Speakers and Demonstrators at the 2006 BookFest
(more coming)Jamie Agnew (Moderator, The Art of the Comics)
Jamie Agnew owns and operates Aunt Agatha’s Mystery, Detection and True Crime Bookstore with his wife, Robin. They live in Ann Arbor and have two children, Margaret and Robert, and a pug named Snap. He’s read every comic in the daily paper for 35 years.Gene Alloway (Moderator, Sci Fi Panel) www.mottebooks.com
Gene Alloway is a former librarian, bookseller, and book lover who came to Ann Arbor from Kansas nearly seventeen years ago. He currently is co-owner of Motte & Bailey, Booksellers and still finds time to read.Mitchell Bartoy (Michigan Mystery Writers Panel) www.mitchellbartoy.com
Mitchell Bartoy is a Detroit-area fiction writer. His first novel, The Devil’s Own Rag Doll (St. Martin’s Minotaur 2005), introduces Pete Caudill, a maimed, hard-boiled detective on the Detroit police force set in 1943.The sequel, a noir crime novel titled The Devil’s Only Friend, follows Caudill into early 1944. It will be published in October 2006 by Minotaur. A third novel in the series is in the works. Bartoy has lived his entire life in southeast Michigan and studied English and writing at Wayne State University in Detroit’s cultural center area. Detroit’s long-simmering racial tensions, disparities in wealth, and continual tides of cultural change inform Bartoy’s work, as well as the omnipresent shadow of the automobile industry. Bartoy lives in Troy, Michigan with his wife, two children, and a Brittany Spaniel named Dashiell.Holli Bertram (moderator, Art of Romance panel)
Holli Bertram has loved books for as long as she can remember. After reading Gone with The Wind at the age of eleven, Holli began the search for books with a happy ending. She discovered romance and was hooked. A social worker, wife and mother of three boys, Holli also writes and is the winner of the Romance Writer's of America 2005 Golden Heart Award for best unpublished romantic suspense manuscript.Tobias Buckell (Sci Fi Panel) www.tobiasbuckell.com
Tobias S. Buckell is a Caribbean born writer who has published almost 30 short stories in various magazines and anthologies. His first novel, CRYSTAL RAIN, came out from Tor in February, and his second book, RAGAMUFFIN, is scheduled for summer 2007. He lives in Bluffton, Ohio, where he is currently working on a third book.
Nancy Bujold (Caldecott Medal : View from a Judge presentation)
Nancy Bujold has been a librarian for 30 years after earning her MSLS from Wayne State University. She was with the Rochester Hills public Library for over 20 years, and is currently the assistant director with the Capitol Area District Library in Lansing, Michigan. She is an active member of the Michigan Library Association and the American Library Association, including the ALA council, the World Book Award Committee and the 2006 Caldecott committee. She is also a member of the Freedom to Read Foundation and the Mayor’s Initiative on Race and Diversity. In her spare time she enjoys gardening, birdwatching, antiquing and traveling.Bill Castanier (Moderator, Michigan Mystery Writers Panel) www.spartanpodcast.com
What do the dancing chicken, the Sesqui Bear, the world’s largest peanut-butter-and-jelly sandwich, Tom Sawyer’s picket fence and the Belle Isle Bear have in common? Answer: their creator, Bill Castanier, who used all these vehicles to attract public attention in his more than 30 years as a public relations, advertising and marketing practitioner. Castanier has written thousands of speeches and media releases, produced award winning videos and ad campaigns, edited numerous publications and when necessary donned bear and chicken costumes. He has worked on such varied projects as the Michigan Sesquicentennial Celebration and special assignments for the governor ranging from the Task Force on the Future of Higher Education to the landmark High Technology Task Force. He has earned numerous awards including the Addy, the National Gold Screen Award, the Publisher’s Auxiliary Award - Top Special newspaper section and the National Economic Development Program of the Year 1998. He has participated as a member of such varied community associations as the Michigan State University Alumni Association, the Friends of the Lansing Library, the PTA, the Greater Lansing Food Bank, the Cub Scouts, the Get a Clue Mystery Reading Club and the Lansing Housing Coalition. He helped launch Lansing’s first community read program, One Book: Many Voices, and is on the Michigan Humanities Council Selection Committee for a Read Michigan Program. He has, in addition, interviewed scores of authors for the Lansing City Pulse and for www.spartanpodcast.com. He has a love of literature, including cheap, tawdry pulp mysteries, and he lives in Lansing with his wife.
Michelle Celmer (Art of Romance Panel) www.michellecelmer.com
Waldenbooks bestselle Michelle Celmer lives in a Southeastern Michigan zoo. Well, okay, it’s really a house, but with three kids (two of them teenagers and all three musicians), three dogs ranging from 70-90 lbs each, two long haired cats and a 50 gallon tank full of various marine life, sometimes it feels like a zoo. It’s rarely quiet, seldom clean, and between after school jobs, various extracurricular activities, and band practice, getting everyone home at the same time to share a meal is next to impossible. You can often find Michelle locked in her office, headphones on, music blaring to clock out the even louder blare of her children’s music, writing her heart out and loving the fact that she doesn;t have to leave the house to go to work or even change out of her pajamas.
Patti Cheney (moderator - Sisters in Crime)
Patti Cheney, a librarian for the Romeo District Library, has been a reader her whole life. She became a librarian originally to bring books and children together, and worked as a children’s librarian for eight years. In 2001 she moved into adult services and found her place in fiction and in readers’ advisory, now bringing adults and books together. When you can get her away from books, she enjoys spending time with her significant other, Ken, walking, and dining out with friends.Dave Coverly (The Art of the Comics)
Dave Coverly writes the comic Speed Bump which now appears in over 200 newspapers internationally, including The Washington Post, Toronto Globe & Mail, Chicago Tribune, Detroit Free Press, Cleveland Plain Dealer, New Orleans Times-Picayune, the Baltimore Sun and many others. “Basically,” he says, “if life were a movie, these would be the outtakes.” In May, 2000, the first book was published, SPEED BUMP: A COLLECTION OF CARTOON SKIDMARKS. Since then, other Speed Bump books have been published to success and American Greetings carries his line of calendars and greeting cards. Coverly grew up in Plainwell, Michigan, where he was a cartoonist for his high school paper. He continued cartooning as an undergraduate at Eastern Michigan University and as a graduate student at Indiana University, where his panel won numerous national awards. In 1995 and 2004, Speed Bump was given the prestigious Best Newspaper Panel award by the National Cartoonists Society, an honor for which he was also nominated in 1997, 2001 and 2002. Coverly now works out of an attic studio in Ann Arbor. He is married to Chris, and they have two daughters, Alayna and Simone, and one yappy dog, Kenzi.
Barbara D’Amato (Sisters in Crime Panel)
Barbara D’Amato is a playwright, novelist and crime researcher. She writes a mystery series starring Chicago freelance investigative reporter, Cat Marsala, and a series starring Chicago patrol cops Suze Figueroa and Norm Bennis, as well as some stand alone novels. She is past president of Mystery Writers of America and Sisters in Crime International. She has also won the Anthony, Macavity, and Agatha awards, as well at receiving the first annual Mary Higgins Clark Award for her novel Authorized Personnel Only. She lives in Chicago with her husband and occasionally teaches mystery writing to Chicago police officers.Natalie Dunbar (Art of Romance) www.Nataliedunbar.com
Detroit native Natalie Dunbar is a lover of books and writing. In each carefully crafted book she strives to take readers into the worlds of her imagination and engage their minds and emotions in the lives, loves, and adventures of her dynamic characters. An incurable romantic, she is married to her high school sweetheart. The other loves of her life are her two sons. Her novels and novellas have been published by Silhouette Bombshell, BET Books, and Genesis Press Inc She loves to hear from her readers.
Loren D. Estleman (Michigan Mystery Writers Panel)
Loren D. Estleman is the author of almost 60 novels, many of which feature Hamtramack P.I. Amos Walker. His latest mystery, Nicotine Kiss, was published this spring. He is the winner of three Shamus awards for his Walker novels and four Golden Spur awards for his western fiction, and has also been nominated for the Edgar Allan Poe Award, the National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize. He lives in Whitmore Lake with his wife, author Deborah Morgan.
Anne Harris (Sci Fi Panel) www.inventingmemory.com
Anne Harris was a 2005 Nebula Award finalist with her short story, "Still Life With Boobs," which will be reprinted in the Year's Best Fantasy anthology. The Japanese translation of her first novel, THE NATURE OF SMOKE, is on the short list for the Japanese Sense of Gender Award. Her second novel, ACCIDENTAL CREATURES, won the Spectrum Award for glbt science fiction, and her most recent, INVENTING MEMORY, was a BookSense 76 pic. Anne is online at www.inventingmemory.com and www.annesible.livejournal.
Libby Fischer Hellman (Sisters in Crime Panel) www.hellman.com
Libby writes the Chicago series featuring documentary producer and single mother Ellie Foreman. AN EYE FOR MURDER was nominated for an Anthony in 2002. 2003's A PICTURE OF GUILT was nominated for a Benjamin Franklin. AN IMAGE OF DEATH was published in 2004, and 2005's A SHOT TO DIE FOR won the Reader’s Choice for Best Traditional Mystery at the Love is Murder conference. All four novels are simultaneously published by Poisoned Pen Press (hardcover) and Berkley Prime Crime (mass market). Libby is also the National President of Sisters in Crime - until the end of June. Her next book will be EASY INNOCENCE, a stand alone P.I. novel set on the North Shore of Chicago, which is where she lives. She is hard at work on a stand alone thriller.
Beverly Jenkins (The Art of Romance Panel)
Beverly Jenkins is an African -American historical romance writer. She and her family live in Southeastern Michigan. Born in Detroit, she graduated from Cass Technical High School and attended Michigan State University. Ms. Jenkins has written 16 books to date and has received numerous awards, including the Detroit Free Press Book of the Year, three Waldenbooks bestsellers awards, two career acheivement awards from Romantic Times magazine, and a Golden Pen award from the Black Writer’s Guild. In 1999 Ms. Jenkins was voted one of the top Fifty Favorite African-American writers of the 20th century by AABLC, the nation’s largest online African-American book club. Along with publishing two novels for young adults, Ms. Jenkins has also been published in many national publications, including The Wall Street Journal, People, The Dallas Morning News and Vibe magazine. She speaks widely on both romance and 19th century African-American history at libraries, schools and organizations. In 2004 her first novel of romantic suspense, THE EDGE OF MIDNIGHT, was released. In November of 2006 SEXY/DANGEROUS, her fourth novel of romantic suspense, will be in stores.Dorien Kelly (Art of Romance) www.dorienkelly.com
Award-winning author Dorien Kelly writes short and sassy for Harlequin Books and longer but with equal attitude for Pocket Books. With eleven novels published since 2001 (and more on the way), she's utterly thrilled to be retired from the practice of business law. Dorien holds a BA in English from the University of Michigan and a law degree from the Detroit College of Law, which is now part of Michigan State University. A resident of Pentwater, Michigan, she sits on the Board of Directors for the 9,000 member Romance Writers of America...which is about the only time she's permitted to sit, since she's a single mom to three kids and three dogs!Jef Mallett (The Art of the Comics)
Like most people, Jef Mallet started drawing cartoons as a child. Unlike most people, he never stopped. When Mallett was a teenager, he created a daily strip for his hometown newspaper. That taught him enough about the business to know that he wanted to draw a comic strip for a living. It also taught him something about the odds, and that it might be wise to consider a day job. Mallett got carried away with that day job, though, and 20 years slipped by. During that time, he worked as a newspaper graphic artist and art director. He got married. He flew airplanes and hang gliders. He raced bicycles and triathalons. All the while Mallett kept drawing. In addition to his newspaper work, he wrote and illustrated a children’s book. He added editorial cartoons to his art-directing duties and started to remember just how much he loved cartooning. He decided to give the comic strip business another try, and “Frazz” began appearing in newspapers in 2001. It’s now in 150 newspapers nationwide, including the Los Angeles Times, the Chicago Tribune, the Washington Post, the Detroit Free Press, and of course the Ann Arbor News. “Frazz” won the Religion Communicatiors Council’s Wilbur award for excellence in portraying ethics, values and religion in the secular media in 2003 and 2005. It was a finalist for the National Cartoonists Society’s 2005 Reuben Award for best comic strip. And as if to cement its status in modern culture, “Frazz” has - yes - been an answer in “Jeopardy!” Mallett currently lives in Michigan with his wife, Patty, and too many pets
Nancy Martin (Sisters in Crime Panel) www.NancyMartinMysteries.com
Nancy Martin is the author of 45 popular fiction nocels including the award-winning Blackbird Sisters mystery series such as HOW TO MURDER A MILLIONAIRE and SOME LIKE IT LETHAL. She is the founder of Pennwriters, a charter memnber of Novelists, Inc., and the former president of the Mary Roberts Rinehart chapter of Sisters in Crime. Find her website at www.NancyMartinMysteries.com and her blog at www.The LipstickChronicles.typepad.comLee Meadows (Michigan Mystery Writers)
Lee Meadows spends his time as a Professor of Management at Walsh College. He is an avid mystery reader and loved the idea of writing a novel. Though originally from Detroit, Ann Arbor has been his home for eleven years. He is a proud graduate of Michigan State University, proud husband of Phyllis and proud father of Garrison. His Lincoln Keller mystery series is based in Detroit and the character represents all the things he’s not, but wished he could be.Lev Raphael (GLBT Panel) www.levraphael.com
Lev Raphael lives and writes in Okemos,, Michigan which has been home for half his life. A prolific and prize-winning writer of fiction and non-fiction, he escaped academia over a decade ago to write full time, and is the author of seventeen books in a variety of genres and 100s of reviews, short stories and essays. His books have been translated into nearly a dozen languages.
His work includes the widely-praised comic mysteries set in the fictional town of Michiganapolis at the State University of Michigan but is best known internationally for his writing about children of Holocaust survivors.
He reviewed for five years on NPR’s popular The Todd Mundt Show, had a column in the Detroit Free Press, and has had his own book show on public radio in Lansing. Lev has also reviewed for The Washington Post, Jerusalem Report, Bston Review, Lambda Book Report and Forward.Davy Rothbart (Davy Rothbart & Dad)
Davy Rothbart is the creator of FOUND Magazine, a frequent contributor to public radio's This American Life, and author of the story collection The Lone Surfer of Montana, Kansas. His work has appeared in The New Yorker, The New York Times, and High Times. He lives in Kerrytown.Harold Rothbart (Davy Rothbart and Dad)
Harold Rothbart is the author of Brooklyn Boy, a collection of mini-stories which encompasses his life experiences from childhood to adulthood. It is a documentation of one Ann Arborite’s realization of the American dream. Born in extreme poverty and living in slum tenements in Brooklyn for his first twenty years, Rothbart achieved his dream through a good education in public schools, college and a graduate scholarship to the University of Michigan. He was the first person in Ann Arbor history to serve as Assistant City Administrator. He lives in Kerrytown.Fran Russell (Cottages of Mackinac Island)
Fran Russell is an award winning Michigan designer with over 25 years experience in corporate communications and print publications. Throughout here career, she has created logos, corporate identity solutions, and marketing materials for some of Michigan's fastest growing companies and respected institutions including BEANER'S Coffee, The Michigan Athletic Club, FOX 47, The MSU College of Communication Arts & Sciences, the Ingham Regional Healthcare Foundation and many others.She had designed and directed production of textbooks, art books, consumer and historical publications for a host of associations and institutions including the Educational Institute of the American Hotel & Motel Association,The Michigan Women's Foundation, Historical Films Group, and Mackinac State Historic Parks to name a few. Fran is the founder and senior designer of Group 230 Design, a full service graphic design firm located in Lansing's Old Town district. She was born in Detroit, and got the art bug early; excelling in "commercial art" even in high school. She holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Illustration and Design from the Philadelphia College of Art (now University of the Arts). Fran is an avid gardener, dog lover, and home improvement buff; she lives in Lansing's historic Westside neighborhoodJohn Scalzi (Science Fiction Panel) www.scalzi.com
John Scalzi is the author of 10 books, including the Hugo-nominated Old Man's War and its sequel The Ghost Brigades, the astronomy handbook The Rough Guide to the Universe , and the best-selling Book
of the Dumb humor series. His work has also appeared in various newspapers and magazines, including the Washington Post , the Chicago Tribune, the San Francisco Chronicle, the Dayton Daily News, Jungle
magazine, the Official US PlayStation Magazine and others. Scalzi Consulting, his writing/editing shop, consults for online and financial institutions such as AOL, Network Solutions, US Trust and Oppenheimer Funds. He enjoys pie.
Marcia Talley (Sisters in Crime Panel) www.marciatalley.com
Marcia Talley is the Agatha and Anthony award-winning author of six Hannah Ives mysteries including THROUGH THE DARKNESS and THIS ENEMY TOWN. She is author/editor of two star-studded collaborative serial novels, NAKED CAME THE PHOENIX and I’D KILL FOR THAT. Her prize-winning short stories appear in more than a dozen collections. She is the president of the Cheseapeake Chapter of Sisters in Crime, and serves as secretary for the Mid-Atlantic Chapter of Mystery Writers of America. Find out more about Marcia at www.marciatalley.com
Nina Wright (Michigan Mystery Writers Panel) www.ninawright.net
Nina Wright is an award-winning playwright and novelist. She writes the humorous Whiskey Mattimoe mystery series as well as fiction for younger readers. Her novel HOMEFREE is one of seven titles selected to launch Llewellyn’s teen imprint, Flux. When not at her keyboard, Nina leads entertaining workshops in writing and the creative process.