LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) — The Lawrence Public Library has received a $250,000 grant to help make the city a stopping place for prominent authors. The Lawrence Journal-World reports that the grant comes from the Lawrence-based Ross and Marianna Beach Foundation. The money will be used to create an annual speakers' series to bring in authors who are making news on the national or international stage. Library director Brad Allen says the goal is to "prove to publishers and authors that this is a town that supports reading and loves it when authors show up." The library hopes to have the first event in the speaker series in the summer of 2014. The event will be tied to the completion of an $18 million expansion of the downtown-area library.