|
|
|
2008 Festival Author Biographies
| |
Jay Allison, the host and curator of This I Believe, is an independent broadcast journalist. His work appears often on NPR and has earned him five Peabody Awards. He is the founder of two public radio stations that serve Martha's Vineyard, Nantucket, and Cape Cod, where he lives.
Bob Bass has been a professional photographer and freelance writer since 1993 and has written for a variety of national magazines including: Lost Treasure, Western & Eastern Treasure, Gold & Treasure Hunter, Boys' Life, Florida Wildlife, Florida Living, Ultralight & Sport Pilot Magazine, Model Aviation, National Wild Turkey Federation magazine, and Savannah Magazine, to name a few. Others can be found on his web site southernfreestyle.com.
He belongs to the Florida Outdoor Writers Association and has served on their board of directors.
Bob is an avid outdoorsman and has recently started flying again after 50 years. He will soon qualify for the new Sport Pilot license awarded by the FAA.
Bob lives in Lakeland with his wife Linda and grandson Justin.
A new book published this month along with When Steamboats Reigned in Florida is called Stories From Fantastic Florida and is available from Booklocker.com.
Back to list of authors
 Rick Bragg, author of the critically acclaimed and best-selling All Over but the Shoutin’ and Ava's Man and a Pulitzer Prize-winning former national correspondent for the New York Times, says he learned to tell stories by listening to the masters, the people of the foothills of the Appalachians. They talked, of the sadness, poverty, cruelty, kindness, hope, hopelessness, faith, anger and joy of their everyday lives, and painted pictures on the very haze of the early evening, when work faded into story-telling.
His first book, Shoutin’, was the story of a mother who absorbed the cruelties of an alcoholic husband haunted by his service in the Korean War, and showed how she gave her life, in endless cotton fields, to make a living for her three sons. The book, aNew York Times notable book of the year, won several awards and was selected as one of the best books of the year by several news organizations and reader groups. His third book, The Prince of Frogtown, continues the story of the Bragg’s in the family history’s final installment, a look at Rick’s father, Charles Bragg.
Bragg was born in Alabama, grew up there, and worked at several newspapers before joining the New York Timesin 1994. He covered the murder and unrest in Haiti while a metro reporter there, then wrote about the Oklahoma City bombing, the Jonesborokillings, the Susan Smith trial and more as a national correspondent based in Atlanta. He later became Miami Bureau Chief for the Times just in time for Elian Gonzalez's arrival and the international battle for the little boy. He now teaches at the Journalism School at TheUniversity of Alabama in Tuscaloosa, AL. |
| Back to list of authors |
Colette Bancroft joined the St. Petersburg Times in 1997. Before she became book editor in 2007, she was a news editor, general assignment features writer and food and travel writer, as well as a frequent contributor of reviews of books, theater and other arts. Before joining the Times staff, she was a reporter and editor at the Arizona Daily Star in Tucson and an instructor in the English departments of the University of South Florida and the University of Arizona. Bancroft grew up in Tampa.
Shawn Bean has twice been named Writer of the Year by the Florida Magazine Association (2004 and 2006). He is an award-winning journalist who has covered many subjects including Club Fed, the famous minimum-security penitentiary in the Florida Panhandle, and the KL Group, responsible for the largest financial fraud in Palm Beach County history. Bean holds a degree in film from Southern Methodist University and has contributed to Florida Travel & Life, Miami, Florida International Magazine and Baltimore Magazine. He also serves as editorial director for Skyh Creative, the custom publishing house with offices in Palm Beach and Kalamazoo, Michigan. Bean, 32, lives in Melbourne Beach, Florida, with his wife and two young sons.
Lennie Bennett joined the Times in 1995 as the "On the Town" columnist and also wrote general assignment stories on a variety of topics, including local arts, cultural issues and philanthropy. She became the art critic in 2002. She reviews the visual arts in all forms throughout the Tampa Bay area and, on occasion, nationally. She has also been a regular panelist for various arts organizations.
Robert Olen Butler has published ten novels and five volumes of short fiction, one of which, A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain, won the 1993 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. His most recent book is Intercourse, from Chronicle Books, which contains 100 short short stories voicing the deep inner monologues, in medias res, of 50 mostly famous couples. This follows his collection, Severance, comprised of 62 short shorts in the voices of newly severed heads. He is presently at work on a novel entitled Hell, which is indeed entirely set in that very place. He teaches creative writing at Florida State University and lives in Capps, Florida, which has a population of one, not counting his three bichon frises, who are very worried about these recent strange turns in his literary career.
Review of Robert Olen Butler's " Intercourse"
John Capouya is a professor of journalism and writing at the University of Tampa. He was formerly an editor at Newsweek, The New York Times, SmartMoney magazine and New York Newsday, among other places. He is the author of Gorgeous George: The Outrageous Bad-Boy Wrestler Who Created American Pop Culture, and has contributed to numerous publications, including Sports Illustrated, Travel & Leisure, and LIFE. He and his wife, the artist and photo editor Suzanne Williamson, live in Tampa and in New York City.
Daína Chaviano is the award-winning author of several novels published in Spanish. Winner of the acclaimed Azorín Award for Best Novel for El hombre, la hembra y el hambre (Man, Woman and Hunger), her most recent work, The Island of Eternal Love, was the recipient of the 2007 Florida Book Awards’ Gold Medal for Best Spanish Language Book and has been translated into twenty languages around the world. A Havana native, she has lived in Miami since 1991.
Dr. Roy Peter Clark has taught writing at The Poynter Institute for three decades, a body of work summarized in his latest book Writing Tools: 50 Essential Strategies for Every Writer. Clark has worked full-time at Poynter since 1979 as director of the writing center, dean of the faculty, senior scholar, and vice-president.
In 1977 Clark was hired by the St. Petersburg Times to become one of America's first writing coaches and worked with the American Society of Newspaper Editors to improve newspaper writing nationwide. Because of his work with ASNE, Clark was elected as a distinguished service member, a rare honor for a journalist who has never edited a newspaper.
Clark has worked with writers and taught writing in more than 40 states and on five continents. His influence has been felt far and wide both on young writers and grizzled professionals. He is the founding director of the National Writers Workshops, eight regional conferences, including one at Harvard, that attract more than 5,000 writers annually.
From 1977-78 Clark wrote news, features, and reviews for the St. Petersburg Times. In 1996 he began writing serial narratives for newspapers, including Three Little Words, Sadie's Ring, Her Picture in My Wallet, and Ain't Done Yet, a serial novel syndicated by The New York Times. He is the author of The Line Between Fact and Fiction, published in the journal Creative Nonfiction.
DUDLEY CLENDINEN is a former national reporter and editorial writer for The New York Times. He is editor of a book of essays, The Prevailing South, and author of the text for a book of photographs, Homeless in America. He is coauthor of Out for Good: The Struggle to Build a Gay Rights Movement in America. He lives in Baltimore, MD.
Review of Dudley Clendinen's " A Place Called Canterbury"
Sean Daly is the pop music critic at the St. Petersburg Times. He has also alliterated for the Washington Post, the Washington City Paper and People Magazine. An only child growing up outside of Boston, he spent great chunks of his youth sprawled in front of his parents' monolithic hi-fi system/coffee table. (He burned his besotted college years at Syracuse University doing pretty much the same thing.) Is he socially maladjusted? Absolutely. However, his music collection — from Otis Redding to Bob Dylan, Public Enemy to Stan Getz — is much bigger and better than yours. So there.
CODY FOWLER DAVIS is a Tampa trial attorney with an impressive track record of both plaintiff and defendant courtroom wins. In addition to his own legal experience, Cody’s unique family background has provided intimate glimpses into the most rarified levels of our legal system; his namesake grandfather was president of the American Bar Association and the American College of Trial Lawyers and his father was a judge and law school professor. Cody’s brother Jim Davis was a member of the U.S. House of Representatives and former gubernatorial candidate in Florida. The Women in his family have also influenced him greatly. His great grandmother Maud Fowler was a maverick land developer (Fowler Avenue in Tampa is named for her) and his mother a successful Florida real estate agent and civic activist. Cody and his wife Beth, a native of Alabama, are both graduates of Vanderbilt University. Cody attended the College of Law at Florida State University. When he is not winning court cases, pursuing his interests in banking and development, trouncing tennis opponents, or writing, Cody is enjoying quality time with Beth and their four daughters. Cody and his family live in Tampa and on Useppa Island (FL).
Eric Deggans originally joined the paper in 1995 as pop music critic, covering everything from the MTV Music Video Awards in New York City to unmasking a fake gospel singer who was nearly awarded the key to St. Petersburg by city officials. In 1997, Deggans assumed the role of TV critic, writing reviews, news stories and long-range trend pieces on the state of the TV industry locally and nationally. He joined the Times editorial board in 2004 before returning to the critics' corner, first as media writer in 2005, then again as TV critic in 2006.
Martin A. Dyckman, retired associate editor of the St. Petersburg Times, is the author of Floridian of His Century: The Courage of Governor LeRoy Collins. In 1984, the Florida Bar Foundation recognized his writing on judicial reform with its Medal of Honor Award.
T. J. English is a noted journalist, screenwriter, and author of Paddy Whacked and The Westies, both national best sellers, and Born to Kill: America's Most Notorious Vietnamese Gang, and The Changing Face of Organized Crime, which was nominated for an Edgar Award. He began his career as a journalist with Irish America Magazine, writing about crime, politics, sports, and entertainment. He has gone on to write feature articles for numerous national magazines, including Esquire, Playboy, and New York. As a screenwriter, he has written episodes for the television crime dramas NYPD Blue and Homicide, for which he was awarded the Humanitas Prize. He lives in New York City.
Richard Paul Evans is the author of eleven New York Times bestselling novels and five children's books. He has won the American Mothers' Book Award and two first-place Storytelling World Awards for his children's books. His books have been translated into more than eighteen languages. More than thirteen million copies of his books are in print worldwide. Evans is also the founder of The Christmas Box House International, an organization dedicated to helping abused and neglected children. More than 13,000 children have been housed in Christmas Box Houses. He is the recipient of The Washington Times Humanitarian of the Century Award and the Volunteers of America National Empathy Award. He is currently building a second orphanage in Peru. He lives with his wife, Keri, and their five children in Salt Lake City, Utah.
John Fleming has been performing arts critic for the Times since 1991. His beat ranges from community theater to Broadway, modern dance to symphony orchestras. A onetime business editor at Georgia Trend magazine in Atlanta, he frequently writes about the finances and politics of the arts. Twice he won first-place awards from the Florida Society of Newspaper Editors, in 2002 for criticism and in 2004 for beat reporting on the Florida Orchestra.
Fleming has worked as a staff writer for Metropolis in Minneapolis-St. Paul and the Chicago Reader. He was an editor at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution Sunday magazine. From 2001 to 2007, he was on the executive board of the Music Critics Association of North America and now chairs its membership committee.
Martha Hall Foose is executive chef of the Viking Cooking School. Born and raised in the Mississippi Delta, she attended the famed pastry school École Lenôtre in France. She returned to Mississippi and opened the Bottletree Bakery—a Southern institution in Oxford—and later, with her husband, the Mockingbird Bakery in Greenwood. She makes her home in Tchula, Mississippi, on her family’s farm with her husband and their son.
Debra Frasier is both artist and author, working with words, cut paper, dyed fabrics, and oils to create her books, and her efforts have won numerous awards. Her first book, On the Day You Were Born, has had a worldwide reception, and the accompanying video won the American Library Association's highest honor for a children's film, the Andrew Carnegie Medal. Miss Alaineus, A Vocabulary Disaster, won the IRA Children and Teacher's Choice Awards and has inspired Vocabulary Parades from coast to coast. Her newest book, A Birthday Cake Is No Ordinary Cake, tells the story of our planet moving in a great spinning circle around the sun, all while collecting ingredients for a birthday cake!
Debra has a keen understanding of what it takes to captivate a child's natural curiosity, reflected in her books, her teaching, and her work with educators. Debra also gives presentations about art, writing, and working with children in ways that teachers carry back to the classroom feeling prepared and inspired to add new techniques to their lesson plans.
Stephen Frey is a managing director at a private equity firm. He previously worked in mergers and acquisitions at JP Morgan and as a vice president of corporate finance at an international bank in Manhattan. Frey is the New York Times bestselling author of numerous high-stakes thrillers including, The Fourth Order, The Successor, The Power Broker, The Protégé, The Chairman, Shadow Account, Silent Partner, The Day Trader, Trust Fund, The Insider, The Legacy, The Inner Sanctum, The Vulture Fund, and The Takeover. FORCED OUT is his latest page-turning novel.
One of the most respected sports authors and oral historians in the United States, Harvey Frommer is the author of autobiographies of sports legends Nolan Ryan, Tony Dorsett, and Red Holzman and the baseball classics New York City Baseball 1947-1957: The Last Golden Age and Shoeless Joe and Ragtime Baseball. Together with his wife Myrna Katz Frommer, he authored the critically acclaimed interactive oral histories It Happened in the Catskills, It Happened in Brooklyn, Growing Up Jewish in America, It Happened on Broadway, and It Happened in Manhattan. A professor at Dartmouth College Dr. Frommer teaches Oral History in the Master of Arts in Liberal Studies program. REMEMBERING YANKEE STADIUM is his 40th sports book, the eighth on the New York Yankees. He lives with Myrna in Lyme, New Hampshire where he enjoys building stone walls, working on his land and writing.
Bonnie J. Glover was born in Florence, Alabama, and raised in Brooklyn, New York. She attended Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University in Tallahassee, Florida, where she received a B.S. in Business Administration. Before attending the Stetson University College of Law, she worked for a short while at the Tampa Housing Authority where she wrote grants for the Authority and helped place homeless families in public housing facilities. After receiving her law degree, she worked as a law clerk for several judges and most recently in the mediation program for the Office of Regional Counsel at Bay Pines, where she taught conflict resolution techniques to Veteran Administration employees. She now has a private practice in Florida.
Peter Golenbock is one of the nation's best-known sports authors. He has written some of the bestselling sports books of the last 30 years, including Idiot (written with Johnny Damon), Red Sox Nation, Balls (written with Graig Nettles), The Bronx Zoo (written with Sparky Lyle), Bums (An Oral History of the Brooklyn Dodgers), American Zoom (about NASCAR) and Wild, High and Tight: The Life and Death of Billy Martin. He has recently completed an autobiography of Tony Curtis for Crown and is writing a biography of George Steinbrenner for Wiley. Five of his books have been New York Times bestsellers. He frequently appears on ESPN, Good Morning America, and Larry King Live, among others. Golenbock lives in St. Petersburg, Florida.
Mitchell Graham was born in New York City and attended Ohio State University on a fencing scholarship. He has participated in over 200 fencing competitions around the world and was a member of the 1984 Olympic Fencing squad. He went on to the University of Texas and earned a law degree. After practicing law for over 25 years, Mitch decided to go back to school and earned a degree in neuropsychology.
In 2003, he wrote The Fifth Ring, the first book of his fantasy trilogy, mainly to amuse his fa]mily. The entire trilogy has now been translated into several languages in about 20 different countries. The Fifth Ring and its sequel The Emerald Cavern have been optioned by Steven Spielberg’s studio, DreamWorks. From completing the trilogy, he drew on his legal background to write Majestic Descending, a murder mystery/legal thriller. Majestic Descending has been optioned by Locke/Cherokee Productions. Dead Docket and Stone Mountain will follow as sequels. Majestic Descending was named as one of the year's top mystery novels by The Strand Magazine and was selected by Booklist and the association of librarians as one if their main selections.
Graham currently resides in Wellington, FL.
Who are "The Book Babes"?
Seeking to nurture fellowship around the love of books, "The Book Babes" are prizewinning journalists and book critics Margo Hammond and Ellen Heltzel. The pair first teamed up as The Book Babes in 2002 to write a weekly column for Poynter Online. They also have written a weekly column for the Book Standard, the sister online publication of Kirkus Reviews, a monthly column for goodhousekeeping.com, and articles for the San Jose Mercury and the Minneapolis Star Tribune. In 2007, they launched a monthly radio show with WMNF-FM Tampa. As solo acts or together, they have appeared on the Today Show with Matt Lauer, C-SPAN Book TV and Channel 13-Tampa's Your Turn with Kathy Fountain and have written book reviews for dozens of national publications, including the Washington Post, the Chicago Tribune, and USA Today.
Margo has served on the National Book Critics Circle Board, has been president of the Southern Book Critics Circle and was 16 years the book editor of the St. Petersburg Times. She lives in St. Petersburg.
Ellen is a current National Book Critics Board member and the former book editor of the Oregonian. She lives in Portland.
Beloved teacher and bestselling Italian cookbook author Marcella Hazan delivers her long awaited memoir, AMARCORD. A finely crafted collection of lifelong memories and adventures from the Godmother of Italian cooking. Recipient of two Lifetime Achievement Awards (from the James Beard Foundation in 2000 and IACP in 2004), and a knighthood from her own country, Marcella Hazan is the author of six classic cookbooks published over the past thirty-five years. She lives in Longboat Key, Florida, with her husband, Victor, her lifelong collaborator and writing partner, himself an authority on Italian food and wine.
Janet Keeler joined the Times in 1992 as a copy editor. She then was assistant newsfeatures editor/production from 1993 to 2000. She was named food editor in 2000, and in 2006 she added travel editor to her responsibilities and now overseas travel coverage in the Sunday Latitudes section. Keeler is a regular guest on local television, and has been an adjunct professor at University of the Pacific and frequent guest lecturer. She also hosts a regular Web video feature called "Janet's Kitchen'' at tampabay.com.
N.M. Kelby is the author of Murder at the Bad Girl’s Bar and Grill (Shaye Areheart/ Random House), Whale Season (Shaye Areheart/ Random House), In the Company of Angels (Theia/Hyperion), and Theater of the Stars (Theia/Hyperion). Named “Outstanding Southern Artist” by The Southern Arts Federation, her work has been translated into several languages and offered by The Literary Guild, Doubleday Book Club, and Quality Paperback Book Club. Her story “Jubilation, Florida” was selected for National Public Radio’s Selected Shorts, and later recorded by actress Joanne Woodward for the NPR CD Travel Tales, and included in New Stories from the South: Best of 2006 (Algonquin Books). Kelby is working on the film version of Whale Season along with Actor/Singer Dwight Yoakam. She is the recipient of a Bush Artist Fellowship in Literature, an NEA Inter-Arts grant, the Heekin Group Foundation’s James Fellowship for the Novel, both a Florida and Minnesota State Arts Board Fellowship in fiction, two Jerome Travel Study Grants, and a Jewish Arts Endowment Fellowship.
Review of N.M. Kelby's " Murder at the Bad Girl's Bar & Grill"
Alexandra Kerry graduated from Brown University in 1997 where she studied Anthropology and Modern Culture and Media. In 2004, she earned an MFA in Directing from The American Film Institute. Her thesis film, ""The Last Full Measure"" debuted at the 2004 Cannes Film Festival, won top honors at the Austin Film Festival, and earned her the ""Richard P. Rogers Spirit of Excellence"" award from AFI. Kerry has also directed and created three additional short films, a television pilot, and directed the pilot and subsequent episodes for MTV's highest rated television series, The Hills. While traveling on her father's presidential campaign trail in 2004, Kerry traveled to 33 states, exploring the American landscape on political and personal levels.
These observations have evolved into a book of photographs, video stills and text, which Kerry is writing and curating. The book will be published by Rodale in the Fall of 2008
Kristy Kiernan was born in Tennessee, and her family moved to Largo when she was an infant. She grew up in southwest Florida, where daily life revolved around the beaches and warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico. She learned to read by watching her mother draw letters in the sand and knew she wanted to be a writer by the age of six. Catching Genius was published in March of 2007 and has become a book club favorite and gone into multiple printings.
Her second novel, Matters of Faith, about a Florida family dealing with food allergies, was published in August of 2008 to outstanding critical reviews. With its themes of faith versus medical intervention, marriage and family, and everyone's need to believe in something, Matters of Faith is quickly following Catching Genius as a book club phenomenon.
Kristy and her husband live in Naples.
Review of Kristy Kiernan's " Matter of Faith"
Jeff Klinkenberg writes about Florida culture and the people who make the state unique. He joined the Times in 1977, and his work takes him from Pensacola to Key West.
Klinkenberg's interest in Florida began when he was a small boy growing up in Miami on the edge of the Everglades. He jokes he was a charter member of "the boys without dates'' club because of hobbies that included catching snakes. He started working at the Miami News when he was 16 and later became a journalism graduate of the University of Florida. His new book, which collects favorite columns, is Pilgrim in the Land of Alligators, published by University Press of Florida. Another anthology, Seasons of Real Florida, is also in print.
Review of Jeff Klinkenberg's " Pilgrim in the Land of Alligators"
Frank Laumer is the author of two histories of the annihilation of Dade’s soldiers, Massacre! and Dade’s Last Command. He was the first recipient of the D. B. McKay award of the Tampa Historical Society “For Distinguished Service in the Cause of Florida History.” Laumer is president of the Seminole Wars Historic Foundation and past president of the Dade Battlefield Society. Nobody’s Hero is based on forty-six years of research on Dade’s Battle, including the exhumation of Clark’s remains in order to verify his wounds. In addition, Laumer researched the exact location of the Ft. King Road that Dade’s command traveled, from Tampa to the battlefield, then walked the entire fifty miles wearing the full uniform of the period, at the same time of year and in the same phase of the moon that the command experienced, camping each night at Dade’s campgrounds.
Dennis Lehane is the author of A Drink Before the War, which won the Shamus Award for Best First Novel; Darkness, Take My Hand; Sacred; Gone, Baby, Gone; Prayers for Rain; and the New York Times bestsellers Mystic River and Shutter Island. Mystic River was a finalist for the PEN/Winship Award, and won the Anthony Award and the Barry Award for Best Novel, as well as the Massachusetts Book Award in Fiction given by the Massachusetts Center for the Book. Coronado, a collection of stories, was published in the fall of 2006. Lehane’s work has been translated into 22 languages. He holds an MFA from Florida International University and is the writer-in-residence at Eckerd College in St. Petersburg, Florida. He lives in the Boston area.
David Liss is the author five novels, most recently The Whiskey Rebels. He has four previous bestselling novels: A Conspiracy of Paper, winner of the
2000 Edgar Award for Best First Novel, The Coffee Trader, A Spectacle of
Corruption, and The Ethical Assassin. His novels have been translated into
more than two dozen languages. He lives in San Antonio with his wife and
children, and can be reached via his website, www.davidliss.com.
SANDRA TSING LOH is a writer/performer whose previous books include A Year in Van Nuys; Depth Takes a Holiday; If You Lived Here, You’d Be Home By Now; and Aliens in America. Her new book, MOTHER ON FIRE: A True Motherf%#$@ Story About Parenting! will be published by Crown Publishers in August 2008. Her off-Broadway solo shows include "Aliens in America" and "Bad Sex With Bud Kemp"; the original solo stage version of "Mother on Fire" ran for seven months in Los Angeles. She has been a regular commentator on NPR’s "Morning Edition," on PRI’s “Marketplace,” and on Ira Glass’ "This American Life." Currently, her weekly radio commentary series "The Loh Life" runs on KPCC (89.3 FM) in Los Angeles, as does her daily "Loh Down on Science" (syndicated). Her awards include a Pushcart Prize in fiction and two National Magazine Award nominations for her work as a contributing editor for The Atlantic Monthly. She lives in Los Angeles with her husband, two daughters, and two cats.
Charles Martin is the author of five heart-wrenching novels: Chasing Fireflies, Maggie, When Crickets Cry, Wrapped in Rain and The Dead Don’t Dance. He lives in Jacksonville, Florida with his wife and their three young sons.
|
|
|
Photo: Jonas Bendiksen/Magnum |
Brad Matsen is the author of Descent: The Heroic Discovery of the Abyss (Pantheon), as well as many other books about the sea and its inhabitants. He was a creative producer for the television series The Shape of Life, and his articles have appeared in Mother Jones, Audubon, and Nature. He divides his time between Seattle and New York City. John Chatteron and Richie Kohler contributed to the research of Titanic's Last Secrets, as they did for Robert Kurson's Shadow Divers, the 2005 Book Sense Nonfiction Book of the Year.
William McKeen is the author of Outlaw Journalist, Highway 61, Rock and Roll is Here to Stay and several other books about American music and popular culture. He is professor and chairman of the University of Florida Department of Journalism and was a newspaper reporter and magazine editor before beginning his teaching career. His next book is a collection of stories about childhood in Florida. He is a father of seven and lives with his wife Nicole, a magazine editor, on a small horse farm near Wacahoota, Florida.
DICK MEYER was a reporter, producer, online editor, and columnist at CBS News in Washington for more than twenty-three years. He is now the editorial director of digital media at National Public Radio.
Meyer was born on Oct. 9, 1958 in Glencoe, Ill. He graduated from Columbia College in 1980 with a bachelor's degree in religion and from the University of Oxford in 1982 with a master's degree in politics with a specialty in the history of political philosophy. He lives in Washington, D.C., with his wife and two children.
Deanna L. Michael is an Associate Professor and is the Associate Dean of the College of Education at USF St. Petersburg. She received her doctorate in Educational Policy from Georgia State University in Atlanta, Georgia. Her areas of interest are the history of education in the United States and state and federal educational policy. She is a member of national and international organizations in the history of education and social foundations of education and has published chapters and articles on Florida and Georgia educational policy. She is currently working on discrimination in testing and early childhood educational policy during the 1970s.
Tom Miller has been bringing us extraordinary stories about ordinary people for more than three decades. His ten books include the travel
classic Trading With the Enemy, about Cuba, The Panama Hat Trail, for which Ecuador proclaimed him “Un Huésped Ilustre” (An Illustrious Guest), and the award-winning Jack Ruby’s Kitchen Sink, about the American Southwest. He has appeared in The New York Times, The New Yorker,
Smithsonian, LIFE, and Natural History, and has contributed essays to The Bob Edwards Show on XM Satellite Radio. Miller, a major contributor to the Encyclopedia Latina, has visited Cuba regularly for more than 20 years and has led educational tours there for the National Geographic Society. On the Border, his book about the U.S.-Mexico frontier, has been optioned by Productvision Inc for a theatrical film. His most recent book is How I Learned English: 55 Accomplished Latinos Recall Lessons in Language and Life. Details on Miller: www.tommillerbooks.com.
Gary Mormino holds the Frank E. Duckwall Professorship in Florida history at the University of South Florida St. Petersburg. He and Raymond Arsenault created and direct the Florida Studies Program. He has taught at the University of South Florida since 1977. His scholarship is wide- ranging. In 1986 he authored Immigrants on the Hill, followed by The Immigrant World of Ybor City. He has received fellowships to study at the Roosevelt, Rockefeller, Huntington, and Newberry Libraries. In 1980-81, he was a Fulbright lecturer at the University of Rome. The Florida Humanities Council named him Humanist of the Year in 2003. His latest book, Land of Sunshine, State of Dreams, was published in 2005. He is presently working on two projects, a study of Florida and World War II, and a book weaving a history of food and culture in Florida. .
Susan Orlean has been a staff writer for The New Yorker since 1992, and had been contributing both signed articles and Talk of the Town pieces since 1987. She has written more than fifty Talk of the Town pieces, as well as Profiles and Reporter at Large articles, and is currently writing a series of American popular culture columns, called Popular Chronicles. She is the best-selling author of seven books, including “The Orchid Thief,” (1999) a New York Times best-seller. It was made into the Oscar-nominated movie, “Adaptation.” Her other books include “My Kind of Place: Travel Stories from a Woman Who’s Been Everywhere,”; “The Bullfighter Checks Her Makeup: My Encounters with Ordinary People,”; “Saturday Night”; and “Red Sox and Blue Fish”. “Lazy Little Loafers”, published by Harry Abrams in 2008. It is Orlean’s first book for children.
After writing nearly 20 gripping mystery novels, best selling author Ridley Pearson is finding an entirely new world of success as a children’s book author.
In 2004, Ridley teamed with his longtime friend and bandmate Dave Barry to write a series of prequels to J.M. Barrie’s classic Peter Pan. The Starcatchers Trilogy now spans 3 beloved New York Times best selling novels – Peter and the Starcatchers, Peter and the Shadow Thieves, and most recently, Peter and the Secret of Rundoon. The prolific Pearson is also the author of thrillers for younger readers, including the recent Steel Trapp: The Challenge in addition to Kingdom Keepers: Disney After Dark and its sequel, Kingdom Keepers: Disney at Dawn, due in stores in September 2008.
Ridley Pearson adult novels include Cut and Run, The Body of David Hayes, and Killer Weekend. He was the first American to be awarded the Raymond Chandler/Fulbright Fellowship in Detective Fiction at Oxford University. Ridley also writes for TV and film: In 2003, a documentary he wrote about Alcoholics Anonymous aired on A&E and The Diary of Ellen Rimbauer aired on ABC in 2004. Ridley, his wife, Marcelle, and their two young daughters split their time between St. Louis, Missouri and Hailey, Idaho.
For more information on Ridley, please visit his website at: www.ridleypearson.com.
Steve Persall's film reviews usually appear in Thursday's Weekend section but — like his columns, features and interviews — can pop up anywhere in the Times, any day of the week. Born Dec. 7, 1956 in Norfolk, Va., Persall doesn't remember a thing about that town. Florida is his nearly lifelong home. He lives in Clearwater with wife Dianne (a.k.a. the right side of his brain), his trusty dog Mojo and fussy cat Chili Palmer.
Marsha Dean Phelts is a contributor to the Florida Star newspaper and spent many years as a librarian in the Florida geneaology department of the Jacksonville Public Library. She is also the author of An American Beach for African Americans. For the complete story of this unique haven of sand, sea, and sociability, we invite you to request a review copy today.
Kevin Phillips, a former Republican strategist, has been a
political and economic commentator for more than three decades. A former White House strategist, he has been a regular contributor to the Los Angeles Times and National Public Radio and has written for Harper's and TIME. His 13 books include the New York Times bestsellers American Theocracy and American Dynasty. He lives in Connecticut.
James Reese was born in New York in 1964. While a student at the University of Notre Dame, he had a play staged off-Broadway at the Actors Repertory Theatre. He eventually received advanced degrees in literature and theatre arts from the State University of New York at Stony Brook. He has held various jobs in the non-profit sector, working on behalf of the arts and the environment, and has lived and traveled extensively in France. James presently lives in South Florida and Paris, France.
MATT ROTHSCHILD graduated from Rollins College with majors in Computer Science, Art History, and Religious Studies. He currently lives on the cusp of gentrification in Orlando, Florida, with his adopted boxer Baron—the first dog who’s ever loved him. He teaches English and journalism at an urban high school.
Elizabeth D. Samet is the author of Soldier's Heart: Reading Literature Through Peace and War at West Point and Willing Obedience: Citizens, Soldiers, and the Progress of Consent in America, 1776-1898. Soldier's Heart won a 2007 Los Angeles Times Book Prize (Current Interest Category) and was named a New York Times Notable Book of the Year. Samet has been featured on NPR's All Things Considered and on the NewsHour with Jim Lehrer. She received her BA from Harvard University and her PhD from Yale, and she has taught English at West Point since 1997.
Dr. Michael Sampson is a New York Times best selling author of 22 books for young children, including Chicka, Chicka, 1, 2, 3 and The Bill Martin Jr Big Book of Poetry. He has also written books on emergent literacy (The Pursuit of Literacy) and on literacy acquisition (Total Literacy: Reading, Writing, and Learning). After teaching in the public schools, Sampson earned his Ph.D. in Reading at the University of Arizona, where he met and established a lifelong friendship and professional relationship with the late children's author and fellow literacy expert, Bill Martin, Jr. Together they wrote many popular books, including Panda Bear, Panda Bear, What Do You See? and Baby Bear, Baby Bear, What Do You See? Today, Sampson travels the world, speaking at schools, book festivals, and conferences, where he is known for his high energy, entertaining performances. Sampson lives in St. Petersburg, where he teaches in the Childhood Education Department at the University of South Florida St. Petersburg.
Dave Scheiber has worked at the St. Petersburg Times for 30 years. He has received many national and state writing awards in two stints in sports and one in newsfeatures, including a first place in the 2008 National Headliners Awards for sports writing and first place in feature writing in the Associated Press Sports Editors contest. Scheiber was also the paper's first editor of Weekend magazine (1987-1999) and for six years was a regular contributor of feature pieces to Sports Illustrated. His band, Ocean Road, has performed throughout the Tampa Bay area for more than a decade and his new book, Covert: My Years Infiltrating The Mob — co-authored with NBA referee Bob Delaney (bottom)— is receiving critical praise nationally and has ranked as a top seller on Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble.com since its release Feb. 4, 2008.
Review of Bob Delaney and David Scheiber's "Covert"
Bob Delaney has been an NBA referee for the past 21 years; a longtime crew chief who is considered one of the league's elite officials. As a New Jersey State Trooper in the 1970s, he went undercover for nearly three years to infiltrate the Mob, and as the principal undercover operative in the landmark investigation Project Alpha. Delaney posed as a trucking company president named Bobby Covert, wearing a wire and immersed in constant danger. As his good friend Joe Pistone (the real-life Donny Brasco) writes, "If Bobby Covert had said the wrong thing in a meeting, he'd have come out wrapped in a rug." The investigation ultimately helped convict more than 30 mobsters and laid the groundwork for other Mafia investigations that followed. Delaney later testified about the investigation at the U.S. Senate Hearings on Organized Crime and Waterfront Corruption in 1981. Today, in addition to his NBA career, Delaney travels the country giving seminars on leadership skills and speaks regularly at the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center in Glynco., Ga. and to many other law enforcement agencies around the U.S., Canada and Europe about undercover work. Covert, which made its debut as a Top 10 book on BarnesandNoble.com in February, will be published in paperback this spring.
Jeff Shaara, a descendant of Italian immigrants, was born in 1952 in New Brunswick, New Jersey. He grew up in Tallahassee, Florida, and graduated from Florida State University in 1974, with a degree in Criminology. In 1993, the film Gettysburg was released, which was based on his father’s classic novel, The Killer Angels. After the critical and commercial success of the film, Jeff was approached about the possibility of continuing the story, finding someone to write a prequel and sequel to The Killer Angels. After some considerable soul-searching, Jeff decided to try to tackle the project himself.
In 1996, Ballantine Books published Jeff’s first novel, Gods and Generals, the prequel to his father’s great work. Gods and Generals leapt onto the New York Times Bestseller List and remained there for fifteen weeks. Critics nationwide praised the book and Jeff's writing ability. In 1998, the sequel, The Last Full Measure, was published with the same result: thirteen weeks on the New York Times Bestseller List and universal praise from critics and fans nationwide. Since then, Jeff has published 7 more books- Gone For Soldiers, Rise To Rebellion, The Glorious Cause, To The Last Man, Jeff Shaara's Civil War Battlefields, The Rising Tide, and most recently The Steel Wave, second part of a World War 2 trilogy, which follows key participants through the Normandy invasion.
After many years spent in New York City and the mountains of Montana, Jeff has returned to Florida and lives in Sarasota with his wife Lisa.
Tammar Stein is the author of Light Years, an ALA Best Book for Young Adults, a Teddy Book award winner, a Texas summer reading list book, and a Virginia Reader’s Choice book currently in all Virginia high schools. Her second novel, High Dive, was dubbed ‘a diamond in the fluff’ for young adults by the St. Petersburg Times.
Tammar lives in Florida with her family and a bilingual dog that has yet to realize there’s an 8-foot alligator living in the pond across the street.
| | |
