EVPL Announces 2026 SPEAK Author Lineup and Reading Challenge Theme

EVANSVILLE, Ind. — The Evansville Vanderburgh Public Library (EVPL) has announced the author lineup for its 2026 SPEAK series, featuring bestselling and award-winning writers Sarah Adams, Dr. Patrick Griffin, Candace Fleming and Toni Tipton-Martin.

Sponsored by the EVPL Foundation, all SPEAK events are free and open to the public.

The 2026 theme, which also anchors EVPL’s Annual Reading Challenge, is “Spark a Love of Reading with EVPL.”

“The authors selected for SPEAK 2026 will help ignite — or reignite — participants’ love of reading, books and their library,” said Erika Qualls Barnett, EVPL’s director of programming and outreach. “Through these authors’ works, readers can discover the beauty of family and true love in a romance novel, explore our nation’s past, nurture a child’s imagination in a picture book, or find culinary inspiration in a cookbook.”

The series opens Thursday, April 23, at 7 p.m. at Old National Events Plaza with Sarah Adams, a New York Times and USA TODAY bestselling author of 13 contemporary romantic comedies. Her works include The Cheat Sheet and Practice Makes Perfect, as well as the popular Rome, Kentucky series, which concluded in December 2025 with In Your Dreams. The third book in that series features a male lead who previously lived in Evansville.

On Tuesday, July 21, at 7 p.m., Notre Dame professor Dr. Patrick Griffin will present “The Revolutionary War in Three Paintings” at the Evansville Museum of Arts, History & Science, which is co-hosting the event. Griffin, author of five books including The Age of Atlantic Revolution and American Leviathan, will speak in recognition of the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence.

Award-winning children’s and young adult author Candace Fleming will speak Thursday, Sept. 17, at 7 p.m. at EVPL Central. Fleming has written more than 50 books, including Honeybee: The Busy Life of Apis Mellifera, The Enigma Girls and Amelia Lost. Her extensive body of work includes historical biographies of prominent American figures such as Eleanor Roosevelt, Abraham Lincoln and P.T. Barnum.

The series concludes Thursday, Oct. 22, at 7 p.m. with Toni Tipton-Martin at Trinity United Methodist Church in downtown Evansville. Urban Seeds is partnering on the event. Tipton-Martin, editor in chief of Cook’s Country magazine and its PBS television show, is an award-winning food journalist and author whose work celebrates America’s Black and female cooks. She is a three-time James Beard Book Award winner and recipient of the Julia Child Foundation Award.

More information about the SPEAK 2026 series and featured authors is available at evpl.org/SPEAK2026.