Yakima Valley Libraries announces an interesting lineup of authors for our special Authors Out Loud series. The series highlights four talented authors and a literary group from our local community and from across the country. Featured book categories/genres include ecological history, graphic novel, manifesto/memoir, and poetry. Each interactive session will highlight an author talk with a following question and answer session. Join us this September through October for interesting and interactive gatherings.

Josh Tuininga is an author, artist, and designer. After studying fine art at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, he founded an art and design agency, where he continues to work as creative director. Tuininga lives in North Bend, Washington.

Tuininga is the author of the graphic novel We Are Not Strangers, a true family story which follows a Jewish immigrant’s efforts to help his Japanese-American neighbors while they are incarcerated during World War II. In his talk, Tuininga will show how comic books and graphic novels are not only powerful art forms, but they have unique abilities to challenge young readers in surprising ways and can help prepare students for a rapidly changing future.