Participants

Fiction

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David Baldacci has written twelve novels including Absolute Power, Wish You Well, Hour Game, and The Camel Club. His bestsellers are read in more than 85 countries, with nearly 45 million copies in print worldwide. 3/25 6 p.m.; 3/26 4 p.m.

Sharon Baldacci is the author of A Sundog Moment: A Novel of Hope, winner of First Prize for fiction from both the Virginia Press Women and the National Federation of Press Women. It is her first novel. 3/25 10 a.m., 6 p.m.

Cassandra Darden Bell is the author of After the Storm, Mississippi Blues, and The Color of Love. She is a former news anchor for WNCT9 in Greenville, North Carolina and is now a full-time writer. She resides in Winterville, North Carolina. 3/25 10 a.m., noon

Sydney Blair's novel Buffalo won the Virginia Prize for Fiction and has just been reissued as part of LSU Press's "Voices of the South" series; her stories have appeared in The Texas Review, 64, and Callaloo, among others. She teaches writing at UVa. 3/23 8 p.m.

Matt Bondurant, author of The Third Translation, is a professor at Geroge Mason University and two-time Bread Loaf Scholarship winner. His short stories have appeared in Glimmer Train, The New England Review and other publications. 3/24 noon

Kevin Brockmeier, author of The Brief History of the Dead, has also written The Truth About Celia, Things That Fall from the Sky, and two children's novels, City of Names and Grooves: A Kind of Mystery. An award-winning author, he lives in Little Rock, Arkansas. 3/24 6 p.m.; 3/25 noon

John Casey is the author of Spartina (winner of the National Book Award), The Half-Life of Happiness, and Testimony and Demeanor. He has translated Enchantments by Linda Ferri and You’re an Animal, Viskovitz by Alessandro Boffa. He teaches creative writing at UVa. 3/23 6 p.m.

Susann Cokal is the author of Breath and Bones, set in the Wild West of the 1880s, and Mirabilis, which takes place in fourteenth-century France. She lives in Richmond, Virginia and teaches in the M.F.A. program at Virginia Commonwealth University. 3/25 4 p.m.

Sheila Curran's comedy-of-manners, Diana Lively is Falling Down, is based on the author's observations of academic culture as a faculty wife in Charlottesville, Boston, Phoenix, England and Tallahassee, Florida, where she lives with her husband, John Corrigan, and two children. 3/24 2 p.m.

Kurtis Davidson is the name for the writing team of Kurt Jose Ayau and David Rachels. Their comic novel What the Shadow Told Me won the William Faulkner Society Prize for Best Novel. Ayau and Rachels are both associate professors at the Virginia Military Institute in Lexington. 3/24 10 a.m., 4 p.m.

Elizabeth Dewberry, author of His Lovely Wife, has written three previous novels, including Sacrament of Lies. Her plays have been produced in a variety of venues. She lives in Tallahassee, Florida, with her husband, Robert Olen Butler. 3/22 6 p.m.

Cheri Paris Edwards, author of a debut novel, Plenty Good Room, was born in Louisville, Kentucky, and has lived in the Midwest all her life. She is a single mother of two sons ages 25 and 15. 3/25 10 a.m., noon

Ed Falco is the author of Wolf Point and Sabbath Night in the Church of the Piranha: New and Selected Stories. He teaches in the M.F.A. program at Virginia Tech University. 3/22 6 p.m.

Linda Ferri is the author of the novel Enchantments. She co-authored with Nanni Moretti the screenplay The Son's Room, which won the Palme d'Or at the 2001 Cannes Film Festival and was released by Miramax in 2002. She lives in Italy. 3/23 6 p.m.

Andrew Furman, author of Alligators May Be Present and two works of literary criticism on Jewish-American fiction, has appeared in Poets & Writers, The Chronicle of Higher Education, The Forward, and The Miami Herald. He has been a judge for the National Jewish Book Award in fiction. 3/24 2 p.m.

Richard Galli's Of Rice and Men is a serio-comic novel about the battle for hearts and minds in Vietnam. He also wrote Rescuing Jeffrey, a memoir about his son's paralyzing accident. Galli is a lawyer and former journalist. 3/23 8 p.m.; 3/24 10 a.m.

George Garrett, author of Empty Bed Blues, has written more than 30 books of poetry, fiction, essays, criticism, plays, and screenplays. He was named the Poet Laureate of Virginia in 2002 and is the Henry Hoyns Professor Emeritus at UVa. 3/22 2 p.m.; 3/24 6 p.m.

Mary Guterson is the author of We Are All Fine Here. Her written work has appeared in numerous print publications, and her commentaries have been featured on public radio. 3/25 10 a.m.

Jennifer Haigh is the author of Baker Towers and Mrs. Kimble. Her short stories have appeared in magazines and publications all over the country. A graduate of Dickinson College and the Iowa Writers' Workshop, she lives on Boston's South Shore. 3/24 10 a.m.

Masha Hamilton, author of The Distance Between Us, worked as a foreign correspondent in the Middle East, the former Soviet Union, and Afghanistan. Her first novel, Staircase of a Thousand Steps, was a Book Sense 76 Pick. 3/24 10 a.m., 2 p.m.

Melanie Lynne Hauser's first novel is Confessions of Super Mom. A sequel will follow in 2007. She lives in Chicago with her husband and two sons. She is a contributor to the anthology of mothers writing about raising their sons, It's a Boy. 3/25 10 a.m.

Judith Ryan Hendricks is a former baker and author of The Baker's Apprentice, the sequel to her best-selling novel Bread Alone. She is also the author of Isabel's Daughter. She lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico. 3/24 noon

Roy Hoffman's novel, Chicken Dreaming Corn, was inspired by his Romanian Jewish grandparents' lives in early 1900s Alabama. He also wrote Almost Family and a non-fiction collection, Back Home. He lives in Fairhope, Alabama, and is a staff writer for The Mobile Register. 3/24 2 p.m.

Laurence Hutner, author of Dawson's Way and Dead Woman's Voice is the founder and former CEO of a major Los Angeles architectural firm. His career includes more than a decade of forensic architecture. 3/22 4 p.m.

Lynn Isenberg's second novel, The Funeral Planner, inspired her to launch the real-lfe business, Lights Out Enterprises. She has also written My Life Uncovered. Her writing and producing works include feature films and television credits. 3/25 10 a.m., noon

David Ives is the author of All in the Timing: Fourteen Plays, Time Flies and Other Short Plays, and Polish Joke and Other Plays. He also writes children's books including Scrib and Monsieur Eek. 3/25 noon; 3/26 3 p.m.

Uzodinma Iweala’s debut novel is Beasts of No Nations, about war in Africa. He has been selected by Barnes & Noble for the Discover great New Writers program. 3/24 10 a.m.

Joe Jackson, author of How I Left the Great State of Tennessee and Went on to Better Things, is a five time Pulitzer Prize nominee and author of five works of fiction and nonfiction. His latest non-fiction work, A World on Fire, was released in October. 3/23 2 p.m.

River Jordan, author of The Messenger of Magnolia Street, is the founder of W.O.R.D. (Writing for Ourselves and Reading for Discovery), a writing and reading program designed to introduce and inspire a new generation to the power of story. 3/24 6 p.m.

Joseph Kanon is the author of Alibi, The Good German, Los Alamos, and The Prodigal Spy. Before becoming a full-time writer, he was a book publishing executive. He lives in New York City. 3/25 2 p.m., 4 p.m.

N.M. Kelby, author of Whale Season, has also written In the Company of Angels and Theater of the Stars. She has received Numerous awards and grants including a Bush Artist Fellowship. She is currently the Writer-in-Residence at the University of Tennessee. 3/24 10 a.m.; 3/25 noon

Elias Khoury, the author of Gate of the Sun (now available in English) was born in Lebanon in 1948. He is the editor-in-chief of the cultural pages of Beirut's daily Al-Nahar and is a professor of Arabic literature at New York University. He has written 11 novels. 3/25 2 p.m.

Dave King’s novel, The Ha-Ha, was named one of the best novels of the season by The Washington Post. The Ha-Ha has been nominated for a Quill Award and optioned by Warner Brothers Pictures. 3/24 noon

Stephen H. King is the author of the biographical novel, Windkiller. He earned a degree in international relations from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and served in the U.S. Foreign Service for thirty years. 3/22 4 p.m.

Barbara Kingsolver is the author of Small Wonder, Prodigal Summer, and several works of fiction and nonfiction. Her novel The Poisonwood Bible won the National Book Prize of South Africa, was a finalist for the Pulitzer and PEN/Faulkner awards, and was an Oprah's Book Club selection. 3/26 4 p.m.

Daniela Kuper’s novel, Hunger and Thirst, was nominated for the Harold U. Ribalow Prize. Her short story "Holy Ghost" was nominated for a Pushcart Prize. She speaks around the country on picking up the pen after 40, and writing about your family stories. 3/24 10 a.m., 4 p.m.

Starling Lawrence is the author of two novels, The Lightning Keeper and Montenegro, and the story collection, Legacies. He is the editor-in-chief and vice chairman of W.W. Norton. He lives in New York City and northwestern Connecticut. 3/25 10 a.m., 4 p.m.; 3/26 1:30 p.m.

Brandon Massey is the author of Within the Shadows, Dark Corner, Thunderland, and an upcoming thriller, The Other Brother. The winner of the Gold Pen Award, Massey lives near Atlanta, Georgia, where he is at work on his next novel. 3/24 6 p.m.; 3/25 noon

Richard McCann is the author of Mother of Sorrows, a collection of interwoven stories, and Ghost Letters. He is the editor (with Michael Klein) of Things Shaped in Passing: More 'Poets for Life' Writing from the AIDS Pandemic. He teaches at American University. 3/23 2 p.m.

Judi McCoy's tenth book, Wanted: One Sexy Night, is the final installment in her Starlight Trilogy Series, featuring alien heroines come to Earth to find their perfect biological match. Her next romance, Almost a Goddess, will be available in June 2006. 3/25 10 a.m.

Martha McPhee is the author of L'America and two previous novels, Bright Angel Time and Gorgeous Lies, which was a National Book Award Finalist. She teaches at Hofstra University and lives in New York. 3/24 6 p.m.

James Morrow, author of the postmodern historical epic, The Last Witchfinder, has written eight previous novels. He lives in State College, Pennsylvania, where he has spent the past eight years working on his fictive celebration of the Enlightenment. 3/24 4 p.m.

Michael Parker, author of If You Want Me To Stay and Virginia Lovers, also wrote Towns Without Rivers and Hello Down There. He lives in Greensboro, North Carolina, with his daughter and teaches writing at University of North Carolina Greensboro. 3/24 noon

Phyllis Alesia Perry is the author of A Sunday in June and Stigmata. She has worked as an editor and reporter for sixteen years and was part of a writing team at The Atlanta Journal-Constitution which won the Pulitzer Prize in 1988. 3/24 noon

Julie Portman is founder and artistic director of Ki Theatre. Her five plays, including Three Roses and My Sister’s Sister, have been presented nationally and internationally. Julie’s Life Stories Workshops teach people to write and share their stories. 3/22 4 p.m.

Peter Quinn is the author of the historical novels Hour of the Cat and Banished Children of Eve. A former speech writer for two New York governors, he is currently Corporate Editorial Director at Time Warner. 3/24 4 p.m.; 3/25 2 p.m.

Ron Rash's most recent novel is The World Made Straight. He has also published three books of poetry, two story collections, and two other novels. Winner of a 2005 O. Henry Prize, he teaches Appalachian Studies at Western Carolina University. 3/23 2 p.m.

Jeanne Ray has written four novels: Julie And Romeo Get Lucky, Step-Ball-Change, Julie and Romeo, and Eat Cake. She began her writing career at age 60, and is a nurse living in Nashville, Tennessee. 3/23 4 p.m.

Kurt Rheinheimer, author of Little Criminals, has published stories in more than 50 journals and in four volumes of New Stories From The South. He is editor in chief of Blue Ridge Country magazine in Roanoke, where he enjoys hiking with his wife Gail. 3/23 2 p.m.

Roxana Robinson, author of seven books including A Perfect Stranger and Other Stories and Sweetwater, has written novels, short stories, and the definitive biography of Georgia O'Keeffe. She has received NEA and Guggenheim fellowships and lives in New England. 3/23 2 p.m.

Gwyn Hyman Rubio is the author of The Woodsman's Daughter, a post Civil War epic set in her native South Georgia. Her first novel, Icy Sparks, was a New York Times Notable Book and an Oprah choice. She is the daughter of Mac Hyman, author of No Time for Sergeants. 3/23 2 p.m.

Mary Doria Russell is the author of the historical fiction, A Thread of Grace. Previously, she has written the best-selling science fiction novels The Sparrow and Children of God. 3/23 8 p.m.

Robert Schultz’s books include The Madhouse Nudes, a novel, and Winter in Eden (poems). He is a prizewinning poet and has received an NEA award in fiction. He is the John P. Fishwick Professor of English at Roanoke College. 3/24 4 p.m.

Edward Schwarzschild's first novel is Responsible Men. He was a recent Stegner Fellow at Stanford University and he currently teaches at SUNY, Albany. His story collection, No Rest for the Middleman, will be published in early 2007. 3/24 2 p.m.

Carter Taylor Seaton's debut novel, Father's Troubles, was a finalist for ForeWord's 2003 Book of the Year Award in the Historical Fiction category. The West Virginia native's nonfiction works have appeared in anthologies, magazines and the West Virginia Encyclopedia. 3/24 10 a.m.

Robert Segedy is a bookseller with over 17 years in the book industry. He was the head buyer for Waterstone's Booksellers in Boston, Massachusetts and McIntyre's Fine Books in Pittsboro, North Carolina. He is the author of many articles, book reviews and fiction. 3/24 2 p.m.

Matthew Sharpe is the author of the novels, The Sleeping Father and Nothing is Terrible, and the short-story collection, Stories from the Tube. The Sleeping Father was the "Today Show" Club Pick for February 2004. 3/24 2 p.m.

Leora Skolkin-Smith, author of Edges: O Israel, O Palestine, was born in Manhattan in 1952. She spent her childhood between New York and Israel, traveling often to her mother's birthplace in Jerusalem. Edges is a 2006 Pen/Faulkner Award nominee. 3/24 10 a.m.

Mariflo Stephens has read her work on Oprah and Oxygen network. She received two individual artist's grants for fiction from the Virginia Commission for the Arts. Her work has been included in Contemporary American Women Writers and The Barbie Chronicles. 3/26, 1:30 p.m.

Christopher Tilghman is the author of two story collections, In A Father's Place and The Way People Run, and two novels, Mason's Retreat and Roads of the Heart. He teaches at UVa. 3/26 1:30 p.m.

Paul Witcover has written three novels, Tumbling After, Waking Beauty, and Dracula: Asylum. He is the author of a Young Adult biography of Zora Neale Hurston. He co-created and co-wrote the comic Anima for DC Comics. 3/24 6 p.m.

Mary Kay Zuravleff is the author of The Bowl is Already Broken. Her first novel, The Frequency of Souls, won the Rosenthal Award from the American Academy and the James Jones Award. A former editor of books and exhibition texts for the Smithsonian, she lives in Washington, D.C. 3/24 noon

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Fiction