Authors’/Presenters’ Biographical Information

Karen Jordan Allen’s fiction has appeared in publications for both adults and children, including Asimov's Science Fiction, The First Heroes: New Tales of the Bronze Age, Bruce Coville's Strange Worlds, and A Nightmare's Dozen. Karen lives in Harpswell with her husband and daughter.

Diane Amos, award winning author, is the author of five novels, including Getting Personal, A Long Walk Home, and the upcoming Outlaw Hearts. Amos, an established artist, lives north of Portland with her husband Dave.

Leonard Baskin (1922-2000), sculptor, graphic artist, printer, writer and teacher, founded The Gehenna Press in 1942. Committed to the felicitous marriage of significant texts, original graphic art, distinctive typography, and both traditional and innovative modes of production, Gehenna produced well over one hundred books, including collaborations with Ted Hughes, James Baldwin, and Fritz Scholder.

Peter Behrens' first novel, The Law of Dreams, won the Governor General's Award and was short-listed for the Commonwealth Writers Prize and the Rogers Writers' Trust Prize. He is also the author of the collection of stories Night Driving.

Kristen Britain is the author of bestselling fantasy novels, Green Rider, First Rider's Call, and the forthcoming The High Kings Tomb. With a degree in film production and writing from Ithaca College, Kristen served for several years as a national park ranger. Currently she lives on an island in Maine with a cat, a dog, and her kayak, where she continues to work on the next book in the Green Rider series.

Jane Brox is the author of Clearing Land: Legacies of the American Farm, Five Thousand Days like This One, which was a 1999 finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award in nonfiction, and Here and Nowhere Else, which won the 1996 L.L. Winship/PEN New England Award. Her essays have appeared in numerous journals and magazines, and have been selected for inclusion in many anthologies, including Best American Essays, The Norton Book of Nature Writing, and the Pushcart Prize Anthology. She teaches nonfiction writing in the MFA program at Lesley College in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and lives in Maine.

Dorothy Cannell became an aspiring writer after taking English 101 at Illinois Central College and being encouraged to write for a publication by her class teacher. She is the author of numerous books, including Family Jewels, winner of the Agatha in 1994.

Lisa Carey is the author of four novels: The Mermaids Singing, In the Country of the Young, Love in the Asylum, and Every Visible Thing. She has been a fellow at the MacDowell Colony and the Tryone Guthrie Centre in Ireland.

Jay Davis had been a leader in the poetry scene in Portland and New England for many years. He has two chap books , Whispers and Cries and Tantrums and the Hard Way, and has been published in several journals. Davis works as a computer analyst when he is not MC-ing readings or reading his own poetry.

Noreen Doyle holds master's degrees in nautical archeology and Egyptology and frequently finds inspiration for her fiction in the minutiae of her academic fields. In addition to working on several works of fiction and nonfiction, she is currently editing That Mysterious Door, an anthology of Maine-themed fantasy and science fiction for Down East Books, to be published in 2008. She lives in Gardiner.

Jil Eaton has been a leader in the knitting design field for over 15 years. Award winning and internationally acclaimed, she produces two collections of separates each year under the renowned MinnowKnitsTM label, and has just published her eighth book. Eaton has a feature column in Vogue Knitting’s KnitSimple, and designs for Vogue Knitting and other knitting publications. Her new line of LamberinoTM yarns in her signature colors will be debuting in June 2007.

When Donn Fendler was 12, he spent nine days lost on Mt. Katahdin. His journey was recorded in Lost on a Mountain in Maine. Now 78 years old, Donn Fendler spends his time visiting schools and camps in Maine, telling his story to young children and calling attention to outdoor safety.

Kate Clarke Flora is the author of the Edgar-nominated, Finding Amy: A True Story of Murder in Maine, and of the new Portland-based police procedural series, Playing God.

Richard Ford is a Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist and short story writer. His novels include The Sportswriter, and its sequels, Independence Day and TheLay of the Land. Among the numerous awards and honors Ford has received are a Guggenheim Fellowship, two grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, an American Academy of Arts and Letters Award for Literature, a PEN/Faulkner citation for fiction award for The Sportswriter in 1987 and the 1994 Rea Award.

Carolyn Gage is the author of more than fifty plays including “The Second Coming of Joan of Arc” and five books. She tours internationally, performing, lecturing, and offering workshops on lesbian theatre.

Tess Gerritsen is a physician as well as the internationally bestselling author of thriller novels including Harvest, The Surgeon, The Apprentice, The Sinner, Body Double, Vanish, The Mephisto Club, and The Bone Garden.

Leon Gorman is the Chairman and former longtime President of L.L.Bean, Inc., and grandson of the company's founder Leon L. Bean.

Sarah Graves writes the Home Repair is Homicide mystery series, set in Eastport, Maine, and starring amateur sleuth/old-house fixer-upper Jake Tiptree. The 11th in the series, Killer Driller, will appear in December, 2007. Sarah lives in Eastport.

Lincolnville author, Elizabeth Hand's nine multiple-award-winning novels include the acclaimed psychological thriller, Generation Loss, as well as three story collections, including 2006 Book Sense pick Saffron and Brimstone. Since 1988, she has been a regular contributor to the Washington Post’s Book World, among other publications.

Robin Hansen's roles as writer, knitter, and folklorist unite in her knitting books, including Favorite Mittens and Sunny's Mittens, which combine oral tradition and knitting directions. Her work has appeared in Redbook, Cobblestone, Highlights for Children, and other magazines.

James Hetley is an architect and retired Kempo karate instructor who lives in Maine. He also served three years in the U.S. Army during the Vietnam War, and has worked such diverse jobs as electronics instructor and trash collector. He is the author of several contemporary fantasy novels set in a fictional Maine including The Summer Country, The Winter Oak, Dragon's Eye, and Dragon's Teeth.

Phillip Hoose is the author of The Race to Save the Lord God Bird (2005 Boston Globe/Hornbook Award winner), We Were There, Too! (National Book Award finalist), and It's Our World Too (Christopher Award winner).

Colonel David Hunt, U.S. Army (Ret.), has extensive operational experience in counterterrorism, special operations, and intelligence operations. He is a designated terrorism expert in federal court, having testified at many major terrorist trials, and has lectured at the CIA, the FBI, the National Security Agency, and Harvard University. A military analyst for the Fox News Channel, he frequently provides commentary on radio programs hosted by Bill O’Reilly, Sean Hannity, Alan Colmes, Michael Savage, Monica Crowley, and others. Colonel Hunt, a senior research fellow at Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government, lives in Maine with his family.

Philip Isaacson is a frequent art reviewer for the Portland Press Herald and the Maine Sunday Telegram as well as a long time friend and admirer of The Gehenna Press.

Jennifer Richard Jacobson's novel Stained is a Publishers Weekly Best Children's Book, a New York Public Library Book for the Teen Age, and ALA Best Book for Young Adults, and the recipient of the Maine Lupine Award.

Linnea Johnson grew up in Chicago and is the author of poetry and fiction, as well as a published photographer. She currently resides in Maine and teaches higher education as well as privately mentoring other writers.

Maxine Kumin's newest poetry collection, Still to Mow, is forthcoming from W.W. Norton in September 2007. She is the author of many books of poetry, a memoir, and a new children's book called Mites to Mastodons. Her awards include the Pulitzer and Ruth Lilly Poetry Prizes, and the Harvard Arts and Robert Frost Medals. She and her husband live on a farm in Warner, New Hampshire.

Nancy Lagomarsino is the author of three books of prose: Light from an Eclipse, The Secretary Parables, and Sleep Handbook. Light from an Eclipse is a memoir covering the years of her dad's Alzheimer disease. She has lived in Hanover, New Hampshire, since 1974.

Philip Lasker started his screenwriting career with an unsolicited script for Barney Miller. Soon after, he wrote for Bob Hope and co-produced “The Golden Girls.” He has written for Putnam, Disney, Univerisal and Dreamworks. His latest film, The Man from Elysian Fields, starred Andy Garcia, Mick Jagger, Anjelica Huston, and James Coburn. Now living in Maine, Lasker devotes his time to writing films, books, and plays.

Michael Macklin has an MFA from Vermont College, works as a carpenter, and is also reviews editor of the international library journal based in Portland, The Café Review. He also serves on the Maine Writers and Publishers Board. He has a chapbook, Driftland, and his poetry has been published in many journals.

Dorie McCullough Lawson, the daughter of renowned historian David McCullough, is the author of Posterity: Letters of Great Americans to Their Children. She lives in Rockport, Maine, with her husband the artist T. Allen Lawson and their four children. Along Comes a Stranger was her first novel.

Michelle Libby has written three "sassy romantic adventures", two novels, and a novella. Her latest release is Kidnapped. Michelle is the immediate past president of the Maine Chapter of Romance Writers of America.

Kelly McClymer is the author of seven historical romances in the Once upon a Wedding series for Zebra Books and two young adult novels for Simon Pulse. Her current adult release is The Salem Witch Tryouts.

David McCullough has been widely acclaimed as a “master of the art of narrative history,” “a matchless writer.” He is twice the winner of the National Book Award and twice the winner of the Pulitzer Prize. His books have been praised for their scholarship, understanding of American life, “vibrant prose,” and insight into individual character. His most recent book, 1776, is a number one bestseller in both hardcover and paperback and has been called, “brilliant…powerful,” “a classic.” His previous work, John Adams, has sold more than two million copies to date. McCullough’s other books include The Johnstown Flood, The Great Bridge, The Path between the Seas, Mornings on Horseback, Brave Companions, and Truman.

Wesley McNair is the author of several volumes of poetry, including Talking in the Dark, Fire, and his most recent volume, The Ghosts of You and Me. He is the recipient of numerous fellowships including ones from the Rockefeller, Fulbright, and Guggenheim Foundations, and the recipient of many awards including the Robert Frost Award, the Theodore Roethke Prize, the Eunice Tietjens Prize from Poetry Magazine, an Emmy Award, and two honorary degrees for literary distinction. He has twice served on the nominating jury for the Pulitzer Prize for poetry.

Wiley Miller is the nationally syndicated cartoonist of "Non Sequitur."

David Moreau has three chapbooks: Sex, Death and Baseball, Children are Ugly Little Monsters, and You Can Still Go to Hell and Other Truths about being a Helping Professional. He has had poems published in numerous journals, been nominated for the Pushcart Prize, and has had one of his poems read on “The Writer's Almanac” on NPR. He now works with developmentally disabled adults in Lewiston.

Author of the play “Longfellow: A Life in Words,” Daniel Noel is an affiliate artist at Portland Stage Company, and co-creator of the Longfellow's Shorts author series. As an actor, he appeared in “The Human Comedy” on Broadway and for Joe Papp at the New York Shakespeare Festival. His 33 years in theater include work with the Brooklyn Academy of Music, PS 122, Lincoln Center, Portland Stage Company, and the Seattle Repertory Theater.

Corey Pandolph is the cartoonist and creator of " Barkeater Lake" for United Media and a contributor to Mad Magazine.

Christine Parrish is a freelance journalist and writer who lives in Maine. She received the 2007 Maine Individual Artist Fellowship for nonfiction from the Maine Arts Commission for her writing about China. In March and April 2007 she traveled to the Middle East where she reported and wrote on the Iraqi refugee crisis in Jordan, the increasing tensions in Turkey, and human rights abuses in Kuwait.

Lincoln Peirce is the nationally syndicated cartoonist of "Big Nate."

Patrick Quinlan was the youngest child in a big, noisy New York Irish-American family. At an early age he became an accomplished and incorrigible liar, eventually finding work that made good use of this talent – journalist, political operative, copywriter, and novelist. He is the author of two novels, Smoked and The Takedown. He is also the co-author, with film star Robert Hauer, of Hauer’s memoir, All Those Moments. Quinlan lives on the coast of Maine with his wife, Joy Scott.

Lewis Robinson is the author of Officer Friendly and Other Stories, winner of the PEN/Oakland- Josephine Miles Award. A graduate of Middlebury College and the Iowa Writers' Workshop, Lewis has received a Schaeffer Fellowship and a Whiting Writers' Award.

Neil Rolde is the author of twelve books. His two latest are Down East and Different, and Continental Liar from the State of Maine. He has been involved in Maine politics and government, as an assistant to a Governor (Kenneth Curtis), a legislator (sixteen years in the Maine House), and a member of various Commissions and Task Forces. In “retirement” now, he serves on the boards of many non-profit organizations. He lives in York with his wife Carla.

Colin Sargent is the founding editor and publisher of award-winning Portland Magazine. His books include LuftwaffeSnowshoes, Blush, and Undertow. His play, One Hundred Percent American Girl, is a winner of the 2002 Acorn School's Maine Playwrights Contest with productions at the Portland Performing Arts Center, and the Maine Festival. A graduate of the Stonecoast MFA program, Sargent is the recipient of the 2003 Individual Artist Fellowship in Literature grant, in Poetry. He is the 2005 winner of 2nd Place at the Third Annual Maine Screenwriting Competition for his full length feature screenplay Montebello Ice at the Maine International Film Festival.

Abraham Schechter is the Special Collections Librarian at the Portland Public Library. For the past 8 years, he has traveled throughout the state, teaching book and archival conservation and doing professional archival consulting for libraries, museums, and historical societies. Schechter has a masters degree in both archives administration and library science from Simmons College.

Charles Shields is the author of Mockingbird: A Portrait of Lee Harper. A former English teacher who taught Harper Lee’s novel for a number of years, he later became a writer of nonfiction books for young people. Shields has a B.A. in English and an M.A. in American history from the University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana, where he was a James Scholar. He lives in central Virginia with his wife, Guadalupe, a bilingual editor.

As of March 1, 2006, Betsy Sholl was chosen to be the Poet Laureate of Maine. Sholl has published six collections of poetry, most recently Late Psalm ( University of Wisconsin Press, 2004). She has also written three chapbooks. Sholl teaches at the University of Southern Maine and in the MFA Program of Vermont College.

Julia Spencer-Fleming, author of All Mortal Flesh, is the Agatha and Anthony-award winning author of the bestselling Clare Fergusson/Russ Van Alstyne mysteries. She lives in the Maine countryside with three kids, two dogs, and her husband.

Aaron T Stephan’s first novel, Dig, tells the story of two adventurous boys who dig a hole from Biddeford, Maine to Beijing, China. A Portland resident, Stephen received an MFA from the Maine College of Art. He was the recipient of the 2002 Marguerite Zorach fellowship at the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture and was the 2005 Louise Bourgeois fellow at YADDO in Saratoga Springs, New York. His work was featured in the 2003 Portland Museum of Art Biennial and the 2006 Biennial at the Center for Maine Contemporary Art. Stephan’s work will also be featured in two solo shows this coming summer at Whitney Art Works, and the Center for Maine Contemporary Art.  

Lee Ann and Thomas Mark Szelog lived at the Marshall Point Lighthouse in Port Clyde, Maine, where they documented their experience in photos and journals for their new book, Our Point of View: Fourteen Years at a Maine Lighthouse.

Maria Testa is the author of eight books for children, including Some Kind of Pride, Becoming Joe Dimaggio, Almost Forever, and Something about America. Testa's books have been honored with the Maine Lupine Award, Maine Literary Award, and many national children's literature awards.

Susan Vaughan has written five romantic suspense novels for Silhouette Books. Her books have received the Golden Leaf and Laurie awards and made it to the finals of the Bookseller's Best Contest. Deadly Memories was a 2006 Romantic Times Magazine Reviewer's Choice Award nominee.

Monica Wood is the author of the novels Any Bitter Thing, Ernie's Ark, My Only Story, and Secret Language, as well as several books for writers. Any Bitter Thing was an American Booksellers Association bestseller.