Author series kicks off Oct. 9
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- Events will be held at The Norris Center in Naples and will include a talk, Q&A, and book signing.
- The series serves as a fundraiser for Collier County’s public libraries, with special ticket pricing for Friends members.
Big changes are afoot with the Author Spotlight Series, which expands to three events headlined by best-selling writers and hosted by the Friends of the Library of Collier County.
The three intimate talks and book signings in October, November and April are a chance to meet the authors while helping the nonprofit Friends group raise hundreds of thousands of dollars for Collier County’s public libraries. This year, a special discounted series ticket is available exclusively to members of the Friends. (Details are in the info box.)
The 2025-26 Author Spotlight Series will feature:
- Sarah Penner, a Southwest Florida favorite whose latest romantic, supernatural novel is “The Amalfi Curse,” on Thursday afternoon, Oct. 9;
- Lew Paper, the acclaimed author of several nonfiction books, turns to fiction-based-on-fact for his novel “Legacy of Lies,” about the still-unsolved disappearance of labor leader Jimmy Hoffa, on Thursday afternoon, Nov. 6; and
- Rowan Beaird, whose debut novel “The Divorcées,” which is set at a 1950s Reno, Nevada, divorce ranch, was praised by People magazine as a “rollicking thriller,” on Thursday afternoon, April 9.
Events are held at The Norris Center, the former longtime home of the Gulfshore Playhouse, located at the southern end of Cambier Park near downtown Naples.
The members-only series ticket to all three events is $150, a significant savings over buying an individual ticket to each speaker. Seating will be general admission, and tickets are selling quickly. Each talk will be followed by a Q-and-A and a book signing. (See info box for details on dates, times and all ticket prices.)
Author Sarah Penner returns
Sarah Penner, who was the very first Author Spotlight speaker when the series launched in 2022, returns in October to kick off this year’s expanded series. She’s now published three best-selling novels — “The Lost Apothecary,” which sold over 1 million copies worldwide, “The London Séance Society” and, earlier this year, “The Amalfi Curse.”
Known for her exotic locales and for weaving the occult and mysticism into her compelling plots, Penner has set “The Amalfi Curse” along the Italian coast, in Positano and that “other” Naples.
With a rumbling Mount Vesuvius in the background, Penner’s dual timeline features a modern-day archeologist trying to recover a cache of jewels her father spotted at the bottom of the Mediterranean off Positano shortly before he died. Then, looking back to the 1820s, the novel introduces the Amalfi Coast’s beautiful and compelling red-haired “strega del mare” — sea witches — who used their spells to whip up the sea and protect their village from pirates and criminals.
Lew Paper offers Hoffa mystery novel
The second Author Spotlight speaker, Lew Paper, presents a mystery of a different kind in his novel, “Legacy of Lies,” which imagines what really happened that day 50 years ago when controversial labor leader Jimmy Hoffa vanished in a Detroit suburb. Hoffa has never been found, and no one has confessed to killing him or disposing of his body.
Reviewers called Paper’s speculation about Hoffa’s fate captivating, masterful, intriguing and creative. “Legacy of Lies” was named a finalist for Best Thriller by the National Indie Excellence Awards.
Paper, a retired Washington, D.C., attorney who now lives in Naples, is known for his nonfiction books such as “In the Cauldron: Terror, Tension, and the American Ambassador’s Struggle to Avoid Pearl Harbor”and “Perfect: Don Larsen’s Miraculous World Series Game and the Men Who Made It Happen.”
Beaird debut novel made 2024 best-of lists
Closing out the series in April will be Chicago-based writer Rowan Beaird with her entertaining debut novel “The Divorcées,” which landed on numerous best-of-the-year lists for 2024. Her second novel, “Tenderness,” will be published in June 2026.
For “The Divorcées,” Beaird takes us back to the 1950s, when women had few ways to escape an unhappy marriage. One way out was to establish temporary residence at a Reno, Nevada, “divorce ranch.” There, Beaird’s heroine, Lois, spends her days riding horses and flirting with cowboys — until a new ranch resident opens her eyes to the possibilities of an independent life on her own terms.
Reviewers praised the novel’s “ageless themes” and the “poignant coming-of-age story,” calling it “moody, sexy and mysterious.”
Attending the Author Spotlight Series at The Norris Center is an opportunity to spend the day in Naples’ Fifth Avenue South district, enjoying lunch and shopping before or after the event.
Friends of the Library’s Author Spotlight Series
What: Author lectures that are a fundraiser by the Friends of the Library of Collier County
Where: The Norris Center, 755 Eighth Ave. S., Naples
When: All events begin at 2 p.m. and book signings follow each lecture: Sarah Penner, Thursday, Oct. 9; Lew Paper, Thursday, Nov. 6; and Rowan Beaird, Thursday, April 9
Cost: A special offer only for current members of Friends of the Library of Collier County is a series ticket to see all three authors for $150. Otherwise, single tickets are $55 for each lecture for current members of the Friends; $65 per lecture for nonmembers. All seating is general admission. Friends memberships begin at $40/year and also provide exclusive access and discounts to many other programs throughout the year.
Purchase tickets and become a member: Go to https://collier-friends.org/. If events sell out, a waiting list will be kept. Email Marlene Haywood, the Friends’ Program Director, at mhaywood@collier-friends.org or call 239-262-8135.
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