A stunning lineup of accomplished authors will read from their work and bring insights into writing, publishing and what inspires them. Check the Author Schedule for times and locations for each author’s presentation. When not presenting, authors will be in the Crescent Gardens for book signing and conversation. Books will be available for purchase at the Festival.
C. J. Box is the New York Times bestselling author of thirteen novels including the Joe Pickett series. He won the Edgar Alan Poe Award for Best Novel (Blue Heaven, 2009) as well as the Anthony Award, Prix Calibre 38 (France), the Macavity Award, the Gumshoe Award, the Barry Award, and the 2010 Mountains & Plains Independent Booksellers Association Award for fiction. His short stories have been featured in America's Best Mystery Stories of 2006 and limited-edition printings. 2008 novel Blood Trail was nominated for the International IMPAC Dublin (Ireland) Literary Award. The novels have been translated into 25 languages. Blue Heaven and Nowhere to Run have been optioned for film.
Box is a Wyoming native and has worked as a ranch hand, surveyor, fishing guide, a small town newspaper reporter and editor, and he co-owns an international tourism marketing firm with his wife Laurie. In 2008, Box was awarded the "BIG WYO" Award from the state tourism industry. An avid outdoorsman, Box has hunted, fished, hiked, ridden, and skied throughout Wyoming and the Mountain West. He served on the Board of Directors for the Cheyenne Frontier Days Rodeo. They have three daughters. He lives in Wyoming.
His newest Joe Pickett novel, Force of Nature, will be released in March 2012.
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 work has been translated into seventeen languages, and he has published his stories in such venues as The New Yorker, The Georgia Review, McSweeney's, Zoetrope, Tin House, The Oxford American, The Best American Short Stories, The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror, and New Stories from the South. He has received the Borders Original Voices Award, three O. Henry Awards (one, a first prize), the PEN USA Award, a Guggenheim Fellowship, and an NEA Grant. Recently he was named one of Granta magazine's Best Young American Novelists. He lives in Little Rock, Arkansas, where he was raised.
www.vanessadiffenbaugh.com
www.camellianetwork.org
Vanessa Diffenbaugh's debut novel, The Language of Flowers, has received the kind of reception authors dream of. Rights to the novel have been sold in 36 countries so far and the book has enjoyed widespread praise. From literary groups to universities to philanthropic organizations focused on the welfare of children, The Language of Flowers has drawn a diverse audience. In addition to the theme of flowers and their meanings, the novel's central protagonist is a product of the foster care system, a subject that is very close to Diffenbaugh's heart. A foster parent herself, Diffenbaugh is the co-founder of The Camellia Network, an organization that assists young adults transition from foster care to adulthood and independence. In The Language of Flowers, Camellia means "My destiny is in your hands." The network's name emphasizes the belief in the interconnectedness of humanity.
Vanessa's inspiration for the flower theme in The Language of Flowers came after she discovered a copy of a vintage flower dictionary in a bookstore. Upon publication of her novel, there was widespread interest in the subject and she agreed to write an introduction for a new edition of A Victorian Flower Dictionary so that readers would have a companion to further their interest in the subject.
She was born in San Francisco and raised in Chico, California. After studying creative writing and education at Stanford, she went on to teach art and writing to youth in low-income communities. She and her husband, PK, have three children: Tre'von, eighteen; Chela, four; and Miles, three. Tre'von, a former foster child, is attending New York University on a Gates Millennium Scholarship. Diffenbaugh and her family currently live in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where her husband is studying urban school reform at Harvard.
Crescent Dragonwagon is the James Beard Award–winning author of seven cookbooks, including Dairy Hollow House Soup & Bread Cookbook, Passionate Vegetarian, The Cornbread Gospels, and, most recently, Bean by Bean: a cookbook. She is also a contributing editor to Relish magazine and has appeared on Good Morning America, Today and NPR's The Splendid Table. She lives, grows, and cooks her beans on a farm in Putney, Vermont.
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.
Charles Henry "Chip" Ford II has worked within Carroll County as a photographer since 2008. Ford currently is the staff photographer for the Lovely County Citizen, Currents Magazine, The Visitor and Ozarks Outdoors and is a contributor to Carroll County News, Destination Eureka and Cassville Democrat. His images have appeared in/on KY3 TV, CitiScapes, Capture Arkansas, Rural Arkansas and countless ads promoting Eureka Springs. He competes in the annual Arkansas Press Association Better Newspaper Editorial Contest and has taken home seven awards from 2008-2010, most recently taking 1st Place in 2010 for Best Photo Page/Photo Essay. His most recent endeavor is the coffee table book Eureka Springs, Arkansas and the surrounding Countryside v1, a collection of modern digital images compiled over a five year period.
Kristin S. Kaufman is the founder of Alignment, Inc., formed in 2007 to serve individuals, corporations, boards of directors, and nonprofits in finding alignment within themselves and their organizations. Alignment, Inc. is a unique services organization that works with companies and individuals to create sustainable success individually and collectively.
During her twenty-five years of corporate experience, she has held executive positions at Hewlett-Packard, Vignette Corporation, and United Health Group. In 2009 Kaufman was awarded the distinction of professional certified coach from the International Coaching Federation and achieved the designation of certified leadership coach through the Georgetown University program.
Always a prolific writer, Kaufman’s first book, Is This Seat Taken? Random Encounters That Change Your Life, centers on her global experiences seeding her journey toward alignment.
Phillip Margolin worked for more than 25 years as a criminal defense attorney specializing in criminal defense at the trial and appellate levels. As an appellate attorney he appeared before the Oregon Supreme Court and the United States Supreme Court. As a trial attorney, he handled many homicide cases and he was the first Oregon attorney to use the Battered Women’s Syndrome to defend a battered woman accused of murdering her spouse. In 1996, he gave up practicing law to launch a new career as a full-time writer.
His very first novel, Heartstone, was nominated for an Edgar by Mystery Writers of America. It became a bestseller, as did the fourteen novels that have followed, including The Last Innocent Man which was made into an HBO movies and Gone But Not Forgotten, which has been sold to more than 25 foreign publishers and was made into a mini-series starring Brooke Shields. Among his other novels are Executive Privilege, Supreme Justice, and his most recent release, Capitol Murder, to be released in April 2012. He also co-authored a young adult novel with his daughter, Ami Margolin Rome. Fans hail his books for their convoluted plot twists, great writing and superbly drawn characters, and fellow writers recognize him for skills that keep his readers turning pages right up to the breath-taking finale.
Radine Trees Nehring lives in the Arkansas Ozarks where all her writing is set, including magazine and newspaper features and short stories. Her non-fiction book, Dear Earth: a Love Letter from Spring Hollow, earned, among other awards, the Arkansas Governor's Award for Best Writing about the State. Radine's seven To Die For mystery novels, featuring Carrie McCrite and Henry King, take place at various Arkansas tourist destinations. They have been chosen for a number of honors, including a Macavity nomination for best first mystery novel, several other "Best Mystery" awards, and the 2010 national Silver Falchion given at Killer Nashville for outstanding writing and service to the writing community. Radine is a member of Authors Guild, Mystery Writers of America, Sisters in Crime, and several Ozarks area writers' organizations. She was inducted into the Arkansas Writers' Hall of Fame at a ceremony in Little Rock last June.
Shin Yu Pai is a poet, photographer, editor, and teacher. Her books include Adamantine (White Pine Press, 2010), Haiku Not Bombs (Booklyn Artists Alliance, 2008), Works on Paper (Convivio Bookworks, 2007), Sightings: Selected Works, 2000-2005 (1913 Press, 2007), The Love Hotel Poems (Press Lorentz, 2006), Unnecessary Roughness (xPress(ed), 2005), and Equivalence (La Alameda, 2003). Her work is anthologized in America Zen: A Gathering of Poets (Bottom Dog Press) and The Wisdom Anthology of North American Buddhist Poetry (Wisdom Publications). Her work has been commissioned twice by the Dallas Museum of Art and is part of the Poetry-in-Motion program in Dallas. Since 2010, she has been a member of the Macondo Writers Workshop. She is a member of the Arkansas Arts Roster and is Associate Director for the Hendrix-Murphy Foundation at Hendrix College in Conway, Arkansas.
