Lawrence Block

Lawrence Block is the recipient of a Grand Master Award from the Mystery Writers of America and an internationally renowned bestselling author. His prolific career spans over one hundred books, including four bestselling series as well as dozens of short stories, articles, and books on writing. He has won four Edgar and Shamus Awards, two Falcon Awards from the Maltese Falcon Society of Japan, the Nero and Philip Marlowe Awards, a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Private Eye Writers of America, and the Cartier Diamond Dagger from the Crime Writers Association of the United Kingdom. In France, he has been awarded the title Grand Maitre du Roman Noir and has twice received the Societe 813 trophy.

Topics: An Evening with Lawrence Block

John Carter Cash

John Carter Cash is the son and only child of Johnny and June Carter Cash. He is heir to one of the world’s most celebrated and influential musical dynasties and he has lived stories no one else could imagine. Having spent much of his life touring and performing with his family he understands the ecstatic highs and the inevitable lows that go along with celebrity.  He is a accomplished performer, producer and author in his own right, having written biographies on each of his parents and three successful children’s books.

Topics: House of Cash: An American Musical Legacy

Harlan Coben

With 50 million books in print worldwide, Harlan Coben’s last four consecutive novels, LIVE WIRE, CAUGHT, LONG LOST and HOLD TIGHT all debuted at #1 on the New York Times bestseller list and lists around the world. His first Young Adult novel SHELTER will be out in the fall of 2011. His books are published in 40 languages around the globe and have been number one bestsellers in over a dozen countries.

Winner of the Edgar Award, Shamus Award and Anthony Award—the first author to win all three—international bestselling author Harlan Coben’s critically-acclaimed novels have been called “ingenious” (New York Times), “poignant and insightful” (Los Angeles Times), “consistently entertaining” (Houston Chronicle), “superb” (Chicago Tribune) and “must reading” (Philadelphia Inquirer).

Topics: The Writer’s Life

Frank Delaney

“The Most Eloquent Man in the World”, says NPR, about the writer, broadcaster, BBC host and Booker Prize Judge, Frank Delaney. Over a career of interviews that has lasted more than three decades, Delaney, an international-best-selling author himself, has interviewed more than 3,500 of the world’s most important writers.

Frank Delaney has earned top prizes and best-seller status in a wide variety of formats, from prolific author, a polished broadcaster on both television and radio, to journalist, correspondent, screenwriter, lecturer, playwright and scholar. He has been the president of the Samuel Johnson Society, president of the UK Book Trust, and the Literary Director of the famed Edinburgh Festival.

Topics: Ireland, Language, History & Literature

Khaled Hosseini

Khaled Hosseini is one of the most widely read and beloved authors in the world. His first two novels The Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns have sold more than thirty-eight million copies worldwide and have been published in more than seventy countries. The Kite Runner alone spent more than five years on The New York Times bestseller list and has been adapted into a major motion picture as well as a graphic novel. In May of 2012 Khaled will release his much-anticipated third novel And the Mountains Echoed.

Beth Howard

Beth Howard has lived an extraordinary life. She has been called a “Pie Evangelist” and “Pie Baker to the Stars”.

Reeling from the pain of her husband Marcus’s untimely death, Beth turned to pie—as she had throughout her life—to help her find peace. Ultimately her journey led her home to Iowa dn to the “American Gothic” House—the little white farmhouse made famous by the Grant Wood painting of the same name. From that house she began to bake, to write, and to slowly rebuild her life…one piece at a time.

Beth’s much-anticipated first book is Making Piece: A Memoir of Love, Loss, and Pie.

Topics: Making Piece: A Life of Love, Loss, and Pie

Ann Patchett

Ann Patchett is a celebrated author, a devoted reader and a champion of literary culture. She has written seven books and is a frequent contributor to many publications, including The New York Times, Atlantic Monthly and The Wall Street Journal. She has served on the board of the Nashville Public Library Foundation and in 2011,when the last of Nashville’s bookstores had been shuttered; Ann declared ”I have no interest in living in a city without a bookstore.” And so, in November of that year she opened Parnassus Books, a new refuge for the written word in the old “Athens of the South.”

Topics: An Afternoon / Evening with Ann Patchett

Jon Ronson

Jon Ronson is a gonzo journalist in the spirit of the great Hunter S. Thompson, but with the comic styling of the legendary Monty Python. An award-winning writer and documentary filmmaker, his unique brand of intellect and comic wit has been described by comedian Jon Stewart as “satirical investigation.” He is a regular contributor to the BBC and NPR’s This American Life and he is the author of seven books including the bestselling The Men Who Stare at Goats and The Psychopath Test.

Topics: The Jon Ronson Mysteries

Will Shortz

What’s an enigmatologist? It’s Will Shortz, the world’s only academically accredited puzzle master. He designed his own major program at Indiana University, which in 1974 led to his one-of-a-kind degree in Enigmaology, the study of puzzles.

Will has been the puzzle master for NPR’s “Weekend Edition Sunday” since the program’s start in 1987, crossword editor of The New York Times since 1993, editor of Games magazine for 15 years, and the founder and director of the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament, which has been held annually since 1978. He also founded the World Puzzle Championship in 1992, and he co-founded the World Puzzle Federation in 1999.

Topics: An Evening with The Puzzle Master

Andrew Solomon

Andrew Solomon is a writer of remarkable talent and intellect. In his books and essays he explores the subjects of politics, culture and psychology with extraordinary humanity. In 2001 he received the National Book Award for The Noonday Demon: An Atlas of Depression. The book was also a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. His latest book, Far From the Tree: Parents , Children & the Search for Identity, is an examination of the means by which families accommodate children with physical, mental and social disabilities and how these unusual situations can be invested with love. Andrew spent ten years researching the book, interviewing more than 250 families and generating more than 40,000 pages of notes!

Topics:  Please inquire for more information.

Luis Alberto Urrea

Luis Alberto Urrea is a prolific and award-winning writer. He is a master of language and a gifted storyteller who uses his dual-culture life experiences to explore greater themes of love, loss and triumph.

The author of fourteen books, Luis Urrea has published extensively in many genres and has received many prestigious awards including; the Pacific Rim Kiriyama Prize, the Western States Book Award, the Lannan Literary Award and the Edgar Award. The Devil’s Highway, his 2004 non-fiction account of a group of Mexican immigrants lost in the Arizona desert, was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. Collectively Luis’ books have been chosen by more than thirty different cities and colleges across the country for One Book community read programs.

Topics: Universal Border: From Tijuana to the World

Daniel Wallace

Daniel Wallace is a storyteller who’s been called one of our finest contemporary comic novelists. His tall tales are flush with classic myth, magical realism and always a touch of the extraordinary. He is the author of four novels including Big Fish: A Novel of Mythic Proportions, which was adapted into a blockbuster film of the same name by Tim Burton in 2003 and which is currently being developed into a major Broadway production. Daniel’s fifth novel The Kings and Queens of Roam will be published in 2013.

Topics: An Afternoon / Evening With Daniel Wallace

Colson Whitehead

Colson Whitehead is one of America’s greatest young writers. His novels and essays tackle the questions of race,class, and commercial culture with candor and wit. He has been a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and a recipient of several awards including the Whiting Writers’ Award and the MacArthur “Genius” Award. Esquire magazine has called him “the coolest writer in America” and more than 116,000 people follow him on Twitter.

Topics: An Afternoon / Evening with Colson Whitehead…

Rex Ziak

Rex Ziak is the son of an Oregon logger, a photographer, an environmentalist and a self-educated award-winning historian. He won an Emmy in 1993. And he went against the establishment in 1997 to prove that what we all believed about Lewis & Clark’s arrival at the Pacific Ocean was incorrect – leading to the creation of America’s newest National Park in 2004!

An extraordinary character and a natural storyteller Rex Ziak is driven by a deep passion and an insatiable curiosity. Audiences everywhere have been moved by his lectures and he’s frequently invited back again and again to share the incredible stories of his life and of our common American heritage.

Topics: Lewis & Clark, John Astor, Environmentalism, Determination and More…