2008 BOOKMARKS AUTHORS AND PRESENTERS

BROWSE BY LAST NAME: A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

Nancy Atherton / AUNT DIMITY: Vampire Hunter (2008) / F

Nancy Atherton is the author of twelve previous Aunt Dimity mysteries. The first, Aunt Dimity's Death, was voted "one of the century's 100 favorite mysteries" by the Independent Mystery Booksellers Association. She lives in Colorado Springs, Colorado.

Dan Barefoot / HARK THE SOUND OF TARHEEL VOICES (2008) / NF

Dan Barefoot was born in Charlotte, North Carolina, on March 18, 1951. He is a 1973 Phi Beta Kappa graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he also earned his Juris Doctor degree from the University of North Carolina School of law. Barefoot’s most recent books are Haunted Halls of Ivy: Ghosts of Southern Colleges and Universities and Let Us Die Like Brave Men. From 1998 until 2002, Barefoot served three terms in the North Carolina House of Representatives, representing the 44th district.

Amy Knox Brown / “Possibilities and Pitfalls of the Short-short Story” / W

Amy Knox Brown received a Ph.D. in English/Creative Writing from the University of Nebraska, as well as a J.D. from Nebraska’s College of Law and an M.F.A. from North Carolina State University. She is Assistant Professor of Creative Writing and English at Salem College. She is the author of a short story collection, Three Versions of the Truth, and a poetry chapbook, Advice from Household Gods, which is forthcoming in September 2008. Brown’s fiction and poetry has appeared in Shenandoah, Missouri Review, Nebraska Review, Other Voices, and other literary magazines, as well as anthologies published by William Morrow, University of Wisconsin Press, and Backwaters Press. 

Karl Campbell / SENATOR SAM ERVIN, LAST OF THE FOUNDING FATHERS (2008) / NF

Karl Campbell is an Associate Professor of History at Appalachian State University where he teaches classes on North Carolina History, Recent United States History, and African American History.  He graduated from Warren Wilson College with a B.A. in History and Political Science and from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with an M.A. and Ph.D in History.   Karl is the author of several articles on civil rights, civil liberties, and American politics, one of which won the Robert D.W. Conner Award from the Historical Society of North Carolina for the best article published in the North Carolina Historical Review in 2002.  His new book, Senator Sam Ervin, Last of the Founding Fathers, recently won the North Caroliniana Book of the Year Award for 2007.

Mark de Castrique / BLACKMAN'S COFFIN (2008) / F

Mark de Castrique was born in the North Carolina mountain town of Hendersonville.  His Undertaking novels have received starred reviews from Library Journal and Booklist. Mark is a veteran of the broadcast and film production business.  In Washington, he directed numerous news and public affairs programs, received an EMMY Award for his documentary film work and directed the local Washington pool feed from the White House the night Richard Nixon resigned.  In addition to producing for his film and video clients, Mark is an adjunct professor at UNCC, teaching classes on the history of the American Mystery and the fundamentals of film production. 

Justin Catanoso / MY COUSIN THE SAINT: A search for Faith, Family, and Miracles (2008) / NF

Justin Catanoso is a Pulitzer Prize-nominated newspaper journalist and an instructor at Wake Forest University.  He is the executive editor of the Business Journal in Greensboro, NC, and his work has appeared in The New York Times and BusinessWeek, and on National Public Radio.  He lives with his wife and children in Greensboro, NC.

Ginjer Clarke / BLACK OUT! ANIMALS THAT LIVE IN THE DARK (2008) / YR

Ginjer L. Clarke loves weird animals! She specializes in writing nonfiction beginning readers about wild, wonderful animals, especially extreme or unusual animals, that make learning about science entertaining and engaging. Her books have been favorably reviewed in Booklist, Horn Book, School Library Journal, Children’s Literature, and regional newspapers and magazines, and are featured in Scholastic and Bedford Falls Book Fairs. Her book Platypus! was awarded the Maryland Library Association’s 2005 Blue Crab Young Reader Award for Nonfiction and selected by the National Science Teachers Association as recommended classroom reading.

Doreen Cronin & Betsy Lewin, Illustrator, THUMP, QUACK MOO: A Whacky Adventure (2008) DUCK FOR PRESIDENT (re-release) (2008) / YR

Doreen Cronin (left) is a former attorney who collects antique typewriters. She is the author of the New York Times best-selling Giggle, Giggle, Quack and of Click, Clack, Moo: Cows That Type, which was named a Caldecott Honor Book. She lives in New York City.

Betsy Lewin (right) is an award-winning illustrator of many books for children, including Dumpy La Rue by Elizabeth Winthrop and Two, Eggs, Please by Sarah Weeks. She received a Caldecott Honor for Click, Clack, Moo: Cows That Type. She lives in Brooklyn, New York.

Chris Crutcher / DEADLINE / T

Quinn Dalton / "Jumpstart Your Writing Practice" / W

Quinn Dalton is the author of a new story collection, Stories from the Afterlife, published by Winston-Salem publisher Press 53, one novel, High Strung, and a previous collection of stories, Bulletproof Girl. Her stories, essays, and reviews have appeared in dozens of literary magazines and anthologies, including One Story, Glimmer Train, Verb, StoryQuarterly, Indiana Review, The Baltimore Review, ACM (Another Chicago Magazine), and The Kenyon Review. Her story "Back on Earth" was awarded the 2002 Fiction Prize from Pearl magazine. “The Music You Never Hear,” published first by One Story, appears in New Stories from the South: The Year’s Best, 2006.

Carmen Agra Deedy / MARTINA THE BEAUTIFUL COCKROACH: A Cuban Folktale / YR

Julia T. Ebel / ORVILLE HICKS: Mountain Stories, Mountain Roots / F

Julia Taylor Ebel celebrates nature, heritage and cultural history through stories and poetry. Her books include Walking Ribbon, Addie Clawson: Appalachian Mail Carrier, and Orville Hicks: Mountain Stories, Mountain Roots. Her nature poems frequently appear in Cricket and Pockets. Julia teaches children’s literature and language classes at Guilford Technical Community College.  She conducts poetry and writing workshops in schools and libraries, and she presents community programs on keeping stories.  Julia lives in Jamestown, North Carolina, but a part of her heart is in the North Carolina mountains.

Kathleen Flinn / THE SHARPER YOUR KNIFE, THE LESS YOU CRY (2007) / C

Kathleen Flinn has been a writer and journalist for nearly twenty years.  Her work has appeared in the Chicago Tribune, Chicago Sun-Times, USA Weekend, Men’s Fitness and many other publications.  She divides her time between Seattle and southwest Florida.

Nathan Ross Freeman / “CHARACTERIZATION: Exploring Layers of Self: Film, Theatre, Spoken Word" / W

Nathan Ross Freeman, the Visiting Writer at Salem College from 2008-2009, is the creator of Author Through The Senses: an intensive creative writing and spoken word impact communications curriculum: writing, adapting narratives and poetry into Audio Visual Spoken Word Mediums.  Award Winning Script Writer, Filmmaker, Creative Writing & Spoken Word Educator, Mr. Freeman, is the Founder Montage Showcase Ensemble, Assegai Film Group, Winston-Salem Youth Arts Institute, Pen & Voice, LLC.  Mr. Freeman is former Co-Founder and Editor of  the Piedmont Pedlar, a monthly literary sampler;  former Associate Editor of the Crescent Review literary magazine and member of the NC Humanities Speakers Bureau. 

Nikki Giovanni / ACOLYTES (2007); GRASSHOPPER'S SONG. HIP HOP SPEAKS, LINCOLN AND DOUGLASS: An American Friendship / F & YR

Nikki Giovanni is a world-renowned poet, writer, commentator, activist, and educator. Over the past thirty years, her outspokenness, in her writing and in lectures, has brought the eyes of the world upon her. One of the most widely-read American poets, she prides herself on being "a Black American, a daughter, a mother, a professor of English." Giovanni remains as determined and committed as ever to the fight for civil rights and equality. The author of some 30 books for both adults and children, Nikki Giovanni is a University Distinguished Professor at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Virginia

Joe and Terry Graedon / BEST CHOICES FROM THE PEOPLE'S PHARMACY / NF

In 1976, when The People's Pharmacy® was originally published, it was one of the first books providing drug and health information to consumers. It went on to become a number one best-seller. Since then, Joe and Terry Graedon have written many more books in The People's Pharmacy® series. In addition, Joe and Terry write The People's Pharmacy® syndicated newspaper column, which is widely distributed in the United States and abroad, and they also co-host an award-winning health talk show that airs weekly on over 500 stations through public radio, the InTouch Radio Reading Service, and the Armed Forces Radio and Television Service.

Anna R. Hayes / WITHOUT PRECEDENT: The Life of Susie Marshall Sharp (2008) / NF

Orville Hicks, storyteller / ORVILLE HICKS: Mountain Stories, Mountain Roads / F

Orville Hicks grew up in a hollow near Beech Mountain, North Carolina, where Jack Tales and other folktales were a part of daily life.  Orville tells these tales he learned from his mother and from his second cousin Ray Hick.  In 2007, Orville became one of the youngest persons honored with a North Carolina Heritage Award, the state’s highest accolade for lifetime work in keeping cultural heritage. Orville can be heard telling stories at festivals, libraries, at Todd General Store, and wherever two or more are gathered. 

Renata Jackson / "FROM PAGE TO SCREEN" / P

Renata Jackson received her B.A. and M.A. degrees in Film Production and Film History/Criticism from Penn State University and her Ph.D. in Cinema Studies from New York University.  She has been on the faculty at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts since 1998 and has been Assistant Dean of Academics in the UNCSA School of Filmmaking since 2007.  She has taught film history, theory and analysis at Penn State, Emerson College, The European Institute for International Communication and New York University.  Jackson serves as Editorial Assistant on the academic journal The Hitchcock Annual. 

Craig Allen Johnson / ANOTHER MAN'S MOCCASINS (2008),
KINDNESS GOES UNPUNISHED (2008) / F

Michael Keyser / A FRENCH KISS WITH DEATH: Steve McQueen and the
Making of Le Mans (2008) / NF

For the past 15 years, Autosports Marketing Associates, Ltd. has been owned and operated by former IMSA driver Michael Keyser. After working at The Baltimore Sun as a reporter from 1967 to 1968, Michael turned to freelance photography. In 1969, he attended SCCA drivers schools at the Marlboro and Bridgehampton circuits in a 911 Porsche, and in 1970 formed Toad Hall Motor Racing. A French Kiss With Death,a book about the making of Steve McQueen's film Le Mans was written by Michael, with English driver, Jonathan Williams.

Joyce and Jim Lavene / PERFECT POISON (2008) / F W

Bestselling authors and award-winning photojournalists, Joyce and Jim Lavene, are a husband and wife team who started out writing novels in 1999 and have had more than 40 books published. They also wrote a book about writing (THE EVERYTHING GUIDE TO WRITING A NOVEL) as well as hundreds of newspaper and magazine articles. Somewhere along the way, they decided to write mysteries and since then, they have been hooked on that genre. They currently write four mystery series and work for a small newspaper in Stanly County, North Carolina.

Janet Lembke / BECAUSE THE CAT PURRS: How We Relate to Other Species
and Why it Matters (2008) / NF

Janet Lembke lives, writes, and gardens in Staunton, Virginia.  In eighteen trade-published books, she explores two genres—nonfiction about the natural world and literary translation.  Her most recent book, Because the Cat Purrs (Skyhorse, 2008), deals with human relationships with other species—cats (of course), chickens, morning glories, turtles, and many others.  What do other species know, and why does it matter?  Other nature books include collections of essays about water, trees, birds, and gardening.  Lembke is a certified Master Gardener, now embarked on an extermination project in her small urban yard.  Out with grass!  In with flowers, herbs, fruit trees, and vegetables!

William A. Link / RIGHTEOUS WARRIOR: Jesse Helms and the Rise of
Modern Conservatism (2008) / NF

Ellen Bryant Lloyd / FRECKLES AND THE GREAT BEACH RESCUE / YR

Ellen Bryant Lloyd grew up in Wilmington, North Carolina and graduated from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro with a degree in Economics and minor in Communication Studies. Her career began in another publishing industry, newspaper, with the Greensboro News & Record. There she worked in retail advertising, real estate publication development, and marketing management.

Charlie Lovett / THE PROGRAM (2008) / F

Charlie Lovett was born in Winston-Salem, NC, and was graduated from The Summit School (1977), Woodberry Forest School (1980), and Davidson College (1984), where he received his B.A. in Theatre. After moving to the Kansas City area in 1993, Charlie decided to devote himself full time to writing.  He attended the Sewanee Writer’s Conference in 1994.  In December 1994, he enrolled in the MFA-Writing program at Vermont College of Norwich University.  He is Writer-in-Residence at Summit School, where he has premiered a number of his plays.

Rue McClanahan / MY FIRST FIVE HUSBANDS: and the Ones Who Got Away (2008) / F

Photo credit: Jean-Marc Vlaminck

Rue McClanahan is an Emmy Award-winning actress, best known for her roles on the hit television sitcoms Maude and The Golden Girls. In the latter series, McClanahan played the man-crazed Southern belle, Blanche Devereaux. She received an Emmy Award in 1987 for Outstanding Lead Actress in a comedy series for her work in that role. Rue continues to do work in animal rights activism, breast cancer awareness, theater and television/film. She’s presently starring in a television role as Peggy on the new series Sordid Lives, on LOGO-TV.

Kaya McLaren / THE CHURCH OF THE DOG (2008) / F

Scott Nelson / A PEOPLE AT WAR: Civilians and Soldiers in America's Civil War (2007); AIN'T NOTHING BUT A MAN: My Quest to Find the Real John Henry / NF & YA

Scott Nelson was raised in Sanford, Florida but rushed off to Chapel Hill, North Carolina before the authorities could locate him. He received a PhD in American History from University of North Carolina in 1995. He is Legum Professor of History at the College of William and Mary where he teaches nineteenth-century Southern and African-American history to students much smarter than he is. His books also include Iron Confederacies and Steel Drivin' Man, which won the Merle Curti Prize for best book in US social and cultural history, the Anisfield-Wolf Prize for non-fiction, the National Award for Fine Arts, and the Virginia Literary Award for Non-Fiction.

Katherine Hall Page / BODY IN THE GALLERY (2008) / F

Katherine Hall Page was born and grew up in New Jersey. She earned her undergraduate degree from Wellesley College, majoring in English and went on to a Masters in Secondary Education from Tufts and a Doctorate in Administration, Public Planning, and Social Policy from Harvard. Her first mystery, The Body in the Belfry, was the 1991 Agatha Award winner for Best First Mystery Novel. The Body in the Snowdrift won the 2006 Agatha Award for Best Mystery Novel. Ms. Page was also awarded the 2001 Agatha for Best Short Story for "The Would-Be Widower" in the Malice Domestic X collection.

Glenis Redmond / Performance Poetry / YA

Glenis Redmond's love of words has carried her across the country for thirteen years. She logs over 35,000 miles a year bringing poetry to the masses. She is a 2005-2006 NC Literary Award recipient and a Denny C. Plattner Award winner for Outstanding Poetry awarded by the Journal, Appalachian Heritage. She has been inducted in the Mt. Xpress' Hall of Fame for Best Poet in Western North Carolina after winning for over seven years. Glenis is a workshop leader with the Kennedy Center's Partnership in Education Program in Washington, D.C. Glenis' work has aired on National Public Radio. She is a past winner of the Southern Fried Poetry Slam and a top ten finalist in the National Poetry Slam.

J.D. "Dusty" Rhoades / BREAKING COVER (2008) / F

J.D. Rhoades was born and raised in North Carolina. He has worked as a radio
news reporter, club DJ, television cameraman, ad salesman, waiter, practicing
attorney, and newspaper columnist. His weekly column in the Southern Pines,
North Carolina Pilot was named best column of the year in its division for
2005. His first novel, The Devil's Right Hand, was released in 2005; Good Day in Hell, his second novel featuring North Carolina bail bondsman Jack Keller, was released in March 2006. Safe and Sound, July 2007, also features Jack Keller. Breaking Cover (August 2008) is his first stand-alone novel. He lives, writes, and practices law in Carthage, North Carolina.

Sallie Ann Robinson / COOKING THE GULLAH WAY: Morning, Noon & Night (2007) / C

Sallie Ann Robinson was born and raised on Daufuskie Island, South Carolina, and is dedicated to sharing the richness of her native Gullah culture. She now lives in Savannah, Georgia. Gregory Wrenn Smith is a photographer, writer, and editor who has worked to document the history and culture of the South Carolina Lowcountry. He lives in Bluffton, South Carolina.

Anna Rubino / QUEEN OF THE OIL CLUB (2008) / NF

Anna Rubino, a journalist and historian with a Ph.D. from Yale, has covered oil and business news from New York and Brussels. She started working as a reporter for Wanda Jablonski's Petroleum Intelligence Weekly. Since then, her work has appeared in Business Week, the International Herald Tribune, and other publications and Internet news sites. Rubino is now an investigative reporter for OTR Global (formerly Off The Record Research), a San Francisco-based investment news service, and lives in North Carolina. Queen of the Oil Club is her first book.

Randy Russell / GHOST CATS OF THE SOUTH (2008) / F

Randy Russell was born in the foothills of the Ozark Mountains in Oklahoma. Described as a “ghostlorist,” a folklorist who has a special interest in ghosts, he is the author of four ghost story collections, including Ghost Dogs of the South, The Granny Curse and Other Ghosts and Legends from East Tennessee, and Mountain Ghost Stories and Curious Tales of Western North Carolina. Russell hosts ghost-lore programs all across the South. He is a regular lecturer at the North Carolina Center for the Advancement of Teaching, where he instructs teachers on how to incorporate folklore into the classroom.

Marisa de los Santos / LOVE WALKED IN (2007), BELONG TO ME: A Novel (2008) / F

Enamored of books from an early age, Marisa de los Santos majored in English at the University of Virginia, and went on to study creative writing at Sarah Lawrence College and the University of Houston. Originally a poet, and the author of the award-winning collection From the Bones Out, Marisa tried her hand at fiction when, shortly after the birth of her second child, she found herself with a voice in her head. The voice developed into a character that went on to become the protagonist of her first novel Love Walked In. Marisa is at work on a third. She lives in Wilmington, Delaware with her husband David Teague and her two young children, Charles and Annabel. 

Tracey Seaman and Tanya Steel / REAL FOOD FOR HEALTHY KIDS (2008) / C

Tracey Seaman, a single mom of two adolescents, is the test kitchen director for Every Day with Rachael Ray magazine, and has been a food editor, stylist, and recipe developer whose credits include Food & Wine, Gourmet, Martha Stewart Living and Martha Stewart Kids.   She lives with her family in New Jersey. 

Tanya Wenman Steel is editor-in-chief of the award-winning food web site Epicurious.com. Fourteen years of her life as an editor life have been spent at Bon Appetit and Food & Wine magazines.  The winner of a prestigious James Beard Foundation Journalism Award, she has also written extensively for The New York Times, as well as for other lifestyle and parenting publications like Nick Jr. and Child.  She appears frequently on television, including regular appearances on the Today Show, and lives in Westchester, NY, with her husband and sons.

Ed Southern / “THE WRITER/AUTHOR DIVIDE: The Basics of Marketing Your Book and Yourself” / W

Ed Southern became the Executive Director of the North Carolina Writers’ Network in January, after more than 8 years with John F. Blair, Publisher, the last two as vice president of sales & marketing.  He was a co-author of the first two editions of Travel North Carolina, and is the editor of the 2004 book The Jamestown Adventure.  He has three books coming out in 2009: a collection of first-hand accounts of the American Revolution in the Carolinas, an anthology of essays about sports in the Carolinas, and his first work of fiction, Parlous Angels.

Elizabeth Spencer / LIGHT IN THE PIAZZA / F

Mark Strausman / TWO MEATBALLS: In an Italian Kitchen (2007) / C

Mark Strausman, a Queens native, began his career in food service selling peanuts at Shea Stadium. He is the co-owner, with Pino Luongo, of Coco Pazzo in Manhattan, where he is chef. He is also the executive chef/managing director of Fred’s at Barney's in Manhattan. and the author of author of The Campagna Table. Mark and his two sons live in New York City.

Denzil Strickland / SWIMMERS IN THE SEA (2008) / F

Denzil Strickland grew up in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. He graduated with a degree in English from George Peabody College. His short stories have been published in literary journals and one was the recipient of a national Hackney Award. Winston-Salem publisher Press 53 will celebrate the release of his first novel, Swimmers in the Sea, at the festival . Denzil lives with his wife Carolyn and two young daughters in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, where he works as an advertising copywriter.

Bill Thompson / BACKYARDS, BOW TIES AND BEAUTY QUEENS (2008) / F

For more than 20 years, Bill Thompson has amused readers of various newspapers in the Carolinas with tall tales, short stories, and ruminations on what he loves and knows best — life in North Carolina. He’s written three books on the subject – his first, Sweet Tea, Fried Chicken, and Lazy Dogs – Reflections on North Carolina Life has sold more than 10,000 copies, followed by Pearls Pork Palace, and now Bowties, Backyards and Beauty Queens. Since 2001, the Columbus County native has delighted readers of Our State magazine with his warm, folksy column “Front Porch Stories.”

Ben Towle, Graphic Novelist / MIDNIGHT SUN / T

Ben Towle is an Eisner- and Ignatz-nominated cartoonist known primarily for his work with SLG Publishing, including the recent historical fiction graphic novel Midnight Sun as well as his earlier volume of comics folk tales, Farewell, Georgia.  He's taught cartooning and comics classes at schools and workshops across the country and is the co-founder of the National Association of Comics Art Educators.  Ben is currently hard at work on a creator-owned story about turn of the century Chesapeake Bay oystermen and also on a biographical graphic novel about Amelia Earhart for Hyperion Books. 

Omar Tyree / PECKING ORDER (2008); 12 BROWN BOYS (2008) / F

New York Times bestselling author Omar Tyree is the winner of the 2001 NAACP Image Award winner for Outstanding Literature in Fiction and the 2006 Phillis Wheatley Literary Award for Body of Work in Urban Fiction. His books include The Last Street Novel, What They Want, Boss Lady, Diary of a Groupie, Leslie, Just Say No!, For the Love of Money, Sweet St. Louis, Single Mom, A Do Right Man, and Flyy Girl.

William Winokur / THE PERFECT GAME (2008) / NF