|
|
|
2007 Festival Author Biographies
Marjorie Abrams (M.D. Abrams) is a retired
university professor and
college administrator. Her interests in the environment and the theatre
are reflected in her first two novels featuring an actress sleuth and
set in North Florida sites of ecological and historic significance. Murder
on the Prairie (2005) takes place in
Gainesville and Paynes
Prairie State Park. Murder at Wakulla Springs (2006), for
which she won
a Bronze Medal for popular fiction in the 2006 Florida Book Awards, is
set at the Wakulla Springs State Park and in Apalachicola. Abrams has
published articles and spoken on environmental issues, publishing,
mystery and playwriting. Her one-act play, The Cellphone
(2004), won
two awards, and was produced by the Hippodrome State Theatre in
Gainesville, Florida where she lives. She holds a B.A. degree from the
University of Florida and a Ph.D. from the University of Miami. See
also www.mdabrams.com.
Paco Ahlgren was born in El Paso, Texas on
November 19, 1968. He spent the earliest part of his adulthood as a
professional musician. Ultimately, he earned a degree in finance, and
has worked as an economist and a financial analyst for the last
seventeen years.
He never abandoned his philosophical roots, however, and has spent the
last two decades devouring subjects ranging from eastern epistemology
and metaphysics, to quantum mechanics, to psychology.
Paco has traveled the world, examining the connections between modern
scientific theories and ancient traditions and cultures. His first
novel, Discipline, is a confluence of these passions. He
splits his time between his homes in Austin, Texas and Durango,
Colorado.
Preston L. Allen is a recipient of a State of
Florida Individual Artist
Fellowship and author of the thriller HOOCHIE MAMA, as well
as the
collection CHURCHBOYS AND OTHER SINNERS. His stories have
appeared in
numerous magazines and journals and have been anthologized in BROWN
SUGAR(Penguin) and MIAMI NOIR (Akashic). He lives in
South Florida and ALL OR NOTHING is his most recent novel.
David Amram has composed more than 100
orchestral and chamber music works,written many scores for Broadway
theater and film, including the classic scores for the films "Splendor
in The Grass" and "The Manchurian Candidate" two operas,
including,the ground-breaking Holocaust opera "The Final
Ingredient" and the score for the landmark 1959 documentary "Pull
My Daisy," narrated by novelist Jack Kerouac. He is also the
author of three books, "Vibrations," an autobiography, "Offbeat:
Collaborating With, Kerouac," a memoir, and "Upbeat: Nine
Lives of a Musical Cat" which will be published this Fall by
Paradigm Publishers. A pioneer player of jazz French horn, he is also a
virtuoso on piano, numerous flutes and whistles, percussion, and dozens
of folkloric instruments from 25 countries, as well as an inventive,
funny improvisational lyricist. He has collaborated with Leonard
Bernstein, who chose him as The New York Philharmonic's first
composer-in-residence in 1966, Langston Hughes, Dizzy Gillespie, Dustin
Hoffman, Willie Nelson, Thelonious Monk, Odetta, Elia Kazan, Arthur
Miller, Charles Mingus, Lionel Hampton, E. G. Marshall, and Tito
Puente. Amram's most recent work "Giants of the Night" is a
flute concerto dedicated to the memory of Charlie Parker, Jack Kerouac
and Dizzy Gillespie, three American artists Amram knew and worked with.
It was commissioned and premiered by Sir James Galway. Today, as he has
for over fifty years, Amram continues to compose music while traveling
the world as a conductor, soloist, bandleader, visiting scholar, and
narrator in five languages. He is also currently working with author
Frank McCourt on a new setting of the Mass, "Missa Manhattan,"
as well as on a symphony commissioned by the Guthrie Foundation, "Symphonic
Variations on a Song by Woody Guthrie." to be premiered this Sept.
28 in San Jose California by the Symphony Silicone Valley. Amram's
webpage is www.davidamram.com.
David A. Andelman is Executive Editor of
Forbes.com, the world's largest business and financial website with
16.5 million monthly viewers. Previously, he served for four years as
Business Editor of The New York Daily News, after serving as
editor in chief of Smallcapcenter.com, a global business and financial
news website. This followed four and a half years he spent as news
editor of Bloomberg News and Bloomberg.com. For 12 years he
was a domestic and foreign correspondent for The New York Times.
He served in various posts in New York and Washington, as Southeast
Asia bureau chief, based in Bangkok, then East European bureau chief,
based in Belgrade. He then moved to CBS News where he served for seven
years as Paris Correspondent, traveling through and reporting from 52
countries. He served for two years as Washington Correspondent for CNBC
before moving to Bloomberg. He is the author of three books - The
Peacemakers, published by Harper & Row; The Fourth World
War, published by William Morrow, which he co-authored with the
Count de Marenches, long-time head of French intelligence; and A
Shattered Peace: Versailles, 1919 and the Price We Pay Today, to
be published by John Wiley & Sons in October 2007. Mr. Andelman has
written for such publications as Harpers, The Atlantic, The New
Republic, The New York Times Magazine, Foreign Policy and Foreign
Affairs. He is a graduate of Harvard University and the Columbia
University Graduate School of Journalism, and is a member of the
Council on Foreign Relations and the Grolier Club.
Tina McElroy Ansa is a novelist, publisher,
filmmaker, teacher and journalist. But above all, she is a storyteller.
Her fifth novel, TAKING AFTER MUDEAR, a sequel to her
bestselling UGLY WAYS and the lead title on DownSouth Presss
first list, will be published in October 2007. As with all her novels,
nationally acclaimed artist Varnette P. Honeywood has created an
original artwork for the new books jacket cover.
Ms. Ansa calls herself part of a writing tradition, one of those little
Southern girls who always knew she wanted to tell stories. She grew up
in Middle Georgia in the 1950's hearing her grandfather's stories on
the porch of her family home and strangers' stories downtown in her
father's juke joint, which have inspired Mulberry, Georgia, the
mythical world which is the setting of her four earlier novels, BABY
OF THE FAMILY, UGLY WAYS, THE HAND I FAN WITH and YOU KNOW
BETTER.
In March 2007, Ms. Ansa launched the independent publishing company,
DownSouth Press, with its focus on African-American literature --
fiction and nonfiction. DownSouth will publish established as well as
emerging literary voices.
Cynthia Barnett has been a reporter and editor
at newspapers and magazines for twenty years. Since 1998, she's written
for Florida Trend magazine, where she covers investigative,
environmental, public policy and business stories. Among numerous
journalism awards, she's won three investigative-reporting prizes in
the Green Eyeshades, which recognize the best journalism in 11
southeastern states. Barnett earned a bachelor's degree in journalism
and master's in American history with a specialization in environmental
history, both from the University of Florida. In 2004, she was awarded
a Knight-Wallace Fellowship at the University of Michigan, where she
spent a year studying freshwater supply. Her first book, Mirage:
Florida and the Vanishing Water of the Eastern U.S., was published
in April by the University of Michigan Press. In a starred review, Publisher's
Weekly said Mirage "should become vital reading for
citizens and policymakers as global concerns over water scarcity grow."
Barnett lives in Gainesville, Florida, with her husband, science writer
Aaron Hoover, and their children, Will and Drew.
John Bowe has contributed to The New
Yorker, The New York Times Magazine, GQ, The American Prospect,
National Public Radio's This American Life, McSweeney's, and
others. He is the co-editor of Gig: Americans Talk About Their Jobs,
and co-screenwriter of the film Basquiat. In 2004, he
received the J. Anthony Lukas Work-in-Progress Award, the Sydney
Hillman Award for journalists, writers, and public figures who pursue
social justice and public policy for the common good, and the Richard
J. Margolis Award, dedicated to journalism that combines social concern
and humor. He lives in Manhattan.
Bobby Braddock grew up in Florida, traveled
the South as a rock 'n'
roll musician, and became a songwriter in Nashville in the mid-1960s.
Many of his songs, such as "D-I-V-O-R-C-E," "Golden Ring," "He
Stopped
Loving Her Today," "Time Marches On," and "I Wanna Talk about
Me" are
country music standards. In 2001, he embarked on a new career as a
producer, discovering singer Blake Shelton and making several number
one records with him. Braddock's new memoir, DOWN IN ORBURNDALE,
published by LSU Press, is about his pre-Disney-World Central Florida
youth, "when the landscape was more rural and the culture was more
Southern."
Activist and speaker Ellen Bravo has appeared on the Today Show
and Now
with Bill Moyers as the author of The Job/Family Challenge: A 9to5
Guide (Not for Women Only), the co-author of The 9to5 Guide
to
Combating Sexual Harassment, and an authority on feminist labor
issues.
She has won many awards, including a Women of Vision Award from the Ms.
Foundation. Bravo was born in 1944 in Cleveland, Ohio. As a Fulbright
Scholar she earned her B.A. in Classics at Cornell, Cambridge, and her
M.A. at McGill Universities, after which she embarked on a career as a
feminist activist. She spent over 20 years directing 9to5, the National
Association for Working Women, and has gained recognition as one of the
most prominent leaders of the women's labor movement. Currently,
Bravo teaches women's studies at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.
She and her husband have raised two sons.
Sue Carlton began working for the Times
as a college intern in 1988 as a bureau reporter in Hillsborough
County, covering suburban news, government and features. She then
became the criminal courts reporter in the downtown Tampa bureau and
covered that beat for nine years. Later, she became a legal
affairs/general assignment reporter, also based in Tampa. In 2001, she
became a deputy editor of the Floridian section in newsfeatures before
returning to Tampa as the city editor in 2002. In 2005, she became a
columnist, writing columns three times a week for the Metro section.
Betsy Carter is the author of The Orange
Blossom Special and a memoir, Nothing to Fall Back On.
She is a
contributing editor to O: The Oprah
Magazine and writes for Good Housekeeping, New York, and
AARP, among
others. She formerly served as an editor at Esquire, Newsweek,
and Harper's Bazaar and was the founding editor
of New York Woman. She
lives in New York City.
Chef Robert presents Romantic Dinners for
Two. A book about creating
Passion. Robert and his wife have been best of friends for 29 years.
They have created many romantic rendezvous that have left them with
many wonderful memories. They continue their journey holding steadfast
to each other. Through trial and error they have discovered that to
successfully maneuver obstacles, to keep from falling, it is best to
walk the way together.
Chef Robert loves to cook. During the last 29 years he has worked in
the food service industry, cooking and catering. Presently he works for
the Greater Essex District Public School Board where he teaches
students who aspire to be chefs one day. His wife Barb, an interior
decorator, enjoys working in sales and helping people decorate their
homes. They live in Windsor, Ontario Canada with their two children.
Gennifer Choldenko's first novel, Notes
From a Liar and Her Dog, was a
School Library Journal Best Book of the Year and a California Book
Award winner. Her second novel, Al Capone Does My Shirts, was
a Newbery
Honor Book and a School Library Journal, Kirkus, and Publishers Weekly
Best Book of the Year. Al Capone Does My Shirts was
short-listed for
the Carnegie in the United Kingdom and has been on the New York Times,
Booksense, and Publisher's Weekly bestseller lists. Gennifer's novels
have been translated into 11 languages. Her new picture book, How
to
Make Friends With A Giant (illustrated by Amy Walrod), was
published in
July 2006.
Roy Peter Clark has taught writing at The Poynter Institute for 30 years, and is widely considered the most influential writing coach in American journalism. He is the author or editor of 14 books on journalism and the writing craft. His latest book is Writing Tools: 50 Essential Strategies for Every Writer, published by Little, Brown. Clark is the creator of Writers Camp, a program for teachers and young students in Pinellas County, FL. Clark now serves Poynter, a school for journalists that owns the stock of the St. Petersburg Times Publishing Company, as vice president and senior scholar. He is a three-time Pulitzer Prize juror. His work on values and writing has been featured on the Oprah Winfrey Show.
David Colburn teaches and writes about state
and national politics.
He has authored or edited fourteen books, including most recently "Florida's
Megatrends" (2002) with Lance
deHaven-Smith; "African-American Mayors: Race, Politics, and the
American City,"
(2001) edited with Jeffrey Adler; and "Government in the Sunshine:
Florida Politics Since 1845," (1999) with Lance deHaven-Smith. He
continues to write for the Orlando Sentinel and wrote several
op-ed
essays for the paper on the Florida gubernatorial contest in 2006.
Colburn directs the Reubin O. D. Askew Institute on Politics and
Society
at the University of Florida, is professor of history, and senior
advisor to the Chancellor of the State University System of Florida.
Since 1994, the Askew Institute has provided public programs to civic
leaders and citizens of Florida on critical issues confronting the
state. Colburn is also a Distinguished Lecturer for the Organization of
American Historians and chair of the board for the Florida Humanities
Council.
Michael Connelly is a former journalist and
author of the bestselling series of Harry Bosch novels, the most recent
of which was The Overlook (May 2007), along with the
bestselling novels The Lincoln Lawyer, Chasing the Dime, Void
Moon, Blood Work, and The Poet. He has won numerous
awards for his journalism and novels. For more information about the
author, visit www.michaelconnelly.com.
Rosemary Daniell's recent book is Secrets
of the Zona Rosa: How Writing (and Sisterhood) Can Change Womens Lives
(Henry Holt and Company, 2006). She is known as one of the best writing
coaches in the country and is the founder of Zona Rosa, the
series of creative writing workshops she leads all over the country and
in Europe. Over 45 Zona Rosans have become published authors. Her
revolutionary memoir, Fatal Flowers: On Sin, Sex and Suicide in
the Deep South won the 1999 Palimpsest Prize for a most-requested
out-of-print book. Along with her second memoir, Sleeping with
Soldiers, it was a forerunner of the current memoir trend. The
author of five other books of poetry and prose, her many awards include
two N.E.A. fellowships. Her features and reviews have appeared in Harpers
Bazaar, Mademoiselle, Mother Jones, Travel & Leisure, The New York
Times Book Review and many other publications.
Scott M. Deitche was born in New Jersey and
came to Florida for college, graduating from Eckerd College with a
degree in marine biology. His first book, Cigar City Mafia: A
Complete History of the Tampa Underworld was an in-depth look into
one of the most enigmatic Mafia families in the country. His current
book is The Silent Don: The Criminal Underworld of Santo
Trafficante Jr. For his expertise on organized crime, Scott has
appeared on The Discovery Channel; The History Channel; local NBC, CBS,
ABC, and Fox affiliates; and local and national radio programs. Scott
also writes for various national magazines and websites. Scott lives in
St. Petersburg, FL with his wife and two daughters.
The son of a diplomat, Aidan Delgado grew up in various
countries,
including Thailand where he was introduced to Buddhism, and Egypt,
where he learned Arabic. In 2001 he enlisted in the U.S. Army Reserve,
and in 2003 was deployed to Iraq as a specialist in Nasiriyah and at
Abu Ghraib prison. As his Buddhist faith developed, and he witnessed
numerous cases of racism, arrogance and abuse by his fellow soldiers,
he came to oppose the war and apply for Conscientious Objector status.
After serving a year in Iraq his CO status was approved and his was
Honorably Discharged. Since then, he has completed a degree in religion
at the New College of Florida and has traveled across the country
speaking about peace and the harsh realities of the Iraq War. An active
member of Iraq Veterans Against the War and the Buddhist Peace
Fellowship, Delgado lives in Sarasota.
Pat Duggins has been covering space-related
news for over twenty years.
He has covered more than 90 space shuttle launches and two-dozen
landings. Duggins has also spent more than a decade as the
'voice' of NASA coverage on National Public Radio,
informing audiences of NPR programs like Morning Edition, All Things
Considered, and Weekend Edition. His work at Orlando's public
radio station 90.7 WMFE-FM has been honored with a National Sigma Delta
Chi Award from The Society of Professional Journalists, as well as a
National Headliner Award, a Best Documentary Award from Public Radio
News Directors, Incorporated (PRNDI), a regional Edward R. Murrow
Award, and a SunCoast Regional Emmy, among others. Pat and his wife
Lucia
reside in the College Park neighborhood of Orlando with their Corgi
dog, Kris. When he is not chasing space stories, Pat enjoys
cooking, travel, and photography.
With the publication of Abraham's
Children, Jon Entine is the author and editor of four
books,
including the bestseller Taboo: Why Black Athletes Dominate Sports
and
Why We are Afraid to Talk About It (2000), which was based on his
award-winning NBC documentary, Black Athletes: Fact and Fiction.
He
spent 20 years at ABC, CBS, and NBC, where he was Tom Brokaw's longtime
producer, winning more than 20 journalism awards, including Emmys for
specials on the reform movements in China and the Soviet Union. Jon is
now an adjunct fellow with the American Enterprise Institute in
Washington and a corporate consultant in his two areas of specialty:
science and society and corporate responsibility. He has been featured
in hundreds of articles around the world and on many programs,
including ABCs 20/20, ABC World News Tonight, HBO, NPR, BBC, FOX, The
New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and The Washington
Post. He
lives in Cincinnati with his daughter Madeleine.
Christopher Felver is a photographer and
filmmaker with solo
photographic exhibitions at the Centre Georges Pompidou, Torino
Fotografia Biennale Internazionale, and Fahey/Klein Gallery in Los
Angeles. He participated in the 53rd Venice International Film
Festival.
The National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., the New York Public
Library, and the Museum of Fine Art in Boston have presented
retrospectives of his films: John Cage Talks About Cows, Cecil
Taylor:
All the Notes, West Coast: Beat & Beyond, Taken by the Romans,
Donald Judd's Marfa Texas, Tony Cragg: In Celebration of Sculpture,
California Clay in the Rockies, and The Coney Island of
Lawrence
Ferlinghetti. Mr. Felvers books are The Late Great Allen
Ginsberg,
Seven Days in Nicaragua Libre, The Poet Exposed, Ferlinghetti Portrait,
Angels, Anarchists & Gods, and The Importance of Being.
His work is
collected in libraries and museums worldwide.
Barbara Caridad Ferrer is a first generation,
bilingual Cuban-American, born in Manhattan and raised in Miami, which
means she speaks Spanish at least well enough to regularly employ the
colorful expressions.
Her young adult debut, Adios to My Old Life (MTV Books/2006),
won the Romance Writers of America's 2007 RITA for Best Contemporary
Single Title Romance; her second MTV Books novel, It's Not About
the Accent will be released in August 2007 and is already
garnering praise such as, "Reminiscent of Alisa Valdes-Rodriguezs The
Dirty Girls Social Club, this feisty and fun novel is proof that
Caridad Ferrer is a rising star in the rapidly growing teen fiction
genre." (RomanticAdvances.com) She has also contributed to the
anthology, Fifteen Candles: 15 Tales of Taffeta, Hairspray, Drunk
Uncles, and Other Quinceanera Stories (Harper Collins/Rayo). Barb
can be found on the web at: http://barbaraferrer.com/ or
www.caridadferrer.com.
Adrian Fogelin, daughter of a fiction writer
and a chemical engineer,
is the author of what young readers call "chapter books." All seven of
her titles are set in Florida. Three have been on the Sunshine State
Young Readers Award list, and "The
Real Question," her novel about an overachieving high school
student's search for life's real purpose, was just given the gold medal
in the YA category of the Florida Book Awards.
Adrian is a frequent guest at schools throughout the country as a
visiting author and a creative writing teacher. Her "Think Like an
Author" program inspires reluctant writers to express themselves on
paper.
Originally trained as an artist, her latest book, "The Sorta
Sisters" is heavily
illustrated—her parent's investment in that fancy art school is finally
paying off!
Debra Gingerich's poems and essays have
appeared in The Mochila Review, MARGIE: The American
Journal of Poetry, Whiskey Island Magazine, The Writer's Chronicle
and others. She is the author of the collection of poems Where We
Start (2007). Gingerich
received a Master of Fine Arts in Writing from Vermont College. Her
writing has been strongly influenced by her experiences as a part of a
Mennonite community and explores the tensions between individual
identity and community loyalty. This tension has been expanded as she
also creatively investigates her husband's unique upbringing in former
Yugoslavia where community loyalty turned into war. Gingerich has built
an impressive collection of poetry with a sense of paradox and wit, and
a willingness to explore the poem's surprising turns and defer comfort.
She lives in Sarasota, FL.
Christopher Goffard is a staff writer at the
Los Angeles Times and was
a finalist this year for the Pulitzer Prize in Feature Writing. A Los
Angeles native, he sold his first story to the San Francisco Bay
Guardian at the age of 19 and graduated from Cornell University
with a
degree in English. His work as a cops & courts reporter for a tiny
newspaper in Orange County, California furnished the raw material for Snitch
Jacket, his first novel. For 8 years
he worked as a reporter for
the St. Petersburg Times, and since Jan. 2006 he has been on staff at
the Los Angeles Times, writing about everything from border warriors to
prison gangs, from evangelical America to the legacy of Watergate.
Peter Golenbock, one of the nation's
best-known sports authors, was
born on July 19, 1946 in New York City. He grew up in Stamford,
Connecticut, and in 1963 graduated St. Luke's School in New Canaan,
Connecticut. He graduated Dartmouth College in 1967 and the New York
University School of Law in 1970.
Golenbock began writing about sports at Dartmouth. In addition to
writing for The Daily Dartmouth, he wrote for The New
York Times and The Boston Globe. At Dartmouth he became
friends with Robert Ariel
"Red" Rolfe, the former New York Yankees third baseman and college
athletic director. Golenbock would listen for hours while Rolfe regaled
him with tales of his Yankee teammates, including Lou Gehrig, Joe
DiMaggio, and Lefty Gomez. Their time together would influence
Golenbock's unexpected career path.
Golenbock currently lives with his son in St. Petersburg, Florida.
A native of Pittsburgh, Robert Gussin retired from Johnson
&
Johnson as a Corporate VP and Chief Scientific Officer in 2000. Bob
graduated from Duquesne University with a Masters of Science in
Pharmacology and received a Ph.D. from the University of Michigan
Medical School.
Bob serves on numerous boards and advisory committees, including NASA
Aerospace Medicine and Occupational Health Advisory Committee, Duquesne
University Board of Directors, the Board of Directors of Catholic
Health Services, and the Board of Directors of Christus Health.
Gussin is a sought-after speaker and presents at a variety of
conferences, symposia and association meetings. He also volunteers with
the East End Hospice in Westhampton, New York, and the Senior
Friendship Clinic in Sarasota, Florida.
Gussin and his wife, author Patricia Gussin, divide their time between
Florida, New York, and their vineyard in New Zealand.
Bob's passions, science and sports, collide in his first novel, Trash
Talk.
Born in Grand Rapids, MI, Patricia Gussin, M.D. is a graduate
of Wayne
State University School of Medicine. She is Board Certified in Family
Medicine and holds an MBA from Columbia University. Pat practiced
medicine and directed medical research as a worldwide VP for a leading
health care company.
Pat has seven children and sixteen grandchildren. Pat and her husband,
Dr. Robert Gussin, divide their time between Longboat Key, Florida,
East Hampton, New York, and their vineyards in New Zealand. Pat is the
author of Shadow of Death,
set at the epicenter of her own medical training, Detroit in 1967, and
the year the city erupted into the worst case of civil violence since
the Civil War Shadow of Death
was a finalist for International Thriller Writers Best First Novel
2006 Thriller
Awards.
A member of Mystery Writers of America, Pat's second novel Twisted
Justice will be available
Dec. 1, 2007.
Kristin Harmel is the author of four novels: How
To Sleep With a Movie
Star (Warner Books, 2006), The Blonde Theory (Warner
Books, 2007), When
You Wish (Random House, coming Feb. 2008) and The Art of
French Kissing (Hachette Book Group, coming Feb. 2008). She is a
frequent contributor
to People magazine and appears regularly on the national
morning TV
show The Daily Buzz. Other writing credits include Woman's Day,
Glamour, American Baby and Men's Health . Born in
Boston, she
grew up in St. Petersburg, Fla., and graduated with degrees in
journalism and Spanish from the University of Florida. She currently
splits time between Orlando, Paris and LA, and she teaches
novel-writing classes through mediabistro.com. Her novels have been
translated into numerous languages and are sold all over the world.
Find out more at www.KristinHarmel.com .
Elizabeth Stewart's father, Col. Peter J. Stewart, (USAF), is missing in action in North Vietnam. His name appears on Panel 6E, Line 12 of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, DC. Ms. Stewart has spent over two decades researching intelligence relating to American POWs and MIAs. Her efforts have taken her from Capitol Hill to Cambodia, to the South China Sea, to the Presidential Palace in Hanoi and to the most remote regions of northern Vietnam. Ms. Stewart earned her bachelor's in psychology and law degree from Louisiana State University After practicing law in Baton Rouge, LA and Bartow, FL, she served as the Deputy General Counsel for the US Access Board in Washington, DC for 20 years. In 2006 she was appointed to a four year term as a member of the US Access Board by President George W. Bush. Ms. Stewart is an associate with the firm of McKinley and Blenk in Lake Wales, FL concentrating on family law matters. With Former Congressman Bill Hendon (R-NC), she is a co-author of the New York Times bestseller, An Enormous Crime, The Definitive Account of American POWs Abandoned in Southeast Asia.Former U.S. Rep. Billy Hendon,(R-NC), served two terms on the U.S. House POW/MIA Task Force (1981-1982, 1985-1986); as Consultant on POW/MIA Affairs with an office in the Pentagon (1983); and as a full time intelligence investigator assigned to the Senate Select Committee on POW/MIA Affairs (1991-1992). He has traveled to South and Southeast Asia 33 times on behalf of America’s POWs and MIAs. Hendon is considered the nation's foremost authority on intelligence relating to American POWs held after Operation Homecoming and an expert on the Vietnamese and Laotian prison systems. He lives in Washington, DC.
Burton Hersh was raised in Minneapolis and
graduated from The Blake
School before moving along to Harvard College. As an undergraduate he
won the History and Literature Award and the top Bowdoin Prize and
graduated Magna Cum Laude. In l955 he went as a Fulbright Scholar to
Germany, where he studied existential philosophy under Martin
Heidegger. Following a couple of years as a translator in the Army --
where he wrote the handbook for general officers Protocol,
Courtesies
and Traditions of Germany -- a Guide -- Hersh began a lifelong
career
as an independent writer.
His work since has included several novels, one of which -- The
Nature
of the Beast -- won the Writers Notes Award as best fiction of
2003.
Better known for nonfiction, Hersh has had two biographies among the
top 50 books in sales for their respective years -- The Education
of
Edward Kennedy and The Mellon Family , a Book-of-the-Month-Club
selection. His lively, controversial study of the early decades of the
CIA, The Old Boys, is recognized as definitive throughout the
intelligence community. With the appearance of Bobby and J. Edgar,
Hersh completes many decades of study, frequently on very close terms,
of the vagaries of the Kennedy family.
Married most of his life, with two adult children, Hersh divides his
year between Bradford, New Hampshire and St Petersburg, Florida.
Ernest Hooper joined the Times in
1992 as the Tampa sports editor, where he coordinated coverage of prep
and community sports events for Hillsborough County. From 1997 to 2001,
he covered the NFL/Bucs beat for the Times. He is currently a columnist
who writes three times a week on numerous topics around the city of
Tampa. He also writes a weekly column for the South Shore & Brandon
Times section. You can often find him helping out various charitable
efforts in the Tampa Bay area.
Jay Hopler was born in San Juan, Puerto Rico,
in 1970. He has earned
degrees from New York University, The Johns Hopkins University Writing
Seminars and The Iowa Writers Workshop. His work has appeared, or is
forthcoming, in numerous magazines and journals including The
Kenyon Review, The New Yorker and The Seattle Review.
His first book of poems, Green Squall,
was chosen by Louise Glck as the winner of the 2005 Yale Series of
Younger Poets Award and was published by Yale University Press in April
2006. Jay Hopler's other awards and honors include the 2007 Great Lakes
Colleges Association New Writers Award, a 2006 Florida Book Award
[Silver Medal for Poetry] and ForeWord
Magazine's 2006 Book of the Year Award [Bronze Medal for Poetry]. He is
Assistant Professor of English at the University of South Florida.
Chris Jericho has regularly appeared with
World Wrestling Entertainment
(WWE), World Championships Wrestling (WCW), and Extreme Championship
Wrestling (ECW). In addition to his title as the first-ever WWE
Undisputed Champion, Jericho is a seven-time WWE International
Champion. He is a regular contributor to VH1's "Best Week Ever"
series, the host
of the syndicated radio show "The
Rock of Jericho," and was recently a contestant on Fox's
"Celebrity Duets." He splits his
time between Florida and California.
John Sims Jeter recently moved from Temple
Terrace, Florida to Huntsville, Alabama. He is a member of Lifelong
Writers at the USF, Huntsville Literary Association, and an honorary
member of the Florida Mid-State Music Teachers Association.
His short story, The Man Who Took Notes, was published in the
2004-2005 Issue of The Louisville Review and nominated for 2005
Pushcart Prize XXIX. Another short story, My Life as a Lid,
appears in the 2006-2007 issue of Palm Prints, a literary journal of
Lifelong Writers-USF.
John, a native of Birmingham, Alabama, retired in 2005 from his
previous life as a mathematician and professional engineer. He was a
long-time volunteer reader for the Radio Reading Service of WUSF-FM and
enjoys choral singing, classical music and non-competitive bicycling.
His novel, . . . and the angels sang was released in April
2007 by Livingston Press. The fictional work deals with three loves of
Johns life: music, poetry and nature along with the women who share
these passions.
Stuart Kaminsky is an Edgar Award winner who
has more than fifty
published novels to his credit and who The Mystery Writers of America
named as their 2006 Grand Master, MWA's highest honor. He is the author
of the Inspector Rostnikov, Toby Peters, Lew Fonesca and Abe Lieberman
series, of which The Dead Don't Lie
(Aug 2007), is the latest. A prolific features writer, Kaminsky has
been published in The Chicago
Tribune, The Chicago Sun-Times, Chicago Magazine, Science Digest,
Today's Health, The Philadelphia Inquirer, and The Washington
Post. He holds a
Ph.D. in Speech from Northwestern University where he taught and
chaired the Department of Radio/Television/Film before coming to
Florida State University where he was a Professor of Motion Picture,
Television and Recording Arts. Born and raised in Chicago, Stuart
Kaminsky has since retired from teaching and is now writing full time
in Sarasota, Florida where he lives with his family.
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 latest book, which collects favorite columns, is Seasons
of Real Florida, published by University Press of Florida.
Chris Kuzneski is the international
bestselling author of Sign of the Cross, an acclaimed
thriller that has been translated into more than a dozen languages. His
new novel, Sword of God (October 2007), brings back the nervy
characters Payne and Jones, who were introduced in his first novel, The
Plantation, which received rave reviews. Although he grew up in
Indiana, PA, Chris currently lives on the Gulf Coast of Florida. To
learn more, please visit his website: www.chriskuzneski.com.
Michael Largo has been collecting statistics
and information on the American way for dying for over a decade. He is
the author of Final Exits: The Illustrated Encyclopedia of How We
Die, winner of the 2006 Bram Stoker Award, and the author of three
novels. He currently lives in Atlanta.
Born and raised in Sarasota, Florida, Ward Larsen graduated
from the
University of Central Florida. He took a commission in the United
States Air Force serving for seven years as a pilot in the 95th and
75th Fighter Squadrons. Ward traveled widely across North America,
Europe and the Middle East, including 22 combat missions in Operation
Desert Storm.
Larsen received two Air Medals, was trained in aircraft accident
investigation and attended USAF survival training. Ward Larsen's
military qualifications and positions include Expert Qualification in
Small Arms Marksmanship, Four-ship Flight Lead, Instructor Pilot,
Maintenance Test Pilot and Flight Commander.
After leaving the service, Ward returned to Florida. Since 1992, he has
been a commercial pilot with a Major Airlines. An avid soccer player
since his youth, Ward Larsen coaches a competitive soccer team. Ward
and his wife live in Florida with their three children.
The Perfect Assassin
is Ward's first book release.
If you've ever looked at your blood relatives and thought: Who ARE
these people? I have absolutely nothing in common with them--you'll
"relate to" Strangers in Blood: Distanced Lives.
In her third nonfiction book, Judge/author/journalist Janice Law
narrates her own family estrangement, interwoven with profiles of
celebrities such as John Bradshaw and Rick Bragg who discuss theirs.
"Estrangements are the all-too-common unmentioned ugly elephants in
many peoples' living rooms," writes psychiatrist/poet Dr. Peter Olsson,
profiled in Strangers.
Dramatically tracking a card with no return address, Law attempts to
reconnect with a much older brother after a 50 -year estrangement, and
tries to solve a mystery of their heritage.
Law, a former Florida prosecutor, is a graduate of Nova Southeastern
law school and a former reporter for the Fort Lauderdale News. Law
served as a Texas criminal court judge. She is now a visiting judge. Visit her website at www.judgejanicelaw.com.
David Leavitt is the author of several novels,
including The Body of Jonah Boyd, While England Sleeps,
Equal Affections and The Indian Clerk. A recipient of fellowships from both the
John Simon Guggenheim Foundation and the National Endowment
for the Arts, he teaches at the University of Florida in Gainesville.
Con Lehane grew up on private
estates in Fairfield County, Connecticut,
where his father worked as a gardener and his mother a cook,
housekeeper, and laundress. He graduated from Marquette University with
a degree in journalism and from Columbia University School of the Arts
in New York City with a Master of Fine Arts in fiction writing. Over
the years he has worked as a college professor, a union organizer, and
has tended bar at two dozen separate establishments. He currently works
as a labor journalist and lives outside Washington, DC. Death at the
Old Hotel is his third published mystery novel featuring the
brave,
perhaps foolhardy, but definitely likeable, New York City bartender
Brian McNulty.
John Leland is a national correspondent for The
New York Times and author of Hip: The History (2004) and
Why Kerouac Matters: The Lessons of On the Road
(They're not what you think). He has written about popular culture
and American society since 1981 and was an original columnist at SPIN
magazine, editor-in-chief of Details and a senior editor at Newsweek.
Yes, Elise Leonard used to be a teacher, but don't hold that
against her. All her students said she was pretty cool. But then she
had kids, and they tell her she's not. (But what do they
know?) She's the author of Simon & Schusters Monday Morning
Blitz (Book 1: AL'S WORLD), Killer Lunch Lady (Book 2:
AL'S WORLD), Scared Stiff (Book 3: ALS WORLD), and Monkey
Business (Book 4: AL'S WORLD), and luckily, the readers of her
AL'S WORLD series think she's cool and funny! [They're like the Rush
Hour movies without the cursing or martial arts. Or maybe like comedic
Vin Diesel movies.] She writes her funny, high-action, fast-paced books
20 hours/day, 7 days/week, so she doesn't have time to do much else.
But on rare occasions, when she does find herself with spare time, she
does things like speak at schools, festivals, and conferences, take
showers that last longer than four minutes, and occasionally talks to
her alarmingly real-looking ceramic Doberman whom she refers to as
Zeus. (She loves dogs, but doesn't have time to tend to one that's
actually alive.)
Jeff Lindsay is the author of Darkly
Dreaming Dexter and Dearly Devoted Dexter. He lives in
South Florida with his wife and three daughters. His novels are the
subject of the hit Showtime series, "DEXTER."
Known as "the Wedding Writer," Kimberly Llewellyn is the author of five
contemporary novels, including her last two published as humorous
women's fiction in trade paperback by Berkley Books.
Tulle Little, Tulle Late, released August
2006, was recognized as a Book Sense Notable Pick by the American
Booksellers Association. It was also an RCA Cataromance Award Nominee
and an Oklahoma More than Magic Finalist. Her recent release is The
Quest for the Holy Veil.
Kimberly has written nonfiction articles as well as stories for the
confession magazine market. She enjoys promoting "fiction for women" to
the media, as well as to various organizations, such as the arts
council, Miss Florida State Pageant for Miss America, and bridal expos.
She's made guest appearances on television, including the shows Daytime,
Mornings Around the Bay, and Kathy Fountain's Your Turn.
Her web site is: www.KimberlyLlewellyn.com.
Robert N. Macomber is an
internationally recognized award-winning
maritime author, magazine writer, lecturer, and television commentator.
He lectures at the Center for Army Analysis in Washington DC, the U.S.
Southern Command in Miami, aboard the Queen Mary 2 and other luxury
liners, at the American History Forum, and is a maritime commentator
for Florida PBS.
The author of the Honor Series of naval novels, Macombers awards
include the Florida Genealogy Society's Outstanding Achievement Award
for his non-fiction work on Florida's maritime history, the Patrick
Smith Literary Award for Best Historical Novel of Florida ( At the Edge of Honor), and the John
Esten Cooke Literary Award for Best Work in Southern Fiction ( Point of Honor). Florida Monthly Magazine named him
one of the 22 Most Intriguing Floridians of 2006.
He lives at Matlacha Island, an old Florida fishing village on the
southwest coast. For more information about Mr. Macomber, visit
www.robertmacomber.com.
Malcolm MacPherson is a journalist
and author of thirteen books, including his 2005 bestseller about the
Afghan War, Roberts Ridge. He served in the Marine Corps
during Vietnam, and worked as a foreign correspondent for Newsweek
for twelve years. While with Newsweek, he covered Nairobi,
the Yom Kippur War, Northern Ireland, the Turkish invasion of Cyprus,
and the Rumble in the Jungle, among other notable events. Most
recently, he reported from Iraq for Time Magazine while
living in the Republican Palace in the newly formed Green Zone. He
lives in Virginia with his wife and two children.
Kim MacQuarrie is a writer, a
multiple-Emmy-winning documentary filmmaker, and an anthropologist who
has made films in such disparate regions as Siberia, Papua New Guinea,
and Peru. MacQuarrie is the author of three previous books on Peru and
lived in that country for five years, exploring many of the locations
and hidden regions he chronicled in "The Last Days of the Incas."
During that time, MacQuarrie lived with a recently-contacted tribe of
Amazonian Indians, called the Yora. It was MacQuarrie's experience
filming a nearby group of Indians, whoses ancestors still remembered
their contacts with the Inca Empire, that ultimately led him to
investigate and then to write "The Last Days of the Incas".
Melissa Marr. Although I was voted
"most likely to end up in jail" in
high school, I decided to get an M.A. and teach Lit and Gender Studies
to college students across the country. Along the way, I've been
unable to resist trying new things--including working an archeological
dig, slinging drinks at a biker bar, and getting fabulous tattoos. I
call all of this "research" for my writing. To fill my
craving for new experiences, I've lived in Pennsylvania, North
Carolina, and Southern California, and I plan to keep roaming with my
family as widely and as often as possible. This year, I think,
I'm living in Virginia. Please visit me on the web at
www.melissa-marr.com and help feed my addiction to meeting interesting
people.
Peter Meinke has published fifteen
books of poems, seven in the
prestigious Pitt Poetry Series. Unheard
Music is his second collection of stories; his first, The Piano Tuner, won the Flannery
O'Connor Award for Short Fiction. He has received two awards from the
National Endowment from the Arts, and three from the Poetry Society of
America. His writings have appeared in The Atlantic, The New Yorker, The New
Republic, Yankee, and many other magazines. His stories have
been included in the O'Henry, Best
American, Best of the South, and other anthologies. For many
years he was Director of the Writing Workshop at Eckerd College, and
since his retirement has been Writer-in-Residence at many colleges and
universities, most recently holding the Darden Chair at Old Dominion
University. He and his wife, the artist Jeanne Clark (whose drawing is
on the cover of Unheard Music)
have lived in St. Petersburg since 1966.
Jim Melvin, 50, was born in Poughkeepsie,
N.Y., but spent mroe than 40
years of his life in St. Petersburg, Florida. He now lives in Clemson,
South Carolina. Jim graduated from the University of South Florida
(Tampa) with a B.A. in Journalism in 1979. He was an award-winning
journalist at the St. Petersburg Times for 25 years and
retired in 2004 to become a full-time novelist. At the Times,
he specialized in science, nature, health and fitness, and he wrote
about everything from childhood drowning to erupting volcanoes. But he
spent the majority of his career as a designer, editor, and supervisor.
Jim is a student of Eastern philosophy and mindfulness meditation, bot
of which he weaves extensively into his work. Meditation helps to clear
his mind for long bouts of writing. Jim is married and has five
daughters. The Death Wizard Chronicles, a six-book epic
fantasy series, marks his debut as a novelist. Book One is entitled The
Pit.
Gary Monroe, a native of Miami
Beach, received his master degree in
fine arts from the University of Colorado at Boulder in 1977. He has
photographed the endings of the old world Jewish community that was
South Beach, throughout Haiti, and tourism across Florida. During the
last decade, he has traveled the world Brazil, Israel, Cuba, India, and
others to photograph. He is currently working on a portfolio describing
the effects of corporate culture across Florida.
A long-time interest in outsider and vernacular art led him to research
the Highwaymen, a loose-knit group of self-taught African American
painters who sold their work up and down the coast of Florida during
the 1950s. The result was The
Highwaymen: Florida's African-American Landscape Painters. As a
lecturer for the Florida Humanities Council Speakers Bureau, Monroe was
able to bring the Highwaymen story to citizens throughout the state.
Through the books success, their story gained national attention from The New York Times, United Airlines
Hemispheres, and Folk Art
Magazine. Monroe will take his newest book Harold Newton: The Original Highwayman on
the road for the Fall 2007 season of Road Scholars, sponsored by the
Florida Humanities Council.
Monroe is also the co-author of Cassadaga:
The Souths Oldest Spiritualist Community and author of Extraordinary Interpretations: Floridas
Self-Taught Artists. His forthcoming books include S ilver Springs, E.G. Barnhill, Photographer,
and God Decides: Photographs of
Haiti and Haitians.
Blake Nelson is the author of many books
for children, teens and adults, including Gender Blender, Rock
Star Superstar, and the classic grunge novel Girl, which was
made into a feature film and has been translated into six foreign
languages. One of his most recent novels, Paranoid Park, was
also made into a forthcoming feature film directed by Gus Van Sant. They
Came from Below is his first book of science fiction and fantasy.
Blake Nelson lives in California.
Author, Stacy A. Nyikos, was one of
those children who just couldn't't
sit still. She still can't. "I've got minnows in my pants." That's why
pacific dolphins are one of her most favorite sea creatures. They're
always on the move. "And when they get going really fast," Stacy says,
"they disappear in a wake of foamy water. How cool is that?" Dizzy is the third picture book in
Ms. Nyikos' aquatic trilogy. "Trilogy is a strong word. It somehow
conjures up the idea of great trials and tribulations. No doubt there's
a hint of the dramatic to my characters, even a few temper tantrums,
but mostly my books are an ocean of underwater fun and adventure." In
Spring 2008, Ms. Nyikos' first middle grade novel, Dragon Wishes, releases. The story
of two girls and their journey toward making a new family, it's full of
Chinese legend and dragons. "It was a real change to do something above
water," Ms. Nyikos says. Currently, Stacy is currently working on her
first young adult novel, Euromutt.
Cynthia Polansky has been writing
creatively since she was old enough
to put pencil to paper, but felt she lacked that unattainable je ne sais quoi that real novelists
surely possess. A friends casual remark on her skillful writing
prompted Cynthia to take a creative writing class, where she learned
the basics of fiction writing and acquired confidence in her ability.
Four years later, her first novel, Far
Above Rubies, was published.
Cynthia is also a successful nonfiction author who writes pet articles
and dog breed books under the name Cynthia P. Gallagher. In 2006 she
earned membership in the Dog Writers Association of America.
A Boston native, Cynthia Polansky received a B.A. degree in Russian
from The George Washington University in Washington, D.C. After a few
detours from the nations capital to Milwaukee and Memphis for career
relocation, she now lives in Annapolis, Maryland . When not writing,
she enjoys knitting, crossword puzzles, and volunteering at the local
animal shelter. She is also a part-time tutor for the Writing Center at
the U.S. Naval Academy.
A single mom with two young sons, and a resident
of Bellevue, WA, known
as the Beverly Hills of the Pacific Northwest, Jane Porter
knows what she's talking about. She is a working mom often spending 40
hours of week meeting deadlines, traveling to promote her books, and
responding to emails sent by her countless fans.
She has a terrific website: www.janeporter.com.
Jane's previous novel, Flirting with
Forty, was excerpted in Redbook
Magazine in June, July, and August of 2006 as the "Hot Summer
Read of 2006", exposing her work to millions of new readers. She was
also featured in the Fresno Bee,
Playgirl, and Complete Woman.
Flirting With Forty was selected by Romance Reviews Today as the
Best Contemporary Fiction Novel of 2006, and it has been optioned to
Sony Pictures, which will produce it for LifetimeTV.
| | |
