The Authors

These authors are confirmed to attend the 2010 Southern Festival of Books
(Note: This page was last updated 23 August 2010)

To browse by author's last name:
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  • Janny Adkins has dedicated her nursing career to bridging the gap between conventional and complementary health and medicine. She has helped to create innovative health programs, including Hospice of Mercy, COMMIT-A National Quit Smoking Trial, Iowa Hospice Organization, Iowa Breast Cancer Action Coalition, The St. Luke's Clown Connection; a pastoral care ministry, and St. Luke's Women's Care. St. Luke's Women's Care was recognized nationally as an innovative integrated health center for the midlife woman. She maintains a private spiritual coaching practice. Help Healing Happen: A Holistic Guide to Redefining Health, Hope, and Healing
  • Tasha Alexander attended the University of Notre Dame, where she signed on as an English major in order to have a legitimate excuse to spend all her time reading. Following graduation, she played nomad for several years, eventually settling with her family in Tennessee. When not reading, she can be found hard at work on her next book. Tears of Pearl
  • Tammy Algood is an author, editor, and spokesperson. She conducts cooking schools at various Tennessee wineries and has been published in numerous magazines and newspapers. She is married and lives in Nashville. The Complete Southern Cookbook
  • Tom Angleberger applied for a job as a newspaper artist and was mistakenly assigned to cover local government meetings. Fifteen years and countless town council meetings later, he is still writing instead of drawing, currently as a columnist for the Roanoke Times in Roanoke, Virginia. He began work on his first book while in middle school. Tom is married to author-illustrator Cece Bell. They live in Christianburg, Virginia. The Strange Case of Origami Yoda
  • Fran Ansley is Distinguished Professor of Law Emeritus at the University of Tennessee College of Law in Knoxville. She is the author of numerous book chapters and the principal humanities advisor to a documentary film. Her articles have been published in the California Law Review, Cornell Journal of International Law, Georgetown Journal of Poverty Law and Policy, and numerous additional publications. Global Connections and Local Receptions: New Latino Immigration in the Southeastern United States
  • Raymond Atkins was named 2009 Georgia Author of the Year by the Georgia Writers Association for his first novel, The Front Porch Prophet. He is a columnist whose articles have appeared in numerous publications. Sorrow Wood
  • Squire Babcock worked as a ballroom dance instructor, farm hand, weigh-man in a cotton gin, hunting guide, pool table repair mechanic, small business owner, carpenter's apprentice and blues drummer before heeding the call to writing and teaching. He holds B.A. and M.F.A. degrees from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. He is currently Associate Professor of English at Murray State University, where he has taught literature and writing for eighteen years and served as Residential College Head and Director of the Low-Residency M.F.A. Program in Creative Writing. The King of Gaheena, a Novel
  • Paolo Bacigalupi's writing has appeared in High Country News, Salon.com, The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, and Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine. His debut novel, The Windup Girl, was named by Time magazine as one of the ten best novels of 2009, won the Nebula, Locus, Comptom Crook, and John W. Campbell Memorial Awards, and is a finalist for the Hugo Award. Bacigalupi currently lives in Western Colorado with his wife and son, where he is working on a new novel. Ship Breaker
  • Stephen Lyn Bales is a naturalist at Ijams Nature Center in Knoxville, Tennessee. He has been writing the "Neighborhood Naturalist" for the farragutpress since 1999 and is a regular columnist for the Hellbender Press. Ghost Birds: Jim Tanner and the Quest for the Ivory-Billed Woodpecker, 1935-1941
  • Tracy Barrett is the author of several novels, including On Etruscan Time, Cold in Summer, Anna of Byzantium, and the Sherlock Files series. She teaches Italian language and civilization at Vanderbilt University. Tracy lives with her family in Nashville. King of Ithaka
  • Jefferson Bass is the writing team of Dr. Bill Bass and Jon Jefferson. Dr. Bass, a world-renowned forensic anthropologist, founded the University of Tennessee's Anthropology Research Facility—the Body Farm—a quarter century ago. He is the author or coauthor of more than two hundred scientific publications, as well as a critically acclaimed memoir about his career at the Body Farm, Death's Acre. Dr. Bass is also a dedicated teacher, honored as National Professor of the Year by the Council for Advancement and Support of Education. Jon Jefferson is a veteran journalist, writer, and documentary filmmaker. His writings have been published in the New York Times, Newsweek, USA Today, and Popular Science, and broadcast on National Public Radio. The coauthor of Death's Acre, he is also the writer and producer of two highly rated National Geographic documentaries about the Body Farm. Beyond the Body Farm
  • Rick Bass's fiction has received O. Henry Awards, numerous Pushcart Prizes, awards from the Texas Institute of Letters, fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Guggenheim Foundation, among others. Most recently, his memoir Why I Came West was a finalist for a National Book Critics Circle Award. Nashville Chrome
  • Bryan Batt appears on the Emmy Award-winning drama Mad Men and has performed in many Broadway and off-Broadway productions, including Jeffrey, Starlight Express, Cats, and Beauty and the Beast. Hazelnut, the home-accessory shop he owns with his partner in New Orleans, has been featured in the New York Times, House Beautiful, InStyle, and other publications. She Ain't Heavy, She's My Mother
  • Richard Bausch is the recipient of the O. Henry Prize, the Best American Short Story Prize, the Lila Wallace-Reader's Digest Award, and an award in literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Something is Out There: Stories
  • John Claude Bemis is the author of The Clockwork Dark, a fantasy adventure trilogy based on Southern folklore and American legends. The first book The Nine Pound Hammer was a New York Public Library Best Children's Book 2009 for Reading and Sharing. He lives in Hillsborough, North Carolina with his wife and daughter. Visit John's website at www.johnclaudebemis.com. The Wolf Tree: Book 2 of the Clockwork Dark
  • Melanie Benjamin lives in Illinois, where she is at work on her next novel. Alice I Have Been
  • Jennie Bentley is the author of the new series of Do-It-Yourself Home Renovation mysteries from Penguin/Berkley Prime Crime. The real Jennie is a realtor and renovator in Nashville, where she lives with a husband and two rambunctious boys, a hyperactive dog, a parakeet, and a carnival goldfish. A native of Norway, she's been living in the US for the past twenty years, and still hasn't been able to kick her native accent. Spackled and Spooked
  • Shane Berryhill is the author of Chance Fortune and the Outlaws, a New York Public Library Books for the Teen Age and Texas Lone Star Reading List selection. He lives with his wife, Lesley, in Chattanooga. You can find out more about Shane at www.ShaneBerryhill.com. Chance Fortune in the Shadow Zone
  • Clyde Bolton, a native of Wellington, Alabama, is a retired sports writer for the Birmingham News. Some of his awards include: The All-American Football Foundation's Lifetime Achievement Award in Sportswriting, three-time Alabama Sports Columnist of the Year (1988, 1992, and 1999) and many Associated Press awards. He was inducted into the Alabama Sports Writers Hall of Fame in 2001. Bolton lives in Trussville, Alabama. Hadacol Days
  • John Brandon was raised on the Gulf Coast of Florida. During the writing of Citrus County he worked at a Frito-Lay warehouse and a Sysco warehouse. During another part of the writing of Citrus County book he was unemployed. During the revising he was the John & Renee Grisham Fellow in Creative Writing at University of Mississippi. His favorite recreational activity is watching college football. This is his second book; the first was Arkansas, also a novel. Citrus County
  • Sonny Brewer founded Over the Transom Bookstore in Fairhope, Alabama. He is the author of Poet of Tolstoy Park and A Sound Like Thunder. He is the editor of the acclaimed anthology series, "Stories from the Blue Moon Café," the latest volume under the title of A Cast of Characters and Other Stories. The Railroad as Art
  • Bill Brown is a part-time lecturer at Peabody College of Vanderbilt University. He is the author of three poetry collections, three chapbooks and a textbook. Winner of many writing awards and fellowships, his new work appears in North American Review, Louisville Review, South Carolina Review, Prairie Schooner, English Journal, and The 50th Anniversary Anthology of Southern Poetry Review. The News Inside
  • Kevin Brown is an Associate Professor at Lee University. His poems have appeared or are forthcoming in The New York Quarterly, REAL: Regarding Arts and Letters, Connecticut Review, South Carolina Review, h2so4, Folio, and Quercus Review, among other journals. He has also published essays in The Chronicle of Higher Education, Academe, InsideHigherEd.com, The Teaching Professor, and Eclectica. Exit Lines
  • Stacey Lynn Brown received her M.F.A. in Poetry from the University of Oregon. A poet, playwright and essayist, her work has appeared in various literary journals and anthologies. She teaches creative writing at Southern Illinois University in Edwardsville, where she lives with her husband, poet Adrian Matejka, and their daughter. Cradle Song
  • Tom Bruscino is assistant professor of history at the U.S. Army School of Advanced Military Studies at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. His work has been published in Military Review and War and Society. A Nation Forged in War: How World War II Taught Americans to Get Along
  • Michael Buckley is the author of the New York Times bestselling series and Today Show Al Roker Book Club pick, The Sisters Crimm. He has also written and developed shows for Nickelodeon, Disney, MTV Animation, the Sci-Fi Channel, the Discovery Channel, and VH1. He lives in Brooklyn with his wife, Alison, and son, Finn. NERDS: Book Two: M is for Mama's Boy
  • Mary Buckner's first novel, Hyperthought, was nominated for the 2003 Philip K. Dick Award for distinguished science fiction. As marketing vice president for a nationwide financial firm, her writing earned two Diamond Addy Awards. She is currently a freelance writer, environmental activist, and ardent whitewater kayaker. She recently authored a major research report for the World Wildlife Fund and lives in Nashville. Watermind
  • Marina Budhos has published, among others, the novel Ask Me No Questions, an ALA Notable and winner of the first James Cook Tenn Book Award. Her short stories, articles, essays, and book reviews have appeared in The Kenyon Review, Ploughshares, The Nation, Redbook, Dissent, and the Los Angeles Times. In addition to her many awards, Ms. Budhos has been a Fulbright Scholar to India and is an associate professor of English and Asian Studies at William Paterson University. She is married to editor and author Marc Aronson. Tell Us We're Home
  • Dennie Burke served twenty-two years as executive director of Public Relations and Marketing at Austin Peay State University, working as the spokesperson with the media as well as the editor/primary writer for the university's national award-winning alumni magazine. A former president of the four-county Pennyroyal Arts Council, Dennie served on the Kentucky Citizens for the Arts Board of Directors. She lives in Kentucky. A Matter of Conscience: Redemption of a Hometown Hero, Bobby Hoppe
  • Patsy Caldwell is the owner of WaterTown Food Concepts, a cooking school in Charlotte, Tennessee. She has been a culinary professional for more than forty years. Bless Your Heart—Saving the World One Covered Dish at a Time
  • David Campbell is the John Cardinal O'Hara, C.S.C. Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Notre Dame as well as a research fellow with the Institute for Educational Initiatives. He is the author, coauthor, or editor of several books, and his work has also appeared in The Journal of Politics, Public Opinion Quarterly, and The Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion. He lives near South Bend, Indiana. American Grace: How Religion Divides Us and Unites Us
  • Jamina Carder is a writer from Nashville. Herman's Journey
  • John Casey was born in 1939 in Worcester, Massachusetts, and educated at Harvard College, Harvard Law School, and the University of Iowa. His novel Spartina won the National Book Award in 1989. He lives with his wife in Charlottesville, Virginia, where he is professor of English literature at the University of Virginia. Compass Rose
  • Marshall Chapman came to Nashville in 1967 to attend Vanderbilt University and wrote her first song in 1973. Her songs have been recorded by Conway Twitty, Jimmy Buffett and many others. She is a contributing editor of Garden & Gun magazine and author of Goodbye, Little Rock and Roller, which was a finalist for the 2004 SEBA Book Award and Book Critics Circle Award. They Came to Nashville
  • Melissa Conroy Poppy's Pants
  • Bob Cowser Jr.'s first book, Dream Season, published in 2004 by the Atlantic Monthly Press, was a New York Times Book Review "Editor's Choice" and "Paperback Row" selection and was listed among the Chronicle of Higher Education's best-ever college sports books. It garnered further praise in Sports Illustrated, the Boston Globe, the Chicago Tribune, and on NPR's Only a Game. His second book, Scorekeeping, a collection of coming-of-age essays, was published in October 2006 by the University of South Carolina Press. Green Fields: Crime, Punishment, and a Boyhood Between
  • Molly Caldwell Crosby holds a master's of arts degree in nonfiction and science writing from Johns Hopkins University and previously worked for National Geographic magazine. Her writing has appeared in Newsweek, Health, and USA Today, among others. She lives in Memphis with her family. Asleep: The Forgotten Epidemic that Remains One of Medicine's Greatest Mysteries
  • James A. Crutchfield is author of fifty books about various aspects of United States history including ten titles in the "States of America" series. His book, Franklin: Tennessee's Handsomest Town, co-authored with Robert Holladay, is the first comprehensive history of the city to appear in decades. Crutchfield's articles have appeared in many national newspapers and magazines. He has received the prestigious Spur Award and two Stirrup Awards from Western Writers of America and is a two-time award recipient from the American Association for State and Local History. Historic Tennessee
  • Frank DeFord is senior writer for Sports Illustrated, author, commentator and correspondent. Bliss, Remembered
  • Judy Lockhart DiGregorio retired from Oak Ridge Operations Office, Department of Energy, Oak Ridge, after working twenty-seven years as a training specialist. After retiring she became a humor writer and speaker. Her work has appeared in national magazines such as The Army Times, The Writer, Byline Magazine, and the "Chicken Soup" books. Judy is the author of two collections of humorous essays from Celtic Cat Publishing, Knoxville — Memories of a Loose Woman and Life Among the Lilliputians. She is a humor columnist for Anderson County Visions Magazine and also writes press releases for the Oak Ridge Playhouse where she frequently appears on stage. Judy is the author of a ten-minute play, "Let There be Light," recently staged at Pellissippi State Community College, Knoxville. In her spare time Judy performs with a women's vocal group, "Varying Degrees." She is married to Dan DiGregorio and has two children and three grandchildren. Memories of a Loose Woman
  • Lou Dischler, a former inventor and senior scientist with an international manufacturing business, made a stand one day, refused to wear the safety glasses, resigned, and dedicated himself to writing fiction. Cajun by birth, Dischler graduated from Tulane University and now makes his home in Spartanburg, South Carolina. My Only Sunshine
  • David Donovan is a pen name for Terry Turner, emeritus professor of urology at the University of Virginia. He is the author of more than 120 science articles and a previous book, Once a Warrior King: Memoirs of an Officer in Vietnam. Murphy Station: A Memoir of the American South
  • Diann Ducharme was born in Indiana, but she spent the majority of her childhood in Newport News, Virginia. She majored in English literature at the University of Virginia, but she never wrote creatively until, after the birth of her second child in 2003, she sat down to write The Outer Banks House. Diann and her husband, Sean, have two beach-loving children, Dorsey and Katherine. The family lives in Manakin-Sabot, Virginia. Visit Diann's Web site at www.DiannDucharme.com. The Outer Banks House
  • Margaret Edds is a former political and editorial writer for the Norfolk Virginian-Pilot. She is the author of three previous books. She lives in Richmond, Virginia. Finding Sara: A Daughter's Journey
  • Adam Edwards has driven in the ARCA/REMAX national racing series, managed and spotted for a NASCAR nationwide racing team, and worked as a race car driving instructor at the Fast Track School of Racing. He received his M.B.A. from Virgina Tech in 2007, and works as administrator of a longterm care and rehabilitation center in Virginia. Faster Pastor
  • J.T. Ellison is the bestselling author of the critically acclaimed "Taylor Jackson" series. A former White House staffer, she's worked extensively with the Metro Nashville Police, the FBI and other law enforcement organizations to research her novels. Visit jtellison.com for more information. The Immortals
  • Loretta Ellsworth is the author of two novels for young readers, The Shrouding Woman and In Search of Mockingbird, which was a Midwest Bookseller's Choice Award Honor Book for Children's Literature and was named a New York Public Library Book for the Teen Age. She lives in Minnesota. Visit her at www.lorettaellsworth.com. In A Hearbeat
  • Kaaren Engel is a visual artist who has exhibited her work regionally, nationally, and internationally, including over a dozen solo exhibitions and numerous group shows. She is a native of Birmingham, Alabama and holds a bachelor's degree from Barnard College, and a law degree from Emory University. Kaaren currently lives in Nashville where she writes, teaches yoga and practices sound healing. She travels extensively, gathering inspiration from all corners of the world. Herman's Journey
  • Karen Essex is the author of four novels, including the international bestseller Leonardo's Swans. Her award-winning essays and articles have appeared in many periodicals, among them L.A. Weekly, Vogue, and Playboy. She lives in Los Angeles, California. Dracula in Love
  • Charlie Euchner is the author or editor of eight books. He teaches writing at Yale University and was the founding executive director of the Rappaport Institute for Greater Boston at Harvard University. He lives in Hamden, Connecticut. Nobody Turn Me Around: A People's History of the 1963 March on Washington
  • Rachel Held Evans is an award-winning writer whose articles have appeared in local and national publications. She lives in Dayton, Tennessee, with her husband, Dan. Find out more at rachelheldevans.com. Evolving in Monkeytown: How a Girl Who Knew All the Answers Learned to Ask the Questions
  • Worthy Evans is a graduate of the College of Charleston who has served as a U.S. Army Combat Engineer, an award-winning local sports reporter, and a corporate communications specialist. Whether gainfully employed or unemployed, in the bleachers or in a cubicle, Evans has remained a poet at heart, cultivating the verses found here in his first book. He lives in Columbia, South Carolina with his wife and two children. Green Revolver: Poems
  • Pamela Ewen practiced law for twenty-five years before following in the authorial footsteps of relatives such as James Lee Burke and Andre Dubus III. This is her second novel. Ewen lives in Mandeville, Louisiana. Secret of the Shroud
  • Michael Fazio is professor emeritus in the School of Architecture at Mississippi State University. He is coauthor of Buildings Across Time: An Introduction to World Architecture and The Domestic Adventure of Benjamin Henry Latrobe. Landscapes of Transformation: Architecture and Birmingham, Alabama
  • Jannet Flammang teaches courses in US politics with an emphasis on women and politics. Her current research explores the relationship between meals, conversation, community and democracy. She is the author or editor of books and journal articles on women's politics. She worked on a NSF-funded project on city government responses to issues of moral controversy. She has been a member of the Committee on the Status of Women in both the American Political Science Association and the Western Political Science Association. The Taste for Civilization: Food, Politics and Civil Society
  • Harold Ford is a political analyst for MSNBC, a professor of public policy at Vanderbilt University, a vice chairman of Merrill Lynch, and chairman of the Democratic Leadership Council. He lives in New York City, New York and Memphis. More Davids than Goliaths: A Political Education
  • S.J. Fore is the author of Tiger Can't Sleep and Read to Tiger. She lives and writes in Tennessee. Read to Tiger
  • Gwynne Forster is national best-selling and award-winning author of seven novels of general fiction, thirty-one romance novels, and eight mainstream and romance novellas. A native North Carolinian who grew up in Washington, DC , Gwynne holds bachelors and masters degrees in sociology, a master's degree in economics/demography and has additional graduate credits in journalism. As a demographer, she is widely published. She is formerly chief of (non-medical) research in fertility and family planning in the Population Division of the United Nations in New York and served for four years as chairperson of the International Programme Committee of the International Planned Parenthood Federation (London, England). A Change Had to Come
  • Tom Franklin is the author of Poachers: Stories and Hell at the Breech. Winner of a 2001 Guggenheim Fellowship, he teaches in the University of Mississippi's M.F.A. program and lives in Oxford, Mississippi, with his wife, the poet Beth Ann Fennelly, and their children, Claire and Thomas. Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter
  • Mindy Friddle is the author of The Garden Angel, selected for Barnes and Noble's Discover Great New Writers program. Her second novel, Secret Keepers, won the 2009 Willie Morris Award for Southern Fiction. She was awarded a 2008 Fellowship in Prose from the South Carolina Arts Commission and has twice won the South Carolina Fiction Prize. Secret Keepers: A Novel
  • Chuck Galey has drawn all his life. "I had everything I needed growing up in a small farm town in the Mississippi Delta; a pencil, a piece of paper and a long-winded Baptist preacher." He has illustrated over sixty educational books and nine children's picture books, one that he authored. When he is not working on books in his studio in Jackson, Mississippi, he is presenting exciting school programs that inspire and astonish students. His programs encourage them to be creative in their reading, writing and art. For information about Chuck's school programs, visit www.chuckgaley.com. A Special Visitor Comes To Possum Ridge
  • Susan Gregg Gilmore is the author of the novel Looking for Salvation at the Dairy Queen. She has written for the Chattanooga Times Free Press, the Los Angeles Times and the Christian Science Monitor. Born in Nashville, she lives in Tennessee with her husband and three daughters. The Improper Life of Bezellia Grove: A Novel
  • Phyllis Gobbell co-authored An Unfinished Canvas with Michael Glasgow (Berkley, 2007) and Season of Darkness with Douglas Jones (Berkley - to be released December 2010). She is Associate Professor of English at Nashville State Community College, where she serves as editor of the campus literary journal. She has been published in literary journals, anthologies, and magazines, and has received the Leslie Garrett Fiction Prize, North Carolina Writers Workshop First Place Award in Creative Nonfiction, Knoxville Writers' Guild First Place Award in Creative Nonfiction, and the Tennessee Writers Alliance Short Story First Place Award. Gobbell is also a recipient of Tennessee's Individual Artist Literary Award. She has been a member of the Nashville Writers Alliance since its beginning. An Unfinished Canvas, a Story of Love, Family,and Murder
  • Chris Grabenstein is the Anthony Award-winning author of Tilt a Whirl, Mad Mouse, and Whack a Mole. He used to write TV and radio commercials and has written for the Muppets. Currently, Chris and his wife live in New York City with three cats and a dog named Fred. You can visit him (and Fred) at www.ChrisGrabenstein.com. The Smoky Corridor
  • Mark Greaney has a degree in International Relations and Political Science and is in the middle of pursuing his Masters in Intelligence Studies with a concentration in Criminal Intelligence. Mark speaks Spanish and German. In researching The Gray Man Mark traveled to seven countries, and trained extensively alongside military and law enforcement in the use of firearms, battlefield medicine and close-range combative tactics. Learn more about Mark's unique approach to researching his novels and The Gray Man on his website, www.markgreaneybooks.com. On Target
  • Amy Greene was born and raised in the foothills of the Smoky Mountains, where she lives with her husband and two children. Bloodroot
  • Mike Guillerman worked for the Peabody Coal Company from 1974 to 1991. Over his long career, his jobs included belt shoveler, timberman, shooter, drill and shuttle car operator, rock duster, and finally section foreman. Now retired, he lives with his wife, Marie, in Union County, Kentucky. Face Boss: the Memoir of a Western Kentucky Coal Miner
  • Minrose Gwin has written extensively on gender, race, and region. She is a coeditor of The Literature of the American South and editor of A Woman's Civil War, the Diary of Cornelia McDonald. A professor of English at Purdue University, she divides her time between Lafayette, Indiana, and New Orleans, Louisiana. The Queen of Palmyra
  • Ava Leavell Haymon is the author of the poetry collections Why the House Is Made of Gingerbread, Kitchen Heat and The Strict Economy of Fire. She teaches poetry writing in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and directs a writers' retreat center in the mountains of New Mexico. Why the House is Made of Gingerbread
  • Aeron Haynie, the daughter of Charles Haynie, is an associate professor of English at the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay. She is coeditor of Mary Elizabeth Braddon in Context. A Memoir of the New Left: A Political Autobiography of Charles Haynie
  • Alex Heard is the editorial director of Outside magazine. He has worked as an editor and writer at The New York Times Magazine, Wired, The Washington Post Magazine, The New Republic, Slate, and other publications. The Eyes of Willie McGee: A Tragedy of Race, Sex and Secrets in the Jim Crow South
  • Mark Heinz lives and works near Nolan Lake in Kentucky. This is his first novel. Shine
  • J. Roderick Heller serves as chairman and CEO of Carnton Capital Associates LP, a venture capital firm in Washington, DC. He holds an A.B. degree in history, summa cum laude, from Princeton University and his L.L.D degree, magna cum laude, from Harvard Law School. He serves on the board of directors of two public companies, as well as several private companies. Democracy's Lawyer: Felix Grundy of the Old Southwest
  • Libby Fisher Hellmann writes the award-winning suspense series featuring video producer and single mother Ellie Foreman. Originally from Washington, DC, she has called Chicago home for thirty years. Doubleback: A Novel of Suspense
  • Steve Hendricks is a freelance reporter. He is the author of A Kidnapping in Milan and The Unquiet Grave: The FBI and the Struggle for the Soul of Indian Country, which was named to several best-of-the-year lists in 2006. He lives in Tennessee and Montana. A Kidnapping in Milan: The CIA on Trial
  • Martha Whitmore Hickman has written two novels, one collection of short stories, and books on grief and spirituality, as well as fourteen books for young children. A native of Massachusetts, she lived a number of years in the South, and now lives with her husband in Los Altos, California. The Walls Come Tumbling Down
  • Robert Hicks has been active in the music industry in Nashville for twenty years as both a music publisher and artist manager. The driving force behind the preservation and restoration of the historic Carnton plantation in Tennessee, he stumbled upon the extraordinary role that Carrie McGavock played during and after the Battle of Franklin. He is the author of The Widow of the South. Historic Tennessee
  • Sara Lewis Holmes is the author of Letters from Rapunzel, winner of the Ursula Nordstrom Fiction Contest. As the wife of an Air Force pilot, she has lived, written, and raised a family in eleven states and three countries, including Germany and Japan. She currently resides in northern Virginia. Operation Yes
  • Robin Hood is a Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer and author of several books about America. He studied painting at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, which presented him the Distinguished Alumnus Award during its Centennial Celebration. Hood served as an Army lieutenant in Vietnam before beginning his career with the Chattanooga Free Press, where he was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Photography. Hood lives in Franklin, Tennessee where he serves on the boards of several preservation organizations. Historic Tennessee
  • Sherre Hoppe is president emeritus of Austin Peay State University. She served six years on the Commission on Colleges Executive Council and was active on the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Board of Directors. Hoppe lives in Chattanooga, where her hometown hero grew up. A Matter of Conscience: Redemption of a Hometown Hero, Bobby Hoppe
  • Hal Hubbs has hiked with his family in the Smokies for many years. Family Hiking in the Smokies: Time Well Spent
  • Nathaniel Hughes, Jr. is the author of more than twenty books on the American Civil War. Notes of the Mexican War, 1846-1848
  • Scott Huler has written on everything from the death penalty to bikini waxing, from NASCAR racing to the stealth bomber, for such newspapers as the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Philadelphia Inquirer, and the Los Angeles Times and such magazines as Backpacker, Fortune, and Child. His award-winning radio work has been heard on All Things Considered and Day to Day on National Public Radio and on Marketplace and Splendid Table on American Public Media. On the Grid: A Plot of Land, An Average Neighborhood and the Systems that Make Our World Work
  • Richard Jay Hutto is a noted author of several books on the Gilded Age. An attorney and a former chairman oft he Georgia Council for the Arts, he lives in Macon, Georgia. A Peculiar Tribe of People: Murder and Madness in the Heart of Georgia
  • Catherine Ryan Hyde, an acclaimed novelist and award-winning short-story writer, is the author of the story collection Earthquake Weather and of the novels Love in the Present Tense, Walter's Purple Heart, Funerals for Horses, Electric God, and Pay It Forward, which was named an ALA Book of the Year and made into a feature film. She lives in Cambri, CA. Jumpstart the World
  • Conductor Jack, leader of The Zinghoppers, offers quality, age-appropriate content for preschoolers that emphasizes positive behavior and engages children through learning and laughing.
  • Carlton Jackson is University Distinguished Professor of History at Western Kentucky University in Bowling Green, where he has taught since 1961. Joseph Gavi: Young Hero of the Mink Ghetto
  • Gail Jarrow has written many fiction and non-fiction books for children and young adults. Her books have received awards and distinctions, including the ALA Quick Picks for Reluctant Readers and the American Bookseller's Pick of the Lists. Her articles and stories have appeared in several children's magazines including Highlights for Children, Spider, Cricket, Muse, Cobble, and Faces. She received her B.A. from Duke University and M.A. from Dartmouth College. She is currently a writing instructor for adults and lives in Ithaca, New York with her husband and two cats. Lincoln's Flying Spies:Thaddeus Lowe and the Civil War Balloon Corps
  • Beverly Jenkins has received numerous awards for her works, including: five Waldenbooks/Borders Group Best Sellers Awards; two Career Achievement Awards from Romantic Times Magazine; a Golden Pen Award from the Black Writer's Guild, and in 1999 was named one of the Top Fifty Favorite African-American writers of the 20th Century by AABLC, the nation's largest on-line African-American book club. She has published twenty-seven novels and speaks widely on both romance and 19th century African-American history. Midnight
  • Jay Jennings is a freelance writer who has contributed to the New York Times, Travel & Leisure, The Oxford American, and many other magazines and newspapers. A former reporter for Sports Illustrated and features editor at Tennis magazine, he edited Tennis and the Meaning of Life: A Literary Anthology of the Game. He lives in Little Rock. Carry the Rock: Race, Football, and the Soul of an American City
  • Rheta Grimsley Johnson is a syndicated columnist. For over a decade, she has been spending several months a year in southwest Louisiana, deep in the heart of Cajun country. Rheta fell in love with the place, bought a second home, and set in planting doomed azaleas and deep roots. She has found an assortment of beautiful people right on the edge of the Atchafalaya Swamp. Enchanted Evening Barbie and the Second Coming
  • Timothy Johnson is a professor of history at Lipscomb University in Nashville. Dr. Johnson's research interests include the Mexican War and Civil War. His publications include A Gallant Little Army: The Mexico City Campaign; A Fighter From Way Back: The Mexican War Diary of Lt. Daniel Harvey Hill and Winfield Scott: The Quest for Military Glory. The Virginia Historical Society has named him an Andrew J. Mellon Research Fellow twice (1994, 2002). Yale University named him the Archibald Hanna, Jr. Research Fellow in American History for 2005, and he has been in residence at the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library on the Yale campus. Dr. Johnson has been featured on C-SPAN's BookTV and The History Channel. Notes on the Mexican War, 1846-1848
  • Christy Jordan is a lifelong resident of Northern Alabama (Madison), where her family roots trace back to the founding families of the Tennessee Valley. She holds a B.S. in Home Economics and considers her most important role to be that of wife and mother. Southern Plate: Classic Comfort Food that Makes Everyone Feel Like Family
  • River Jordan is a critically acclaimed novelist and playwright whose unique mixture of Southern and mystic writing has drawn comparisons to Sarah Addison Allen, Leif Enger, and Flannery O'Connor. Her previous works include The Messenger of Magnolia Street, lauded by Kirkus Reviews as "a beautifully written, atmospheric tale." She speaks around the country on "Inspiring the Passion of the Story" and makes her home in Nashville. The Miracle of Mercy Land
  • John Kasson is a cultural historian, a field that encompasses a rich variety of materials, both "high" and "low," as well as disciplines ranging from literature and the visual arts to psychology and anthropology. He teaches a number of courses in history for undergraduates and graduate students.Professor Kasson has taught at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill since 1971. He has been the recipient of a number of honors and awards, including a Bowman and Gordon Gray Professorship for inspirational undergraduate teaching, election to the Society of American historians, and fellowships from the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation, the Rockefeller Foundation, the National Humanities Center, the Humanities Institute at the University of California at Davis, and the National Endowment for the Humanities. Rudeness and Civility: Manners in Nineteenth-Century Urban America
  • Lauren Kate grew up in Dallas, went to school in Atlanta, and started writing in New York. She has a master's degree infiction from the University of California, Davis and is the author of The Betrayal of Natalie Hargrove, and Fallen. Torment
  • Abigail Keam is a full-time beekeeper and member of the Lexington Farmer's Market. She has won thirteen honey awards at the Kentucky State Fair. She lives in Fayette County on the Kentucky River in a metal house with her husband and various critters. www.abigailkeam.com Death By a Honeybee
  • Collin Kelley, a Georgia author of the year award winner and Pushcart nominee, is co-editor of the Java Monkey Speaks poetry anthology series from Poetry Atlanta Press. His poetry, essays, and reviews have appeared in magazines, journals and anthologies around the world. www.collinkelley.com Conquering Venus: A Novel
  • Les Kerr is a songwriter and author whose music often contains references to New Orleans, Mississippi and the Gulf Coast. He wrote nine of the songs on his new CD, Crawfish Caravan. Tennessee
  • Michael Knight is the author of the award-winning novel Divining Rod and two story collections, Dogfight and Other Stories and Goodnight, Nobody. An Alabama native, Knight directs the creative writing program at the University of Tennessee. The Typist
  • Carole Brown Knuth is a writer and teacher at the State University of New York, Buffalo. When the Morning Breaks: Joy for the Journey
  • Michael Largo received a B.A. in English from Brooklyn College and an A.S. in Environmental Science. His varied careers included: English teacher in Harlem, editor of New York Poetry, field guide for a nature conservation center, East Village NYC tavern owner, deckhand on a sea-going tugboat, video producer, and certified builder. He also served on Board of Directors of the Miami Book Fair International. He has been collecting statistics and information on the American way of dying for over a decade. He is a member of The Authors Guild, Mystery Writers of America amd Horror Writers of America. God's Lunatics: Lost Souls, False Prophets, Martyred Saints, Murderous Cults, Demonic Nuns, and other Victims of Man's Eternal Search for the Divine
  • Holly LeCraw was born and raised in Atlanta, where she grew up working for her father at the late, great Oxford Books. She now lives outside Boston with her husband and three children. Her work has appeared in The Boston Book Review and Post Road, among other publications, and has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize. The Swimming Pool
  • Jid Lee was born in 1955 in South Korea, where she attended college before coming to the United States as an international student. She obtained her Masters in English in 1982 from SUNY Albany and her Ph.D. in 1994 from the University of Kansas, and has been a US citizen since 1989. She is the author of From the Promised Land to Home and a tenured professor of English at Middle Tennessee State University. She lives near Nashville. To Kill A Tiger: A Memoir of Korea
  • David Madden, a native of Knoxville, is Donald and Velvia Crumbley Professor of Creative Writing and founding director of the United States Civil War Center at Louisiana State University. He is the author of several novels and books.
  • Kerry Madden has written plays, journalism (for publications such as the Los Angeles Times, Salon, LA Weekly, and Sierra Club Magazine), and six books including Offsides, a New York Library Pick for 1997. In 2005 she turned her hand to children's literature with Gentle's Holler, the first installment of what became the award-winning Maggie Valley Trilogy. Most recently Madden published a biography of Harper Lee, which was named one of the top ten biographies for youth by Booklist and received starred reviews from Booklist and Kirkus. She is currently professor of Creative Writing at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. Up Close: Harper Lee
  • Michael Malone is the author of ten novels, a collection of short stories, and two works of nonfiction. Educated at Carolina and at Harvard, he is now a professor in Theater Studies at Duke University. Among his prizes are the Edgar, the O. Henry, the Writers Guild Award, and the Emmy. He lives in Hillsborough, North Carolina, with his wife. The Four Corners of the Sky
  • Kirsti Manna
  • Meredith Maran is an award-winning journalist and the author of several best-selling nonfiction books, among them Dirty, Class Dismissed, and What It's Like to Live Now. Her work appears in anthologies, newspapers, and magazines including People, Self, Family Circle, More, Mother Jones, the San Francisco Chronicle, and Salon.com. A member of the National Book Critics Circle, she lives in Oakland, California. My Lie: A True Story of False Memory
  • L.Y. Marlow is originally from Philadelphia. She is the founder of Saving Promise, a national organization dedicated to raising awareness of and ending domestic violence — which has affected several generations of her own family. This is her first novel. Color Me Butterfly: A Novel Inspired by One Family's Journey from Tragedy to Triumph
  • Adrienne Martini, a former editor for Knoxville, Tennessee's Metro Pulse, is an award-winning freelance writer and college teacher. Author of Hillbilly Gothic, she lives in Oneonta, New York, with her husband, Scott, and children, Maddy and Cory. Sweater Quest: My Year of Knitting Dangerously
  • Ross Massey is a founding member of the Battle of Nashville Preservation Society, and has been very active in locating forgotten earthworks from the Civil War and in preservation of local battlefield sites. He appeared on the popular program Civil War Journal, shown on the A & E network. He lives with his wife in Nashville. Nashville Battlefield Guide
  • June Hall McCash is the author of three non-fiction books about Jekyll Island and three books about the Middle Ages. She holds a doctorate in comparative literature from Emory University and has been a fellow of both the National Endowment for the Humanities and the American Council of Education, as well as a member of the Board of Directors for the Jekyll Island foundation. She is the recipient of awards for teaching, research and career achievement during her tenure at Middle Tennessee State University, and is now a full-time writer. Almost to Eden
  • Jill McCorkle is the author of eight previous books-three story collections and five novels-five of which have been selected as New York Times Notable Books. She is the winner of the New England Book Award, the John Dos Passos Prize for Excellence in Literature, and the North Carolina Award for Literature. She teaches writing at North Carolina State University and lives with her husband in Hillsborough, North Carolina. Going Away Shoes
  • Sharyn McCrumb is the author of many bestselling novels, including Faster Pastor, The Songcatcher, The Rosewood Casket, She Walks These Hills, and The Ballad of Frankie Silver, which was nominated for a SEBA award. She has received awards for Outstanding Contribution to Appalachian Literature and Southern Writer of the Year. Her books have been named Notable Books of the Year by both The New York Times and the Los Angeles Times. Faster Pastor
  • Trish Milburn writes romance for Harlequin American under her own name and young adult fiction under the name Tricia Mills. She is a two-time winner of Romance Writer of America's Golden Heart award, and currently serves on the board of directors. Prior to writing full-time,she was managing editor of The Tennessee Magazine in Nashville.
  • Joseph Millichap is emeritus professor of English at Western Kentucky University. He is the author of Robert Penn Warren: A Study of the Short Fiction and Dixie Limited: Railroads, Culture, and the Southern Renaissance. Robert Penn Warren after Audubon: The Work of Aging and the Quest for Transcendence in His Later Poetry
  • Tricia Mills writes romance for Harlequin American under her own name and young adult fiction under the name Tricia Mills. She is a two-time winner of Romance Writer of America's Golden Heart award, and currently serves on the board of directors. Prior to writing full-time,she was managing editor of The Tennessee Magazine in Nashville. Winter Longing
  • Jim Minick is the author of two books of poetry, Her Secret Song and Burning Heaven, winner of the Book of the Year Award from The Virginia College Bookstores Association. Also he has written a collection of essays, Finding a Clear Path, and edited All There Is to Keep by Rita Riddle. Minick has won awards from the Appalachian Writers Association, Appalachian Heritage, Now and Then Magazine and Radford University, where he teaches writing and literature. The Blueberry Years: A Memoir of Farm and Family
  • Fred Moffat is emeritus professor of art at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. The Life, Art and Times of Joseph Delaney, 1904-1991
  • Roy Morris is the editor of Military Heritage magazine and the author of five well-received books on the Civil War and post-Civil War era, including biographies of Walt Whitman and Ambrose Bierce. A former newspaper reporter, he lives in Chattanooga. Lighting Out for the Territory: How Samuel Clemens Headed West and Became Mark Twain
  • Hiroshi Motomura is an influential scholar and teacher of immigration and citizenship law. Before joining the permanent faculty of UCLA Law in 2008, Professor Motomura was Kenan Distinguished Professor of Law at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, and before that Nicholas Doman Professor of International Law at the University of Colorado, Boulder. Americans in Waiting: The Lost Story of Immigration and Citizenship in the United States
  • Mary Murphy is an independent documentary director and writer whose work has appeared on PBS. For twenty years she was a producer at CBS News, where she won six Emmy Awards. She has written for Newsweek, the Chicago Tribune, the New York Post, and Publishers Weekly. A native of Rhode Island, Murphy is a graduate of Wesleyan University and was a John S. Knight Fellow at Stanford University. She lives in Scarborough, New York, with her husband, Bob Minzesheimer, and their two children. Scout, Atticus, and Boo: A Celebration of 50 Years of To Kill A Mockingbird
  • Mark Mustian is an author, attorney and city commissioner. He lives in Tallahassee, Florida, with his wife, three children and dog. He also serves as the current chair of the Lutheran Readers Project, a nationwide effort to connect readers and writers associated with the Lutheran faith. Mustian's fiction has been published or is forthcoming in Stand Magazine, The Green Hills Literary Lantern, Opium Magazine, Parting Gifts and other publications. The Gendarme
  • Diana Mutz, Ph.D. Stanford University, teaches and does research on public opinion, political psychology and mass political behavior, with a particular emphasis on political communication. At Penn she holds the Samuel A. Stouffer Chair in Political Science and Communication, and also serves as Director of the Institute for the Study of Citizens and Politics at the Annenberg Public Policy Center. Hearing the Other Side: Deliberative vs. Participatory Democracy
  • Sena Jeter Naslund is the author of the novels Four Spirits and Abundance, A Novel of Marie Antoinette and a short story collection, The Disobedience of Water. A native of Birmingham, Alabama, she is a winner of the Harper Lee Award; Distinguished Teaching Professor and Writer in Residence at the University of Louisville; director of the Spalding University brief-residency Master of Fine Arts in Writing program; former poet laureate of Kentucky; and editor of The Louisville Review and the Fleur-de-Lis Press. Adam & Eve
  • Kirk Neely has been a pastor and counselor for more than forty years. He is the author of two previous collections. A Good Mule is Hard to Find
  • Audrey Niffenegger is a visual artist and a faculty member at Columbia College in Chicago. In addition to her bestselling debut novel, The Time Traveler's Wife, she is the author of two illustrated novels, The Three Incestuous Sisters and The Adventuress. She lives in Chicago, Illinois. The Night Bookmobile
  • Devon O'Day is a graduate of Northeast Louisiana University. Currently the producer of the number one country music morning show in America, she is also the host of the syndicated Country Hitmakers which is heard in 130 markets. A successful songwriter, O'Day wrote the number one song by George Strait, "The Big One." She speaks about animal rescue to corporations and organizations around the country. My Southern Food
  • Robin Oliveira received an M.F.A. in writing from Vermont College of Fine Arts and was awarded the James Jones First Novel Fellowship for a work-in-progress for My Name is Mary Sutter. She lives in Seattle, Washington. My Name is Mary Sutter
  • Reza Ordoubadian is a retired professor of English at Middle Tennessee State University,fluent in English and Persian literature. This is the second volume of a book series dealing with Persian mysticism. The first one is the rather popular Poems of Hafez published in 2006. The third volume is Poems of Forough Farrokhzad due to be published by Ibex in the Spring of 2011; she is the first Iranian feminist poet. He has published five books, and been awarded two Fulbright grants and one Smithmudt Grant. He was the editor of The SECOL Review for eighteen years. Sufi and Mystical Poems of Abu Sa'id, An 11th Century Persian Poet and Divine
  • Kathy Patrick is the owner of Beauty and the Book, the only bookstore/hair salon in the country, and founder of the Pulpwood Queens book clubs, with branches nationwide. The Pulpwood Queen's Tiara-Wearing, Booksharing Guide to Life
  • Beth Pattillo is an award-winning author of eight novels. Born in Lubbock, Texas, Pattillo graduated from Vanderbilt University with a Master's Degree in Divinity. As an ordained minister, she is the executive director of FaithLeader, an organization in Nashville that works to develop a new generation of spiritual leaders. Jane Austen Ruined My Life
  • Lisa Patton is a Memphis native, now a special events director in Tennessee where she lives with her sons. She is donating a portion of her proceeds for the book to an organization in support of single mothers. Whistlin' Dixie in a Nor'Easter
  • Tim Peeler lives in Hickory, North Carolina, where he directs the Learning Assistance Program at Catawba Valley Community College. He is a past winner of the Jim Harrison Award for contributions to baseball literature. This is his ninth book. Checking Out
  • Louise Penny's first Armand Gamache mystery, Still Life, won the New Blood Dagger, Arthur Ellis, Barry, Anthony, and Dilys awards; her second, A Fatal Grace, won the 2007 Agatha Award for Best Novel; and her third, The Cruelest Month, was #1 on the hardcover IMBA bestseller list in March 2008, and her fourth, A Rule Against Murder, was a New York Times bestseller. She lives in a small village south of Montreal. The Brutal Telling
  • Jayne Ann Phillips is the author of three previous novels and two collections of widely anthologized stories. She is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, two National Endowment for the Arts Fellowships, a Bunting Fellowship, a Howard Foundation Fellowship, and an Academy Award in Literature (1997) from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Phillips is currently professor of English and director of the MFA program at Rutgers-Newark, the State University of New Jersey. Lark and Termite
  • David Pierce is the coauthor of two children's books with his wife, the popular Christian comedienne Chonda Pierce. A professor of English at Middle Tennessee State University, he has published numerous short stories in mystery magazines. He lives with his family in Tennessee. Don't Let Me Go: What My Daughter Taught Me About the Journey Every Parent Must Make
  • Matthew Pitt is a graduate of Hampshire College and New York University, where he was a New York Times fellow. He lives with his wife Kimberly and their two young daughters. Attention Please Now
  • David James Poissant's short stories have appeared in Playboy and the Chicago Tribune, and in the anthologies New Stories from the South and Best New American Voices 2008 and 2010. He has won the Playboy College Fiction Contest, the AWP Quickie Contest, the George Garrett Fiction Award, and Second Prize in the Atlantic Monthly Student Writing Contest. He was runner-up for the 2006 Nelson Algren Award, and his stories have twice been nominated for the Pushcart Prize. He lives in Florence, Kentucky and is a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Cincinnati. Best New American Voices 2010
  • Lynn Powell is the author of a book of nonfiction, Framing Innocence: A Mother's Photographs, A Prosecutor's Zeal, and a Small Town's Response, and two award-winning books of poetry, Old & New Testaments and The Zones of Paradise. A recipient of recent fellowships from the Ohio Arts Council and the National Endowment for the Arts, Powell's work has been included in numerous anthologies, including 180 More: Extraordinary Poems for Everyday and the most recent edition of The Norton Introduction to Literature. A native of East Tennessee, she has lived with her family in Oberlin, Ohio, since 1990. Framing Innocence: A Mother's Photographs, a Prosecutor's Zeal, and a Small Town's Response
  • Robert Putnam is the Peter and Isabel Malkin Professor of Public Policy at Harvard University and founder of the Saguaro Seminar, a program dedicated to fostering civic engagement in America. He is the author or coauthor of ten previous books and is former dean of the John F. Kennedy School of Government. He lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts. American Grace: How Religion Divides and Unites Us
  • Ron Rash's family has lived in the southern Appalachian mountains since the mid-1700's. He teaches English and poetry at North Carolina universities and has previously published three books of poetry, two collections of stories, and a children's book. He has received an NEA Poetry Fellowship and holds the John Parris Chair in Appalachian Studies at Western Carolina University. Burning Bright
  • Brian Ray teaches writing at University of North Carolina-Greensboro while competing his Ph.D. in English there. A native of Marietta, Georgia, he earned his M.F.A. in creative writing from the University of South Carolina in 2007. He is the winner of the inaugural South Carolina First Novel Prize. Through the Pale Door
  • Richard Reed served as an Intelligence Analyst and Korean Language interpretor in the US Army and has worked in court systems or law enforcement since 1975. He is currently the commander of the Internal Affairs Division of the Evansville, Indiana police department, and is finishing a Master's Degree in Public Service Administration. The Cruelest Cut
  • Dana Reinhardt lives in San Francisco with her husband and their two daughters. She is the author of A Brief Chapter in My Impossible Life, Harmless, and How to Build a House. Visit her at www.DanaReinhardt.net. The Things A Brother Knows
  • Jewell Parker Rhodes is an award-winning author of fiction and nonfiction, including Voodoo Dreams, Season, Yellow Moon, and Free Within Ourselves: Fiction Lessons for Black Authors. She is the Virginia G. Piper Chair in Creative Writing and artistic directorof the Virginia G. PiperCenter in Creative Writing at Arizona State University. She lives in Scottsdale, Arizona. Ninth Ward
  • Ramona Richards is an award-winning editor, speaker, and author who has worked on more than 350 publications. Her first three Steeple Hill novels received 4.5 stars from Romantic Times magazine. Her next two novels take readers deep into the murder and mayhem of a small town in Tennessee. She lives with her daughter near Nashville, and occasionally escapes by scuba diving, hiking, dancing and going to movies and bookstores. Field of Danger
  • David Rigsbee is the author of five previous collections, including The Dissolving Island (BkMk Press, 2003). With Steven Ford Brown, he co-edited Invited Guest: An Anthology of Twentieth Century Southern Poetry (University of Virginia Press, 2001). His work has appeared in The American Poetry Review, The Georgia Review, The Iowa Review, The New Yorker, Poetry, The Southern Review, and many others. He is the recipient of grants and awards from the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Virginia Commission on the Arts, the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, and the Academy of American Poets. The Red Tower: New and Selected Poems
  • Sherry Robinson was born and reared in Lexington, Kentucky. She earned her Ph.D. from the University of Kentucky, with a degree emphasis in American Literature, and is now a professor of English at Eastern Kentucky University. My Secrets Cry Aloud
  • Bobby Rogers won the annual 2009 Agnes Lynch Starrett Poetry Prize Competition from the University of Pittsburgh Press. He is a professor of English at Union University in Jackson, Tennessee. Paper Anniversary
  • Adam Ross lives with his wife and their two daughters in Nashville. Mr. Peanut
  • Louis Sachar is a Newbery Award-winning author and the creator of the entertaining Marvin Redpost books as well as the much-loved There's a Boy in the Girls' Bathroom, winner of seventeen child-voted state awards. Sachar's book Holes won, in addition to the Newbery Medal, the National Book Award, and the Boston Globe-Horn Book Award, is an ALA Best Book for Young Adults and was made into a major motion picture. The Cardturner
  • Amy Sayward is chair and professor of history at Middle Tennessee State University. She is the author of two previous books on economic development. Tennessee's New Abolitionists: the Fight to End the Death Penalty in the Volunteer State
  • Jon Scieszka is the creator of Trucktown and the author of The True Story of the 3 Little Pigs!, the "Time Warp Trio" series, Caldecott Honor Book The Stinky Cheese Man, and many other books that inspire kids to want to read. He has worked as an elementary school teacher and is the founder of a literacy initiative for boys (www.guysread.com). He is the first National Ambassador for Young People's Literature. SPHDZ Book #1! (Spaceheadz)
  • Michael Shelden is the author of three previous biographies, including Orwell, which was a Pulitzer Prize finalist and a New York Times Notable Book. For twelve years he was a Features Writer for The Daily Telegraph (London) and a fiction critic for the Baltimore Sun. His work has also appeared in The Shakespeare Quarterly, Victorian Studies, and the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. He is currently a professor of English at Indiana State University, where he teaches literature and writing. Mark Twain, Man in White: The Grand Adventure of His Final Years
  • W. Hampton Sides is an award-winning editor of Outside and the author of the bestselling histories Blood and Thunder and Ghost Soldiers. He is a native of Memphis. Hellhound on His Trail: The Stalking of Martin Luther King, Jr. and the International Hunt for His Assassin
  • Martha Simmons is the editor of Preaching on the Brink and 9.11.01: African American Leaders Respond to an American Tragedy. She lives in Atlanta, Georgia. Preaching with Sacred Fire: An Anthology of African American Sermons, 1750 to the Present
  • Helen Simonson was born in England and spent her teenage years in a small village in East Sussex. A graduate of the London School of Economics and former travel advertising executive, she has lived in America for the last two decades. A longtime resident of Brooklyn, she now lives with her husband and two sons in the Washington, DC, area. This is her first novel. Major Pettigrew's Last Stand
  • John Simpson holds a Ph.D. in history from the University of Oregon and is the author of S.A. Cunningham and the Confederate Heritage and Reminiscences of the 41st Tennessee. He is a public schoolteacher in Kelso, Washington. The Greatest Game Ever Played in Dixie:" The Nashville Vols, Their 1908 Season and the Championship Game
  • Michael Sims lived in Nashville for many years and now lives near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. His new book is Dracula's Guest: A Connoisseur's Collection of Victorian Vampire Stories. He is the author of several nonfiction books about nature and natural science, including Adam's Navel: A Natural and Cultural History of the Human Form, which was a New York Times Notable Book and a Library Journal Best Science Book; Apollo's Fire: A Journey through the Extraordinary Wonders of an Ordinary Day, which NPR chose as one of the best science books of 2007; and a companion book for the National Geographic Channel series, In the Womb. He has edited several other anthologies, including The Penguin Book of Gaslight Crime. Next year Walker will publish his new nonfiction book, The Story of Charlotte's Web, about E.B. White's eccentric affair with the natural world and how it inspired his beloved masterpiece. Dracula's Guest: A Connoisseur's Collection of Victorian Vampire Stories
  • Eileen Sisk is a former editor at The Tennessean, the Las Vegas Review-Journal and the Washington Post. She lives in Kingston Springs. Buck Owens: the Biography
  • Gary Slaughter writes critically-acclaimed, richly-detailed reminiscences of small-town life on the American home front during the last year of World War II. John Seigenthaler calls the two young heroes of Slaughter's "Cottonwood" novels, "This generation's Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn." In all, the series has won six book awards including Popular Fiction Finalist for the 2007 Benjamin Franklin Award (Cottonwood Fall), Adult Fiction Finalist for the Foreword 2008 Book of the Year Award (Cottonwood Winter: A Christmas Story), and Popular Fiction Finalist for the 2010 Benjamin Franklin Award (Cottonwood Spring). Visit the author online at www.garyslaughter.com. Cottonwood Spring
  • Lee Smith is the author of fifteen previous books of fiction-three collections of short stories and a dozen novels. The recipient of the 1999 Academy Award in Fiction from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, she lives in Hillsborough, North Carolina. Mrs. Darcy and the Blue-Eyed Stranger
  • Timothy B. Smith is a professor of history at the University of Tennessee, Martin and has published several books on Civil War history. A Chickamauga Memorial: the Establishment of America's First Civil War National Military Park
  • Annie Solomon has written eight romantic suspence novels and on the 2010 Romantic Times Reviewer's Choice Aawrd in romantic suspence. A former vice-president for an advertising agency, Solomon now writes full-time and lives in Nashville. www.anniesolomon.com Two Lethal Lies
  • Erica Spindler has written twenty-nine novels, including Breakneck, Last Known Victim, Copycat, Killer Takes All, See Jane Die, Dead Run and Bone Cold. Erica lives just outside New Orleans, Louisiana, with her husband and two sons. Blood Vines: A Novel
  • Mary Helen Stefaniak is the prize-winning author of The Turk and My Mother, Self Storage and Other Stories, and The Cailiffs of Baghdad, Georgia. She lives in Omaha and Iowa City. The Cailiffs of Baghdad, Georgia
  • Arthur Stewart is an adjunct research professor at the University of Tennessee and until his recent retirement was an aquatic ecologist at the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Circle, Turtle, Ashes
  • T.J. Stiles studied history at Carleton College and Columbia University, where he was awarded a President's Fellowship. He has written for the Smithsonian and the Los Angeles Times, and is the editor of a five-volume series of anthologies of primary sources. He lives in Brooklyn, New York. The First Tycoon: The Epic Life of Cornelius Vanderbilt
  • Laura Still is a poet and playwright who wears many hats. She works regularly as a dental hygienist, seasonally as a USTA certified tennis umpire, and daily as a mother of two. She is a contributing editor and contest screener for New Millennium Writings. A member of the Knoxville Writers' Guild, she has served as a Peter Taylor Prize screener, workshop instructor, and judged the guild's Young Writer's Poetry Prize. Her poetry appears in many anthologies, including Growing Up Girl, Knoxville Bound, and Migrants and Stowaways. Guardians
  • Shadra Strickland is the illustrator of several award-winning children's books including Our Children Can Soar and Bird. She studied design, illustration and writing at Syracuse University and earned her M.F.A. from the School of Visual Arts. Strickland now lives and collects her stories in Brooklyn, New York. A Place Where Hurricanes Happen
  • Patricia Sullivan is Associate Professor of History at the University of South Carolina and Fellow at the W.E.B. DuBois Institute at Harvard University. She is coeditor of the "John Hope Franklin Series in African American History and Culture" for the University of North Carolina Press. Lift Every Voice: The NAACP and the Making of the Civil Rights Movement
  • Suzanne Supplee is the author of Artichoke's Heart and When Irish Guys Are Smiling. A Tennessee native, one of Suzanne's first jobs after college was working in the office of the Country Music Association. Her love of country music and experience interviewing songwriters, artists, and DJs inspired her to tell Retta's story. Suzanne lives outside of Baltimore with her husband, three daughters, and two Jasck Russell terriers. Visit her at www.suzannesupplee.com. Somebody Everybody Listens To
  • Dorothy Sutton received degrees from Georgetown College, the University of Mississippi and the University of Kentucky. Teacher of English literature and creative writing for many years at Eastern Kentucky University, where her students hail mainly from Appalachia, she was awarded the school's two highest honors, the Excellence in Teaching Award and a Foundation Distinguished Professorship. Her poems have appeared in such noted anthologies as The Hudson Review, Antioch Review, and Virginia Quarterly Review. Backing Into Mountains
  • James L. Swanson Bloody Crimes: The Chase for Jefferson Davis and the Death Pageant for Lincoln's Corpse
  • Alex Taylor has worked as a day laborer on tobacco farms, as a car detailer at a used automotive lot, as a sorghum peddler, as a tender of suburban lawns, at various fast food chains, and at a cigarette lighter factory. He holds an M.F.A. from the University of Mississippi and now teaches at Western Kentucky University. He lives in Rosine, Kentucky. The Name of the Nearest River: Stories
  • Glenn Taylor was born and raised in Huntington, West Virginia. His first novel, The Ballad of Trenchmouth Taggart, was a finalist for the 2009 National Book Critics Circle Award and was also a Fall 2008 Barnes & Noble Discover pick. Taylor lives in Chicago, Illinois with his wife and three sons. The Marrowbone Marble Company
  • Justin Taylor's fiction and nonfiction have been widely published in journals, magazines, and Web sites, including The Believer, The Nation, The New York Tyrant, the Brooklyn Rail, Flaunt, and NPR. A coeditor of The Agriculture Reader and a contributor to HTMLGIANT, Taylor lives in Brooklyn and is at work on his first novel. Everything Here is the Best Thing Ever
  • Keith Thomson is a former semi-pro baseball player in France, an editorial cartoonist for Newsday, a filmmaker with a short film shown at Sundance, and a screenwriter who currently lives in Alabama. He writes on intelligence and other matters for the Huffington Post. Once a Spy
  • Susan Thornton is one of the first of the great Lady Vol athletes to attend the University of Tennessee. She is an engineer in Nashville. In the Footsteps of Champions: The University of Tennessee Lady Volunteers, the First Three Decades
  • Kristin O'Donnell Tubb is the author of Autumn Winifre Oliver Does Things Different. She describes herself as "basically a dork who would still be going to school if they'd let me. But they won't (cause that'd just be weird), so I write instead. All of the research, none of the quizzes. It's heaven!" She lives in Tennessee with her family. Visit her online at www.KristinTubb.com. Selling Hope
  • Matthew Paul Turner is a blogger, speaker and author of The Coffeehouse Gospel, Provocative Faith, Beatitude, Relearning Jesus, and the "What You Didn't Learn from Your Parents About" series. He is the former editor of CCM magazine. He and his wife, Jessica, live in Nashville. He can be found online at www.matthewpaulturner.com and jesusneedsnewpr.blogspot.com Hear No Evil: My Story of Innocence, Music, and the Holy Ghost
  • Susan Underwood is director of the creative writing program at Carson Newman College. Originally from Bristol, Tennessee,she received an M.F.A. from the University of North Carolina-Greensboro, where she studied under Fred Chappell. From
  • Gene Unterschuetz and his wife have traveled throughout the United States since 1997 speaking on racial unity and sharing their stories about meeting people of color who helped them understand racial conditioning. They have been married for thirty-eight years and live most of the time on the road in their RV. Stories of Racial Healing
  • Phyllis Unterschuetz and her husband have traveled throughout the United States since 1997 speaking on racial unity and sharing their stories about meeting people of color who helped them understand racial conditioning. They have been married for thirty-eight years and live most of the time on the road in their RV. Stories of Racial Healing
  • Margaret Vandiver is a Professor of Criminology and Criminal Justice at the University of Memphis. Her main area of research interest is state and collective violence, ranging from the use of the death penalty in America to contemporary instances of genocide. Tennessee's New Abolitionists: The Fight to End the Death Penalty in the Volunteer State
  • Jay Varner is a recent graduate of the University of North Carolina in Wilmington where he earned his M.F.A. in creative nonfiction. He currently lives in Charlottesville, Virginia. This is his first book.
  • Maggi Britton Vaughn has been Poet Laureate of Tennessee for more than fifteen years. She is the author of eleven books, and has received among other honors the Mark Twain Fellowship from Elmira College and the Literary Award from the Germantown Arts Alliance. She received the Governor's Award as Outstanding Tennessean in 2003. Her poems have been widely published and appeared on National Public Radio and public television. She devotes much of her time to traveling across the state, sharing her poetry with students. Mary Rebecca, Bubba and Me
  • Jessica Verday The Haunted
  • Jody Wallace is a member of the Music City Romance Writers Association. Survival of the Fairest
  • Max Watman is the author of Race Day, which was an editors' choice in The New York Times Book Review. He was the horse racing correspondent for the New York Sun and has written for various publications on books, music, food, and drink. He lives in the Hudson Valley with his wife and son. Chasing the White Dog
  • Brad Watson teaches creative writing at the University of Wyoming, Laramie. His first collection, Last Days of the Dog-Men, won the Sue Kauffman Award for First Fiction from the American Academy of Arts & Letters; his first novel, The Heaven of Mercury, was a finalist for the National Book Award. Aliens in the Prime of Their Lives: Stories
  • Bruce Watson's previous books include Sacco and Vanzetti, a finalist for the Edgar Award, and Bread and Roses, a New York Public Library Book to Remember. His journalism has appeared in the Los Angeles Times, Boston Globe, Smithsonian, and Reader's Digest. He lives in Massachusetts. Freedom Summer:The Summer that Made Mississippi Burn and Made America a Democracy
  • Kevin Watson is founder and co-owner of Press 53, a small independent publisher located in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Press 53 publishes fiction, nonfiction and poetry, with a fundamental part of its mission being to support, promote and create new markets for the short story. Kevin is also an award-winning short story author and poet whose works have appeared in several publications.
  • Kory Wells performs her poetry with her daughter Kelsey, a multi-instrumentalist who plays old-time and other roots music. The duo's act has been called "bluegrass rap" and "hillbilly cool." Kory's "standout" nonfiction has been praised by Ladies' Home Journal, and her work appears in Now & Then, New Southerner, Literary Mama, Pindeldyboz, and Ruminate. She is a mentor with The Writer's Loft at Middle Tennessee State University. Heaven was the Moon
  • Alana J. White lives in Nashville and is the author of Macavity nominated historical mystery short stories. She also writes nonfiction and book reviews for Renaissance Magazine and for the Historical Novel Society and is the author of Sacagawea: Westward With Lewis and Clark and Come Next Spring, a novel set in 1940s Appalachia. Her website is at www.alanawhite.com. Sacagawea: Westward with Lewis and Clark
  • Deborah Wiles is the author of picture books and novels for young readers including Each Little Bird That Sings (a National Book Award Finalist), and Countdown, book one of "The Sixties Trilogy: Three novels of the 1960s for young readers." She taught "Writing Techniques for Teachers" at Towson University and has taught in the M.F.A. in Writing programs at Lesley Univeristy and Vermont College. She has taught personal narrative writing for many years, to children and adults. She lives in Atlanta, Georgia. Countdown
  • Mo Willems likes writing and drawing funny books such as the Caldecott Honor Books Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus!, Knuffle Bunny: A Cautionary Tale, and Knuffle Bunny Too: A Case of Mistaken Identity. He also had fun creating favorites like the Elephant and Piggie series, which won two Geisel Medals and the New York Times bestselling "Cat the Cat" series. Before making books, Mo was a writer and animator on Sesame Street, where he won six Emmy Awards. Mo lives with his family in Massachusettes, where he is currently working on his next book, Amanda And Her Alligator. Knuffle Bunny Free
  • W. Ridley Wills is a past president of the Tennessee Historical Society and a former board member of the National Trust for Historic Preservation. His grandparents' south Nashville estate became the third official, and current, executive residence of Tennessee governors and their families.
  • Amy Lyles Wilson holds a master's degree in journalism from the University of Mississippi and a master's degree in theological studies from Vanderbilt University. She is the manager of social media for Upper Room Books, writes the "Her Spirit" column and blog for Her Nashville magazine, and leads writing workshops. Bless Your Heart—Saving the World One Covered Dish at a Time
  • Camilla Wilson brings a wide professional background to her life as a speaker, writer, and professor. She began her journalism career covering the Vietnam War for a group of southern newspapers, and has spent over four years in Asia where she worked as a foreign correspondent. She is currently writing a non-fiction book on Vietnam, entitled The Ghost Parade: Shiloh to Saigon. Ms. Wilson has three previously published biographies with Scholastic's Young Biography Series; subjects include Rosa Parks, George Washington Carver, and Frederick Douglass. Civil War Spies: Behind Enemy Lines
  • Ellen Wittlinger is the critically acclaimed author of the teen novels Love & Lies: Marisol's Story, Parrotfish, Blind Faith, Sandpiper, Heart on My Sleeve, Zigzag, and Hard Love (an ALA Michael L. Printz Honor Book and a Lambda Literary Award winner), and the middle-grade novel Gracie's Girl. She has a bachelor's degree from Millikin University in Decatur, Illinois and an M.F.A. from the University of Iowa. A former children's librarian, she lives with her husband in Haydenville, Massachusetts. This Means War!
  • Sally Wolff teaches southern literature at Emory University, where she has also served as associate dean and assistant vice-president. She is the author of Ledgers of History: William Faulkner, an Almost Forgotten Friendship, and an Antebellum Plantation Diary and Talking About William Faulkner: Interviews with Jimmie Faulkner and Others and coeditor of Southern Mothers: Fact and Fiction in Southern Women's Writing. Ledgers of History: William Faulkner, an Almost Forgotten Friendship, and an Antebellum Plantation Diary
  • Steven Womack is the Edgar and Shamus Award-winning author of Dead Folks Blues, By Blood Written and eight other novels. He teaches screenwriting and is Chair of the Watkins Film School in Nashville. His original script Rednecks on the Internet (based on his short story, "www.deadbitch.com") is currently in production by a group of Watkins Film School students. By Blood Written
  • Brian Yansky is the author of My Road Trip to the Pretty Girl Capital of the World and Wonders of the World. He holds an M.F.A. in writing from Vermont College and lives in Austin, Texas where he teaches writing at Austin Community College. Alien Invasion & Other Inconveniences
  • George Zepp is a locally renowned historian in Nashville, where he penned the local history column "Learn Nashville," which appeared in the Tennessean for eight years. Zepp's career in journalism spanned thirty-three years, the majority of which were spent at the Tennessean. Hidden History of Nashville

If you would like to be considered for the 2011 Southern Festival of Books please send in two copies (galleys or manuscripts are fine) of the book for which you would like to come, a press kit and an author bio between January 1–June 1, 2011 to:

Humanities Tennessee
Attn: Program Committee
306 Gay Street, Suite 306
Nashville, TN 37201

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