Andrew Lawler

Andrew Lawler is a journalist and author who has written about history, science, religion, and politics from dozens of countries.

He is author of four books:

• A Perfect Frenzy: A Royal Governor, His Black Allies, and the Crisis That Spurred the American Revolution
• The prize-winning Under Jerusalem: The Buried History of the World’s Most Contested City
• The national bestseller The Secret Token: Myth, Obsession, and the Search for the Lost Colony of Roanoke
• The acclaimed Why Did The Chicken Cross The World: The Epic Saga Of The Bird That Powers Civilization.

Andrew’s byline has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, National Geographic, Smithsonian, and many other publications. He is a contributing writer for Science and contributing editor for Archaeology, as well as a National Geographic Explorer and a Pulitzer Center grantee. His work has won a number of journalism awards, and appeared several times in The Best of Science and Nature Writing.

Denise Kiernan

Denise Kiernan is an author, journalist, producer, and host of “CRAFT: Authors in Conversation.” Her forthcoming narrative nonfiction title, Obstinate Daughters: The Rebels, Writers, and Renegade Women Who Ignited the American Revolution arrives Spring 2026. Her latest young reader’s book, We Gather Together: Stories of Thanksgiving from then to now, is a companion title to the popular adult nonfiction book, We Gather Together, and children’s picture book, Giving Thanks. Her titles The Last Castle and The Girls of Atomic City were both instant New York Times bestsellers in both hardcover and paperback. The Last Castle was also a Wall Street Journal bestseller, a finalist for the 2018 Thomas Wolfe Memorial Literary Award and a finalist for the Southern Book Prize. The Girls of Atomic City was also a Los Angeles Times and NPR bestseller, was named one of Amazon's “Top 100 Best Books of 2013,” and is now available in multiple languages. It was also awarded the 2014 American Political Science Association's Woodrow Wilson Foundation Award for the best book published in the United States on government, politics, or international affairs.  

Kiernan has also co-authored several popular history titles including Signing Their Lives Away, Signing Their Rights Away, and Stuff Every American Should Know. She has been published in The Washington Post, The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Village Voice, Rolling Stone, Time, Ms. Magazine, Saveur, Reader's Digest, Discover and many more publications. She has also worked in television, serving as head writer for ABC's "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire" during its Emmy award-winning first season and has produced for media outlets such as ESPN and MSNBC. Throughout her career, Kiernan has been a featured guest on many radio and television shows, including NPR's "Weekend Edition," PBS NewsHour, MSNBC Morning Joe and The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. She lives in North Carolina.

Photo: Lynn Harty

Elizabeth Kostova

Elizabeth Kostova holds a B.A. in British Studies from Yale and an M.F.A. in creative writing (fiction) from the University of Michigan. She is the author of three novels--The Historian, The Swan Thieves, and The Shadow Land--all of which involve the subject of historical research. Her fourth novel, Mystery Play, will be published in 2026. Her work has been translated into 40 languages, and The Historian received Quill and American Bookseller Awards. It was also the first novel in American publishing history to debut at #1 on the NYT bestseller list. Kostova’s short fiction, poetry, and essays have appeared in such periodicals and anthologies as Mississippi Review, Poets & Writers Magazine, The Best American Poetry, and Michigan Quarterly Review. Kostova reads, teaches, and lectures internationally and is co-founder of the Elizabeth Kostova Foundation (www.ekf.bg), based in Bulgaria. She lives in Asheville, where she is working on post-hurricane relief and serves on the board of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Association.

Heather Bell Adams

Originally from Hendersonville and a lifelong North Carolinian, Heather Bell Adams is the author of Maranatha Road (West Virginia University Press), The Good Luck Stone (Haywire Books), and Starring Marilyn Monroe as Herself (forthcoming Regal House). Her short stories appear in New Letters, North Carolina Literary Review, The Thomas Wolfe Review, failbetter, Orange Blossom Review, Reckon Review, and elsewhere. She was North Carolina’s 2022 Piedmont Laureate and South Carolina’s 2023 Pat Conroy Writer-in-Residence.

Jamie Mason

Jamie Mason was born in Oklahoma City and grew up all over the Washington, DC area. She’s most often reading and writing, but in the life left over, she enjoys films, Formula 1 racing, football, traveling, and, conversely, staying at home. Jamie lives with her husband and two daughters in the mountains of western North Carolina. She writes more whydunnits than whodunnits because the why in stories is her favorite part, and she is the author of Three Graves Full, Monday's Lie, and The Hidden Things.

Jeff Jackson

Jeff Jackson is a novelist, playwright, visual artist, and songwriter. His second novel Destroy All Monsters was published by Farrar, Straus & Giroux in Fall 2018. It received advanced praise from Don DeLillo, Janet Fitch, Dana Spiotta, Ben Marcus, and Dennis Cooper. His novella Novi Sad was published as a limited edition art book and selected for “Best of 2016” lists in Vice, Lit Reactor, and Entropy. His first novel Mira Corpora, published in 2013, was a Finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize and featured on numerous "Best of the Year" lists, including Slate, Salon, The New Statesman, and Flavorwire. His short fiction has appeared in Guernica, Vice, New York Tyrant, and The Collagist and been performed in New York and Los Angeles by New River Dramatists.

As a playwright, six of his plays have been produced by the Obie Award-winning Collapsable Giraffe company in New York City. Vine of the Dead: 11 Ritual Gestures debuted in 2016 at the Westbeth Arts Center. Dream of the Red Chamber: Performance for a Sleeping Audience, an adaptation of the epic Chinese novel, debuted in Times Square in 2014 to rave reviews. Botanica was selected by the New York Times as "one of 2012's most galvanizing theater moments."

He holds an M.F.A. from NYU and is the recipient of fellowships from the MacDowell Colony, Baryshnikov Arts Center, Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, and Hambidge Center. 

Phillip Lewis

Phillip Lewis is a writer from Charlotte, North Carolina. He graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1993 and earned a law degree from the Norman Adrian Wiggins School of Law in 2001, where he served as Editor in Chief of the law review. His novel THE BARROWFIELDS was published to international acclaim in 2017. 

Robert Fitzpatrick

Robert L. FitzPatrick is the author of the new book, "Charlotte, Searching for Soul in a Booming Southern City" (2025), an inquiry into the inner life and social character of one Southern metro area, Charlotte, North Carolina, yet it is also a story of daily life in cities across America. It is about a basic experience of urban life, yet so seldom acknowledged it has no name. This book calls it Soul, referring to Sense of Place, Home, and the need of people to shape their futures where they live. It probes the social costs to residents when Soul is diminished or absent in cities relentlessly chasing growth, status and wealth.

Robert is known internationally for his consumer education and advocacy regarding pyramid schemes and Ponzi frauds, known as "multi-level marketing." In 2020, he released the book, "Ponzinomics, the Untold Story of Multi-Level Marketing," the first and still the only comprehensive history and analysis of the "MLM" phenomenon, addressing its political influence, deceptive propaganda techniques and use of cult persuasion. FitzPatrick served as expert or consultant in more than 40 court cases against pyramid schemes and multi-level marketing. He has served as consultant and expert witness for Attorney General or State Attorney offices in four states and the US Dept. of Justice. He is co-author of "False Profits" (1997), an examination of the cultural values and beliefs that support the delusions of pyramid schemes. He was featured on NBC Dateline, ABC World News, and CBS 60 Minutes, the John Oliver Show on HBO, the Netflix documentary film, "Betting on Zero" and the podcast, "The Dream."

He has been quoted in many newspapers around the world, including the New York Times and Wall Street Journal. His booklet, Pyramid Nation, was used by government regulators in writing China's first laws on pyramid schemes. In 2005, he delivered a seminar in Colombo, Sri Lanka to central banking representatives from that country as well as India, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Maldives and Nepal. Robert FitzPatrick has developed informational resources for consumers, journalists, academics and regulators. He has provided expert consultation to many financial analysts. Robert FitzPatrick co-founded and serves as president of Pyramid Scheme Alert. He personally responds to consumer and news media inquiries.

Prior to his engagement in consumer education, Robert FitzPatrick provided consulting services in several industries in channel management and distributor marketing, working with hundreds of independent distributors and suppliers where trust and cooperation were key factors for success. Consulting clients included Fujifilm, HP, Epson, Dupont and many others. Robert FitzPatrick's books, professional engagements and civic participation are shaped by a deep commitment to truth-telling and fairness.

Robert is a native of Charlotte, NC. He lives in Hot Springs, a small community in the mountains of western North Carolina, with his wife Terry Thirion, a professional artist and a native of Belgium.

Steven James

Steven James is a critically acclaimed author of twenty-one novels and numerous nonfiction books that have been translated into six languages and have won or been shortlisted for dozens of national and international awards. In addition, his stories and articles have appeared in more than eighty different publications, including the New York Times. He is also a popular keynote speaker and professional storyteller with a master’s degree in storytelling.

Since 1996, James has appeared more than two thousand times at events spanning the globe, presenting his stories and teaching the principles of storytelling to writers, speakers, teachers, and leaders.

He also hosts the weekly podcast The Story Blender, on which he has interviewed more than 200 of the world’s leading writers and storytellers.

In 2020, he was inducted into the Christy Award Hall of Fame for excellence in fiction writing. Publishers Weekly has called him a “master storyteller at the peak of his game.”

When he’s not writing or speaking, you may find him playing basketball or disc golf, or hiking near his home in the Appalachian Highlands of East Tennessee. He may or may not watch too many science fiction movies while eating bottomless bowls of chips and salsa.

Thomas Calder

Thomas Calder is the author of THE WIND UNDER THE DOOR. He earned his MFA in creative writing from the University of Houston. His fiction, essays, and book reviews have appeared in Juked, West Branch, Miracle Monocle, and elsewhere. He is a regular contributor to storySouth. He also serves as managing editor of Mountain Xpress. He lives with his wife and daughter in Asheville.

Tommy Tomlinson

Tommy Tomlinson is the author of two books: The Elephant in the Room, a memoir about being overweight in America, and Dogland, about the Westminster Dog Show and the bond between dogs and their people. He also has a newsletter called The Writing Shed. He's a Pulitzer Prize finalist and has written for publications including Esquire, ESPN the Magazine, Sports Illustrated, Southern Living, and many others. He spent twenty-three years as a reporter and local columnist for the Charlotte Observer. Tommy and his wife, Alix Felsing, live in Charlotte with their cat, Jack Reacher.