‘The Glass Castle’ author Jeannette Walls to speak in SLO

Best-selling author and journalist Jeannette Walls will discuss her memoir “The Glass Castle” later this month in San Luis Obispo.

Walls is scheduled to speak at 3 p.m. Feb. 21 at the Performing Arts Center at a Book & Author Series event presented by Cal Poly Arts and the Foundation for San Luis Obispo County Public Libraries. She’ll attend a meet-and-greet prior to the talk and participate in a book signing following the event.

In “The Glass Castle,” which spent more than six years on the New York Times bestseller list, Walls describes her hardscrabble upbringing in West Virginia and the American Southwest — at one point living in a rat- and snake-infested house without plumbing or heat.

Walls moved to New York City as a teenager, later attending Barnard College and working as a gossip columnist at MSNBC.com. Her work has appeared in USA Today, Esquire and New York magazine.

She’s also the author of the novels “Half Broke Horses: A True-Life Novel” and “The Silver Star.”

Tickets for “Jeannette Walls: The Glass Castle” cost $26 to $46, or $20.80 to $36.80 for students and Cal Poly faculty and staff members.

Admission to the pre-talk reception is $25, with proceeds benefitting the nonprofit library foundation.

To purchase tickets, call 756-4849 or visit www.calpolyarts.org.

For more information, visit http://www.slolibraryfoundation.org/.

This story was originally published February 8, 2016 at 2:40 PM with the headline "‘The Glass Castle’ author Jeannette Walls to speak in SLO."