Friends of Jacksonville Public Library honor local authors at reception

The meeting room at 201 W. College Avenue became a stage for local writing Thursday evening as the Friends of the Jacksonville Public Library honored the winners of its annual Author of the Year contest. The reception ran from 6:30 p.m. to 8 p.m., and the library said winners would read their poems or prose while light refreshments were served.

The event reflected the Friends group’s larger role in Jacksonville’s civic life. The organization describes itself as an independent, community-managed group created to enhance the reach and value of the library. Its mission is to encourage support for libraries, increase awareness of public libraries in the community and raise funds to improve library services. It also works through book sales, advocacy and pro-literacy events.

That makes the reception more than a simple awards stop. It put local writing in front of readers, neighbors and library supporters in a public space that serves as one of Jacksonville’s steady gathering points. In a county where many community stories center on government, schools or public safety, the Author of the Year contest offered a different kind of civic marker: a room full of residents treating poetry and prose as something worth reading aloud and recognizing in public.

The contest itself has a local footprint that reaches beyond one night. Earlier coverage said it was open to all Morgan County residents and awarded prizes in both poetry and prose categories. That same coverage said the contest had come back in 2023, showing the program was not a one-time effort but part of an ongoing tradition. The reception on Thursday gave that tradition a visible home inside the Jacksonville Public Library.

The Friends of the Jacksonville Public Library has long tied its work to support for the library’s mission, and the Author of the Year reception fit that pattern. By giving winners a chance to read their work and by drawing people into the library meeting room for an evening centered on writing, the group reinforced the library’s role as more than a lending desk. It stood as a place where Morgan County residents could be heard, not just served.