Irene Levy Baker

Although we’re not traveling much, we can still have lots of fun in the Philadelphia region. And Irene Levy Baker, author of two Philly-centric books, is here to explain how. She’ll help you plan a staycation and make sure you never waste your free time doing laundry. Hear stories about where to have adventures, including good places to social distance, secret destinations even long-time locals don’t know about, where to create fun family memories, safe places to social distance and how to help restaurants survive with limited capacity - based on the second edition of 100 Things To Do In Philadelphia, which will hot off the press. Check out this video with Irene talking about her books and her passion for the City of Brotherly Love.

Connect with Irene:

https://www.100thingstodoinphiladelphia.com

Buy Irene’s Book:

100 Things to Do in Philadelphia Before You Die (2nd edition)

Take some time to watch the following video that Irene prepared especially for this year’s festival. She discusses some of the “100 Things to Do in Philadelphia Before You Die.” Enjoy!

Paul Lisicky

Paul Lisicky is the author of six books including Later: My Life at the Edge of the World, The Narrow Door: A Memoir of Friendship, and Unbuilt Projects. His work has appeared in The Advocate, The Atlantic, Conjunctions, The Cut, Fence, The New York Times, Ploughshares, and elsewhere. His awards include fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the NEA, and the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, among others. He has taught at Cornell University, New York University, Sarah Lawence College, the University of Texas at Austin, and elsewhere. He is an associate professor in the MFA Program at Rutgers University-Camden, where he is the editor of StoryQuarterly. He grew up in Cherry Hill, NJ, and lives in Brooklyn. 

Connect with Paul:

http://www.paullisicky.net

Buy Paul’s Books:

Later: My Life at the Edge of the World

The Narrow Door: A Memoir of Friendship

Unbuilt Projects

The Collingswood Book Festival is proud to present two videos featuring Paul. The first features a Q&A between Paul and journalist Tammy Paolino. In the second video, Paul reads from his new memoir, Later: My Life at the Edge of the World.

Raymond Luczak

Raymond Luczak (pronounced with a silent "c") is perhaps best known for his books, films, and plays.

He was raised in Ironwood, a small mining town in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. Number seven in a family of nine children, he lost much of his hearing due to double pneumonia at the age of eight months.

 After high school graduation, Luczak went on to Gallaudet University, in Washington, D.C., where he earned a B.A. in English, graduating magna cum laude. He learned American Sign Language (ASL) and became involved with the deaf community, and won numerous scholarships in recognition of his writing, including the Ritz-Paris Hemingway Scholarship. He took various writing courses at other schools in the area, which culminated in winning a place in the Jenny McKean Moore Fiction Workshop at the George Washington University.

In 1988, he moved to New York City. In short order, his play Snooty won first place in the New York Deaf Theater’s 1990 Samuel Edwards Deaf Playwrights Competition, and his essay "Notes of a Deaf Gay Writer" won acceptance as a cover story for Christopher Street magazine. Soon after Alyson Publications asked him to edit Eyes of Desire: A Deaf Gay & Lesbian Reader, which, after its appearance in June 1993, eventually nabbed two Lambda Literary Award finalist nominations (Best Lesbian and Gay Anthology, and Best Small Press Book). He hasn't stopped since!

In 2005, he relocated to Minneapolis, Minnesota, where he continues to write, edit, and publish.

Connect with Raymond:

http://raymondluczak.com

Buy Raymond’s Books:

Compassion, Michigan: The Ironwood Stories

Flannelwood: A Novel

QDA: A Queer Disability Anthology

The Collingswood Book Festival is proud to present a written Q&A with Raymond about his latest book, writing, coming out, as well as other topics. Check it out here.

Annie McCormick

Annie McCormick is an award-winning journalist based in Philadelphia, PA. Since 2012, Annie has worked as a general assignment reporter for ABC affiliate 6ABC Action News. She has extensively covered crime in the Philadelphia region for close to a decade. A New Jersey native, Annie began her career as a photojournalist during an internship in The White House. From there, she launched her career working for multiple newspapers and wire services.

Connect with Annie:

http://www.anniemccormick.com/

Buy Annie’s Book:

The Doctor, the Hitman, and the Motorcycle Gang

Watch a special video featuring Annie discussing her new book, The Doctor, the Hitman, and the Motorcycle Gang.

Jon McGoran

Jon McGoran is the author of Spliced, a near-future YA science fiction thriller that Kirkus calls, “Timely, thrilling, and more than a little scary.” Splintered, the sequel to Spliced, is now available in bookstores everywhere. Also look for Spiked, the final book in the trilogy, which was released in May 2020.  

McGoran’s other books include the acclaimed ecological thrillers Drift, Deadout, and Dust Up, as well as The Dead Ring, based on the hit TV show, The Blacklist. Writing as D. H. Dublin, he is also the author of the forensic thrillers Body Trace, Blood Poison and Freezer Burn. 

When not writing novels and short fiction or cohosting The Liars Club Oddcast, McGoran works as a freelance writer, developmental editor, and writing coach. Freelance samples and more information are available here. He also works with Anne Dubuisson to offer a more comprehensive range of publishing and editing services. For more information, email jon@jonmcgoran.com.

Connect with Jon:

https://www.jonmcgoran.com

Buy Jon’s Books:

Spliced

Splintered

Spiked

Join us for an insightful conversation between Jon and Keith Strunk.

Lisa Napoli

Born and raised in Brooklyn, New York, Lisa Napoli has lived in the mysterious, strange and wonderful foreign land of downtown Los Angeles since 2004, where there’s hardly been a dull moment. Her fourth book, SUSAN, LINDA, NINA & COKIE: The Extraordinary Story of the Founding Mothers of NPR, will be published in April 2021.

In over three decades as a journalist, she’s covered presidential campaigns, a hostage standoff, an outdoor hacker convention and the culture of technology, all at a wide variety of news outlets (some which no longer exist) including the New York Times, Cyber Times, MSNBC, and the public radio show Marketplace. For five years, she also covered arts and culture at KRCW.

She’s directed two video documentaries, one on the kitsch tourist trap in Dillon, South Carolina called South of the Border and the other about NASCAR fans called Day at the Races. She also loves to conduct long-form interviews in front of live audiences.

She also produces Gracefully, a podcast about everything to do with growing old, including caregiving of elders, aging, and occasional interviews with interesting people who’ve lived long lives.

A graduate of Hampshire College, Lisa led an award-winning volunteer cooking group at the Downtown Women’s Center on Skid Row in Los Angeles for over five years. She’s also the founding board president of the Bhutan Media Service, an all-volunteer news outlet created by Bhutanese refugees in diaspora.

Connect with Lisa:

http://www.lisanapoli.com

Buy Lisa’s Books:

Ray & Joan: The Man Who Made the McDonald's Fortune and the Woman Who Gave It All Away

Up All Night: Ted Turner, CNN and the Birth of 24-Hour News

Watch a video recording of Lisa interviewing author Eric Weiner below.

Glenn “Hurricane” Schwartz

Glenn “Hurricane” Schwartz is a Certified Broadcast Meteorologist, doing the weather on TV for 40 years of his 47-year career. His specialty has been in forecasting and severe weather, especially hurricanes. He co-authored the award-winning “Philadelphia Area Weather Book” in 2002 and was inducted into the Philadelphia Broadcast Pioneers Hall of Fame in 2010.

He graduated from Penn State with a B.S. in Meteorology in 1972. His first forecast job was at AccuWeather. From there, he went to the National Weather Service at the National Hurricane Center, working with some of the world’s experts. After transferring to the NWS office in Atlanta, his title became “Disaster Preparedness Meteorologist” for the state of Georgia.

Glenn was recruited into TV in 1979, after doing a live interview on WAGA-TV in Atlanta as Hurricane Frederick approached. He has also worked in several other TV stations around the country. He covered Hurricane Andrew on his first day at WINK-TV in Ft. Myers and returned to his hometown of Philadelphia in 1995 where he has been a highly recognized fixture for the past 24 years.

 In 1985-86 he became the first storm chaser at The Weather Channel and was one of their designated “Hurricane Specialists”. He got his nickname in New York City after an anchor saw video of him being blown around during one of his chases. He lives in the Philly suburbs with his wife, Sherry, and is a lifelong Philadelphia sports fanatic.

Buy Glenn’s Book:

The Weathermaker

Be sure to watch a special festival video featuring NBC10 meteorologist Glenn “Hurricane” Schwartz, who talks about his new novel, The Weathermaker.

Eric Weiner 

Eric Weiner is author of the New York Times bestsellers The Geography of Bliss and The Geography of Genius, as well as the critically acclaimed Man Seeks God and, his latest book, The Socrates Express: In Search of Life Lessons from Dead Philosophers. A former foreign correspondent for NPR, he has reported from more than three dozen countries. His work has appeared in the New Republic, The Atlantic, National Geographic, The Wall Street Journal, and the anthology Best American Travel Writing. He lives in Silver Spring, MD with his wife and daughter.

Connect with Eric:

EricWeinerBooks.com

Buy Eric’s Books:

The Socrates Express, In Search of Life Lessons from Dead Philosophers

The Geography of Genius

Watch a video of our conversation with Eric below.