Guest Authors

In 2008, we had nearly 100 guest authors participate! Browse through these pages to learn more about our special guests.

Or you can visit our 2007 guest authors area to learn about past year's guests.

---

2008 Guest Authors

A through F | G through L | M through R | S through Z

 

Kathryn Madeline Allen

Kathryn Madeline Allen is a children's book author whose publications include This Little Piggy's Book of Manners and One Little Bench, as well as poems, short stories, and articles. An educator and presenter, Ms. Allen lives in the Detroit area. Scheduled Appearance: School Visit (pre-arranged)

John U. Bacon

John U. Bacon has written for TIME, the New York Times, ESPN The Magazine, and Sports Illustrated, among others, earning national honors for his work. He has authored five books on business and sports, the most recent being Bo's Lasting Lessons, which hit the New York Times and Wall Street Journal business best seller lists. Bacon also teaches sports history and journalism at the University of Michigan and Miami University (Ohio), delivers speeches across the country, provides commentary on Michigan Public Radio Friday mornings at 6:30 and 8:30, and hosts "Off The Field" on WTKA.com Sunday mornings, 10-12. John can be reached at Johnubacon.com. Scheduled Appearance: Writer's Conference - May 16, 8:30 am Scheduled Appearance: School Visit (pre-arranged)

Randall Balmer

Randall Balmer is professor of American religious history at Barnard College, Columbia University, and a visiting professor at Yale University Divinity School. He has lectured to audiences around the country, including the Chautauqua Institution, the Smithsonian Associates, and the Commonwealth Club of California. He is the author of a dozen books, including Mine Eyes Have Seen the Glory: A Journey into the Evangelical Subculture in America, which was made into an award-winning documentary series for PBS. His most recent books are Thy Kingdom Come: How the Religious Right Distorts the Faith and Threatens America and God in the White House: How Faith Shaped the Presidency from John F. Kennedy to George W. Bush. Scheduled Appearance: Faith/Politics Panel - May 17, Michigan Stage (League), 2:00

Sue Barber

Sue Barber is presently Director of Marketing for Budco. In this capacity, she writes and produces more than 100 major proposals and presentations annually to sell Budco products and services. In 2007 alone, her work contributed to winning more than $15 million in new business for the marketing communications and fulfillment company, which is headquartered in the Detroit, Michigan area. She has also worked at several other marketing and advertising agencies. In addition to participation in the commercial sector, Sue is a free-lance writer and the author of Hysterectomy Woman to Woman; chapters in How To Play Nearly Everything and Detroit Yacht Club Watermark II; and articles and presentations on various subjects, including health, travel, people, ecology, new vehicles, music, and history, published in the Detroit Free Press, Friends, Seasons, The Advocacy Newsletter, The Pain Chronicle, and more. Among other career stops: on-air radio personality and reporter, and junior high school teacher of Spanish, French, and English. Scheduled Appearance: Books Change Lives panel - May 17, Michigan Stage (League), 11:00 am

Ieva Bates

Ieva Bates is a long-time youth services librarian at the Ann Arbor District Library. She also is a picture book reviewer for the School Library Journal. Scheduled Appearance: Children's Lit Panel - May 17, Borders Stage, 12:30

Scott Beal

Scott Beal is currently Dzanc Books Writer-in-Residence at Ann Arbor Open School and Program Advisor for the Short Story Workshop at the Neutral Zone. He holds an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Michigan. His poems have appeared in journals, anthologies, and his chapbook, Two Shakespearean Madwomen Vs. The Detroit Red Wings. Scheduled Appearance: Writer's Conference - May 16, 12:45

Jane Bernstein

Jane Bernstein is the author of five books, two of them memoirs of life with her daughter Rachel, who has mental retardation. Her awards include two National Endowment Fellowships, and a Fulbright Fellowship in Israel. She's written screenplays, and essays that have appeared in such places as The New York Times Magazine, Ms., Massachusetts Review, and Creative Nonfiction. Rachel in the World, her new book, has just been published along with a new edition of Loving Rachel. Jane is a professor of English at Carnegie Mellon University. Scheduled Appearance: Writer's Conference - May 16, Lunch panel, 11:15 and 2:00 Scheduled Appearance: Mom Power Hour Panel - May 17, ProQuest CSA Stage, 3:30 Scheduled Appearance: Pitch Panel - May 17, Michigan Stage (League), 5:00

Dale Brown

Dale Brown is the first director of the Buechner Institute at King College in Bristol, Tennessee. For 20 years, Brown has taught literature and writing at Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and for more than 10 years was the director of the Festival of Faith & Writing. Brown has published extensive interviews with more than 30 American writers. Many of these were included in his book Of Faith & Fiction. Scheduled Appearance: Writer's Conference - May 16, 8:30 am

Stephen Buchmann

Stephen Buchmann, Ph.D. has authored 150 scientific publications and 8 books including The Forgotten Pollinators, (Island Press, 1996) and Letters from the Hive (Bantam Dell, 2006). He helped create the largest pollinator initiative (the North American Pollinator Protection Campaign; see www.pollinator.org), is active with international legislation protecting pollinators and their plants, and served on a National Academy of Sciences committee reporting on the status of pollinators in N. America in April, 2007. Steve is an adjunct professor of Entomology at the University of Arizona in Tucson. His research interests are in pollination ecology (honey bees and native solitary bees) and conservation biology. Currently, he is working with Mayan beekeepers in the Yucatan to restore their millennia old beecraft with stingless bees, including filming a documentary in progress on the plight of Mayan beekeeping and tropical forests of the Yucatan peninsula. His latest book "The Bee Tree", with co-author Diana Cohn, and illustrated by Paul Mirocha, is a children’s book, a coming of age story about a young honey hunter in the Malaysian rainforest. Scheduled Appearance: Library Event - May 14, Pittsfield Branch, 7 pm Scheduled Appearance: Environment Panel - May 17, State St. Assn.Stage, 12:30

Claudia Mair Burney

Claudia Mair Burney is a blog to book author. Her blog Ragamuffin Diva led to a multi-book contract with Simon and Schuster. She's the author of newly released Murder, Mayhem, and a Fine Man, Death, Deceit, and Some Smooth Jazz, and Zora and Nicky: A Novel in Black and White. Scheduled Appearance: Writer's Conference - May 16, 3:30 Scheduled Appearance: Author Breakfast - May 17, Zanzibar, 9 am

Jim Burnstein

Jim Burnstein managed to beat the odds and make it as a successful Hollywood screenwriter without moving from his home in Plymouth, Michigan. Mr. Burnstein's screen credits include Renaissance Man, the 1994 comedy directed by Penny Marshall and starring Danny DeVito; D3: The Mighty Ducks (1996-1997); and Ruffian, the 2007 drama starring Sam Shepard co-written with Garrett Schiff of Los Angeles for ABC and ESPN. He was also Executive Producer of the independent film, Ocean of Pearls, which premiered in March at the Miami International Film Festival. Burnstein and Schiff's latest screenplay Time of Your Life, written for New Line Cinema, tells the true story of Special Forces Captain Jeffrey Toczylowski who organized a party in Las Vegas for his family, friends and fellow soldiers in the event of his death in Iraq and then indeed died there. In 1995 Burnstein returned to his alma mater, the University of Michigan, to build one of America's premier undergraduate screenwriting programs in the Department of Screen Arts & Cultures. Since 2003, Burnstein has served as a member of the Michigan Film Advisory Commission where he has been a leading proponent of Michigan's new incentive package that has already substantially increased film production in the state.

Deb Caletti

Deb Caletti is the award-winning author of The Queen of Everything, Honey, Baby, Sweetheart, Wild Roses, The Nature of Jade, and The Fortunes of Indigo Skye. In addition to being a National Book Award finalist, Deb's work has gained other distinguished recognition, including the PNBA Best Book Award, the Washington State Book Award, and School Library Journal’s Best Book award, and finalist citations for the California Young Reader Medal and the PEN USA Literary Award. Her books have also been an IRA Notable Book, an SSLI Book Awards Honor Book, and have made the New York Public Library's Best Books for the Teen Age and Chicago Library's Best Books lists, among others. Her sixth book with Simon & Schuster, The Secret Life of Prince Charming, will be released in 2009. Paul G. Allen’s Vulcan Productions has recently acquired production rights to all five of Deb’s novels; working with producer/director Rick Stevenson, Vulcan and Caletti plan to develop the novels into a film series titled Nine Mile Falls. Deb grew up in the San Francisco Bay area and now lives with her family near Seattle. Scheduled Appearance: Author Reading - May 17, State St. Assn. Stage, 2:00 Scheduled Appearance: Celebrity Spelling Bee - May 17, State St. Assn. Stage, 5:00 Scheduled Appearance: School Visit (pre-arranged)

David Carter

Dave Carter is a librarian at the University of Michigan's Art, Architecture & Engineering Library. He blogs about comics & graphic novels at Yet Another Comics Blog: http://yetanothercomicsblog.blogspot.com/. Scheduled Appearance: Author Reading - May 17, Kalamazoo Stage (League), 3:30

Paul N. Courant

Paul N. Courant is University Librarian and Dean of Libraries, Harold T. Shapiro Collegiate Professor of Public Policy, Arthur F. Thurnau Professor, Professor of Economics and Professor of Information at the University of Michigan. From 2002-2005 he served as Provost and Executive Vice-President for Academic Affairs, the chief academic officer and the chief budget officer of the University. He has also served as the Associate Provost for Academic and Budgetary Affairs, Chair of the Department of Economics and Director of the Institute of Public Policy Studies (which is now the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy). In 1979 and 1980 he was a Senior Staff Economist at the Council of Economic Advisers. Courant has authored half a dozen books, and over seventy papers covering a broad range of topics in economics and public policy, including tax policy, state and local economic development, gender differences in pay, housing, radon and public health, relationships between economic growth and environmental policy, and university budgeting systems. More recently, his academic work has considered the economics of universities, the economics of libraries and archives, and the effects of new information technologies and other disruptions on scholarship, scholarly publication, and academic libraries. Paul Courant holds a BA in History from Swarthmore College (1968); an MA in Economics from Princeton University (1973); and a PhD in Economics from Princeton University (1974). Scheduled Appearance: Future of the Book Panel - May 17, Mich. Humanities Stage, 2:00

Shutta Crum

Shutta Crum is an award-winning children's book writer, poet, storyteller, librarian and educator. She lectures nationally, gives writing workshops, and conducts staff development for teachers and librarians. The author of many books for children, and four forthcoming titles, Shutta also writes articles for teaching and writing magazines. In 2005, she was honored by being invited to read at the White House Easter Egg Roll. Her novel, SPITTING IMAGE, is on the NY Public Library's list of "100 Titles for Reading and Sharing, 2003." Her picture book, THE BRAVEST OF THE BRAVE, was an IRA/CBC Children’s Choices winner, and listed on the Chicago Public Library's "The Best of the Best." Many of her titles have appeared on the Bank Street College's "Best Children's Books of the Year" lists, or have been short-listed for various state awards. Photo Credit: @paulthacker.com Scheduled Appearance: Writer's Conference - May 16, 12:45

Judy Davids

Judy Davids is a music fan, mother, and leader of one of the first "mommy" rock bands in the country—The Mydols. Davids’ memoir, Rock Star Mommy, is a rallying cry for every woman who fondly recalls when she spent more time in mosh pits than "Mommy and Me" classes to adopt a rock ’n roll attitude toward life. Scheduled Appearance: Mom Power Hour Panel - May 17, ProQuest CSA Stage, 3:30 Scheduled Appearance: Band performs "The Mydols" - May 17, ProQuest CSA Stage, 5:00

Nicholas Delbanco

Nicholas Delbanco is a British-born American who received his B.A. from Harvard and his M.A. from Columbia University. He currently directs the Hopwood Awards Program and is the Robert Frost Distinguished University Professor of English at the University of Michigan. An editor and author of more than twenty books, Delbanco has received numerous awards—among them a Guggenheim Fellowship and two Writing Fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts. Scheduled Appearance: Author Reading - May 17, Michigan Stage (League), 3:30

Judith DeWoskin

Judith DeWoskin teaches literature and creative writing at Community High School. DeWoskin has presented at conferences and workshops on internationalizing curriculum and writing college letters of recommendation. Her students win poetry and short story contests each year, and she is the recipient of awards and honors including a Presidential Scholar's Distinguished Teacher Award, a Christina McAuliffe nomination, and Michigan's Creative Writing Teacher of the Year Award. Scheduled Appearance: Books Change Lives panel - May 17, Michigan Stage (League), 11:00 am

Deborah Diesen

Deborah Diesen is the author of The Pout-Pout Fish, a rhyming children's picture book published this spring by Farrar Straus Giroux. Her book The Barefooted, Bad-Tempered Baby Brigade is forthcoming from Tricycle Press. She, her husband, and their two sons live in Grand Ledge, Michigan. Deborah is currently the financial manager of a small nonprofit organization, and she has previously worked as a reference librarian and a bookseller. Scheduled Appearance: School Visit (pre-arranged)

Katy Dobrowitsky

Catherine T. Dobrowitsky is an associate and a member of the Litigation and Dispute Resolution Group and Criminal Defense Group. Prior to joining the firm in December 2002, she was a law clerk to The Honorable John Feikens of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan, Southern Division. She received her law degree, cum laude, from the University of Michigan Law School where she was a member of the Journal of Law Reform, and active in numerous associations including the Criminal Law Society, Department of Academic Services, Women Law Students' Association, and the Labor Law Association. Her undergraduate degree in political science and psychology is from the Residential College of the University of Michigan. Ms. Dobrowitsky is a member of the American Bar Association, the State Bar of Michigan, Federal Bar Association-Eastern District of Michigan Chapter, Michigan Intellectual Property Lawyers' Association, Oakland County Bar Association, and was honored for Pro Bono legal services from 2004-2006 by the Legal Aid and Defender Association. She is proficient in the French language, and is knowledgeable in Spanish. Scheduled Appearance: Writer's Conference - May 16, 3:30

Firoozeh Dumas

Author of Funny in Farsi, A Memoir of Growing Up Iranian in America, Firoozeh Dumas is the first American writer of Middle Eastern heritage ever to be nominated for the James Thurber Prize for American Humor. She was born in Abadan, Iran and moved to Whittier, California at the age of seven. After a two-year stay, she and her family moved back to Iran and lived in Ahvaz and Tehran. Two years later, they moved back to Whittier, then to Newport Beach. Firoozeh then attended UC Berkeley. Growing up, Dumas struggled to mix with her American classmates, who knew nothing about Iran. She also retells firsthand experiences of prejudice and racism from being Iranian in America during the Iranian Revolution. However, throughout hardships, she emphasizes the significance of family strength and love in her life. Her new book, Laughing without an Accent, will be released April 29, 2008. She lives with her French husband and children in Northern California. ABC is currently developing a sitcom based on Funny in Farsi. Orange County Reads One Book selected Funny in Farsi for Community Reads 2004, the City of Whittier in 2005, Cape Ann, MA in 2006, Palo Alto and Berkeley in 2006, and Dayton, Ohio and Bensensille, Illinois in 2008. You may have also heard Firoozeh's commentaries on NPR or read her pieces in the NY Times, LA Times, SF Chronicle Magazine, or Lifetime Magazine. Scheduled Appearance: Author Breakfast - May 17, Zanzibar, 9 am Scheduled Appearance: Books Change Lives panel - May 17, Michigan Stage (League), 11:00 am Scheduled Appearance: Author Reading - May 17, Hussey Stage (League), 2:00

Michael Dwyer

Michael Dwyer is a broadcast journalist, travel columnist and freelance writer. He was host and producer of the award winning program Travel & Adventure Radio and he is published nationally and internationally. Michael hosts a monthly writer's group to discuss the business of writing. The Freelancer Marketplace brings local writers together with the goal of publishing and selling more work. Scheduled Appearance: Writer's Conference - May 16, 12:45

Jenni Ferrari-Adler

Jenni Ferrari-Adler is an agent at Brick House Literary Agents and the editor of ALONE IN THE KITCHEN WITH AN EGGPLANT, Confessions of Cooking for One and Dining Alone (Riverhead, 2007). Jenni is a graduate of Oberlin College and the University of Michigan, where she received an MFA in fiction. Her short stories and food writing have been published in numerous magazines. Scheduled Appearance: Writer's Conference - May 16, Lunch panel, 11:15, 12:45 and 2:00 Scheduled Appearance: Pitch Panel - May 17, Michigan Stage (League), 5:00

Jofie Ferrari-Adler

Jofie Ferrari-Adler is an editor at Grove/Atlantic, where he acquires and edits fiction and nonfiction. Recent and forthcoming titles include Joe McGinniss Jr.'s The Delivery Man, William J. Bernstein's A Splendid Exchange, Allan Lichtman's White Protestant Nation, Chris Ayres's Death by Leisure, and Christopher Beha's The Whole Five Feet. Previously he worked as an editor at Viking Penguin, the Avalon Publishing Group, Four Walls Eight Windows, and as a bookseller. He is a regular contributor to Poets & Writers magazine. Scheduled Appearance: Writer's Conference - May 16, 12:45

Ken Foster

Ken Foster is the author of the bestselling memoir The Dogs Who Found Me and its recent followup Dogs I Have Met... His collection of short stories, The Kind I'm Likely to Get, was a New York Times Notable Book. His work has appeared in Bark, The Believer, Fence, McSweeney's, Salon, The New York Times Book Review, The San Francisco Chronicle and elsewhere. He lives in New Orleans. Scheduled Appearance: Writer's Conference - May 16, 9:45 and 12:45 Scheduled Appearance: Author Breakfast - May 17, Zanzibar, 9 am Scheduled Appearance: Author Reading - May 17, Gale Stage, 5:00

Maureen Freely

Maureen Freely is a writer, translator, and professor at the University of Warwick in Bath, England. She was born in the United States and grew up in Istanbul, where her father has been a university professor since 1963. She was educated at Radcliffe College and has made her home in England for the last twenty-three years. The author of three works of nonfiction, Ms. Freely has been a regular contributor to the Guardian, the Observer, the Independent and the Sunday Times for two decades, writing on feminism, family, social policy, Turkish culture and politics, and contemporary literature. She is well-known for her translations of Snow (2004), Istanbul: Memories of a City (2005), The Black Book (2006), and Other Colors (2007), by the Turkish novelist and Nobel laureate Orhan Pamuk. Scheduled Appearance: Writer's Conference - May 16, 3:30 Scheduled Appearance: Author Breakfast - May 17, Zanzibar, 9 am Scheduled Appearance: Author Reading - May 17, Kalamazoo Stage (League), 12:30 Scheduled Appearance: Books in Translation Panel - May 17, Mich. Humanities Stage, 3:30

Return to Top