Adventure Pass temporarily shut down in 2025

Due to software issues affecting all libraries using the service, the Iowa Adventure Pass program will temporarily shut down in 2025. Any reservation already made for 2025 will be honored, but we encourage anyone with a current reservation to print those passes immediately. Customers can still make new reservations for passes that must be used by December 31, 2024. The service will return at a later time. We apologize for the inconvenience.

Weather update for 12/14/2024

All locations of the Des Moines Public Library will be open normal hours Saturday, December 14, and all locations will serve as emergency warming shelters during open hours. 

AViD Presents R.F. Kuang

Program Type:

Author Visits

Age Group:

Adults
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Event Details

Rebecca F. Kuang is the award-winning, #1 New York Times best-selling author of the acclaimed fantasy series, The Poppy War trilogy, and 2022’s Babel: An Arcane History, one of the year’s most acclaimed novels. Babel debuted at #1 on The New York Times bestseller list, and is set in an alternate 19th century where the professional work of translation generates magic that fuels and perpetuates an imperialist empire. In a review, The New York Times Book Review said the book “has earned tremendous praise and deserves all of it.” The book was named a top book of 2022 by Amazon, Kirkus Reviews, NPR, The Washington Post, and many more outlets.

Kuang is a Marshall Scholar who has an Master of Philosophy degree in Chinese Studies from Cambridge University, and a Master of Science degree in Contemporary Chinese Studies from Oxford University. She is currently pursuing a PhD in East Asian Languages and Literatures from Yale University. Her upcoming novel, Yellowface, being released in May, is one of the most anticipated novels of 2023.