Mary Helen Stefaniak, an Iowa City resident and graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, will be the next author to read as part of Out Loud! The Metro Library Network Author Series.

Stefaniak’s event is set for Sunday, May 15 at 2 p.m. All series events—which are free and open to the public with no tickets required—will take place in Ballantyne Auditorium on the Kirkwood Community College campus. The Out Loud! Author Series is a program of the Cedar Rapids, Marion, and Hiawatha Public Libraries.

Stefaniak will read from her second novel, The Cailiffs of Baghdad, Georgia, which has been awarded a 2011 Anisfield-Wolf Book Award for Fiction. The Anisfield-Wolf awards “recognize books that have made important contributions to our understanding of racism and our appreciation of the rich diversity of human cultures.”

Juror Rita Dove described the novel as “a rollicking tale that manages to speak seriously to the tragedy of ignorance and the damage caused by fear.”

Previous winners of the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award include Martin Luther King, Jr., Toni Morrison, and Alex Haley.

The Cailiffs of Baghdad, Georgia was also selected by independent booksellers as an Indie-Next “Great Read” in September 2010.

Stefaniak’s first novel, The Turk and My Mother, won the 2005 John Gardner Book Award and has been translated into several languages. Her first book, Self Storage and Other Stories, received the Banta Award for Literary Excellence from the Wisconsin Library Association. Stefaniak is currently an Associate Professor of English/Creative Writing at Creighton University in Omaha.

Following her reading, Stefaniak will take questions from the audience and then sign books. The Cedar Rapids Barnes & Noble will be on hand with copies of her work available for purchase.

The Out Loud! Author Series will present four additional authors in 2011 including Andrew Shaffer, author of Great Philosophers who Failed at Love, on Sunday, May 22, at 2 p.m.; Laurell K. Hamilton, author of the popular the “Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter” novels, on Friday, June 10, at 7 p.m.; Steve Martini, author of the thrillers featuring Paul Madriani, on Friday, June 24, at 7 p.m.; and Meg Cabot, bestselling author for youth and adults, on Tuesday, July 12 at 7 p.m.