For immediate release | June 13, 2016

United for Libraries to host 'Reads Like Fiction' nonfiction panel at ALA Annual Conference

BRYN MAWR, Pennsylvania — United for Libraries will host “Reads Like Fiction, Nonfiction You Can’t Put Down” from 10:30-11:30 a.m. on Sunday, June 26 at the Orange County Convention Center, S330 A-B, at the ALA Annual Conference in Orlando.

Chris Smith, author of “The Daily Show (The Book): An Oral History” (Grand Central Publishing/Hachette, Oct. 2016), will show clips from the Emmy Award-winning Comedy Central show. Nonfiction that's as inspiring and riveting as any great novel will be discussed at the program, which will also feature writers Lydia Reeder, Elizabeth Lesser and Ari Berman. Authors will sign copies of their books following the program, which will be moderated by Barbara Hoffert, editor of Library Journal's Prepub Alert.

Chris Smith is a contributing editor at New York Magazine. He has written numerous cover stories, on subjects ranging from Saturday Night Live to the New York Mets, and has been the magazine’s city and state political columnist since 2004. His first feature story on Jon Stewart was in 1994, when Stewart was the host of an MTV talk show. Smith has also written for the New York Times Sunday Magazine, Vogue, and ESPN the Magazine. He lives in Brooklyn. This is his first book.

Lydia Reeder (“Dust Bowl Girls,” Algonquin, Jan. 2017) is the grandniece of Sam Babb, the extraordinary basketball coach featured in “Dust Bowl Girls”. She spent over two years conducting research for the book and also wrote and narrated a short film about the Cardinal basketball team. She is a former associate editor at Whole Life Times in Los Angeles and Delicious Magazine in Boulder, Colorado, She lives in Denver with her husband.

Elizabeth Lesser (“Marrow,” Harper Wave/HarperCollins, Sept. 2016) is the bestselling author of “Broken Open” and the cofounder of Omega Institute, an organization recognized internationally for its workshops and conferences focusing on health and healing, psychology and spirituality, creativity and social change. She attended Barnard College and San Francisco State University, and lives in the Hudson River Valley with her family.

Ari Berman (“Give Us the Ballot,” Farrar, Straus & Giroux/Macmillan, Aug. 2015) is a contributing writer for The Nation, an investigative journalism fellow at the Nation Institute and the author of “Herding Donkeys: The Fight to Rebuild the Democratic Party and Reshape American Politics. His work has also appeared in The New York Times, Rolling Stone, and The Guardian, and he is a frequent political commentator on MSNBC and NPR.

For information on other United for Libraries programs at the ALA Annual Conference, visit www.ala.org/united/events_conferences/annual.

United for Libraries: The Association of Library Trustees, Advocates, Friends and Foundations, is a division of the American Library Association that supports those who govern, promote, advocate, and fundraise for libraries. United for Libraries brings together library Trustees, advocates, friends, and foundations into a partnership that creates a powerful force for libraries in the 21st century. For more information or to join United for Libraries, visit the United for Libraries website or contact Jillian Wentworth at (312) 280-2161 or jwentworth@ala.org.

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Jillian Wentworth

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jwentworth@ala.org