KEYNOTES

Alice Hoffman is the author of thirty works of fiction, including Practical Magic, The Dovekeepers, Magic Lessons, and The Book of Magic. Visit her website: AliceHoffman.com. 

Emily St. John Mandel is the author of six novels, including Sea of Tranquility, which has been translated into 25 languages and was selected by President Barack Obama as one of his favorite books of 2022; The Glass Hotel, which was also on Obama’s list, was shortlisted for the Scotiabank Giller Prize, and has been translated into 26 languages; and Station Eleven, which was a finalist for a National Book Award and the PEN/Faulkner Award, won the 2015 Arthur C. Clarke Award among other honors, has been translated into 36 languages, and aired as a limited series on HBO Max. She lives in New York City and Los Angeles. Her forthcoming novel is Exit Party (Knopf, September 2026). 

SPEAKERS

Asale Angel-Ajani is the author of A Country You Can Leave and Strange Trade. Her work has been featured in The New York Times, CNN, Ms. Magazine, and NPR. A recipient of major grants, she was a Hutchins Fellow at Harvard and holds a PhD from Stanford. She lives in New York City.  

Ayad Akhtar is a novelist and playwright. He is the winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, the Edith Wharton Citation of Merit for Fiction, and an award in literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, among other honors. Akhtar is the author of the novels American Dervish, a Kirkus Reviews Best Book of the Year, Homeland Elegies, named one of 10 Best Books of 2020 by The New York Times, and the upcoming The Radiance. Akhtar was named the New York State Author in 2021. 

Sarah Addison Allen is the New York Times bestselling author of Other Birds, Garden Spells, The Sugar Queen, The Girl Who Chased the Moon, The Peach Keeper, First Frost and Lost Lake. She was born and raised in Asheville, North Carolina. 

Living with Multiple Sclerosis means writing through challenges most will never see. Yet Meg Anderson continues to create with persistence and heart. Her stories are filled with light, humor, and resilience—not in spite of her illness, but because of the strength it demands. Writing isn’t just her passion, it’s her lifeline and she will always strive to turn her struggle into something beautiful and hope into something real. Meg is a debut author living in Indiana. 

Marie Benedict is a graduate of Boston College and the Boston University School of Law. She is a New York Times and USA Today bestselling author and lives in Pittsburgh with her family.   

Rochelle Bilow is a romance novelist and food writer. Rochelle appeared on season one of Beat Bobby Flay and has also written for Food & Wine, Condé Nast Traveler, The Kitchn, Allrecipes, Serious Eats, and The Spruce Eats. When she’s not cooking or writing, Rochelle runs ultramarathons and hangs out with her corgi, Cedar.   

Chiara Bullen is a Scottish writer and academic living in Glasgow. She spends most of her days researching literature and her evenings writing novels. When she isn’t exploring hills across Scotland, she can be found wandering the fictional mountains of D&D with her party. 

Kalie Cassidy was born and raised in Southern California and spent over a decade working in Los Angeles as a professional theater actor, coach, and acting teacher. She now lives in the Midwest with her family and rambunctious golden retriever. 

Betty Cayouette is an author, viral video content creator and cinematographer. She graduated Summa Cum Laude from Brandeis University in only three years, and currently lives in Salem, Massachusetts. Betty created @bettysbooklist, the viral TikTok/Instagram account which is one of the top book recommendation accounts in the world and is featured in outlets such as The Boston Globe, Euronews, Fox News, The London Times and Glamour UK. One Last Shot is her debut novel. 

Libby Edwardson is an author, artist, and the co-founder of a volunteer group of Appalachian youth called 52 Weeks of Giving that was featured on Good Morning America. Though she has called many places home, she now lives on the coast of Maine where she paints ghosts, writes about monsters, and wanders seaside cemeteries. We Sent Them Down Singing is her debut novel. 

Ryan Effgen’s fiction has appeared in Best New American Voices, Fiction Magazine, Painted Bride Quarterly, and elsewhere. He has earned creative writing fellowships from the Virginia Commission for the Arts and George Mason University. He works as an instructional designer and lives in Virginia with his wife and children. 

Portia Elan studied history at Stanford University and earned an MFA from the University of Victoria, British Columbia, before returning to California, where she has worked as a teacher and public librarian. A former Lambda Literary Fellow, she lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with her wife and an abundance of cats. Homebound is her first novel. 

Bonnie Garmus is a coffee-dependent American novelist. Her debut novel, Lessons in Chemistry, was a Good Morning America Book Club Pick, a Goodreads Choice Best Book of the Year, spent nearly two years on the New York Times bestseller list and was named by Times readers as one of the top 100 books of the 21st century. Peck & Peck is her second novel.  

Reyna Grande is an award-winning author, motivational speaker, and writing teacher. As a young girl, she crossed the US–Mexico border to join her family in Los Angeles, a harrowing journey chronicled in The Distance Between Us, a National Book Critics Circle Award finalist. Her other books include the novels A Ballad of Love and Glory, Across a Hundred Mountains, and Dancing with Butterflies, the memoirs Migrant Heart, The Distance Between Us: Young Readers Edition, and A Dream Called Home, and the anthology Somewhere We Are Human: Authentic Voices on Migration, Survival, and New Beginnings. 

Justin Halpern is a Golden Globe-winning and Emmy-nominated Creator, Showrunner, Director, and Executive Producer through his and creative partner Patrick Schumacker's company, Delicious Non-Sequitur Productions, which is currently under an overall deal with Warner Bros. Television. He is the Executive Producer and co-showrunner of the Emmy-winning hit series Abbott Elementary on ABC alongside Quinta Brunson and Patrick Schumacker. The series has been nominated for Best Comedy Series in both 2022 and 2024, among other honors. Justin is the author of New York Times bestselling book Sh*t My Dad Says and I Suck At Girls. Get Lost is his debut novel. 

Barbara Hoffert was the literary fiction, poetry, and Prepub Alert editor at Library Journal for nearly four decades and helped organize Day of Dialog since its inception. After retirement she is continuing to write the annual books preview for the magazine. She served as the president, awards chair, and treasurer of the National Book Critics Circle, which awarded her its inaugural service award. 

Lauren Hough was born in Germany and raised in seven countries, and West Texas. She's been an Air Force airman, a bartender, a bouncer, a construction laborer, a driver, a green-aproned barista, and a cable guy. She's the author of the New York Times bestselling essay collection, Leaving Isn't the Hardest Thing. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, Granta, Texas Highways, Huffpost, and The Guardian. She's a writer at large for Texas Highways. She lives in Austin with a dog named Woody Guthrie. 

Born and raised in the American South, T. Geronimo Johnson is the bestselling author of Welcome to Braggsville, longlisted for the National Book Award and Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence; and Hold It ’Til It Hurts, a finalist for the PEN/Faulkner Award. He won the inaugural Joyce Carol Oates Award, the Rome Prize, Ernest J. Gaines Award for Literary Excellence, and the William Saroyan International Prize, received his M.F.A. from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, where he later taught writing, and has held Stegner and Iowa Arts fellowships. 

Isabel J. Kim lives near New York City in an apartment filled with books and swords. She is the author of numerous short stories and has won the Nebula, Locus, and the Shirley Jackson Award. Her work has been translated into multiple languages and reprinted in multiple best of the year anthologies. When she’s not writing, she’s practicing law or podcasting. Sublimation is her first novel. 

L. M. Kemp lives and works in upstate London (Essex). She writes for a vast variety of creative, cultural, corporate and clandestine clients: most recently co-authoring personalized books for Wonderbly; reviewing pilot episodes, cheap perfumes and random Instagram accounts for Ralph Magazine; and editing lengthy and devastating reports for Greenpeace. For the last two years her work has been dominated by the research and development of I, Spy and a deep dive into the murky world of modern spycraft. 

Robinne Lee is the bestselling author of The Idea of You. Her debut novel has been translated into two dozen languages and adapted into a record-breaking feature film for Amazon Studios. Additionally, she is an actress and producer with numerous credits in both television and film. A graduate of Yale University and Columbia Law School, Lee has lived in New York and Los Angeles, and now resides in Paris with her husband and two children. 

Monica “Mika” Leon has worked in kitchens across South Florida for a decade. Her journey to chef, restaurateur, and television personality began with Mika Bites, a wholesale desserts company, and continued to a opening a food truck serving Cuban tacos and later her restaurant, Caja Caliente, in Coral Gables, Florida. She’s competed on Food Network’s Guy’s Grocery Store Games, Chopped, 24 in 24: Last Chef Standing, and Beat Bobby Flay. She has been featured on shows such as Gordon Ramsay: Uncharted, Taste the Nation with Padma Lakshmi, Family Dinner with Andrew Zimmern where she brings Cuban flavors to life for a national audience. Mika lives in Miami with her husband and daughter.   

M. K. Lobb is a fantasy writer with a love of all things dark— be it literature, humor, or general aesthetic. Her debut novel Seven Faceless Saints (Little, Brown) was a #1 Sunday Times bestseller, a Kids’ Indie Next Pick, and has been translated into seven languages. It was also shortlisted for the Barnes & Noble Children's & YA Book Awards. This is her adult debut. She lives in Ontario. 

Charlie Lovett is a New York Times and USA Today bestselling author and playwright whose award-winning plays have been seen in over 5,000 productions worldwide. His five previous novels have included an Indie Next pick and a Barnes & Noble Recommends selection; have been praised in outlets including Parade, People, and Washington Post; and have been translated into several languages. He hosted the podcast Inside the Writer’s Studio and is a scholar of Lewis Carroll and collector of his works and related materials (including Carroll’s 1888 typewriter). Charlie and his wife, Janice, live in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, and in Kingham, Oxfordshire. 

Josh Malerman is a New York Times bestselling author and one of two singer-songwriters for the rock band The High Strung. His debut novel, Bird Box, is the inspiration for the hit Netflix film of the same name. His other novels include Unbury Carol, Inspection, A House at the Bottom of a Lake, Pearl, Goblin, Daphne, Incidents Around the House, and Malorie, the sequel to Bird Box. Malerman lives in Michigan with his fiancée, the artist-musician Allison Laakko. 

Madeline Martin is a New York Times, USA TODAY, and international bestselling author of historical fiction and historical romance with books that have been translated into over twenty different languages. 

David McCloskey is the author of five books, including The Seventh Floor and The Persian. His new novel, London Station, will be published by Norton in September 2026. He is also cohost of the podcast The Rest Is Classified. A former CIA analyst, he worked at Langley and in field stations across the Middle East. He lives in Dallas, Texas. https://www.davidmccloskeybooks.com 

Rhonda McKnight is the author of the 2024 Christy Award Finalist and Emma Award winner The Thing About Home, as well as several other bestselling, award-winning novels. She writes book club fiction and romance featuring complex characters in crisis. With themes of faith, forgiveness, and hope, her stories inspire and uplift women, offering heartfelt journeys of love, redemption, and resilience. She makes her home in South Carolina. 

Laura Moriarty is the author of five other novels, including the New York Times bestseller The Chaperone which was made into a feature film by the creators of Downton Abbey. She lives in Lawrence, Kansas, and is a professor of Creative Writing at the University of Kansas. 

Tomás Q. Morín is the author of the memoirs Let Me Count the Ways, winner of the 2023 Vulgar Genius Nonfiction Award, and Where Are You From: Letters to My Son, as well as the poetry collections Machete, Patient Zero, and A Larger Country. He is coeditor, with Mari L’Esperance, of the anthology Coming Close: Forty Essays on Philip Levine, and a translator of The Heights of Macchu Picchu by Pablo Neruda. He is a fellow of the Guggenheim Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts. 

Victoria Christopher Murray is a New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of more than thirty novels. She is an NAACP Image Award Winner for Outstanding Literary Work for her novel Stand Your Ground, which was also a Library Journal Best Book of the Year. 

Alex Myers is a teacher, writer, and transgender rights advocate. His debut novel, Revolutionary, was released in 2014 and was a finalist for a Lambda Literary award. His other novels include Continental Divide and The Story of Silence. He lives and teaches in Vermont with his wife and two cats. 

Audrey Niffenegger is a writer and visual artist. She has published two novels, The Time Traveler’s Wife and Her Fearful Symmetry, and many illustrated books including The Night Bookmobile, The Three Incestuous Sisters, and Raven Girl. She received her BFA from the Art Institute of Chicago and her MFA from Northwestern University. Her art is in the collections of the Newberry Library, the National Museum of Women in the Arts, the Library of Congress, and the Houghton Library at Harvard University, among others. She has spent much of her life in or near Chicago, where she helped found the Center for the Book and Paper Arts at Columbia College Chicago and served on the faculty of the Creative Writing Department at Columbia College until 2015. She splits her time between Chicago and London. 

Evann Normandin earned her BA in English and Theater from Middlebury College and her MSc in English, with a focus on traumatic memory, from the University of Edinburgh. Her work has been published in Broadway World, Rewire News, Slush Magazine, and The Journal of Compressed Creative Arts. Evann lives outside Boston with her son and husband, who inspired the love story (but only the good parts). The Good Parts is her debut. 

Téa Obreht is the internationally bestselling author of The Tiger’s Wife, Inland and The Morningside. Her novels have won the Orange Prize for Fiction and the Southwest Book Award, and have been finalists for the National Book Award and the Dylan Thomas Prize, among other honors. Her work has appeared in The Best American Short Stories, The New Yorker, The Atlantic, Harper’s, and Zoetrope: All-Story, among many other publications. Originally from the former Yugoslavia, Obreht now resides in Wyoming. 

H.G. Parry lives in a book-infested flat on the Kapiti Coast in New Zealand, which she shares with her sister, a cat, three guinea pigs, and two over-active rabbits. She holds a Ph.D. in English Literature from Victoria University of Wellington and has taught English, film, and media studies. 

Cynthia Pelayo is a Bram Stoker and International Latino Book Award–winning author and poet. Her novels include Vanishing Daughters, Forgotten Sisters, Children of Chicago and The Shoemaker’s Magician. Pelayo has also written numerous short stories and is editor of Something Followed Us Home: Tales of Latiné Horror. 

When not reading or writing, Ande Pliego can usually be found dabbling in art, scheming up her next trip, or making constant expeditions to the library. Born in Florida, raised in France, and having left footprints all over the globe, Ande is settled in the Pacific Northwest with her little son. Ande Pliego is the bestselling author of You Are Fatally Invited and The Library After Dark. 

Katherine Reay is a national bestselling and award-winning author who has enjoyed a lifelong affair with books. She publishes both fiction and nonfiction, holds a BA and MS from Northwestern University, and currently lives outside Bozeman, MT, with her husband and three children. You can meet her online at katherinereay.com; Facebook: @KatherineReayBooks; X: @katherine_reay; Instagram: @katherinereay 

Markus Redmond is an actor, director, screenwriter, and author. Known for his roles on Doogie Howser, MD, NYPD Blue, Murder One, Mad About You, Angel, and Fight Club, he wrote and starred alongside Whoopi Goldberg and Sharon Stone in the indie film If I Had Known I Was a Genius. He wrote, directed, and starred in the Amazon Prime thriller The 6th Degree, and has multiple screenplays in development. He lives in Los Angeles. 

Freya Sampson is the USA Today bestselling author of The Last Chance Library. She studied history at Cambridge and worked in television, making documentaries about everything from the British royal family to neighbors from hell. She lives in London with her husband, children, and cats. 

Mengxi Seeley is a 1.5-generation-immigrant born in China and raised in Utah. With research skills in both Chinese and English, she is a published translator of many academic articles on Chinese history. When not writing, she enjoys gardening, running, and over-analyzing movies with her family. 

Nik Sharma is the bestselling author of cookbooks celebrated for blending culinary science with deeply personal storytelling: Season, The Flavor Equation, and Veg-Table. A former molecular biologist, Sharma brings a unique lens to the kitchen, where flavor is both a feeling and a formula. He serves as Editor in Residence at America's Test Kitchen, where he hosts the YouTube show Flavor Forward with Nik Sharma, is a co-host of the show In the Test Kitchen on Netflix, and is a cast member on the upcoming America’s Test Kitchen show on PBS. Sharma is the creator of the award-winning blog Nik Sharma Cooks (formerly A Brown Table), and his writing and photography have been featured in The San Francisco Chronicle, The New York Times, The Guardian, and The Wall Street Journal, among others. He lives in Los Angeles, California, where he's always dreaming up his next recipe. 

K.S. Shay grew up in the part of northeastern Massachusetts where half the streets are named after people who were accused of witchcraft. She loves live music, local gossip, and getting outside. You can find her across social media @ksshaywrites and at ksshaywrites.com. 

Lyndsey Simpson, CEO of 55/Redefined is a driving force removing age-related barriers in the workplace and releasing the power and potential of people in midlife. Simpson, through 55/Redefined, has worked with some of the world’s biggest companies—from AXA to Amazon, Barclays, and Diageo—enabling them to develop age strategies for over-50 talent and consumers alike. Her insights have made her one of the most influential voices shaping how individuals and companies navigate longer, more dynamic working lives. She is based in London. 

STEPHANIE SOILEAU is the author of the critically acclaimed story collection Last One Out Shut Off the Lights. Her work has been supported by fellowships from the Wallace Stegner Fellowship Program at Stanford University and the National Endowment for the Arts. Originally from Lake Charles, Louisiana, Soileau now lives in Chicago with her family and teaches in the creative writing program at the University of Chicago. 

Cynthia Swanson is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of the psychological suspense novels The Bookseller, The Glass Forest, and Anyone But Her, and the forthcoming short story collection This Isn’t New: Women’s Historical Stories. Cynthia was named 2025 Indie Author of the Year by the Indie Author Project, has received the Colorado Book Award (twice) and the WILLA Literary Award, won the Indie Author Project contest, and been a finalist for the High Plains Book Award, the WILLA Literary Award, and the CAL Award.  She lives with her family in Denver.   

Nafissa Thompson-Spires is the author of the collection Heads of the Colored People, which won the PEN Open Book Award, the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award for Fiction, and the Los Angeles Times’s Art Seidenbaum Award for First Fiction. Her collection was longlisted for the National Book Award, the PEN/Robert W. Bingham Prize, and several other prizes, including an NAACP Image Award. She is the recipient of a United States Artists Grant. The Four Wives and Five Deaths of Richard Milford is her debut novel. 

Johanna Van Veen grew up in the Netherlands. She currently works as an editor for a big company that sends a lot of reports and letters out every day, all of them requiring a lot of love and attention to make sure that every comma is where it should be. This job gives her enough time to write. When she isn’t doing any of those things, she enjoys spending time with her wife, her sisters (she's a triplet), and her dog. She is the award-nominated and bestselling author of My Darling Dreadful Thing and Blood on Her Tongue. 

Natalie Walters is a bestselling and award-winning author who loves thrilling adventure, quick-witted characters, fun banter, and romantic tension with all the sizzling chemistry. She writes sweet and stabby suspense for readers who crave plot twists, emotional stakes, and just enough mischief to make you wonder if that shovel in the trunk is for gardening . . . or something else. Connect with her online at nataliewalterswriter.com; Instagram: @nataliewalters_writer; BookBub: @nataliewalters 

Bo Wang was born in Cincinnati to Taiwanese American parents. Her childhood was peppered with stories of the Monkey King alongside those of Frog and Toad. A graduate of Sycamore Public Schools, Bo holds an A.B. in history and literature from Harvard College. She now lives in Boston with her family. The Chinese Lady is her debut novel. 

Bryan Welch is a business executive, writer, farmer, and entrepreneur. For nineteen years, from its founding, he ran Ogden Publications, Mother Earth News, Mother Earth Living, Utne Reader, and several other leading media brands focused on sustainability and natural health. 

Stephanie Williams, a University of Illinois at Chicago graduate, has made a remarkable journey from the world of science to a comic book creator. Her imaginative storytelling has captivated readers, and she has an impressive portfolio of titles. These include "Nubia and the Amazons," an empowering tale, "Nubia: Queen of the Amazon," a regal adventure, and "Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur: Wreck and Roll," an action-packed character-driven middle-grade graphic novel. She used her research skills for, "Strange and Unsung All-Stars of the DC Multiverse." She recently adapted Maggie Stiefvater’s NYT Bestselling YA novel, "The Raven Boys," into a graphic novel with a July 2025 release date. 

Chris Young is a consultant, author, and public speaker. Raised in Clarksville, Tennessee, he came of age in a community shaped by severe poverty, instability, and limited opportunity. Sentenced to life in prison under outdated federal drug laws, Chris spent more than a decade incarcerated, where he read extensively, dedicating himself to study and self-development. In 2021, he was granted executive clemency. Since his release, Chris has earned a degree in economics and public policy from Southern Methodist University and founded Coherence Consulting, a firm that uses data, policy analysis, and lived experience to reimagine how institutions invest in human potential. Chris’s story and insights have been featured across national media platforms, where he speaks not only about incarceration and reform, but about agency, resilience, and the power of the mind. 

MODERATORS

Ron Block is a Branch Manager in the Cuyahoga County Public Library System in Cleveland, Ohio. His passion for libraries, reading and cooking have fueled non-traditional library programs and community collaborations. He was named a 2020 Library Journal Mover and Shaker and serves as a judge for the James Beard Cookbook Awards. Ron has recently become the Podcast Host for https://friendsandfiction.com/, representing 4 NYT Bestselling authors.

Joanna Burkhardt is the author/co-author of four books and numerous scholarly articles, concentrating on Information Literacy and Media Literacy. She is a co-creator of one of the first for-credit Information Literacy courses in the United States. She is a long-time teacher of college students and library professionals. She has been a book reviewer since 1986. She is an avid reader.

Andrienne Cruz has been a public librarian at Azusa City Library since 2005. She loves recommending books and writes adult book reviews for Booklist and adult title read-alikes for NoveList. She is a former LibraryReads board member and currently works as a reference librarian and e-book selector for adults, teens, and children.

Allison Denny, MLIS

Matthew Galloway has worked in libraries since 2011, leaving archaeology behind—aside from late night reading and an inability to stop noticing artifacts while hiking. He started work in collection development at Anythink Libraries in 2018, where he puts his addiction to book award committees and book reviewing to good use making sure his county gets the most engaging adult fiction possible. Outside of work, he dabbles in photography, travel, and figuring out how to organize an increasingly unwieldy board game collection.

Andrea Gough has worked in public libraries as both a reader services and adult services librarian, currently at The Seattle Public Library. Andrea served on the ALA RUSA CODES Reading List Committee, devouring the best books across eight different genres. While every genre has its day, Andrea is particularly drawn to fiction that explores women’s lives and relationships, mysteries, fantasy, and that nebulous category: literary fiction. While you should not judge a book by its cover, if that cover has a horse on it then Andrea will absolutely pick it up.

Janeé Jackson-Doering is a Library Consultant. She also hosts an online book talking webinar series for public librarians in Iowa. When she’s not working on projects, she loves to read all kinds of Horror Fiction and has loved the Horror genre since Fourth Grade. Janeé lives in Des Moines, Iowa with her husband David. 

Jane Jorgenson has worked for Madison Public Library as a page, clerk, librarian and supervisor and is part of the readers services team. She was able to indulge her love of mysteries by working in a mystery book store for 10 years – she spent more than she made, if that gives you an idea. And she has put that knowledge to use in creating content at Madison Public Library and reviewing for Library Journal.

Natalie Marshall is the Executive Director of the Flint River Regional Library System in central Georgia. She has a B.A. from Agnes Scott College in Economics and History, and an M.L.I.S. degree from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. She joined FRRLS in 2005 as a Public Services Librarian with a focus on Collection Development and has been executive director since 2015. She currently reviews for Library Journal and Audiofile Magazine.

Jennie Mills has been a librarian for 25 years and a library director in Illinois for twenty.  She's taught reference, reader's advisory, and collection development at the community college level. She's been a reviewer for Library Journal for ten years, primarily for women's literature, with the occasional horror and science-fiction book thrown in. Mills serves on the Board of the Illinois Library Association and the Illinois Intellectual Freedom Committee.

Tina Panik is the Reference and Adult Services Manager at the Avon Library in Avon, CT. She reviews titles for Library Journal and appears as a character in Archer Mayor's Presumption of Guilt (#27 of the Joe Gunther series). She has moderated conversations with Julian Barnes, Ann Napolitano, Elizabeth Berg, Kristin Harmel, scholarly experts, historians, and many others. She is the co-founder of the Local Author Festival at the Avon Library, a summer tradition at the library since 2014.

Lynnanne Pearson is an Information Librarian at the Arlington Heights Memorial Library. She has presented at several library conferences on readers advisory, genres, book discussions and eBooks, among other topics. She has also served on statewide committees as well as the Library Journal Best of Popular fiction subcommittee. She currently writes book reviews for both Library Journal and Booklist and was named one of 2020 Library Journal Reviewers of the Year.

Ashley Rayner is a research librarian at NORC at the University of Chicago. She has been an academic and public librarian as well, all within the Chicagoland area. Ashley loves reading any genre but she has a special love for speculative fiction, historical fiction, and thrillers. She started writing book reviews for Booklist in 2020 and they help her stay connected to fiction as a librarian at a social science research organization. When she's not reading or researching, Ashley can be found playing video games, cooking, planning her next karaoke debut song, tweeting at @ashley_rayner, or hanging out with her husband and two kids.

Michael Rodriguez (he/him) is a senior strategist at Lyrasis, a community-supported nonprofit whose mission is to support enduring access to our shared academic, scientific, and cultural heritage. Michael has worked in public and academic libraries and consortia for more than 10 years and recently served as president of the New England Chapter of the Association of College & Research Libraries (ACRL).

As digital media coordinator, Justin Shannin oversees teen makerspace technology (including recording studios, sewing stations, and 3D printers) across Chicago Public Library's 81 branches. He has also served multiple terms on the library's "Best of the Best" committee, helping to select and publicize the library's annual top 50 list of new teen books. Before becoming a librarian, Justin worked in theatre and education. He has a B.A. in theatre from Northwestern University and an MLIS degree from UNC Greensboro.

Jessica Trotter is an archivist by training but now works as a Collection Development Specialist for Capital Area District Libraries in Lansing, Michigan, Digital Selector for the Midwest Collaborative for Library Services OverDrive Consortium, serves on the Board for LibraryReads, and advocates for thoughtful and inclusive Readers Advisory.

SPONSORS