Festival Authors
Headliner
Kate Quinn is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of historical fiction. A native of southern California, she attended Boston University where she earned a Bachelor’s and Master’s degree in Classical Voice. She has written four novels in the Empress of Rome Saga, and two books in the Italian Renaissance, before turning to the 20th century with The Alice Network, The Huntress, The Rose Code, The Diamond Eye, and The Briar Club. She is also a co-author in several collaborative novels including The Phoenix Crown with Janie Chang and Ribbons of Scarlet with Stephanie Dray, Laura Kamoie, Eliza Knight, Sophie Perinot, and Heather Webb. The Astral Library, is her first foray into magical realism. Kate and her husband now live in Maryland with their two rescue dogs.
Jenn Bouchard’s debut novel First Course was published by TouchPoint Press in 2021 and is now available in a second edition. It was the recipient of 14 awards. Her short stories have appeared in The Bookends Review, Litbreak Magazine, The Penmen Review, The Little Patuxent Review, Mary, and Folio. Her second novel Considering Us will be published on February 6, 2025 by Black Rose Writing. She is a high school social studies teacher of twenty-five years. A graduate of Bates College and Tufts University, she lives with her family in the Boston suburbs.
Grady Chambers is the author of the poetry collection North American Stadiums (Milkweed Editions, 2018), winner of the Max Ritvo Poetry Prize. His new novel is Great Disasters. Grady was born and raised on the north side of Chicago, and lives in Philadelphia. His writing can be found in The Atlantic, The Paris Review, American Poetry Review, The Sun, and many other publications. Grady is a former Wallace Stegner Fellow, and received his MFA in Creative Writing from Syracuse University. More info at gradychambers.com.
A. D. Rhine is the pseudonym of Ashlee Cowles and Danielle Stinson. The authors are united by their military “brat” upbringing, childhood friendship spanning two decades, and love of classical literature. Ashlee holds graduate degrees in medieval history from the University of St. Andrews and theological studies from Duke University. Their adult debut Horses of Fire & Daughters of Bronze, an epic duology of the Trojan War, is the story they have always dreamt of writing together.
Michael Don is the author of the story collection Partners and Strangers (Carnegie Mellon University Press, 2019), a finalist for the Foreword Indies Book of the Year Award in short fiction. His stories and essays have appeared in journals such as Southern Humanities Review, Passages North, Washington Square Review, Puerto Del Sol, The Southampton Review, and The Brooklyn Review. He is a professor at George Mason University, Co-editor of Kikwetu: A Journal of East African Literature, and co-organizer of the Fox City Lit reading series.
A. Kendra Greene is a writer and book artist. She is the author and illustrator of The Museum of Whales You Will Never See. Her work has come into being with fellowships from Fulbright, MacDowell, Yaddo, Dobie Paisano, and the Library Innovation Lab at Harvard. Her newest book is No Less Strange or Wonderful: Essays.
Hannah Grieco is the author of First Kicking, Then Not, out now from Stanchion Books. She writes a literary column for Washington City Paper, edits prose at a variety of small presses and literary journals, and teaches literature at Marymount University. Read her work in The Washington Post, Al Jazeera, The Rumpus, Brevity, Wigleaf, Shenandoah, Fairy Tale Review, and more. Find her at www.hgrieco.com.
Megan Howell is a DC-based writer and a 2025 National Book Foundation “5 Under 35” honoree. She earned her MFA in fiction from the University of Maryland in College Park, winning both the Jack Salamanca Thesis Award and the Kwiatek Fellowship. Her work has appeared in McSweeney’s, The Nashville Review and The Establishment among other publications. Her debut short story collection Softie: Stories won a 2025 IPPY Book Awards gold medal and was short-listed for the PEN/Robert W. Bingham Prize for Debut Short Story Collection.
Natalie Lampert is an award-winning journalist and the author of The Big Freeze: A Reporter’s Personal Journey into the World of Egg Freezing and the Quest to Control Our Fertility, which was a Publishers Weekly Best Book of the Year and longlisted for the PEN/E.O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award. A TEDx speaker and former Fulbright scholar, she has written for The New York Times, The Atlantic, Elle, and The Guardian, among other publications. She has received fellowships and grants from Investigative Reporters & Editors, the Logan Nonfiction program, and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, and has taught writing for Lighthouse Writers Workshop, National Geographic Student Travel, and Duke University. She holds a master’s degree in journalism from New York University and lives in Boulder, Colo.
Kim Magowan lives with her family in San Francisco and teaches in the Department of Literatures and Languages at Mills College. She is the author of the short story collection How Far I’ve Come (Gold Wake Press, 2022); the novel The Light Source (7/13 Books, 2019); and the short story collection Undoing (Moon City Press, 2018). Her fiction has been published in Colorado Review, The Gettysburg Review, Smokelong Quarterly, Wigleaf, and other journals. Her stories have been selected for Best Small Fictions and Wigleaf’s Top 50. She is the Editor-in-Chief and Fiction Editor of Pithead Chapel.
Sebastian Matthews is the author of We Generous (Red Hen Press) and the memoir In My Father’s Footsteps (W. W. Norton). He co-edited Search Party: Collected Poems of William Matthews, a Pulitzer Prize finalist, and New Hope for the Dead: Uncollected William Matthews. Matthews teaches at Warren Wilson College and serves on the faculty of the Queens College Low-Residency MFA in Creative Writing program, as well as on the editorial board of Q Ave Press, makers of handmade poetry chapbooks. His work has appeared in Virginia Quarterly Review, American Poetry Review, The Atlantic Monthly, and Tin House.
Tom McAllister is the author of the novel How to Be Safe, which was named one of the best books of 2018 by Kirkus and The Washington Post. His other books are the novel The Young Widower’s Handbook and the memoir Bury Me in My Jersey. His short stories and essays have been published in The Sun, Epoch, Best American Nonrequired Reading, Black Warrior Review, and many other places. He is the nonfiction editor at Barrelhouse and co-hosts the Book Fight! podcast with Mike Ingram. He lives in New Jersey and teaches in the MFA Program at Rutgers-Camden.
Before focusing her writing career on running, Dimity McDowell was a sports journalist, holding staff positions at Self, ESPN: The Magazine, and Sports Illustrated for Women. She co-authored three running books (Run Like a Mother, Train Like a Mother, and Tales from Another Mother Runner) and co-founded Another Mother Runner, an inclusive community for all female runners. A personal trainer and running coach, she has finished countless races, including Ironman Coeur d’Alene and the Pike’s Peak Half Marathon. Dimity, the mother of two adult children, lives in Denver with her husband and two dogs.
Matthew Nienow’s debut collection, House of Water, was published by Alice James Books in 2016. His poems have appeared or are forthcoming in such venues as 32 Poems, Georgia Review, New England Review, and Poetry. A former Ruth Lilly Poetry Fellow, he has also received fellowships and support from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, the Elizabeth George Foundation, Artist Trust, and 4Culture. He lives in Port Townsend, Washington with his wife and two sons where he is pursuing a degree in Mental Health Counseling.
Iain Haley Pollock is the author of three poetry collections, Spit Back a Boy (2011), Ghost, Like a Place (Alice James, 2018), and All the Possible Bodies (Alice James, 2025). His poems have appeared in publications ranging from American Poetry Review to The New York Times Magazine. Pollock has received several honors for his work including the Cave Canem Poetry Prize, the Alice Fay di Castagnola Award from the Poetry Society of America, a 2023 NYSCA/NYFA Artist Fellowship in Poetry, the Bim Ramke Prize for Poetry from Denver Quarterly, and a nomination for an NAACP Image Award. He serves as Director of the MFA Program in Creative Writing at Manhattanville University in Purchase, NY.
Zach Powers is the author of the forthcoming novel The Migraine Diaries (JackLeg, April 2026), the novel First Cosmic Velocity, and the story collection Gravity Changes, winner of the BOA Short Fiction Prize. His writing has been featured by American Short Fiction, Lit Hub, and elsewhere. He serves as Executive & Artistic Director for The Writer’s Center and Poet Lore, America’s oldest poetry journal. Originally from Savannah, Georgia, he now lives in Arlington, Virginia. Get to know him at ZachPowers.com.
Alysha Rameera is a Sri Lankan and German American author who writes about little-known historical figures, romance, and magic, preferably altogether. On non-writing days, you can find her baking at home or traveling the world with her husband.
Michelle Ross is the author of three story collections: There’s So Much They Haven’t Told You (Moon City Press, 2017); Shapeshifting (Stillhouse Press, 2021); and They Kept Running (UNT Press, 2022). Her work is anthologized in Best Small Fictions 2021 and 2023, for which her story “My Sister’s Monkey” was chosen as one of ten spotlighted stories; Best Microfiction 2020, 2021, 2023, and 2024; the Wigleaf Top 50 2019 and 2022; and the Norton anthology, Flash Fiction America. It received special mention in the Pushcart Prize anthology. She is Editor of 100 Word Story. Her newest book is Don’t Take This the Wrong Way.
Ann Tashi Slater contributes to The New Yorker, The Paris Review, The New York Times, The Washington Post, Lit Hub, Oprah Daily, Guernica, Granta, The Best American Essays, and others. Her speaking and teaching engagements include Princeton, Columbia, Oxford, The American University of Paris, the Rubin Museum of Art, and Asia Society.
A. D. Rhine is the pseudonym of Ashlee Cowles and Danielle Stinson. The authors are united by their military “brat” upbringing, childhood friendship spanning two decades, and love of classical literature. Danielle holds a master of arts in law and diplomacy from Tufts University. Their adult debut Horses of Fire & Daughters of Bronze, an epic duology of the Trojan War, is the story they have always dreamt of writing together.
Kit Swann is an award-winning romance audiobook narrator.
Rachel Van Dyken is the #1 New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and USA TODAY bestselling author of regency and contemporary romances. When she’s not writing you can find her drinking coffee at Starbucks and plotting her next book while watching guilty-pleasure TV.
Ziying You is Associate Professor of Comparative Literature and Intercultural Studies at the University of Georgia (UGA), and affiliated Professor at the Center for Asian Studies and at the Institute for Women’s & Gender Studies at UGA. She is an Executive Board Member (2024-2026) of the American Folklore Society (AFS) and was the Senior Convener (2023-2025) of the Transnational Asia/Pacific Section of AFS. She is the author of Impacts of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Chinese and Chinese American Women: Racisms, Feminisms, and Foodways (IUP, 2025) (Open Access) (Winner of Elli Köngäs-Maranda Prize, AFS, 2025), and Folk Literati, Contested Tradition, and Heritage in Contemporary China: Incense Is Kept Burning (IUP, 2020).