GOLDEN GALA: ONE FOR THE BOOKS -- AUTHORS
RIF of NOVA's 50th birthday Golden Gala: ONE FOR THE BOOKS featured Keynote Speaker, author David Baldacci. Each table included a guest author (noted below in alphabetical order). We are grateful for their participation and support for children's literacy in the Northern Virginia community!
Keynote Speaker David Baldacci
David Baldacci has been writing since childhood, when his mother gave him a lined notebook in which to write down his stories. A lifelong Virginian, David Baldacci received his Bachelor’s degree from Virginia Commonwealth University and his law degree from the University of Virginia School of Law, after which he practiced law in Washington, D.C.
Baldacci published his first novel, Absolute Power, in 1996. The feature film adaptation followed, with Clint Eastwood as its director and star. In total, Baldacci has published 45 novels for adults; all have been national and international bestsellers, and several have been adapted for film and television. His novels are published in over 45 languages and in more than 80 countries, with 150 million copies sold worldwide. He has also published seven novels for young readers. |
In addition to being a prolific writer, David is a devoted philanthropist, and his greatest efforts are dedicated to his family’s Wish You Well Foundation®. Established by David and his wife, Michelle, the Wish You Well Foundation supports family and adult literacy programs in the United States. In 2008, the Foundation partnered with Feeding America to launch Feeding Body & Mind, a program to address the connection between literacy, poverty, and hunger. Through Feeding Body & Mind, more than one million new and gently used books have been collected and distributed through food banks to families in need.
David Baldacci's latest book, Long Shadows, was just published in October 2022. 
|
Guest Authors
|
Fred Bowen
|
|
|
Fred Bowen was a Little Leaguer who loved to read and is still a lifelong sports fanatic. He is the author of the action-packed Fred Bowen Sports Story series, currently totaling more than twenty titles. For thirteen years, Bowen coached kids’ baseball and basketball teams. He has also written a weekly sports column for kids in the Washington Post since 2000. He was a lawyer for many years before retiring to become a full-time children’s book author. Bowen lives in Silver Spring, Maryland, with his wife Peggy Jackson. They have two grown children.
|
|
|
Susan Coll
Susan Coll is the author of six novels, including The Stager -- a New York Times and Chicago Tribune Editor's Choice. Her third novel, Acceptance, was made into a television movie starring the hilarious Joan Cusack. Susan's work has appeared in publications including the New York Times Book Review, the Washington Post, Washingtonian magazine, Moment Magazine, NPR.org, Atlantic.com, and The Millions. She works at an independent bookstore in Washington, DC, and is currently the president of the PEN/Faulkner Foundation.
|
|
|
Ellen Crosby
Ellen Crosby is the author of the Virginia wine country mystery series, including her latest, Bitter Roots. Her books have been nominated for the Mary Higgins Clark Award and the Library of Virginia People’s Choice Award. The Riesling Retribution won the 2009 Gourmand World Cookbook Award for Best US Wine Literature Book. Crosby has also written two mysteries featuring international photojournalist Sophie Medina and Moscow Nights, a standalone mystery. Previously she worked as a freelance reporter for The Washington Post, as Moscow correspondent for ABC Radio News, and as an economist at the U.S. Senate. |
|
|
Kathy Ellen Davis
Kathy Ellen (entire first name!) Davis is a Mama, teacher, writer, bookseller, and advocate for indie bookstores. She does social media for an indie bookselling association, and loves sharing about books and bookstores on TikTok. Fun fact: she started the booktok hashtag! Her book, TA-DA!, celebrates the power of storytelling and imagination. She lives in Northern Virginia with her husband and two daughters.
|
|
|
Lulu Delacre
Three-time Pura Belpré Award honoree Lulu Delacre has been writing and illustrating children's books since 1980. The New York Times Bestselling artist was born and raised in Puerto Rico to Argentinean parents. Delacre says her Latino heritage and her life experiences inform her work. Her 42 titles include Arroz con Leche: Popular Songs and Rhymes from Latin America, in print for over 30 years.
Her bilingual picture book ¡Olinguito, de la A a la Z! Descubriendo el bosque nublado; Olinguito, from A to Z! Unveiling the Cloud Forest and her story collection Us, in Progress: Short Stories About Young Latinos have received multiple starred reviews and awards. |
Delacre created the illustrations for Turning Pages by Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor. Her latest book is Luci Soars, about a girl with no shadow. Delacre has lectured internationally and served as a juror for the National Book Awards. She has exhibited at The Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art, The Original Art Show at the Society of Illustrators in New York, the Museum of Art of Puerto Rico, and the Zimmerli Art Museum, among other venues. National Reading is Fundamental honored her with a Champion of Children’s Literacy Award. For more, visit her at www.luludelacre.com, and check out her feature on the RIF of NOVA "Celebrating Local Authors" page here.
|
Sue Fliess
Hi, my name is Sue Fliess (pronounced "fleece"), and I'm the author of dozens of children's books including the Beatrice Bly's Rules for Spies series, Sadie Sprocket Builds a Rocket, Goldilocks and the Three Engineers, the Kid Scientist series, many Little Golden Books and more. My background is in copywriting, PR, and marketing, and my essays have appeared in O the Oprah Magazine, Huffington Post, Writer's Digest, and more. I've also written stories for The Walt Disney Company.
My picture books have been featured on Reading Rainbow Live, received honors from the Society of Children's Books Writers and Illustrators, have been used as curriculum tools in schools and museum educational programs, have been named to many 'Best Books' lists, and have been translated into multiple languages. Two of my books have been chosen for Dolly Parton's Imagination Library! After spending 17 years in Northern California, my family moved to Northern Virginia, where we live with our English Labradors, Charlie and Truman, and way too many mosquitoes. |
|
|
Maan Gabriel
Maan Gabriel is a mom, wife, dreamer, writer, and advocate for women’s stories in literature. She earned her BA in communications from St. Scholastica’s College in Manila and an MPS in public relations and corporate communications from Georgetown University. She has lived in Manila, Brussels, Dakar, and Mexico City. During the day, she works in strategic communications. Maan, along with her husband and son, currently calls suburban Washington DC home. After Perfect is her first novel.
|
|
|
John Gallagher
John Gallagher is the art director of the NWF’s “Ranger Rick” magazine, cofounder of “Kids Love Comics” (an organization that uses graphic novels to promote literacy), and leads workshops teaching kids how to create their own comics. John lives in Virginia with his wife and their three kids. Visit him at MaxMeow.Com, on twitter @johnBGallagher, on Facebook @MaxMeowCatCrusader and on Instagram @johngallagher_cartoonist.
|
|
|
Laura Gehl
Laura Gehl is the award-winning author of numerous picture books, including One Big Pair of Underwear (Charlotte Zolotow Highly Commended Title, International Literacy Association Honor Book, Booklist Books for Youth Editors' Choice); the Peep and Egg series (Parents' Choice
|
Recommendation, Amazon Editors' Pick, Children's Choice Book Award Finalist); and I Got a Chicken for my Birthday (Kirkus Best Picture Books selection). Her book Donut -- a scruffy unicorn who can't fly but who keeps on trying -- was published in April 2022. Laura lives in Chevy Chase, Maryland, with her husband and four children.
|
|
Angie Kim
|
|
Photo: Tim Coburn Photography
Angie Kim is the debut author of the international bestseller and Edgar winner Miracle Creek, named a "Best Book of the Year" by Time, The Washington Post, Kirkus, and The Today Show, among others. Her novel also won the ITW Thriller Award, the Strand Critics' Award, and the Pinckley Prize, and is being translated into 20 languages. A Korean immigrant, former editor of the Harvard Law Review, and one of Variety Magazine's inaugural "10 Storytellers to Watch," Kim has written for Vogue, The New York Times Book Review, The Washington Post, Glamour, and numerous literary journals. She lives in Northern Virginia with her husband and three sons.
|
|
|
Harper Kincaid
Born in California and raised in South Florida, Harper Kincaid has moved around like a nomad with a bounty on her head ever since.
She earned a master’s degree in Gender History and another in Clinical/Macro Social Work. She has published with Samhain Publishing (now defunct), Entangled Publishing, Crooked Lane Press, Throat Punch Media, and Medium. Her latest book is the acclaimed mystery, To Kill a Mocking Girl. When not writing, Harper adores watching documentaries, painting & drawing, listening to lo-fi on vinyl, and reading while it’s raining. |
|
|
Lillie Lainoff
Lillie Lainoff is a writer, a fencer, and now, a writer who writes about fencing. She doesn’t understand why her parents gave a clumsy eight-year-old a saber, but she’s thankful for it every day.
She grew up in Washington D.C. and graduated from Yale University in 2018, where she was managing editor of the Yale Daily News Magazine and a writing partner at the Yale Writing Center, as well as a Division One athlete and NCAA championship competitor. |
Lainoff is the founder of Disabled Kidlit Writers. Her writing has received awards from the Los Angeles Review, Glimmer Train, and the Scholastic Art and Writing Awards, and she has been featured in The Washington Post Outlook and Washington City Paper, among other places. She received her MA in Creative Writing Prose Fiction from the University of East Anglia. One for All, her debut novel, will be published by FSG in 2022.
|
|
John Marshall
(shown with co-author Liza Marshall) 
Off Our Chests is a must-read for all those patients, caregivers, and health care providers who are either forced into or work in the world of cancer. As a medical oncologist specializing in gastrointestinal cancers, John Marshall was outspoken in his resentment and envy of the dominance of breast cancer advocacy and research. But then his wife, Liza, was diagnosed with a high-risk breast cancer, whose survival rate at the time was far from certain.
In Off Our Chests, Liza vividly details her treatment, her feelings of desperation and vulnerability, and the complex decisions she had to make -- from mastectomy, to chemotherapy and radiation, to the elective removal of her other breast. John eloquently takes the reader inside the world of cancer care and research, pulling back the curtain for all to see. His sudden transformation from an oncologist to caregiver forces him to rethink everything he had previously learned and taught as a leader in cancer care. |
At once deeply personal, wry, and insightful, Off Our Chests is a book not just about cancer, but about medicine, healing, and a marriage.
Published in May 2021, Off Our Chests is a recipient of seven national and international awards. |
|
Lizzy Mason
(Photo credit: Meredith Rich)
|
Lizzy Mason is the author of The Art of Losing, Between the Bliss and Me, and Remind Me to Hate You Later (scheduled for release in February 2023). She grew up in Northern Virginia before moving to New York City for college and a career in publishing. Now back in Alexandria, she writes Young Adult fiction, despite distractions from her two beloved cats. When not writing, she loves to travel and has visited 45 states and 13 countries so far. You can find her online at http://www.lizzymasonbooks.com.
Read more about Lizzy Mason on the RIF of NOVA "Celebrating Local Authors" page here. 
|
|
E. Ethelbert Miller
E. Ethelbert Miller is a writer and literary activist. He is the author of two memoirs and several books of poetry including The Collected Poems of E. Ethelbert Miller, a comprehensive collection that represents over 40 years of his work. For 17 years, Miller served as the editor of Poet Lore, the oldest poetry magazine published in the United States. His poetry has been translated into nearly a dozen languages. Miller is a two-time Fulbright Senior Specialist Program Fellow to Israel. He holds an honorary degree of Doctor of Literature from Emory and Henry College and has taught at several universities.
|
Miller is host of the weekly WPFW morning radio show On the Margin with E. Ethelbert Miller and host and producer of The Scholars on UDC-TV. In recent years, Miller has been inducted into the 2015 Washington DC Hall of Fame and awarded the 2016 AWP George Garret Award for Outstanding Community Service in Literature and the 2016 DC Mayor's Arts Award for Distinguished Honor. In 2018, he was inducted into Gamma Xi Phi and appointed as an ambassador for the Authors Guild. He was awarded a 2020 grant by the D.C. Commission on the Arts and Humanities. Miller’s most recent book If God Invented Baseball, published by City Point Press, was awarded the 2019 Literary Award for poetry by the Black Caucus of the American Library Association.
|
|
Marc Polymeropoulos
Marc Polymeropoulos retired from the Senior Intelligence Service ranks in 2019 after serving for 26 years in the Central Intelligence Agency in operational field and leadership assignments.
|
He is an expert in counterterrorism, covert action, and human intelligence collection. Marc is one of the CIA's most highly decorated field officers and has honed a unique leadership style based on decision making under pressure, inclusivity, camaraderie, and competition. His book Clarity in Crisis: Leadership Lessons from the CIA was published in June 2021 by Harper Collins. Marc is an MSNBC contributor, and writes a weekly column on national security for the Washington Examiner. He is also a non-resident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council. |
|
|
Barbara Carroll Roberts
Barbara Carroll Roberts is a children’s author whose debut middle-grade novel, Nikki on the Line, was a finalist for two state children’s book awards and made numerous best-of-the-year lists.
|
Her nonfiction picture book, A Rose Named Peace, illustrated by Bagram Ibatoulline, is a Junior Library Guild Gold Standard selection and received a starred review from School Library Journal.
Barbara has had many careers: farm worker, video producer, freelance writer, mom. All of which she draws on in her work writing for children. She grew up in northern California and holds a BA in English from Occidental College in Los Angeles and an MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults from Hamline University in St. Paul, Minnesota. |
She has two grown children and now lives in Virginia with her husband, two cats, and one very goofy springer spaniel.
|
|
Ann Marie Stephens
Ann Marie Stephens is the author of numerous picture books including Cy Makes a Friend, the Arithmechicks series, the CATastrophe! series, and forthcoming titles in both. Arithmechicks Explore More and Arithmechicks Find Their Place are due in May 2023.
|
Stephens is an award-winning elementary teacher and mentor with over 30 years of classroom experience. She has received several grants for her inventive literacy projects and has taught dozens of original writing and education-based workshops. She was a contributing writer for Kwame Alexander’s The Write Thing, and a co-writer for Scholastic’s Trait Crate Plus. Represented by Emily Mitchell at Wernick & Pratt Agency, Ann Marie is a seasoned presenter for both children and adults. When she isn’t writing or teaching, she’s off scuba diving somewhere tropical. You can find her on Twitter and Instagram @AMStephens_ and on Facebook, Ann Marie Stephens (AMStephensAuthor).
Read more about Ann Marie Stephens on the RIF of NOVA "Celebrating Local Authors" page here. 
Credit -- Publisher: Astra Young Readers, Author: Ann Marie Stephens; Illustrator: Jia Liu
|
|
Shadra Strickland
Shadra Strickland grew up in Atlanta, Georgia, with her mom and grandmother and spent almost every day after school playing out in the sunshine! When she wasn't playing, she was drawing and writing stories. After Shadra grew up, she moved to New York to become an artist. Now, she teaches other people how to draw and tell stories at the Maryland Institute College of Art. When she's not teaching, she enjoys playing with her dog, Lucky -- who looks a lot like the dog in her book Jump In. She also travels around the world meeting new friends and inspiring them to share their own stories. Though Shadra has illustrated many stories for other people, this is the first time she has written and illustrated her own book.
|
|
|
Tim Wendel
Tim Wendel is the author of fourteen books, including Summer of '68, Castro's Curveball, and Cancer Crossings. His novel, Escape from Castro's Cuba, was a 2022 Next Generation Indie Book Award Finalist. His stories and/or columns have appeared in the New York Times, Washington Post, National Geographic, Psychology Today, GQ, and Esquire.
"Tim Wendel has always chosen a distinct path of intimate stories within big topics, those subjects revealed by his superb way at getting at the particular." -- Ken Burns |
|
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************
