Keene Public Library is thrilled to welcome Award-Winning Graphic Novelist Tillie Walden to speak this April! The author will visit at 5:30pm on April 9th in the library’s Heberton Hall. Tillie Walden, a two-time Eisner Award winner who currently serves as Vermont’s youngest cartoonist laureate, writes and illustrates across all ages, though she finds a home in writing for teens and tweens. From figure skating to deep space to the zombie apocalypse, Walden weaves together stories exploring love, grief, humor, friendship, and the unknowns of growing up. According to Teen Librarian Eleanor Green, “Walden has an otherworldly talent for figuring out exactly how to express the hard-to-define emotions, whether that be in words or in illustrations. Her work makes us feel less alone.”
Spinning, Walden’s memoir on a childhood spent in competitive figure skating, and Are You Listening?, the tale of a surrealist road trip, won the prestigious Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards in 2018 and 2020 respectively. Additionally, Walden won two Ignatz awards in 2016—Outstanding Artist for her work The End of Summer, and Promising New Talent for her work I Love This Part. In 2023, at the age of 26, Tillie Walden was named Vermont’s youngest ever cartoonist laureate, a role she’ll serve until 2026.
Walden will be at Keene Public Library on Wednesday, April 9th, at 5:30 PM, where she’ll give a talk on creating and storytelling, geared towards a teen and tween audience. Walden will also participate in a Q&A session before holding a book signing. Additionally, Keene Public Library will hold a door-prize raffle of a selection of Walden’s works and drawing supplies.
In preparation for Walden’s visit, the Keene Pride Youth Book Club will read On a Sunbeam for their March 19th meeting. In addition to discussing the book, the club will prepare questions for the Q&A session. Extra copies of On a Sunbeam will be available for check out—please request at Keene Public Library’s circulation desk.
Keene Pride Book Club events are open to any and all teens and tweens in middle and high school, whether they’ve read one page or the whole book. Tillie Walden’s Author event is open to the public of all ages, and the library encourages you to check out one or all of her many works from our collection!
Event date
Wed, 04/09/2025 – 17:30
