Jacqueline Woodson

New York Times best-selling author and MacArthur Fellow Jacqueline Woodson will take part in a free event at Liberty Hall on Thursday as part of the Ross & Marianna Beach Author series.

Woodson, author of the memoir “Brown Girl Dreaming” and several other award-winning books for children and adolescents, will appear at 7 p.m. Thursday at Liberty Hall, 644 Massachusetts St. Woodson will be in conversation with Giselle Anatol, director of the J. Wayne & Elsie M. Gunn Center for the Study of Science Fiction and the interim director of the University of Kansas Hall Center for the Humanities.

Woodson’s visit is part of the annual Ross & Marianna Beach Author series, which is a program of the Lawrence Public Library and the library’s Friends & Foundation. Woodson’s visit to Lawrence will also include a talk about her writing and career for some students in Lawrence public schools.

Woodson is an American writer of books for adults, children and adolescents, according to her website. She is best known for her National Book Award-winning memoir “Brown Girl Dreaming” and her Newbery Honor-winning titles “After Tupac and D Foster,” “Feathers” and “Show Way.” Her picture books “The Day You Begin” and “The Year We Learned to Fly” were New York Times Bestsellers. After serving as the Young People’s Poet Laureate from 2015 to 2017, she was named the national ambassador for Young People’s Literature by the Library of Congress for 2018-2019. She was awarded the Hans Christian Andersen Medal in 2020. Later that same year, she was named a MacArthur Fellow.

The event at Liberty Hall is free and open to the public. No tickets are required. Doors will open at 6 p.m., and the program will begin at 7 p.m. The Raven Bookstore will have copies of Woodson’s work available for sale and a signing will follow her talk.