Boston Book Festival

October 17-19, 2013

2009 Presenters

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Russ Aborn

Russ Aborn has a short story in the new collection Boston Noir. The story was adapted from his novel Turn Speed which is set in the Greater Boston area.

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Kurt Andersen

Kurt Andersen is an award-winning editor, columnist, screenwriter, journalist, radio host and novelist whose new book is Reset: How This Crisis can Restore Our Values and Renew America.

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Alicia Anstead

Alicia Anstead is Editor-in-Chief of Inside Arts, a national magazine on the arts presenting industry. She teaches journalism, and moderates and contributes to the "Office for the Arts" Blog at Harvard University.

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Jessica Anthony

Jessica Anthony is a contributor to McSweeny’s and the author of The Convalescent/ She  is the first recipient of the Amanda Davis Highwire Fiction Award.

 

 

 

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Tom Ashbrook

Host of NPR and WBUR’s On Point, Tom Ashbrook is an award-winning journalist. His career in journalism spans 20 years as a foreign correspondent, newspaper editor and author. 

 

 

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Jack Beatty

Jack Beatty is a senior editor of The Atlantic and news analyst for NPR and WBUR's On Point. His book The Rascal King won an American Book Award.

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Jared Bowen

Jared Bowen is an Emmy Award-winning reporter with WGBH-TV’s nightly news magazine program, Greater Boston with Emily Rooney and is a guest contributor to Boston Common magazine.

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Stace Budzko

Stace Budzko is the writer-in-residence at the Institute of Contemporary Arts, Boston. His work can be found in Norton's Flash Fiction Forward and Rose Metal Press' Brevity and Echo Anthology.

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Ken Burns

Ken Burns' award-winning documentaries include The War, JazzBaseballThe Civil War, which was the highest-rated series in the history of American public television, and his most recent The National Parks.

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Dana Cameron

Dana Cameron's werewolf short story, "The Night Things Changed," won the 2008 Agatha Award.

 

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Stephen Carter

Stephen L. Carter is a professor of law at Yale, and the author of the novel, The Emperor of Ocean Park and his newest, Jericho’s Fall.

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Billy Costa

Billy Costa is the host of NECN's TV Diner, a restaurant review program that has been on air since 1992. He is also the entertainment and lifestyle reporter for KISS 108.

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Harvey Cox

The author of When Jesus Came to Harvard and The Secular City, Harvey Cox is Hollis Research Professor of Divinity at Harvard.  His new book is The Future of Faith.

Callie Crossley

Callie Crossley is a television and radio commentator who is a regular contributor for WGBH’s  Beat the Press, WFXT’s Morning Show, and  NPR. She received an Oscar nomination for the documentary Eyes on the Prize.

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Carolina De Robertis

A writer and translator, Carolina De Robertis is the author of the highly-anticipated debut novel The Invisible Mountain, called “extraordinary” by Publishers Weekly.

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Anita Diamant

An award-winning journalist, Anita Diamant is the author of a number of bestselling novels including The Red Tent and Day After Night.

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Brendan DuBois

Brendan DuBois is the author of more than 15 novels and short story collections, most notably Resurrection Day, winner of the Sidewise Award for Best Alternative History Novel of 1999.

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Andre Dubus III

Andre Dubus III authored House of Sand and Fog, a National Book Award finalist and an Oprah’s Book Club selection, and The Garden of Last Days.

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Joseph Finder

Joseph Finder is the New York Times bestselling author of eight novels including High Crimes, a 2002 hit movie, and Vanished.

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A. W. Flaherty

A. W. Flaherty is a neurologist at the Massachusetts General Hospital and assistant professor of neurology at Harvard Medical School, and the author of The Luck of the Loch Ness Monster: A Tale of Picky Eating.

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Jim Fusilli

Jim Fusilli is the author of five novels including Hard, Hard City, which was named Best Novel of 2004 by Mystery Ink magazine. 

 

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David Gergen

David Gergen, an advisor to presidents Nixon, Ford, Reagan and Clinton, is editor-at-large for U.S. News & World Report and a Senior Political Analyst for CNN.

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Leslie Gilbert-Lurie

A former executive at NBC, Leslie Gilbert-Lurie is the president of the Los Angeles County Board of Education and a teacher of Holocaust Studies. Bending Toward the Sun is her new memoir.

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Ethan Gilsdorf

Boston Globe contributor, poet and teacher Ethan Gilsdorf is the author of Fantasy Freaks and Gaming Geeks, part-memoir and part-exposé of gaming culture

 

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Mary Gordon

Mary Gordon is award-winning author of six novels, including The Company of Women, Final Payments, and Spending; and the memoirs. The Shadow Man and Circling My Mother. Her new book is Reading Jesus.

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Michael Greenberg

Michael Greenberg's memoir Hurry Down Sunshine chronicles his teenage daughter's sudden descent into bipolar mania.  His new essay collection Beg, Borrow, Steal: A Writer's Life.

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Lani Guinier

In 1998, Lani Guinier became the first woman of color appointed to a tenured professorship at the Harvard Law School. She is the Bennett Boskey Professor of Law.

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Steve Haber

Steve Haber is President of Sony’s Digital Reading Business Division.

 

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Jennifer Haigh

Jennifer Haigh is a PEN/Hemingway and PEN/L.L. Winship Award winner and author of the new novel The Condition.

 

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Lynne Heitman

Airline-suspense-novelist Lynne Heitman has penned four books, including Tarmac and The Pandora Key.

 

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John Hodgman

John Hodgman is the resident expert on The Daily Show with John Stewart and the "PC" in the Apple ads.  He is also the author of The Areas of My Expertise and More Information Than You Require.

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Jeffrey Howe

Jeffrey Howe is a contributing editor at Wired Magazine and author of Crowdsourcing: Why the Power of the Crowd Is Driving the Future of Business.

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Walter Isaacson

Former Chairman and CEO of CNN and Time magazine editor, Walter Isaacson is President and CEO of the Aspen Institute and author of Einstein: His Life and Universe.

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Jennie Israel

Jennie Israel has appeared on stage with the Actors' Shakespeare Project, New Rep, the Huntington, and others. She teaches Shakespearean text, voice and acting and is currently on the faculty of Emerson College.

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Mary Lou Jepsen

Named one of the 100 most influential people in the world by Time Magazine in 2008, Mary Lou Jepsen is the founder and CEO of Pixel Q, a company developing e-paper screens with both color and video. 

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Bret Anthony Johnston

The Director of Creative Writing at Harvard, Bret Anthony Johnston is the author of Corpus Christi and the editor of Naming the World: And Other Exercises for the Creative Writer.

 

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Neil Jones

Jones is the CEO of Interead, the company that created the COOL-ER, an ereader, and COOLERBOOKS.com, the world’s largest online bookstore with more than one million ebooks.

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Sheryl Julian

Sheryl Julian is the Food Editor of The Boston Globe and editor of The New Boston Globe Cookbook, a collection of recipes from the Food pages of the paper.

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Calestous Juma

Calestous Juma is Professor of the Practice of International Development and Director of the Science, Technology and Globalization Project at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government.

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Brewster Kahle

Brewster Kahle, digital librarian and Internet Archive co-founder, has worked to provide universal access to all knowledge for more than 25 years.

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Jane Kamensky

Jane Kamensky is the Chair of the Department of History at Brandeis University and the co-author, with Jill Lepore, of the historical novel Blindspot.

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Kathleen Kent

Kathleen Kent is a tenth-generation descendant of Martha Carrier, the heroine of her dazzling bestseller, The Heretic’s Daughter.

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Scott Kirsner

Scott Kirsner is a journalist who writes about innovation and entrepreneurship. His most recent book is Fans, Friends & Followers: Building an Audience and a Creative Career in the Digital Age.

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Deborah Kovacs

Deborah Kovacs is author of numerous children’s books, both fiction and nonfiction.  Her newest is Catie Copley’s Great Escape.

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Tim Kring

Tim Kring is creator and executive producer of “Heroes,” NBC’s Emmy nominated epic saga that chronicles the lives of ordinary people who discover they possess extraordinary abilities.

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Corby Kummer

Corby Kummer is a senior editor and food writer at The Atlantic Monthly and is the recipient of three James Beard Journalism Awards.  

 

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Reif Larsen

 Reif Larsen is a filmmaker, teacher, and the author of The Selected Works of T.S. Spivet.

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Dennis Lehane

Dennis Lehane is the author of The New York Times bestsellers Mystic River; Gone, Baby, Gone, and, most recently, The Given Day. He is also the editor and contributor to the new collection, Boston Noir.

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Jill Lepore

 

New Yorker staff writer and Pulitzer Prize finalist Jill Lepore is chair of the history and literature program at Harvard University and co-author with Jane Kamensky of Blindspot

 

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Brian Lies

Brian Lies is the author and illustrator of the New York Times bestselling children's books Bats at the Beach and Bats at the Library. Bats at the Library was named Indie Bound's Best Picture Book of 2008.

 

 

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Grace Lin

Grace Lin is the author and illustrator of The Ugly Vegetables and Dim Sum For Everyone! as well as her most recent novel Where The Mountain Meets The Moon.

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Elinor Lipman

Elinor Lipman is the bestselling author of The Family Man (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt) and Then She Found Me, a 2008 film directed by Helen Hunt.

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Bill Littlefield

Bill Littlefield, author and veteran sports commentator, hosts WBUR and National Public Radio's Only A Game, a weekly one-hour sports magazine.

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Christopher Lydon

A life-long Boston resident, Christopher Lydon is a commentator, journalist, and host of Open Source.


 

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Barbara Lynch

Barbara Lynch is the award-winning chef-owner of No. 9 Park, B & G Oysters, The Butcher Shop, Plum Produce, Stir, Drink, and Sportello.

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Michael Patrick MacDonald

Michael Patrick MacDonald is the author of the bestseller, All Souls, and his follow-up, Easter Rising: A Memoir of Roots and Rebellion.

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Jackie MacMullan

Jackie MacMullan is a sports columnist, formerly of The Boston Globe.  She is a frequent ESPN correspondent and a regular on ESPN's Around the Horn. 

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Scott Magoon

 

A native New Englander, Scott Magoon is an author and illustrator of books for children including most recently, Mystery Ride.

 

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Megan Marshall

Emerson College professor Megan Marshall is the author of the award-winning biography The Peabody Sisters: Three Women Who Ignited American Romanticism.

 

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Kim McLarin

Host of WGBH's Basic Black, Kim McLarin is the author of the critically-acclaimed novels Taming it Down, Meeting of the Waters and Jump at the Sun.

 

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Ben Mezrich

Ben Mezrich has written four books of non-fiction, most notably the New York Times Best Seller Bringing Down the House: The Inside Story of Six MIT Students Who Took Vegas for Millions.

 

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Richard Michelson

Richard Michelson received both the 2009 Sydney Taylor Gold Medal and the 2009 Silver Medal from the Association of Jewish Libraries for his picture books.

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Nicholas Negroponte

Nicholas Negroponte is founder and chairman of the One Laptop Per Child non-profit association, MIT Media Laboratory co-founder, and author of the 1995 bestseller Being Digital.

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Elizabeth Nunez

Elizabeth Nunez is provost at Medgar Evers College, the City University of New York, and an award-winning author of seven novels, including Prospero’s Daughter.

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Jay O’Callahan

Jay O’Callahan is a storyteller known for his theater, festival, and radio performances, playing venues such as Lincoln Center, and performing for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

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Brian O’Donovan

Brian O'Donovan is the host of WGBH's A Celtic Sojourn, which explores traditional and contemporary Celtic music from the Celtic countries and England.

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Iyeoka Ivie Okoawo

Iyeoka Ivie Okoawo is a performance poet/vocalist and a recipient of the 2008 National Performance Network/NCCC Residency Award. 

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Jon Orwant

Jon Orwant is the Engineering Manager for Google Books, Google Magazines, and Google Patents.

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Orhan Pamuk

Orhan Pamuk won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2006. His novel My Name Is Red won the 2003 IMPAC Dublin Literary Award. His new novel is Museum of Innocence.

 

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Tom Perrotta

Tom Perrotta is the author of six works of fiction including Election, Joe College, Little Children and The Abstinence Teacher. Both Election (1999) and Little Children (2006) have been made into acclaimed feature films.

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Robert Pinsky

Professor, translator, author, poet, columnist and editor, Robert Pinsky, served as the United States Poet Laureate from 1997 to 2000.

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John Pipkin

A former Boston University writing and literature professor, John Pipkin brings to life literary icon Henry David Thoreau in Woodsburner.

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David Pogue

David Pogue is the personal-technology columnist for the New York Times, and is the Emmy Award-winning tech correspondent for CBS News.

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Michael Porter

Michael E. Porter is the Bishop William Lawrence University Professor at Harvard Business School, and the author of 18 books including his newest, Redefining Health Care.

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Alicia Potter

Alicia Potter is the author of the picture book Fritz Danced the Fandango and a frequent reviewer of children’s books.

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Iqbal Quadir

Iqbal Quadir is the director of the Legatum Center for Development and Entrepreneurship at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a founder of GrameenPhone.

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Nancy Rappaport

Associate professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, Nancy Rappaport is the author of In Her Wake: A Child Psychiatrist Explores the Mystery of Her Mother’s Suicide.

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Katherine Roy

A graduate of the Rhode Island School of Design, Katherine Roy is currently pursuing an MFA in Cartooning at the Center for Cartoon Studies. Her first book is A Kid's Guide to Boston's Freedom Trail.

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Richard Russo

Richard Russo is the author of seven books and won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 2002 for his novel, Empire Falls.  His new novel is That Old Cape Magic.

 

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Hank Phillippi Ryan

Widely regarded as one of the most hard-hitting investigative reporters on TV, Channel 7’s Hank Phillippi Ryan is also an Agatha award-winning author of mystery novels. Her latest is Air Time.

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Anita Shreve

Anita Shreve is the author of 14 books including the critically-acclaimed novels The Weight of Water, The Pilot's Wife and her newest, A Change in Altitude.

 

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R. Sikoryak

R. Sikoryak is an animator, illustrator and cartoonist and teaches in the illustration department at Parsons School of Design. His new book is Masterpiece Comics.

 

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Alicia Silverstone

Actress Alicia Silverstone, of "Clueless," is the author of a new recipe and advice book, The Kind Diet: How to Feel Great, Lose Weight, and Save the Planet.

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Irene Smalls

Irene Smalls is the author of 15 children’s books, including Don’t Say Ain’t and  Jonathan and His Mommy, and a founder of Literacise, which focuses on the educational and exercise needs of children.

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Jessica Stern

Jessica Stern, a foremost U.S. expert on terrorism, is a lecturer at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government and a 2009 recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship.

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Glenn Stout

Series editor of The Best American Sports Writing since its inception, Glenn Stout is the author of numerous bestselling books including Red Sox Century.

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Grace Talusan

Grace Talusan has been awarded an Artist Grant in Fiction Writing from the Massachusetts Cultural Council, a residency at Hedgebrook, and other fellowships and awards. She is the author of Joey's Special Eye.

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Michael Thomas

Michael Thomas’s first novel, Man Gone Down, won the 2009 International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award, second only to the Nobel in prize and prestige.

 

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Paul Tremblay

 Paul Tremblay is the author of neo-noir novel The Little Sleep and two-time nominee of the Bram Stoker Award.

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Scout Tufankjian

Scout Tufankjian has had photographs published in many major newspapers and news magazines. Her new book Yes We Can chronicles President Obama’s historic campaign.

 

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Larry Tye

Formerly of the Boston Globe, Larry Tye is the author of Satchel (Random House), his acclaimed new biography of baseball icon Satchel Paige.

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Chris Van Allsburg

One of the leading children’s book author/illustrators, Chris Van Allsburg has delighted millions with classics such as Caldecott Medal Winners Jumanji and The Polar Express.

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Cornel West

One of America's most provocative public intellectuals, Cornel West is a professor at Princeton University and author of the memoir, Brother West.

 

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Jared T. Williams

Jared T. Williams has illustrated many books for children and adults, including Catie Copley, Catie Copley's Great Escape, The Hidden Life of Dogs, Dogs Never Lie About Love and The Return of the Wolf.