Search EVPL
Spark a lifetime love of reading with EVPL EVPL invites readers to discover the magic that lies within books, where curiosity is ignited, and lifelong learning begins. The presenters selected for SPEAK 2026 will ignite your love of books, reading, and your library. Discover the beauty of 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. EVPL encourages you to dream bigger, think deeper, and connect more meaningfully through the power of books.
JUMP TO: Sarah Adams | Dr. Patrick Griffin | Candace Fleming | Toni Tipton-Martin
Thanks to the generosity of the EVPL Foundation and its donors, all of these author presentations are FREE and open to all.
Donate NOW to SPEAK 2026
Sarah Adams
Thursday, April 23 • 7:00 pm Old National Events Plaza Sarah Adams is the New York Times and USA TODAY bestselling author of the Rome, Kentucky series and the Los Angeles Sharks duology. Her top-selling books include The Cheat Sheet and Practice Makes Perfect. Sarah’s series set in Rome, Kentucky, concluded in December 2025 with the publication of In Your Dreams. The third book in this series features a main male character who lives in Evansville before moving to Rome. She writes tender, joyful romances from Nashville, Tennessee—almost always with a cat curled up in her lap. Known for crafting stories full of heart, humor, and swoony slow-burn chemistry, Sarah’s books are a cozy escape for the romantics, the dreamers, and the deep feelers. Her Southern roots shape her voice, her characters, and her love of big emotions told with warmth and charm.
VIP Reception | Sarah Adams
Joins us for an exclusive reception! Attendees receive reserved seating at the SPEAK event and the opportunity for autographs prior to the main event. Tickets are $50 and include light appetizers and beverages.
Ask Sarah Adams!
Sarah Adams’ SPEAK event will be an hour-long Q&A session with the author.
What would you like Sarah to tell us more about? Submit your question now as we gather potential conversation topics.
Sarah Adams’ Titles
Dr. Patrick Griffin
Tuesday, July 21 • 7:00 pm Evansville Museum of Arts, History & Science Notre Dame Professor Dr. Patrick Griffin will present “The Revolutionary War in Three Paintings” in recognition of the 250th Anniversary of the United States. Patrick Griffin’s work explores the intersection of colonial American and early modern Irish and British history. As America observes the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, Dr. Griffin’s insights will illuminate the history of peoples and cultures spanning the Atlantic Ocean.
Patrick Griffin’s Titles
Candace Fleming
Thursday, September 17 (Constitution Day) • 6:00 pm EVPL Central Candace Fleming is the author of more than fifty books for children and young adults, including the 2021 Sibert Medal-winning Honeybee: The Busy Life of Apis Mellifera, as well as the 2021 YALSA Excellence in Nonfiction Award-winning The Rise and Fall of Charles Lindbergh. A recipient of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, she is also the two-time winner of both the Boston Globe-Horn Book Award and the Sibert Honor. Her most recent titles are The Enigma Girls and Narwhal, Unicorn of the Arctic. She was recently honored with the Children’s Literature Legacy Award and Margaret A. Edwards Award for lifetime achievement in writing for young adults.
Candace Fleming’s Titles
Toni Tipton-Martin
Thursday, October 22 • 7:00 pm Trinity United Methodist Church Toni Tipton-Martin is an award-winning food and nutrition journalist who is busy building a healthier community through her books, foundation, and in her role as Editor in Chief of Cook’s Country Magazine and its PBS television show. She is the recipient of the Julia Child Foundation Award, which is given to an individual (or team) who has made a profound and significant difference in the way America cooks, eats and drinks; is a three-time James Beard Book Award winner; and she has earned the International Association of Culinary Professionals (IACP) Trailblazer Award, its Book of the Year Award, and Member of the Year Award. Toni is the author of several highly acclaimed books that celebrate America’s Black and female cooks. Most recently, she shepherded When Southern Women Cook: History, Lore, and 300 Recipes with Contributions from 70 Women Writers, a first-of-its-kind cookbook for America’s Test Kitchen.
VIP Reception | Toni Tipton-Martin
Details about a reception with Toni Tipton-Martin will be released closer to the event date.
Toni Tipton-Martin‘s Titles
More about Sarah Adams
JUMP TO: Interviews | EVPL Programs & Discussions | Back to the Top
Sarah Adams is the author of 12 romance novels–10 set in contemporary times and 2 in the Regency era. She is described as a writer of big feelings, soft landings, and slow burns.
Interviews
EVPL Programs & Book Discussions related to Sarah Adams
More information coming soon!
Back to the Top
More about Patrick Griffin
JUMP TO: Interviews | EVPL Programs & Discussions | Back to the Top
Dr. Griffin is the author of five books, including The Age of Atlantic Revolution: The Fall and Rise of a He Connected World, America’s Revolution, and American Leviathan: Empire, Nation, and Revolutionary Frontier. He attended the University of Notre Dame, completing his B.A. in Government and History; Columbia University, completing his M.A. in Political Science; received an honorary M.A. from the University of Oxford; and completed his Ph.D. in American History at Northwestern University. Dr. Griffin’s work also examines the ways in which Ireland, Britain, and America were linked—and differed—during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, including revolution and rebellion, movement and migration, and colonization and violence in each society. Prof. Griffin currently serves as director of the Keough-Naughton Institute for Irish Studies at the University of Notre Dame. View his C.V.
Interviews
EVPL Programs & Book Discussions related to Dr. Patrick Griffin
More information coming soon!
Back to the Top
More about Candace Fleming
JUMP TO: Interviews | EVPL Programs & Discussions | Back to the Top
Candace Fleming awarded herself the Newbery Medal in fifth grade after scraping the gold sticker off the class copy of The Witch of Blackbird Pond and pasting it onto her first novel — a ten-page, ten-chapter mystery called Who Done It? She’s been collecting awards (her own, not Elizabeth George Speare’s) ever since. Fleming is a native of Illinois, graduated from Eastern Illinois University in Charleston, and currently resides near Chicago. She also writes historical biographies, many of which feature prominent American figures from the nation’s 250 year history. They include Ben Franklin’s Almanac: Being a True Account of the Good Gentleman’s Life; Our Eleanor: A Scrapbook Look at Eleanor Roosevelt’s Remarkable Life; The Lincolns: A Scrapbook Look at Abraham and Mary; The Great and Only Barnum: The Tremendous, Stupendous Life of Showman P.T. Barnum; and Amelia Lost: The Life and Disappearance of Amelia Earhart. Fleming’s biographies are multiple award winners that repeatedly appear on “best of” lists for national publications, organizations, and libraries. Amelia Lost won the Golden Kite Award for Nonfiction in 2012, and The Great and Only Barnum was one of the American Library Association’s Best Books for Young Adults in 2010 and a finalist for the Excellence in Young Adult Nonfiction award.
Interviews
BiblioFiles interview, Cotsen Children’s Library, Princeton University Library
EVPL Programs & Book Discussions related to Candace Fleming
More information coming soon!
Back to the Top
More about Toni Tipton-Martin
JUMP TO: Interviews | EVPL Programs & Discussions | Back to the Top
Toni was the first African American Food Editor of a major daily newspaper, the Cleveland Plain Dealer, the nutrition writer for the Los Angeles Times, and a co-founder and former president of both Southern Foodways Alliance and Foodways Texas. With a $50,000 grant from the Julia Child Foundation for Gastronomy and the Culinary Arts, Toni restructured the 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization she founded in 2008 (under the name of The SANDE Youth Project). The Toni Tipton-Martin Foundation expands Toni’s original vision while furthering her legacy of award-winning food and nutrition journalism. Today, the TTMF aims to increase community wellness by celebrating cultural heritage, role models, and ancestral recipes through mentoring/training activities and writing skills development. Toni has appeared as a guest judge on Bravo’s Top Chef, was featured on CBS Sunday Morning’s annual Food Show, and on the Cooking Channel’s Foodography. She has been featured in numerous anthologies, including the anthology Best Food Writing of 2016. She received Notable Mention in The Best American Essays of 2015 and is profiled in Aetna’s 35th Annual African American History Calendar. She is a member of the Oldways African Heritage Diet Pyramid Advisory Committee, Les Dames D’Escoffier Washington, D.C. Chapter, and Jack and Jill of America, Inc. Toni is a graduate of the University of Southern California School of Journalism. She lives in Houston. Toni is also a co-author of A Taste of Heritage: New African-American Cuisine, which was inducted into the James Beard Foundation’s Cookbook Hall of Fame. She published a historic reprint of an early 20th-century cookbook, The Blue Grass Cook Book, by Minnie C. Fox, and authored the chapter on the South for Culinaria: The Food of the United States. She is a contributor to multiple anthologies: Black Food: Stories, Art & Recipes from Across the African Diaspora; Southern Women: More Than 100 Stories of Innovators, Artists, and Icons; America The Great Cookbook: The Food We Make For The People We Love; Edna Lewis: At the Table with an American Original; and One Big Table: A Portrait of American Cooking.
Interviews
EVPL Programs & Book Discussions related to Toni Tipton-Martin
More information coming soon!
Back to the Top
