John Grisham will be speaking at a fund raising event in Princeton, NJ at Nassau Presbyterian Church on April 13. Centurion Ministries, a secular, non-profit organization, has been working to free the wrongfully convicted since 1983.

A stage adaptation of John Grisham’s first novel, “A Time to Kill,” will have its world premiere in 2011 in Washington in what is being billed as a “pre-Broadway” production. Arena Stage’s artistic director Molly Smith said on March 11 that the play will run May 6, 2011, through June 19, 2011. “A Time to Kill” concerns the murder trial of a father who takes the law into his own hands after his daughter is raped.

BookExpo America has announced its star lineup for the main Author Breakfast of the trade show, to take place on Thursday, May 27. It will feature John Grisham, Condoleezza Rice and Mary Roach. Jon Stewart will be the Master of Ceremonies. BookExpo America will be held in New York from May 25-27, 2010.

When Barry Hannah died of a heart attack on the March 1, he left behind a literary legacy that included eight novels and four short story collections. For John Grisham, the first book-signing he ever attended was in 1988, for Hannah’s Hey Jack! Grisham recalls, “I discovered him through Airships, in law school, back when I wasn’t thinking about being a writer.”

Although John Grisham has sold rights to the first two children’s books to Penguin, Doubleday will still publish his forthcoming legal thriller for adults, an untitled work that will be released in October 2010. Grisham has said in the past that at some point, he would like to pick up where his 2001 novel A Painted House left off.

John Grisham will add celebrity sparkle to “Justice Through Journalism” programming by the Innocence Institute of Point Park University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Grisham will speak briefly and answer questions during a March 24 gala that will benefit the Innocence Institute.

John Grisham is writing a new series for children centered on a precocious amateur lawyer. First book is called “Theodore Boone: Kid Lawyer” and it will be published on May 25, 2010. It features the 13-year-old Theodore Boone, the son of two attorneys in a small Southern town.