The 2026 Ideas Festival culminates with the presentation of the Maplewood Literary Award to Bruce Eric Kaplan, writer, cartoonist and executive producer. The event will be held on Thursday, May 21, at 7 p.m. at the Maplewood Memorial Library, 51 Baker Street, and is free and open to the public.
A Maplewood native, Kaplan has worked on shows such as Seinfeld, Six Feet Under and Girls, and is currently shooting Season 3 as an executive producer and co-showrunner of Netflix’sNobody Wants This.
As a cartoonist – signing his work “BEK” – Kaplan has appeared regularly in The New Yorker for more than 30 years. He published three collections of cartoons: No One You Know, This Is a Bad Time, and I Love You, I Hate You, I’m Hungry. He has also written picture books for adults, including Every Person on this Planet, Edmund and Rosemary Go to Hell, and Everything Is Going to Be OK.
Kaplan has authored and illustrated five children’s picture books. His first, Monsters Eat Whiny Children, was published in 2010 and was a bestseller. He has written two memoirs, I Was a Child, an illustrated memoir about his childhood growing up in Maplewood and They Went Another Way, both published to critical acclaim.
For more information, visit maplewoodlibrary.org.
