Philadelphia Book Festival

Skyline Salon

“A master of mood and atmosphere” (New York Times), Colin Harrison is the author of six thrillers, including Manhattan Nocturne, The Havana Room, and his latest, The Finder, a tale of global intrigue that reveals New York in all of its 21st-century splendor, ... (more)greed, violence and desire. He spent six years as the deputy editor of Harper’s magazine and is now vice president and senior editor at Scribner.

Appearing with Margot Livesey

Skyline Salon

Charles Bock’s debut novel, Beautiful Children, is a sweeping portrait of a depraved Las Vegas, from the bland misery of the suburbs to the explosive and exploitative sex industry, through the eyes of a runaway boy. The Washington Post writes, “[Bock’s] ability to ... (more)share a deep understanding of America’s million or so lost street kids and their tormented parents give the book a whiff of greatness.”

Appearing with Nathaniel Rich

Citibank Main Stage
A bestselling author and professor of Law at Harvard University who helped draft the Iraqi constitution, Noah Feldman examines the popular call for establishing Sharia law in the Middle East, arguing that a modern Islamic state could provide political and legal justice to Muslims, ... (more)but only if new institutions emerge that restore a constitutional balance of power.

Middle East Panel with Michael Scheuer, Robin Wright, and moderated by Trudy Rubin

Poetry Pavillion
Pulitzer Prize winner Jorie Graham spent her youth in Italy, attended New York University, and received her M.F.A. from the prestigious Iowa Writers’ Workshop. She is the prolific author of 12 poetry collections, including her latest, Sea Change. “There is buoyancy in Graham’s ... (more)poetry,” writes Roger Caldwell in the Times Literary Supplement, “…a freshness of vision which is rare in contemporary poetry.”

Citibank Main Stage
Vicki Glembocki’s brutally honest and hilarious memoir The Second Nine Months chronicles her agonizing transition into motherhood as she struggles to balance who she was with who she’s become. Unlike other books on motherhood, Glembocki breaks the new mother “code of ... (more)silence,” arguing that maternal bliss is not innate, but learned.

Motherhood Panel with Rachel Pastan, Amy Richards, and moderated by Jennifer Weiner

Skyline Salon
In The Guardians, bestselling Chicana author Ana Castillo tracks the perilous lives of Mexicans who illegally cross into the U.S. in search of work. “Ana Castillo is a fearless storyteller,” writes author Julia Alvarez. “This brave, unflinching novel shows the tragic consequences ... (more)that come from not facing what is happening in our communities to those without true guardians to protect them.”

Appearing with Marisa de los Santos

Skyline Salon
Belong to Me is Marisa de los Santos’s follow-up to her New York Times bestselling novel, Love Walked In. Focusing on what happens when leaps of faith and twists of fate collide with our carefully constructed outer images, Belong to Me is a “bewitching, warmhearted grown-up ... (more)fairy tale” (Jennifer Weiner).

Appearing with Ana Castillo

Friends Book Store
Philadelphia native Karen Abbott probes the inner workings of Chicago’s infamous Everleigh Club brothel—which operated from 1900 to 1911—and the private lives of Ada and Minna Everleigh, the brothel’s larger-than-life madams, in her New York Times bestseller Sin in the ... (more)Second City.

Citibank Main Stage
What happens when one woman dares to explore her every fantasy? Eleven-time New York Times bestselling author Eric Jerome Dickey ponders that question, and the jealousy and obsession that can come with following one’s intimate desires, in his new novel, Pleasure—a book ... (more)that marks his first foray into the erotica genre.

Poetry Pavillion
Former Chancellor of the Academy of American Poets and current Poet Laureate of Connecticut, John Hollander is the author of more than a dozen poetry collections and seven volumes of literary criticism. Critic Harold Bloom writes, “Hollander’s expressive range and direct emotional ... (more)power attain triumphant expression.”

Skyline Salon
Daniel J. Boyne, author of The Red Rose Crew and Essential Sculling, chronicles the life of Jack Kelly, the son of Irish immigrants, who grew up on the Schuylkill at the turn of the 20th century and became a three-time Olympic gold medalist in rowing, a political maverick, and the millionaire ... (more)father of Princess Grace.

Target Children's Stage
A multi-faceted performer with over 40 years of experience as an actor in theater, film, and television, Roscoe Orman is best known for his 33 years as “Gordon Robinson” on the acclaimed children’s TV program Sesame Street. Ricky and Mobo tells the story of six-year-old ... (more)Ricky, who is determined to win the big neighborhood race with his treasured mechanical horse, Mobo.

A group of local east-coast romance authors will be signing books and giving away promo at this large outdoor bookfair.

Friends Book Store
In The Man Who Made Lists, language enthusiast Joshua Kendall profiles Peter Mark Roget, the eccentric, list-obsessed polymath who created Roget’s Thesaurus. Evocative and entertaining, Kendall’s “fine new biography of Roget” (New York Times) explores the power ... (more)of words and the lasting legacy of this rediscovered genius.

Poetry Pavillion
Rachel Fershleiser is the Senior Editor of SMITH magazine, where she edits the Memoirville section and the PopuLIST. A bookstore clerk and freelance writer whose work has appeared in the Village Voice, she co-edited alongside Larry Smith the deceptively simple Not Quite What I Was ... (more)Planning, a collection of funny and bittersweet mini-memoirs offering a thousand glimpses into humanity, six words at a time.

Appearing with co-editor Larry Smith

Citibank Main Stage
In 2003, Jennifer Finney Boylan took the literary world by storm, publishing her critically acclaimed memoir She’s Not There—the first bestselling book by a transgendered American. The story of her remarkable transformation from James to Jenny was featured on Oprah, The ... (more)Today Show, and Larry King Live. In I’m Looking Through You, she writes about her life growing up in “Coffin House,” a dilapidated mansion on Philadelphia’s Main Line.

Manic is Terri Cheney’s harrowing first-person account of bipolar disorder, written by a former prominent Hollywood attorney who represented everyone from Michael Jackson to Universal Studios. Rendered in heartbreaking prose that probes the depths of depression and the shaky heights of mania, Cheney’s memoir “is not an easy book to read, but has heart and soul to spare” (People).

Memoir Panel moderated by Marion Winik

Poetry Pavillion
hattie gossett is a proud feminist and the author of presenting sister noblues and a co-founding editor of Essence magazine and Kitchen Table Press. The New School University recognized her with the David Randolph Distinguished Artist-in-Residence Award. Her latest collection ... (more)of poetry, the immigrant suite, captures the “reggaeton-tipico-merenguetexmex-Latin-salsa-hip-hop-jazz” experience of living in New York City.

Children's Story Hour Room
Did you know that Ben Franklin invented bifocals, lightning rods, and a rocking chair that churns butter? Author and illustrator Gene Barretta profiles the many inventions of this jolly innovator and Founding Father in his clever children’s picture book.

Skyline Salon
Fifty years ago, 45 million people—the largest crowd to ever witness a football game—tuned in to a match-up that would forever change the face of American sports. According to former Philadelphia Inquirer columnist and bestselling author of Black Hawk Down, Mark Bowden, it was ... (more)the perfect confluence of great players, great coaches, new tactics—and the omnipresence of television—ushering in the modern era of American football.

Skyline Salon
Sam Calagione caught the beer brewing bug while working at a bar in New York City that featured a variety of microbrews. After a number of homebrew experiments, he is now the founder and president of the popular Dogfish Head microbrewery. With sommelier Marnie Old, Calagione is the co-author ... (more)of He Said Beer, She said Wine, a food and beverage pairing guide replete with wit and banter that encourages readers to get the most of their beverages, with or without food.

Citibank Main Stage
In Standing Up to the Madness, Democracy Now! host Amy Goodman and co-author David Goodman argue that everyday people who fight for their beliefs truly wield the greatest power in the United States. Through profiles of citizens who rose to extraordinary challenges—like the ... (more)four Connecticut librarians who refused to spy on their patrons, challenged the Patriot Act, and won—the Goodmans emphasize how any individual can take action and effect change.

Friends Book Store
Wahida Clark first started writing fiction while incarcerated and is now the Essence bestselling author of many books, including Sleeping with the Enemy, Every Thug Needs a Lady, and Payback Is a Mutha. Payback With Ya Life is the raw and intense sequel to Payback ... (more)Is a Mutha in which new turf wars explode, old scores are settled, and main character Shan finds herself caught in the crossfire—again.

Appearing with K'Wan

Target Children's Stage
Andrea Buchanan is a classically trained pianist who played at Carnegie Hall. Now a writer living in Philadelphia, she is the author of Mother Shock, co-editor of Literary Mama, and co-author, alongside Miriam Peskowitz, of the New York Times bestseller The ... (more)Daring Book for Girls—which encourages girls to be curious, brave, and, above all, to have fun!

Philadelphia resident Miriam Peskowitz was a camp counselor, blogger, musician, documentary talking-head, historian, and professor before writing The Truth Behind the Mommy Wars and, along with Andrea Buchanan, The Daring Book for Girls.

Poetry Pavillion
Poet Thomas Devaney is a Senior Writing Fellow at the University of Pennsylvania. He received his M.F.A. from Brooklyn College, as a student of Allen Ginsberg. Devaney has authored two collections of poetry, The American Pragmatist Fell in Love and A Series of Small Boxes. ... (more)His work has been published in numerous literary magazines and anthologies, including jubilat and The American Poetry Review.

Born in Alexandria, Egypt, of Armenian parentage, poet Gregory Djanikian directs the creative writing program at the University of Pennsylvania and is the author of five collections of poetry. His poems have appeared in such publications as The American Scholar, The Nation, Poetry, and in over 25 anthologies and textbooks. He is the recipient of numerous awards including a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Eunice Tietjens Prize.

Target Children's Stage
What is stargazer, skateboarder, chess champ, pepperoni pizza eater, older brother, sister hater, best friend, first kisser, science geek, control freak Will Tuppence so afraid of in this great big universe? The prolific author of more than two dozen books for kids—including ... (more)Newbery Award-winning Maniac Magee—Jerry Spinelli knows, and he tells readers all about it in his latest book, Smiles to Go.

Citibank Main Stage
Standard Operating Procedure—written through a unique collaboration between Paris Review editor Philip Gourevitch and Academy Award-winning director Errol Morris (The Fog of War)—is the first full reckoning of what really happened at Abu Ghraib prison, based on ... (more)hundreds of hours of exclusive interviews with the Americans involved. Instead of “a few bad apples,” one is confronted with disturbingly ordinary young men and women whose experiences read like something out of Dante’s Inferno.

Friends Book Store
From the early 1950s through the mid-1970s, Philadelphia’s Holmesburg Prison inmates were used as unwilling test subjects in medical experiments that included testing of facial creams and perfumes, and much more hazardous, potentially lethal, substances such as radioactive isotopes, ... (more)dioxin, and chemical warfare agents. In Sentenced to Science, Temple University professor Allen Hornblum follows Edward "Yusef" Anthony through forced medical experimentation and investigates the millions of dollars that many leading drug and consumer goods companies—and doctors—made in the deal. Mr. Anthony will attend the discussion.

Skyline Salon
Extensively published, Veronica Chambers has written and edited for national magazines for 12 years. People magazine deemed her memoir Mama’s Girl “extraordinary.” Kickboxing Geishas examines boundary-busting modern Japanese women, who freely mix East and West, burying ... (more)stereotypes and defining an electrifying new culture in their country.

“Funny and intelligent” (People), Trey Ellis’s memoir Bedtime Stories chronicles what happens when the glamorous life of an L.A. bachelor collides with the less-than-glamorous life of a single father who eats frozen dinners and changes dirty diapers. Naomi Wolf calls the book “a great gift for anyone who values the true dramas of committed parenting.”

Pig Candy chronicles Philadelphia-born Lise Funderberg’s experiences while traveling through Georgia with her dying father, as she comes to understand the brutal oppression he faced growing up in the Jim Crow South and the surprising love he still felt for the land and its people.