Author Events

Thursday, May 24, 7pm
Left Bank Books

CWE Radiophiles brings you We Listen Here with Tim Lloyd and Kameel Stanley!

Join CWE Radiophiles: A Podcast Club for an evening with Tim Lloyd and Kameel Stanley, the hosts and producers of St. Louis Public Radio and PRX podcast, We Live Here. We're thrilled to share this exciting opportunity to hear from Tim and Kameel about their St. Louis-based podcast addressing the issues of race and class in our own backyards.

CWE Radiophiles is a community-organized assembly devoted to podcast education and exploration. Those of open ears and open minds come together to dissect, devour and discuss new ideas inspired by monthly podcast selections. We will broach an array of topics and genres from the vast selection of exceptional programming provided by this booming toast to traditional radio storytelling.

Parking: Lot one block north; street parking (meters free after 7pm). For directions and public transportation information, click here.

Thursday, May 10 - Saturday, May 19

Tennessee Williams Festival St. Louis’ production of “A Streetcar Named Desire” opens at 7:30 p.m., on Thurs., May 10, at the Grandel Theatre. Opening night festivities will kick-off with a New Orleans-inspired parade on the sidewalk along Grandel Square led by sax player and educator Harvey Lockhart and the Point of View Jazz Ensemble from Healing Arts Center.

The French Quarter-themed Festival May 10th-19th will also include a one-man show titled, “Tennessee Rising”; two panel discussions; and a staged reading, “Interior Panic,” an early version of “A Streetcar Named Desire.”

Other highlights to this year’s production include original music composed by St. Louis-based Henry Palkes, a diverse and young cast under the direction of Tim Ocel, a Stella Shouting Contest emceed by Ben Nordstrom.

Tickets to the Festival are available at MetroTix.com. Visit www.twstl.org, or call 314-517-5253, for information.

Tuesday, May 15, 7pm
Left Bank Books

Left Bank Books welcomes St. Louis Post-Dispatch sports columnist Benjamin Hochman, who will sign and discuss his new book, The Big 50: St. Louis Cardinals!

With such a rich past, there is no better time than now to brush up on the history that makes the St. Louis Cardinals the team they are today. The Cardinals are more than just the players on the field as the dedicated fans and unique characters working on and around the team make up just as much of their history as the teams do. Benjamin Hochman, award-winning sports columnist for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, has created the ultimate history for the die-hard Cardinals fan in The Big 50: St. Louis Cardinals.  From the story of the tarp that injured Vince Coleman to the 2011 World Series, everything new and old Cardinals fans want to know is in this book. 
Featuring a forward by former Cardinals manager Tony La Russa!

This event is free and open to the public, but proof of purchase of The Big 50 from Left Bank Books will be required to enter the signing line.

Parking: Lot one block north; street parking (meters free after 7pm). For directions and public transportation information, click here.

Wednesday, August 29, 7pm
Left Bank Books

Left Bank Books welcomes author and Saint Louis University law professor Anders Walker, who will sign and discuss his new book, The Burning House: Jim Crow and the Making of Modern America!

In this dramatic reexamination of the Jim Crow South, Anders Walker demonstrates that racial segregation fostered not simply terror and violence, but also diversity, one of our most celebrated ideals. He investigates how prominent intellectuals like Robert Penn Warren, James Baldwin, Eudora Welty, Ralph Ellison, Flannery O’Connor, and Zora Neale Hurston found pluralism in Jim Crow, a legal system that created two worlds, each with its own institutions, traditions, even cultures. Walker shows how a generation of scholars and judges has misinterpreted Supreme Court Justice Lewis F. Powell’s definition of diversity, forgetting its Southern origins and weakening it in the process.

"Beautifully written and well researched, The Burning House examines Jim Crow through the lenses of culture, community and intellectual history and makes an invaluable contribution to studies of race and American history." —Tomiko Brown-Nagin, Courage to Dissent

This event is free and open to the public, but proof of purchase of The Burning House from Left Bank Books will be required to enter the signing line. 

Parking: Lot one block north; street parking (meters free after 7pm). For directions and public transportation information, click here.

Monday, August 6, 7pm
Left Bank Books

Left Bank Books welcomes St. Louis author and UMSL alum Denise Pattiz Bogard, who will sign and discuss her new novel, After Elise!

After Elise is a novel about unexpected tragedy and how it changes the lives of a dysfunctional family while demonstrating that patience, understanding and forgiveness bring hope. Teri Berger’s car skids in the rain, killing twenty-year-old Elise and leaving Teri reeling with guilt and the rest of her family in disarray as they struggle to adjust to this new reality. Already strained family relationships are tested, and Teri’s marriage suffers, her son withdraws, and her daughter faces a heartbreaking decision. After Elise confronts readers with the most everyday tragedy—an accident that could happen to anyone—and its effects, changing the lives forever of everyone involved.

"The Middle Step is not only fast-paced and expertly plotted, but is full of characters we worry about, root for, are frightened for, and come to love.”
—Mary Troy, Swimming on Hwy N

This event is free and open to the public, but proof of purchase of After Elise from Left Bank Books will be required to enter the signing line. 

Parking: Lot one block north; street parking (meters free after 7pm). For directions and public transportation information, click here.

Thursday, August 9, 7pm
Left Bank Books

Left Bank Books welcomes award-winning mystery author Lori Rader-Day, who will sign and discuss her new novel, Under a Dark Sky!

Since her husband died, Eden Wallace’s life has diminished down to a tiny pinprick. She doesn’t work, has given up on her love of photography, and is so plagued by night terrors that she can’t sleep without the lights on. So when she finds paperwork in her husband’s effects indicating that he reserved a week at a dark sky park, she goes, even if it means facing her paralyzing phobia of the dark. But when she arrives at the park, the guest suite she thought was a private retreat is teeming with a group of twenty-somethings. Eden decides to head home the next day. But then a scream wakes the house in the middle of the night. One of the friends has been murdered. Now everyone—including Eden—is a suspect.

“In her masterful novel...Lori Rader-Day offers readers one of the most compelling and original voices in literature today...I found it beautifully written, satisfying on every level, and I couldn’t help but love it. I guarantee that you will, too.” —William Kent Krueger

This event is free and open to the public, but proof of purchase of Under a Dark Sky from Left Bank Books will be required to enter the signing line. 

Parking: Lot one block north; street parking (meters free after 7pm). For directions and public transportation information, click here.

Tuesday, August 14, 7pm
Ethical Society of St. Louis

Left Bank Books welcomes St. Louisan and bestselling Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter author Laurell K. Hamilton, who will discuss her newest Anita Blake novel, Serpentine!

Return to vampire hunter Anita Blake’s thrilling world in the next novel by the New York Times bestselling author of Crimson Death. Anita Blake faces new, even deadlier enemies as she and the people she loves confront major changes in their lives, in the latest thrilling adventure featuring the fan favorite vampire hunter.

Ticket Information

– A $31 ticket admits ONE person and includes ONE pre-signed hardcover copy of Serpentine
– A $36 ticket admits TWO people and includes ONE pre-signed hardcover copy of Serpentine and a $5 rebate towards the purchase of a second copy at the event

Tickets available below. Please note: All copies of Serpentine will come pre-signed; Laurell K. Hamilton will not be signing books at the event. Those who purchase a ticket and do not attend the event must pick up their copy of Serpentine or contact Left Bank Books to arrange for shipping within 60 days of the event. No refunds will be granted after 12pm on Tuesday, August 14.

Saturday, April 14, 10:30am
Left Bank Books

Join us for Celebrity Storytime with children's author and illustrator Carolyn Lesser, who will read from and sign her new picture book, Great Polar Bear!

"Great polar bear...how do you survive on the thick ice covering the deep Arctic Sea?" Journey into the magnificent and mysterious world of the far north in Great Polar Bear, Carolyn Lesser's poetic and scientifically accurate story about a year in the life of a polar bear. Learn how this impressive animal thrives in one of the harshest—and imperiled—environments in the world. Carolyn Lesser also makes her illustrative debut in Great Polar Bear, using collage to capture the bear hunting, swimming, and playing in the far north. Great Polar Bear is a stunning one-on-one reading and sharing title.

This event is free and open to the public, but proof of purchase of Great Polar Bear from Left Bank Books will be required to enter the signing line. 

Parking: Lot one block north; street parking (meters free after 7pm). For directions and public transportation information, click here.

Wednesday, May 2, 7pm
Left Bank Books

Left Bank Books welcomes St. Louis illustrator Christina "Steenz" Stewart, who will sign and discuss her new graphic novel, Archival Quality!

After losing her job at the library, Cel Walden starts working at the haunting Logan Museum as an archivist. But the job may not be the second chance she was hoping for, and she finds herself confronting her mental health, her relationships, and before long, her grasp on reality as she begins to dream of a young woman she's never met, but feels strangely drawn to. Especially after she asks Cel for help… As Cel attempts to learn more about the woman, she begins losing time, misplacing things, passing out—the job is becoming dangerous, but she can't let go of this mysterious woman. Who is she? Why is she so fixated on Cel? And does Cel have the power to save her when she's trying to save herself? Archival Quality is co-created by Steenz and author Ivy Noelle Weir. 

"In their appealing protagonist, Weir and Steenz return both librarians and people with mental and emotional distress to their original, esteemed roles as keepers of truthful history." —Kirkus Reviews, starred review

This event is free and open to the public, but proof of purchase of Archival Quality from Left Bank Books will be required to enter the signing line. 

Parking: Lot one block north; street parking (meters free after 7pm). For directions and public transportation information, click here.

Friday, May 25, 7pm
St. Louis County Library HQ

In The Soul of America, Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer Jon Meacham helps us understand the present moment of crisis in American politics by looking back at critical times in history when hope overcame hatred. Our current climate of partisan division is not new, and by exploring past dark moments in American history Meacham shows us how our "better angels" have again and again won the day. 

INDIVIDUAL TICKET $30 (Admits ONE and includes one copy of The Soul of America) 
OR
PACKAGE TICKET $35 (Admits TWO and includes one copy of The Soul of America)

**All books will be pre-signed but Mr. Meacham will stay to personalize books after the talk.

Tickets available at brownpapertickets.com. Tickets are general admission. Seating will be offered on a first come, first served basis. Call 314-994-3300 for more information.