KEYNOTE SPEAKERS

#1 New York Times Best-Selling Author; Known for "Puddin',"Dumplin'" & "Side Effects May Vary"

Award-Winning Author, Known for "The Lost Girls of Camp Forevermore"

Author & Creative Writing Professor; Best Known for "Tampa" & "Made for Love"

Author and Illustrator of "The Invention of Hugo Cabret"

Author of "The Dig"

New York Times Bestselling Author Known for "Infinity Son" & "They Both Die at the End"

Writer, Editor, Author & Creative Consultant

Author of "Heads of the Colored People"

Author & Managing Director of The Antiracist Research & Policy Center at American University

Award-Winning Author of "Halsey Street" & "What’s Mine and Yours"

Award-Winning Children's Book Author & Illustrator

Poet, Educator, Publisher, Emmy Award Winning Producer & New York Times Bestselling Author Known for "The Crossover"

Contributing Editor at Catapult & Author of "This Will Be My Undoing"

New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of the "Grisha Trilogy"

New York Times Best-Selling Author of "The Tourists" & "The Short and Tragic Life of Robert Peace"

#1 New York Times Best Selling Author, Award-Winning Children's Musician & Original Author of the "Pete the Cat" Series

Co-Founder of the Born This Way Foundation with Daughter Lady Gaga; WHO Goodwill Ambassador for Mental Health

Long-Distance Hiker & Author; Overall Record Holder on the Appalachian Trail & The First Woman to Set That Mark

Best-Selling Author Known for the "Goosebumps" Series

Nancy Kruse, President of The Kruse Company in Atlanta GA, is the best known and most widely quoted menu analyst in the restaurant industry.