Two-time National Book Award winner Jesmyn Ward will open the 2026-2027 William N. Skirball Writers Center Stage series in Cleveland on September 14, kicking off a six-author lineup that also includes LeVar Burton, foraging expert Alexis Nikole Nelson, and Booker Prize winner George Saunders. Single tickets for all six events are on sale now, with orchestra seats priced at $35 and balcony seats at $25.
The series is presented by the Cuyahoga County Public Library Foundation in partnership with Case Western Reserve University, according to Cleveland.com. All proceeds from the events benefit the Cuyahoga County Public Library Foundation. Tickets and subscription packages are available through the Writers Center Stage website or by phone at 216-368-6062, though prices exclude parking passes and single-event tickets do not include author book copies.
Every event in the series takes place at 7:30 p.m. in Silver Hall at the Maltz Performing Arts Center, located at 1855 Ansel Road in Cleveland. The venue occupies the 1924 Charles R. Greco-designed sanctuary of The Temple-Tifereth Israel, a building originally constructed for a prominent Cleveland Reform Jewish congregation before it was transformed into a 1,200-seat performance center through a partnership with Case Western Reserve University in 2015, according to Cleveland Historical. The center expanded further in 2021 with a Phase II project that added a 250-seat Roe Green Theatre and a 100-seat black box theater for additional campus and community programming, per Case Western Reserve University's College of Arts and Sciences.
A Season Opener With Historic Literary Credentials
Ward, the author of "Salvage the Bones", "Sing, Unburied, Sing", "Let Us Descend", and "Men We Reaped", has won two National Book Awards for Fiction and received the 2022 Library of Congress Prize for American Fiction, per the seed report. She made history in 2017 as the first woman and first Black American author to win two National Book Awards for Fiction, earning the honors for "Salvage the Bones" in 2011 and "Sing, Unburied, Sing" in 2017, according to Tulane University. Her appearance opens what organizers describe as the series' 23rd season, which originally launched in 2004 with Nobel laureate Seamus Heaney as its first featured author, as reported by CoolCleveland.
Alexis Nikole Nelson, known online as @blackforager, follows on October 29. Nelson teaches audiences about identifying edible wild plants along with their cultural history and ecological importance, and her debut cookbook, "Happy Snacking, Don't Die!", is set for release on September 22. Series subscribers will receive a copy of that cookbook. Nelson won the inaugural James Beard Media Award for Best Social Media Account in 2022 for content blending wild plant foraging with Indigenous and Black culinary history, and she was named a 2025 Time 100 Creator.
LeVar Burton Brings Decades of Literacy Advocacy
LeVar Burton, an actor, producer, and longtime literacy advocate, takes the stage on November 12. Burton hosted PBS's "Reading Rainbow" and has spent decades advocating for literacy and against book bans nationwide, he served as host of the 74th National Book Awards Ceremony in November 2023, where organizers highlighted that advocacy work, according to the National Book Foundation. His memoir, "Take My Word for It", is scheduled for publication on November 10, and ticket holders for his event will receive a copy.
The spring lineup opens on March 4, 2027, with Virginia Evans, whose novel "The Correspondent" has sold more than one million copies worldwide, topped the New York Times bestseller list, and been translated into more than 30 languages. Evans's book was also selected in 2026 for community-wide reading programs, including North Carolina's Hickory Reads festival, a connection Hoodline covered in its earlier report on the initiative.
Award-Winning Novelists Round Out the Spring Schedule
Tayari Jones, who teaches creative writing at Emory University, appears April 19, 2027. Jones won the 2019 Women's Prize for Fiction and earned a spot in Oprah's Book Club in 2018 for her bestselling novel "An American Marriage", which examines the impact of wrongful incarceration on a southern couple, according to the Women's Prize for Fiction. She is also a 2026 Time 100 honoree.
George Saunders closes the season on May 6, 2027. Saunders has received a MacArthur Genius Grant, a Guggenheim Fellowship, and the 2025 National Book Foundation Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters. He won the 2017 Man Booker Prize for his debut full-length novel "Lincoln in the Bardo", becoming only the second American writer ever to win the award, per The Booker Prizes, after building his reputation on acclaimed short story collections.
Supporting a Nationally Recognized Library System
Event proceeds flow to the Cuyahoga County Public Library Foundation, which supports a library system that has earned 5-star ratings from Library Journal for more than ten consecutive years, according to the City Club of Cleveland. That reputation exists alongside recent budget pressures on the system. Hoodline has reported on a GED class waitlist tied to funding cuts as well as capital improvements like the reopened children's wing at the Warrensville Heights branch. Livestream tickets for the Skirball series are available for $20 for those unable to attend in person at the Maltz Performing Arts Center in University Circle.
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