Authors
Check out the authors who are gathering at the 2024 Festival to celebrate Pittsburgh’s literary community! Learn more about each author by clicking on their name.
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POETRY COLLECTIONS
Ross Gay is the author of four books of poetry: Against Which; Bringing the Shovel Down; Be Holding, winner of the PEN American Literary Jean Stein Award; and Catalog of Unabashed Gratitude, winner of the 2015 National Book Critics Circle Award and the 2016 Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award. In addition to his poetry, Ross has released three collections of essays—The Book of Delights was released in 2019 and was a New York Times bestseller; Inciting Joy was released in 2022, and his newest collection, The Book of (More) Delights was released in September of 2023.
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NONFICTION, MEMOIR
Sebastian Junger is the New York Times bestselling author of Tribe, War, Freedom, A Death in Belmont, Fire, and The Perfect Storm, and codirector of the documentary film Restrepo, which was nominated for an Academy Award. He is also the winner of a Peabody Award and the National Magazine Award for Reporting.
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ROMANCE
Eloisa James is the USA Today and New York Times bestselling author of over 30 historical romance novels, which have been translated into 26 languages and sold more than 7 million copies worldwide. As Mary Bly, she’s a Shakespeare scholar and Chair of the English Department at Fordham University. She lives with her family in New York, but can sometimes be found in Paris or Italy.
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SUSPENSE and THRILLER
Erin E. Adams is a first-generation Haitian-American writer and theatre artist. Her debut novel, JACKAL, was a finalist for the Edgar® Award, the Bram Stoker® Award, the Shirley Jackson Award and the Strand Critics Award. Her short fiction was featured in OUT THERE SCREAMING, edited by Jordan Peele. Her sophomore novel ONE OF YOU will be published in 2025.
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HORROR & HISTORICAL FICTION
Clare Beams's novel The Illness Lesson (Doubleday, 2020) was a New York Times Editors’ Choice, and her story collection We Show What We Have Learned (Lookout Books, 2016) won the Bard Fiction Prize. Her new novel is The Garden (Doubleday, April 2024). A 2014 NEA fellow, she was a finalist for the 2023 Joyce Carol Oates Prize. She lives in Pittsburgh and teaches in the Randolph MFA program.
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ROMANTACY
Mai Corland is a Korean American attorney and writer, born in Seoul and adopted into New York. From there, she ran away from winter and studied in Florida at Rollins College and the University of Miami. Due to a variety of questionable decisions, she currently lives in the cold again. Mai also writes award-winning children’s and young adult books under the name Meredith Ireland.
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CONTEMPORARY & ROMANCE
Alyson Derrick is the New York Times bestselling coauthor of She Gets the Girl and the author of Forget Me Not, which was longlisted for the National Book Award for Young People’s literature. She currently lives in Pittsburgh with her family.
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CONTEMPORARY ROMANCE
Melodie Edwards is the author of Jane & Edward and Once Persuaded, Twice Shy. She has a BA from the University of Toronto, an MA from McMaster University and Syracuse University, and studied comedy writing at the Second City Training Centre. Her work has appeared in Writer’s Digest, GI60 UK Theatre Festival, the Austin Film Festival Playwright Competition, and the Hart House Drama Festival.
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SHORT STORIES
Elwin Cotman is a storyteller from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He is the author of four collections of speculative short stories: The Jack Daniels Sessions EP, Hard Times Blues, Dance on Saturday, and his most recent book, Weird Black Black Girls. His debut novel The Age of Ignorance will be published by Scribner in 2025.
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ROMANCE
Kristina Forest is the critically acclaimed author of romance books for both teens and adults. She earned her MFA in Creative Writing at The New School and she lives in New Jersey, where she can often be found rearranging her bookshelf.
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HISTORICAL FICTION
Mojgan Ghazirad is a medical doctor and currently works as an assistant professor of pediatrics at The George Washington University. She holds an MFA in creative writing and has published three collections of short stories in Farsi. Her essays have appeared in Michigan Quarterly Review, Idaho Review, Longreads, The Common, Bombay Review, and Assignment.
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MEMOIR
Prachi Gupta is an award-winning journalist and former senior reporter at Jezebel. She won a Writers Guild Award for her investigative essay “Stories About My Brother.” Her work was featured in The Best American Magazine Writing 2021 and has appeared in The Atlantic, The Washington Post Magazine, Marie Claire, Salon, Elle, and elsewhere. They Called Us Exceptional is her debut memoir.
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NONFICTION - MUSIC
Colter Harper is an ethnomusicologist and musician whose research centers on the intersections of nightlife, popular music, labor, and placemaking. Colter has toured with the rock band Rusted Root and served as a Fulbright Scholar in the University of Ghana. Currently, he is a Teaching Assistant Professor in the University at Buffalo’s Department of Music.
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NONFICTION & SOCIAL JUSTICE
Robert T. Hayashi is a native Pittsburgher, graduate of Cornell University’s MFA Program in Creative Writing, and Professor of American Studies at Amherst College. His writing examines the history of American places with critical attention to racial and economic disparity. His recent book, Fields of Play, analyzes Pittsburgh’s history through the lens of sport.
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HISTORICAL FICTION & NONFICTION
Katherine Howe is a New York Times bestselling and award-winning historian and author. She lives and sails in New England with her family, where she is at work on her next novel.
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YOUNG ADULT - CONTEMPORARY
Don P. Hooper is a writer and filmmaker of Jamaican heritage (and a programmer in a former life). His short story “Got Me a Jet Pack” is part of the New York Times bestselling anthology Black Boy Joy. He does voice-over in video games and documentaries. True True is his debut novel.
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CONTEMPORARY FICTION
A.H. Kim (Ann) was born in Seoul, South Korea and immigrated to the U.S. as a young child. Ann was educated at Harvard College and Berkeley Law School. She's the author of the acclaimed debut A Good Family (2020) and Relative Strangers (2024). She lives in Ann Arbor, Michigan with her husband. Connect with Ann online at www.ahkim.net.
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TRUE CRIME
Graduate of the University of Pittsburgh and the New Orleans School for the Imagination, Kirin has spent his life studying ASL, literature, juggling, and poetry. Accordingly devoting his life to creativity and collaboration. His most recent work is an exploration of Pittsburgh's seedy history with crime. And his grandmother's central role in toppling the once revered Vice Squad of the 1950s.
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MIDDLE SCHOOL HISTORICAL & CONTEMPORARY QUEER FICTION
Michael Leali (he/him) is an award-winning writer and veteran educator. His debut novel, The Civil War of Amos Abernathy, won the Golden Kite Award in 2023 and was a finalist for the Lambda Literary award. He is also the author of Matteo (HarperCollins, 2023) and the forthcoming The Truth About Triangles (HarperCollins, 2024). Michael currently lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.
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MYSTERY
Annette Dashofy is the USA Today bestselling author of fifteen mystery novels including seven Agatha Award finalists and a Dr. Tony Ryan Book Award winner. Keep Your Family Close, the second Detective Honeywell Mystery was released in December. What Comes Around, Zoe Chambers #13 will release in May. Annette and her husband live in Washington County, Pennsylvania.
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LITERARY & FANTASY
Rania Hanna is a Syrian–American writer and researcher. She is a neuroscience doctoral student at George Mason University. The Jinn Daughter is her debut novel. She lives in Northern Virginia.
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NONFICTION
Benjamin Herold explores America's beautiful and busted public schools.
His award-winning reporting has appeared in Education Week, PBS NewsHour, NPR, Huffington Post, WHYY, The Hechinger Report, and the Public School Notebook. Herold has a master's degree in urban education from Temple University in Philadelphia, where he lives with his family.
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THRILLER
The son of a navy helicopter pilot, Parker Adams chased great white sharks as a marine biologist before becoming a patent lawyer who litigates multimillion-dollar cases for high-tech clients. In his spare time, he writes high-stakes thrillers that feature travel and technology, including the best-selling Seth Walker series (as Joseph Reid). He lives in San Diego with his wife and children.
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FANTASY
Paranormal & fantasy romance author Aurora Ascher loves misunderstood mythical monsters, redeemable anti-heroes, and epic happily-ever-afters. A woman of many creative pursuits, Aurora is also a professional musician and visual artist. She currently resides in Montreal with her trusty espresso machine and her endlessly patient husband.
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HISTORY
Ed Simon is the editor of Belt Magazine and the author of over a dozen books, including "The Soul of Pittsburgh.”
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FANTASY
David R. Slayton (He/Him) grew up in Guthrie, Oklahoma, where finding fantasy novels was pretty challenging and finding fantasy novels with diverse characters was downright impossible. Now he lives in Denver and writes the books he always wanted to read. His debut, White Trash Warlock, was a finalist for the Colorado Book Award.
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MEMOIR
Joseph Earl Thomas is a writer from Frankford with an MFA in prose from The University of Notre Dame. An excerpt of his memoir, Sink, won the 2020 Chautauqua Janus Prize. He’s writing the novel God Bless You, Otis Spunkmeyer, and a collection of stories: Leviathan Beach, among other oddities. He is also an associate faculty member at The Brooklyn Institute for Social Research.
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NONFICTION
Nico Slate is Professor in the Department of History at Carnegie Mellon University. He is the author of six books, including Brothers: A Memoir of Love, Loss, and Race (Temple University Press, 2023), a book about the life and death of his older brother. Nico is also the co-founder of LEAP, a program for low-income high school students interested in the arts, humanities, and social sciences.
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MYSTERY
WSJ and USA Today bestseller author, Abby L. Vandiver, also writing as Abby Collette and Cade Bentley, has penned more than thirty books and short stories. Her books have been featured in the New York Times, Elle Magazine, and as a question on Jeopardy! The 2022-2023 Writer-in-Residence for the Cuyahoga County Public Library, she is a speaker and book coach. She lives in South Euclid, Ohio.
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NONFICTION
Jerry Zolten is an American roots music and pop culture writer, documentary film producer/narrator, and musician & musical producer. In addition to his book on the Black gospel group the Dixie Hummingbirds, his work includes Chimpin’ the Blues with cartoonist Robert Crumb, producing albums by the Fairfield Four, and co-producing How They Got Over: Gospel Quartets and the Road to “Rock ‘n’ Roll.
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YOUNG ADULT - CONTEMPORARY
Jennifer Baker is a publishing professional, creator of the Minorities in Publishing podcast, and faculty at Bay Path University’s MFA program in creative nonfiction. She is the editor of the anthology Everyday People: The Color of Life (2018) and the author of Forgive Me Not (2023)--an NYPL Best Book for Teens in 2023 and 2023 Best of the Best by the BCALA. Her website is: jennifernbaker.com.
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NONFICTION
Zachary Brodt is the University Archivist at the University of Pittsburgh Library System where he also oversees the archives’ labor history collections. He is the author of From the Steel City to the White City: Western Pennsylvania and the World’s Columbian Exposition and has previously published articles about the 1892 Homestead Steel Strike and Pitt’s hiring of Jonas Salk, among other topics.
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MIDDLE GRADE HISTORICAL FICTION
Sharon G. Flake broke into the children's literary scene with her internationally acclaimed novel The Skin I’m In. With over a million and a half copies of her books in print, she has earned a reputation as a go-to reader for teens, educators and librarians. Flake has been recognized with multiple awards and honors including being named a Kirkus Prize Finalist. Her latest books are You Make Me Sneeze, a picture book about friendship and Once In A Blue Moon, a historical novel about an eleven-year-old boy with anxiety, a big imagination, a big secret and a love for astronomy.
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ROMANCE
Lindsay Hameroff is a writer, humorist, and former English teacher raised in Baltimore, MD and based in Harrisburg, PA. Her writing has been featured in McSweeney’s Internet Tendency, The Belladonna, Weekly Humorist, and other outlets. She also co-edits Frazzled, a parenting humor site. Till There Was You is her first novel.
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NONFICTION & MEMOIR
JoAnne Klimovich Harrop is an award-winning features writer for TribLive who celebrated 26 years with the company in October. She writes about interesting people, food, real estate, arts and entertainment and things to do in the city.
JoAnne is a Sacred Heart High School and Pennsylvania State University graduate.
A native of Greenfield, she lives in Scott Township with her husband Perry.
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NONFICTION
Paul Hodos is the author of Steel City Mafia: Blood, Betrayal and Pittsburgh's Last Don from the History Press and is a former FBI Supervisory Intelligence Analyst.
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HORROR
Gwendolyn Kiste is the author of The Rust Maidens, Reluctant Immortals, Boneset & Feathers, Pretty Marys All in a Row, and The Haunting of Velkwood. Her short fiction and nonfiction have appeared in Lit Hub, Nightmare, Tor Nightfire, The Dark, and The Lineup among others. She's a Lambda Literary Award winner as well as a three-time Bram Stoker Award winner. Find her online at gwendolynkiste.com.
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EARLY READER GRAPHIC NOVEL
Pat Lewis is a freelance cartoonist/illustrator who lives in Pittsburgh, PA with his wife and two cats. His artwork has appeared in magazines such as Highlights for Children and Boys’ Life, as well as books by Workman Publishing, Macmillan and McGraw-Hill. Some of his favorite things in this world are: flea markets, road trips, monster movies and snack-bar nachos. Oh, and drawing funny pictures for kids and adults.
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CHILDREN’S
Terri Libenson is the New York Times bestselling author of the Emmie & Friends series and the cartoonist of the (now retired) award-winning comic strip The Pajama Diaries. Terri empty-nests in Cleveland, Ohio, with her husband, Mike. She is the proud mom of two grown daughters and a poodle. You can find her online at terrilibenson.com.
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HISTORICAL ROMANCE
Lindsay Lovise writes historical romances with quirky heroines and a dash of mystery. When she’s not writing, Lindsay is reading (probably romance) and drinking coffee. Lindsay has a Bachelor of Arts in English and a Master of Arts in Teaching. She lives on the East Coast and enjoys winter more than she probably should. Visit lindsaylovise.com for more information.
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HORROR
Cynthia Pelayo is a Bram Stoker Award-winning author. Her books include Children of Chicago, Lotería, The Shoemaker's Magician, and Forgotten Sisters. The recipient of the 2021 International Latino Book Award, she holds a master of fine arts in writing from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She lives in Chicago with her family. For more information, visit www.cinapelayo.com.
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NONFICTION & MEMOIR
Dave Newman is the author of seven books, including The Same Dead Songs: a memoir of working-class addictions (J.New Books, 2023). He lives in Trafford, PA, the last town in the Electric Valley, and is an assistant professor at the University of Pittsburgh Greensburg.
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MYSTERY
Valerie (V. M.) Burns/Kallie E. Benjamin is an Agatha, Anthony, Edgar, and Next Generation Award finalist. She is the author of five cozy mystery series and is an adjunct professor in the Writing Popular Fiction MFA Program at Seton Hill University. Valerie lives in Northern Georgia.
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MG HISTORICAL FICTION & MEMOIR
Alexandra Diaz is the award-winning author of The Only Road, The Crossroads, Santiago’s Road Home, and Farewell Cuba, Mi Isla. The Only Road was a Pura Belpré Honor Book and won the Américas Award for Children’s and Young Adult Literature, as well as numerous other accolades. Santiago’s Road Home was an International Latino Book Award gold medalist and an ALA Notable Children’s Book. Farewell Cuba, Mi Isla was a Kirkus Reviews Best Books of the Year and the Children’s Book Council’s teacher's Favorite. Alexandra is the daughter of Cuban refugees and a native Spanish speaker. She lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico, but got her master’s in Writing for Young People at Bath Spa University in England. Visit her at Alexandra-Diaz.com.
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NONFICTION & HISTORY
Steve Drummond is an author, educator, and journalist. As a senior editor at NPR in Washington, his work has been recognized with many of journalism’s highest honors. Before coming to NPR, he was a newspaper reporter in Florida and in Michigan. A three-time graduate of the University of Michigan, Drummond lives in Bethesda, Md., and teaches journalism at the University of Maryland.
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NONFICTION
Richard Gazarik is a former journalist turned author who has published six books with a seventh due in June. Among his works are Black Valley; The Life and Death of Fannie Sellins; Prohibition Pittsburgh; Wicked Pittsburgh; Swinging in the Steel City. A History of Jazz in Pittsburgh; and The Pennsylvania Turnpike Phantom Killer.
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ROMANCE, HORROR & YA
Kosoko Jackson is a USA Today Bestselling author of The Forest Demands Its Due and a Lambda Award winning author for his queer rom-com I’m (So) Not Over You. He lives in the New York Metro area with his Golden Retriever, Artemis. When not writing he moonlights during the day as a Digital Director and a Visiting Professor at Seton Hill University’s low-residency MFA program.
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COZY MYSTERY
Geri Krotow is the nationally bestselling and award winning author of over 35 traditionally published novels. Geri is a Navy vet and USNA grad. Geri lives in south central Pennsylvania where she writes the Kielbasa Queen Mystery Series from Severn House and the Shop ‘Round the World mystery series from Tule Publishing.The Pierogi Peril is Geri's most recent release.
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ROMANCE
Chloe, USA Today bestselling author of the Bergman Brothers and the Wilmot Sisters, writes romances reflecting her belief that everyone deserves a love story. Her stories pack a punch of heat, heart, and humor, and often feature characters who are neurodivergent like herself.
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FANTASY
Hannah Nicole Maehrer—or as TikTok Knows her, @hannahnicolemae—is a fantasy romance author and BookToker with a propensity for villains. When she’s not creating bookish comedy skits about Villains and Assistants, she’s writing to Taylor Swift songs. Her biggest passions in life include romance, magic, laughter, and finding ways to include them all in everything she creates.
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MIDDLE GRADE GRAPHIC NOVEL
Sharee Miller is the bestselling illustrator and author of Curlfriends: New in Town. She is best known for her acclaimed picture book Don't Touch My Hair. Her other picture books include Princess Hair, and Michelle’s Garden: How the First Lady planted seeds of Change. Sharee is currently working on the graphic novel adaptation of One Crazy Summer by Rita Willams-Garcia.
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THRILLER
Nick Petrie is the author of eight novels in the Peter Ash series, most recently The Price You Pay. His debut, The Drifter, won both the ITW Thriller award and the Barry Award for Best First Novel, and was a finalist for the Edgar and the Hammett Awards. A husband and father, he lives in the Milwaukee area.
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MIDDLE GRADE HISTORICAL FICTION
Leah Pileggi’s work has appeared in The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, The Chautauquan Daily, The New York Times Magazine, Hopscotch Magazine, and SmartyPantsMagazineForKids.com. Awards for her middle-grade historical novel Prisoner 88 include IndieBound Kids’ Next List, NCTE Notable Book in the Language Arts, and the Charlie May Simon Honor Book for the State of Arkansas.
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NONFICTION
Shannon Reed is the author of Why We Read: On Bookworms, Libraries and Just One More Page Before Lights Out (Feb '24). It was excerpted in The New Yorker and in George Saunders' Substack, Story Club. Shannon is also the author of Why Did I Get a B? And Other Mysteries We're Discussing in the Faculty Lounge. She teaches at the University of Pittsburgh, where she is the Director of Undergraduate Studies for the Writing Program.
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MIDDLE GRADE MEMOIR & HISTORICAL NON-FICTION
Amra Sabic-El-Rayess grew up in Bihac, Bosnia and Herzegovina. Currently she is a professor at Columbia University, studying how and why societies fall apart and what role education can play in rebuilding decimated countries. She is also the author of the critically acclaimed young adult memoir The Cat I Never Named.
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HORROR
Hailey Piper is the Bram Stoker Award-winning author of Queen of Teeth, A Light Most Hateful, The Worm and His Kings series, and other books of dark fiction. She is also the author of over 100 short stories appearing in Weird Tales, Pseudopod, Cosmic Horror Monthly, Cast of Wonders, and various other publications. Her non-fiction appears in Writer's Digest, Library Journal, CrimeReads, and elsewhere. She lives with her wife in Maryland, where their occult rituals are secret. Find Hailey at www.haileypiper.com.
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CONTEMPORARY, COMING-OF-AGE
Shannon C.F. Rogers studied Creative Writing at the University of New Mexico and Antioch University Los Angeles. She has served as an educator, after-school program director, and lost mitten finder at schools in Albuquerque, Chicago, and Brooklyn, where she now lives. Her debut novel, I’D RATHER BURN THAN BLOOM, won the Asian/Pacific American Award for Youth Literature in 2024.
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NONFICTION
Rob Ruck teaches and writes about sport, focusing on how people use sport to tell a story about who they are. His books & documentaries explore the Negro Leagues, baseball in the Caribbean, Art Rooney, Pittsburgh, and football in American Samoa and the Samoan diaspora. He's also worked with the Hall of Fame on their exhibits about Latinos & Blacks in in baseball.
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FICTION
Steven Sherrill has (among other things):
• A high school equivalency diploma
• A community college welding certificate
• An MFA in Poetry from the Iowa Writers Workshop
• An NEA Fellowship in Fiction
• Five novels (one a cult classic), a book of poems, and a memoir in the world
• Articles in Modern Painters, TATE Magazine
• Too many banjos
• Too few synthesizers
• One motorcycle, at the moment.
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HORROR
Zoje Stage is the USA Today and internationally bestselling author of the psychological thrillers BABY TEETH and GETAWAY, and the psychological horror novels WONDERLAND and MOTHERED. Her books have been named "best of the year" by Forbes Magazine, Library Journal, PopSugar, LitReactor, Barnes & Noble, Book Riot, and more. She lives in Pittsburgh with her cats.
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YA
Parisa Akhbari is a writer and mental health therapist from Seattle, Washington. When not writing or therapizing, she can be found trying to replicate her grandmother’s drool-worthy Persian recipes, hanging out with disability community, and marathoning sci-fi movies with her partner and dogs. Just Another Epic Love Poem is her debut novel.
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YOUNG ADULT
Jonathan Auxier is a NYT Bestselling author of strange stories for strange children, including The Night Gardener, Sweep, and the Peter Nimble Series. His latest series for younger readers, The Fabled Stables, is in bookstores now. He lives in Pittsburgh with his family and their adorable pet umbrella.
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GRAPHIC NOVEL
Veronica Park (VP) Anderson (she/they) is a neurodivergent, queer, feminist millennial writer with a resume that defies physics. V’s previous job titles include: award-winning community theater actor, professional lecturer on cruise ships, indie film producer, literary agent, and creative project manager; however, “writer” is the title that always fits.
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MEMOIR
Lori Jakiela is the author of seven books, including Belief Is Its Own Kind of Truth, Maybe, which received the Saroyan Prize for International Literature from Stanford University. Her most recent book, They Write Your Name on a Grain of Rice: On Cancer, Love, and Living Even So, was published by Atticus in 2023. Her work has been published in The New York Times, The Washington Post, and more.
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CONTEMPORARY & ROMANCE
Rachael Lippincott is the #1 New York Times Bestselling author and coauthor of Five Feet Apart, All This Time, She Gets the Girl, The Lucky List, Pride and Prejudice and Pittsburgh, and Make My Wish Come True. She holds a BA in English writing from the University of Pittsburgh. Originally from Bucks County, Pennsylvania, she currently resides in Pittsburgh with her wife and daughter.
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HISTORICAL ROMANCE &
HISTORICAL FICTIONVanessa Riley is a historian and the award-winning author of Island Queen (GMA Buzz Pick) and Queen of Exiles (The View Lit Pic). Riley's works encompass historical fiction, historical romance, and historical mystery and have been reviewed by the Washington Post, EW, NPR, PW, and the New York Times. Riley was named the 2023 Georgia Author of the Year in Literary Fiction for Sister Mother Warrior.
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PICTURE BOOK
Erin Danielle Russell loves writing and cooking, and especially enjoys an opportunity to write about cooking. She knew she wanted to be an author since she was 6, and spent her childhood writing stories about her imaginary friend, Melody, and anime fanfiction. She is the author of How to Trick the Tooth Fairy and will always believe in magic. She lives in the Midwest with her family.
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NONFICTION
Frank Santoro is an artist and author from the Swissvale neighborhood of Pittsburgh. His book, PITTSBURGH, was published by New York Review of Comics (NYRB) in 2019. His work has been exhibited at The Academy of Arts and Letters in New York and the Archaeological Museum of Napoli in Italy.
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MYSTERY & THRILLER
Laura Sims is the author of How Can I Help You, a NYT Best Book of the Year, and a LibraryReads Top Ten Books of July. Sims’s first novel, LOOKER, was included on “Best Books” lists in Vogue, People, Entertainment Weekly, and more, and is now in development for television. Sims is also an award-winning poet, and is currently a reference librarian. She and her family live in NJ.
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YA
Stacy Stokes is a lifelong lover of stories, former improv comedy geek, and marketing professional. Her debut novel Remember Me Gone was a Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection and ALA Quick Picks for Reluctant Readers nominee. She graduated with a BBA from the University of Texas at Austin and an MBA from the Wharton School of Business. She currently lives with her family in the Bay Area.
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NONFICTION
Liann Tsoukas is an award-winning teaching professor at the University of Pittsburgh. Her work explores the intersection of race, class, and gender within the American experience, with a particular focus on social justice.
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MODERATOR
Damon Young's debut memoir, What Doesn’t Kill You Makes You Blacker: A Memoir In Essays (Ecco/HarperCollins), is a tragicomic exploration of the angst, anxieties, and absurdities of existing while Black in America, and won the Thurber Prize for American Humor and Barnes & Noble's Discover Award. Damon is also a founder of the culture blog VerySmartBrothas, and was a contributing columnist for The Washington Post Magazine, a contributing opinion writer for the New York Times, a columnist for GQ, and was the creator and host of the Crooked Media podcast "Stuck With Damon Young."
Currently, he is the inaugural writer-in-residence at the University of Pittsburgh's David C. Frederick Honors College.
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CHILDREN’S PICTURE BOOK
Allen R. Wells (he/him) is a native of Jackson, Mississippi and graduate of Tennessee State University. Allen believes in fostering safe literary spaces so that young readers have the opportunity to explore, communicate, and understand the world a little bit better. He crafts narratives that serve as sanctuaries, where readers feel deserved, empowered, and worthy of their existence.
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CHILDREN’S PICTURE BOOK
Brittany J. Thurman writes award-winning books for kids. She is the author of Forever and Always, Fly and books in the Fearless series. Her upcoming picture books include The First Library, Come Catch a Dream, plus novels, Opal Watson, Private Eye (2025). A graduate of Carnegie Mellon University, Brittany holds an MFA in Dramatic Writing. She lives in Kentucky, where she holds tight to her elders.
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FICTION & ROMANCE
Kyla Zhao writes novels starring women of color in the workplace. After the success of her first book 'The Fraud Squad', she released her second novel 'Valley Verified' earlier this year. Kyla's books have been featured by Good Morning America, Vogue, Elle, Cosmopolitan, Buzzfeed, Hello!, etc. A native Singaporean, she now works in Silicon Valley after graduating from Stanford University in 2021.