2025 Festival Gala

Festival Featured Authors
(click on Author's name to learn more)

Elliot Ackerman – the author of the novels Halcyon, Red Dress in Black and White, Waiting for Eden, Dark at the Crossing, and Green on Blue, and the memoirs The Fifth Act and Places and Names. His books have been nominated for the National Book Award and the Dayton Literary Peace Prize. He is both a former White House Fellow and Marine, and served five tours of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan, where he received the Silver Star, the Bronze Star for Valor, and the Purple Heart. He is currently a contributing writer at The Atlantic.

Alafair Burke – the Edgar-nominated, New York Times best-selling author of fourteen novels of suspense, including The Ex, The Wife, The Better Sister, and Find Me, and coauthor of the best-selling Under Suspicion series.  A former prosecutor, she is now a professor of criminal law.  She recently served as president of the Mystery Writers of America and was the first woman of color to be elected to that position.  Alafair lives in New York.

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S.A. Cosby – an Anthony Award-winning writer from Southeastern Virginia. He is the author of the New York Times bestseller Razorblade Tears and Blacktop Wasteland, which won the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, was a New York Times Notable Book, and was named a best book of the year by NPR, The Guardian, and Library Journal, among others.  When not writing, he is an avid hiker and chess player.

Loni Crittenden – A writer from Buffalo, New York, Loni's latest book is The Ancient's Game.  She has a B.A. in Creative Writing from SUNY Oswego and an MFA in writing popular fiction from Seton Hill University.  When she’s not glued to her laptop, you can find Loni planning on painting again someday...maybe, and hunting for unusually flavored teas.

Abbott Kahler – formerly writing as Karen Abbott, she is the New York Times bestselling author of Sin in the Second City; American Rose; Liar, Temptress, Soldier, Spy; and The Ghosts of Eden Park. She is also the host of Remus: The Mad Bootleg King, a podcast about legendary Jazz Age bootlegger George Remus. A native of Philadelphia, she lives in New York City and Greenport, New York.

Angie Kim – moved as a preteen from Seoul, South Korea, to Baltimore.  She graduated from Interlochen Arts Academy, Stanford University and attended Harvard Law School. Her debut novel, Miracle Creek, won the Edgar Award and was named one of the 100 best mysteries and thrillers of all time by Time. Happiness Falls, her second novel, was an instant New York Times bestseller and was named the #1 novel of the year by Oprah Daily.

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Michael Koryta – New York Times-bestselling author whose work has been translated into
more than 20 languages and has won or been nominated for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, Edgar Award, Shamus Award, Barry Award, and the Quill Award. Michael's books have been selected as “best books of the year” by numerous publications.

George Pelecanos – a novelist, screenwriter, film and television producer, and the recipient of numerous international writing awards. He is the author of twenty-two novels and story collections set in and around Washington, D.C.  George was a producer and writer

on the HBO series The Wire, Treme, and The Pacific, and co-creator and

showrunner of HBO’s The Deuce, and We Own This City. 

Kevin Powers - was born and raised in Richmond, Virginia.  Since publishing his first novel in 2012, his books have been translated into more than a dozen languages.  A U.S. Army veteran of the war in Iraq, Kevin now lives on Florida’s First Coast with his family, and is the Honorary Chair of the Amelia Island Book festival.

Shelley Read – her bestselling debut novel, Go As A River, is being translated into over thirty 

languages and has been optioned for film by Mazur Kaplan in partnership with Fifth Season.  Shelley holds writing and literary studies degrees from the University of Denver and Temple University and is a regular contributor to Crested Butte Magazine and Gunnison Valley Journal. She is a fifth-generation Coloradoan who lives in the Elk Mountains of the Western Slope.

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