Authors in conversation
These international bestselling authors will give talks and sign books at the
Katonah Village Library (buy tickets here).
Read their bios below.
Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah
Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah is the New York Times-bestselling author of Friday Black. His work has appeared in The New York Times Book Review, Esquire, The Paris Review, and elsewhere. He was a National Book Foundation’s “5 Under 35” honoree, the winner of the PEN/Jean Stein Book Award and the Saroyan Prize, and a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle’s John Leonard Award for Best First Book, along with many other honors. Raised in Spring Valley, New York, he now lives in the Bronx.
Geraldine Brooks
Geraldine Brooks is a Pulitzer Prize–winning author and former foreign correspondent. Born in Sydney, Australia, she has lived full-time on Martha’s Vineyard for over twenty years. Her bestselling novels include Caleb’s Crossing, The Secret Chord, and Horse. Brooks is also the author of acclaimed nonfiction, most recently Memorial Days, a poignant memoir of sudden loss and the search for peace. She contributed to the new book Who Is Government?: The Untold Story of Public Service, a tribute to the vital, often unseen work of public servants.
David Grann
David Grann is the author of the #1 New York Times bestsellers Killers of the Flower Moon and The Lost City of Z. Killers of the Flower Moon was a finalist for The National Book Award and won an Edgar Allan Poe Award. He is also the author of The White Darkness and the collection The Devil and Sherlock Holmes. Grann’s storytelling has garnered several honors, including a George Polk Award. He lives with his wife and children in New York.
Patrick Radden Keefe
Patrick Radden Keefe is a staff writer at The New Yorker and the author of The New York Times bestsellers Empire of Pain, winner of the 2021 Baillie Gifford Prize, and Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland, which received the National Book Critics Circle Award for Nonfiction, was selected as one of the ten best books of 2019 by The New York Times Book Review, The Washington Post, the Chicago Tribune and The Wall Street Journal, and was named one of the “10 Best Nonfiction Books of the Decade” by Entertainment Weekly. His previous books are The Snakehead and Chatter. His work has been recognized with a Guggenheim Fellowship, the National Magazine Award for Feature Writing and the Orwell Prize for Political Writing. He is also the creator and host of the eight-part podcast Wind of Change.
Bill McKibben
Bill McKibben is the author of more than twenty books, including the bestsellers The End of Nature, Falter, and Deep Economy. Founder of Third Act, a project organizing people over sixty for progressive change, he lives in Vermont with his wife, the writer Sue Halpern.
Emma Straub
Emma Straub is the New York Times-bestselling author of six books for adults: the novels This Time Tomorrow, All Adults Here, The Vacationers, Modern Lovers, Laura Lamont's Life in Pictures, and the short story collection Other People We Married. She is also the author of three picture books, Gaga Mistake Day, which she co-wrote with her mother, Mama Hug, and Very Good Hats.
Emma is a Guggenheim Foundation Fellow and her work has been published in more than 20 languages. She and her husband own Books Are Magic, an independent bookstore in Brooklyn, New York.
David Wallace-Wells
David Wallace-Wells is the bestselling author of The Uninhabitable Earth). A Deputy Editor of New York Magazine, he writes a weekly New York Times newsletter and is a contributor to The New York Times Magazine. He lives in New York City.
Authors’ CORNER
These fantastic authors will be at The Katonah Reading Room for book signings and
meet and greet sessions throughout the day. No tickets are needed. The Katonah Reading Room is located at 19 Edgemont Road, Katonah.
Read their bios below.
Lauren Acampora
Lauren Acampora is the author of four books of fiction: The Wonder Garden, The Paper Wasp, The Hundred Waters, and The Animal Room (forthcoming 2026). Her work has won or been nominated for the GLCA New Writers Award, the Center for Fiction’s First Novel Prize, the Story Prize, and the New England Book Award, and she’s been named an Artist Fellow in Fiction by The New York Foundation for the Arts. Lauren’s writing has appeared in publications such as The Paris Review, New England Review, Missouri Review, Guernica, and The New York Times, and will be anthologized in The Best American Short Stories 2025. She lives in Katonah.
Published Works
The Wonder Garden
The Paper Wasp,
The Hundred Waters
The Animal Room (forthcoming 2026)
Heather Clark
Heather Clark is a biographer, literary critic, and novelist. She is the author of five books, most recently, The Scrapbook, her critically acclaimed 2025 debut novel, and Red Comet: The Short Life and Blazing Art of Sylvia Plath. Red Comet was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Critics Circle Award, and the Los Angeles Times Book Prize; one of the New York Times Ten Best Books of 2021; and a “Book of the Year” in The Guardian, The Times, The Boston Globe, Literary Hub, and elsewhere.
Her recent awards include a Guggenheim Fellowship, NYPL Cullman Center Fellowship, the Truman Capote Award for Literary Criticism, the Slightly Foxed Best First Biography Prize, NEH Public Scholars Fellowship, and a Leon Levy Biography Fellowship. Clark’s work has appeared in The New York Times, The Boston Globe, Harvard Review, Time, Air Mail, Literary Hub, Times Literary Supplement, and elsewhere. She holds a doctorate in English literature from Oxford University, and lives outside New York City.
Published Works
The Scrapbook
Red Comet: The Short Life and Blazing Art of Sylvia Plath
Fiona Davis
Fiona Davis is the New York Times bestselling author of eight historical fiction novels set in iconic New York City buildings, including The Stolen Queen, The Magnolia Palace, and The Lions of Fifth Avenue, which was a Good Morning America book club pick. She first came to New York as an actress, but fell in love with writing after getting a master's degree at Columbia Journalism School. Her work has appeared in The Wall Street Journal, Oprah magazine, and elsewhere, and her books have been translated into over twenty languages. She's based in New York City.
Published Works
The Stolen Queen
The Spectacular
The Lions of Fifth Avenue
The Address
The Magnolia Palace
The Chelsea Girls
The Dollhouse
The Masterpiece
The Gimlet Slip
Carolyn Ferrell
Carolyn Ferrell is the author of Dear Miss Metropolitan, which was a finalist for both the 2022 PEN Hemingway Award and 2022 PEN Faulkner Award. Her first book, a short-story collection Don’t Erase Me, was awarded the 1997 Art Seidenbaum Award for First Fiction of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, the John C. Zacharis First Book Award given by Ploughshares, and the Quality Paperback Book Prize for First Fiction. Ferrell’s stories and essays have been anthologized in The Best American Short Stories 2020 and 2018, edited by Curtis Sittenfeld and Roxane Gay, respectively, and other places. She is the recipient of fellowships and awards from the Fulbright Association, the National Endowment for the Arts, Yaddo, and MacDowell. Since 1996, she has been a writing faculty member at Sarah Lawrence College. She lives in Yonkers.
Published Works
Dear Miss Metropolitan
Don't Erase Me
Daisy Alpert FloriN
Daisy Alpert Florin is the author of My Last Innocent Year, which was a New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice, a Washington Post Staff Pick and an Indie Next pick. Daisy attended Dartmouth College and received graduate degrees from Columbia University and Bank Street Graduate School of Education. She was a recipient of the 2016 Kathryn Gurfein Writing Fellowship at Sarah Lawrence College and was a 2019–20 fellow in the BookEnds novel revision fellowship. A native New Yorker, she lives in Greenwich with her family.
Published Works
My Last Innocent Year
Jimin Han
Jimin Han is the author of A Small Revolution and The Apology, a Barnes and Noble Discover Pick; named a best audiobook of the year by Booklist, a best book of the summer by the LA Times, Vanity Fair, Shondaland, Apple Books and more. She teaches at universities and community writing centers. Her work has been supported by the New York State Council on the Arts. Her third novel, Dreamt I Found You, is forthcoming in 2026.
Published Works
A Small Revolution
The Apology
Dreamt I Found You (forthcoming in 2026)
Daniel Isenberg
Daniel Isenberg is an award-winning creative director who works in sports and entertainment marketing. In addition to his career in marketing, Daniel is a published author and music journalist. He got his start covering legendary and underground hip-hop acts for media outlets like Complex, Pitchfork, and XXL. His first book, an illustrated children’s chapter book about hip-hop and basketball is titled My Name Is Spit: The Dunk Dance. His book Do Remember! The Golden Era of NYC Hip-Hop Mixtapes was released in 2023 via Rizzoli.
Daniel is also a GRAMMY-nominated rap artist who has performed everywhere from Madison Square Garden to the Greek Theatre, as well as live on Hot 97 and Shade 45. His most recent album Sleep If You Want was released by the legendary hip-hop label Tape Kingz and celebrated on Bandcamp’s coveted Best Hip-Hop list. Daniel loves spending time in Northern Westchester where he lives with his wife and four children. He's also an adjunct professor at the NYU School of Professional Studies, where he teaches a graduate school marketing course once a week.
Published Works
My Name Is Spit: The Dunk Dance
Do Remember! The Golden Era of NYC Hip-Hop Mixtapes
LYNDA COHEN LOIGMAN
Lynda Cohen Loigman is the author of four novels, including The Two-Family House, The Wartime Sisters, and The Matchmaker’s Gift. Her most recent novel, The Love Elixir of Augusta Stern, is an Amazon Editor’s pick, a Book of the Month Club selection, a CBS New York “Club Calvi” pick, a People Magazine “Book of the Week,” and was nominated for the 2024 Goodreads Choice Awards in Historical Fiction. Lynda’s novels are largely inspired by her family and the stories her mother and grandmother told her when she was growing up in western Massachusetts. She attended Harvard College and Columbia Law School. Lynda has two grown children and lives in New York with her husband and her dog Winston.
Published Works
The Two-Family House (2016)
The Wartime Sisters (2019)
The Matchmaker’s Gift (2022)
The Love Elixir of Augusta Stern (2024)
Sam Hollander
As one of the most renowned songwriters and producers in the game, Sam Hollander has had multi-platinum success writing and producing for the likes of Panic! At The Disco, Fitz and the Tantrums, Weezer, Katy Perry, Train, One Direction, Daughtry, Pentatonix, and Gym Class Heroes, amongst many others. To date, he has achieved 22 US Top 40 Hits, as well as 10 Number 1's, 10 top fives, and 87 Top 10 chart positions globally. His songs have been streamed over 5 billion times, and in 2019, he held the #1 position on the Billboard Rock Songwriters chart for nine weeks, a year-end record. Sam has also been chosen to be on Variety's Hitmakers list, as well as being named Rolling Stone's Hot List Producer of the Year in 2008. He is the author of 21-Hit Wonder: Flopping My Way to the Top of the Charts.
Published Works
21-Hit Wonder: Flopping My Way to the Top of the Charts
Ann Leary
Ann Leary is the New York Times bestselling author of the novels, The Foundling, The Children, The Good House, Outtakes from a Marriage, and the memoir, An Innocent, A Broad, as well as her most recent work, a collection of essays, I’ve Tried Being Nice. She has written for numerous publications including Ploughshares, NPR, Real Simple and the New York Times. Her novel, The Good House was adapted as a motion picture starring Sigourney Weaver and Kevin Kline. Ann and her husband Denis Leary live in New York.
Published Works
The Foundling
The Children
The Good House
Outtakes From a Marriage
An Innocent, A Broad
I've Tried Being Nice
Esmeralda Santiago
Esmeralda Santiago is an essayist, memoirist and fiction writer. Her most recent novel is Las Madres.
Published Works
Las Madres
When I Was Puerto Rican
Almost a Woman
The Turkish Lover
America's Dream
Conquistadora
A Doll for Navidades
Maria Scrivan
Maria Scrivan is a New York Times bestselling author and award-winning syndicated cartoonist. The first book in her graphic novel series, Nat Enough (Scholastic/Graphix), launched on April 7th, 2020, became an instant New York Times bestseller. It was followed by: Forget Me Nat, Absolutely Nat, Definitely Nat, Nat for Nothing, All is Nat Lost, and Nat a Chance. Her books have been translated into twelve languages. Maria's comic, Half Full, is syndicated by Andrews McMeel and available on GoComics.com/half-full, and appeared daily in newspapers nationwide including the LA Times for over a decade. Her cartoons have appeared in many publications including MAD Magazine, Highlights, Prospect Magazine, Parade Magazine, and Wired, and licenses her work for hundreds of greeting cards.
Published Works
Nat Enough
Forget Me Nat
Absolutely Nat
Definitely Nat
Nat for Nothing
All is Nat Lost
Nat a Chance
Rachel M. Simon
Rachel M. Simon (she/they) is the author of the poetry collections Theory of Orange and Marginal Road. Her poem about the Chicago Cubs, "Loveable Losers" was part of the Academy of American Poets in 2018 and reached over 300,000 subscribers. After decades in higher education (including teaching in a maximum security prison), Simon serves as the Executive Director of Triangle Community Center, an LGBTQIA+ serving organization in Norwalk, CT. Simon also serves as the chair of the Westchester County LGBTQIA+ Advisory Board with the Office of the County Executive.
Published Works
Theory of Orange
Marginal Road
Katie Sise
Katie Sise is a bestselling author of eight novels. Her books have been included on best-of lists by Good Morning America, The New York Post, PopSugar, Parade Magazine, and PureWow.
Her sixth novel, The Break, was a Zibby's Book Club pick, and her seventh novel, The Vacation Rental, was a News 12 Book Club pick. Her newest novel, You Must Be New Here, was published on July 8th.
Katie is a former TV host and jewelry designer, and lives outside of New York City with her husband, four children, and a golden retriever who has finally calmed down.
Published Works
You Must Be New Here
The Vacation Rental
The Break
The Academy
Open House
We Were Mothers
The Boyfriend App
The Pretty App
Greg Wands
Greg Wands is the internationally bestselling co-author, along with Elizabeth Keenan, of three thriller novels under the pen name E.G. Scott, the first of which was optioned for television. Their books have been translated into a dozen languages and their latest title, Trust Issues, is out from Dutton Books. Greg also co-wrote the audio novella, The Gimlet Slip, with Fiona Davis. He spends his days between New York City and Westchester County and is at work on a solo novel.
Published Works
The Woman Inside (as E.G. Scott)
In Case of Emergency (as E.G. Scott)
The Rule of Three (as E.G. Scott)
The Gimlet Slip (with Fiona Davis)
Trust Issues (with Elizabeth McCullough Keenan)
