SPEAKERS

William Lee Adams is an award-winning journalist and broadcaster. A former staff writer at TIME, he’s written about Eurovision for Billboard, the Financial Times, Newsweek, and the New York Times, among others. He lives in south London with his husband and two cats.

Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah is the New York Times-bestselling author of Friday Black. His work has appeared in The New York Times Book Review, Esquire, The Paris Review, and elsewhere. He was a National Book Foundation’s “5 Under 35” honoree, the winner of the PEN/Jean Stein Book Award and the Saroyan Prize, and a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle’s John Leonard Award for Best First Book, along with many other honors. Raised in Spring Valley, New York, he now lives in the Bronx.

Claire Alexander lives on the west coast of Scotland with her husband and children.  She has written for The Washington Post, The Independent, The Huffington Post and Glamour. In 2019, one of her essays was published in the award-winning literary anthology We Got This: Solo Mom Stories of Grit, Heart, and Humor. When she’s not writing or parenting, she’s on her paddle board, thinking about her next book. 

Stephen Amidon was born in Chicago and grew up on the East Coast. He lived in London for twelve years before returning to the United States in 1999. He now lives in Massachusetts and Torino, Italy. His books have been published in sixteen countries and include two works of nonfiction, a collection of short stories, and seven novels, including Human Capital, adapted as a film directed by Marc Meyers in 2019, and Security, also adapted as a film and released by Netflix in summer 2021.

Asale Angel-Ajani is a writer and professor at the City College of New York. She is the author of two works of nonfiction: Strange Trade: The Story of Two Women Who Risked Everything in the International Drug Trade and Intimate: Essays on Racial Terror. She has held residencies at Millay Arts, Djerassi, and Playa, and she is an alum of VONA and Tin House workshops. A Country You Can Leave is her first novel. She lives in New York City.

Jes Battis is the author of the Occult Special Investigator series and Parallel Parks series (as Bailey Cunningham) with Ace. Their first novel, Night Child, was shortlisted for the Sunburst Award. Jes teaches queer and trans studies, medieval literature, and representations of disability/neurodiversity in pop culture at the University of Regina. They split time between the prairies and the west coast.

Christopher Benson, a Chicago-based journalist and lawyer, is an associate professor of journalism in the Medill School of Journalism, Media, Integrated Marketing Communications at Northwestern University. He has served as Washington editor of Ebony and Jet magazines, city hall reporter for WBMX-FM, and has contributed to Chicago magazine, The Buffington Post, The New York Times, Chicago Tribune, Chicago Sun-Times, The Chicago Reporter, The Washington Post, The Crisis, and Savoy. He was co-author with the late Mamie Till-Mobley of Death of Innocence: The Story of the Hate Crime That Changed America, winner of the 2004 Robert F. Kennedy Book Award, Special Recognition.

Cara Black is the author of twenty books in the New York Times bestselling Aimée Leduc series and the national bestseller Three Hours in Paris. She has received multiple nominations for the Anthony and Macavity Awards, and her books have been translated into German, Norwegian, Japanese, French, Spanish, Italian, and Hebrew. She lives in San Francisco with her husband and visits Paris frequently.

Diane Marie Brown is a professor at Orange Coast College and a public health professional for the Long Beach Health Department. She has a BA and MPH from UCLA and a degree in fiction from USC’s Master of Professional Writing Program. She grew up in Stockton and now lives in Long Beach, California, with her husband, their four daughters, and their dog, Brownie. Black Candle Women is her debut novel.

Brandon Ying Kit Boey was born in California, and spent his childhood in China, Singapore, and various parts of the US. He graduated from New York University and Brigham Young University Law School, subsequently working in Asia, the UK, and across the US before settling in coastal Maine, where he currently lives with his family. When not at work on his next novel, he can be found wandering the woods with his children, practicing law in his day job, or writing poetry.

Delia Cai was born in Madison, Wisconsin, and grew up in central Illinois. She is a graduate of the Missouri School of Journalism, and her writing has appeared in BuzzFeed, GQ, The Cut, and Catapult. Her media newsletter, Deez Links, has been highlighted in The New York Times, New York magazine, and Fortune. She is currently a senior correspondent at Vanity Fair and lives in Brooklyn. Central Places is her first novel.

Eleanor Catton is the author of international bestseller The Luminaries, winner of the Man Booker Prize and the Governor General’s Literary Award. Her debut novel, The Rehearsal, won the Betty Trask Prize, was shortlisted for the Guardian First Book Award and the Dylan Thomas Prize, and longlisted for the Orange Prize. As a screenwriter, she adapted The Luminaries for television, and Jane Austen’s Emma for feature film. Born in Canada and raised in New Zealand, she now lives in Cambridge, England.

Justin Cronin is the New York Times bestselling author of The Passage, The Twelve, The City of Mirrors, The Summer Guest, and Mary and O’Neil. His work has been published in over forty-five languages and sold more than three million copies worldwide. A writer in residence at Rice University, he divides his time between Houston, Texas, and Cape Cod, Massachusetts.

Siddhartha Deb teaches creative writing at the New School and is the author of the novels The Point of Return, which was a New York Times Notable Book of the Year, and An Outline of the Republic. His nonfiction book, The Beautiful and the Damned: A Portrait of the New India, won the PEN Open Book Award and was a Publishers Weekly and Globe and Mail best book of the year. His reviews and journalism have appeared in The Boston Globe, The Guardian, Harper's Magazine, The Nation, New Statesman, n+1, and The Times Literary Supplement.

Cory Doctorow is a regular contributor to the Guardian, Locus, and many other publications. He is a special consultant to the Electronic Frontier Foundation, an MIT Media Lab Research Associate and a visiting professor of Computer Science at the Open University. His award-winning novel Little Brother and its sequel Homeland were a New York Times bestsellers. His novella collection Radicalized was a CBC Best Fiction of 2019 selection. Born and raised in Canada, he lives in Los Angeles.

Timothy Egan is a Pulitzer Prize—winning reporter and the author of nine other books, most recently the highly acclaimed A Pilgrimage to Eternity and The Immortal Irishman, a New York Times bestseller. His book on the Dust Bowl, The Worst Hard Time, won a National Book Award for Excellence in Nonfiction. His account of photographer Edward Curtis, Short Nights of the Shadow Catcher, won the Carnegie Medal for nonfiction.

Dan Egan is the author of New York Times bestseller The Death and Life of the Great Lakes. His new book, The Devil's Element: Phosphorus and a World Out of Balance, will be published by Norton in March 2023.  A two-time finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, he lives in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, with his wife and children.

Kimberly Olson Fakih is Senior Editor, Picture Books, at SLJ. In addition to being the children's book review editor at Kirkus Reviews from 1995-2000, she was the senior editor at FamilyWonder.com, and executive books editor at iVillage. Her novel, Little Miseries, will be out in early 2023.

Emma Fedor grew up in Connecticut and earned her bachelor’s degree in English from Kenyon College. Her short story “Climb” was selected as a semifinalist for the 2018 American Short(er) Fiction Prize. She lives in Massachusetts with her husband and chocolate lab. At Sea is her first novel.

Charles Frazier is the author of Cold Mountain, an international bestseller that won the National Book Award and was adapted into an Academy Award–winning film by Anthony Minghella. Frazier is also the author of the bestselling novels Thirteen Moons, Nightwoods, and Varina.

Amy Lynn Green has always loved history and reading, and she enjoys speaking with book clubs, writing groups, and libraries all around the country. Her debut novel, Things We Didn’t Say, was nominated for a 2021 Minnesota Book Award, won two Carol Awards, and received a starred review from both Booklist and Library Journal. Amy and her family make their home in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Visit amygreenbooks.com to learn more.

Paul Harding is the author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning Tinkers, and Enon. His new novel, This Other Eden, will be published by Norton in January 2023. He is director of the MFA in Creative Writing & Literature at Stony Brook University, and lives on Long Island, New York.

Aleksandar Hemon is the author of The Lazarus Project, which was a finalist for the 2008 National Book Award and the National Book Critics Circle Award, and three books of short stories: The Question of Bruno; Nowhere Man, which was also a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award; and Love and Obstacles. He was the recipient of a 2003 Guggenheim Fellowship and a “genius grant” from the MacArthur Foundation, and the 2020 Dos Passos Prize.

Grady Hendrix is an award-winning novelist and screenwriter living in New York City. He is the author of Horrorstör, My Best Friend’s Exorcism (which is being adapted into a feature film by Amazon Studios), We Sold Our Souls, and the New York Times bestseller The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires (currently being adapted into a TV series). Grady also authored the Bram Stoker Award–winning nonfiction book Paperbacks from Hell, a history of the horror paperback boom of the seventies and eighties, and his latest non-fiction book is These Fists Break Bricks: How Kung Fu Movies Swept America and Changed the World.

Kevin Jared Hosein is the winner of the 2018 Commonwealth Short Story Prize and the author of three books that have been published in the Caribbean, including The Repenters, which was shortlisted for the Bocas Prize and longlisted for the International Dublin Literary Award. He is a science teacher and lives in Trinidad.

Ling Ling Huang is a writer and violinist. She plays with several ensembles including the Music Kitchen, Washington Heights Chamber Orchestra, Urban Playground Chamber Orchestra, Shattered Glass, and Experiential Orchestra, with whom she won a Grammy award in 2021. Natural Beauty is her first novel.

Joe Milan Jr. is a second-generation Korean American and taught in Korea for nine years. His debut novel, The All-American, will be published by Norton in April 2023. An assistant professor of creative writing at Waldorf University, he lives in Forest City, Iowa.

Paterson Joseph is an award-winning actor who has been fascinated by Sancho for many years. He wrote and starred in the play Sancho: An Act of Remembrance in 2018, which was staged in the UK as well as the US. A veteran of the stage, TV, and film, Paterson has appeared on The Mosquito Coast, an Apple TV+ original series; Doctor Who; Noughts + Crosses; and other BBC programs. The Secret Diaries of Charles Ignatius Sancho is his first novel.

Born in India, New York Times bestselling author Alka Joshi moved to the United States at the age of nine. She holds a B.A. from Stanford University and an M.F.A. from California College of Arts. She is the author of The Jaipur Trilogy, including The Henna Artist, which was a Reese Witherspoon Book Club Pick. The Henna Artist is currently in development for a Netflix television series with Frieda Pinto set to executive produce and star in.

Deepti Kapoor worked for several years as a journalist in New Delhi, after growing up in Northern India. The author of the novel Bad Character, she now lives in Portugal with her husband.

Tracy Kidder has won the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Award, and the Robert F. Kennedy Award, among other literary prizes. His books include Mountains Beyond Mountains, Strength in What Remains, The Soul of a New Machine, House, Among Schoolchildren, Old Friends, Hometown, and A Truck Full of Money.

Julie Klassen loves all things Jane—Jane Eyre and Jane Austen. Her books have sold over a million copies, and she is a three-time recipient of the Christy Award for Historical Romance. The Secret of Pembrooke Park was honored with the Minnesota Book Award for Genre Fiction. Julie has also won the Midwest Book Award and Christian Retailing’s Best Award and has been a finalist in the RITA and Carol Awards. A graduate of the University of Illinois, Julie worked in publishing for sixteen years and now writes full-time. She and her husband live in St. Paul, Minnesota. For more information, visit julieklassen.com.

Mary Kubica is a New York Times bestselling author of thrillers including The Good Girl, The Other Mrs., and Local Woman Missing. Her books have been translated into over thirty languages and have sold over two million copies worldwide. She’s been described as “a helluva storyteller” (Kirkus) and “a writer of vice-like control” (Chicago Tribune), and her novels have been praised as “hypnotic” (People) and “thrilling and illuminating” (L.A. Times). She lives outside of Chicago with her husband and children.

Curtis LeBlanc is the author of two poetry collections, Little Wild and Birding in the Glass Age of Isolation. He is the co-founder and managing editor of Rahila’s Ghost Press, and his work has appeared in Joyland, The Fiddlehead, the Malahat Review, PRISM International, and elsewhere. Curtis lives in Vancouver, British Columbia.

Con Lehane is a mystery writer, living in Washington, DC. He is the author of the 42nd Street Library mysteries, featuring Raymond Ambler, curator of the library’s (fictional) crime fiction collection. He’s also the author of three mysteries featuring New York City bartender Brian McNulty, and has published short stories in Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine and Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine. Over the years, he has been a college professor, union organizer and labor journalist, and has tended bar at two-dozen or so drinking establishments. He holds a Master of Fine Arts degree in fiction writing from Columbia University School of the Arts and teaches writing at The Writer’s Center in Bethesda, Maryland.

Dennis Lehane is the award-winning, bestselling author of twelve previous novels, including Live By Night, Mystic River, Gone Baby Gone, and Shutter Island. He lives in California with his family.

Amber A. Logan is a university instructor, freelance editor, and author of speculative fiction living in Kansas with her husband and two children—Fox and Willow. In addition to her degrees in Psychology, Liberal Arts, and International Relations, Amber holds a PhD in Creative Writing from Anglia Ruskin University in Cambridge.

Father and son, Mark “Mace” and Travis Macy, are both endurance athletes, competing in ultra-endurance competitions all over the world. In 2018, Mark was diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer’s disease. But that hasn’t stopped him. “Mace” and his contemporaries pioneered ultra-running in the 1980s. He is one of the few athletes to officially compete in any sanctioned ultra-distance event after having received an Alzheimer’s diagnosis. Travis Macy is a record-setting sponsored professional athlete, a speaker, author, and coach. Together, Mark and Travis competed in the grueling seven-day, 400-mile endurance test The World’s Toughest Race: Eco-Challenge Fiji. They both live in Colorado.

Born into the Red Delta of Northern Việt Nam, Dr. Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai grew up in the Mekong Delta, Southern Việt Nam. She is a writer and translator who has published twelve books of poetry, fiction and non-fiction in Vietnamese and English and has translated seven books. Her last book, The Mountains Sing, was an international bestseller, runner-up for the 2021 Dayton Literary Peace Prize, winner of the 2021 PEN Oakland/Josephine Miles Literary Award, the 2020 Lannan Literary Award Fellowship, and other prizes. Her writing has been translated into more than 15 languages and has appeared in major publications including the New York Times. She has a PhD in Creative Writing from Lancaster University. While working on her most recent novel, Dust Child, Quế Mai helped set up a scholarship program for Amerasians in Việt Nam (the Amerasian Hope & Future Scholarship). For more information, visit: www.nguyenphanquemai.com

Rebecca Makkai’s last novel, The Great Believers, was a finalist for both the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award; it was the winner of the ALA Carnegie Medal, the Stonewall Book Award, the Clark Prize, and the LA Times Book Prize; and it was one of the New York Times' Ten Best Books of 2018. Her other books are the novels The Borrower and The Hundred-Year House, and the collection Music for Wartime—four stories from which appeared in The Best American Short Stories. A 2022 Guggenheim Fellow, Rebecca is on the MFA faculties of the University of Nevada, Reno at Lake Tahoe and Northwestern University, and is Artistic Director of StoryStudio Chicago. Her new book, I Have Some Questions For You, will be published by Viking in February 2023.

Oksana Masters was born in Ukraine in 1989 and faced numerous physical challenges due to in utero radiation poisoning from Chernobyl. After living in three orphanages, she was adopted by an American mother at the age of seven. She is America’s most decorated Winter Paralympian—a winner of seventeen medals in four sports. In 2020, she won the Laureus World Sports Award in the category of “Sportsperson of the Year with a Disability.” Her story has appeared in numerous media outlets—from Sports Illustrated to The New York Times to the Players’ Tribune—and she has participated in high fashion shoots for cosmetic and clothing lines created by such stars as Rihanna and Kim Kardashian.

Pamela McColl (B.A. North American history) is an art consultant/author and publisher with Grafton and Scratch Publishers.  In 2012, McColl created a media firestorm for her smoke-free/pipe-free edition of the poem: Twas The Night Before Christmas edited by Santa Claus for the Benefit of Children of the 21st. Century. The edition went on to win eight book awards and is available in multiple languages.

Keri Leigh Merritt is a historian, writer, and activist based in Atlanta, Georgia. She is the author of Masterless Men: Poor Whites and Slavery in the Antebellum South, and the co-editor of Reconsidering Southern Labor History: Race, Class, and Power.

Jamila Minnicks is the author of Moonrise Over New Jessup (Algonquin Books, 2023), the 2021 winner of the PEN/Bellwether Prize for Socially Engaged Fiction. Her work is also published, or forthcoming, in CRAFT Literary Magazine, Catapult, Blackbird, The Write Launch, and elsewhere. Her piece, Politics of Distraction, was nominated for the Pushcart Prize. In 2022, Jamila earned a residency at the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, and was awarded a Tennessee Williams scholarship for the Sewanee Writers’ Conference. Jamila lives, and writes, in Washington, DC. 

Born and raised in southern Georgia, where honeysuckle grows wild and the whippoorwills sing, Jennifer Moorman is the bestselling author of the magical realism Mystic Water series. Jennifer started writing in elementary school, crafting epic tales of adventure and love and magic. She wrote stories in Mead notebooks, on printer paper, on napkins, on the soles of her shoes. Her blog is full of dishes inspired by fiction, and she hosts baking classes showcasing these recipes. Jennifer considers herself a traveler, a baker, and a dreamer. She can always be won over with chocolate, unicorns, or rainbows. She believes in love--everlasting and forever. Connect with Jennifer at jennifermoorman.com; Instagram: @jennifer7478; Facebook: @jennifermoormanbooks; TikTok: @jennifermoormanbooks; and BookBub: @JenniferMoorman.

Ann Napolitano is the author of the bestselling novel Dear Edward and the novels A Good Hard Look and Within Arm’s Reach. She received an MFA from New York University and has taught fiction writing at Brooklyn College’s MFA program, New York University’s School of Continuing and Professional Studies, and Gotham Writers Workshop. She lives in Brooklyn with her husband and two children.

Alejandra Oliva is an essayist, translator, immigrant justice advocate, and embroiderer. Her writing has been included in Best American Travel Writing 2020, was nominated for a Pushcart prize, and was honored with an Aspen Summer Words Emerging Writers Fellowship. She was the Frankie Fellow at the Yale Whitney Humanities Center in 2022.

Adam Oyebanji was born in Coatbridge, North Lanarkshire. He recently took the big step of moving east to Edinburgh by way of Birmingham, London, Lagos, Chicago, Pittsburgh and New York: a necessary detour, because the traffic otherwise is really, really bad. A graduate of Birmingham University and Harvard Law School, Adam works in the field of counter-terrorist financing, helping banks choke off the money supply to rogue states, narcotics empires, and human trafficking networks. His acclaimed debut novel, Braking Day, was published in 2022. A Quiet Teacher is his first mystery novel.

The Reverend Wheeler Parker, Jr.  is Pastor of Argo Temple Church of God in Christ, in Summit, Illinois, and a Superintendent in the Church of God in Christ. In his quest for accountability in the 1955 lynching of Emmett Till, he has participated in the 2004 FBI investigation of the murder and the 2017 continuation, which resulted from the efforts of the late activist Alvin Sykes. Along with Sykes, he participated in the development of the Emmett Till Unsolved Civil Rights Crimes Act, which established a cold case unit at the Department of Justice, allowing the Department of Justice to reopen unsolved Civil Rights-era murders. His journey to justice has included a relentless advocacy for truth, and he has carried this commitment with a message of love, forgiveness, and reconciliation.

Tracey Rose Peyton received her MFA from the Michener Center for Writers at University of Texas-Austin. Her short fiction has been published in Guernica, American Short Fiction, Prairie Schooner and elsewhere, and her short story, “The Last Days of Rodney,” was recently selected by Jesmyn Ward to appear in Best American Short Stories 2021. Night Wherever We Go is her first novel.

Phil Plait is an astronomer, sci-fi dork, TV documentary talking head, and all-around science enthusiast. The author of Bad Astronomy and Death from the Skies!, Plait writes the Bad Astronomy blog for SYFY.com and lives in Colorado. His new book, Under Alien Skies: A Sightseer's Guide to the Universe, will be published by Norton in April 2023.

Michael Robotham is a former investigative journalist whose bestselling psychological thrillers have been translated into twenty-five languages. He has twice won a Ned Kelly Award for Australia’s best crime novel, for Lost in 2005 and Shatter in 2008. His recent novels include When She Was Good, winner of the UK’s Ian Fleming Steel Dagger Award for best thriller; The Secrets She Keeps; Good Girl, Bad Girl; and When You Are Mine. After living and writing all over the world, Robotham settled his family in Sydney, Australia.

Etaf Rum was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York by Palestinian immigrants. She has taught English Literature in North Carolina, where she lives with her two children. Etaf also runs the Instagram account @booksandbeans and is a Book of the Month Club Ambassador.

Matthew Salesses is the author of The Sense of Wonder, national bestseller Craft in the Real World, the 2021 finalist for the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction Disappear Doppelgänger Disappear, and two other novels. Adopted from Korea, he has written about adoption, race, and Asian American masculinity in The Best American Essays 2020, NPR’s Code Switch, the New York Times blog Motherlode, and The Guardian, among other media outlets. BuzzFeed has named him one of 32 Essential Asian American Writers. He lives in New York City, where he is an Assistant Professor of Writing at Columbia University.

Eleanor Shearer is a mixed-race writer and the granddaughter of Windrush generation immigrants. She splits her time between London and Ramsgate on the English coast so that she never has to go too long without seeing the sea. For her Master's degree in Politics at the University of Oxford, Eleanor studied the legacy of slavery and the case for reparations, and her fieldwork in St. Lucia and Barbados helped inspire her first novel.

Scarlett St. Clair is the bestselling author of the Hades X Persephone Saga, the Hades Saga, King of Battle & Blood, and When Stars Come Out. She has a Master's degree in Library Science. She is also a proud citizen of the Muscogee Nation and is obsessed with Greek Mythology, murder mysteries, and the afterlife. You can find updates on her books at scarlettstclair.com.

Saket Soni is the founder and director of Resilience Force, a national nonprofit that advocates for the rising workforce that rebuilds after climate disasters. He was profiled as an “architect of the next labor movement” in USA Today, and his work was the subject of a November 2021 New Yorker feature story (in the magazine and the New Yorker Radio Hour), in which the author called him "truly one of the most interesting people I have ever met in my life." He has testified before Congress on issues of immigration and labor rights. Originally from New Delhi, Soni lives in Washington, DC.

Christie Tate is the author of the New York Times bestseller Group, which was a Reese’s Book Club selection. She has been published in The New York Times, The Washington Post, Chicago Tribune, McSweeney’s Internet Tendency, and elsewhere, and she lives in Chicago with her family.

Goldie Taylor is a veteran journalist, cable news political analyst and human rights activist who has written about national politics and social justice issues for over thirty years. She been featured on NBC News, MSNBC, ABC News, CNN, HLN, HBO’s Real Time with Bill Maher, The Dr. Phil Show, The Steve Harvey Show, and Good Morning America, as well as NPR's All Things Considered. She has written for Salon, Atlanta Journal Constitution, Creative Loafing, St. Louis Post Dispatch, The Grio, Huffington Post, CNN.com, MSNBC.com, Essence, and most recently as editor-at-large for The Daily Beast. Her novel Paper Gods, is currently in development with John Legend’s Get Lifted Productions and Sony Television. She lives in Boston.

Brandon Taylor is the author of Filthy Animals, a national bestseller, and Real Life, which was shortlisted for the Booker Prize, longlisted for the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize, and named a New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice. He holds graduate degrees from the University of Wisconsin–Madison and the University of Iowa, where he was an Iowa Arts Fellow at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop in fiction.

Joseph Earl Thomas is a writer from Frankford whose work has appeared or is forthcoming in VQR, N+1, Gulf Coast, The Offing, and The Kenyon Review. He has an MFA in prose from The University of Notre Dame and is a doctoral candidate in English at the University of Pennsylvania. An excerpt of his memoir, Sink, won the 2020 Chautauqua Janus Prize and he has received fellowships from Fulbright, VONA, Tin House, and Bread Loaf. He’s writing the novel God Bless You, Otis Spunkmeyer, and a collection of stories: Leviathan Beach, among other oddities.

S.S. Turner has been an avid reader, writer, and explorer of the natural world throughout his life, which has been spent in England, Scotland, and Australia. He worked in the global fund management sector for many years but realized it didn't align with his values. In recent years, he's been focused on inspiring positive change through his writing as well as trying not to laugh in unfortunate situations. He now lives in Australia with his wife, daughter, two dogs, two cats, and ten chickens. He is the author of one previous novel, Secrets of a River Swimmer.

Tyriek White is a writer, teacher, and musician born and raised in Brooklyn, NY. He has received fellowships from the Callaloo Creative Writing Workshop and the New York State Writers Institute. He holds an MFA in creative writing from the University of Mississippi.

Simon Winchester is the acclaimed author of many books, including The Professor and the Madman, The Men Who United the States, The Map That Changed the World, The Man Who Loved China, A Crack in the Edge of the World, and Land, all of which were New York Times bestsellers and appeared on numerous best and notable lists. In 2006, Winchester was made an officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) by Her Majesty the Queen. He resides in western Massachusetts.

Kate Zernike has been a reporter for The New York Times since 2000. She was a member of the team that won the 2002 Pulitzer Prize for Explanatory Reporting for stories about al-Qaeda before and after the 9/11 terror attacks. She was previously a reporter for The Boston Globe, where she broke the story of MIT’s admission that it had discriminated against women on its faculty, on which The Exceptions is based. The daughter and granddaughter of scientists, she is a graduate of Trinity College at the University of Toronto and the Graduate School of Journalism at Columbia University. She lives in New Jersey with her husband and sons.

Program

9:00—9:30 AM ET

Exhibit Hall Opens/Visit the Booths

In-Booth Chats

9:00 - 9:20 AM ET

Jennifer Deibel, The Maid of Ballymacool (Baker Publishing Group)

9:00 - 9:40 AM ET

Secrets and Deception Booth Chat (CamCat Books)

9:00 - 9:30 AM ET

Join the HarperCollins Library Love Fest crew for a buzz in, featuring special guest Shannon Chakraborty, author of The Adventures of Amina Al-Sirafi. (HarperCollins Publishing)

TWO PANELS RUNNING CONCURRENTLY

9:30—10:10 AM ET

Fiction: Colonial/Postcolonial

Siddhartha Deb, The Light at the End of the World, Soho Press

Paul Harding, This Other Eden, W. W. Norton: W. W. Norton & Company 

Kevin Jared Hosein, Hungry Ghosts, Ecco: HarperCollins

Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai, Dust Child, Algonquin Books: Workman: Hachette Book Group

Moderator: Barbara Hoffert, Editor, Prepub Alert, LJ

9:30—10:10 AM ET

Nonfiction: Social Justice Issues

After Life: A Collective History of Loss and Redemption in Pandemic America, ed. by Rhae Lynn Barnes, Keri Leigh Merritt, & Yohuru Williams, Haymarket Books

Tracy Kidder, Rough Sleepers: Dr. Jim O’Connell’s Urgent Mission To Bring Healing to Homeless People, Random House: Penguin Random House

Alejandra Oliva, Rivermouth: A Chronicle of Language, Faith, and Migration, Astra House

Saket Soni, The Great Escape: A True Story of Forced Labor and Immigrant Dreams in America, Algonquin Books: Workman: Hachette Book Group 

Moderator: MIchael Rodriguez, University of Connecticut, Storrs

In-Booth Chat

10:15 - 10:45 AM ET

10:15 - 10:45 AM ET | Fantasy Booth Chat (CamCat Books)

TWO PANELS RUNNING CONCURRENTLY

10:15—11:10 AM ET  

Fiction: Complications of Love 

Delia Cai, Central Places, Ballantine Books: Penguin Random House

Emma Fedor, At Sea, Gallery Press: Simon & Schuster

Julie Klassen, The Sisters of Sea View, Bethany House: Baker Publishing Group

Jennifer Moorman, The Baker’s Man, Harper Muse: HarperCollins Focus 

Ann Napolitano, Hello, Beautiful, Dial Press: Penguin Random House 

Moderator: Kate Merlene, Cuyahoga County Public Library, OH

10:15—11:10 AM ET  

Nonfiction: Memoir

William Lee Adams, Wild Dances: My Queer and Curious Journey to Eurovision, Astra House

Oksana Masters with Cassidy Randall, The Hard Parts: A Memoir of Courage and Triumph, Scribner: Simon & Schuster

Christie Tate, B.F.F.: A Memoir of Friendship Lost and Found, Avid Reader Press: Simon & Schuster

Goldie Taylor, The Love You Save: A Memoir, Hanover Square Press: Harlequin

Joseph Earl Thomas, Sink: A Memoir, Grand Central Publishing: Hachette Book Group

Moderator: Barrie Olmstead, Las Vegas-Clark County Library District

TWO PANELS RUNNING CONCURRENTLY

11:15 AM—12:10 PM ET

Nonfiction: STEM for Everyone

Dan Egan, The Devil's Element: Phosphorus and a World Out of Balance, W. W. Norton: W. W. Norton & Company

Mark “Mace” Macy & Travis Macy with Patrick Regan, A Mile at a Time: A Father and Son’s Inspiring Alzheimer’s Journey of Love, Adventure, and Hope, Imagine: Charlesbridge

Angela Marshall with Kathy Palokoff, Dismissed: Tackling the Biases That Undermine Our Healthcare, Citadel: Kensington Corp.

Phil Plait, Under Alien Skies: A Sightseer's Guide to the Universe, W. W. Norton: W. W. Norton & Company 

Kate Zernike, The Exceptions: Nancy Hopkins, MIT, and the Fight for Women in Science, Scribner: Simon & Schuster

Moderator: Matt Enis, Senior Editor, Technology, LJ

11:15 AM—12:10 PM ET

Fiction: Journeys

Asale Angel-Ajani, A Country You Can Leave, MCD: Farrar, Straus and Giroux: Macmillan

Charles Frazier, The Trackers, Ecco: Harper

Aleksandar Hemon, The World and All It Holds, MCD: Farrar, Straus and Giroux: Macmillan

Paterson Joseph, The Secret Diaries of Charles Ignatius Sancho: Henry Holt & Co., Macmillan

Eleanor Shearer, River Sing Me Home, Berkley: Penguin Random House 

Moderator: Julie Kane, Washington & Lee Lib., Lexington, VA

12:10—1:00 PM ET 

Break/Visit the Exhibit Hall

In-Booth Chats

12:10 - 12:30 PM ET

Amanda Cabot, After the Shadows (Baker Publishing Group)

12:10 - 12:50 PM ET

Spooky Paranormal Mysteries Booth Chat (CamCat Books)

12:10 - 12:40 PM ET

Don't miss our talk on ECW Press's buzz books coming out this spring! From queer YA fantasy to futuristic horror, from cozy mystery to true crime ethics. There's something for everyone! (ECW)

12:10 - 1:00 PM ET

The HarperCollins team chats with Brad Taylor, author of Devil’s Ransom, and Joshilyn Jackson, author of With My Little Eye. (HarperCollins Publishing)

12:30 - 12:50 PM ET

Erin Bartels, Everything Is Just Beginning (Baker Publishing Group)

1:00 - 1:30 PM ET

Pop Culture and Sci-fi Adventures Booth Chat (CamCat Books)

1:10 - 2:00 PM ET

Join authors Craig Lancaster and Peter Marlton as they discuss Trading Places: Literary Fiction that takes you somewhere else. (The Story Plant)

TWO PANELS RUNNING CONCURRENTLY

1:00–1:55 PM ET 

Fiction: Finding Oneself

Claire Alexander, Meredith, Alone, Grand Central Publishing: Hachette Book Group

Rebecca Makkai, I Have Some Questions for You, Viking: Penguin Random House

Etaf Rum, Evil Eye, Harper: HarperCollins

Matthew Salesses, The Sense of Wonder, Little, Brown and Company: Hachette Book Group

Joe Milan Jr., The All-American: W. W. Norton: W. W. Norton & Company

Moderator: Beth Andersen, formerly with Ann Arbor Dist. Lib., MI

1:00–1:55 PM ET 

Fiction: Family

Diane Marie Brown, Black Candle Women, Graydon House: Harlequin

S.S. Turner, The Connection Game, The Story Plant

Tyriek White, We Are a Haunting, Astra House 

Moderator: Lillian Dabney, The Seattle Athenaeum

TWO PANELS RUNNING CONCURRENTLY

2:00—2:55 PM ET

Fiction: Mystery

Stephen Amidon, Locust Lane, Celadon Books: Macmillan 

Colleen Cambridge, Mastering the Art of French Murder, Kensington: Kensington Publishing Corp.

Con Lehane, Murder by Definition: A 42nd Street Library Mystery, Severn House Publishers 

Amber A. Logan, The Secret Garden of Yanagi Inn, CamCat

Adam Oyebanji, A Quiet Teacher, Severn House Publishers

Moderator: Lesa Holstine, Evansville Vanderburgh P.L., IN 

2:00—2:55 PM ET

Fiction: Contemporary World

Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah, Chain-Gang All-Stars, Pantheon: Penguin Random House

Eleanor Catton, Birnam Wood, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, Macmillan

Ling Ling Huang, Natural Beauty, Dutton: Penguin Random House

Curtis LeBlanc, Sunsetter, ECW

Brandon Taylor, The Late Americans, Riverhead: Penguin Random House

Moderator: Lisa Peet, News Editor, Library Journal

2:55—3:30 PM ET

Break/Visit the Exhibit Hall

In-Booth Chats

2:55 - 3:10 PM ET 

Jaime Jo Wright, The Vanishing at Castle Moreau (Baker Publishing Group)

2:55 - 3:30 PM ET

The HarperCollins team chats with Brianna Labuskes, author of The Librarian of Burned Books. (HarperCollins Publishing)

2:55 - 3:30 PM ET

Join authors Jon Papernick and Jessica Keener as they discuss Unconventional Mothers in Contemporary Fiction (The Story Plant)

3:00 - 3:40 PM ET

Thrills and Chills Booth Chat (CamCat Books)

3:15 - 3:30 PM ET

Christina Suzann Nelson, What Happens Next (Baker Publishing Group)

TWO PANELS RUNNING CONCURRENTLY

3:30—4:25 PM ET

Nonfiction: History

Timothy Egan, A Fever in the Heartland: The Ku Klux Klan's Plot To Take Over America, and the Woman Who Stopped Them, Viking: Penguin Random House

Christopher C. Gorham, The Confidante: The Untold Story of the Woman Who Helped Win WWII and Shape Modern America, Citadel: Kensington Publishing Corp.

Pamela McColl, Twas the Night: The Art and History of the Classic Christmas Poem, Grafton and Scratch

Rev. Wheeler Parker Jr. & Christopher Benson. A Few Days Full of Trouble: Revelations on the Journey to Justice for My Cousin and Best Friend, Emmett Till, One World: Penguin Random House

Simon Winchester, Knowing What We Know: The Transmission of Knowledge; From Ancient Wisdom to Modern Magic, Harper: HarperCollins 

Moderator: Leah Huey, Dekalb, P.L., IL

3:30—4:25 PM ET

Fiction: SF/Fantasy/Horror

Jes Battis, The Winter Knight, ECW

Brandon Ying Kit Boey, Karma of the Sun, CamCat

Cory Doctorow, Red Team Blues, Tor Books: Macmillan

Grady Hendrix, How To Sell a Haunted House, Berkley: Penguin Random House 

Scarlett St. Clair, Queen of Myth and Monsters, Bloom Books: Sourcebooks 

Moderator: Kristi Chadwick, Massachusetts Lib. Syst., Northampton

TWO PANELS RUNNING CONCURRENTLY

4:30—5:30 PM ET

Fiction: Thrillers

Cara Black, Night Flight to Paris, Soho Crime 

Justin Cronin, The Ferryman, Ballantine Books: Penguin Random House 

Deepti Kapoor, Age of Vice, Riverhead: Penguin Random House 

Mary Kubica, Just the Nicest Couple, Park Row: Harlequin 

Dennis Lehane, Small Mercies, Harper: HarperCollins 

Michael Robotham, Lying Beside You, Scribner: Simon & Schuster

Moderators: Liz French, Senior Editor, LJ Book Reviews, & Lynnanne Pearson, Skokie P.L., IL

4:30—5:30 PM ET

Fiction: Historical 

Amy Lynn Green, The Blackout Book Club, Bethany House: Baker Publishing Group

Alan Hlad, The Book Spy, John Scognamiglio: Kensington Publishing Corp. 

Alka Joshi, The Perfumist of Paris, Park Row: Harlequin

Jamila Minnicks, Moonrise Over New Jessup, Algonquin Books: Workman: Hachette Books Group

Sarah Penner, The London Séance Society, Park Row: Harlequin

Tracey Rose Peyton, Night Wherever We Go, Ecco: HarperCollins

Moderators: Virginia Grubbs & Jill Maguire, Darien Public Library

In-Booth Chat

5:30 - 5:45 PM ET

Kimberly Duffy, The Weight of Air (Baker Publishing Group)