June 8, 2026 -The Decatur Public Library will welcome home a celebrated local author later this month for a special evening of literature, discussion and community engagement.
Award-winning author and Decatur native Avery Irons will visit the library on Thursday, June 18, for a reading, presentation and book signing centered on her debut novel, “Belonging to the Air.” The free event will be held in the Madden Auditorium, with doors opening at 5:30 p.m. and the program beginning at 6 p.m.
“Belonging to the Air” follows Honest “Bird” Bennett, a young Black girl growing up in the fictional Illinois freedman’s town of Bennettsville. The novel traces Bird’s journey from rural Illinois to Harlem and back again as she navigates family, identity, love and belonging against the backdrop of racial tensions and social change.
The novel won the 2025 Screen Door Press Prize and has earned praise for its exploration of Black family life and history in the Midwest.
Irons holds a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing and a bachelor’s degree in political science from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. She also earned a Juris Doctor from Columbia University School of Law. Her work has appeared in publications including African American Review and Sinister Wisdom, and her novella “Glass Men” won Big Fiction Magazine’s Novella Prize.
Born and raised in central Illinois, Irons now lives in upstate New York, where she writes historical and speculative fiction focusing on Black families, queer identities and the lasting effects of the Great Migration.
The event is free and open to the public. A book signing will follow the presentation.
