The Friends of the Library will host its 10th annual literary luncheon Saturday with award-winning author Janna McMahan.

The event will be held at noon at the Family Life Center of the Lutheran Church of the Redeemer at 1515 Boundary St.

McMahan, the author of novels, short stories, and non-fiction articles, will be the featured speaker for this year’s event.

Her most recent novel, “The Ocean Inside,“ which was published in 2009, is set on Pawley’s Island. Her debut novel in 2005, “Calling Home,“ was set in Kentucky, her native state. In November 2009 her first novella, “Decorations,” came out in an anthology of Christmas stories called “Snow Angels.”

“Calling Home,“ was a “need to read” selection in Target stores across the nation. The book received high praise from critics and readers alike for lively, well-developed characters, an action-packed plot and detailed descriptions of Kentucky’s landscape and culture.

Her second novel, “The Ocean Inside,“ released in spring 2009, is set along the South Carolina coast and immediately became a bestseller in many Southern independent bookstores.

In November when her first novella, “Decorations,“ was released as part of a holiday anthology the anthology was named to bestseller lists including USA Today, Publisher’s Weekly and the New York Times Review of Books.

McMahan earned a bachelor’s degree in mass communications from the University of Kentucky and a master’s degree from the University of South Carolina.

Among numerous awards she has won are the Piccolo Spoleto Fiction Open Award, the South Carolina Fiction Project Award, and the Imaginative Writing Award from the Kentucky Women Writers Conference. McMahan has been a speaker and panelist at several book festivals, including the South Carolina Book Festival in February 2010. She now lives in Columbia with her husband and daughter.

“The Friends’ Literary Luncheons have been well-attended by area residents ever since they were first started in 2001, with mystery-writer Nancy Rhyne as speaker,“ said Friends of the Library supporter Audrey Henry, adding other speakers have been Helen Milliken, Angie LeClercq, Kathryn Wall, Joan Medlicot, Cassandra King, Rudy Mancke, Dori Sanders and Ann Ross.