NOW ON TUESDAYS! Tessa Jensen earned a Bachelor of Science in Public Health from BYU-Idaho and has been practicing massage therapy for over a decade and distance running for over two decades. She loves Jesus, her family, friends, talking, crafting, baking, and making others laugh. She published her memoir, Liberated from Silence, in March 2022.

NOW ON TUESDAYS! Lisa Labovitch, a History Specialist who manages the Everett Library Northwest Room will be speaking. One of the most frequent questions she receives at the library is how to preserve your family’s history. She will discuss options and techniques.

Lya Badgley was born in Yangon, Myanmar to Montana parents who fostered a household rich in critical thinking and creativity. Lya moved to the PNW in the eighties, where she became an integral part of the Seattle arts and music scene. In the nineties, following a decade as a struggling poet and musician, she returned to Southeast Asia as a videographer on a clandestine expedition, interviewing Burmese insurgents. A year later, she directed Cornell University’s Archival Project, microfilming documents at Cambodia’s Tuol Sleng Museum of Genocide to help bring war criminals to justice. Upon completing this project, she managed the first foreign-owned venture of its kind, opening the 50th Street Bar & Grill Restaurant in Yangon, Myanmar. Since then, Lya has embraced roles as a proud mother, an elected city council member and a dedicated environmental activist. She is a member of the Women’s Fiction Writers Association, the Pacific Northwest Writers Association and Hugo House. Her debut novel, “The Foreigner’s Confessions,” released in 2022, was a finalist for the prestigious 2023 Nancy Pearl Best in Fiction Award. Her second novel, “The Worth of a Ruby,” released in 2023 is also garnering significant acclaim. Lya currently resides in Snohomish, Washington and is working on her third novel set in Bosnia.