Join us for our third annual Lit Stroll! This literary event brings readers together to meet and celebrate Illinois authors.

NEW THIS YEAR, participants will be split into two groups to accommodate crowd size. Both groups will see all the authors and be able to purchase books to be signed at the culmination of the event. Register with up to 3 friends to ensure you are in the same Stroll Group. 

You will be emailed your schedule on Monday, June 17.  

Our featured authors this year are:

• Mary Kubica, is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of many suspense novels, including The Good Girl, The Other Mrs., Local Woman Missing and her newest release She’s Not Sorry. Mary ’s novels have been selected as Amazon Best Books of the Month and have been LibraryReads selections. They’ve been translated into over thirty languages and have sold over five million copies worldwide. She’s been described as “a helluva storyteller” (Kirkus) and “a writer of vice-like control” (Chicago Tribune), and her novels have been praised as “hypnotic” (People) and “thrilling and illuminating” (L.A. Times). She lives outside of Chicago with her husband and two children. 

• Nick Medina, born in Chicago, Illinois, his interest in local and Native American folklore inspired his debut thriller, Sisters of the Lost Nation, which earned a Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection award. His latest novel, Indian Burial Ground, about buried traumas that come back far more frightening than when they were laid to rest, came out earlier this year, and his short story Quantum appeared in Never Whistle at Night, a 2023 Bram Stoker Award nominee for superior achievement in an anthology. When he's not writing, he enjoys playing guitar, chasing Windy City ghosts, and spending time with family.

• Kathleen Rooney, is a founding editor of Rose Metal Press, a nonprofit publisher of literary work in hybrid genres, and a founding member of Poems While You Wait, a team of typewriter poets who compose commissioned poetry on demand at events and venues around Chicago. The author of the novels Lillian Boxfish Takes a Walk and Cher Ami and Major Whittlesey, her most recent novel is From Dust to Stardust. Her poetry collection Where Are the Snows won the XJ Kennedy Prize and was published by Texas Review Press in 2022. Her literary criticism and essays appear in The Brooklyn Rail, Chicago magazine, the Minneapolis Star Tribune, the New York Times, and elsewhere. She lives in Chicago with her spouse, the writer Martin Seay, and teaches at DePaul.

Each author will be featured at a downtown Arlington Heights venue: Mago Grill & Cantina, Hey Nonny, and Arlington Ale House. Hear about their books and writing, grab a drink, enjoy complimentary appetizers, and mingle with other literary lovers as you stroll from location to location. The event will culminate in a book signing at Arlington Ale House with books available for sale courtesy of The Book Stall. 

Lit Stroll is open to adults 21 and older. Space is limited. 

Find full event details at ahml.info/litstroll.

Registration opens June 1.

We strive to host inclusive, accessible events that enable all individuals, including individuals with disabilities, to engage fully. To request an accommodation, please call 847.392.0100, text 847.665.1491 or email us at accessibility@ahml.info   

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