Authors

DAVID HILDENBRAND is an award-winning librarian with the Miami-Dade Public Library System, serving as the assistant manager of the Naranja branch. He has developed many notable programs, including the prison outreach initiative “Behind the Walls” and the business support program “Let’s Get Down to Business.” Hildenbrand has presented on various topics, from emerging technologies in libraries to prison outreach, at both state and local levels. He has also chaired regional library committees and serves on the Federal Correctional Institution Miami Community Relations Board.

NÉLSON HINCAPIÉ es actualmente el Director Ejecutivo de la Fundación del Miami Dade College. Antes de trabajar en MDC, fue Presidente y CEO de la Fundación Voices For Children durante más de 12 años. Ha sido fundamental en la creación de políticas y programas de apoyo a jóvenes que salen del arrera de acogida y ha trabajado directamente con cientos de jóvenes como mentor, tutor y guía. Además de dar una de las charlas Tedx más auténticas y poderosas on line, Nélson ha sido conferencista invitado en MAS Talks de Miami Arts Studio, clases de Justicia Criminal en MDC, la Conferencia Nacional del Instituto Daniel Memorial, el Centro de Recursos Familiares y Conferencias Regionales del DCF. Comenzó su arrera en el gobierno como parte del equipo que lideró la exitosa arrera estatal para el Universal  Pre-K. Más tarde, como coordinador en Florida Central para la arrera al Senado de EE. UU. De Alex Penelas, tuvo la oportunidad de arrera muchos condados de Florida, actuando como orador sustituto para el alcalde Penelas. En 2005 se unió al Comisionado del Condado de Miami-Dade Carlos A. Giménez como Asistente, donde se encargó de políticas, legislación, uso de tierras, relaciones con los medios y asuntos de los constituyentes. Nélson también fue enlace del Comisionado Giménez con organizaciones comunitarias. Fue nombrado en The Children’s Trust por el alcalde Carlos A. Giménez, donde forma parte del comité ejecutivo y preside el comité ad-hoc de Estatutos. Ha sido arrera del Comité Asesor de Organizaciones Basadas en la Comunidad, creado por los Comisionados del Condado de Miami-Dade, y ha formado parte de la Comisión del Bicentenario de Abraham Lincoln para Miami. También ha sido miembro de la Junta Directiva de la Coalición Colombo Americana. Nélson tiene una licenciatura en Administración Pública de la Universidad Internacional de Florida y un título en Artes Culinarias de la Universidad Johnson & Wales, y es un Académico Ejecutivo Kellogg de la Escuela de Administración. Nativo de Bogotá, Colombia, Nélson está arrer con Carolina; la pareja tiene cuatro hijos: Sarah Luna, Simón Lorenzo, Samuel Luciano y Salomé Lucía. Hincapié llega a la Feria con Tu historia, su primer libro en español. A pesar de siempre haber tenido el deseo de escribirlo, solo lo logró después de poder perdonar. Su historia es una historia llena de arrera a pesar de muchos contratiempos, que casi siempre eran causados por su falta de conciencia. Nelson lleva al lector por una montaña rusa de emociones que concluye en un carrusel de resiliencia, arrera y la convicción de que Dios puede hacer todo nuevo.  

KIRSTEN HINES is a Coconut Grove, Florida-based author, wildlife photographer, and conservationist. Her writing and photography have appeared in numerous publications, including her eight books on Florida’s nature and history such as Attracting Birds to South Florida Gardens. Her 2023 photo-essay book, Wild Florida: An Animal Odyssey, garnered multiple national and state awards including a Florida Book Award for Visual Arts, a National League of American Pen Women Best Non-fiction Writing award, and a Florida Authors and the Publishers Association Best Florida-themed book award. Her new field guide, Birds of Florida, covers 310 Florida species illustrated by 450 of her photographs.

WENDY HINSHAW is an associate professor of English and the director of writing programs at Florida Atlantic University. Her scholarship includes articles on prison writing and prison-university partnerships in Community Literacy Journal, Reflections: A Journal of Community-Engaged Writing and Rhetoric, Feminist Formations, and edited collections on prison literacy and activism. She is a founding board member of Exchange for Change, a Miami-based nonprofit that provides educational and communication skills-building courses to students who are incarcerated, to amplify and bring their voices to the outside.

Born and raised in the Pacific Northwest, BRANDON HOÀNG grew up coveting The Baby-Sitters Club books and slurping noodles. Before he was a writer, he spent 10 years as an animation executive. He has worked on series such as Avatar: The Legend of Korra, SpongeBob SquarePants, and The Ghost and Molly McGee. He currently resides in Los Angeles with his wife and two daughters.

CARLIE HOFFMAN is the author of three collections of poetry, One More World Like This World (Four Way Books), coming spring 2025; When There Was Light (Four Way Books), winner of the National Jewish Book Award; and This Alaska (Four Way Books, 2021), winner of the Northern California Publishers & Authors Gold Award in poetry and a finalist for the Foreword Indies Book of the Year Award. She is the translator from the German of White Shadows: Anneliese Hager and the Camera-less Photograph (Atelier Éditions) and Selma Meerbaum Eisinger's Blütenlese (World Poetry Books, forthcoming). Her honors include a 92NY "Discovery"/Boston Review Poetry Prize and a Poets & Writers Amy Award, and her work has been published in Poetry, the Academy of American Poets Poem-a-Day, Los Angeles Review of Books, The Slowdown, Kenyon Review, New England Review, and elsewhere. Hoffman is also is the founder and editor-in-chief of Small Orange Journal.

ANN HOOD is the author of the bestselling novels The Knitting Circle: A Novel (W. W. Norton & Company), The Obituary Writer: A Novel (W. W. Norton & Company), and The Book That Matters Most: A Novel (W. W. Norton & Company), as well as the memoirs Kitchen Yarns: Notes on Life, Love, and Food (W. W. Norton & Company), Fly Girl: A Memoir (W. W. Norton & Company), and Comfort: A Journey Through Grief (W. W. Norton & Company), which was named one of the top 10 nonfiction books of 2008. Hood has won two Pushcart Prizes, two Best American Food Writing awards, and Best American Travel Writing and Best American Spiritual Writing awards. Her most recent book is The Stolen Child: A Novel (W. W. Norton & Company).

MARIE HOWE is a former poet laureate of New York. The recipient of fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Guggenheim Foundation, and the Academy of American Poets, she teaches at Sarah Lawrence College and lives in New York City.

TOM HUDSON is WLRN's senior economics editor and special correspondent. His extensive reporting on South Florida's economy has taken him from the waters of Florida Bay to the depths of the PortMiami tunnel (and countless offices and conference rooms). He has interviewed bartenders and bankers, caregivers and CEOs to report on the people behind economic statistics. He began his business reporting career in March 2000, just weeks after the dot-com bubble burst. He has reported from the trading floors of the CME, Chicago Board Options Exchange, NASDAQ, and New York Stock Exchange. He previously served as vice president of news at WLRN, where he created and hosted The Sunshine Economy for 10 years. He was managing editor and co-anchor of Nightly Business Report on PBS. Hudson is married with two sons and advises every bicycle rider to always wear their helmet.

STEPHEN HUNDLEY is the author of The Aliens Will Come to Georgia First (University of North Georgia Press) and Bomb Island (Hub City Press). He is a fiction editor at Driftwood Press and a book review editor at the Southeast Review, and his stories and poems have appeared in Prairie Schooner, Cream City Review, The Greensboro Review, and elsewhere. He holds a master's degree from Clemson and an MFA from the University of Mississippi, and is currently completing a Ph.D. in English at Florida State University.

ROSIE INGUANZO Nació en La Habana. Escritora, actriz y performer. Puede vérsele caracterizando a Eslinda Cifuentes, en las performances que realiza junto al violinista y compositor Alfredo Triff. Doctorada en Español y Literatura Iberoamericana, ejerce el profesorado. Ha publicado la novela La Habana sentimental (Bokeh, Leiden, 2018) y los libros de poesía Deseo de donde se era (Nos y otros Editores, Madrid, 2001), La vida de la vida (Hypermedia, Miami, 2018), Baladas crueles (Ediciones Furtivas, Miami, 2023). Se ha escrito sobre ella: “Rosie Inguanzo, escritora, actriz de la novela cubana de Miami que es la novela pública maravillosa de todos los días sobre la faz del exilio, acopla su cuerpo y su pensamiento al amorío conceptual de su marido, una orgía verbal-instrumental a base de dos cabezas.” —Legna Rodríguez Iglesias (El Estornudo). "Extraordinaria actriz, autora y directora de teatro y escritora que busca la impunidad ante el atrevimiento, Rosie encarna la "meta posmodernidad" – Olga Connor. Rosie participa este año en la Feria conversando con los poetas Germán Guerra, Lizzette Espinosa y Carlos Pintado.

JESSICA JACOBS is the author of unalone, poems in conversation with Genesis (Four Way Books); Take Me with You, Wherever You’re Going, one of Library Journal’s Best Poetry Books of the Year and winner of the Devil’s Kitchen and Goldie Awards; and Pelvis with Distance, winner of the New Mexico Book Award and a finalist for the Lambda Literary Award. Jacobs is also the co-author of Write It! 100 Poetry Prompts to Inspire. She is the founder and executive director of Yetzirah: A Hearth for Jewish Poetry.

ABRAHAM JIMÉNEZ ENOA Escribió los libros La isla oculta y Aterrizar en el mundo. Fue columnista en The Washington Post. Ha publicado en The New York Times, BBC, El País, Al Jazeera, Gatopardo, entre otros medios. Ganó el premio Libertad de Prensa Internacional del Comité para la Protección de Periodistas (CPJ), el Sigma Delta Chi Awards de The Society of Professional Journalists, el Premio a la Excelencia Periodística de la Sociedad Interamericana de Prensa (SIP), el One Young World Journalist of the Year Award, el Lyra Mckee Award for Bravery y la beca Michael Jacobs de la Fundación Gabo. Cofundó El Estornudo. Este año presenta en la Feria Aterrizar en el mundo (Libros del KO), donde Jiménez Enoa alterna las impresiones de su llegada a Europa con los recuerdos de sus últimos años en Cuba. Evoca la magia de haber fundado con un grupo de amigos jóvenes la revista de periodismo independiente El Estornudo. El régimen aplastaría rápido ese intento de contar la realidad de Cuba al margen de los eslóganes castristas. Pronto comenzaron los arrestos e interrogatorios, y las represalias laborales a familiares y amigos. Pasó a ser un apestado social, incluso para algunas de sus personas más queridas, como su abuela, que antepuso su fe en la Revolución al amor por su nieto.

DAVID JOBIN, CEO and president of Our Fund.

ESKOR DAVID JOHNSON is a writer from Trinidad and Tobago, acclaimed for his imaginative storytelling and exploration of urban life. A graduate of Harvard University and the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, he has received recognition for his distinct narrative style and compelling character portrayals. His debut novel, Pay As You Go (2023), delves into the gritty realities of urban existence through the journey of Slide, a barber navigating the challenges of city life in the fictional metropolis of Polis. The book is praised for its vibrant prose and inventive storytelling, capturing the complexities and aspirations of its characters. Johnson's work has been featured in publications like BOMB magazine and McSweeney's Quarterly Concern, and he has been shortlisted for the Center for Fiction's First Novel Prize​.

DANIEL JONES is the young adult librarian at the Naranja Branch of the Miami-Dade Public Library System. He loves talking with young people about books and all kinds of stories, and helping young people find the right book at the right time for them. Earlier this year, he was named the state's "Outstanding New Librarian" by the Florida Library Association.

FABIENNE JOSAPHAT is a Haitian-born author known for her insightful and powerful storytelling. Raised in Haiti, Josaphat pursued her passion for writing and graduated with an MFA in creative writing from Florida International University. Her acclaimed debut novel, Dancing in the Baron's Shadow, was praised by fellow Haitian American author Edwidge Danticat for its vivid portrayal of a tumultuous historical period in Haiti. Josaphat's latest work, Kingdom of No Tomorrow, immerses readers in the world of the Black Panther Party during the late 1960s. Through the eyes of Nettie Boileau, a Haitian activist, the novel explores themes of revolution, justice, and the complexities of social movements. Josaphat's writing has appeared in various publications, including The Washington Post, Teen Vogue, and The Caribbean Writer. She continues to write fiction, nonfiction, and poetry, making significant contributions to contemporary literature with her exploration of identity, history, and social justice.

MAR JULIA lives on an unceded Piscataway land that makes up Baltimore. Previous comics credits include the Lumberjanes and Adventure Time series. Brownstone (Versify) is their debut full-length graphic novel.

JOSEPH KANON is the Edgar Award-winning author of Los Alamos and nine other novels: The Prodigal Spy, Alibi, Stardust, Istanbul Passage, Leaving Berlin, Defectors, The Accomplice, The Berlin Exchange, and The Good German, which was made into a major motion picture starring George Clooney and Cate Blanchett. Other awards include the Hammett Award of the International Association of Crime Writers and the Human Writes Award of the Anne Frank Foundation. He lives in New York City.

JEN KARETNICK is the author of Inheritance with a High Error Rate (Cider Press Review), winner of the 2022 Cider Press Review Book Award. She is also the author of 11 poetry collections, including The Burning Where Breath Used to Be, a CIPA Evvy Gold Medal winner and an Eric Hoffer poetry finalist. She has won the Sweet: Lit Poetry Prize, Tiferet Writing Contest for Poetry, Hart Crane Memorial Prize, and Anna Davidson Rosenberg Prize, among other honors, and has received support from the Vermont Studio Center, Roundhouse Foundation, Wildacres Retreat, Centrum, Artists in Residence in the Everglades, and elsewhere. The co-founder/managing editor of SWWIM Every Day, Karetnick's work has appeared in Atlanta Review, Harpur Palate, Notre Dame Review, Pleiades, Shenandoah, South Dakota Review, and other publications.

MARY KARR is an award-winning poet and bestselling memoirist. She is the author of the critically acclaimed, New York Times bestselling memoirs The Liars' Club, Cherry, and Lit, as well as the Art of Memoir, and five poetry collections, most recently Tropic of Squalor (Harper Collins).

BRANDON KEIM is a journalist specializing in nature, animals, and science. He tells stories of nonhuman minds and natural wonders. His work has appeared in publications including The New York Times, The Atlantic, Wired, National Geographic, and Nautilus, where he is a contributing editor. His most recent book is Meet the Neighbors: Animal Minds and Life in a More-Than-Human World (W. W. Norton & Company).

ERIN ENTRADA KELLY was awarded the Newbery Medal for Hello, Universe, and a Newbery Honor for We Dream of Space. She grew up in Lake Charles, Louisiana, and now lives in Delaware. She is a professor of children’s literature in the graduate fiction and publishing programs at Rosemont College, where she earned her MFA, and is on the faculty at Hamline University. Her short fiction has been nominated for the Philippines Free Press Literary Award for Short Fiction and the Pushcart Prize. Before becoming a children’s author, Kelly worked as a journalist and magazine editor, and received numerous awards for community service journalism, feature writing, and editing from the Louisiana Press Association and the Associated Press. Her debut novel, Blackbird Fly, was a Kirkus Best Book of the Year, a School Library Journal Best Book of the Year, an ALSC Notable Book, and an Asian/Pacific American Award for Literature Honor Book recipient. She is also the author of The Land of Forgotten Girls, winner of the Asian/Pacific American Award for Literature; You Go First, an Indie Next Pick; Lalani of the Distant Sea, an Indie Next Pick; Those Kids from Fawn Creek, named to numerous best-of-the-year lists; the acclaimed The First State of Being; and four popular novels for younger readers: Maybe Maybe Marisol Rainey, Surely Surely Marisol Rainey, Only Only Marisol Rainey, and Felix Powell, Boy Dog, which she also illustrated.

The Hon. PATRICK J. KENNEDY is a former member of the U.S. House of Representatives and the nation’s leading political voice on mental illness, addiction, and other brain diseases. During his 16-year career representing Rhode Island in Congress, Kennedy fought a national battle to end medical and societal discrimination against these illnesses, highlighted by his lead sponsorship of the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act of 2008 and his brave openness about his own health challenges. The son of Sen. Edward “Ted” Kennedy, he decided to leave Congress after his father’s death to devote his career to advocacy for brain diseases, start a family, and create a new, healthier life. He has since founded the Kennedy Forum, which unites the mental health community, and co-founded One Mind, a nonprofit organization dedicated to advancing mental health research. Kennedy lives in New Jersey with his wife, Amy, and their four children.

POROCHISTA KHAKPOUR was born in Tehran and raised in the greater Los Angeles area. She is the critically acclaimed author of two previous novels, Sons and Other Flammable Objects and The Last Illusion; a memoir, Sick; and a collection of essays, Brown Album. Her writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, The Wall Street Journal, Bookforum, Elle, and other publications. She lives in New York City.

RACHEL KHONG is the author of Goodbye, Vitamin, winner of the California Book Award for First Fiction, and named a Best Book of the Year by NPR, O, The Oprah Magazine, Vogue, and Esquire. Her work has appeared in The New York Times Book Review, The Cut, The Guardian, The Paris Review, and Tin House. In 2018, she founded The Ruby, a work and event space for women and nonbinary writers and artists in San Francisco’s Mission District. She lives in California.

CRYSTAL HANA KIM is the author of The Stone Home: A Novel (William Morrow) and the novel If You Leave Me, which was named a best book of the year by more than a dozen publications. Kim is the recipient of the 2022 National Book Foundation’s 5 Under 35 Award and is a 2017 PEN/Robert J. Dau Short Story Prize winner. A contributing editor at Apogee Journal, she lives in Brooklyn, New York, with her family.

STEPHEN KING was born in Portland, Maine, in 1947. He made his first professional short story sale in 1967 to Startling Mystery Stories. In the fall of 1971, he began teaching high school English classes at Hampden Academy, a public high school in Maine. Writing in the evenings and on the weekends, he continued to produce short stories and to work on novels. In the spring of 1973, Doubleday & Co. accepted the novel Carrie for publication, providing King with the means to leave teaching and write full time. He has since published more than 50 books and has become one of the world's most successful writers. King is the recipient of the 2003 National Book Foundation Medal for Distinguished Contribution to the American Letters and the 2014 National Medal of Arts. He lives in Maine and Florida with his wife, novelist Tabitha King. They are regular contributors to several charities including many libraries, and have been honored locally for their philanthropic activities.