Completely Booked - Official Podcast of the Jacksonville Public Library

Jim Rugg  is an Eisner and Ignatz Award-winning cartoonist, designer, and YouTuber. His comics have been published by Marvel, DC, Image Comics, AdHouse Books, New York magazine, Dark Horse Comics, Titan Books, and Fantagraphics. Rugg's comics career began with the publication of  Street Angel  in 2004.  Street Angel  comics are part of the National Archives and the Smithsonian Collection. In 2007,...

Marc Cameron is a New York Times bestselling author. Cameron's Jericho Quinn Thriller Series debuted in 2011. Since then, he's written eight Quinn novels and four Arliss Cutter novels featuring a deputy US marshal based in Alaska, including the most recent Cutter, Cold Snap. Marc is the author of five Tom Clancy/Jack Ryan novels for the Tom Clancy estate, including the most recent, Chain of Comman...

Chris Crutcher 's first novel,  Running Loose , was published in 1983, and by 1984 made  USA Today 's top ten banned books list, along with nine other long-celebrated novels. He is proud to report that nearly all of his subsequent works have been censored and/or banned somewhere in the great U.S. of A, and that those challenges have earned him two lifetime achievement Intellectual Freedom Awards,...

Nikesha Elise Williams is a two-time Emmy award winning producer, an award-winning author, and producer and host of the Black & Published podcast. Her latest novel, Beyond Bourbon Street, was awarded Best Fiction by the Black Caucus of African-American Librarians in the 2021 Self-Published eBook Literary Awards. It also received the 2020 Outstanding Book Award from the National Association of Blac...

Mackenzi Lee  holds a BA in history and an MFA in creative writing from Simmons college. She is the author of the New York Times bestselling Montague Siblings series, which kicked off in 2017 with  The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue , which was a New York Times bestseller, an ABA bestseller, has been optioned for film by Greg Berlanti for HBO, was a 2018 Stonewall Honor Book, and won the New...

In her new book of historic photographs, Jada Wright-Greene celebrates the homes of African Americans throughout the state, including cabins, shotgun homes, and two-story residences in Jacksonville and beach homes in American Beach and Butler Beach. Join us to learn more about these homes and the process of researching their histories! Jada Wright-Greene is a writer, independent museum professiona...

If you love living in Florida, and love to be annoyed at "Florida Man", you will definitely want to check out our upcoming Lit Chat with New York Times bestselling author Craig Pittman! Pittman writes fondly of the strange state we call home and all the interesting people who make it famous. Thanks to the Friends of the Beaches Branch Library for sponsoring this Lit Chat! Craig Pittman is a native...

Dawnie Walton left Jacksonville after high school to pursue a successful career in magazines. Now she returns to town to chat with us about her first novel, which features a music magazine editor on a mission to discover the truth about an enigmatic music duo – a mission which includes a quick trip to Northeast Florida! Dawnie Walton is the author of the novel The Final Revival of Opal & Nev, a "s...

Andres Rojas was born in Cuba and came to the U.S. at age 13. He's been writing poetry since just about then, has an MFA and a JD from the University of Florida, and currently works for the U.S. Department of the Treasury. He is also the poetry editor for Compose. Interviewer Tim Gilmore counts Andres Rojas as one of his favorite poets on a bookshelf with nearly 1000 volumes of poetry. He is also...

Alyssa Day  is the pen name (and dark and tortured alter ego) of author Alesia Holliday. As Alyssa, she is a  New York Times  and  USA Today  best-selling author with more than a million books sold, and she writes the Warriors of Poseidonand Cardinal Witches paranormal romance series and the Tiger's Eye Mysteries ,  a paranormal mystery series. As Alesia, she writes comedies that make readers snor...

Mia P. Manansala  is a writer and book coach from Chicago who loves books, baking, and bad-ass women. She uses humor (and murder) to explore aspects of the Filipino diaspora, queerness, and her millennial love for pop culture. She is the winner of the 2018 Hugh Holton Award, the 2018 Eleanor Taylor Bland Crime Fiction Writers of Color Award, the 2017 William F. Deeck - Malice Domestic Grant for Un...

Debora G. De Farias graduated in Dentistry from the University of Brasilia, followed by a Master Degree in Health Sciences. She also obtained her equivalent D.D.S degree from the University of Florida, when she moved to the United States in 2001. Debora is passionate about her health career, literature and arts. An avid reader since the age of four, she grew up surrounded by books, fascinated espe...

Dive into the "weird, wonderful, and obscure" parts of Jacksonville history, including Willowbranch Park's role in LGBTQ+ and music history and the Main Library's collection of Le Moyne-DeBry Fort Caroline engravings. Bill Delaney is a writer, editor and higher education professional from Jacksonville whose work focuses on the culture and history of the First Coast. He is co-owner and editor of th...

In  The Girl from Blind River , Gale Massey presents a thriller about a young woman trying to protect and escape her family at the same time. In  Rising and Other Stories , she digs deep into the everyday lives of women overcoming obstacles. Join us for a chat with Gale Massey about these stories and her writing process! Gale Massey's debut novel,  The Girl from Blind River , received a 2018 Flori...

USA Today-bestselling author Sherry Thomas decided that her goal in life is to write every kind of book she enjoys reading. Thus far she has published romance, fantasy, mystery, and a wuxia-inspired duology. Her books regularly receive starred reviews and best-of-the-year honors from trade publications, including such outlets as the New York Times and National Public Radio. She is also a two-time...

Historian and author Leslie Kemp Poole will discuss her research on Florida women's roles in the state's environmental movement, the topic of her book Saving Florida : Women's Fight for the Environment in the Twentieth Century. Jacksonville Public Library + MOCA(Museum of Contemporary Art Jacksonville) present Art & Conversations, a series of innovative programs focused on literacy and the arts. I...

Join Keith Ashley and Denise Bossy from the University of North Florida as they discuss Jacksonville's indigenous history and share research tips!  Ashley and Bossy will debunk some major myths about the indigenous communities of Northeast Florida and share research tips to those interested in conducting their own research. Dr. Keith Ashley  is an Assistant Professor of Anthropology at the Univers...

Kristen Arnett's novels and short stories explore queer life and life in Florida, combining the two with her signature dark humor. Join us to chat with the New York Times bestselling author about the stories that motivate her to write, what she's learned from writing, and more! Kristen Arnett is the author of With Teeth: A Novel and the New York Times bestselling debut novel Mostly Dead Things, wh...

Interested in learning more about authors from your community? What is their writing process and what inspires them? Learn more at Lit Chat with Therese Tappouni, who will talk about her book,  Caught Between Worlds . Tappouni will be joined with moderator Stacey Horan, a local author and podcaster. Both authors reside in Jacksonville and are passionate about living creatively and helping others t...

Rochelle Alers has been hailed by readers and booksellers alike as one of today's most prolific and popular African American authors of romance and women's fiction. With more than eighty titles and nearly two million copies of her novels in print, Ms. Alers is a regular on the Waldenbooks, Borders and Essence bestseller lists, regularly chosen by Black Expressions Book Club, and has been the recip...

Willow Branch Library sits in a corner of Willow Branch Park, a popular location for local musicians during the late 1960s to develop and expand their audience. Named after the "Human Be-In," San Francisco's 1967 counterculture celebration, Jacksonville's "be-ins" spawned several notable acts, including the Allman Brothers Band. In Jacksonville and the Roots of Southern Rock, Michael Ray FitzGeral...

Marsha Dean Phelts joined us back in March of 2021 to chat about American Beach and her two books, An American Beach for African Americans  and The American Beach Cookbook . Phelts will cover the myths of the beach -- what is the first, the most, the oldest? -- and the informational treasures unearthed there. She will also talk about the women of American Beach, including Miss Martha, Emma Morgan,...

Have you ever read a sci-fi or fantasy book and wondered, what kind of a mind thinks up these new worlds? Find out and get a peek inside of one at our Lit Chat with Chuck Wendig! Chuck Wendig  is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of  Star Wars: Aftermath , as well as the Miriam Black thrillers, the Atlanta Burns books,  Zer0es / Invasive ,  Wanderers , and the upcoming  The  Book...

We all know a "Florida Man", but how many of us want to admit to being one? In The Thing About Florida , author Tyler Gillespie takes on the strange people and stories of the Sunshine State from the perspective of a fifth-generation Florida native. Gillespie joins us to talk about what he discovered in his quest to learn more about the state we all call home. Tyler Gillespie is a fifth-generation...

New York Times  Bestseller Taylor Anderson talks about the last book in his  Destroyermen series ,  Winds of Wrath .  The Destroyermen Series follows the crew of the WWI destroyer USS  Walker  which is mysteriously transported to an alternate version of earth where unfathomable new wars, and embattled new species, pose even greater threats. Join us to find out how this author, gunsmith, re-enactor...