, 7-8 pm
This event is intended for adults. Illinois Library Presents an interview with witty, creepy, and compulsively readable, bestselling author R.L. Stine, who has defined horror for a generation of young readers. The generation that grew up with the Goosebumps franchise may be grown, but Stine keeps finding ways to keep us afraid of the dark! Join us with The Guinness Book of World Records’ “most prolific author of children’s horror novels,” R.L. Stine, to discuss his illustrious and still-expanding body of work.
Best known for the Goosebumps and Fear Street series (and their respective TV and movie adaptations), R.L. Stine has sold over 400 million books worldwide in 35 languages. His recent and upcoming works include The Last Sleepover, which is the fifth installment in the Goosebumps: House of Shivers series; The Graveyard Club, a YA graphic novel illustrated by Carola Borelli; multiple Fear Street movies, including Fear Street: Prom Queen; and Goosebumps: The Vanishing, the second season of the Goosebumps reboot TV series.
Becky Spratford, acclaimed horror maven and editor of Why I Love Horror: Essays on Horror Literature, will join R.L. Stine in conversation.