Michelle Knight, co-author of the bestselling memoir "Finding Me: A Decade of Darkness, a Life Reclaimed," will open the 2015 Writers and Readers series at the Cleveland Public Library on March 14.

Knight's book, published on May 6, 2014, came out a year to the day after Knight, Gina DeJesus, Amanda Berry and Berry's young daughter were rescued from the house on Seymour Avenue where they were imprisoned and abused for a decade. Co-written by Michelle Burford, it spent four weeks on the New York Times bestseller list.

DeJesus and Berry's memoir, "Hope: A Memoir of Survival in Cleveland," is due out from Viking on April 28. Journalists Mary Jordan and Kevin Sullivan collaborated with them on the book.

Knight, who goes by "Michelle Knight" in her book, has since changed her name to Lily Rose Lee. She has spoken at several events since the book came out, and has appeared on the "Dr. Phil" television show multiple times. She first spoke in public at the sentencing of Ariel Castro, the man who kidnapped, imprisoned and abused the three women. Castro, who pleaded guilty to 937 counts, including rape and kidnapping, killed himself in prison a month after he was sentenced to life in prison, plus 1,000 years.

She speaks at the library at 2 p.m. on Saturday, March 14.

Trisha Meili, author of "I Am the Central Park Jogger," will speak at the Cleveland Public Library on Saturday, April 18.

The second author in the series, Trisha Meili, wrote "I Am the Central Park Jogger," her own story of survival and recovery after the brutal attack and rape in 1989 that left her near death. Meili maintained her anonymity for 14 years, revealing her identity with the 2003 publication of her memoir. Five African-American teenagers went to prison for the crime, but in 2002, a man who was serving a life sentence for other crimes confessed to assaulting and raping Meili, and DNA evidence confirmed it. Meili returned to her investment banking job on Wall Street eight months after the attack, but left in 1998 to devote her time to supporting survivors and speaking. She comes to the library at 2 p.m. on Saturday, April 18.

Piper Kerman, author of "Orange is the New Black," will speak at the Cleveland Public Library on Saturday, June 13.

Piper Kerman's 2010 memoir, "Orange is the New Black," chronicled the year she spent incarcerated in a federal women's prison after making a plea deal on a 10-year-old drug trafficking charge. The critically-acclaimed bestseller became even bigger after it was made into a hit Netflix streaming series by Jenji Kohan ("Weeds"), with Taylor Schilling playing Piper. Kerman serves on the board of the Women's Prison Association and was recipient of the 2014 Justice Trailblazer Award. She speaks at the library at 2 p.m. on Saturday, June 13.

LeVar Burton, host of "Reading Rainbow" and author of "Aftermath," will speak at the Cleveland Public Library on Thursday, July 30.

LeVar Burton is an author, a film and TV actor, a producer and director who has written two books, the 1997 dystopian novel,"Aftermath," and the 2014 children's book, "The Rhino Who Swallowed a Storm." He's best known, however, as the host of the long-running PBS series, "Reading Rainbow," which ran 26 years before being cancelled in 2009. Last year, Burton launched a Kickstarter campaign to bring the program back, not on television, but as an app for mobile devices and classrooms. The campaign raised more than $4 million. He speaks at the library at 7 p.m. on Thursday, July 30.

Mitchell S. Jackson, author of "The Residue Years," will speak at the Cleveland Public Library on Saturday, Sept. 19.

Mitchell S. Jackson's 2013 novel, "The Residue Years," is a semi-autobiographical story of a mother and son struggling - together and alone - with poverty, drugs, prison, and the many losses that accompany those things. The novel was a finalist for the Center for Fiction's Flaherty-Dunnan First Novel prize and was named an Honor Book by the Black Caucus of the American Library Association. Jackson, who served a 16-month sentence in prison for selling drugs, went on to earn an M.A. in writing from Portland State University and an M.F.A. in Creative Writing from New York University, where he now teaches writing. He speaks at the library at 2 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 19.

Cristina Henriquez, author of "The Book of Unknown Americans," will speak at the Cleveland Public Library on Saturday, Oct. 10.

Cristina Henriquez' 2014 novel, "The Book of Unknown Americans," draws on her father's experience as an immigrant to the United States from Panama. The novel is set in an apartment building in Delaware, home to a group of Latin-American immigrants. Henriquez is a graduate of the Iowa Writers Workshop and teaches at Northwestern University, where she earned her undergraduate degree. She speaks at the library at 2 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 10.

All events are free and open to the public at the main branch of the Cleveland Public Library, 325 Superior Ave. Seating is on a first-come, first-served basis. Books will be available for purchase. Call 216-623-2800 or go to http://www.cpl.org/Home.aspx.