Authors & Participants

Hannah Dela Cruz Abrams is the author of The Man Who Danced with Dolls. She is currently working on The Following Sea, a memoir about growing up on a yacht in the South Pacific. Abrams lives and teaches in Wilmington, North Carolina.

Desmond Walls Allen has taught seminars and workshops on genealogical topics for 25 years and is the owner of Arkansas Research, Inc. She appeared as a guest expert in the first PBS Ancestors series, and has hosted Arkansas Educational Television Network's Researching Your Family Tree. Allen is the author, compiler, or editor of 237 books. Her new release is Family History Detective: A Step-By-Step Guide To Investigating Your Family Tree.

Mary Angelino grew up in Los Angeles. She earned her MFA from the University of Arkansas in 2011. She is the recipient of the University of Arkansas's McKean Poetry Prize, and the Lily Peter Prize. In 2011, she was awarded an individual artist grant from the Arkansas Arts Council. She has been published in the Best New Poets 2010 anthology and in various literary journals, such as Hayden's Ferry Review and 32 Poems. This author is sponsored by the Arkansas Arts Council.

Arkansas Arts Center Children's Theatre presents the classic stories Goldilocks and the Three Bears and Little Red Riding Hood, shown together onstage in this musical production. When the three bears go out for a morning stroll, the naughty Goldilocks sneaks into their house and makes a mess.  Meanwhile, in another part of the forest, Little Red Riding Hood is on her way to her sick grandmother's house to bring her yummy treats, but a wolf named Bill has other plans. This play is fun for all ages.

Arkansas Shakespeare Theatre is the state's only professional Shakespeare company. In the summer of 2012, it will produce Twelfth Night, Richard III, The Tempest, and the musical Big River in its efforts to entertain, engage, and enrich the community. The Arkansas Shakespeare Theatre will present To Be the Bard or Not to Be the Bard: An Interactive Introduction to Shakespeare at the Festival. This author is sponsored by Little Rock Convention & Visitors Bureau.

John Bensko is the author of three books of poetry and one collection of short stories. His first book, Green Soldiers, was a winner of the Yale Series of Younger Poets Award. More recently, his book Sea Dogs was described by Robert Olen Butler as "a debut collection of stories of stunning originality." He teaches in the MFA Creative Writing Program at the University of Memphis. This author is sponsored by Pulaski Technical College.

Brooks Blevins is the author of five books, including Hill Folks: A History of Arkansas Ozarkers and Their Image and Arkansas/Arkansaw: How Bear Hunters, Hillbillies, and Good Ol' Boys Defined a State. His newest, Ghost of the Ozarks, is the true story of the murder of Connie Franklin, the ensuing investigation, and the man claiming to be the murder victim – the "ghost" of the Ozarks – who appeared to testify. Blevins is the Noel Boyd Associate Professor of History at Missouri State University and a native of the Arkansas Ozarks. This author is sponsored by the Department of Arkansas Heritage.

Roy Blount Jr.'s most recent book, his 23rd, is Alphabetter Juice: The Joy of Text. Others include Alphabet Juice, Long Time Leaving: Dispatches From Up South, and Roy Blount's Book of Southern Humor. He is a panelist on NPR's Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me, a member of the Fellowship of Southern Writers, and a former president of the Authors Guild. His essays, stories, and reviews have appeared in many periodicals including The New Yorker, the New York Times, and Oxford American. He writes a column for Garden and Gun. This author is sponsored by CALS's Elizabeth T. Dishongh Trust.

Gwyneth Bolton was born and raised in Paterson, New Jersey, and became an avid reader of romance at age 12 by sneaking her mother's stash of Harlequin and Silhouette novels. She has a PhD in English/Composition and Rhetoric and teaches classes in writing and women's studies at the college level. Bolton has won several awards for her romance novels, including ten Emma Awards and the Romance In Color Reviewer's Choice Award for new author of the year. She currently lives in Syracuse, New York, and when she is not teaching or working on her own novels, she is curled up with a cup of herbal tea, a warm quilt, and a good book.

Bryan Borland publisher of Sibling Rivalry Press, is a multiple-time Pushcart-nominated poet from Alexander, Arkansas, and author of the American Library Association-honored My Life as Adam. He is also the editor of Assaracus, a quarterly journal of gay poetry. This author is sponsored by the Stonewall Democratic Caucus of Arkansas.

Kevin Brockmeier is the author of the novels The Illumination, The Brief History of the Dead, and The Truth About Celia; the children's novels City of Names and Grooves: A Kind of Mystery; and the story collections Things That Fall from the Sky and The View from the Seventh Layer. His story The Human Soul as a Rube Goldberg Device will be released in the spring by Madras Press, with proceeds going to the Arkansas Literary Festival. His work has been translated into seventeen languages. He was raised in and continues to live in Little Rock. This author is sponsored by the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.

J. Camp Brown is a bluegrass mandolinist living in Fort Smith, AR, with his wife and sons. His poems have appeared in Nashville Review and Prick of the Spindle. He is an MFA candidate at the University of Arkansas and the recipient of an Arkansas Arts Council Fellowship. This author is sponsored by the Arkansas Arts Council.

Nickole Brown's debut was a novel-in-poems, Sister. She was an editorial assistant for the late Hunter S. Thompson and worked at Sarabande Books for ten years. Currently, she represents the Marie Alexander poetry series and Arktoi Books. She is an assistant professor at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. This author is sponsored by the Stonewall Democratic Caucus of Arkansas.

Greg Brownderville is the author of two books, a poetry collection titled Gust and a multi-genre book titled Deep Down in the Delta. Brownderville is an assistant professor of English at Lincoln University in Jefferson City, Missouri. His poems have appeared in Oxford American, Prairie Schooner, Arkansas Review, and other publications.

Jason Browning practices law in Little Rock with Mitchell, Williams, Selig, Gates & Woodyard, P.L.L.C. He is a certified agent with the Major League Baseball Players Association and has a working knowledge of collective bargaining, drafting international representation agreements, and salary arbitration. He has also represented a Mexican league club in a grievance against a member club of Major League Baseball. This author is sponsored by Mitchell, Williams, Selig, Gates & Woodyard, P.L.L.C.

Johnnie Chamberlin is a Little Rock native with a penchant for hiking, kayaking, biking, and backpacking. After earning a BA in Cognitive Science from UC Berkeley and an MS in Environmental Engineering at Duke University, he returned to Arkansas to work on environmental projects around the state. He is currently pursuing a PhD in Environmental Dynamics at the University of Arkansas. Trails of Central Arkansas is his first book.

Dan Chaon is the author of the nationally bestselling novels Await Your Reply and You Remind Me of Me, as well as the short story collection Among The Missing, a finalist for the National Book Award. His most recent book is Stay Awake, a collection of stories that play on the theme of ghosts and hauntings.

Photo: Ulf Andersen

Cherie Foster Colburn is a professional landscape designer, award winning author, garden magazine contributor, and public speaker. She writes the Q&A blog GardenDishes: dishin' the dirt on hit and myth landscaping. Her books include Heirloom Bulbs, Our Shadow Garden, and the upcoming Bloomin' Tales.

Ace Collins lives to write! This is obvious by the more than sixty titles he has produced and the millions of books he has sold in the past two and half decades. Collins has five novels scheduled for release in 2012. Reich of Passage, a cutting edge action/adventure, was recently issued as an eBook; the print edition will hit shelves in March.

Gael Fashingbauer Cooper is co-author of Whatever Happened to Pudding Pops? The Lost Toys, Tastes and Trends of the 70s and 80s. USAToday.com named this Seattle journalist one of its Top Pop Culture People and the New York Times calls her weblog "one of the best places to explore pop culture online."

Hope Coulter has published in such journals as Slant, New Delta Review, and Rattle. Coulter is a novelist and poet whose honors include a Pushcart Prize nomination, the Porter Prize for Literary Excellence, and Louisiana Life's Short Story Award. She received her AB from Harvard and her MFA from Queens University, and teaches at Hendrix College. This author is sponsored by Pulaski Technical College.

Deborah Crombie is a native Texan and New York Times bestselling author who writes crime novels set in the United Kingdom. Her Duncan Kincaid/Gemma James series has received numerous awards and is published internationally. Crombie divides her time between Texas and Great Britain. No Mark Upon Her, her newest book, will be published in February.

Mark Currey covers great artists such as Blind Willie Johnson, Johnny Cash, Kris Kristofferson, The Staple Singers, and the Blind Boys of Alabama. He incorporates some tunes by Bob Dylan, Van Morrison, and Lou Reed, and performs original music, too. Currey describes his performances as "vertical" shows, where folks can dance and tap their feet.

Claire Dederer is the author of the national bestseller Poser: My Life in Twenty-Three Yoga Poses. Her writing has appeared in the New York Times, Vogue, The Nation, Slate, and many other publications.

Photo: D'Arcy McGrath

George Dohrmann is a Sports Illustrated senior writer and the last sportswriter to win the Pulitzer Prize, an honor he while at the St. Paul Pioneer Press for stories that revealed academic fraud in the men's basketball program at the University of Minnesota. Dohrmann has a BA in American studies from the University of Notre Dame and an MFA in creative writing from the University of San Francisco. His book, Play Their Hearts Out, covers the Amateur Athletic Union (AAU). This author is sponsored by Friends of Central Arkansas Libraries (FOCAL).

Ernest Dumas has written for Arkansas newspapers and journals for 57 years, 31 as a political reporter and editorial writer for the Arkansas Gazette. Since 1992 he has written a column for the Arkansas Times. He taught journalism for a time at the University of Central Arkansas. His latest books are Dearest Letty and Waiting for the Cemetery Vote. This author is sponsored by the Department of Arkansas Heritage.

John T. Edge writes the monthly column "United Tastes" for the New York Times. He is a contributing editor at Garden & Gun, a longtime columnist for the Oxford American, and was a contributing editor at Gourmet. His magazine and newspaper work has been nominated for five James Beard Awards, and he was inducted into Who's Who of Food & Beverage in America. He is director of the Southern Foodways Alliance, an institute of the Center for the Study of Southern Culture. His books include A Gracious Plenty, a four book American food series, and Southern Belly. He also edits Cornbread Nation: The Best of Southern Food Writing. His new cookbook and travelogue of modern American street and truck food will be released in the spring. This author is sponsored by University of Arkansas Clinton School of Public Service.

Photo: Angie Mosier

eStem Middle Public Charter School began in 2008 with a commitment to preparing students to become "college ready…career ready…world ready." Innovative, engaging teaching methods are utilized to reach all types of learners. The eStem model mandates that learning be experiential. Community events like the Literary Festival provide students the opportunity to connect knowledge to real world scenarios and improve retention of content.

Ian Frazier writes nonfiction, humor, essays, and other genres. He is the author of nine books, including Travels in Siberia, Great Plains, Family, On the Rez, and Lamentations of the Father. His writing appears in The New Yorker magazine and other periodicals. He lives in Montclair, New Jersey, with his wife, novelist Jacqueline Carey. This author is sponsored by CALS's Elizabeth T. Dishongh Trust.

Photo: Sigrid Estrada

Susan Gregg Gilmore a native Tennessean, first worked as a journalist. Her debut novel, Looking for Salvation at the Dairy Queen, is rooted in summers spent with her grandfather, a revival-bred Baptist preacher. Called a "stand-out coming-of-age novel" by NPR's Alan Cheuse, it was a SIBA (Southern Independent Booksellers Association) Book Award Nominee. Her second novel, The Improper Life of Bezellia Grove was a SIBA 2010 OKRA Pick and a Target Emerging Author Program selection. Gilmore currently lives in Chattanooga.

Dan Goeller's colorful orchestrations and accessible compositional style have delighted both audiences and performers around the world. Goeller's compositions have been programmed on several nationally-televised concerts, as well as featured in both regional and national radio and television broadcast advertisements. His adaptation of Oscar Wilde's classic fairy tale The Selfish Giant includes illustrations by Chris Beatrice and original orchestrations. This author is sponsored by the William J. Clinton Foundation.

Theodora Goss's publications include In the Forest of Forgetting, Interfictions, Voices from Fairyland, and The Thorn and the Blossom. She has been a finalist for the Nebula, Crawford, Locus, and Mythopoeic Awards, and on the Tiptree Award Honor List. She has won the World Fantasy and Rhysling Awards.

Aine Greaney, an Irish-born author, now lives and writes on Boston's North Shore. Her short fiction and personal essays have been published in U.S. and Irish literary publications, including Creative Nonfiction, Sunday Tribune, IMAGE Magazine, The Fish Anthology, Natural Bridge, The Literary Review, Books Ireland, Under the Sun, and Stone Canoe: A Journal of Arts and Literature from Upstate New York. Dance Lessons is her second novel.

Lauren Groff is the author of The Monsters of Templeton, which was a New York Times and Booksense bestseller, shortlisted for the Orange Prize for New Writers, and translated into over a dozen languages. Her second book, Delicate Edible Birds, is a collection of stories, some of which have appeared in The Atlantic Monthly, One Story, Ploughshares, Glimmer Train, The Best New American Voices, and The Best American Short Stories 2007 and 2010. She has won a Pushcart Prize and a PEN/O.Henry Prize, has published fiction in The New Yorker, and was awarded the Axton Fellowship in Fiction. Her second novel, Arcadia, will be published in March. Richard Russo said of the novel, "Arcadia is one of the most moving and satisfying novels I've read in a long time." She lives in Gainesville, Florida, with her husband and two sons. This author is sponsored by the University of Arkansas at Little Rock's Department of English and Department of Rhetoric and Writing.

Alex Heard is the author of two books, The Eyes of Willie McGee and Apocalypse Pretty Soon. A graduate of Vanderbilt University, he has worked as a writer and editor for numerous publications, including The New Republic, The Washington Post Magazine, Slate, Wired, and the New York Times Magazine. He currently works as Editorial Director of Outside magazine in Santa Fe. This author is sponsored by Mosaic Templars Cultural Center.

Jake Hinkson is a native of the Arkansas Ozarks. This author of the crime novel Hell on Church Street is a regular contributor to the film journal Noir City and writes about crime fiction and film at CriminalElement.com. He currently resides in New Jersey.

Alan Huffman is the author of the nonfiction books We're With Nobody (with Michael Rejebian), Sultana, Mississippi in Africa, and the photo-essay book Ten Point. He has contributed to numerous publications, such as The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Los Angeles Times, Lost magazine, National Wildlife, the New York Times, and the Oxford American. He has also worked as an online editor at VanityFair.com.

He divides his time between Bolton, Mississippi, and New York City. This author is sponsored by Historic Arkansas Museum.

Melanie Bynum Jackson is a wife, mother, and native of North Little Rock. She attended the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, where she received a BA in Radio/TV/Film. She currently lives in Little Rock with her husband Keith and children Kenyon & Koilan. She is the community outreach coordinator for P.A.R.K., an after-school ministry.

John Hornor Jacobs, a Little Rock native, is the author of Southern Gods. He has books forthcoming from Simon & Schuster and Carolrhoda Lab. He writes horror, rough and tumble fantasy, and teen-targeted books.

Tyrone Jaeger's fiction and poetry have been published in such publications as the Oxford American, The Literary Review, Southern Humanities Review, and The Exquisite Corpse Annual. He is the Hendrix-Murphy Writer-in-Residence at Hendrix College. This author is sponsored by Pulaski Technical College

George H. Jensen Jr. has been chair of the Department of Rhetoric and Writing at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock since 2004. He received his PhD from the University of South Carolina and has taught at the University of Illinois at Chicago (Health Sciences Campus), Georgia State University, Purdue University Calumet, and Missouri State University. His books include Personality and the Teaching of Composition, Storytelling in Alcoholics Anonymous: A Rhetorical Analysis, Identities Across Texts, and his newest book, Some of the Words Are Theirs: A Memoir of an Alcoholic Family.

Heidi Julavits is the author of four novels, most recently The Vanishers. Her fiction and nonfiction have appeared in Harper's, the New York Times, McSweeney's, The Best American Short Stories and Travel Essays, among other publications. She is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship and a founding editor of The Believer magazine. This author is sponsored by Hendrix College Creative Writing and the Hendrix-Murphy Foundation Programs in Literature & Language.

Ken Kalfus is the author of two novels, The Commissariat of Enlightenment and A Disorder Peculiar to the Country, which was a finalist for the National Book Award. He has also published two collections of stories, Thirst and Pu-239 and Other Russian Fantasies, a finalist for the PEN/Faulkner Award. His books have been translated into more than ten languages. Three Stories has been published by Madras Press in a handsome, limited-edition chapbook. Net proceeds go to the Free Library of Philadelphia.

Diana Southwood Kennedy, born in England in 1923, has traveled around Mexico for 54 years, researching food in markets and with local cooks, writing books, and promoting Mexico's regional cuisines throughout the world. She has been decorated with The Order of the Aztec Eagle by the Mexican Government. Her latest book, Oaxaca al Gusto: An Infinite Gastronomy won the 2011 James Beard Foundation Award for Cookbook of the Year. This author is sponsored by Friends of Central Arkansas Libraries (FOCAL).

Brian and Terri Kinder perform rollicking goodtime original music for kids. Their music is fun and encourages audience participation. Their newest CD, Kinder Safety, teaches children ways to stay safe. They have six nationally recognized children's music releases, including A Kid Like You. Their concerts prove to be memorable family events.

Cindy King grew up in New Jersey, the daughter of musicians. She has lived in Fayetteville, AR, for the past twenty years and serves as the International Languages Coordinator at Northwest Arkansas Community College, teaching mostly French and Humanities. This author is sponsored by the Arkansas Arts Council.

Peter Kuper is co-founder of the political graphics magazine, World War 3 Illustrated, which is in its 31st year of publication. He has written and drawn "Spy vs. Spy" for every issue of Mad magazine since 1997. Kuper has produced over twenty books, including The System, Sticks and Stones, Diario de Oaxaca, and an adaptation of Franz Kafka's The Metamorphosis. He has been teaching comics courses for over 25 years in New York and is a visiting professor at Harvard University. This author is sponsored by Henderson State University.

Sherry Laymon earned a doctorate degree from Arkansas State University. Her dissertation, Pfeiffer Country, was published by Butler Center Books. Her articles, "John McClellan and the Arkansas River Navigation Project" and "Arkansas Dark Ages: The Struggle to Electrify Arkansas" each won an Arkansas Historical Association's Violet B. Gingles Award. Her newest book is Fearless: John L. McClellan, United States Senator.

Mara Leveritt is a reporter and the author of two books about the infamous West Memphis Three murder investigations. A film based on her book, Devil's Knot, about the case is scheduled for release next year. This author is sponsored by the William F. Laman Public Library System.

Sophie Littlefield's first novel, A Bad Day For Sorry, won an Anthony Award and an RT Book Award for Best First Mystery. It was also shortlisted for Edgar, Barry, Crimespree, and Macavity Awards. A Bad Day for Scandal is the newest in her series. She also writes the post-apocalyptic Aftertime series and paranormal fiction for young adults, including Unforsaken.

Thomas Lynch is the author of five collections of poems and three collections of essays, including The Undertaking, which won The American Book Award, The Heartland Prize, and was a finalist for the National Book Award. Apparition and Late Fictions–A Novella and Stories, was published in 2010. The PBS film of The Undertaking, based on his work and broadcast nationwide in 2007, won the 2008 Emmy Award for Arts & Culture Documentary. He lives in both Milford, Michigan, and Moveen, Co. Clare, Ireland. This author is sponsored by The Episcopal Church in Arkansas and Ruebel Funeral Home.

Photo: Alan Betson

Dave Madden is the author of The Authentic Animal: Inside the Odd and Obsessive World of Taxidermy. Shorter work has appeared in Tampa Review, HOBART, Indiana Review, Third Coast, and elsewhere. He teaches in the MFA program at the University of Alabama and co-edits The Cupboard, a quarterly pamphlet. This author is sponsored by Witt Stephens Jr. Central Arkansas Nature Center.

Photo: Joel Brouwer

Ed Madden was born and raised on an Arkansas rice farm. He is an associate professor of English at the University of South Carolina and author of three books of poetry, including Prodigal Variations.

His work appeared in Best New Poets 2007 and The Book of Irish American Poetry. This author is sponsored by the Stonewall Democratic Caucus of Arkansas.

Greil Marcus is the author of The Doors: A Lifetime of Listening to Five Mean Years, and the co-editor of A New Literary History of America. His books include Mystery Train, Lipstick Traces, and Double Trouble: Bill Clinton and Elvis Presley in a Land of No Alternatives. He lives in Oakland, California. This author is sponsored by ProSmart Printing.

Photo: Thierry Arditti, Paris

David Margolick is a long-time contributing editor at Vanity Fair. He's held similar positions at Newsweek and Portfolio. Prior to joining Vanity Fair, he was a legal affairs reporter at the New York Times. Margolick's most recent book is Elizabeth and Hazel: Two Women of Little Rock, a study of the principal figures in the iconic photograph from the 1957 school desegregation crisis. His prior books include Beyond Glory: Joe Louis vs. Max Schmeling, World on the Brink, and Strange Fruit: The Biography of a Song. He lives in New York City. This author is sponsored by Hendrix College Project Pericles Program and the Mosaic Templars Cultural Center.

Jeff Martin is an author and editor. His book, The Customer is Always Wrong: The Retail Chronicles was a National Book Critics Circle Award nominee and a Shelf Awareness Book of the Year. His second book was My Dog Ate My Nobel Prize: The Fabricated Memoirs of Jeff Martin. He is a contributor to Publishers Weekly, Poets & Writers, Salon, and National Public Radio. His latest book is The Late American Novel: Writers on the Future of Books.

Richard Martin has written on technology, the energy industry, and foreign affairs for Time, Wired, Fortune, The Atlantic, and many other publications. His book, SuperFuel: Thorium, The Green Energy Source For the Future, will be published in May. A native of Little Rock, Martin was educated at Yale University and the University of Hong Kong.

Roland Mesnier is the longest tenured chef in the history of the White House. His pastry creations have won awards worldwide. He is a member of the Académie Culinaire de France and recipient of many awards and accolades, including the French Legion of Honor, the highest honor bestowed on a French citizen. Mesnier has been inducted into the Chocolate and Pastry Hall of Fame. His books include Dessert University, Basic to Beautiful Cakes, All the Presidents Pastries: A Memoir, and A Sweet World of White House Desserts, published in conjunction with the White House Historical Association. This author is sponsored by William F. Laman Public Library System.

Carla Killough McClafferty is an award-winning author of nonfiction books for young readers. Her latest book, Tech Titans, details the lives of six men who changed the world through modern technology. She has presented programming at a wide variety of venues including Mount Vernon and the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum.

Mark McGurl is Professor of English at Stanford University, where he teaches classes in 20th- and 21st-century American literature and culture. He is the author of The Program Era: Postwar Fiction and the Rise of Creative Writing, which was the recipient of the 2011 Truman Capote Award for Literary Criticism. This author is sponsored by the Arkansas Writers MFA Workshop.

Clay McKinney is a native of Memphis and a graduate of the University of Tennessee at Knoxville. For the past 11 years, he has resided in Fort Smith, Arkansas with his wife and two daughters, where he continues work on several upcoming literary projects. McKinney is the author of Pinstripe Defection, the story of a small-town attorney's battle with the New York Yankees. He is also the author of Element, a collection of short stories. His work has been lauded by the Oklahoma Writers Federation and the National Writers Association Short Story Contest. This author is sponsored by Mitchell, Williams, Selig, Gates & Woodyard, P.L.L.C.

Mary Monroe was born the daughter of Alabama sharecroppers and became a New York Times bestselling author of fourteen novels. Her books include the God Don't Like Ugly series, The Upper Room, and her latest work, Mama Ruby. She lives in Oakland, California, and loves to travel, read, and shop. Her next novel, God Don't Make No Mistakes, will be released in June. This author is sponsored by the Mosaic Templars Cultural Center.

Photo: Sigrid Estrada

Montgomery Trucking is a native Arkansas band that mixes country, folk, and opera. The sound is a blend of guitar, kazoo, piano, and mandolin, which results in "Ozark-flavored folk rock and drivin' parlor songs."

Kim O'Donnel, a trained chef and longtime journalist, is a graduate of the Institute of Culinary Education and the University of Pennsylvania. Formerly of The Washington Post, O'Donnel writes a cooking column for USA Today. Her book, The Meat Lover's Meatless Cookbook, will be followed by The Meat Lover's Meatless Holiday Table this fall. O'Donnel was a fellow at The Writer's Colony at Dairy Hollow in Eureka Springs.

Photo: Stephen Brashear

Chris H. Olsen attended Oxford University in England, studying landscape architecture, landscape principles, and philosophy. He also graduated from the University of San Diego with a degree in business. Olsen opened Little Rock's Botanica Gardens in 1999, and is very active in the "Build for a Cure" projects for the Susan G. Komen Cancer Foundation. He is a regular contributor to Arkansas Gardener and At Home in Arkansas, and is often featured on KTHV's Weather Garden and Today's Home segments. His design work has been featured in Real Living, Southern Living, and Better Homes and Gardens. In Five Seasons, Olsen shares his knowledge of landscape and gardening, as well as his unique flair for home decor and design.

Evelyn Palfrey is an Arkansas-born lawyer who writes romantic suspense for the marvelously mature, because "romance is just as sweet with a little gray at the temple." Evelyn is the author of Three Perfect Men, The Price of Passion, Dangerous Dilemmas, Everything In Its Place, and Going Home.

Darcy Pattison is published in eight languages. Recent titles include three nature books: Prairie Storms, Desert Baths, and Wisdom: The Midway Albatross. She is the author of the picture book 11 Ways to Ruin a Photograph, as well as an eBook, How To Write A Children's Picture Book.

Miroslav Penkov holds an MFA in creative writing from the University of Arkansas. His stories have appeared in The Best American Short Stories 2008 and the 2012 PEN/O. Henry Prize Stories. Author of East of the West: A Country in Stories, he teaches at the University of North Texas.

David Rees first came to fame as the author of Get Your War On, a Bush-era comic strip composed from clip-art that he faxed to friends. It was eventually serialized by Rolling Stone magazine, collected into three successful books, and turned into an off-Broadway play. He is also the author of the workplace satire My New Filing Technique is Unstoppable. He lives in Beacon, New York. His new work is How to Sharpen Pencils: A Practical and Theoretical Treatise on the Artisanal Craft of Pencil Sharpening.

Michael Rejebian is the co-author of We're With Nobody: Two Insiders Reveal the Dark Side of American Politics. He has been a journalist, political advisor, and a partner in the political research firm of Huffman & Rejebian. He is a graduate of the University of Mississippi.

Photo: Christina

Josh Rice is an actor, director, improviser, fight choreographer, playwright, and teaching artist from Silver Lake, NY.  He has trained at Shakespeare's Globe Theatre in London and has traveled from Italy to Canada and across the United States as a teacher, performer, and student. Rice, a company member at the Arkansas Arts Center Children's Theatre, founded ImprovLittleRock and co-founded the teen improv comedy troupe, Armadillo Rodeo. He is the education and outreach coordinator for the Arkansas Shakespeare Theatre and will be featured in the one man show, To Be the Bard or Not to Be the Bard, an Interactive Introduction to Shakespeare.

Spelile Rivas is the author of No Time for Monsters/No hay tiempo para monstruos, which won the Tejas Star Book Award. She is a graduate of Texas A&M University and a former teacher. She lives in Arlington, Texas with her three beautiful daughters, handsome husband, and a Chihuahua, Royale. Her next book, tentatively titled The Cucuy Stole my Cascarones!, will be released in 2013.

Marco Roth is a founding co-editor of n+1 magazine, a journal of politics, literature, and culture. His essays on "The Rise of the Neuronovel" and other contemporary literary phenomena have appeared in its pages. His first book, The Scientists, is a memoir of AIDS and other unforeseen transmissions amid the vanished liberal culture of Manhattan's Upper West Side. The book will be published in September.

Jay Russell is a North Little Rock native who studied film under the tutelage of Academy Award-winning director Milos Forman. He attended the famed Sundance Institute Film Workshop, where he began development of his first film, End of the Line. Russell developed a number of projects for Ron Howard and Brian Grazer's Imagine Entertainment, as well as Tri-Star Pictures. He has produced a number of documentaries, specials, and a PBS miniseries, which he also wrote and directed. Russell produced and directed My Dog Skip, winner of a Critic's Choice Award for Best Family Film. He also directed Tuck Everlasting, Ladder 49, Water Horse: Legend of the Deep, and the Northern Ireland based indie‐comedy, Whole Lotta Sole, which will be released in 2012. This author is sponsored by the William F. Laman Public Library System.

Witold Rybczynski teaches at the University of Pennsylvania. Born in Edinburgh, he studied architecture at McGill University in Montreal, where he also taught for twenty years. Of his many books, perhaps the most popular are Home and A Clearing in the Distance, winner of the Anthony J. Lukas Prize. His newest is The Biography of a Building. He is the architecture critic for Slate. This author is sponsored by Polk Stanley Wilcox Architects.

The Salty Dogs have incorporated hip sounds into their own blend of feel-good country music. Kudos for the band have been far ranging and their music was even featured on the TLC show, Trading Spaces. Their releases include Autoharpoon and Brand New Reason. The Salty Dogs have shared the stage with Willie Nelson, Kinky Friedman, Hank Williams Jr., Old Crow Medicine Show, Moot Davis, and more.

Bob Ray Sanders has been a multi-media professional journalist for 40 years, working in newspaper, television, and radio. He writes for the Fort Worth Star Telegram. He worked many years at the Dallas/Fort Worth PBS affiliate, where he served as reporter, producer, station manager, and vice president. Sanders has received some of journalism's most prestigious awards, among them: five awards from the Houston, New York, and Chicago Film Festivals, five Dallas Press Club KATIE Awards, three Corporation for Public Broadcasting Awards, a regional Emmy Award, a National Association of Black Journalists Award for Best TV Sports Feature, and a National Headliner Award for "Outstanding Investigative Reporting."

Vivienne Schiffer a native of Rohwer, Arkansas, is the author of Camp Nine, a fictionalized account of the Japanese Internment Camp that was located in her hometown from 1942 until 1945. Formerly a corporate and securities attorney, she is now an author, screenwriter, and filmmaker.

Mark Simpson has recorded with John Weston, Richard Johnston, and Juke Joint Boys. He was featured performing at the King Biscuit Blues Festival in Blues in the Delta, a documentary by Jack Hill. He has appeared on the "Beale Street Caravan" radio show, as well the "King Biscuit" radio show on KFFA. Simpson's guitar playing on the CD Blues at Daybreak was reviewed in Living Blues and described as "shimmering slide…stinging slide guitar pattern in the style of vintage-era Muddy Waters." He toured with the late bluesman Willie Foster out of Greenville, Mississippi, and was a featured house guitarist at the late bluesman Junior Kimbrough's juke joint in Chulahoma, Mississippi.

Barbara Slates You Can Do a Graphic Novel is a leader in its field. The Teacher's Guide is used with this book at all levels of classroom education. Her first cartoon character, Ms. Liz, appeared on millions of greeting cards, in a regular comic strip in Cosmopolitan magazine, and as the star in a series of animated segments on NBC's Today show. Slate created Angel Love for DC Comics, wrote and drew Yuppies from Hell and Sweet XVI for Marvel, and put her own spin on Disney classics Beauty and the Beast and Pocahontas, as well as Mattel's Barbie. She has written over a hundred Betty and Veronica stories for Archie Comics. Her art has been exhibited in many galleries, reviewed by the New York Times, and profiled in A Century of Women Cartoonists. She is currently busy being a mom, doing a graphic novel titled Getting Married and Other Mistakes, and teaching teens how to create graphic novels.

Marc Smirnoff is the editor and founder of the Oxford American. He has written for the New York Times Book Review, the San Francisco Chronicle.

Lori Spencer travels throughout the state presenting programs focused on her award-winning field guide, Arkansas Butterflies and Moths, and new book, The Diana Fritillary, Arkansas's State Butterfly. She coordinates the Mount Magazine Butterfly Festival and consults for federal and state agencies on butterfly management. In addition to other projects and programs, she serves as an interpretive volunteer at Mount Magazine State Park. This author is sponsored by Witt Stephens Jr. Central Arkansas Nature Center.

Avi Steinberg's work has appeared in the New York Times Magazine, Boston Globe, New York Review of Books, Salon, the Paris Review, the Daily Beast, and others. The New York Times called his work Running the Books: The Adventures of an Accidental Prison Librarian "acidly funny…as involving, and as layered, as a good coming-of-age novel." It has been translated into five languages and optioned for TV by the producers of The Office. This author is sponsored by the Crain-Maling Center of Jewish Culture.

Trenton Lee Stewart is author of the award-winning, bestselling Mysterious Benedict Society children's novels, as well as Flood Summer, a novel for adults. His newest book, The Extraordinary Education of Nicholas Benedict, will be released in April. Stewart lives in Little Rock with his wife and two sons.

Tail Waggin' Tutors are obedience-trained dogs that have been tested and certified by Therapy Dogs International to be available for children learning to read in a non-threatening environment. By relaxing and petting a dog, a child can gain confidence in reading and increase his self esteem. All Tail Waggin' Tutors are volunteers and available for a variety of settings.

Tommy Terrific, also known as Tommy Diaz, grew up in North Little Rock, graduated from Northwestern University, and moved to New York City to pursue an acting career on Broadway. While in New York he created Tommy Terrific's Wacky Magic show. A few years later, he and his family returned to Arkansas to perform the magic show full-time. He loves sharing the fun and laughter of his show with Arkansans.

Frank H. Thurmond studied at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, Southern Methodist University, and Oxford University. Thurmond's work has appeared in various publications, including the International Herald Tribune and in William Safire's language book No Uncertain Terms. Thurmond teaches literature at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. Before I Sleep is his new memoir.

Justin Torres grew up in upstate New York, where We the Animals is set. His work has appeared in Granta, Tin House, Glimmer Train, Harper's, and The New Yorker. A graduate of the Iowa Writers' Workshop, he was the recipient of a Rolón Fellowship in Literature from United States Artists and is now a Wallace Stegner Fellow at Stanford. He has worked as a farmhand, a dog walker, a creative writing teacher, and a bookseller. We the Animals, which Dorothy Allison called "a miracle in concentrated pages," is his debut novel.

Photo: Gregory Crowley

Stephanie Vanderslice teaches creative writing at the University of Central Arkansas, where she also directs the newly-minted Arkansas Writers MFA Program. Her latest book is Rethinking Creative Writing. Her fiction and nonfiction have appeared in numerous journals and edited collections. She is currently at work on a novel. This author is sponsored by Pulaski Technical College.

Thom Vernon has worked in film, television, and theatre since 1989, including appearances on Seinfeld, General Hospital, and The Fugitive. He has been the Actors' Gang Youth Education program director, and has worked extensively with at-risk people, including as an arts educator at the Lorraine Kimsa Theatre for Young People. His screenplays and fiction have placed in various competitions, including Paramount's Chesterfield Writer's Film Project and the Open Door Contest. He hails from Michigan, but he and his partner live in exile in Toronto. The Drifts, concerning four characters in the midst of a freak Arkansas blizzard, is his first novel.

Lila Quintero Weaver was born in Argentina. She grew up in Alabama in an immigrant family that encouraged her artistic interests. She holds a degree from the University of Alabama. The graphic novel Darkroom: A Memoir in Black and White is her first published work.

David Welky's books include The Thousand-Year Flood: The Ohio-Mississippi Disaster of 1937, The Moguls and the Dictators: Hollywood and the Coming of World War II, and Everything Was Better in America: Print Culture in the Great Depression. Welky is an associate professor of history at the University of Central Arkansas.

Michael Vinson Williams earned his PhD in history from the University of Mississippi. His research focuses on sociopolitical resistance movements, black intellectual radicalism, and civil rights struggle. He is currently an Assistant Professor of History and African American studies at Mississippi State University and the author of Medgar Evers: Mississippi Martyr. This author is sponsored by Mosaic Templars Cultural Center.

Tom Williams taught for eight years at Arkansas State University, where he also edited Arkansas Review. In 2004, he received an Individual Artist Fellowship from the Arkansas Arts Council. He currently chairs the English Department at Morehead State University. His novella, The Mimic's Own Voice, was published in 2011.

Jenny Wingfield is a native of Arkansas whose screenwriting credits include The Man In The Moon, The Outsider, the Genesis Award-winning A Dog Named Christmas, and several Disney animation films. The Homecoming of Samuel Lake is her first novel. She lives in Texas, surrounded by animals she and her family have rescued.

Jan Wolfe invites children to participate in exploring stories through puppetry. As an educator, she realizes how the enjoyment of reading and storytelling promotes learning. As a puppeteer, she loves to make children laugh.

Jason Zinoman is a critic and reporter covering theater for the New York Times. He has regularly written about movies, television, books, and sports for publications such as Vanity Fair, The Guardian, and Slate. He was the chief theater critic for Time Out New York before leaving to write the On Stage and Off column in the Weekend section of the New York Times. He grew up in Washington D.C. and now lives in Brooklyn. Shock Value is his new book about modern horror cinema.

Photo: Earl Wilson, New York Times

Gale Zucker is co-author of Craft Activism: People, Ideas, and Projects from the New Community of Handmade, chosen for Best Books of 2011 by Library Journal & Amazon. She is the photographer/co-author of Shear Spirit: Ten Farms, Twenty Projects and a dozen other books, including a series of children's picture books about manufacturing in America, Made in the USA. Based in Connecticut, Zucker photographs and teaches nationally. This author is sponsored by an anonymous donor.

Stephanie McAfee was born and raised in Mississippi, but now lives in Florida with her husband, son, and chiweenie, Baxter Mac. She wrote her first novel, Diary of a Mad Fat Girl, in 2010 and self-published it that same year. Her book will be re-released by Penguin in February.