Author: Author's Answer

John Bishop MD is the author of Act of Murder and Act of Deception. Dr. Bishop has practiced orthopedic surgery in Houston, Texas, for 30 years. His Doc Brady medical thriller series is set in the changing environment of medicine in the 1990s. Drawing on his years of experience as a practicing surgeon, Bishop entertains readers using his unique insights into the medical world with all its challenges, intricacies, and complexities, while at the same time revealing the compassion and dedication of health care professionals. Dr. Bishop and his wife, Joan, reside in the Texas Hill Country.

Brittany J. Thurman is the author of FLY (Fall 2021, Atheneum/Simon and Schuster). FLY follows Africa, who wants to compete in an upcoming double Dutch competition. Problem is, Africa does not know how to double Dutch. While her friends teach her some winning moves, Africa realizes she’s always known she can reach for her dreams.

Brittany is a former children children’s specialist at the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh. During her time working with children across Pittsburgh, she read hundreds of stories to thousands of babies, toddlers, and preschoolers. Her focus has always been on representation and early literacy. Brittany is dedicated to ensuring children’s literature truthfully reflects the world in which we live. She’s spoken and presented at numerous conferences including: The Virginia Hamilton Conference on Multicultural Children’s Literature, Western PA’s SCBWI Conference, and the 13th Annual IBBY Regional Conference. A graduate of Carnegie Mellon University and Kingston University (London, England) she currently manages educational programming at The Speed Art Museum in Louisville, Kentucky.

Amanda Golden is associate professor of English at New York Institute of Technology. She is the author of Annotating Modernism: Marginalia and Pedagogy from Virginia Woolf to the Confessional Poets (Routledge, 2020) and editor of This Business of Words: Reassessing Anne Sexton (UPF, 2016). With Anita Helle and Maeve O’Brien she is currently editing The Bloomsbury Handbook to Sylvia Plath. Golden has published in Modernism/Modernity, Woolf Studies Annual, and The Space Between: Literature and Culture, 1914-1945.

Lisa Braxton is an essayist, short story writer, and novelist. Her debut novel, The Talking Drum, was published in June 2020 by Inanna Publications.

She is also the former president of the Boston Chapters of the Women’s National Book Association. She is a “debutante,” one of five debut novelists chosen for the Debutante Ball, a group blog for authors making their debut in the literary world. Her stories and essays have appeared in Vermont Literary Review, Black Lives Have Always Mattered, Chicken Soup for the Soul and The Book of Hope. She received Honorable Mention in Writer’s Digest magazine’s 84th and 86th annual writing contests in the inspirational essay category.

Robert McCaw is the author of Fire and Vengeance, Off the Grid, and Death of a Messenger. McCaw grew up in a military family, traveling the world. He is a graduate of Georgetown University, served as a U.S. Army lieutenant, and earned a law degree from the University of Virginia. He was a partner in a major international law firm in Washington, D.C. and New York City, representing major Wall Street clients in complex civil and criminal cases. Having lived on the Big Island of Hawaii, McCaw imbues his writing of the Islands with his more than 2-year love affair with this Pacific paradise. He now lives in New York City with his wife, Calli.

Let’s Dance! (Boyds Mills & Kane) is Valerie Bolling’s debut picture book. In addition to being an author, Valerie has been an educator for over 25 years. When she taught elementary students, it was difficult to find diverse literature for them. Thus, she is passionate about creating stories in which all children can see themselves and feel valued and heard.

A graduate of Tufts University and Columbia University, Teachers College, Valerie currently works as an Instructional Coach with middle and high school teachers.

Valerie and her husband live in Connecticut and enjoy traveling, hiking, reading, going to the theater, and dancing.

Paige Bowers is the author of THE GENERAL’S NIECE: The Little-Known de Gaulle Who Fought to Free Occupied France. For the past couple of years, she has been working closely with Hidden Figure Raye Montague’s son, David, on the story of how his mother engineered her way out of the Jim Crow South to become the first person to draft a Naval ship design by computer. That book, OVERNIGHT CODE: The Life of Raye Montague, the Woman Who Revolutionized Naval Engineering, will be published on January 12, 2021.

Paige is a nationally published news and features writer whose work has appeared in TIME, USA Today, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, People, Allure, Thomson Reuters, Glamour, Pregnancy, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Atlanta Magazine and Palm Beach Illustrated.

A lifelong Francophile, Paige earned a master’s degree in Modern European history from Louisiana State University in 2012, and has taught French history classes for LSU Continuing Education. She lives in Atlanta with her husband, 15-year-old daughter and a Yellow Lab who thinks he is a lap dog.

Luke Geddes is the author of the novel Heart of Junk, which has been optioned for television by a Disney subsidiary and received starred reviews from Publishers Weekly and Booklist and praise from authors such as Elizabeth McKenzie, Kevin Wilson, Chris Bachelder, and Alissa Nutting, and the short story collection I am a Magical Teenage Princess, which was cited as Roxane Gay’s “favorite book that no one has heard of” in the New York Times. Originally from Appleton, Wisconsin, he now lives Cincinnati, Ohio.