Author Susan Beckham Zurenda to Headline Friends of the Library Annual Meeting
{Photo Credit: Anne Beckham}
Award-Winning Author Susan Beckham Zurenda to Headline Friends of the Lexington Library Annual Meeting Nov. 8
LEXINGTON — The Friends of the Lexington Library will hold its 2026 Annual Meeting on Sunday, Nov. 8, from 2 to 3:30 p.m. at the Lexington Library Annex, 602 S. Main St. The event is open to the organization's members and to the entire Lexington community.
This year's keynote speaker is Susan Beckham Zurenda, an award-winning author and former educator who writes Southern literary fiction. Barbara Presnell will serve as moderator.
Zurenda taught English for 33 years, at the college level and to Advanced Placement students at the high school level. Her debut novel, Bells for Eli, was published by Mercer University Press in March 2020, with a paperback edition following in March 2021. The book won first place for Best First Book—Fiction in the 2021 Independent Publisher Book Awards (IPPY). It was also a Foreword Indie Book Award finalist, a Winter 2020 Okra Pick from the Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance, a 2020 Shelf Unbound Notable Indie, a 2020 American Book Fest Best Book Awards finalist and a 2021 Pushcart Prize nominee.
Her second novel, The Girl From the Red Rose Motel (Mercer University Press, September 2023), received the 2024 Patricia Winn Award in Southern Fiction and won the Gold Medal for Southeast Fiction in the 2024 IPPY Awards. It was also a 2024 Pushcart Prize nominee, one of Shelf Unbound's 2023 Notable 100 books and an American Book Fest Awards finalist.
Zurenda has also won numerous awards for her short fiction, including the South Carolina Fiction Prize twice. She lives in Spartanburg, South Carolina.
Copies of Zurenda's books will be available for purchase at the meeting, and the author will sign them for attendees.
Christmas-themed baskets will also be sold at the event, with proceeds supporting literacy in the community. Organizers are encouraging people to Give the Gift of Literacy.
The Friends of the Lexington Library invites the public to attend.
