For immediate release | January 17, 2017

Matthew Quick among the authors at United for Libraries Gala Author Tea, sponsored by ReferenceUSA

BRYN MAWR, Pennsylvania — Matthew Quick (“The Silver Linings Playbook”) will join Lisa Wingate, Mary Kay Andrews, Pam Jenoff, Kathy Hepinstall and Emily Fridlund at the United for Libraries Gala Author Tea, sponsored by ReferenceUSA, from 2-4 p.m. Eastern time on Monday, Jan. 23 at the 2017 ALA Midwinter Meeting in Atlanta.

A light offering of tea, finger sandwiches and a variety of sweet treats will be served. A book signing will follow. United for Libraries will recognize the winners of the 2016 National Friends of Libraries Week Awards during the program.

Matthew Quick (“The Reason You’re Alive,” HarperCollins) is the New York Times bestselling author of several novels, including “The Silver Linings Playbook,” which was made into an Oscar-winning film, “The Good Luck of Right Now,” and “Love May Fail. His work has been translated into more than 30 languages and has received a PEN/Hemingway Award Honorable Mention. Quick lives with his wife on North Carolina’s Outer Banks

Lisa Wingate (“Before We Were Yours,” Ballantine Books/Penguin Random House) is a former journalist, an inspirational speaker, and the author of the national bestseller “Tending Roses.” She is a seven-time ACFW Carol Award nominee, a Christy Award nominee, an Oklahoma Book Award finalist, and a two-time Carol Award winner.

Mary Kay Andrews (“The Beach House Cookbook,” St. Martin’s Press/Macmillan) is the New York Times bestselling author of “The Weekenders,” “Beach Town,” “Save the Date,” “Ladies’ Night,” “Spring Fever,”Summer Rental,”The Fixer Upper,” “Deep Dish,” and more. A former journalist for the Atlanta Journal Constitution, she lives in Atlanta.

Pam Jenoff (“The Orphan’s Tale,” MIRA/Harlequin) was born in Maryland and raised in southern New Jersey, outside of Philadelphia. She attended George Washington University in Washington D.C., where she earned a bachelor's degree magna cum laude in international affairs, with minors in history and Japanese. She then received her master's in history from Cambridge University in England

Kathy Hepinstall (“The Book of Polly,” Pamela Dorman Books/Penguin Random House) is the author of five previous novels. She is also a top level advertising creative director who has written award-winning campaigns for corporate clients from Apple to Nike. She grew up in Spring, Texas, near the Louisiana border, and now lives in Portland, Ore., and Santa Barbara, Calif.. Polly is based, in part, on Hepinstall's own mother, who has as wicked a tongue as her fictional counterpart.

Emily Fridlund (“History of Wolves,” Atlanta Monthly Press/Perseus) grew up in Minnesota and currently resides in the Finger Lakes region of New York. Her fiction has appeared in a variety of journals, including Boston Review, Zyzzyva, and Painted Bride Quarterly. The opening chapter of “History of Wolves” won the 2013 McGinnis-Ritchie Award for fiction, and Fridlund's collection of stories, “Catapult,” won the Mary McCarthy Prize in Short Fiction and will be published by Sarabande in fall 2017.

Advance tickets to the Gala Author Tea cost $60, $55 for United for Libraries division members. Onsite tickets cost $65, if available. Advance purchase is recommended. Event code: UNI1.

For more information on purchasing tickets and other United for Libraries events and meetings at the ALA Midwinter Meeting, visit www.ala.org/united/events_conferences/midwinter. For information about registering for Midwinter, visit www.alamidwinter.org.

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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