The Author's Guide to the Walt Longmire Mysteries

Craig Johnson is coming to the Central Library on Wednesday, October 21, for a talk about his writing process and the Walt Longmire mystery series. The session runs from 6 to 7 PM in the Helzberg Auditorium, with a reception starting at 5:30 PM if you want to arrive early and mingle before things get underway.

If you're not familiar with the work, the Longmire series follows the sheriff of the fictional Absaroka County in Wyoming as he returns to work after his wife's untimely death. Johnson launched the series in 2004 with The Cold Dish and has since published 22 books, including the latest, The Brothers McKay, which came out in May 2026. He's also written novellas and short stories along the way, and the novels inspired the Netflix drama Longmire.

Johnson has picked up a fair amount of recognition for the series. He's won the Western Writers of America's Owen Wister and Spur Awards, the Wyoming Historical Association Book of the Year, the Will Rogers Medallion Awards, Publishers Weekly's Book of the Year, Library Journal's Best Book of the Year, and the Le Prix du Polar Nouvel Observateur/Bibliobs. His first novella, The Spirit of Steamboat, was chosen by the Wyoming State Library as the inaugural One Book Wyoming. He lives in Ucross, Wyoming.

At the talk, he'll be discussing how he puts these books together and the world he's built around Walt Longmire. It's a good chance to hear from a writer who's spent over two decades working within the same series. The event is at the Central Library in the Helzberg Auditorium on Wednesday, October 21, from 6 to 7 PM, with a reception starting at 5:30 PM.