Presenting Authors

National Book Award–winning writer Will Alexander presents his debut cozy science fiction novel, Sunward. This queer space opera is a story of found family that follows a planetary courier who trains adolescent androids in a solar system grappling with interplanetary conflict after a devastating explosion on Earth’s moon.

William Alexander writes unrealisms for readers of all ages. His work has won the National Book Award, the Eleanor Cameron Award, the Librarian Favorites Award, the Teacher Favorites Award, two CBC Best Children’s Book of the Year Awards, and two Junior Library Guild Selections. As a small child he honestly thought that his Cuban American family came from the lost island of Atlantis. Visit him at willalex.net.

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Based on a true story, Leaf Town Forever is the gentle tale of a town created by children with vivid imaginations. The timeless and universal saga, written in haiku, reminds both kids and adults that some dreams are worth protecting.

Betsy Bowen is author and illustrator of many children’s books, including Plant a Pocket of Prairie and The Lost Forest, both published by the University of Minnesota Press. She lives in Grand Marais, Minnesota. Visit her at woodcut.com.

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In Taylor’s Version, the poet and literary scholar Stephanie Burt offers an insightful and heartfelt critical appreciation of Taylor Swift, her body of work, and the community that her art has fostered. Drawing from her 2024 Harvard course, Taylor Swift and Her World, as well as from her years as a Swiftie, Burt examines Swift’s particular form of genius—not the destructive genius of tortured poets, but the collaborative and joyful genius of an artist who has mastered her craft.

Stephanie Burt is a poet, literary critic, professor, and author of numerous books. Her essay collection Close Calls with Nonsense (Graywolf Press, 2009) was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award.

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A sparkly American bookstore whisperer clashes with the grumpy British owner of the shop she’s trying to save in Love Walked In, a winning opposites-attract romance for book lovers.

Sarah Chamberlain is a writer, editor, and cookbook translator whose articles have appeared in VICE, The Guardian (UK), Food52, and McSweeney's Internet Tendency. When she’s not writing witty, sexy contemporary romance, she enjoys making dinner for her friends and family, watching Cary Grant movies, and setting records as an amateur competitive powerlifter. Originally from Northern California, she lives in London. Visit her at sarahichamberlain.com.

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Acclaimed, mega-bestselling author Eoin Colfer, named "a master storyteller" by School Library Journal, returns to the world of Juniper Lane with Firefox Moon. Juniper takes off on a summertime quest in a story sure to delight young readers all year round.

Eoin Colfer is the bestselling author of the children's fantasy series Artemis Fowl. His other notable works include The Dog Who Lost His Bark, illustrated by P.J. Lynch, and the novels Half Moon Investigations, Airman, and The Supernaturalist. The recipient of many awards, he lives in Ireland. Visit him at eoincolfer.com.

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King of the Neuro Verse is a powerful, joyful novel in verse about a Black teen with ADHD who finds self-expression and first love during one epic summer school season.

Idris Goodwin is an award-winning neurodivergent storyteller, playwright, and breakbeat poet. He is the author of the picture book Your House Is Not Just a House, as well as over sixty original plays, ranging from his hip-hop–inspired breakbeat series to historical dramas to works for young audiences. A dedicated mentor to emerging writers, Goodwin serves as associate professor of dramatic writing at Arizona State University. Visit him at idrisgoodwin.com.

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Bestselling author Shannon Hale is back with a new middle grade graphic novel, Dream On, a story about hope, friendship, and heartfelt wishes about a young girl getting lost in the shuffle of her life.

Shannon Hale is the New York Times best-selling author of over 40 books, which have sold 15 million copies in North America and been translated into dozens of languages worldwide. Her novels for young readers include The Goose Girl, Book of a Thousand Days, and Newbery Honor recipient Princess Academy. With LeUyen Pham, she created her best-selling graphic novel memoirs Real Friends, Best Friends, and Friends Forever, and the Kitty-Corn picture book series. Shannon co-writes graphic novels with her husband Dean Hale, like the Eisner-nominee Rapunzel's Revenge (with Nathan Hale) and Diana, Princess of the Amazons (with Victoria Ying) as well as the best-selling chapter book series The Princess in Black (with LeUyen Pham). She lives in Utah with their four children and two ridiculous cats. Visit her at shannonhale.com.

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The Phoebe Variations is a coming-of-age novel about girls, mothers, and finding one's way in the world. On the cusp of high school, Phoebe’s adoptive mother insists she meet with her biological parents—and the result is a revelation that derails her life.

Jane Hamilton is the author of seven critically acclaimed and bestselling novels, including The Book of Ruth and A Map of the World, both of which were Oprah's Book Club selections. Her nonfiction has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, Allure, Elle, and various anthologies. She's married to an apple farmer and lives in Wisconsin.

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Keetje Kuipers’s fourth collection features love poems bold with the embodied, earthy, and startlingly sensual. Queer, complicated, and almost always compromised, the poems in Lonely Women Make Good Lovers lean into the painful tendernesses of unbridgeable distance.

Keetje Kuipers is the author of Beautiful in the Mouth (2010), The Keys to the Jail (2014), All Its Charms (2019), and her newest, Lonely Women Make Good Lovers, winner of the Isabella Gardner Award. Her poetry and prose have appeared in The New York Times, American Poetry Review, Yale Review, VQR, Poetry, and over a hundred other magazines. Kuipers is currently the Editor of Poetry Northwest, and teaches at universities and conferences around the world. Her home is in Missoula, MT. Visit her at keetjekuipers.com.

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In her debut novel, Sunlight Playing Over a Mountain, Selina Li Bi introduces a captivating style, lacing lyrical prose with fragments of Chinese mythology to build a fantastical atmosphere around the sobering narrative of an imperfect mother-daughter relationship where a teenage girl struggles to hold things together in an unstable single-parent home.

Selina Li Bi was born to immigrant parents from the Philippines. She holds an MFA in Creative Writing from Minnesota State University Moorhead and is also a certified Creativity Coach. Her work has appeared in Nonwhite and Woman: 131 Micro Essays on Being in the World, riksha: Asian American Creative Arts in Action, Cricket, among others. Visit her at selinalibi.com.

Angelica was the girl who could do it all—until suddenly, she couldn’t. Burnout hit hard. Now, after some very low moments, she’s ready to get her life back together, thanks to her friends, and one very surprising source of comfort: a bear.

Trung Le Nguyen is an award-winning Vietnamese American cartoonist, artist, and writer. His first original graphic novel, The Magic Fish, was published in 2020. He has contributed work both as an author and as an artist for a variety of comics publishers, including DC Comics, Oni Press, Boom! Studios, Image Comics, and Marvel. Trung has been nominated for an Eisner, a prize at Angoulême (France), a GLAAD award, and has won two Harvey Awards and a Romics (Italy). He currently lives in Minneapolis and raises a small flock of very spoiled hens. Visit him at trungles.com.

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As night falls on Asgard there is one who does not dream. Loki, a trickster of epic proportions, has much to think on. He hearkens back to his challenge to the wolf Fenrir to break the strongest Dwarf-made chains. He remembers Thjazi, the jotunn in monstrous eagle form, and his pursuit of the apples of youth. And he worries he has fallen out of favor with his blood brother, Odin. Can he use his cunning and wiles to worm his way back in? Or, feeling spurned, will Loki choose to burn it all down?

George O’Connor is an author, illustrator and cartoonist. Above all, George is a Greek mythology buff and a classic superhero comics fan, and he's out to remind us how much our pantheon of superheroes (Superman, Batman, the X-Men, etc.) owes to mankind's original superheroes: the Greek pantheon. Now he has brought his attention to Olympians, an ongoing series retelling the classic Greek myths in comics form. In addition to his graphic novel career, O'Connor has published several children's picture books, including the New York Times best-selling Kapow!, Sally and the Some-Thing, If I Had a Raptor, and If I Had a Triceratops. George lives in Brooklyn, NY with five terrible cats and one Olympian goddess. Visit him at georgeoconnorbooks.com.

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With the stark, poetic voice that garnered her collection Anatomy. Monotony. cult status in Norway and abroad, the writer–performance artist offers a vision of sexuality and alienation unlike any other. Coming. Apart. is Poppy’s first collection of short fiction, and her second to be published in English. Beautifully translated from the original Norwegian by Dr. May-Brit Akerholt, her stories explore moments of labyrinthine intimacy with a cold intensity that proves impossible to forget.

Edy Poppy grew up on a farm in Bø, Telemark, Norway. She moved to Montpellier when she was seventeen and spent several years in France before moving to London where she worked with art, fashion, film and writing. In 2005 she published her first novel Anatomy. Monotony., which was translated into Italian, Finnish, German, Polish, and English. It won the contest for best love story by Gyldendal. Poppy has lived in Berlin, Buenos Aires, Lipari, Reykjavik, and Rio, and now calls Australia home.

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In the third installment of this kid-friendly manga series, Sew Totally Nala, Kawaii fashion-loving Nala is about to have the best summer ever as she attends a special fashion camp in the city, but she wonders if her designs will measure up to the other students. A squirrel named Timothy visits to help her, and together, Nala and Timothy rise to a fun summer challenge that will remind readers how good it feels to believe in themselves.

Misako Rocks! is a Japanese manga comic artist who’s published several manga books all over the world, including No Such Thing and Bounce Back, which was selected to be on the list of 2021 Best Graphic Novels For Children by the American Library Association. Visit her at misakorocks.com.

Based on a true story, Leaf Town Forever is the gentle tale of a town created by children with vivid imaginations. The timeless and universal saga, written in haiku, reminds both kids and adults that some dreams are worth protecting.

Kathleen Rooney is a founding editor of Rose Metal Press, a nonprofit publisher of literary work in hybrid genres, and a founding member of Poems While You Wait. She is author of five novels, including Lillian Boxfish Takes a Walk and Cher Ami and Major Whittlesey, as well as the poetry collection Where Are the Snows. She lives in Chicago and teaches at DePaul University. Visit her at kathleenrooney.com.

Beth Rooney is a visual journalist based in Oak Park, Illinois. A writer and photographer, she is drawn to stories that explore our place in the world and show how individual circumstances reflect larger truths.

Mother-daughter duo Alice and Fern have no idea what they’re stepping into when they move into Pine Lake Apartments—a former sanatorium now home to an eccentric cast of neighbors and more than a few ghosts. For the fiercely private Alice, Pine Lake seems like the perfect place to keep a low profile—until the day Fern stumbles upon a dead body in the dumpster. Determined to solve the mystery herself, Fern begins unraveling long-buried secrets that implicate every resident and even summon a few unexpected guests from beyond the grave.

Amber Sparks is the author of the short story collections And I Do Not Forgive You and The Unﬁnished World. Happy People Don’t Live Here is her first novel. Her writing has appeared in The Paris Review, Granta, Slate, and elsewhere. She lives in Washington, D.C. with her husband, daughter, and cats. Visit her at ambernoellesparks.com.

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Noche is a Lechuza by night, an ethereal jet-black owl who guides the dead to the after. Except now, Noche cannot bring herself to escort her dead girlfriend, whose soul is fading the harder Noche holds on—an aching romance about first and second loves and finding the strength to let go.

Vanessa L. Torres is a Mexican American author, an adventure seeker, and a mom to a flashlight-under-the-covers-reader. She is a thirty-year veteran of the fire service and is equally proud to call her herself an author. Her debut young adult novel, The Turning Pointe, released in 2022. When she’s not writing, she balances her time between anything outdoors, and spending time with her family close to home in the beautiful Pacific Northwest.

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Peace Is a Shy Thing is the first literary biography of Tim O'Brien, the preeminent American writer of the Vietnam War and one of the best writers of his generation, with never-before-seen materials and interviews.

Alex Vernon graduated from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point (the only literature major in his class of over a thousand), served in combat as a tank platoon leader in the Persian Gulf War, and earned a Ph.D. from the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. The recipient of an Army Historical Foundation Distinguished Book Award and a National Endowment of the Humanities Fellowship, he is the M.E. & Ima Graves Peace Distinguished Professor of English at Hendrix College in Conway, Arkansas. Visit him at alex-vernon.squarespace.com.

Jennifer Amie will be joined by Medaria Arradondo to discuss their book Chief Rondo

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Medaria Arradondo will be joined by Jennifer Amie to discuss their book Chief Rondo

More info to come.

H. M. Bouwman will present her new novel, Scattergood.

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Tim Brady will present his new book, A Light in the Northern Sea.

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Frank Bures will present his new book, Pushing the River.

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Paula Cisewski will present her new book of poems, The Becoming Game

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Tasha Coryell will present her new novel, Matchmaking for Psychopaths.

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Art Coulson will present his new picturebook, All the Stars in the Sky.

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Ruth DeFoster will present her new book, The Fear Knot

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Andrew DeYoung will present his new novel, Stay Away From Him.

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Matt Eicheldinger will present his new book, Holes in My Underwear.

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Anika Fajardo will present her new book, The Many Mothers of Dolores Moore.

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Sarah Green will present her new book, The Deletions.

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Molly Beth Griffin will present her new book, Rings of Heartwood

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Steve Grove will present his new book, How I Found Myself in the Midwest.

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Peg Guilfoyle will present her new book, An Eye for Joy.

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Dave Hage and Josephine Marcotty will present their new book, Sea of Grass.

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Toni Halleen will present her new book, The Good Samaritan.

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Stephanie Hansen will present her new cookbook, True North Cabin Cookbook.

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Patrick Hicks will present his new book, Greater Minnesota.

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David Housewright will present his new book, Them Bones.

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Ursula Murray Husted will present her new book, Botticelli's Apprentice.

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MC Hyland will present her new book, The Dead and The Living and The Bridge.

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Keenan Jones will present his new picture book, Saturday Morning at the ’Shop.

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Mubanga Kalimamukwento will present her new book, Another Mother Does Not Come When Yours Dies.

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Rebecca Kanner will present her new book, Last One Seen.

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Douglas Kearney will present his new book, I Imagine I Been Science Fiction Always.

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Raki Kopernik will present their new book, No One's Leaving.

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David LaRochelle will present his new book, How To Draw a Tree.

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Bronson Lemer will present his new book, The Lonely Veteran's Guide to Companionship.

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Kelly Foster Lundquist will present her new book, Beard.

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Thomas Maltman will present his new book, Ashes to Ashes.

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Mélina Mangal will present her new book, Revolutions Are Made of Love.

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Josephine Marcotty and Dave Hage will present their new book, Sea of Grass.

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Jay Martel is the pen name of married writing team Andy Bennett and Katy Helbacka. They will present their book, Codebreaker.

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Mindy Mejia will present her new book, The Whisper Place.

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Joshua Moehling will present his new book, A Long Time Gone.

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Chris Monroe will present her new book, String Ball.

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Colleen Muske will present her new book, How To Draw a Tree, with David LaRochelle.

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Kent Nerburn will present his book, Lone Dog Road.

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Kathryn Nuernberger will present her new book, Held.

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Tyler Page will present his new book, Extra Large.

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Nate Pedersen will present his new book, Pseudo Science.

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Margi Preus will present her new book, Snowshoe Kate.

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Matthew Schufman will present his new book, Willow.

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Damion Searls will present his new book, Analog Days.

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Joyce Sidman will present her new book, Dear Acorn (Love, Oak).

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Curtis Sittenfeld will present her new book, Show Don't Tell.

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Caren Stelson will present her new book, Returning the Sword.

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Christopher Tradowsky will present his new book, Midnight at the Cinema Palace.

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Sam Tschida will present her new book, Undead and Unwed.

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Erin O. White will present her new book, Like Family.

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Authors at the Festival

Readings, talks, conversations, panels, activities, and more

Featured Authors

William Alexander

Betsy Bowen

Stephanie Burt

Sarah Chamberlain

Eoin Colfer

Idris Goodwin

Shannon Hale

Jane Hamilton

Keetje Kuipers

Selina Li Bi

Trung Le Nguyen

George O'Connor

Edy Poppy

Misako Rocks!

Kathleen and Beth Rooney

Amber Sparks

Vanessa L. Torres

Alex Vernon

Minnesota Author Showcase

Jennifer Amie

Medaria Arradondo

H. M. Bouwman

Tim Brady

Frank Bures

Paula Cisewski

Tasha Coryell

Art Coulson

Ruth DeFoster

Andrew DeYoung

Matt Eicheldinger

Anika Fajardo

Sarah Green

Molly Beth Griffin

Steve Grove

Peg Guilfoyle

Dave Hage

Toni Halleen

Stephanie Hansen

Patrick Hicks

David Housewright

Ursula Murray Husted

MC Hyland

Keenan Jones

Mubanga Kalimamukwento

Rebecca Kanner

Douglas Kearney

Raki Kopernik

David LaRochelle

Bronson Lemer

Kelly Foster Lundquist

Thomas Maltman

Mélina Mangal

Josephine Marcotty

Jay Martel

Mindy Mejia

Joshua Moehling

Chris Monroe

Colleen Muske

Kent Nerburn

Kathryn Nuernberger

Tyler Page

Nate Pedersen

Margi Preus

Matthew Schufman

Damion Searls

Joyce Sidman

Curtis Sittenfeld

Caren Stelson

Christopher Tradowsky

Sam Tschida

Erin O. White

Hours & Location