Bestselling author welcomed to Tiffin

TIFFIN - Tiffin welcomed New York Times bestselling author Shelby Van Pelt to The Chandelier Tuesday evening. Van Pelt is the featured author of the 2025 Tiffin-Seneca Public Library's Christopher D. English Community Read program. Her debut novel, Remarkably Bright Creatures, has received numerous accolades, including being named a New York Times bestseller and winner of the 2023 McLaughlin-Esstman-Stearns First Novel Prize, in addition to recognition from the Chicago Tribune, Southern Living, and USA Today, among other achievements. The novel, Van Pelt said, is being made into a movie by Netflix, with a potential release date in 2026. Her second novel is in the works. A press release from the library describes Remarkably Bright Creatures as " a charming, witty and compulsively readable exploration of friendship, reckoning and hope that traces a widow's unlikely connection with a giant Pacific octopus." Van Pelt said the voice of the octopus, Marcellus, "came really naturally to me." She spoke to the crowd of approximately 280 guests Tuesday evening, detailing her writing journey and her experiences writing and publishing Remarkably Bright Creatures. A Q&A session and book signing followed. The Tiffin-Seneca Library Foundation, Pan Yan Bookstore, the Humane Society of Seneca County, the Retired and Senior Volunteer Program (RSVP) of Seneca, Wyandot and Huron Counties, Tiffin-Seneca Public Library staff and board of trustees, Friends of the Tiffin-Seneca Public Library and the Tiffin and Seneca County communities were recognized for their support in making the Community Read Series a success.