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Join local authors in a celebration of self-publishing and local ingenuity, with scheduled book readings, writing resources, books for sale, a local food vendor, and more!
Local Author Fair
Saturday, May 23 • 10:00 am – 2:00 pm
EVPL McCollough
A Literary Arts Experience | The Arts at EVPL Series
Schedule | Book Readings
A schedule will be released closer to the day of the event.
Local Authors
Susan Anslinger
Susan is an author with a love for storytelling, travel, and lifelong learning. She finds joy in reading, writing, and exploring new places, as well as giving back through community volunteering. Known for hosting warm and welcoming tea parties, Susan has a gift for bringing people together. Above all, she values time spent with family, where her happiest memories are made.
L.D. Burke
L.D. Burke is an award-winning speculative fiction author and journalist. Her short stories have appeared in Circe from Flame Tree Publishing and in multiple Midwest Writers Guild of Evansville, Indiana anthologies. She won an honorable mention in the Writers of the Future contest, the largest world-wide talent search for emerging speculative fiction authors. She is a member of Wulf Moon’s Wulf Pack Writers, David Farland’s Apex-Writers, and the Midwest Writers Guild. When she’s not disappearing into fantastical worlds, she’s hiking the trails and kayaking the waterways of Southern Indiana. Find her online on Facebook and Instagram and at ldburke.com.
Kyle Darnell
Kyle Darnell is an artist, printmaker, educator, and author based in Evansville, Indiana. He creates linocut prints, ceramics, and illustrated books inspired by folklore, horror, and regional storytelling. Darnell is the author of the Evansville Monsters series, where he transforms local legends and urban myths into vivid visual narratives. Through his artwork and writing, he explores the eerie space where history, imagination, and community memory meet.
Karen Edwards
Karen Edwards lives in southwestern Indiana. Growing up as a military brat of a career officer, she was shown a world at a young age of various cultures and learned how diverse humanity really is. This installed a curiosity about other people and the world around her that continues to this day. She is an advocate for LGBTQ+ communities and as an advocate lends her voice whenever she can to help educate and support this wonderful part of our human family. By sharing her story with other parents of LGBTQ+ families, she hopes to strengthen their family bonds and encourage other parents to love, support, and embrace their children as their true authentic selves.
Dr. Matthew J. Hanka
Matthew J. Hanka is a Professor of Political Science at the University of Southern Indiana in Evansville, Indiana, and the former director of the Master of Public Administration program. He earned a B.A. in History and Politics from The Catholic University of America in Washington, DC, and an M.A. in Political Science and a Ph.D. in Urban and Public Affairs from the University of Louisville.
Hanka’s research interests include housing, community development, urban politics, urban policy and governance, state and local government, strategic planning, and social capital. He has taught over 20 political science and public administration courses at the undergraduate and graduate levels.
Hanka is the author of What is Happening in Your Community? Why Community Development Matters, published by Lexington Books. He provides commentary on local politics in the Evansville area. He lives in Evansville with his wife Ann and their sons, MJ and David.
Jamie L. Hart
Jamie L. Hart is a fiction author native to Evansville, Indiana. They specialize in writing fantasy, science fiction, and speculative fiction. They have also studied the art of English Creative Writing at the University of Southern Indiana. In March of 2026, they published the first book in their debut series, The Elite Rebellion.
When Jamie isn’t writing, they enjoy watching action movies, playing video games, and reading stories similar to the genre that they write in. They can usually be found at local vendor fairs, and will always take any chance they can to sign a copy.
Anne Joyce
Anne Joyce was born in a small town in southern Indiana. She composed short stories and comic books as a child and at the age of 13 began writing poetry. Her poem, She Didn’t Come Home, received an Honorable Mention from the Iliad Press.
In 2013 her first book, When the Chips Are Down, was named Finalist in the Marsocial Author of the Year Contest. She has since written Arid, a Literary Titan Silver Book Award winner, Arid’s prequel, Parched and her latest novel, Underdog.
Cyndie Kieffer
Cyndie Kieffer is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker in Illinois and Indiana. She is also a Certified Professional Practitioner in Animal Assisted Play Therapy-Instructor and an AutPlay provider. Cyndie has worked alongside her dogs since 2002 in a variety of settings including in private practice, nursing homes, hospice and as an advocate. Cyndie authored the childrens books, “Jack the Brave” as well as “SuperNorm and the Recess Rescue” and a chapter entitled, “To the Rescue: How Animals can Assist People Diagnosed with Autism” in the book, “A Spectrum of Solutions for Clients with Autism” edited by Rachel Bedard and Lorna Hecker. She has spoken on the topic of Animal Assisted Interventions at the international, national, and state level. She was awarded the Kirrie Award in 2023 by the International Institute for Animal Assisted Play Therapy ® for her work in this field. She enjoys sharing her dogs, Cliff and Norm with her community through Pet Partners. Cyndie serves as the Treasurer for the International Association for Animal Assisted Play Therapy and is a member of the International Institute for Animal Assisted Play Therapy Certification Board
Dr. James MacLeod
Dr MacLeod is the author of Lost Evansville, Evansville in World War Two, which was published in 2015, and The Cartoons of Evansville’s Karl Kae Knecht, published in February 2017. In 2016, he wrote and co-produced a 2-part documentary on Evansville in World War II for WNIN entitled Evansville at War. In 2000, he published a book on 19th-century British religion, The Second Disruption, and has also written over 30 other scholarly publications. He has delivered hundreds of public lectures has won many awards for his teaching and scholarship.
Judy Nole and Chloe Nole
Judy Nole and Chloe Nole love animals and believe pets are part of the family. They were inspired to write children’s books by their own furry friends—Embry, Athena, Yoshi, and Roxie—who fill their home with love, laughter, and adventure. Through their stories, Judy and Chloe hope to make kids smile and celebrate the special friendship between children and their pets. Together they help run a family-owned business that creates fun and cozy pet clothing and accessories.
Sherrill Rayford
Sherrill is a lifelong writer, learner, and educator who shares insights and reflections by writing inspirational devotionals. She also composes and reads concise devotionals on the Monarch Devotionals Podcast, and she is revising the sixth devotion in the Daily Devotionals series: Daily Devotionals to Encourage Your Soul, Daily Devotionals: Readings and Writings, Proverbial Insights: Divinely Inspired Quotations; Daily Devotionals: Affirmations, Daily Devotionals: Perseverance.
Linda Neal Reising
Linda Neal Reising, a native of Oklahoma and citizen of the Cherokee Nation, has been published in numerous journals and anthologies. Reising’s books include: Re-Writing Family History (Finishing Line), The Keeping (Finishing Line), Stone Roses (Kelsay Books), VIVIA-The Legend of Vivia Thomas: A Novelette in Poems (Kelsay Books), Perpetual Astonishment (Beyond Words Press), and Navigation (Kelsay Books). Cigar Box of Loss: Stories from Route 66 is forthcoming from Belle Point Press. Her awards include the Writer’s Digest Prize, the Eric Hoffer Award, Oklahoma Book Award finalist, and the Western Heritage Book Award. She was named the Eclipse Poet of Indiana.
C.L. Stambush
C.L. Stambush is an author and world traveler who has lived, worked, and traveled in more than 20 countries. Her work has appeared in the Chicago Tribune, Cosmopolitan, Far Eastern Economic Review, Travelers’ Tales, and other publications worldwide. She has received awards and residencies from Hedgebrook, RopeWalk, Split Rock Arts, and Indiana University Writers’ Conference, where an early chapter of this book was named Best Creative Nonfiction by Scott Russell Sanders. She spent six years abroad, traveling across Europe, the Middle East, and Asia by foot, train, truck, boat, camel, donkey cart, and motorcycle.
Jessica D. Thompson
Jessica D. Thompson’s poetry has appeared on Verse Daily and in many magazines and journals, including ONE ART, Eclectica, Braided Way Magazine, Gyroscope Review, Atlanta Review, and the Southern Review, and in numerous anthologies, including Women Speak, the Women of Appalachia Project, and Next Indiana Campfires: a Trail Companion (Indiana Humanities). Her poem, “The Grandmother Who Fell from the Sky,” was part of The Lunar Codex Project aboard the Griffin Lander which was sent to the moon in 2024. Her poetry collection, “Daybreak and Deep” was shortlisted for the 2024 Indiana Authors Awards. Her poetry collection, “The Mood Ring Diaries” was released in 2025. Her latest poetry collection, “Birds of Thunder,” is forthcoming from Accents Publishing in 2026.
Ashley M. Watson
Ashley M. Watson received her doctorate in rhetoric from Purdue University, her master’s degree from Miami University of Ohio, and bachelor’s degree from Purdue. She writes about haunted history, commonplace books and spooky folklore on her blog NotebookofGhosts.com. In addition, she maintains a newspaper archive of ghost stories proven to be false (sometimes humorously so) at ItWasNotaGhost.com. Ashley shares her passion of photographing cemeteries, making ’zines, collecting ghosts and Halloween decorations, and reading spooky short stories on her popular Instagram account @notebookofghosts.
Mark Williams
Mark Williams’s poems have appeared in The Southern Review, Rattle, Nimrod, New Ohio Review, The American Journal of Poetry, and other journals and anthologies, including The Sixty-Four: best poets of 2018 (Black Mountain Press). He is the author of the poetry chapbook, Happiness (Finishing Line Press) and the poetry collection, Carrying On (Kelsay Books). His fiction has appeared in Eclectica, Cleaver, Valparaiso Fiction Review, The Main Street Rag, and other journals and anthologies, including Running Wild Novella Anthology, Volume IV (Running Wild Press). He lives in Evansville with his wife, DeeGee.
Mary Ellen Ziliak
Mary Ellen Ziliak is a retired RN and international speaker who writes nonfiction from her home in Evansville, IN. Roger and Mary Ellen have been married fifty-three years, have three children, and nine grandchildren. She owns Next Harvest Books, LLC. Like Fr. Jerry, Mary Ellen lives life well with the belief that, “all living things are connected…”
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