Profiles of participating authors in the Festival of Books.
Sam Reaves has written seven Chicago-based crime novels, most recently Mean Town Blues. As Dominic Martell he has penned a European-based suspense trilogy. Reaves has traveled widely in Europe and the Middle East but has lived in the Chicago area most of his life. He has worked as a teacher Read more…
Jess Lourey is the author of the Lefty-nominated Murder-by-Month mysteries set in Battle Lake, Minnesota, and featuring amateur sleuth, Mira James. November Hunt, the seventh in the series, hit shelves March 2012. In a starred review, Booklist says, “It’s not easy to make people laugh while they’re on the edge Read more…
Amy Knupp lives in Wisconsin with her husband, two sons and five cats. She graduated from the University of Kansas with degrees in French and journalism and feels lucky to use very little of either one in her writing career. In her spare time, she enjoys reading, buying books in Read more…
Born in California and raised in the Midwest, Carrie Lofty met her English husband while studying abroad–the best souvenir! Since completing her master’s degree in history, she has been devoted to raising their two precocious daughters and writing full time. Carrie’s historical romances for Zebra and Carina Press have all Read more…
R. M. Ryan is the author of Vaudeville in the Dark, a recent book of poems. The NY Times said Ryan writes ” . . . like the best poets . . . at the junction of rapture and rupture.” In addition, Ryan is the author of a novel, The Read more…
Anjie Kokan is an internationally published and award-winning writer who has worked with writers of all ages in a variety of venues, including the Carroll Academy, the University of Wisconsin – Whitewater’s High School Creative Writing Festival, Wisconsin libraries, and public and private schools in Wisconsin and Illinois. Her work has Read more…
Born and raised in Indiana, JoLynne Ricker Whalen graduated from Purdue University with a B.A. degree in elementary education. A member of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI), she has published stories in Highlights for Children, Children’s Digest, and Hob-Nob. Her story “Belly Flops and Gutter Balls” Read more…
Liz Rhodebeck of Pewaukee, Wisconsin, is a freelance writer and regular contributor for Lake Country Publications in Hartland, WI. She has published poetry in state and national journals including The Penwood Review, Margie, Verse Wisconsin, Evangel, Wisconsin Academy Review and others. Her latest poetry chapbook is What I Learned in Read more…
Mary Helen Stefaniak’s second novel, The Cailiffs of Baghdad, Georgia (W. W. Norton), has been awarded a 2011 Anisfield-Wolf Book Award for Fiction. The Anisfield-Wolf awards “recognize books that have made important contributions to our understanding of racism and our appreciation of the rich diversity of human cultures.” Juror Rita Read more…
James Klise is the author of LOVE DRUGGED, published by Flux Books in September 2010. This debut novel received a 2011 Stonewall Honor Award, and also was selected for the 2011 ALA Rainbow List. Booklist called LOVE DRUGGED “an excellent novel for both classroom and GSA discussion,” and VOYA suggested Read more…