Introducing “Matter of Fact”: A FREE Quarterly Series with Spotlight PA

Tuesday, June 9th at 6pm

“The Local News Crossroads: How We Got Here — and Where We Go Next”

Real facts. Real people. Real talk. Midtown Scholar Bookstore and Spotlight PA are hosting a free quarterly series of community conversations, panels, and presentations about the most pressing issues shaping our Commonwealth and the people working to make it stronger.

There are more forces at work than ever to silence free and fearless reporting, and there are fewer resources than ever to undertake the independent, unbiased investigative journalism that keeps our government honest and ensures it ultimately answers to “We the People...”

Hear from Spotlight PA CEO & President Christopher Baxter about how our free society and the future of a free press are inextricably linked, in a conversation with David Boardman, who led the Seattle Times to four Pulitzer Prizes before becoming dean of the Klein College of Media and Communication at Temple University in Philadelphia.

Following their conversation, there will be an open and engaging Q&A with the audience.

Where to park:

FREE PARKING is available in the bookstore's dedicated parking lot behind the store, as well as around the neighboring Broad Street Market and in the municipal lot at 6th and Verbeke Streets. Metered street parking is available on the ParkMobile app.

The Midtown Scholar Bookstore and Friends of Public Libraries of Lancaster County are honored to welcome New York Times bestselling author Marie Benedict to Lancaster for a conversation on her new novel, Daughter of Egypt.

This is a ticketed event and will take place at Calvary Church, which is located at 1051 Landis Valley Road, Lancaster, PA 17601. Every ticket includes a signed copy of Daughter of Egypt and one general admission seat.

Doors will open at 12:00pm, and the event will begin at 1:00pm. You will receive a PDF ticket upon purchase; please bring your PDF ticket to the venue for entrance. Additional signed copies of Marie Benedict's books may be purchased at the venue.

This event is a fundraiser to support the public libraries of Lancaster County.

About the Book:

Known for her “delightful blend of historical fiction and suspense” (People), New York Times bestselling author Marie Benedict, returns with a sweeping tale of a young woman who unearths the truth about a forgotten Pharaoh―rewriting both of their legacies forever.

In the 1920s, archeologist Howard Carter and Lord Carnarvon of Highclere Castle made headlines around the world with the discovery of the treasure-filled tomb of the boy Pharaoh Tutankhamun. But behind it all stood Lady Evelyn Herbert―daughter of Lord Carnarvon―whose daring spirit and relentless curiosity made the momentous find possible.

Nearly 3,000 years earlier, another woman defied the expectations of her time: Hatshepsut, Egypt’s lost pharaoh. Her reign was bold, visionary―and nearly erased from history.

When Evelyn becomes obsessed with finding Hatshepsut’s secret tomb, she risks everything to uncover the truth about her reign and keep valued artifacts in Egypt, their rightful home. But as danger closes in and political tensions rise, she must make an impossible choice: protect her father’s legacy―or forge her own.

Propelled by high adventure and deadly intrigue, Daughter of Egypt is the story of two ambitious women who lived centuries apart. Both were forced to hide who they were during their lifetimes, yet ultimately changed history forever.

About the Speaker:

Marie Benedict is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of The Queens of Crime, The Mitford Affair, Her Hidden Genius, The Mystery of Mrs. Christie, The Only Woman in the Room, Lady Clementine, Carnegie's Maid, The Other Einstein, and with Victoria Christopher Murray, the Good Morning America Book Club pick The Personal Librarian and the Target Book of the Year The First Ladies. All have been translated into multiple languages, and many have been selected for the Barnes & Noble Book Club, Target Book Club, Costco Book Club, Indie Next List, and LibraryReads List. She lives in Pittsburgh with her family.

The Midtown Scholar Bookstore is honored to welcome #1 New York Times bestselling author Jenny Lawson to Lancaster for a conversation and signing on her new memoir, How To Be Okay When Nothing is Okay: Tips and Tricks That Kept Me Alive, Happy, and Creative in Spite of Myself. Lawson will be in conversation with #1 New York TImes bestselling author Kate Baer.

This is a ticketed event. Every ticket includes a signed, first edition copy of How To Be Okay When Nothing Is Okay. Doors will open at 3:15pm, and the event will begin at 4:00pm. Seating is general admission; first come, first served. Book signing and photo opportunity to follow the conversation.

This event will take place at the Gardner Theatre at Lancaster Country Day School, which is located at 725 Hamilton Rd, Lancaster, PA 17603. Free parking is available on-site.

About the Book:

Jenny Lawson is full of contradictions. She’s a celebrated author but battles self-doubt, paralysis, and anxiety. She’s an award-winning humorist but struggles with treatment-resistant depression. The questions people most often ask her are, “How do you do it? How do you keep going even when it feels impossible? How do you keep creating?” This book is her answer.

In How to Be Okay When Nothing Is Okay, Jenny shares more than one hundred humorous, heartfelt, and genuine tools and tricks that she relies on to keep her going even when her brain isn’t working properly due to depression, anxiety, and ADHD. She also offers tips to stay passionate and focused on creative endeavors, especially when everything around you is saying to give up.

With chapters like “Wash Your Brain More Than You Wash Your Bra” (sleep, you beautiful human), “Working on Easy Mode Is Still Working” (asking for accommodations is okay!), “Celebrate Good Times, Come On!” (make it a habit to celebrate the good things), and many more, How to Be Okay When Nothing Is Okay is a balm and companion, reminding us all that we are not alone. It’s for anyone who struggles with self-doubt, guilt, motivation, and mental blocks and wants to rekindle their passion for creating. Funny, simple, empathetic, and full of hope, it will encourage you not to just survive but to find and curate joy in the face of difficult times.

About the Authors:

Jenny Lawson (aka the Bloggess), is an award-winning humor writer and activist best known for her inspiring candor in sharing her struggle with depression, anxiety, and chronic pain. Her books Let’s Pretend This Never Happened, Furiously Happy, You Are Here, and Broken, are all New York Times bestsellers. She is the owner and proprietress of Nowhere Bookshop, a beloved independent bookstore and bar in San Antonio, Texas. She’s been writing her popular, award-winning blog (thebloggess.com) for over fifteen years and continues to write and speak openly about her struggles while celebrating her often hilarious victories. She currently lives in Texas with her husband, child, dog, and cats.

Kate Baer is the three-time New York Times bestselling author of What Kind of Woman, I Hope This Finds You Well, and And Yet. Her work has also been published in The New Yorker, Literary Hub, Huffington Post, and the New York Times.

The Midtown Scholar Bookstore is honored to welcome New York Times bestselling author Chuck Klosterman to Harrisburg for a conversation and signing on his new book, Football. Klosterman will be in conversation with the host of The Rights to Ricky Sanchez and the 94WIP Afternoon Show, Spike Eskin.

This is a ticketed, in-person event. Doors will open at 6:00pm, and the event will begin at 7:00pm. Seating is limited and available as general admission; first come, first served. Early arrival is encouraged.

About the Book:

A hilarious but nonetheless groundbreaking contribution to the argument about which force shapes American life the most. For two kinds of readers—those who know it’s football and those who are about to find out.

Chuck Klosterman—New York Times bestselling critic, journalist, and, yes, football psychotic—did not write this book to deepen your appreciation of the game. He’s not trying to help you become that person at the party, or to teach you how to make better bets, or to validate any preexisting views you might have about the sport (positive or negative). Football does, in fact, do all of those things. But not in the way such things have been done in the past, and never in a way any normal person would expect.

Cultural theorists talk about hyperobjects—phenomena that bulk so large that their true dimensions are hidden in plain sight. In 2023, 93 of the 100 most-watched programs on U.S. television were NFL football games. This is not an anomaly. This is how society is best understood. Football is not merely the country’s most popular sport; it is engrained in almost everything that explains what America is, even for those who barely pay attention.

Klosterman gets to the bottom of all of it. He takes us to a metaphorical projection of Texas, where the religion of six-man football merges with America’s Team [sic] and makes an inexplicable impact on a boy in North Dakota. He dissects the question of natural greatness, the paradox of gambling and war, and the timeless caricature of the uncompromising head coach. He interrogates the perfection of football’s marriage with television and the morality of acceptable risk. He even conjures an extinction-level event. If Žižek liked the SEC more than he liked cinema, if Stephen Jay Gould cared about linebackers more than he cared about dinosaurs, if Steve Martin played quarterback instead of the banjo . . . it would still be nothing like this.

A century ago, Yale’s legendary coach Walter Camp wrote his unified theory of the game. He called it Football. Chuck Klosterman has given us a new Camp for the new age, rooted in a personal history he cannot escape.

About the Speakers:

Chuck Klosterman is the bestselling author of nine nonfiction books (including Football; X; The Nineties; Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs; and But What If We’re Wrong?), two novels (Downtown Owl and The Visible Man), and the short story collection Raised in Captivity. He has written for The New York Times, The Washington Post, GQ (London), Esquire, Spin, The Guardian (London), The Believer, and ESPN. Klosterman served as the Ethicist for The New York Times Magazine for three years and was an original founder of the website Grantland with Bill Simmons. He was raised in rural North Dakota and now lives in Portland, Oregon.

Spike Eskin is the host of The WIP Afternoon Show with Ike Reese and Jack Fritz, airing from 2pm-6pm in Philadelphia on 94WIP, and the host of The Rights To Ricky Sanchez, the longest running Philadelphia 76ers podcast. The WIP Afternoon Show is the highest rated radio show in Philadelphia in its time period, and The Rights To Ricky Sanchez, which has been ingrained in Sixers fan culture since 2013, is iconic within team-centric sports podcasting. Spike was previously the VP of Programming for WFAN in New York and CBS Sports Radio, as well as Program Director of 94WIP. Before his career in sports, Spike was on the air and in management at the legendary rock radio station 94WYSP in Philadelphia, and the alternative rock station Q101 in Chicago. He is an animal advocate, heavily involved in fundraising for local animal shelters. Spike lives in South Jersey with his wife Valerie and dogs Rebel and Scotchie.

Prices include applicable PA sales tax and Harrisburg City amusement tax.

The Midtown Scholar Bookstore is honored to welcome New York Times bestselling author Alice Feeney to Harrisburg for a conversation and signing on her new thriller, My Husband's Wife.

This is a ticketed event. Every ticket includes a signed, first edition copy of My Husband's Secret. Doors will open at 3:30pm, and the event will begin at 4:00pm. Seating is general admission; first come, first served. Early arrival is encouraged.

This event will be live-streamed. Every live-stream ticket includes one signed copy of My Husband's Wife and the live-stream link. The link will be sent at least 24 hours before the event begins. Please check your spam folder if you do not receive the link in time. The books will be shipped via USPS Priority. U.S. addresses only. Please include your shipping address at checkout.

About the Book:

Eden Fox, an artist on the brink of her big break, sets off for a run before her first exhibition. When she returns to the home she recently moved into, Spyglass, an enchanting old house in Hope Falls, nothing is as it should be. Her key doesn’t fit. A woman, eerily similar to her, answers the door. And her husband insists that the stranger is his wife.

One house. One husband. Two women. Someone is lying.

Six months earlier, a reclusive Londoner called Birdy, reeling from a life-changing diagnosis, inherits Spyglass. This unexpected gift from a long-lost grandmother brings her to the pretty seaside village of Hope Falls. But then Birdy stumbles upon a shadowy London clinic that claims to be able to predict a person's date of death, including her own. Secrets start to unravel, and as the line between truth and lies blurs, Birdy feels compelled to right some old wrongs.

My Husband’s Wife is a tangled web of deception, obsession, and mystery that will keep you guessing until the last page. Prepare yourself for the ultimate mind-bending marriage thriller and step inside Spyglass – if you dare – to experience a story where nothing is as it seems.

About the Speaker:

Alice Feeney is the New York Times bestselling author of Beautiful Ugly, Good Bad Girl, Daisy Darker, Rock Paper Scissors, His & Hers, I Know Who You Are, and Sometimes I Lie. Her novels have been translated into over thirty languages, and have been optioned for major screen adaptations. Alice was a BBC journalist for fifteen years, and now lives in the Devon countryside with her family.

Prices include applicable PA sales tax and Harrisburg City amusement tax.

Join us every second Saturday of the month at 10am for Storytime at the Scholar, where we’ll read our favorite books for kids! Led by our friends at the Dauphin County Library System, this monthly series is a free community event open to kids all ages at the Midtown Scholar Bookstore. Registration is not required.

Date: Saturday, December 13th
Time: 10:00am
Cost: FREE
Ages: All ages are welcome!

The Midtown Scholar Bookstore is thrilled to welcome local author Jessica Yoon to Harrisburg for the launch of her new Little Golden Book, BLACKPINK. This event is free and open to the public.

The launch party will take place in the kids room at the Midtown Scholar Bookstore and will include food, music, a book signing, and more!

About the Book:

BLACKPINK in your area! Read all about the record-breaking K-pop girl group in this beautifully illustrated collectible Little Golden Book!

Since their debut in 2016, BLACKPINK has taken the world by storm with their catchy songs, powerful performances, and awesome style. Read about Jisoo, Jennie, Rosé, and Lisa—from their childhoods and their time training in South Korea, to becoming the biggest girl group on the planet and their world concert tours.

This Little Golden Book Biography is perfect for BLACKPINK fans of all ages, BLINKs, and people looking for inspiring stories about talented young musicians.

About the Author:

Jessica Yoon is a Korean American children’s author who sneaks in writing late at night or while her kids are at school. As a passionate advocate of representation in children’s literature, she draws from her experiences as a child of multiple cultures. She is an active member of SCBWI and the Harrisburg Asian Writers Collective. In 2023, she was awarded the Anti-Bias Book Bearer Scholarship by the Highlights Foundation. You can usually find her in sweatpants and a messy bun, slightly dehydrated and eating snacks like a gremlin.

Holiday Jazz Night returns to the Scholar this December, featuring Kirk Reese!

Browse the stacks to the sounds of the sax at the Midtown Scholar Bookstore for a one-night-only holiday jazz performance on Friday, December 5th from 6pm-8:30pm. We’ll have book browsing hours until 8:30pm, and the perfect live jazz music to compliment your holiday shopping. Jazz up your bookshelf and support your neighborhood independent bookstore!

This event is free and open to the public.

We’re thrilled to be a participating indie bookstore on Small Business Saturday this November 29th from 9am - 7pm! Small Business Saturday is the perfect opportunity to shop small and support your favorite local, independently run businesses in Harrisburg.

We’ll have the latest new releases, signed editions, rare books, gift cards, and literary gifts for the holidays. Thanks for shopping small this holiday season!

The Midtown Scholar Bookstore is honored to welcome #1 New York Times bestselling author David Baldacci to Lancaster for a conversation and signing on his new thriller, Nash Falls. Baldacci will be in conversation with New York TImes bestselling author Lisa Scottoline.

This is a ticketed event. Every ticket includes a signed, first edition copy of Nash Falls. Doors will open at 6:00pm, and the event will begin at 7:00pm. Seating is general admission; first come, first served. Early arrival is encouraged. Book signing and photo opportunity to follow the conversation.

This event will take place at the High Fine Arts Center at Lancaster Mennonite High School, which is located at 2176 Lincoln Hwy E, Lancaster, PA 17602. Free parking is available on-site.

About the Book:

When Walter Nash is recruited by the FBI to help bring down a global crime network his life is turned completely upside down in this thriller from #1New York Timesbestselling author David Baldacci.

Nash is an intelligent man, tough but fair-minded. He has a wife and a daughter and a very high-level position at Sybaritic Investments, where his innate skills and dogged tenacity have carried him to the top of the pyramid in his business career. Despite never going on grand adventures, and always working too many hours, he has a happy and upscale life with his family.

However, following his estranged Vietnam-veteran father’s funeral, Nash is unexpectedly approached by the FBI in the middle of the night. They have an important request: become their inside man to expose an enterprise that is laundering large sums of money through Sybaritic. At the top of this illegal operation is Victoria Steers, an international criminal mastermind that the FBI has been trying to bring down for years.

Nash has little choice but to accept the FBI’s demands and try to bring Steers and her partners to justice. But when Steers discovers that Nash is working with the FBI, she turns the tables on him in a way he never could have contemplated. And that forces Nash to take the ultimate step both to survive and to take his revenge: He must become the exact opposite of who he has always been.

And even that may not be enough.

About the Speaker:

David Baldacci is a global #1 bestselling author, and one of the world’s favorite storytellers. His books are published in over 45 languages and in more than 80 countries, with 150 million copies sold worldwide. His works have been adapted for both feature film and television. David Baldacci is also the cofounder, along with his wife, of the Wish You Well Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to supporting literacy efforts across America. Still a resident of his native Virginia, he invites you to visit him at DavidBaldacci.com and his foundation at WishYouWellFoundation.org.

Lisa Scottoline is a #1 bestselling and Edgar Award-winning author of 37 novels. She also wrote and a series of humorous memoirs, co-authored with her daughter, novelist Francesca Serritella. Lisa is President of Mystery Writers of America and she reviews fiction for the New York Times, Washington Post, and The Philadelphia Inquirer. A former trial lawyer, she graduated magna cum laude in three years from the University of Pennsylvania and cum laude from its law school, where she taught Justice & Fiction. There are 30 million copies of her books in print, and she is published in 35 countries. She lives on a Pennsylvania farm with an array of disobedient pets, and she wouldn’t have it any other way.

The Midtown Scholar Bookstore is honored to welcome New York Times bestselling author and war correspondent Scott Anderson to Harrisburg for a conversation and signing on his new book, King of Kings:The Iranian Revolution: A Story of Hubris, Delusion and Catastrophic Miscalculation. Anderson will be joined by special guest and former U.S. Diplomat, Michael Metrinko. This event will be moderated by renowned journalist Mark Bowden.

Registration is free but required to attend this event. Doors will open at 6:00pm; the event will begin at 7:00pm. Seating is general admission; first come, first served. Early arrival is encouraged. Books will be available for purchase at the event.

To enter the signing line, your copy of King of Kings must be purchased from the Midtown Scholar Bookstore. Copies of the book will be available for purchase at the event, or you may preorder a copy of the book via EventBrite.

This event will be live-streamed. Every live-stream ticket includes one signed copy of King of Kings and the live-stream link. The link will be sent at least 24 hours before the event begins. Please check your spam folder if you do not receive the link in time. The books will be shipped via USPS Priority. U.S. addresses only. Please include your shipping address at checkout.

About the Book:

On New Year’s Eve, 1977, on a state visit to Iran, President Jimmy Carter toasted Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, King of Kings, Light of the Aryans, Shadow of God on Earth, praising Iran as “an island of stability “ due to “your leadership and the respect and admiration and love which your people give to you.” Iran had the world’s fifth largest army and was awash in billions of dollars in oil revenues. Construction cranes dotted the skyline of its booming capital, Tehran. The regime’s feared secret police force SAVAK had crushed communist opposition, and the Shah had bought off the conservative Muslim clergy inside the country. He seemed invulnerable, and invaluable to the United States as an ally in the Cold War. Fourteen months later the Shah fled Iran into exile, forced from the throne by a volcanic religious revolution led by a fiery cleric named Ayatollah Khomeini. The ensuing hostage crisis forever damaged America’s standing in the world. How could the United States, which had one of the largest CIA stations in the world and thousands of military personnel in Iran, have been so blind?

The spellbinding story Scott Anderson weaves is one of a dictator blind to the disdain of his subjects and a superpower blundering into disaster. Scott Anderson tells this astonishing tale with the narrative brio, mordant wit, and keen analysis that made his bestselling Lawrence of Arabia one of the key texts in understanding the modern Middle East. The Iranian Revolution, Anderson convincingly argues, was as world-shattering an event as the French and Russian revolutions. In the Middle East, in India, in Southeast Asia, in Europe, and now in the United States, the hatred of economically-marginalized, religiously-fervent masses for a wealthy secular elite has led to violence and upheaval – and Iran was the template. King of Kings is a bravura work of history, and a warning.

About the Speakers:

Scott Anderson is the author of two novels and five works of nonfiction, including Lawrence of Arabia, an international bestseller which was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award and a New York Times Notable Book. He is a contributing writer for The Times Magazine. The New York Times Magazine devoted an entire issue to his reportage across the Middle East in August 2016, which was published in book form as Fractured Lands: How the Arab World Came Apart.

Mark Bowden is the author of fifteen books, including the #1 New York Times bestseller Black Hawk Down. He reported at the Philadelphia Inquirer for twenty years and now writes for the Atlantic and other magazines.

Michael Metrinko is a former Peace Corps volunteer and diplomat, with far too many years in the world's hardship regions and conflict zones than anyone should have to experience. Much time spent in ancient cities, in marble villas, leaking tents, trailers, workers' tenements and peasant huts, as well as in foreign prisons. Presently retired in central Pennsylvania, surrounded by forests, mountains and wide-open skies that allow peaceful contemplation and occasional mentoring of politically-minded students.

Temple Ohev Sholom Sisterhood is honored to welcome New York Times bestselling author Gary Shteyngart to Harrisburg for a conversation and signing on his new novel, Vera, or Faith. This event was made possible through the generous support of the Symons-Rose Family.

This is a ticketed event and will take place at the Midtown Scholar Bookstore. Doors will open at 6:00pm; the event will begin at 7:00pm. Seating is general admission; first come, first served. Early arrival is encouraged. Book signing to follow discussion.

About the Book:

The Bradford-Shmulkin family is falling apart. A very modern blend of Russian, Jewish, Korean, and New England WASP, they love one another deeply but the pressures of life in an unstable America are fraying their bonds. There’s Daddy, a struggling, cash-thirsty editor whose Russian heritage gives him a surprising new currency in the upside-down world of twenty-first-century geopolitics; his wife, Anne Mom, a progressive, underfunded blue blood from Boston who’s barely holding the household together; their son, Dylan, whose blond hair and Mayflower lineage provide him pride of place in the newly forming American political order; and, above all, the young Vera, half-Jewish, half-Korean, and wholly original.

Observant, sensitive, and always writing down new vocabulary words, Vera wants only three things in life: to make a friend at school; Daddy and Anne Mom to stay together; and to meet her birth mother, Mom Mom, who will at last tell Vera the secret of who she really is and how to ensure love’s survival in this great, mad, imploding world.

Both biting and deeply moving, Vera, or Faith is a boldly imagined story of family and country told through the clear and tender eyes of a child. With a nod to What Maisie Knew, Henry James’s classic story of parents, children, and the dark ironies of a rapidly transforming society, Vera, or Faith demonstrates why Shteyngart is, in the words of The New York Times, “one of his generation’s most exhilarating writers.”

About the Author:

Gary Shteyngart was born in Leningrad in 1972 and came to the United States seven years later. His debut novel, The Russian Debutante’s Handbook, won the Stephen Crane Award for First Fiction and the National Jewish Book Award for Fiction. His second novel, Absurdistan, was one of the New York Times Book Review‘s 10 Best Books of the Year. His novel Super Sad True Love Story won the Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize and became one of the most iconic novels of the decade. His memoir, Little Failure, was a National Book Critics Circle Award finalist. His most recent novel is the New York Times bestseller Our Country Friends. His books have been published in thirty countries. He lives in New York with his wife and son.

Prices include applicable PA sales tax and Harrisburg City amusement tax.

Join us every second Saturday of the month at 10am for Storytime at the Scholar, where we’ll read our favorite books for kids! Led by our friends at the Dauphin County Library System, this monthly series is a free community event open to kids all ages at the Midtown Scholar Bookstore. Registration is not required.

Date: Saturday, November 8th
Time: 10:00am
Cost: FREE
Ages: All ages are welcome!

To celebrate the two-hundred and fiftieth anniversary of our nation's founding, the Harrisburg Book Festival is honored to welcome bestselling author and president of the National Constitution Center Jeffrey Rosen to the state capital for a wide-ranging conversation on our nation's history, the origins of our opposing constitutional visions, and his new book, The Pursuit of Liberty: How Hamilton vs. Jefferson Ignited the Lasting Battle Over Power in America. This event is in partnership with the National Constitution Center.

Rosen will be in conversation with Yale professor Justin Driver, author of The Fall of Affirmative Action: Race, the Supreme Court, and the Future of Higher Education. This is a ticketed event. Doors will open at 3:30pm; the event will begin at 4:00pm. Seating is general admission; first come, first served. Early arrival is encouraged. Books will be available for purchase at the event.

This event will be live-streamed. Every live-stream ticket includes one signed copy of The Pursuit of Liberty and the live-stream link. The link will be sent at least 24 hours before the event begins. Please check your spam folder if you do not receive the link in time. The books will be shipped via USPS Priority. U.S. addresses only. Please include your shipping address at checkout.

About the Book:

The bestselling author of The Pursuit of Happiness shows how the opposing constitutional visions of Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton have defined our country for 250 years, influenced presidents from Washington to Trump, and continue to drive the debate over the power of government today.

In The Pursuit of Liberty, bestselling author and president of the National Constitution Center Jeffrey Rosen explores the clashing visions of Hamilton and Jefferson about how to balance liberty and power in a debate that continues to define—and divide—our country: Jefferson championed states’ rights and individual liberties, while Hamilton pushed for a strong Federal government and a powerful executive. This ongoing tug-of-war has shaped all the pivotal moments in American history, including Abraham Lincoln’s fight against slavery and southern secession, the expansion of federal power under Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal, and Ronald Reagan’s and Donald Trump’s conservative push to shrink the size of the federal government.

Rosen also shows how Hamilton and Jefferson’s disagreement over how to read the Constitution has shaped landmark debates in Congress and the Supreme Court about executive power, from John Marshall’s early battles with Andrew Jackson to the current divisions among the justices on issues from presidential immunity to control over the administrative state.

More than ever, the clash between Hamiltonian and Jeffersonian ideals resonates today in our most urgent national debates over the question of whether modern presidents are consolidating power and subverting the Constitution—the very threat to American democracy that both Hamilton and Jefferson were determined to avoid. The Pursuit of Liberty is a compelling history of the opposing forces that have shaped our country since its founding, and the ongoing struggle to define the balance between liberty and power.

About the Authors:

Jeffrey Rosen is President and CEO of the National Constitution Center, where he hosts We the People, a weekly podcast of constitutional debate. He is also a professor of law at the George Washington University Law School and a contributing editor at The Atlantic. Rosen is a graduate of Harvard College, Oxford University, and Yale Law School. He is the author of nine books, including the New York Times bestsellers The Pursuit of Happiness and Conversations with RBG. His essays and commentaries have appeared in The New York Times Magazine; on NPR; in The New Republic, where he was the legal affairs editor; and in The New Yorker, where he has been a staff writer.

Justin Driver is the Robert R. Slaughter Professor of Law at Yale Law School. He teaches and writes in the field of constitutional law and is the author of “The Fall of Affirmative Action: Race, the Supreme Court, and the Future of Higher Education.” An elected member of the American Law Institute and an elected fellow of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, President Biden appointed Driver to serve on the Presidential Commission on the Supreme Court of the United States. He has also written extensively for general audiences, including pieces in The Atlantic, The New Republic, The New York Times, and The Washington Post. His first book — "The Schoolhouse Gate: Public Education, the Supreme Court, and the Battle for the American Mind” — was selected as a Washington Post Notable Book of the Year and an Editors’ Choice of The New York Times Book Review. He is a graduate of Brown, Oxford (where he was a Marshall Scholar), Duke (where he received certification to teach public school), and Harvard Law School (where he was an editor of the Harvard Law Review). After graduating from Harvard, Driver served as a law clerk at U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit and at the Supreme Court of the United States.

One hundred years ago, on April 10, 1925, Charles Scribner's Sons published The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald. After its initial publication, reviews were mixed; the book was considered a commercial failure, and it wasn't until after World War II that the novel earned widespread critical and popular acclaim. Today, it is considered one of the greatest novels in American history.

To celebrate the 100th anniversary of The Great Gatsby, the Harrisburg Book Festival will host an evening of live music, dramatic readings, a panel conversation, Gatsby-themed beverages and hors d’oeuvres, and more. Dressing up in your favorite 1920's era vintage attire is highly encouraged.

The evening's main event will feature a panel conversation on the legacy of The Great Gatsby with award-winning authors Michael Farris Smith (author of Nick) and K.M. Fajardo (author of Local Heavens), moderated by Princeton University rare book librarian, Emma Sarconi. Hors d'oeuvres provided by cookbook author, Becky Diamond (The Gilded Age Cookbook).

Registration is required for this event. Every free general admission ticket includes admission only. Every VIP general admission ticket includes admission, a $10 credit towards any of the featured author's books, a commemorative poster, and one free cafe beverage. Seating is limited, and is available on a first come, first served basis. Early arrival is encouraged. Doors will open at 7:00pm.

About the Book:

The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald’s third book, stands as the supreme achievement of his career. First published by Scribner in 1925, this quintessential novel of the Jazz Age has been acclaimed by generations of readers. The story of the mysteriously wealthy Jay Gatsby and his love for the beautiful Daisy Buchanan is an exquisitely crafted tale of America in the 1920s.

About the Panelists:

K. M. Fajardo is a second-generation Filipino-Canadian speculative fiction writer from Ontario, Canada. She graduated from the University of Waterloo with a degree in Global Business and Digital Arts before working in the tech industry. Her short fiction has previously been published in Canadian publications, Augur and Ricepaper Magazine. She now writes full-time in Toronto and is currently working on her second book, a fantasy work inspired by Filipino culture and myth.

Michael Farris Smith is an award-winning writer whose novels have appeared on Best of the Year lists with Esquire, NPR, Southern Living, Garden & Gun, Oprah Magazine, and numerous other outlets. In 2021, he released the novel Nick, a prequel to The Great Gatsby, bringing Nick Carraway to life with his own story in the years before meeting Gatsby, with The Washington Post declaring "creating a worthy home to Fitzgerald's finest novel is a remarkable accomplishment."As a screenwriter, he scripted the feature-film adaptation of his novel Desperation Road which was a Top 10 global hit on Netflix. His latest novel, Lay Your Armor Down, released in 2025, which reviewers describe as "brutally brilliant" (Orlando-Sentinel) and "a bracing fever dream of a novel" (Publisher's Weekly).

Emma M. Sarconi is a rare book librarian and book historian specializing in the printed book after 1800. As the Reference and Outreach Specialist for Special Collections at Princeton University, Sarconi is continuing her public service work in a rare book library setting through reference, involvement in the Teach With Collections initiative, library projects and events, while also working on projects aimed at telling stories of the women represented in the objects found in Princeton’s Special Collections.

The Harrisburg Book Festival is thrilled to welcome New York Times bestselling author and illustrator John Patrick Green to celebrate his new middle grade graphic novel, Investigators: Case Files. This event includes a book signing, drawing demo, and presentation.

This event will take place at the Midtown Scholar Bookstore. Registration is not required; however, purchasing the author’s new book from the Midtown Scholar Bookstore is required for entry to the signing line.

Date: Saturday, October 18th, 2025
Time: Book Signing from 10am-1pm; Presentation at 12pm
Cost: FREE!

About the Book:

FROM THE MEGA BESTSELLING GRAPHIC NOVEL SERIES

Tackle tricky cases in this solve-along Investigators adventure, along with everyone's favorite sleuths Mango and Brash!

Special agents Mango and Brash are back again, and this time they’ll be asking their readers for help in cracking the case! The gators have been given a brand new add-on for their V.E.S.T.s to help with gathering evidence and making sense of clues – the G.R.I.D. (Gator Reasoning, Inquiry, Deduction) – and with that powerful tool in hand, kids can follow along as they solve six brand-new mysteries! Featuring plenty of familiar faces from investigations past, as well as a few brand new suspects, Mango and Brash and YOU (the reader) will get to the bottom of cases big and small!

About the Author:

John Patrick Green is a human with the human job of making books about animals with human jobs, notably the smash-hit graphic novel series InvestiGators. John is definitely a multiple New York Times-bestselling human author and not just a bunch of animals in a trench coat pretending to have a human job. With over three million copies of InvestiGators in print, John is a successful human being with only two hands and a normal amount of fur. He lives in a Brooklyn apartment that doesn't allow animals other than the ones living in his head.

The 13th Annual Harrisburg Book Festival is honored to welcome internationally renowned author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie to Harrisburg for a keynote conversation on her new novel, Dream Count.

This is a ticketed event. Every ticket includes a signed copy of the book and one general admission ticket. Doors will open at 6:00pm, and the event will begin at 7:00pm. This event will be held at the Whitaker Centerof Science & the Arts, located at 222 Market St, Harrisburg, PA 17101. Ticketing options are as follows:

Premier Seating + Signed Book

Ticket includes one signed copy of Dream Count and one general admission seat in the premier seating area toward the front of the auditorium. Seating in the premier seating area is first come, first served.

General Admission Seating + Signed Book

Ticket includes one signed copy of Dream Count and one general admission seat. Seating in the general admission seating area is first come, first served.

About the Book:

A publishing event ten years in the making—a searing, exquisite new novel by the bestselling and award-winning author of Americanah and We Should All Be Feminists—the story of four women and their loves, longings, and desires.

Chiamaka is a Nigerian travel writer living in America. Alone in the midst of the pandemic, she recalls her past lovers and grapples with her choices and regrets. Zikora, her best friend, is a lawyer who has been successful at everything until—betrayed and brokenhearted—she must turn to the person she thought she needed least. Omelogor, Chiamaka’s bold, outspoken cousin, is a financial powerhouse in Nigeria who begins to question how well she knows herself. And Kadiatou, Chiamaka’s housekeeper, is proudly raising her daughter in America—but faces an unthinkable hardship that threatens all she has worked to achieve.

In Dream Count, Adichie trains her fierce eye on these women in a sparkling, transcendent novel that takes up the very nature of love itself. Is true happiness ever attainable or is it just a fleeting state? And how honest must we be with ourselves in order to love, and to be loved? A trenchant reflection on the choices we make and those made for us, on daughters and mothers, on our interconnected world, Dream Count pulses with emotional urgency and poignant, unflinching observations of the human heart, in language that soars with beauty and power. It confirms Adichie’s status as one of the most exciting and dynamic writers on the literary landscape.

About the Author:

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie grew up in Nigeria. Her work has been translated into more than fifty-five languages. She is the author of the novels Purple Hibiscus, which won the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize; Half of a Yellow Sun, which was the recipient of the Women’s Prize for Fiction “Best of the Best” award; Americanah, which won the National Book Critics Circle Award; the story collection The Thing Around Your Neck and the essays We Should All Be Feminists and Dear Ijeawele, or A Feminist Manifesto in Fifteen Suggestions. She is the author of Notes on Grief, and, most recently, Dream Count. Additionally, she has witten a children’s book, Mama’s Sleeping Scarf under the name Nwa Grace-James. A recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship, she divides her time between the United States and Nigeria.

Prices include applicable PA sales tax and Harrisburg City amusement tax.

The Harrisburg Book Festival is thrilled to welcome New York Times bestselling authors Marie Lu and Carissa Broadbent for a conversation and signing on their new fantasy novels, Red City (Lu) and Daughter of No Worlds (Broadbent).

This is a ticketed event. Doors will open at 6:00pm, and the event will begin at 7:00pm. Seating is general admission; first come, first served. Early arrival is encouraged.

About Red City:

The Godfather meets The Magicians in the sweeping adult debut from #1 New York Times bestselling author Marie Lu. Perfect for fans of V.E. Schwab, Red City is a dark and deadly contemporary fantasy of magical warfare, star-crossed ambition, and the pursuit of perfection at any cost, set in a glittering alternate Los Angeles.

Alchemy is the hidden art of transformation. An exclusive power wielded by crime syndicates that market it to the world’s elites in the form of sand, a drug that enhances those who take it into a more perfect version of themselves: more beautiful, more charismatic, simply more.

Among the gleaming skyscrapers and rolling foothills of Angel City, alchemy is controlled by two rival syndicates. For years, Grand Central and Lumines have been balanced on a razor’s edge between polite negotiation and outright violence. But when two childhood friends step into that delicate equation, the city—and the paths of their lives—will be irrevocably transformed.

The daughter of a poor single mother, Sam would do anything to claw her way into the ranks of Grand Central in search of a better life. Plucked away from his family as a boy to become a Lumines apprentice, Ari is one of the syndicates' brightest rising stars. Once, they might have loved each other. But as the two alchemists face off across opposite sides of an ever-escalating conflict, ambition becomes power, loyalty becomes lies, and no transformation may be perfect enough for them both to survive the coming war.

About Daughter of No Worlds:

A former slave fighting for justice. A reclusive warrior who no longer believes it exists. And a dark magic that will entangle their fates....fans of romantic fantasy will devour this tale from New York Times bestselling author Carissa Broadbent.

Ripped from a forgotten homeland as a child, Tisaanah learned how to survive with nothing but a sharp wit and a touch of magic. But the night she tries to buy her freedom, she barely escapes with her life.

Desperate to save the best friend she left behind, Tisaanah journeys to the Orders, the most powerful organizations of magic Wielders in the world. To join their ranks, she must complete an apprenticeship with Maxantarius Farlione, a handsome and reclusive fire wielder who despises the Orders. The Orders’ intentions are cryptic, and Tisaanah must prove herself under the threat of looming war. But even more dangerous are her growing feelings for Maxantarius. The bloody past he wants to forget may be the key to her future… or the downfall of them both.

Tisaanah will stop at nothing to save those she abandoned. Even if it means gambling in the Orders’ deadly games. Even if it means sacrificing her heart. Even if it means wielding death itself.

This is the first book in the new War of Lost Hearts series.

About the Authors:

Marie Lu is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of more than 15 novels, including Legend, The Young Elites, Warcross, Skyhunter, and Stars and Smoke. She graduated from the University of Southern California and initially jumped into the video game industry, working for Disney Interactive Studios as an artist. Now a full-time writer, she spends her spare time reading, drawing, playing games, and getting stuck in traffic. She lives in Los Angeles with her family.

Carissa Broadbent has been concerning teachers and parents with mercilessly grim tales since she was roughly nine years old. Since then, her stories have gotten (slightly) less depressing and (hopefully a lot?) more readable. Today, she writes novels that blend epic fantasy plots with a heaping dose of romance. She lives with her husband, her son, and one perpetually skeptical cat in Rhode Island.

The Harrisburg Book Festival is honored to welcome actor, comedian, and New York Times bestselling author Nick Offerman to FNB Field to celebrate the release of his new book, Little Woodchucks: Offerman Woodshop's Guide to Tools and Tomfoolery.

This event will take place at the home of the Harrisburg Senators, and will include a conversation, live woodworking demonstration, songs, jokes, and fun for the whole family. Doors will open at 6:00pm; the event will begin at 7:00pm. Seating is general admission; first come, first served. There will not be a public book signing with the author.

Tickets are required for entry to this event. Every ticket per adult includes a signed copy of the book; children under 16 will be allowed entry for free with an adult who has purchased a ticket. All attendees 16 and over must purchase a general admission ticket (with book) for entry to this event. All attendees must have a ticket to enter FNB Field for this event. Please make sure to select the correct number of adult and children's tickets. See below for help when purchasing tickets.

About the Book:

From New York Times bestselling author, Emmy-winning actor, and charismatically carnivorous woodworker Nick Offerman, an illustrated woodworking guide with projects for the whole family

In his long running hit book Good Clean Fun, Nick Offerman brought us into his woodshop with personal reflections on woodworking alongside instructions to create some of his favorite projects. Now, in Little Woodchucks, the Offerman Woodshop is opening its avuncular doors to woodworkers of all ages in the form of twelve brand-new, family-friendly projects perfect for kids, from beginner projects like a handmade box kite to more challenging offerings like a little free library / meat locker.

Combining his signature wry humor with clearly written and joyfully illustrated project instructions, Little Woodchucks is the perfect way to encourage eye contact and other old-fashioned familial engagements, while introducing young woodworkers-to-be to the satisfaction and good, clean fun of hands-on crafting.

About the Authors:

Actor, humorist, and woodworker Nick Offerman is the New York Times bestselling author of Paddle Your Own Canoe, Gumption, Good Clean Fun, and Where the Deer and the Antelope Play, as well as co-author of The Greatest Love Story Ever Told, with his wife, Megan Mullally. His onscreen credits include the Emmy award-winning role of Bill in The Last of Us (HBO), Ron Swanson on NBC’s Parks and Recreation, and co-host and executive producer of NBC’s Making It. In 2025, Nick will be featured Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning, Death by Lightning (Netflix), and as the voices of Papa Smurf’s brother in the Smurfs movie, and Beef Tobin in the FOX animated series, The Great North. Nick and Megan live in Los Angeles, California, with their pups and a fairly decent collection of assorted wood clamps.

Lee Buchanan got her first taste of woodworking in the Kids' Carpentry program in Berkeley, California, at the age of seven. The passion stuck, and after stints as a scenic carpenter, then building science exhibits at the Exploratorium museum, she met a guy named Nick and spent a decade running his LA woodshop, designing and building furniture and carving a whole lot of mustache combs. Lee now lives back in the Bay Area, where she builds custom furniture as LeeBuild, draws cartoons, bakes bread, and makes fun stuff for and with her two little boys in their home woodshop.

Refund Policy:

Full refunds will be issued for cancellation requests received at least 7 days before the event. Cancellations made less than 7 days before the event are not eligible for a refund.

Weather Policy:

This event will be held, rain or shine. In the event of extreme weather, such as heavy rain, high winds, or severe thunderstorms, the in-person event will be cancelled and moved to live-stream. All tickets-holders will receive their signed book and exclusive live-stream link via email. The decision to cancel the event will be made by 8:00 AM on the day of the event, and communicated via email to all ticket-holders. Refunds will not be permitted.

Parking Policy:

Parking is available on City Island on a first come, first served basis. Parking will be $5 cash or $5.50 card.

Bag Policy:

Clear bags and wristlets are the only acceptable bags allowed inside FNB Field for this event. All bags are subject to search.

Join us every second Saturday of the month at 10am for Storytime at the Scholar, where we’ll read our favorite books for kids! Led by our friends at the Dauphin County Library System, this monthly series is a free community event open to kids all ages at the Midtown Scholar Bookstore. Registration is not required.

Date: Saturday, October 11th
Time: 10:00am
Cost: FREE
Ages: All ages are welcome!

The Midtown Scholar Bookstore is honored to welcome Harvard University Professor Jill Lepore to Harrisburg for a conversation and signing on her new book, WE THE PEOPLE: A HISTORY OF THE U.S. CONSTITUTION. Lepore will be in conversation with Pennsylvania State Rep. Malcolm Kenyatta.

This is a ticketed event. Doors will open at 6:00pm, and the event will begin at 7:00pm. Seating is general admission; first come, first served. Book signing to follow discussion.

This event will be live-streamed. Every live-stream ticket includes one signed copy of WE THE PEOPLE and the live-stream link. The link will be sent at least 24 hours before the event begins. Please check your spam folder if you do not receive the link in time. The books will be shipped via USPS Priority. U.S. addresses only. Please include your shipping address at checkout.

About the Book:

From the best-selling author of These Truths comes We the People, a stunning new history of the U.S. Constitution, for a troubling new era.

The U.S. Constitution is among the oldest constitutions in the world but also one of the most difficult to amend. Jill Lepore, Harvard professor of history and law, explains why in We the People, the most original history of the Constitution in decades—and an essential companion to her landmark history of the United States, These Truths.

Published on the occasion of the 250th anniversary of the nation’s founding—the anniversary, too, of the first state constitutions—We the People offers a wholly new history of the Constitution. “One of the Constitution’s founding purposes was to prevent change,” Lepore writes. “Another was to allow for change without violence.”

Relying on the extraordinary database she has assembled at the Amendments Project, Lepore recounts centuries of attempts, mostly by ordinary Americans, to realize the promise of the Constitution. Yet nearly all those efforts have failed. Although nearly twelve thousand amendments have been introduced in Congress since 1789, and thousands more have been proposed outside its doors, only twenty-seven have ever been ratified. More troubling, the Constitution has not been meaningfully amended since 1971. Without recourse to amendment, she argues, the risk of political violence rises. So does the risk of constitutional change by presidential or judicial fiat.

Challenging both the Supreme Court’s monopoly on constitutional interpretation and the flawed theory of “originalism,” Lepore contends in this “gripping and unfamiliar story of our own past” that the philosophy of amendment is foundational to American constitutionalism. The framers never intended for the Constitution to be preserved, like a butterfly, under glass, Lepore argues, but expected that future generations would be forever tinkering with it, hoping to mend America by amending its Constitution through an orderly deliberative and democratic process.

Lepore’s remarkable history seeks, too, to rekindle a sense of constitutional possibility. Congressman Jamie Raskin writes that Lepore “has thrown us a lifeline, a way of seeing the Constitution neither as an authoritarian straitjacket nor a foolproof magic amulet but as the arena of fierce, logical, passionate, and often deadly struggle for a more perfect union.” At a time when the Constitution’s vulnerability is all too evident, and the risk of political violence all too real, We the People, with its shimmering prose and pioneering research, hints at the prospects for a better constitutional future, an amended America.

About the Speakers:

Jill Lepore is the David Woods Kemper ’41 Professor of American History at Harvard University and professor of law at Harvard Law School. She is also a staff writer at The New Yorker. Her many books include the international bestseller These Truths: A History of the United States. She lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Representative Malcolm Kenyatta is a third-generation North Philadelphia native and legislator currently serving in the Pennsylvania General Assembly. He earned a B.A. in Public Communications and a minor in Political Science from Temple University, an M.S. in Strategic and Digital Communications from Drexel University, and completed the Harvard Kennedy School’s Executives in State and Local Government program. Representative Kenyatta is a barrier-breaking public figure, becoming the first openly LGBTQ+ person of color and one of the youngest people elected to the Pennsylvania General Assembly in 2018. In 2022, he became the first openly LGBTQ+ person of color to seek a U.S. Senate seat in American history. Representative Kenyatta lives in North Philadelphia with his husband, Dr. Matthew Kenyatta, and their dog, Cleo.

Join us every second Saturday of the month at 10am for Storytime at the Scholar, where we’ll read our favorite books for kids! Led by our friends at the Dauphin County Library System, this monthly series is a free community event open to kids all ages at the Midtown Scholar Bookstore. Registration is not required.

Date: Saturday, September 13th
Time: 10:00am
Cost: FREE
Ages: All ages are welcome!

The Midtown Scholar Bookstore is thrilled to welcome bestselling horror authors Brian Keene, Somer Canon, Chuck Wendig, and Richard Chizmar a conversation and signing on Keene's new anthology, The End of the World As We Know It: New Tales of Stephen King's The Stand.

This is a ticketed event. Doors will open at 6:00pm, and the event will begin at 7:00pm. Seating is general admission; first come, first served. Early arrival is encouraged.

This event will be live-streamed. Every live-stream ticket includes a signed copy of the book and the live-stream link. The link will be sent at least 24 hours before the event begins. Please check your spam folder if you do not receive the link in time. The books will be shipped via USPS Priority. U.S. addresses only. Please include your shipping address at checkout.

About the Book:

An original short story anthology based on master storyteller Stephen King’s #1 New York Times bestselling classic The Stand!

Since its initial publication in 1978, The Stand has been considered Stephen King’s seminal masterpiece of apocalyptic fiction, with millions of copies sold and adapted twice for television. Although there are other extraordinary works exploring the unraveling of human society, none have been as influential as this iconic novel—generations of writers have been impacted by its dark yet ultimately hopeful vision of the end and new beginning of civilization, and its stunning array of characters.

Now for the first time, Stephen King has fully authorized a return to the harrowing world of The Stand through this original short story anthology as presented by award-winning authors and editors Christopher Golden and Brian Keene. Bringing together some of today’s greatest and most visionary writers, The End of the World As We Know It features unforgettable, all-new stories set during and after (and some perhaps long after) the events of The Stand—brilliant, terrifying, and painfully human tales that will resonate with readers everywhere as an essential companion to the classic, bestselling novel.

Featuring an introduction by Stephen King, a foreword by Christopher Golden, and an afterword by Brian Keene. Contributors include Wayne Brady and Maurice Broaddus, Poppy Z. Brite, Somer Canon, C. Robert Cargill, Nat Cassidy, V. Castro, Richard Chizmar, S. A. Cosby, Tananarive Due and Steven Barnes, Meg Gardiner, Gabino Iglesias, Jonathan Janz, Alma Katsu, Caroline Kepnes, Michael Koryta, Sarah Langan, Joe R. Lansdale, Tim Lebbon, Josh Malerman, Ronald Malfi, Usman T. Malik, Premee Mohamed, Cynthia Pelayo, Hailey Piper, David J. Schow, Alex Segura, Bryan Smith, Paul Tremblay, Catherynne M. Valente, Bev Vincent, Catriona Ward, Chuck Wendig, Wrath James White, and Rio Youers.

About the Authors:

Brian Keene is the bestselling, multiple-award-winning author of over forty books—mostly horror, fantasy, science-fiction, and nonfiction—as well as over two-hundred short stories and dozens of comic books and graphic novels for Marvel, DC, and others. His first novel, 2003’s The Rising, is often credited with renewing pop culture’s interest in zombies. He also served as the showrunner for Silverwood: The Door. From 2015 to 2020, he hosted the immensely popular award-winning podcast The Horror Show with Brian Keene. He also serves on the board of directors for the Scares That Care 501c charity organization, which has to date raised over $650,000 for sick children, burn victims, and women battling breast cancer. The father of two sons and one stepdaughter, he lives in rural Pennsylvania with his wife, author Mary SanGiovanni. The two co-own Vortex Books & Comics—a genre specific brick-and-mortar bookstore.

Somer Canon is the Imadjinn Award winning and Splatterpunk Award nominated author of works such as Killer Chronicles, The Hag Witch of Tripp Creek, and You’re Mine. When she’s not wreaking havoc in her minivan, she’s avoiding her neighbors and consuming all things horror. She has two sons and more cats than her husband agreed to have.

Richard Chizmar is the coauthor (with Stephen King) of the New York Times bestselling novella Gwendy’s Button Box and Gwendy’s Final Task, and the solo novella Gwendy’s Magic Feather. Recent books include the New York Times bestsellers Memorials, Becoming the Boogeyman, and Chasing the Boogeyman; The Girl on the Porch; The Long Way Home; his fourth short story collection, and Widow’s Point; a chilling tale about a haunted lighthouse cowritten with his son Billy Chizmar, which was recently made into a feature film. His short fiction has appeared in dozens of publications, including Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine and The Year’s 25 Finest Crime and Mystery Stories. He has won two World Fantasy awards, four International Horror Guild awards, and the HWA’s Board of Trustees award. Chizmar’s work has been translated into more than fifteen languages throughout the world, and he has appeared at numerous conferences as a writing instructor, speaker, panelist, and guest of honor.

Chuck Wendig is the New York Times bestselling author of Wanderers, The Book of Accidents, Wayward, Black River Orchard, The Staircase in the Woods, and over two dozen other books for adults and young adults. A finalist for the Astounding Award and an alum of the Sundance Screenwriters Lab, he has also written comics, games, and for film and television. He’s known for his popular blog, terribleminds, and books about writing such as Damn Fine Story. He lives in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, with his family.

Prices include applicable PA sales tax and Harrisburg City amusement tax.

The Midtown Scholar Bookstore is honored to welcome public theologian and Messiah University professor Drew G.I. Hart to Harrisburg for a conversation and signing on his new book, Making it Plain: Why We Need Anabaptism and the Black Church. Hart will be in conversation with biblical scholar Pete Enns.

Registration is free but required to attend this event. Doors will open at 6:00pm; the event will begin at 7:00pm. Seating is general admission; first come, first served. Early arrival is encouraged. Books will be available for purchase at the event.

To enter the signing line, your copy of Making it Plain must be purchased from the Midtown Scholar Bookstore. Copies of the book will be available for purchase at the event, or you may preorder a copy of the book via EventBrite.

This event will be live-streamed. Every live-stream ticket includes one signed copy of Making it Plain and the live-stream link. The link will be sent at least 24 hours before the event begins. Please check your spam folder if you do not receive the link in time. The books will be shipped via USPS Priority. U.S. addresses only. Please include your shipping address at checkout.

About the Book:

There is an answer to white Christian supremacy that is centuries in the making.

For many oppressed and vulnerable people, Western Christianity has been a nightmare. Just centuries after the life of Jesus, the rise of Western Christendom contorted Christianity into an instrument of domination and violence. The church fused with the state, sanctioning empire-expanding crusades, colonization, and chattel slavery. Author Drew G. I. Hart challenges the church to wake up to how this past persists in the present, calling Christians to confront the living legacy of plundered people and lands in the name of Jesus.

Making It Plain offers a novel pathway for Christians to live out a decolonial and antiracist faith in the aftermath of Christendom: the convergence of the radical discipleship of the Anabaptist tradition and the prophetic witness of the Black church. In the witness of Black and Anabaptist Christian communities across time, we find a faith that takes the life and teachings of Jesus seriously. Despite oppression or persecution at the hands of mainstream Christianity, these traditions salvaged a liberating and peacemaking vision of Jesus right under the nose of empire and white supremacy.

Weaving together narrative history, theology, and practical guidance, Hart compells readers to engage the best of these faith streams to forge an Anablacktivist faith where everyone belongs, where everyone can thrive, and where everyone matters, especially the last and the least. The shared wisdom of these faith traditions offers signposts towards a Jesus-shaped, Spirit-filled, community-oriented movement capable of surviving and resisting new mutations of white Christian nationalism, antiblackness, and settler colonialism today.

About the Author:

Rev. Dr. Drew G. I. Hart is an associate professor of theology at Messiah University where he has directed the Thriving Together: Congregations for Racial Justice program in central PA since 2021. He co-hosts Inverse Podcast with Australian peace activist Jarrod McKenna and is the author of Trouble I've Seen: Changing the Way the Church Views Racism (2016), Who Will Be A Witness?: Igniting Activism for God's Justice, Love, and Deliverance (2020), and he co-edited and contributed to Reparations and the Theological Disciplines: Prophetic Voices for Remembrance, Reckoning, and Repair (Nov. 2023). His newest book is Making It Plain: Why We Need Anabaptism and the Black Church (September 2, 2025). Drew regularly speaks at colleges, conferences, churches, and community groups across the country. He is married to Renee and is the father of three sons. 

Peter Enns (Ph.D., Harvard University) is Abram S. Clemens professor of biblical studies at Eastern University in St. Davids, Pennsylvania. He has written numerous books, including The Bible Tells Me So, The Sin of Certainty, and How the Bible Actually Works.

Prices include applicable PA sales tax and Harrisburg City amusement tax.