Profiles of participating authors in the Festival of Books.
Scott Stoll asked himself a question: “If I could do anything, what would I do?” His answer resulted in a quest for happiness and the meaning of life around the world on a bicycle (25,742 miles, 4 years, 50 countries, 6 continents & 4 moments of enlightenment.) His adventures are Read more…
Raised in the Cascade Mountains of Oregon, William Kent Krueger briefly attended Stanford University–before being kicked out for radical activities. After that, he logged timber, worked construction, tried his hand at free-lance journalism, and eventually ended up researching child development at the University of Minnesota. He currently makes his living Read more…
Denise Swanson is the New York Times bestselling author of the Scumble River mystery series. After coming face-to-face with evil, Denise quickly decided she would rather write about villains than encounter them in her daily life. She was shocked to discover that getting a book published was nearly as difficult Read more…
Anthony and Barry Award winning author Julie Hyzy writes two mystery series: the White House Chef Mysteries (the fourth title in the series, Buffalo West Wing, came out in January), and the Manor House Mysteries (the second title in that series, Grace Interrupted, just came out this month!). Julie lives in the Chicago area Read more…
Robert Root is the author of two works of creative nonfiction, Recovering Ruth: A Biographer’s Tale and Following Isabella: Travels in Colorado Then and Now, and the editor of Landscapes with Figures: The Nonfiction of Place. He is also the co-editor of The Fourth Genre, a textbook now in its Read more…
Ann Angel, a writer, editor and professor in the graduate program in writing at Mount Mary College in Milwaukee, focuses her work on family and young adult sensibilities and issues. Her critically acclaimed young adult biography, Janis Joplin:Rise Up Singing, was awarded the 2011 YALSA Excellence in Nonfiction Award by the Read more…
Amanda Angel, a playwright and teacher in Brookfield, Wisconsin, has experienced a few roles in the adoption triad including searching as an adoptee and becoming a birth parent herself. Her desire to help birth parents work successfully within the adoption triad drew her to co-edit a collection of literary essays on the topic for Catalyst Read more…
When Michael J. Trinklein moved from Iowa to Idaho, his relatives had a hard time grasping that these were actually different states. He soon learned that many Idahoans wanted to split from their poorly-formed state and create “Lincoln,” America’s 51st state. Fascinated, Trinklein began collecting stories and maps of other statehood hopefuls (including Read more…
Michael Schumacher is the award-winning author of ten books, including biographies of Allen Ginsberg (Dharma Lion), Phil Ochs (There But for Fortune), Francis Ford Coppola (Francis Ford Coppola: A Filmmaker’s Life). Eric Clapton (Crossroads), George Mikan (Mr. Basketball) and most recently, Will Eisner (Will Eisner: A Dreamer’s Life in Comics). Read more…
Jacquelyn Mitchard is the author of the number one New York Times bestselling novel, The Deep End of the Ocean — chosen as the first book for Oprah Winfrey’s Book Club and named by USA Today in 2007 as one of the most influential books of the past 25 years, Read more…