Author | Biography | Book Cover(s) |
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Don Brown | Don Brown dedicates his career to 'helping people with people' in leadership, sales, and customer service. Bilingual and experienced at the executive and line-level alike, you see the results of his work across dozens of industries, including brewing, automotive, airline, banking, and medical equipment. Speaking, writing, coaching, and selling to companies including Ford Motor Company, Anheuser-Busch, United Airlines, Harley-Davidson, Jaguar Cars, Hilton Hotels, and many, many more, Don takes great pride in long-standing customer relationships (some running well over twenty years). Don cherishes his start with Paul Hersey and Marshall Goldsmith and has authored books with each; What Got You Here Won't Get You There - in Sales! with Marshall, and Situational Service- Customer Care for the Practitioner with Dr. Hersey. Don's next book, Bring Out the Best in Every Employee-How to Engage Your Whole Team by Making Every Leadership Moment Count, was then followed by Simple Truths in Music and Life, a work that has led him to include the guitar in special keynote offerings. | |
Stacie Sheldon | Aanii / Boozhoo / Hello! My name is Stacie Sheldon. Chitwaadewegekwe nindizhinikaaz Anishinaabemong. Honor Beat Woman is my name in Anishinaabemowin (Ojibwe). Ajiijaak n'doodem. I am Crane Clan. I combine my rich work life as a UX practitioner with the passion I have for life as an Ojibwe person and language advocate. I am an author, and co-founder of http://www.ojibwe.net, where I lead technical development. I have served on the Board of Directors for American Indian Services in Lincoln Park, Michigan. Now a resident of Ann Arbor, MI, I grew up in the lakes and hills of Northern Michigan where I spent my summers swimming in our “great lakes” and winters exploring the woods. A lifelong runner, I can also be found on hikes with my dog, Nimkii, or playing guitar, piano, or singing. I’m a bookworm at heart, and I occasionally stay up way too late reading mystery novels--most recently, I’ve been unable to put down the Virgil Flowers series by John Sanford. | ![]() |
Jacinda Townsend | Jacinda Townsend is the author of the novels Mother Country and Saint Monkey, which won the Janet Heidinger Kafka Prize and the James Fenimore Cooper Prize. She is a graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop and teaches in the MFA program at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. | |
Rebecca Biber | Rebecca Biber is a collaborative pianist and music educator residing in Ann Arbor. She holds Bachelor's and Master's degrees from the U of M School of Music. After teaching in public schools, Rebecca opened her own music studio where she tutors piano students of all ages. She has appeared with numerous local theatre companies and choirs. Rebecca's first book of poetry, Technical Solace, was published in 2017 by Fifth Avenue Press. It touches on themes of nature, music, and Jewish family history. Her poems have also appeared in the literary magazines Delmar, Lilith, and RE:AL. She is currently an MFA candidate in the creative writing program at Queens University of Charlotte, where she has served on the editorial staff of Qu magazine. Rebecca loves living in Ann Arbor, where she enjoys the spacious parks, vibrant restaurants, and friendly neighborhoods. | ![]() |
Peter Ho Davies | Peter Ho Davies’ most recent books are the novel A Lie Someone Told You About Yourself, long-listed for the Aspen Words Literary Prize, and The Art of Revision: The Last Word, his first work of nonfiction. His previous novel, The Fortunes, a New York Times Notable Book, won the Anisfield-Wolf Award and the Chautauqua Prize, and was a finalist for the Dayton Literary Peace Prize. His first novel, The Welsh Girl, a London Times Best Seller, was long-listed for the Booker Prize. He has also published two short story collections, The Ugliest House in the World (winner of the John Llewelyn Rhys Prize, and the Oregon Book Award) and Equal Love (finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, and a New York Times Notable Book). Davies’ work has appeared in Harpers, The Atlantic, The Paris Review, The Guardian, The Washington Post and TLS among others, and been anthologized in Prize Stories: The O. Henry Awards and Best American Short Stories. In 2003 Granta magazine named him among its “Best of Young British Novelists.” Davies is a recipient of fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Arts and a winner of the PEN/Malamud and PEN/Macmillan Awards. Born in Britain to Welsh and Chinese parents, he now makes his home in the US. He has taught at the University of Oregon, Northwestern and Emory University, and is currently on faculty at the University of Michigan. | |
Amy Clarice | Amy Clarice (formerly Shrodes) (pronouns: She/Her/Hers) is the co-author of the children’s book Lost and Found Cat: The True Story of Kunkush's Incredible Journey. Amy traveled to Lesbos, Greece in 2015 on sabbatical where she discovered Kunkush, shunned by the island cats. While serving in the front lines of the refugee crisis, she cared for Kunkush for more than a month, devising a social media campaign to find his family with a team of volunteers. Shortly after Valentine’s Day, 2016, Kunkush was reunited with his family in Norway. Amy lives in Ypsilanti with her dog Zola on her urban farm, which includes two ferrets, two rabbits, and a flock of hens. She is working on a series of young adult books with a family from Afghanistan that is now living in Germany. | ![]() |
Linda W. Fitzgerald | Linda Wirtanen Fitzgerald grew up in Garrison Keillor country, primarily Michigan's upper peninsula. After graduating from Northern Michigan University, she headed to Ann Arbor and a graduate fellowship at the University of Michigan. With a master's degree in hand and a national recession raging, she tried her hand at magazine editing, newspaper reporting, even script writing for sales seminars and consoled herself in off hours by devouring mystery novels. Ultimately, she found her professional home as senior copywriter in an Ann Arbor ad agency and, from there, went on to launch Fitzgerald Communications. Twenty-some years and thousands of projects later, one career goal still eluded her: she had never written a mystery novel. In the summer of 2016, she crossed that item off her life list with the publication of Death at the Doorstep, the debut adventure of Ann Arbor freelance writer and amateur sleuth Karin Niemi. The second novel in the series, A Superior Way to Die, is set in the Upper Peninsula. | |
Natalie Bakopoulos | Natalie Bakopoulos is the author of two novels: Scorpionfish (Tin House, 2020), which was a finalist for The Bridge/Il Ponte prize (2021), and The Green Shore (Simon & Schuster, 2012). Her work has appeared in Tin House, VQR, The Iowa Review, The New York Times, Granta, Ploughshares, Kenyon Review, MQR, The Mississippi Review, O. Henry Prize Stories, and various other publications. She received her MFA from the University of Michigan, and in 2015 she was a Fulbright scholar in Athens. She’s an associate professor at Wayne State University in Detroit and a faculty member of the summer program Writing Workshops in Greece. | |
Ian Tadashi Moore | Ian Tadashi Moore is a father, designer, musician, and artist from southeast Michigan. He grew up talking to the bugs in the back lawn and plinking melodies on piano keys. He likes the sounds words make and will probably never act his age. He has written, illustrated, and recorded three books & audiobooks: Zōsan, Tamaishi, and Where All the Little Things Live. | |
Andre F. Peltier | Andre F. Peltier (he/him) is a Pushcart and Best of the Net Nominee and a Lecturer III at Eastern Michigan University where he teaches writing and a wide variety of literature classes. He lives in Ypsilanti with his wife, children, dog and turtles. His poetry has recently appeared in various publications like CP Quarterly, Lavender and Lime Review, About Place, Novus Review, Fiery Scribe, and Fahmidan Journal, and most recently in Menacing Hedge, The Brazos Review, and Idle Ink. His debut poetry collection, Poplandia, is available from Alien Buddha. In his free time, he obsesses over soccer and comic books. | ![]() |
Author | Biography | Book Cover(s) |