CDL presents the 2025 Midwest Literary Walk! Back for another year with nationally recognized, high-caliber authors speaking in small-town Chelsea. No tickets required. Visit midwestliterarywalk.org
2025 Midwest Literary Walk | Saturday, Apr. 12, 2025
Now a staple in the library’s annual calendar, the Midwest Literary Walk is attended by people near and far. Lit Walk is a series of author interviews or presentations, all hosted on the same day and held at different venues within walking distance from one another. Lit Walk is intended to be a celebration of literature, reading, and the Chelsea community, featuring nationally recognized, high-caliber authors who speak right in our historic downtown.
Lit Walk should remove barriers between everyday people and fantastic literature and authors. For this reason, we never require tickets or registration to attend. All three author talks are open to everyone with no admittance charge.
Books by Lit Walk authors can always be borrowed from the library in print or ebook or audiobook formats; however, our fantastic Indie bookstore, Serendipity Books, will also offer print copies for sale during the event. Each author talk concludes with a book signing.
New this year, we have altered the Lit Walk schedule to allow more time between author talks. Stop for lunch, check out the cute Chelsea shops, and take your time strolling from one venue to the next.
New York Times Bestselling Author Shelby Van Pelt | 11am | Main Street Church | 320 N Main St, Chelsea, MI 48118
Shelby Van Pelt’s novel, Remarkably Bright Creatures was one of the most borrowed books at CDL last year, and of course, was an instant New York Times bestseller. Library Journal declares that “Van Pelt has written an irresistibly wonderful, warm, funny, heartbreaking first novel, full of gentle people (and one octopus) bravely powering through their individual scars left by lives that have beaten them up but have not brought them dow.”
Edgar Award Winner Angie Kim | 1:30pm | First Congregational Church of Chelsea | 121 E Middle St, Chelsea, MI 48118
Angie Kim is the winner of the 2020 Edgar Award and the Strand Critic’s Award among many others. Of her second novel, Happiness Falls, Publisher’s Weekly asserts that “Readers will be fascinated with how Kim bends the structure of a whodunit to serve a broader exploration of the dynamics of human relations and moved by her skill at wresting joy from tragedy.”
New York Times Bestselling Author Sarah Vowell | 3:30pm | Chelsea First United Methodist Church | 128 Park St, Chelsea, MI 48118
Lit Walk culminates with the New York Times bestselling author of seven nonfiction books on American history and culture, Sarah Vowell! In addition to her career as an author, Vowell is also an accomplished journalist and a voice actor who played teen superhero Violet Parr in the Academy Award-winning The Incredibles, and its sequel, Incredibles 2. Her book Lafayette in the Somewhat United States made headlines again in 2024 during the Bicentennial of Lafayette’s Farewell Tour. Vowell challenges the notion of dusty history books with what Kirkus calls “An enlightening and entertaining blend of history and edged attitude.”
Thank you to all who make the Chelsea District Library’s Midwest Literary Walk possible.
Friends of Chelsea District Library
Serendipity Books
Literati Books
Chelsea Area Chamber of Commerce
The Chelsea District Library is a single branch library serving the City of Chelsea and surrounding townships. The library has 4 small study rooms, one medium meeting room, and the McKune room, our main programming room.
