Name: Wayfarers: Jeff Zentner and Brittany Cavallaro
Start: 2026-08-17T19:00:00-05:00
End: 2026-08-17T20:30:00-05:00
Location: Anderson's Bookshop Naperville

Two novelists who normally work alone wrote a book together, and on Monday, August 17, 2026, they are bringing it to Jefferson Avenue. Jeff Zentner and Brittany Cavallaro appear jointly at Anderson’s Bookshop, 123 W Jefferson Ave in downtown Naperville, at 7 p.m. to talk about Wayfarers, the young adult road trip novel they cowrote.

Tickets are $24 and include a copy of the book, which is the detail that makes this an easy yes if you were going to buy it anyway. Pre-registration is required because space inside the store is limited, and Anderson’s assigns your place in the signing line by ticket number. If you have a teenager who reads, a classroom to stock, or a soft spot for novels written in verse, block off the evening.

What Wayfarers Actually Is

Wayfarers is a young adult novel told in verse and in conversation, published by Quill Tree Books and running about 416 pages. That format is worth flagging, because readers who bounce off poetry sometimes assume a verse novel will be slow going. It usually reads faster than prose, not slower.

The setup: Sylvie told everyone she wanted to live the van life after high school, but what she actually wanted was to get away from what she left behind. She has resources, an open road, and an escape-artist golden retriever. Knox grew up on the edge of ordinary society. The two of them collide when Knox helps rescue her dog, and the road trip that follows forces both to decide whether knowing each other’s secrets changes anything.

Who Jeff Zentner and Brittany Cavallaro Are

Jeff Zentner wrote The Serpent King and In the Wild Light, and his work has picked up the ALA William C. Morris Award along with Carnegie Medal longlist recognition. Before the books, he was a musician who recorded with Iggy Pop, Nick Cave and Debbie Harry, which is not a sentence you get to write about most YA novelists. He writes out of Nashville.

Brittany Cavallaro is a New York Times bestselling author best known for the Charlotte Holmes series, which opened with A Study in Charlotte and put a Holmes and a Watson back in high school. She is also a poet, with the collections Girl-King and Unhistorical behind her, and a National Endowment for the Arts fellowship. She teaches creative writing at Interlochen in Michigan.

One writer who came up through songwriting and one who came up through poetry, cowriting a novel in verse, makes structural sense the moment you see the names side by side.

What the $24 Ticket Includes

Anderson’s runs a tightly specified author event, and it publishes the rules in advance so nobody is surprised in line. Your ticket covers:

A copy of Wayfarers, included in the $24 price.
Reserved seating, with your ticket number setting your place in the signing line order.
A posed photo taken by store staff using your own camera or phone.
Up to two books brought from home may be signed, in addition to your event copy.
One personalization is permitted.
If you cannot attend, your book must be picked up within 30 days, or Anderson’s can ship it for $9.99.

Who Should Go

This is a genuinely wide-net event, which is not true of every author night. Teen readers get two authors whose books already circulate hard in Naperville school libraries. Adults who read YA without apology get a rare joint appearance. Teachers and librarians get to hear how a collaborative novel actually gets built.

Poetry readers should not skip it on the assumption that a YA night is not for them. Cavallaro has two collections and an NEA fellowship behind her, and a verse novel is where that craft reaches a wider audience.

Plan Your Visit

A Monday at 7 p.m. is one of the easier nights to be in downtown Naperville, which works in your favor for both parking and a table.

Parking: the Van Buren Parking Facility at 43 W. Van Buren Ave. and the Central Parking Facility at 75 E. Chicago Ave. are both a short walk to Jefferson. Downtown time limits are posted for 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Saturday, so an evening arrival clears them.
Dinner before the talk: Lou Malnati’s at 131 W Jefferson Ave is next door and open until 11 p.m. Mondays. Quigley’s Irish Pub at 43 E Jefferson Ave, built in Ireland and shipped over, keeps the same hours. Everdine’s Grilled Cheese Co. at 24 W. Jefferson Avenue works if you are cutting it close.
Arrive by 6:30. Seating is reserved but line order runs off your ticket number, and the store fills.
Stretch it into a walk: the Naperville Riverwalk follows the West Branch of the DuPage River a block south of Jefferson, with 1.75 miles of path if the evening is worth extending.

Anderson’s has been an independent bookstore in Naperville since 1875 and is still run by the same family, five generations on, which is exactly the kind of room a book like this should be introduced in. Register in advance rather than counting on the door, bring up to two of your own Zentner or Cavallaro titles from home, and decide what you want personalized before you reach the front of the line. Dates, times and pricing can change, so confirm with Anderson’s before you head downtown.