Matthew Amster-Burton

Matthew Amster-Burton 
Hungry Monkey: A Food-Loving Father's Quest to Raise an Adventurous Eater
Matthew writes for Culinate.com, Seattle Magazine and The Seattle Times, and his work is regularly featured in Best Food Writing Anthology. A former contributing writer for Gourmet, his book, Hungry Monkey, chronicles the wild joys of food and parenting and the mixture of the two, with recipes.

www.rootsandgrubs.com

Greg Atkinson 
West Coast Cooking
Greg is a chef instructor at Seattle Culinary Academy and author of five books including the acclaimed Northwest Essentials and Entertaining in the Northwest Style. He is a contributing editor to Food Arts, a columnist for Pacific Northwest Magazine. Greg hosts the annual KCTS Chefs and can be heard regularly on KUOW, 94.9 FM.

www.westcoastcooking.com

Ann Bauer
Damn Good Food
Ann is a novelist, journalist, essayist and food critic. She wrote A Wild Ride Up the Cupboards, named one of the best books of 2005 by The Washington Post, and is the co-author of the culinary memoir, Damn Good Food. She is a regular contributor to Salon.com, where her essay, “The Monster Inside My Son,” received a Narrative Nonfiction prize from the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard.

www.annbauer.com

Mary Jane Beaufrand 
The River
Mary Jane’s acclaimed first novel for young adults, Primavera, is followed by The River, a darkly atmospheric story of murder, isolation, obsession and dark secrets. Mary Jane lives with her husband, two children and a stubborn basset hound. She has an MFA in Creative Writing from Bennington College.

Bonny Becker 
A Birthday for Bear
Bonny is the author of 12 works for children, including picture books and novels. A Visitor for Bear was a New York Times bestseller, Amazon’s 2008 Picture Book of the Year and winner of the E.B. White Read Aloud Award. She is a frequent speaker at conferences and events and an instructor for the Whidbey Writers MFA in Writing program.

www.bonnybecker.com

Terry Brooks
A Princess of Landover
In 1977, Terry published his first novel, The Sword of Shannara,  which became the first work of fiction ever to appear on The New York Times Trade Paperback Bestseller List. He has written 26 bestselling novels, movie adaptations of Hook and Star Wars: The Phantom Menace and a memoir on his writing life, Sometimes the Magic Works.  He has sold more than 30 million copies of his books domestically and worldwide. His Magic Kingdom of Landover series is under option at Universal Studios and his Shannara series is at Warner Brothers.  

www.terrybrooks.net

Royce Buckingham 
The Demonkeeper
Royce has an English degree from Whitman College and a Law degree from the University of Oregon. He was a prosecuting attorney before selling Demonkeeper as a book and as a screenplay almost simultaneously. Since Demonkeeper debuted in 2007, Royce has made reading lists, garnered good reviews, hit the bestseller list in Germany and inked deals for three more books. His latest is Goblins, which reviewers call “a riotously good adventure.”

www.demonkeeper.com

Chelsea Cain 
Evil at Heart
Chelsea is the author of The New York Times Bestselling thrillers Evil at Heart, Sweetheart and Heartsick. Her books have been published in more than 20 languages, recommended on “The Today Show,” appeared in episodes of HBO’s “True Blood” and ABC’s “Castle,” and named among Stephen King’s top ten of the year. She is a former columnist for The Oregonian, humor writer, creative director, and movie theater popcorn girl. 

Deb Caletti 
The Secret Life of Prince Charming
Deb is the author of numerous books including The Queen of Everything, The Nature of Jade and Honey, Baby, Sweetheart. In addition to being a National Book Award finalist, her books have received the PNBA Best Book Award, the Washington State Book Award, School Library Journal’s Best Book Award, and finalist citations for the California Young Reader Medal and the PEN USA Literary Award.  Her new book, The Six Rules of Maybe, will be released in April.

www.debcaletti.com

Stella Cameron
Tails of Love
Stella is The New York Times, USA Today, and Washington Post bestselling, prize-winning author of more than 70 novels and novellas.  She is the recipient of the Pacific Northwest Award for Literary Achievement, Romantic Times Career Achievement Award and RITA finalist. English by birth and a longtime Northwest resident, this year she launches a series of paranormal, romantic thrillers beginning with Out of Body.

www.stellacameron.com

Randy Sue Coburn
A Better View of Paradise
A Phi Beta Kappa graduate of the University of Georgia, Randy Sue began her career as a journalist whose essays and articles appeared in numerous national magazines and major newspapers. Her screenplays include Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle, the 1994 film about Dorothy Parker that won Jennifer Jason Leigh the National Society of Film Critics Award for best actress. Film work and teaching at The University of Washington accompanied the writing of Remembering Jody, and her second novel, Owl Island.

www.randysuecoburn.com

Robin Cruise
Bartleby Speaks!
Robin is the author of several highly honored picture books and two popular middle grade novels. She has served as managing editor and deputy publisher for the children’s books division of Harcourt Trade Publishers. In addition to her professional and personal experience in creating trade books for young readers, her credits as a writer and editor include newspaper journalism, regional and national magazines, elementary textbooks and readers and academic publishing. She is currently the publisher for the juvenile book group of Bellevue-based book producer becker&mayer!
www.robincruise.com 

Jennifer Culkin 
A Final Arc of Sky
In her 30-year career as a critical care and emergency flight nurse, Jennifer has cared for people across the life span, from the smallest premature infants to adults entering their second century. Educated at Russell Sage College (BSN) and the Rainier Writing Workshop at Pacific Lutheran University (MFA), her essays have appeared in many literary magazines, including Utne Reader, The Georgia Review and The Atlantic.  A recipient of the Rona Jaffe Foundation Writers’ Award, she is the nonfiction editor for the literary journal Crab Creek Review. A Final Arc of Sky is her first book.

www.jenniferculkin.com

Mary Daheim 
Loco Motive
Mary has been fascinated by story-telling since early childhood and began writing her own fiction when she was ten. A journalism major at the University of Washington, she was the first female editor of The Daily. Following publication of a half dozen historical romance titles, she switched genres to her original fictional love, mysteries. The Bed and Breakfast series features 24 titles and the Alpine series 20.  She has also written several short stories for mystery anthologies and magazines. She has been an Agatha Award nominee, winner of the 2000 Pacific Northwest Writers Association Achievement Award, and her mysteries regularly make the USA Today bestseller list and The New York Times top thirty.

www.authormarydaheim.com

William Dietrich 
The Dakota Cipher
Bill is the author of a dozen books, fiction and non-fiction, including the recent bestselling Napoleonic historical thriller series featuring Ethan Gage (The Rosetta Key, Napoleon’s Pyramids).  His novels have sold in 28 languages. While at The Seattle Times, he shared a Pulitzer Prize for coverage of the Exxon Valdez oil spill, and is a recipient of the Washington Governor's Book Award and Pacific Northwest Booksellers Award. He worked as a newspaper journalist for 36 years and is presently a half-time professor of journalism and writing at Western Washington University.

www.williamdietrich.com

Robert Dugoni 
Wrongful Death
Bob majored in communications/journalism and creative writing at Stanford University, where he also wrote for The Stanford Daily.  He then worked as a reporter for The Los Angeles Times before attending law school at UCLA.  He practiced law full-time in San Francisco and is currently of counsel for a local law firm. He satisfied his artistic thirst studying acting at the American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco, appearing in equity and non-equity shows before returning to writing. The award-winning non-fiction Cyanide Canary preceded his debut novel, The Jury Master, a New York Times bestseller, and Damage Control. His novels have received the Pacific Northwest Writers Association Awards.

www.robertdugoni.com

Valerie Easton 
The New Low-Maintenance Garden
Valerie Easton is a weekly garden columnist for Pacific Northwest Magazine of The Seattle Times. She has contributed articles on gardens, homes, and the people who make them to a variety of magazines, including Metropolitan Home, Fine Gardening, and Gardens Illustrated. A master gardener, she  was for 18 years the horticultural librarian at the University of Washington. She gardens, teaches yoga, and blogs in the village of Langley, on Whidbey Island.  Her own garden has been featured in The New York Times, This Old House and Horticulture. Her books include Artists in Their Gardens, Plant Life: Growing A Garden in the Pacific Northwest and A Pattern Garden: The Essential Elements of Garden Making.

www.valerieeaston.com

Timothy Egan 
The Big Burn: Teddy Roosevelt and the Fire That Saved America
Timothy is a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter and the author of five books.  Most recently his retelling of the Depression-era Dust Bowl, The Worst Hard Time, won a National Book Award for nonfiction and was named a New York Times Editors' Choice, a New York Times Notable Book, a Washington State Book Award winner, and a Book Sense Book of the Year Honor Book. He writes a weekly column, "Outposts," for The New York Times.

G.M. Ford
Identity
G.M. Ford is the author of the widely praised Frank Corso novels, Fury, Black River, A Blind Eye, Red Tide, No Man's Land, and Blown Away; six highly acclaimed mysteries featuring Seattle private investigator Leo Waterman; and the stand-alone thriller Nameless Night. A former creative writing teacher in western Washington, Ford lives in Oregon and is currently working on his next novel.

Stephanie Kallos 
Sing Them Home
Before coming out of the closet as a writer, Stephanie had a varied work history including many years as a musician and a long career in the theatre as an actress and teacher of voice, speech and dialects. Her short fiction has received a Raymond Carver Award and a Pushcart Prize nomination. Her first novel, Broken for You, was chosen by Sue Monk Kidd as a "Today Show" book club selection and received the Washington State and Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association awards. Her second novel, Sing Them Home, was a Pacific Northwest Independent Booksellers bestseller. She is currently working on her third novel.

Kirby Larson
Nubs: the True Story of a Mutt, a Marine, and a Miracle
Thanks to a snippet of a story about her great-grandmother homesteading in Montana, Kirby wrote Hattie Big Sky, a young adult historical novel, which received a Newbery Honor Award and Montana Book Award, and garnered more than a dozen state reading/Children’s Choice awards. With friend Mary Nethery, she authored two nonfiction titles. Two Bobbies: A True Tale of Hurricane Katrina, Friendship and Survival won the ASPCA Henry Bergh Award and was nominated for 10 state reading awards. Nubs: The True Story of a Mutt, a Marine and a Miracle spent two months on the New York Times bestseller list.

www.kirbylarson.com

Mike Lawson 
House Secrets
Mike Lawson has published four political thrillers involving his protagonist Joe DeMarco: The Inside Ring, The Second Perimeter, House Rules, and House Secrets.  The Inside Ring was a Barry Award nominee and a Seattle Times Top Ten Thriller.  House Rules was a Nancy Pearl Pick and an Indie Pick. House Secrets received starred reviews in Publisher's Weekly and Booklist, and was selected by Library Journal as one of the top thrillers of 2009.  Mike’s fifth DeMarco book will be published in July 2010.  Prior to turning to writing full-time, Mike was a nuclear engineer and former senior civilian executive working for the United States Navy.

www.mikelawsonbooks.com

Jim Lynch 
Border Songs
Dazzled by the works of Tom Robbins and Ken Kesey, Jim wanted to be a stunt man or a writer. His first real writing was as a reporter in an Alaskan fishing village, though he wrote fiction daily. He has received the Livingston Award for Young Journalists, among other national honors. After returning to Washington and frequently kayaking, sailing and beachcombing, the premise and characters for The Highest Tide emerged, and the book later garnered the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Award, appeared on numerous bestseller lists and was adapted for the stage. His new book, set on the US-Canadian border, is filled with rich characters and a riveting portrait of a distinctive community.

www.thehighesttide.com

Ric Merrifield
Rethink: A Business Manifesto for Cutting Costs and Boosting Innovation
Ric spent 15 years in various consulting roles helping organizations define and achieve their goals. Since joining Microsoft, he has logged more than 10,000 hours as Microsoft’s business scientist and has filed 12 patent applications, with the goal of helping companies rethink their operating models. He  recently coauthored “The Next Revolution in Productivity,” a Harvard Business Review article that focuses on case studies and the opportunity to rethink business operating models before making major technology changes.

www.rethinkbook.com

Skye Moody 
Seattle Noir
Skye writes fiction and nonfiction and has published more than 80 essays, short stories, one-act plays and poems. Before turning full-time to writing fiction, she worked for 25 years as an international journalist and photojournalist, winning critical acclaim for her two books of nonfiction, Hillbilly Women and Fruits of Our Labor: Soviet & American Workers Talk About Making a Living. The novels in her endangered species mystery series include, Rain Dance, Blue Poppy, Wildcrafters, Habitat, K Falls, Medusa and The Good Diamond. Recently she wrote Washed Up: The Curious Journeys of Flotsam and Jetsam and edited Southern Lights, PEN’s New Orleans-based international literary anthologies.

www.skyemoody.com

Amanda Noll
I Need My Monster
Born in Australia, Amanda moved to the United States as a teen. She attributes her twisted sense of humor to being raised on a steady stream of Australian humor and science fiction. She left the business world to attend to the business of raising children and to concentrate on her writing. Her debut picture book received a Storytelling World Award Honor title for stories for young listeners. Reviews say the book oozes excellence, is superbly silly and irresistible with creepy-cute artwork and is a great read-aloud for children who enjoy a bit of shiver as they are tucked in to bed.

www.amandanoll.com/

Kevin O’Brien
Final Breath
A journalist turned railroad inspector turned novelist, Kevin writes taut thrilling novels. His first book, Actors, was soon followed by Only Son, a powerful novel of heartbreak and hope that was optioned by MGM for film rights. His third book, The Next to Die, was acclaimed for its psychological suspense. The Last Victim won The Spotted Owl Award for Best Pacific Northwest Mystery. More bestsellers followed and his eleventh book is Final Breath, set in Seattle. His next heart-pounding thriller, Vicious, will be available in the spring of 2010. Kevin loves Hitchcock movies and is at work on his twelfth novel.

www.kevinobrienbooks.com

Jane Porter
Easy on the Eyes
Bitten by the travel bug, Jane spent high school and college years studying in South Africa, Japan and Ireland. She worked in sales and marketing and directed a non-profit foundation before returning to school for a Masters in Writing, later teaching junior high and high school English. Her more than 30 award-winning books take readers to faraway places and times. Flirting with Forty aired as a Lifetime movie starring Heather Locklear, and Mrs. Perfect and Odd Mom Out were also optioned for film.

www.janeporter.com

Suzanne Selfors 
Coffeehouse Angel
Suzanne Selfors writes for children and teens. Her middle grade novels, To Catch a Mermaid and Fortune’s Magic Farm, each received a Junior Library Guild Selection. Mermaid is a Scholastic Book Club Pick. Saving Juliet received a starred review from Publishers Weekly and film rights were sold to Disney. Her second teen novel, Coffeehouse Angel, was on the Fall 2009 Kid’s Indie Next List and was a Scholastic Book Club Pick. Her first book in a middle grade series, Smells Like Dog, will be published soon. Suzanne has a BA in film from Occidental College and an MA in communications from the University of Washington.

www.suzanneselfors.com

David Shields 
Reality Hunger: A Manifesto                           
Fresh from his acclaimed exploration of mortality in the genre-defying, bestselling book, The Thing About Life Is That One Day You’ll Be Dead, David has issued an open call for a new approach to literature and art in his new book, Reality Hunger. His books include: Black Planet: Facing Race During an NBA Season, finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award; Remote: Reflections on Life in the Shadow of Celebrity, winner of the PEN/Revson Award; and Dead Languages: A Novel, winner of the PEN Syndicated Fiction Award. His essays, stories and reviews have appeared in The New York Times Magazine, Harper's, Yale Review, Village Voice, Salon, Slate and New York Times Book Review. Recipient of numerous fellowships and awards, he is currently a professor in the English department at the University of Washington and is on the faculty of Warren Wilson College's MFA Program for Writers.

www.davidshields.com

Robert Spector
The Mom & Pop Store:  How the Unsung Heroes of the American Economy are Surviving and Thriving
Robert offers inspirational keynote presentations and customized customer service workshops for audiences throughout the world. His books include the national bestseller, The Nordstrom Way: The Inside Story of America’s #1 Customer Service Company; Amazon.Com: Get Big Fast; Anytime, Anywhere and Category Killers. He has been a guest on numerous television and radio interview shows and has written on business issues for major publications. His humor writing has appeared in The New York Times, Sports Illustrated and National Lampoon.  The Mom and Pop Store has been nominated for the 2010 Washington State Book Awards.
www.robertspector.com

Indu Sundaresan 
Shadow Princess
Indu’s first two novels, The Twentieth Wife (Washington State Book Award) and The Feast of Roses, are based on the life of an Empress from the dynasty that built the Taj Mahal in India. The Splendor of Silence is set in India during four days in May of 1942. In the Convent of Little Flowers is a collection of short stories set in contemporary India. Her new book, Shadow Princess, returns to 17th century India as two royal princesses struggle for power.

www.indusundaresan.com

Samantha Vamos
Before You Were Here, Mi Amor
Samantha grew up on the East Coast, where she attended Georgetown University Law Center and practiced law in Washington, D.C. and Chicago.  A fan of children’s stories for decades, she’s penned several, and her debut book, Before You Were Here, Mi Amor (2009),  was soon followed by The Cazuela That the Farm Maiden Stirred (2010).  She is currently finishing a novel.

www.samanthavamos.com

Wendy Wahman
Don't Lick the Dog…Making Friends with Dogs
A former artist for The Seattle Post-Intelligencer and national publications, Wendy has turned her talents to writing and illustrating picture books. Her new book is a humorous how-to-manual showing kids the best ways to interact with unfamiliar dogs and the book includes helpful tips on dog behavior. Her next book is A Cat Like That (2011), which will be followed by a counting book. She has received awards from the Society of Illustrators, American Illustration Annual, Best of the West, and Society of Publication Designers.

www.wendywahman.com/

Susan Wiggs 
The Summer Hideaway
Susan lives at the water's edge on Bainbridge Island, and family, friend, and fiction fill her life.  Featured in national media, she is a popular speaker locally and nationally, including the literary institution Field’s End and the legendary Maui Writers Conference. Her novel, The Charm School, was voted one of Romance Writers of America’s Favorite Books of the Year. She is the proud recipient of three RITA awards for Lakeside Cottage, Lord of the Night and The Mistress and her books oftenappear on “best of” lists.  Recent titles include Just Breathe and Fireside.

www.susanwiggs.com

Julie Whitesel Weston 
The Good Times Are All Gone Now: Life, Death, and Rebirth in an Idaho Mining Town
Julie practiced law for many years in Seattle and her award-winning short stories and essays have been published in IDAHO Magazine, The Threepenny Review, River Styx, Clackamas Literary Review, Rocky Mountain Game & Fish and other journals. Her book is a memoir of place, telling the stories of miners and of Kellogg, Idaho in mid-20th century America. She and her husband divide their year between Seattle and Hailey, Idaho. 

www.juliewweston.com

Dr. Audrey Young

Dr. Audrey Young 
The House of Hope and Fear: Life in a Big City Hospital
Audrey is a board-certified general internist who practices at Evergreen Hospital. She was named one of Washington’s best doctors by Travel and Life Magazine and dubbed “a fine storyteller” by People Magazine.  She is author of What Patients Taught Me. The House of Hope and Fear is the story of Seattle’s surviving public hospital, delivering a medical drama unlike any other. Audrey blogs about health care at Bonus Tracks, and about her vegetable garden and kitchen adventures at Eat Local Northwest.

www.audreyyoungmd.com