Foundation to Celebrate with Molly Shannon &

Susan Orlean

This year’s contest had 376 total entries, representing 131 fifth graders, 114 sixth graders, 53 seventh graders, and 78 eighth graders from 68 Douglas and Sarpy County schools and 19 different school districts and homeschools. Additionally, 44 ZIP codes were represented.

Special thanks to this year’s judges: Hannah Amrollahi, Denise Arnold, Dottie Bossman, Mary Lu Larson, Sharon Leuschen, Ellen Scott, Mary Ann Sturek, and Jean Weeks.

The Virginia Frank Memorial Writing Contest began in 2003 and is named in honor of a longtime former Friends volunteer.

For the past nine years, the Omaha Public Library Foundation (OPLF) has brought a celebrated, best-selling author to Omaha to raise funds for and awareness of Omaha Public Library. This year marks the 10th anniversary of the Between the Lines fundraiser, and OPLF is pulling out all the stops with not just one author, but two.

Hear from author/comedian/actress Molly Shannon and author Susan Orlean the evening of Tuesday, September 26, at the Holland Center.

The fundraiser will feature a conversation between Shannon and Orlean about the importance of public libraries and the varied, vital roles they play in our communities. Both speakers will discuss their favorite library memories and their work as published authors – most likely with a dash of humor.

Shannon has become one of Hollywood’s most sought-after talents on television and the silver screen. Shannon spent six seasons as a member of the repertory company on “Saturday Night Live,” primarily known for the eclectic characters she created, such as Mary Katherine Gallagher and Sally O’Malley.

In 2011, Abrams Books for Young Readers, an imprint of ABRAMS, released Shannon’s first children’s picture book, “Tilly the Trickster.” The book tells the tale of Tilly, “a mischief maker of the best kind—one who learns her lesson but never lets the reader stop having fun.”

Shannon’s best-selling memoir, “Hello, Molly!” was released by HarperCollins in April 2022. Shannon also served as honorary chair of National Library Week in 2022. Her mother, Peggy, was a school librarian.

Witty, winning, and told with tremendous energy and heart, “Hello, Molly!” sheds new and revelatory light on the life and work of one of our most talented and free-spirited performers.

In her 2018 book, “The Library Book,” Orlean reopens the unsolved mystery of the most catastrophic library fire in American history, and delivers a dazzling homage to a beloved institution – our libraries.

Weaving her lifelong love of books and reading with the fascinating history of libraries (and the sometimes-eccentric characters who run them), the awardwinning journalist and New York Times best-selling author presents a mesmerizing and uniquely compelling story. With her signature wit, insight, compassion and talent for deep research, she investigates the legendary Los Angeles Public Library fire to showcase the larger, crucial role that libraries play in our lives, and reveals how these buildings provide much more than just books, and are needed now more than ever.

Orlean has been called “a national treasure” by The Washington Post and “a latter-day Tocqueville” by The New York Times. Her deeply moving explorations of American stories both familiar and obscure