2023 Festival Authors Bios
Becky Albertalli is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda (now a major motion picture, Love, Simon); The Upside of Unrequited; Leah on the Offbeat; the Simonverse novella, Love, Creekwood; What If It’s Us and Here’s to Us (cowritten with Adam Silvera); Yes No Maybe So (cowritten with Aisha Saeed), and most recently, Kate in Waiting. With humor and insight, Imogen, Obviously, explores the nuances of sexuality, identity, and friendship through the lens of hopelessly heterosexual World's Greatest Ally Imogen Scott. (Recommended ages 14+)
SPARKS FLY: YA ROMANCE PANEL 1:00 pm Footnote
BOOKSIGNING: 2:00 pm
Katherine Applegate is the #1 New York Times-bestselling author of beloved and award-winning books for young readers, including Odder, Home of the Brave, Crenshaw, Wishtree, Willodeen, and The One and Only Ivan, for which she won the Newbery Medal. She is also the author of the Animorphs series, and a beginning reader series, Doggo and Pupper, illustrated by Charlie Alder. Dogtown is an uplifting story and a page-turning adventure, sure to find a forever home in readers’ hearts. (Recommended ages 8-12)
READING CATS & DOGS: 3:00 pm Kids Stage
BOOKSIGNING: 4:00 pm
Derrick Barnes is the author of the empowering New York Times bestsellers The King of Kindergarten and I Am Every Good Thing and the award-winning Crown: An Ode to the Fresh Cut as well as the bestselling series Ruby and the Booker Boys. He was the first African American male creative copywriter hired by greeting card giant Hallmark Cards. In Like Lava to My Veins, Bobby Beacon's sizzling superpowers have been causing trouble at his new school, but an understanding and insightful new teacher may be just what he needs to become his best self. (Recommended ages 5-8)
STORYTIME: 12:45 pm Kids Stage
BOOKSIGNING: 1:30 pm
Kalynn Bayron is the bestselling author of young adult novels Cinderella Is Dead, This Poison Heart, and This Wicked Fate and the middle grade novel The Vanquishers, and is a classically trained vocalist. When she’s not writing you can find her listening to Ella Fitzgerald on loop, attending the theater, watching scary movies, and spending time with her kids. At Camp Mirror Lake, terror is the name of the game . . . but can you survive the night? Charity's summer job may be a little too real in the heart-pounding slasher You’re Not Supposed to Die Tonight. (Recommended ages 14+).
A RENAISSANCE OF THOUGHT: A YA SAMPLER: 3:30 pm Footnote
BOOKSIGNING: 4:30 pm
Max Brallier is a #1 New York Times, USA Today, and Wall Street Journal bestselling author. His books and series include The Last Kids on Earth, Eerie Elementary, Mister Shivers, Galactic Hot Dogs, and Can YOU Survive the Zombie Apocalypse? He is a writer and producer for Netflix's Emmy Award-winning adaptation of The Last Kids on Earth. In The Last Comics on Earth, when the Last Kids on Earth realize their favorite comic series will have no new issues they have but one choice: make their own comic book! (Recommended ages 8-12)
THE LAST KIDS ON EARTH: 10:00 am Kids Stage
BOOKSIGNING: 11:00 am
Keah Brown is a journalist, screenwriter, and author of The Pretty One and Sam’s Super Seats, She is the creator of #DisabledAndCute. Her work has appeared in Teen Vogue, Elle, Harper’s Bazaar, Marie Claire UK, and The New York Times, among others. She has been featured in anthologies including the New York Times-bestselling You Are Your Best Thing. In The Secret Summer Promise, Andrea Williams has got The Best Summer Ever all planned out, but if her best friend Hailee discovers her true feelings, it could be ruined, so she WILL fall out of love. (Recommended ages 14+)
SPARKS FLY: A YA ROMANCE PANEL 1:00 pm Footnote
BOOKSIGNING: 2:00 pm
Willie Edward Taylor Carver Jr. is an advocate, Kentucky Teacher of the Year, and author whose story has been featured on ABC, PBS, NPR, and Good Morning America, among others. His creative work has appeared in publications including 100 Days in Appalachia, 2RulesofWriting, Another Chicago Magazine, Largehearted Boy Blog, Smoky Blue Literary Magazine, and Good River Review. In Gay Poems for Red States, Carver counters the injustice of a persistent anti-LGBTQ+ movement by asserting that a life full of beauty and pride is possible for everyone.
YOUR VOICE MATTERS: 11:00 am Footnote
BOOKSIGNING: 12:00 PM
Wiley Cash is an award-winning and New York Times bestselling author of four novels and the founder of This Is Working. He has published widely on issues ranging from the environment to history to foodways to music. He serves as the Alumni Author-in-Residence at UNC-Asheville and lives in North Carolina with his wife, photographer Mallory Cash, and their daughters. His most recent book is When Ghosts Come Home, a tender and haunting story of a father and daughter, crime and forgiveness, race and memory.
KISS ME IN THE CORAL LOUNGE: 2;15 pm Reynolds Place
BOOKSIGNING: 3:15 PM
Gennifer Choldenko’s best known Tales from Alcatraz series has been called “A cornerstone series in contemporary children’s literature.” Al Capone Does My Shirts—the first book in the series—was a Newbery Honor Book and the recipient of twenty other awards. All four books in the series were Junior Library Guild selections and garnered many starred reviews. Dogtown is an uplifting story and a page-turning adventure, sure to find a forever home in readers’ hearts. (Recommended ages 8-12)
READING CATS & DOGS: 3:00 pm Kids Stage
BOOKSIGNING: 3:15 PM
John Connolly is the author of the #1 internationally bestselling Charlie Parker thrillers series, the supernatural collection Nocturnes, the Samuel Johnson Trilogy for younger readers, and (with Jennifer Ridyard) the Chronicles of the Invaders series. He lives in Dublin, Ireland. The Land of Lost Things is Connolly’s dark and triumphantly creative novel about the redemptive power of stories, set in the same upside-down, fairytale world as his beloved The Book Of Lost Things.
WHAT HAPPENS NEXT? 1:15 PM Calvary Moravian
BOOKSIGNING: 2:15 PM
Jonathan Conyers is a respiratory therapist, board member and coach at the Brooklyn Debate League, and the co-founder of Synbara, the parent company of several non-traditional rehabilitation centers for youth. He is the host of The Professional Winner podcast. Conyers’ profile on Humans of New York went viral, sparking millions in donations to the Brooklyn Debate League and highlighting the important role teachers play in opening up worlds. In I Wasn’t Supposed to Be Here, Conyers shares his incredible journey escaping the precarious circumstances he was born into, and the teachers, mentors, and guides who helped him along the way.
YOUR VOICE MATTERS: 11:00 AM Footnote
BOOKSIGNING: 12:00 pm
Carmen Agra Deedy is one of America's foremost storytellers. Her many award-winning books include The Rooster Who Would Not Be Quiet!; Martina the Beautiful Cockroach, which received a Pura Belpré Honor; and her New York Times bestseller 14 Cows for America. Carmen was born in Havana, Cuba, and lives with her family in Atlanta, Georgia. Carina Felina retells a hilarious folktale set in Havana, Cuba about a cat with surprising strength and an even more surprising appetite. (Recommended ages 4-8)
STORYTIME: 11:00 am Kids Stage
READING CATS & DOGS: 3:00 pm Kids Stage
BOOKSIGNING: 11:45 am
Helen Ellis is the New York Times bestselling author of Bring Your Baggage and Don't Pack Light, Southern Lady Code, American Housewife, and Eating the Cheshire Cat. Raised in Alabama, she lives with her husband in New York City. She is a poker player and a plant lady. Her newest book, Kiss Me in the Coral Lounge: Intimate Confessions from a Happy Marriage, is a hilarious and heartfelt collection of essays that are surprising, sexy, and hilariously frank stories about love, marriage, and her last first kiss.
KISS ME IN THE CORAL LOUNGE: 2:15 pm Reynolds Place
BOOKSIGNING: 3:15 pm
Camryn Garrett began her writing career at thirteen as a TIME for Kids reporter. She is the author of the novels Full Disclosure and Off the Record, and her writing has appeared on MTV, in HuffPost and Rookie magazine. She was recently selected as one of Teen Vogue’s “21 Under 21: Girls Who Are Changing the World.” In Friday I’m In Love sixteen year old Mahalia Harris decides she wants to throw a coming-out party, but finds it might not be as easy as she hoped in this novel about finding yourself, falling in love, and celebrating what makes you you. (Recommended ages 12+)
SPARKS FLY: YA ROMANCE 1:00 pm Footnote
WOMEN WRITING WOMEN: 3:00 pm Hanesbrands Theatre
BOOKSIGNING: 4:00 pm
Jonny Garza Villa is an author of contemporary young adult literature with characters and settings inspired by their own Tejane, Chicane, and queer identities. Their debut YA novel Fifteen Hundred Miles from the Sun was a Pura Belpré Honor Book and a Kirkus Best YA Fiction of 2021 selection. In a story about finding home, falling in love, and fighting to belong, Ander & Santi Were Here tells of a nonbinary Mexican American teen falling for the shy new waiter at their family's taqueria. (Recommended ages 14-18)
SPARKS FLY: YA ROMANCE 1:00 pm Footnote
BOOKSIGNING: 2:00 pm
Karina Yan Glaser is the New York Times best-selling author of The Vanderbeekers series and A Duet for Home. A former teacher as well as employee of New York City's largest provider of transitional housing for the homeless, Karina is now a contributing editor at Book Riot. In The Vanderbeekers Ever After, the Vanderbeeker family finds love and hope in hard times as they face the challenge of a serious illness with the support of their Harlem community. (Recommended ages 8-12)
YOUR BOOK BFF: 1:30 pm Kids Stage
BOOKSIGNING: 2:30 pm
John Glatt is an investigative journalist with more than thirty years experience. In the last fourteen years he has written 19 true crime books and 4 biographies. With more than one million books currently in print all over the world, Glatt is acknowledged to be ne of the best true crime writers working today. In his new book, Tangled Vines: Power, Privilege, and the Murdaugh Family Murders, Glatt reconstructs the rise of the prestigious Murdaugh family and the shocking double murder that led to the downfall of its patriarch, Alex Murdaugh.
TANGLED VINES: 12:00 pm Reynolds Place
BOOKSIGNING: 1:00 pm
Loren Grush is a reporter for Bloomberg News specializing in all things space. The daughter of two NASA engineers, Grush grew up surrounded by astronauts and Space Shuttles. She has also been published in The New York Times, Popular Science, and Nautilus magazine, and has appeared on several TV networks as an expert commentator. The Six is an immersive narrative about the six extraordinary young women who were America's first female astronauts--the most highly qualified women of their time.
SCIENCE IS HERSTORY: 4:00 pm Reynolds Place
BOOKSIGNING: 5:00 pm
Halle Hill is a writer from East Tennessee whose work has been featured in Joyland, New Limestone Review, and Oxford American among others. She is the winner of the 2021 Crystal Wilkinson Creative Writing Prize and a finalist for the 2021 ASME Award for Fiction. Darkly funny and deeply human, Good Women observes how place, blood ties, generational trauma, obsession, and boundaries--or lack thereof--influence how we navigate our small worlds, and how those worlds so often collide in ways we don't expect as it tells the story of twelve Black women across the Appalachian South.
WOMEN WRITING WOMEN: 3:00 pm Hanesbrands Theatre
BOOKSIGNING: 4:00 pm
Abby Jimenez is a Food Network winner, USA Today and New York Times best-selling author, and recipient of the 2022 Minnesota Book Award for her novel Life's Too Short. Abby founded Nadia Cakes out of her home kitchen back in 2007. The bakery has since gone on to win numerous Food Network competitions and has amassed an international following. In Yours Truly, Dr. Briana Ortiz's life is seriously flatlining, but a new doctor might just change the game in this novel of terrible first impressions, hilarious second chances, and the joy in finding your perfect match.
ALL THE LOVE FOREVER: 11:00 am Hanesbrands Theatre
BOOKSIGNING: 12:00 pm
Sadeqa Johnson is the New York Times best-selling author of five novels, including Yellow Wife. She is a 2022 Hurston/Wright Foundation Legacy finalist, a BCALA Literary Honoree, and the Library of Virginia’s Literary People’s Choice Award winner. The House of Eve is a moving novel set in the 1950s about two young Black women trying to overcome their circumstances, and the stumbling blocks each face that could upend everything they've worked so hard for.
YOUR NEXT READ: 11:45 am Calvary Moravian
WOMEN WRITING WOMEN: 3:00 pm Hanesbrands Theatre
BOOKSIGNING: 12:45 pm
Mary Beth Keane is the author of The Walking People, Fever, and Ask Again, Yes—a New York Times bestseller and a Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon Summer Reads Pick. She was awarded a John S. Guggenheim fellowship for fiction writing, and has received citations from the National Book Foundation, PEN America, and the Hemingway Society. As youth slips away, Malcolm Gephardt and his wife Jess look to reshape their future in The Half Moon, a novel about a small town couple navigating the complexities of marriage, family, and longing.
YOUR NEXT READ: 11:45 am Calvary Moravian
BOOKSIGNING: 12:45 pm
Natalie Keng is a pioneer of innovative leadership development and the Founder and CEO (“Chief Eating Officer”) of Global Hearth™, a multi-faceted business that leverages the power of food and culture to promote team-building and employee engagement. She is the creator of an award-winning line of Georgia-grown, Asian-inspired sauces that feature natural ingredients and harken heritage recipes, earning her the title The Sauce Maven™. Egg Rolls & Sweet Tea is a cookbook full of tasty Asian-American and Southern fusion dishes, sauces, and drinks.
THE SECRET'S IN THE SAUCE: 10:30 AM Reynolds Place
BOOKSIGNING: 11:30 am
Jessica Kim writes about Asian American girls finding their way in the world. Before she was an author, Jessica studied education at UC Berkeley and spent ten years teaching third, fourth, and fifth grades in public schools. Like the title character in Stand Up, Yumi Chung! Jessica lives with her family in Southern California and can’t get enough Hot Cheetos, stand-up comedy, and Korean barbecue. Make a Move, Sunny Park! is a funny and utterly charming novel about friends - how to make them, how to let go of them, and how to be your own BFF. (Recommended ages 9-12)
YOUR BOOK BFF: 1:30 pm Kids Stage
BOOKSIGNING: 2:30 pm
Remy Lai studied fine arts, with a major in painting and drawing. She was born in Indonesia, grew up in Singapore, and currently lives in Brisbane, Australia, where she writes and draws stories for kids with her two dogs by her side. She is the author of the critically-acclaimed Pie in the Sky, Fly on the Wall, Pawcasso, and the Surviving the Wild series. Ghost Book is a contemporary fantasy graphic novel about a girl who can see ghosts and befriends a boy who is stuck between the world of the living and the dead. (Recommended ages 8-12)
GRAPHIC NOVEL EXPERIENCE: GHOST KID 12:00 PM Footnote
YOUR BOOK BFF: 1:30 pm Kids Stage
BOOKSIGNING: 2:30 pm
Dominic Lim has enjoyed a lifelong love affair with music. He holds a master’s from Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, is an alum of the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, and has sung with numerous professional choral ensembles. As a proud member of the Actors’ Equity Association, he has performed Off-Broadway and in regional productions throughout the US. In the hilarious and joyous rom-com All the Right Notes, sparks fly when a piano genius and a Hollywood heartthrob are thrown together for a charity performance of solos, heartfelt duets, and a big, showstopping finale.
ALL THE LOVE FOREVER: 11:00 am Hanesbrands Theatre
BOOKSIGNING: 12:00 pm
Emery Lord is the author of five contemporary YA novels including The Start of Me & You, The Map From Here To There, and the Schneider award-winning When We Collided. Her books have been published in 10 languages around the world and featured on YALSA and state book lists. She lives in a pink row house in Cincinnati, with a husband, two rescue dogs, and a closet full of impractical shoes. All That's Left to Say is a poignant and powerful story of a girl grieving her sister and willing to risk everything to find the truth. (Recommended ages 13+)
A RENAISSANCE OF THOUGHT: YA SAMPLER 3:30 pm Footnote
BOOKSIGNING: 4:30 pm
Charlie Lovett is the New York Times bestselling author of four previous novels, including The Bookman's Tale and Escaping Dreamland. His academic writings include Lewis Carroll: Formed by Faith and for children he has written The Book of the Seven Spells and twenty plays that have been seen in over five thousand productions worldwide. The Enigma Affair is a propulsive historical thriller that pairs a librarian and a professional assassin as they team up to solve a seventy-five-year-old Nazi mystery.
WHAT HAPPENS NEXT? 1:15 pm Calvary Moravian
BOOKSIGNING: 2:15 pm
Susie Luo graduated from the University of Pennsylvania and Cornell Law School. She wrote at night while working as an investment banker at Goldman Sachs. Paper Names is her first book and was named a Buzz Pick by Good Morning America and a Most Anticipated Book by Reader’s Digest. In the novel, an unexpected act of violence brings together a Chinese-American family and a wealthy white lawyer in the propulsive and sweeping story of family identity and the American experience.
ALL HAPPY FAMILIES ARE ALIKE: 1:45 pm Hanesbrands Theatre
BOOKSIGNING: 2:45 pm
Pedro Martín is a former Hallmark artist of 27 years and the creator of Asteroid Andy. He chronicles his life growing up Mexican American online in a series called Mexikid. Mexikid is a poignant, hilarious, and unforgettable graphic memoir about a Mexican-American boy’s family and their adventure-filled road trip to bring their abuelito back from Mexico to live with them. (Recommended ages 10-14)
GRAPHIC MEMOIR EXPERIENCE: MEXIKID 2:00 pm Footnote
BOOKSIGNING: 3:00 pm
Gillian McDunn is the award-winning author of Caterpillar Summer, The Queen Bee and Me, These Unlucky Stars, and Honestly Elliott, which received the Schneider Family Award Honor Book Award from the American Library Association. Her books have been named Best Books of the Year by Kirkus and Parents Magazine, and chosen as Junior Library Guild gold standard selections. Her new book, When Sea Becomes Sky, is a gorgeous story of love and siblinghood, of secret statues and island life, and of holding on and letting go. (Recommended ages 8-11)
YOUR BOOK BFF 1:30 pm Kids Stage
BOOKSIGNING: 2:30 pm
Megan Miranda is the New York Times bestselling author of All the Missing Girls; The Perfect Stranger; The Last House Guest, a Reese Witherspoon Book Club Pick; The Girl from Widow Hills; Such a Quiet Place; and The Last to Vanish. She has also written several books for young adults. The Only Survivors is a thrilling mystery about a group of former classmates who reunite to mark the tenth anniversary of a tragic accident-only to have one of the survivors disappear, casting fear and suspicion on the original tragedy.
WHAT HAPPENS NEXT? 1:15 pm Calvary Moravian
BOOKSIGNING: 2:15 pm
Ed Mitchell has been cooking whole-hog barbeque the traditional way since he was a teenager. His family’s restaurant transitioned to an upscale barbeque concept, The Preserve; enthusiasts can find his famous sauces and rubs in stores nationwide. Ryan Mitchell, Ed’s only son, serves as the business savvy brain behind his father’s brand. Ryan credits his father, grandfather, and two uncles for giving him the skills to lead the next generation of BBQ. Ed Mitchell’s Barbeque is a celebration of the history and tradition of whole-hog barbeque from the "most famous" pitmaster in NC.
THE SECRET'S IN THE SAUCE: 10:30 am Reynolds Place
BOOKSIGNING: 11:30 am
Jason Mott is the National Book Award winning author of Hell of a Book, a Read With Jenna Book Club pick, and winner of multiple other awards. Mott's debut novel, The Returned, was adapted for television and aired on ABC under the title "Resurrection." He is the author of two poetry collections and four novels. Hell of a Book is a story that goes to the heart of racism, police violence, and the hidden costs exacted upon Black Americans and America as a whole.
MORNING KEYNOTE: 9:30 am First Baptist on Fifth
HELL OF A PANEL: 12:30 pm Hanesbrands Theatre
BOOKSIGNING: 1:30 pm
Celeste Ng is the number one New York Times bestselling author of Everything I Never Told You and Little Fires Everywhere, and Our Missing Hearts. Ng is the recipient of fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Guggenheim Foundation, and her work has been published in over thirty languages. Our Missing Hearts is an old story made new, of the ways supposedly civilized communities can ignore the most searing injustice.
MORNING KEYNOTE: 9:30 am First Baptist on Fifth
Ron Rash is the author of the New York Times bestselling novel Serena, in addition to the critically acclaimed novels The Risen, Above the Waterfall, The Cove, One Foot in Eden, Saints at the River, and The World Made Straight; five collections of poems; and seven collections of stories. Three times the recipient of the O. Henry Prize, his books have been translated into seventeen languages. The Caretaker is a tender examination of male friendship and rivalry as well as a riveting, page-turning novel of familial devotion.
THE CARETAKER 3:30 pm Calvary Moravian
BOOKSIGNING: 4:30 pm
Kathy Reichs has written twenty-two novels featuring forensic anthropologist Temperance Brennan. She was a producer of Fox Television’s longest running scripted drama, Bones, based on her work and her novels and is one of very few forensic anthropologists certified by the American Board of Forensic Anthropology. The Bone Hacker is a high-stakes thriller featuring Temperance Brennan who, following a series of bizarre disappearances of the islands of Turks and Caicos, enters a sinister labyrinth in which a new technology may wreak worldwide havoc.
WHAT HAPPENS NEXT? 1:15 pm Calvary Moravian
BOOKSIGNING: 2:15 pm
Scott Reintgen is a New York Times bestselling author of science fiction and fantasy books. He wrote the Nyxia trilogy, the Ashlords series, the Talespinners series, The Problem with Prophecies, and, most recently, the young adult fantasy thriller A Door in the Dark. The Drama with Doomsdays is the second in the Celia Cleary middle grade series in which Celia must find the classmate at the heart of a Doomsday Prophecy before it's too late.
THE LAST KIDS ON EARTH: 10:00 am Kids Stage
BOOKSIGNING: 11:00 am
Steven Rowley is the bestselling author of five novels including, Lily and the Octopus, The Editor, an NPR Best Book of the Year; The Guncle, winner of the 22nd Thurber Prize for American Humor, and The Celebrants, a New York Times bestseller and TODAY Show #ReadWithJenna Book Club pick. The Celebrants is a moving tale about the false invincibility of youth and the beautiful ways in which friendship helps us celebrate our lives, even amid the deepest challenges of living.
YOUR NEXT READ: 11:45 am Calvary Moravian
BOOKSIGNING: 12:45 pm
Etaf Rum was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York, by Palestinian immigrants. She has a Masters of Arts in American and British Literature as well as undergraduate degrees in Philosophy and English Composition and teaches undergraduate courses in North Carolina, where she lives with her two children. Evil Eye is a striking exploration of the expectations of Palestinian-American women, the meaning of a fulfilling life, and the ways our unresolved pasts affect our presents.
ALL HAPPY FAMILIES ARE ALIKE: 1:45 pm Hanesbrands Theatre
BOOKSIGNING: 2:45 pm
Brando Skyhorse is the award-winning author of the novel The Madonnas of Echo Park. His memoir, Take This Man, was named one of NBC News’s 10 Best Latino Books of 2014. A recipient of a Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Center fellowship, Skyhorse teaches English and creative writing at Indiana University Bloomington. Following a recent divorce and the introduction of a new ID tracking technology, My Name is Iris tells an all-too-possible story about family, intolerance, and hope, offering a brilliant and timely look at one woman's journey to discover who she can't - and can - be.
HELL OF A PANEL12:30 pm Hanesbrands Theatre
BOOKSIGNING: 1:30 pm
Crystal Simone Smith is the author of two poetry chapbooks, Routes Home, and Running Music, as well as Wildflowers: Haiku, Senryu, and Haibun. Her work appears in numerous journals including Callaloo, Nimrod, Barrow Street, Obsidian II: Literature in the African Diaspora, and African American Review, and she is the Managing Editor of Backbone Press. In Dark Testament, Smith gives voice to the mournful dead, their lives unjustly lost to violence, and to the grieving chorus of protestors in today’s Black Lives Matter movement, in search of resilience and hope. (Recommended ages 14+)
YOUR VOICE MATTERS: 11:00 am Footnote
BOOKSIGNING: 12:00 pm
Saket Soni is labor organizer and founder and director of Resilience Force, a national nonprofit that advocates for the rising workforce that rebuilds after climate disasters. He was profiled as an "architect of the next labor movement" in USA Today and he has testified before Congress and at the United Nations. The Great Escape: A True Story of Forced Labor and Immigrant Dreams in America is the astonishing story of immigrants lured to the United States from India and trapped in forced labor—told by the visionary labor leader who engineered their escape and set them on a path to citizenship.
CLOSING KEYNOTE: DEAR AMERICA 5:00 pm Calvary Moravian
Julie Soto is an author, playwright, and actress. Her musical Generation Me won the 2017 New York Musical Festival’s Best Musical award, as well as Best Book for her script. She is a musical theater geek, fandom nerd, and the author of many spicy fan fictions. In Forget Me Not, a wedding planner and her grumpy ex must work together to plan a celebrity event in this deliciously spicy and funny novel about two people giving themselves - and love - a second chance.
ALL THE LOVE FOREVER: 11:00 am Hanesbrands Theatre
BOOKSIGNING: 12:00 pm
Ed Southern is the author of Fight Songs: A Story of Love and Sports in a Complicated South, a finalist for the 2022 Southern Book Prize. His shorter work, in a variety of genres, has appeared in The Bitter Southerner, storySouth, the North Carolina Literary Reivew, and the North Carolina 10x10 Festival, among others. He is the Executive Director of the North Carolina Writer's Network and the winner of the Fortner Award for service to the literary arts in North Carolina.
THE CARETAKER 3:30 pm Calvary Moravian
BOOKSIGNING: 4:30 pm
R. Eric Thomas is the bestselling author of Here for It: Or, How to Save Your Soul in America, a Lambda Literary Award finalist, and the YA novel Kings of B'more, a Stonewall Honor book. He is a television writer, a Lambda Literary Award-winning playwright, and the long-running host of The Moth in Philadelphia. Congratulations, The Best is Over! is a heartening, deeply relatable, and laugh-out-loud collection of essays about what happens after happily ever after and serves as a not-so-gentle reminder that even when life doesn't go according to play, we can still find our way back home.
HELL OF A PANEL: 12:30 pm Hanesbrands Theatre
A RENAISSANCE OF THOUGHT: YA SAMPLER 3:30 pm Footnote
BOOKSIGNING: 1:30 pm
Thrity Umrigar is the bestselling author of nine previous novels, including Honor, which was a Reese's Book Club Pick, as well as three picture books and a memoir. A former journalist, she has contributed to the Boston Globe, the New York Times, the Cleveland Plain Dealer and other newspapers. The Museum of Failures is a riveting story about uncovering family secrets and the power of forgiveness, set in India the the United States, that reminds us that forgiveness comes from realizing that the people we love are usually trying to do their best in the most difficult situations.
ALL HAPPY FAMILIES ARE ALIKE: 1:45 pm Hanesbrands Theatre
BOOKSIGNING: 2:45 pm
Jose Antonio Vargas is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, Emmy-nominated filmmaker, and Tony-nominated theatrical producer. A leading voice for the human rights of immigrants, he founded the non-profit narrative change organization Define American, named one of the World's Most Innovative Companies by Fast Company. His bestselling memoir, Dear America: Notes from an Undocumented Citizen is this year's Book with Purpose title selected by Bookmarks.
CLOSING KEYNOTE: DEAR AMERICA 5:00 pm Calvary Moravian
Kate Zernike has been a reporter for The New York Times since 2000. She was a member of the team that won the 2002 Pulitzer Prize for Explanatory Reporting for stories about al-Qaeda before and after the 9/11 terror attacks. The Exceptions: Nancy Hopkins, MIT, and the Fight for Women in Science is the inspiring account of the sixteen female scientists who forced MIT to publicly admit it had been discriminating against its female faculty for years--sparking a nationwide reckoning with the pervasive sexism in science.
SCIENCE IS HERSTORY: 4:00 pm Reynolds Place
BOOKSIGNING: 5:00 pm
Ibi Zoboi holds an MFA from Vermont College of Fine Arts. Her novel American Street was a National Book Award finalist and a New York Times Notable Book. She is also the author of Pride and My Life as an Ice Cream Sandwich, a New York Times bestseller. She is the editor of the anthology Black Enough. Nigeria Jones is a bold YA coming-of-age story which explores race, feminism, and complicated family dynamics while telling a powerful story about discovering who you are in the world - and fighting for that person - by having the courage to be your own revolution. (Recommended ages 13+)
