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Author and Special Speaker Events

These couldn't happen without YOUR support!

The Library Hosts Interesting Speakers
Supported by your Annual Membership and Donations. Thank You!


Author events currently are on hold due to the COVID-19 pandemic.  As soon as it is safe to do so, the Library will begin working with authors to arrange speaking events, and the Friends will help sponsor them!
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Some Previous Author Events:


The New York Times best-seller list is usually filled with super popular authors like James Patterson, John Grisham, Janet Evanovich and JK Rowling. They deserve to be on the list because they are good writers, and they sell a lot of books. However, they are not the only good writers in the world. And, once in a while one of those terrific writers that no one has ever heard of makes it big, too. Such is the case with Pulitzer Prize winner Anthony Doerr, who spoke at our library on October 14. Anthony Doerr lives in Idaho, and prior to last year, he was an accomplished, but not especially well-known author. He had published one novel, some books of short stories, and a memoir. Then he wrote All the Light We Cannot See, and things took off! Still, it did not happen overnight. [Read more]
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View Photos of the Event!
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Nicole Kear
​May 20, 2015
Once again, the Library and the Friends Two Towns-One Book committee brought an interesting speaker to our community. Nicole Kear spoke of her life-changing diagnosis that inspired her memoir, Now I See You. She is going blind because of retinitis pigmentosa within the next decade. Instead of making preparations, Kear decides to make the most of the vision she has left. She joins circus school, tears through boyfriends, travels the world, and through all these hi-jinks, she keeps her vision loss a secret.

When Nicole becomes a mother, just a few years shy of her vision's expiration date, she wants to relish every moment with her kids. And, as her world grows blurred, one thing becomes clear: no matter how hard she fights, she won't win the battle. But if she shares her secret, and comes to terms with the loss, she can still win her happy ending. [Read more]



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Jan-Philipp Sendker
April 16, 2015
The Library and the Friends Two Towns-One Book committee did it again!  Jan-Philipp Sendker,  author of The Art of Hearing Heartbeats, the book selected for the 2015 community read program, came to Clifton Park.  

Born in Hamburg, Germany in 1960, Mr. Sendker was the American Correspondent for Stern from 1990 to 1995, and its Asian correspondent from 1995 to 1999.  In 2000 he published Cracks in the Great Wall, a nonfiction book about China.  The Art of Hearing Heartbeats is his first novel.  Mr. Sendker shared share insights, signed books, and discussed his writing ventures and latest book, Whispering Shadows. Questions were answered and long lines waited for book signing.


View Photos of Event

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Piper Kerman
September 22, 2014
View Photos of Event.
Ms. Kerman wrote the #1 New York Times best-selling memoir, Orange Is the New Black: My Year in a Women's Prison, in 2010.  A Smith College graduate, Piper was bored stiff with her middle-class life.  Recklessly, she got involved with an unsavory group of bohemian artists who were involved in the drug trade and money laundering. [Read more]
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Josh Kilmer-Purcell and Brent Ridge
January 11, 2013
The Fabulous Beekman Boys, Josh Kilmer-Purcell and Brent Ridge, wowed the Clifton Park-Halfmoon Library audience when they appeared at the Two Towns-One Book author event. 

Eight out of ten members of “Bound by Books” book club attended the event at our wonderful library. Read about their group.  [Read more]

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Jim Ryun
May 20, 2013
Olympic Medalist and World Record Miler Jim Ryun wrapped up the 2013 Two Towns-One Book festivities when he spoke at the library. Ryun talked about meeting Louis Zamperini, the subject of Unbroken, shared stories from his own Olympic experiences, and showed videos chronicling his rise from a skinny little kid to world record runner. [Read more]
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Matt McElligott 
with avid fan.
March 5, 2013
Math, mad scientists, and mixed-up mayhem of a piratical variety was on the library horizon when families and other children's literature enthusiasts were treated to an evening with local author and illustrator Matt McElligott. [Read more]


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Dennis Lehane
Autumn 2012
What a wonderful treat having author Dennis Lehane visit our library.Dennis Lehane is the author of nine novels including the New York Times bestsellers Gone, Baby, Gone; Mystic River; Shutter Island and The Given Day, as well as Coronado, a collection of short stories and a play [Read more]
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Markus Zusak
April 3, 2012
The Two Towns-One Book 2012 author event brought a discussion with Markus Zusak, author of The Book Thief, using SKYPE technology via computer from his home in Australia. [Read more]


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Will Shortz
December 5, 2011
Have you ever heard of an Enigmatologist?  If the answer is no, you are not alone, but one visited our library.

Will Shortz, puzzle editor of The New York Times since 1993 is an enigmatologist.  He's the only academically accredited one in the world, having designed his own major program at Indiana University, which in 1974 led to his one-of-a-kind degree in enigmatology.  [Read more]
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Alafair Burke
October 29, 2011
What do you do when you show up for your first day of work and the building is empty, except for the dead body of your new boss? 

Novelist Alafair Burke gives us the answer to this question in her latest book, Long Gone, which she spoke about during her visit to our Library.  [Read more]

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Janine Cammarata
October 17, 2011
Janine Cammarata launched the second novel in her time travel adventure called Eyes of the Goddess, at our Library.  This is the second book in the Fianna Cycle trilogy that focuses on the mythological stories of Celtic Ireland and entwines it with modern characters. [Read more] 
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Lee Child
November 3, 2010
Author Lee Child thrilled the capacity crowd of over 300 at the Library with his discussion of his writing process (a word at a time without outlining the entire book), noting that he doesn't "even have a plan for that paragraph." Going back to Cro-Magnon man, he noted that through storytelling, we were able to figure out a way to survive the dangers that faced us every day.  [Read more]

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Margaret 
Peterson Haddix
May 26, 2010
Margaret Peterson Haddix comes from a long line of bookworms, so it is no wonder that she became a writer.  "When we went on family vacations, my parents were always saying things like, 'Would you guys stop reading for a minute and look out the window?  That's the Gr [and Canyon were driving past!' [Read more]
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Scott Kellogg
April 14, 2010
Local author Scott Kellogg  believes we can learn to be more self sufficient and tread more lightly on the world. City and suburb dwellers can have local access and control over life's essential resources: food production, water security, waste management, autonomous energy, and bio-remediation of toxic soils. And, he believes we can do these things without huge monetary investments, becoming more secure in the process. [Read more]

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Terry Trueman
April 8, 2010
Shawn McDaniel, a teenage boy with cerebral palsy, has a secret: he remembers everything he hears or sees. He believes he is, in fact, a genius. Unfortunately, no one but Shawn will ever know because he is unable to communicate. There is another thing: only he and his father know that his dad is planning to kill him. [Read more]
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Laura Lippman
October 5, 2009
Ideas are only worth the paper on which they're written. They're not a valuable commodity in the abstract without putting in the work to bring those ideas to the page. Best-selling novelist Laura Lippman shared this with a very enthusiastic audience. [Read more]
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Gordon Korman, author of more than 40 children's and young adult books will be appearing at the Clifton Park Halfmoon Public Library on April 29, 2009.  

Korman, whose books have sold millions of copies, strives to write stories that provide a healthy dose of humor for his young readers. "My books are the kind of stories I wanted to read and couldn't find when I was ten, eleven, and twelve," he once remarked. "I think that, no matter what the subject matter, kids' concerns are important, and being a kid isn't just waiting out the time between birth and the age of majority. I hope other kids see that in my work." [Read more]

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Friends of the Clifton Park-Halfmoon Public Library 
475 Moe Road
Clifton Park, NY 12065
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