Saturday, Nov. 11, 2023
9 a.m. - 7 p.m.
Tickets $25 or $75 VIP
The Palladium
253 5th Ave. N.
St. Petersburg
AUTHORS
Martin Baron
Book: Collision of Power: Trump, Bezos, and The Washington Post
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Author Bio: Martin Baron is a longtime journalist and newspaper editor. He ran the newsrooms of The Miami Herald and The Boston Globe before being named executive editor of The Washington Post in 2013. His role in launching an investigation of the Catholic Church’s cover-up of sexual abuse by clergy was portrayed in the Academy Award-winning movie “Spotlight.” Baron retired from daily journalism in early 2021 and now splits his time between Western Massachusetts and New York City. “Collision of Power: Trump, Bezos, and The Washington Post” is his first book.
Dave Barry
Book: Swamp Story: A Novel
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Author Bio: Dave Barry is the author of more bestsellers than you can count on two hands, including “Lessons from Lucy,” “Dave Barry’s Complete Guide to Guys,” “Dave Barry Turns Forty” and “Dave Barry Is Not Making This Up.” A wildly popular syndicated columnist best known for his booger jokes, Barry won the 1988 Pulitzer Prize for commentary. He lives in Miami. His latest book is the novel “Swamp Story.”
Roy Peter Clark
Book: Tell It Like It Is: A Guide to Clear and Honest Writing
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Author Bio: Roy Peter Clark is senior scholar at the Poynter Institute, one of the most prestigious schools for journalists in the world. A writer who teaches and a teacher who writes, he has authored or edited 20 books on writing and journalism, including “Writing Tools,” “Murder Your Darlings” and "The Art of X-ray Reading.” HIs latest book is “Tell It Like It Is: A Guide to Clear and Honest Writing.”
Michael Connelly
Book: Resurrection Walk
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Author Bio: Michael Connelly grew up in Florida and decided to become a writer after discovering the books of Raymond Chandler while attending the University of Florida. After graduating in 1980, Connelly worked at newspapers in Daytona Beach and Fort Lauderdale, then became a crime reporter for the Los Angeles Times before switching to writing crime fiction. Connelly is the bestselling author of 38 novels and one work of nonfiction. With over 85 million copies of his books sold worldwide and translated into 45 languages, he is one of the most successful writers working today. His most recent No. 1 New York Times bestsellers include “Desert Star,” “The Dark Hours,” “The Law Of Innocence,” “The Night Fire” and “Dark Sacred Night.” He is the executive producer of “Bosch” and “Bosch: Legacy," two Amazon Studios original drama series based on his bestselling character Harry Bosch, starring Titus Welliver. He is the executive producer of “The Lincoln Lawyer” on Netflix, starring Manuel Garcia-Rulfo as Mickey Haller. His new novel in the Lincoln Lawyer series is “Resurrection Walk.” He spends his time in California and Florida.
Lane DeGregory
Book: The Girl in the Window and Other True Tales
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Author Bio: Lane DeGregory seeks stories about people in the shadows. Some put a face on news events and current issues. Others shine a light on people’s private struggles and triumphs. Many are narratives, focusing on helpers and hope. She grew up in Washington, D.C., during the Watergate era and decided she wanted to be a journalist when she was 6 years old. She has worked at newspapers across the East Coast and has written for the Times for more than 20 years. In 2009, she won the Pulitzer Prize for feature writing for a story about a feral child. She teaches around the world and hosts WriteLane, a podcast about nonfiction storytelling. In 2023, the University of Chicago Press published an annotated anthology of her Times stories, “The Girl in the Window and Other True Tales.” She’s married to her college crush, a drummer, and they raised their two sons in the tiny waterfront town of Gulfport.
Lauren Groff
Book: The Vaster Wilds
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Author Bio: Lauren Groff is a three-time National Book Award finalist and the New York Times bestselling author of the novels “The Monsters of Templeton,” “Arcadia,” “Fates and Furies” and “Matrix,” and the short story collections “Delicate Edible Birds” and “Florida." She has won the Story Prize and the Joyce Carol Oates Prize, and has been a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award. Groff ’s work regularly appears in The New Yorker, The Atlantic and elsewhere. Her new novel is “The Vaster Wilds.”
Stephanie Hayes
Book: Be Serious
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Author Bio: Stephanie Hayes is a columnist with the Tampa Bay Times and syndicated via Creators Syndicate, which supplies content to publications worldwide. As a journalist for 20 years, she has received writing prizes from the National Headliner Awards, Green Eyeshade Awards, the Society for Features Journalism and the Florida Society of News Editors, among others. Her writing has appeared in Chicago Quarterly Review, McSweeney’s Internet Tendency and more. She is the author of “Obitchuary,” a novel. “Be Serious,” a collection of her syndicated columns, is out this fall from Creators. She lives in Dunedin with her husband, stepdaughter, enormous cat and tiny dog.
Vanessa Riley
Book: Queen of Exiles
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Author Bio: Vanessa Riley is an award-winning author of more than 20 books which encompass historical fiction, historical romance and historical mystery. Her novels showcase the hidden histories of Black women and women of color, emphasizing strong sisterhoods and dazzling multicultural communities, and have been praised by the AAMBC, The Washington Post, The New York Times, Entertainment Weekly, NPR, Publishers Weekly, Essence Magazine and many others. Riley holds a doctorate in mechanical engineering from Stanford University and several other degrees from Stanford and Penn State universities. Her latest novels are “Queen of Exiles” and “Murder in Drury Lane.”
Lisa Unger
Book: Christmas Presents
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Author Bio: Lisa Unger is the New York Times and internationally bestselling author of 20 novels, including her latest, “Secluded Cabin Sleeps Six.” With books published in 33 languages and millions of copies sold worldwide, she is regarded as a master of suspense. Unger’s critically acclaimed novels have been featured on “Best Book” lists from the “Today Show,” “Good Morning America,” Entertainment Weekly, People, Amazon, Goodreads, The Los Angeles Times, The Boston Globe, the Sun Sentinel, the Tampa Bay Times and many others. She has been nominated for, or won, numerous awards including the Strand Critics, Audie, Hammett, Macavity, ITW Thriller, and Goodreads Choice. In 2019, she received two Edgar Award nominations, an honor held by only a few authors, including Agatha Christie. Her short fiction has been anthologized in The Best American Mystery and Suspense, and her nonfiction has appeared in The New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, NPR, and Travel+Leisure. Lisa is the current co-president of the International Thriller Writers organization. She lives on the west coast of Florida with her family.
INTERVIEWERS
Colette Bancroft
Tampa Bay Times
Copy Desk Chief and Books Critic
Colette Bancroft has been the book editor at the Tampa Bay Times since 2007. In addition to writing reviews and interviewing authors, she directs the annual Tampa Bay Times Festival of Reading. She has served three terms on the board of the National Book Critics Circle and is the editor of the anthology “Tampa Bay Noir.” Bancroft earned degrees in English from the University of South Florida and the University of Florida, and she wishes she had finished her dissertation on the novels of Raymond Chandler. Read more.
Mark Katches
Tampa Bay Times
Editor
Mark Katches As editor of the Tampa Bay Times, Katches oversees the largest newsroom in the state of Florida. Before that, he served as editor at The Oregonian in Portland. And before that he oversaw the newsroom at the Center for Investigative Reporting. As a young teenager, he wrote his first newspaper article for a little weekly called the Millbrae Sun, not far from San Francisco. The editor paid him 3 cents a word, and he was hooked for life. His professional career has spanned four decades. He has spent the largest portion of it building and running investigative reporting teams and has had the good fortune to have worked on a number of stories that sparked meaningful change. He loves his family, his two crazy cockapoos and our journalistic mission. He believe strongly that local journalism makes an important difference in our community while offering tremendous opportunities to engage with readers. Read more.