Columbus Book Festival: In Conversation with TJ Klune

Columbus Book Festival featuring TJ Klune

Saturday, July 11 at 4 p.m.
Main Library
Auditorium (1st floor)

ABOUT THE AUTHOR & BOOK

TJ Klune is a New York Times and USA Today bestselling, Lambda Literary Award-winning author of The House in the Cerulean Sea, Under the Whispering Door, In the Lives of Puppets, and more. As a queer author, Klune believes in writing accurate, positive queer representation in stories.

We Burned So Bright follows longtime husbands Don and Rodney on an end‑of‑the‑world road trip as a wandering black hole approaches Earth. Amid bonfires, makeshift weddings, and strangers clinging to joy, the couple races across the country to settle unfinished business and to ask what a good life requires.

ABOUT THE MODERATOR

Donna Zuiderweg serves as the chief of service design and engagement at Columbus Metropolitan Library, where she oversees teams in marketing, communications, fundraising and advocacy to enhance community connection and elevate public perception.

HEADLINER SESSION TICKETS

• Due to limited space, tickets are required for each of the five headliner author talks.
• One ticket per person. Maximum room capacity is 250 people.
• Non-ticketed guests will be admitted five minutes prior to the start of the program only if seats are available.
• Eventbrite tickets will be scanned at entry. Print your ticket or have a mobile ticket ready to scan for speedy entry.
• The Auditorium will be fully cleared between sessions.
• Be considerate: Don't reserve a seat if you don't need it. Cancel your ticket if you can't make it to the event so another reader can attend.

AUDITORIUM ENTRY & EXIT

Volunteers and Festival Staff will help keep orderly lines and assist guests with limited mobility. Everyone with a session ticket WILL BE SEATED if you arrive before 3:55 pm.

• 3:00 p.m. | Lines for TJ's session can form at the Auditorium: one line for ticketed guests and one line for non-ticketed guests
• 3:30 p.m. | Seating begins for ticketed guests
• 3:55 p.m. | Seating begins for non-ticketed guests (only if empty seats are available)
• 4:00 p.m. | Donna Zuiderweg in conversation with TJ Klune
• 5:00 p.m. | Session ends. Book signing for session attendees outside Auditorium. All guests must exit the Auditorium.

The Auditorium will hold back-to-back author sessions, and the area could get congested. Please be prepared to be patient in a space with multiple lines, book selling stations and a signing table.

BOOKS & SIGNING*

• Due to space and time restrictions, headlining authors will sign books only for the 250 attendees of their session within the 60-minute time limit.

• Headliner author signings take place immediately after their session just outside the Auditorium.

• Books may be purchased at the festival or brought from your personal collection. Limit of two items.

• TJ's books will be available for sale at the Auditorium before and after her session. The Official Festival Bookstore will be selling headliner titles all weekend in Main Library's 2nd floor.

Book signing etiquette:

• Keep the line moving to ensure all readers have an opportunity to have their books signed within the allotted time.
• Open your books to the title page and place them in the correct direction on the signing table

• Limit of two items for signing/personalization.

• No posed photos, please.

*SIGNING DETAILS ARE SUBJECT TO CHANGE.

COLUMBUS BOOK FESTIVAL

The Columbus Book Festival is a free, two-day literary event on July 12 -13 at downtown Columbus's Main Library and Topiary Park.

This Author Talk is just one of 70+ sessions on the schedule of author events for the weekend. All sessions and programs are free to attend. Come and enjoy the entire festival!