Literary Orange returns for an online author series in April

The Literary Orange festival of the nonprofit Orange County Public Library Foundation returns for its 15th year in a monthlong online series this month.

Harlan Coben, best-selling author of suspense novels “Win” and “Boy from the Woods,” will kick off the event on April 7 in a moderated conversation. Literary novelist Heather Morris, author of “Cilka’s Journey,” will be featured on April 14, followed by Lisa Wingate, best-selling author of “The Book of Lost Friends” and 30 other books on April 21 and National Book Award winner Charles Yu, who wrote “Interior Chinatown,” on April 28.

“[When the festival started] in 2006, the main goal was to connect with our readers,” said Beatriz Preciado, Orange County Public Libraries programs coordinator. “We wanted to branch outside of the walls of the library to do something offsite because we wanted to make sure that we were trying to connect with as many readers as possible and that continues to be one of our main goals.”

Author Charles Yu will be in a moderated conversation with Samantha Dunn on April 28.

(Courtesy of OC Public Libraries)

The ticketed online events come a year after the festival, which was to be held on April 4 in Newport Beach, was cancelled in 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Festival organizers typically look for authors who have published a book within the past two years. For the 2021 lineup, some of the authors who were scheduled for the 2020 festival agreed to join the event again.

“A lot of people are Zoomed out, but we still wanted to offer a great event,” said Preciado. “We wanted to connect with our readers since we missed them last year.”

Registration is required and ticket prices include a copy of the author’s book.

If you watch

What: Literary Orange 2021
When: April 7, 14, 21, 28 at 6:30 p.m.
Where: Online
Cost: $25 per event or $75 for all events
Info: literaryorange.org

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