Award-winning mystery author Sandra Jackson-Opoku will speak at the Nittany Valley Writers’ Network meeting on Tuesday, February 10 in the Schlow Library Community Room, 211 S. Allen St., State College. Doors open at 6:00 pm, and the meeting begins at 6:30, followed by a book signing. Jackson-Opoku’s debut cozy mystery, Savvy Summers and the Sweet Potato Crimes, won the Malice Minotaur Award for First Traditional Mystery. It is a Library Reads Top 10 Pick, a Woman’s World Book Club selection, and Edgar Award nominee. Sisters in Crime president and Cuban American culinary cozy mystery novelist, Raquel Reyes, lauds it as a work of “charm, cadence, and culture.”

In conversation with local mystery writer Marianne Bowers, Jackson-Opoku will discuss her transition from literary to mystery novels, conventions of the culinary cozy genre (and why she breaks some of those rules), and how she weaves together food, culture, and crime writing in a delectable mix. Her next mystery novel, Savvy Summers and the Po’Boy Perils, will be released in July 2026. Sandra Jackson-Opoku is also the author of two award-winning literary novels, The River Where Blood is Born, and Hot Johnny and the Women Who Loved Him.

The free talk is presented by Schlow Centre Region Library in partnership with the Nittany Valley Writers Network. The program is sponsored in memory of Rus Scheuren. For more information, contact nvwn-leadership-committee@googlegroups.com.