Preview: 18 Festival Authors Announced

Elizabeth Acevedo is the New York Times-bestselling author of The Poet X, which won the National Book Award for Young People’s Literature, the Michael L. Printz Award, the Pura Belpré Award, the Carnegie Medal, the Boston Globe–Horn Book Award, and the Walter Award. She is also the author of With the Fire on High—which was named a best book of the year by the New York Public Library, NPR, Publishers Weekly, and School Library Journal—and Clap When You Land, which was a Boston Globe–Horn Book Honor book and a Kirkus Prize finalist. She holds a BA in Performing Arts from The George Washington University and an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Maryland. Acevedo has been a fellow of Cave Canem and Cantomundo, and a participant in the Callaloo Writer’s Workshops. She is a National Poetry Slam Champion, and resides in Washington, DC, with her family.

Isabel Cañas is a Mexican American speculative fiction writer. After having lived in Mexico, Scotland, Egypt, Turkey, and New York City, among other places, she has settled in the Pacific Northwest. She holds a doctorate in Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations and writes fiction inspired by her research and her heritage. Her adult novels include The Hacienda, Vampires of El Norte, and The Possession of Alba Díaz.

Hernan Diaz is the Pulitzer Prize–winning and New York Times bestselling author of Trust, one of The New York Times’s 100 Best Books of the Century. His previous novel, In the Distance, was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and the PEN/Faulkner Award. He has received the John Updike Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, a Guggenheim Fellowship, the Kirkus Prize, a Whiting Award, and a fellowship from the New York Public Library’s Cullman Center. His work has been translated into thirty-seven languages.

Kate DiCamillo is the author of many award-winning books as is a two-time Newbery Medal winner as well as a National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature Emerita. She has written popular early chapter books about a pig named Mercy Watson, and unlikely friends, Orris & Timble. The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane, celebrating its 20th anniversary in 2026, was an instant New York Times bestseller and was the winner of the Boston Globe–Horn Book Award. Kate lives and writes in Minneapolis, Minnesota, but she spent much of her childhood in Florida.

Dave Eggers is the author of The Circle, The Monk of Mokha, A Hologram for the King, What Is the What, and The Museum of Rain, among other books. He is the cofounder of 826 National, a network of youth writing centers, and Art + Water, a nonprofit visual art hub on San Francisco’s waterfront. A member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, Eggers has been a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Award, and the National Book Critics Circle Award, and is the recipient of the Dayton Literary Peace Prize and the American Book Award. In 2024, The Eyes and the Impossible was awarded the Newbery Medal.

Xochitl Gonzalez is the New York Times-bestselling author of Anita de Monte Laughs Last, a Reese’s Book Club Pick longlisted for the Aspen Words Literary Prize, and the award-winning Olga Dies Dreaming, named a Best of 2022 by The New York Times, TIME, Kirkus, Washington Post, and NPR. Gonzalez is a staff writer for The Atlantic and was recognized as a 2023 Pulitzer Prize finalist in Commentary. A native Brooklynite and proud public school graduate, Gonzalez holds a BA from Brown University and an MFA from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop.

Andrew Sean Greer is the bestselling author of seven previous works of fiction, including the Pulitzer Prize winner Less and its companion, Less Is Lost. He lives in San Francisco and Venice, Italy.

Jasmine Guillory is a New York Times bestselling author of nine novels including The Wedding Date, the Reese’s Book Club selection The Proposal, and Flirting Lessons. Her work has appeared in The Wall Street Journal, Cosmopolitan, Bon Appetit, and Time, and she is a frequent book contributor on The Today Show. She lives in Oakland, California. It’s Only Dancing is her YA debut.

John Kanell is a two-time New York Times bestselling author, cooking and baking expert, and founder of Preppy Kitchen, a leading digital food and lifestyle brand with over 9 million followers. Since launching the platform in 2015, he has become a trusted voice for home cooks of all skill levels.

Kanell spent over a decade teaching middle school math and science before turning his passion for baking into a full-time career. His bestselling cookbooks include Preppy Kitchen: Recipes for Seasonal Dishes and Simple Pleasures (2022), Preppy Kitchen Super Easy (2024), with his upcoming book, Preppy Kitchen Everyday Baking, releasing on October 13, 2026.

Kanell has been featured across major national outlets including The Today Show, Good Morning America, Vogue, and Better Homes & Gardens, and has appeared as a guest judge on Food Network’s Chopped: Sweets and Disney’s Magic Bake-Off. Drawing on decades of homegrown experience, he provides fans with the knowledge and resources to create incredible, approachable recipes – whether they’re seasoned cooks or just picking up an apron for the first time.

Patrick Radden Keefe is a staff writer at The New Yorker and the author of The New York Times bestsellers Rogues, Empire of Pain (winner of the 2021 Baillie Gifford Prize) and Say Nothing, which received the National Book Critics Circle Award and was named one of the Twenty Best Books of the 21st Century by The New York Times Book Review. His work has been recognized by a Guggenheim Fellowship, the National Magazine Award for Feature Writing and the Orwell Prize for Political Writing. He served as an Executive Producer on the award-winning FX series Say Nothing, based on his book. He is also the creator and host of the eight-part podcast Wind of Change, about the strange convergence of Cold War espionage and heavy metal music, which The Guardian and Entertainment Weekly named the #1 podcast of 2020.

Lyla Sage lives in the Wild West with her loyal companion, a sweet, old, blind rescue pitbull. She writes romance that feels like her favorite things: sunshine and big blue skies. She is also the author of the Rebel Blue Ranch and Sweetwater Peak series. When she’s not writing, she’s reading.

Dan Santat is a children’s book writer, a commercial illustrator, and the creator of Disney’s animated hit, The Replacements. He lives in California with his wife, two kids, a rabbit, a bird, and a cat.

Maggie Smith is the award-winning New York Times bestselling author of nine books of poetry and prose, including A Suit or a Suitcase, You Could Make This Place Beautiful, Good Bones, Goldenrod, Keep Moving, and My Thoughts Have Wings. She has been widely published, appearing in The New Yorker, The Paris Review, The Nation, The New York Times, The Atlantic, The Best American Poetry, and more. She is the host of The Slowdown. You can find her on social media @MaggieSmithPoet.

Aiden Thomas is a trans, Latinx, New York Times Bestselling Author with an MFA in Creative Writing from Mills College. Originally from Oakland, California, they now make their home in the Pacific NW. Aiden is notorious for not being able to guess the endings of books and movies, and organizes their bookshelves by color. Their books include the Sunbearer Duology, Cemetery Boys, and Lost in the Never Woods.

Mychal Threets is a librarian and literacy advocate named one of Time’s 100 most influential creators. Online, he shares videos of affirmations to assure people that their mental health always matters, and he encourages everyone to know they belong at the library. A former PBS kid himself, Mychal is proud to serve as PBS’s resident librarian. Most recently, he has hosted Reading Rainbow and has written his first book I’m So Happy You’re Here: A Celebration of Library Joy. His cats, Machine Gun Kitty and Kissin’ Kat Barlow, did not help at all, but he still appreciates them.

Renée Watson is a #1 New York Times bestselling author. Her novel All the Blues in the Sky won the Newbery Medal, and Piecing Me Together received a Newbery Honor and a Coretta Scott King Award. Her books include the Ryan Hart series, Some Places More Than Others, This Side of Home, What Momma Left Me, Betty Before X, cowritten with Ilyasah Shabazz, Watch Us Rise, cowritten with Ellen Hagan, and Love Is a Revolution, as well as acclaimed picture books: Summer Is Here, Maya’s Song, The 1619 Project: Born on the Water, written with Nikole Hannah-Jones, A Place Where Hurricanes Happen, and Harlem’s Little Blackbird, which was nominated for an NAACP Image Award. Renée splits her time between Portland, Oregon, and New York City.

Martha Wells has written many novels, including the New York Times and USA Today-bestselling Murderbot Diaries series, which has won multiple Hugo, Nebula, Locus, and Alex Awards, and was adapted into an Apple Original TV series. Other titles include Witch King, City of Bones, The Wizard Hunters, Wheel of the Infinite, the Books of the Raksura series (beginning with The Cloud Roads and ending with The Harbors of the Sun), and the Nebula-nominated The Death of the Necromancer, as well as YA fantasy novels, short stories, and nonfiction.

Colson Whitehead is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of twelve works of fiction and nonfiction, and is a two-time winner of the Pulitzer Prize, for The Nickel Boys and The Underground Railroad, which also won the National Book Award. A recipient of MacArthur and Guggenheim fellowships, he lives in New York City.