Anthony Horowitz is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Alex Rider series and the award-winning writer of PBS’s Foyle’s War, Collision, Injustice as well as many other film and television projects. He lives in London.

Attica Locke is the author of Pleasantville, which won the 2016 Harper Lee Prize for Legal Fiction and was long-listed for the Baileys Women’s Prize for Fiction; Black Water Rising, which was nominated for an Edgar Award; and The Cutting Season, a national bestseller and winner of the Ernest Gaines Award for Literary Excellence. She was a writer and producer on the Fox drama Empire. A native of Houston, Texas, Attica lives in Los Angeles, California, with her husband and daughter.

Austin Grossman is a novelist and game designer. His novels include Soon I Will Be Invincible, YOU, and Crooked. Soon I Will Be Invincible was nominated for the 2007 John Sargent Sr. First Novel Prize. His writing has also appeared in Granta, the Wall Street Journal, and the New York Times. His major game credits include System Shock, Deus Ex, Dishonored, and Dishonored 2. He is currently Director of Game Design and Interactive Storytelling at Magic Leap.

Ben H. Winters is the New York Times bestselling author of Underground Airlines and the Last Policeman trilogy. The second novel in the trilogy, Countdown City, was an NPR Best Book of 2013 and the winner of the Philip K. Dick award. The Last Policeman was the recipient of the 2012 Edgar Award, and was also named one of the Best Books of 2012 by Amazon.com and Slate. Ben lives with his family in Los Angeles, CA.

Brian D’Amato is an artist whose sculptures and installations have been shown in galleries and museums all over the world, including the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Wexner Center for the Arts, and the New Museum of Contemporary Art. In 1992, he co-organized a show at the Jack Tilton Gallery in New York that was the first gallery show to explore the then-new medium of “virtual reality,” the same year that BEAUTY was published.

Charlie Huston is the author of Sleepless, the bestsellers The Mystic Arts of Erasing All Signs of Death and The Shotgun Rule, the Henry Thompson trilogy, the Joe Pitt casebooks, and several titles for Marvel Comics. He lives with his family in Los Angeles.

Chase Novak is the pseudonym for Scott Spencer, who Publishers Weekly has called “the contemporary American master of the love story.” Spencer is the author of ten novels, including Endless Love, which has sold over two million copies to date, and the National Book Award finalist A Ship Made of Paper. He has written for Rolling Stone, the New York Times, The New Yorker, GQ, and Harper’s. Mulholland Books published his first horror novel Breed in September 2012.

Christopher Charles is the pseudonym of Chris Narozny, author of the novel Jonah Man. Narozny received an M.F.A. from Syracuse University and a Ph.D. from the University of Denver. He has lived in Normandy, Paris, and Brooklyn, and currently resides in Denver with his wife, the author Nina Shope.

Christopher Reich is the New York Times bestselling author of Numbered Account, Rules of Deception, Rules of Vengeance, Rules of Betrayal, The Devil’s Banker, and many other thrillers. His novel The Patriots Club won the International Thriller Writers award for Best Novel in 2006. He lives in Encinitas, California.

C.J. Sansom is the bestselling author of the critically-acclaimed Matthew Shardlake series, as well as the runaway #1 international bestsellers Dominion and Winter in Madrid. He lives in Sussex, England.

Colin Dexter is an English crime writer known for his Inspector Morse novels. These novels were adapted into a TV series, which ran from 1987-2001. In 2000 Dexter was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire for his services to literature. He currently lives in Oxford with his wife.

Dan Simmons is the award-winning author of several novels, including the New York Times bestsellers Olympos and The Terror. He lives in Colorado.

Five of Daniel Woodrell’s eight published novels have been selected as New York Times Notable Books of the Year. Tomato Red won the PEN West Award for the Novel in 1999. Woodrell lives in the Ozarks near the Arkansas line with his wife, Katie Estill.

David Morrell is an Edgar and Anthony Award finalist, a Nero and Macavity winner, and recipient of the prestigious career-achievement ThrillerMaster award from the International Thriller Writers. He has written twenty-nine works of fiction, which have been translated into thirty languages. He is also a former literature professor at the University of Iowa and received his PhD from Pennsylvania State University.

David Shafer is a graduate of Harvard and the Columbia Journalism School. He has lived in Argentina and Dublin, and has been a journalist, sometimes a carpenter, once a taxi driver and briefly a flack for an NGO. He now lives in Portland with his wife, daughter, and son.

David Swinson is a retired police detective, having served 16 years with the Washington, D.C. Metropolitan Police Department. He is the author of two previous novels featuring Frank Marr: The Second Girl and Crime Song. Swinson currently lives in Northern Virginia with his wife, daughter, bull mastiff, and bearded dragon.

Derek Haas is the co-writer of the films The Double, Wanted, and 3:10 to Yuma, and The Assassin Trilogy: The Silver Bear, Columbus and Dark Men. He lives in Los Angeles.

Donato Carrisi studied law and criminology before he began working as a writer for television. THE WHISPERER, Carrisi’s first novel, won five international literary prizes, has been sold in nearly twenty countries, and has been translated into languages as varied as French, Danish, Hebrew and Vietnamese. Carrisi lives in Rome.

Don Mann (CWO3, USN) is the author of the national bestseller Inside SEAL Team Six and a former Navy SEAL. He lives in Virginia.

Ralph Pezzullo is a New York Times bestselling author and award-winning playwright, screenwriter and journalist. His books include Jawbreaker (with CIA operative Gary Berntsen) and Zero Footprint (with military contractor Simon Chase).

Duane Swierczynski is the Edgar-nominated author of nine novels including Canary, Severance Package, and the Shamus Award-winning Charlie Hardie series (Fun and Games, Hell and Gone, Point and Shoot). He’s written over 250 comics for Marvel, DC, Dark Horse, Valiant and IDW, and most recently wrote The Black Hood, the first comic for Archie’s new Dark Circle imprint. Swierczynski has also collaborated with CSI creator Anthony E. Zuiker on the bestselling Level 26 series. He lives in Burbank with his wife and children.

Faye Kellerman is the author of twenty-six novels, including nineteen New York Times bestselling mysteries that feature the husband-and-wife team of Peter Decker and Rina Lazarus. She has also penned two bestselling short novels with her husband, New York Times bestselling author Jonathan Kellerman, and recently has teamed up with her daughter, Aliza, to co-write a teen novel, entitled Prism. She lives in Los Angeles, California, and Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Federico Axat was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina in 1975. His first novel, Benjamin, was published in Spain by Suma de Letras and translated into Italian. His second novel, El Pantano de las Mariposas, was published in 2013 and translated into Portuguese, French, and Chinese. Kill The Next One is his U.S. debut.

Greg Rucka is the New York Times bestselling author of almost two dozen novels, including the Atticus Kodiak and Tara Chace series, and has won multiple Eisner awards for his graphic novels. He lives in Portland, Oregon, with his wife and children.

Emmy-Award-winning filmmaker J.J. Abrams has produced, directed, or written films and television shows including Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Fringe, Lost, Alias, Felicity, Star Trek, Cloverfield, Mission: Impossible, and more.

Doug Dorst teaches writing at Texas State University. He is the author of the PEN/Hemingway-nominated novel Alive in Necropolis and the collection The Surf Guru. His work has appeared in McSweeney’s, Ploughshares, Epoch and elsewhere. Dorst is also a three-time Jeopardy! champion.

James Lee Burke is the New York Times bestselling, Edgar Award-winning author of twenty-four novels, including eighteen starring the Cajun detective Dave Robicheaux. Burke grew up on the Texas-Louisiana Gulf Coast, where he now lives with his wife Pearl. They also spend several months a year in Montana.

James Sallis is a renowned poet, critic, essayist, editor, translator, musicologist, and novelist. He is best known for his Lew Griffin mysteries, which include The Long-Legged Fly, Black Hornet, and more. He is also the author of Drive, which was adapted into the acclaimed Nicholas Refn film starring Ryan Gosling. He lives in Phoenix, Arizona.

Jeffery Deaver is the #1 international bestselling author of more than thirty novels, three collections of short stories, and a nonfiction law book. His books are sold in 150 countries and translated into 25 languages. He’s received or been shortlisted for a number of awards around the world. A former journalist, folksinger, and attorney, he was born outside of Chicago and has a bachelor of journalism degree from the University of Missouri and a law degree from Fordham University. You can visit his website at http://www.JefferyDeaver.com.

Joe Ide grew up in South Central Los Angeles. Joe’s favorite books were the Conan Doyle Sherlock Holmes stories. He held a variety of different jobs–including Hollywood screenwriter–before writing IQ, which went onto win the Anthony, Macavity, and Shamus awards for Best Debut Novel. Joe lives in Santa Monica, California. Visit his website at http://www.joeide.com

Joe R. Lansdale is the author of more than four dozen novels, including Jackrabbit Smile, the Edgar-award winning The Bottoms, Sunset and Sawdust, and Leather Maiden. He has received nine Bram Stoker Awards, the American Mystery Award, the British Fantasy Award, and the Grinzane Cavour Prize for Literature. He lives with his family in Nacogdoches, Texas.

Joseph Heller (1923-1999) is an American satirical novelist, short-story writer, and dramatist. His debut novel, Catch-22, introduced the concept of a catch-22 to the English lexicon, and became an anti-war classic during the U.S. conflict in Vietnam.

Kanae Minato is an award-winning, internationally bestselling novelist and former home economics teacher and housewife who wrote her first novel between household chores. Minato lives in Japan.

Novelist Karen Ellis lives in Brooklyn, New York, with her family. She is a member of Mystery Writers of America and International Thriller Writers.

Kathleen Kent is the author of three bestselling historical novels, The Heretic’s Daughter, The Traitor’s Wife, and The Outcasts. She is also the author of the short story “Coincidences Can Kill You,” published in Dallas Noir, which was the inspiration for The Dime, her first work of crime fiction. Kent lives in Dallas, TX.

Kazuaki Takano studied Film Studies at Los Angeles City College and has worked for many years as a scriptwriter in Japan. Genocide of One is his first novel to be translated into English.

K. T. Medina spent five years in the British armed forces, rising to Troop Commander in the Royal Engineers. She was previously a Managing Editor at Jane’s Information Group, where she was responsible for providing information on small arms, armor, artillery and land mines to global militaries. She holds an MBA from the London School of Economics, where she is a guest lecturer, and an MFA from Bath Spa University. She lives in London with her husband and three children.

Lawrence Block is a Mystery Writers of America Grand Master, has won multiple Edgar and Shamus awards and countless international prizes. The author of more than 50 books, he lives in New York City.

Lee Child is the author of the New York Times bestselling series of Jack Reacher thrillers. His debut, Killing Floor, won both the Anthony and the Barry awards for Best First Mystery, and The Enemy won both the Barry and Nero awards for Best Novel. Child, a native of England and a former television director, lives in New York City.

Linwood Barclay is the New York Times and #1 international bestselling author of fourteen critically acclaimed novels, including Broken Promise; No Safe House; A Tap on the Window; Trust Your Eyes, which has been optioned for film; Never Look Away, which has been optioned for television; and No Time for Goodbye. He lives in Toronto, ON.

Lorenzo Carcaterra is a journalist and the #1 New York Times bestselling author of several novels set in New York City. One of those novels, Sleepers, was adapted into a popular film starring Brad Pitt, Robert De Niro, and Dustin Hoffman. Carcaterra lives in New York City with his two children and and an Olde English Bulldog named Gus.

Marc Guggenheim practiced law at one of Boston’s most prestigious firms before leaving to pursue his dream of writing for television. In the past eleven years, he’s worked on such highly regarded shows as The Practice, Law &Order, Jack & Bobby, Brothers & Sisters and Flash Forward. In addition to television, he also writes comic books (Spider Man, Wolverine, The Flash), videogames (Call of Duty 3) and feature films (The Green Lantern). He is currently a writer for the hit CW show Arrow and lives in Los Angeles with his wife and two daughters.

Marcia Clark began practicing law as a criminal defense attorney. She became a prosecutor in the L.A. District Attorney’s Office in 1981, and spent ten years in the Special Trials Unit where she handled a number of high profile cases prior to the O.J. Simpson case, including the prosecution of stalker/murderer Robert Bardo, whose conviction for the murder of actress Rebecca Schaeffer resulted in legislation that offered victims better protection from stalkers as well as increased punishment for the offenders. Since the Simpson trial, Ms. Clark has toured the U.S. and Canada giving lectures on a variety of women’s issues including domestic violence and inspirational/motivational speeches, as well as lectures on the latest high profile cases, public service careers, and of course, the Trial of the Century. In May of 1997, her book on the Simpson case, Without a Doubt was published and quickly rose to #1 on the New York Times, Wall St. Journal, Washington Post, LA Times, and Publisher’s Weekly bestsellers lists. From February 1998 to 2000 Marcia was under contract as a legal analyst and expert commentator for NBC, CNBC and MSNBC. She appeared weekly as the substitute host of Geraldo Rivera’s “Rivera Live,” and also hosted “Equal Time” for CNBC and “Judge and Jury” for MSNBC. Marcia has appeared on the “Oprah Winfrey Show,” the “Larry King Show,” the “Today” show, “The Early Show,” and “Good Morning America,” among others, and provides legal commentary on a wide variety of cable shows such as “Anderson Cooper 360” and “Issues with Jane Velez Mitchell.” Marcia Clark (with writing partner, Catherine LePard) has sold hour-long pilots to the FX network, Lifetime, and VH1 and developed a half hour comedy for NBC. She has also developed reality projects for CBS and was an executive producer of a one hour reality pilot for CBS. Marcia has published three novels which feature Los Angeles Special Trials prosecutor Rachel Knight: Guilt by Association, Guilt by Degrees, and Killer Ambition, which is due out in June 2013. TNT has optioned the books and a drama series is currently in development. Marcia is attached as an executive producer. She’s currently at work on her fourth novel.

Mark Billingham worked as an actor, a TV writer and a stand-up comedian before becoming one of the most critically acclaimed crime novelists in the world. He lives in North London with his wife and two children.

Matthew F. Jones is also the author of the critically acclaimed novels Boot Tracks, Deepwater, The Elements of Hitting, Blind Pursuit and The Cooter Farm, as well as a number of screenplays, including adaptations of A Single Shot and Boot Tracks, both which are being filmed in 2011. Deepwater was made into a film in 2005. He grew up in rural upstate New York and lives now in Charlottesville, Virginia.

Matthew Quirk studied history and literature at Harvard College. After graduation, he joined The Atlantic and spent five years at the magazine, reporting on a variety of subjects, including crime, private military contractors, the opium trade, terrorism prosecutions, and international gangs. Quirk’s bestselling first novel, The 500, is currently in development as a major motion picture. He lives in San Diego.

Melina Marchetta is the acclaimed author of young adult novels including Saving Francesca and Jellicoe Road, which won the American Library Association’s Michael L. Printz Award for Excellence in Young Adult Literature. Her novels have been published in 17 languages and 18 countries. She lives in Sydney, Australia. TELL THE TRUTH, SHAME THE DEVIL is Marchetta’s first novel for adults.

Patrick Melton and Marcus Dunstan have written the screenplays for Saw IV, Saw V, Saw VI, Saw 3D, and The Collector, which Dunstan also directed. Currently, they are filming The Collection, and wrotePiranha 3DD, which comes out this Thanksgiving from Dimension Films. Stephen Romano is an acclaimed author, screenwriter and illustrator, having written for Showtime’s Emmy-winning original series Masters Of Horror.

Michael Connelly has been a popular sportswriter in the New England area for over a decade, and his Boston Top Ten blog is a favorite of sports fans in the region. He’s published three books including Rebound!: Basketball, Busing, Larry Bird, and the Rebirth of Boston. He lives in West Roxbury, Massachusetts.

Michael Marshall Smith was born in England but spent his early years in the United States, South Africa an Australia. He has worked extensively as a screenwriter in LA and London, where he lives with his wife and son.

Michael Palmer, medical thriller author and physician, died unexpectedly on October 30, 2013. Michael wrote 18 novels of medical and political suspense, all international bestsellers. In addition to writing, Palmer served as an associate director of the Massachusetts Medical Society Physician Health Services, devoted to helping physicians troubled by mental illness, physical illness, behavioral issues, and chemical dependency.

Matthew Palmer is a twenty-year veteran of the U.S. Foreign Service, currently serving as the director of Multilateral Affairs in the State Department’s Bureau of Asian and Pacific Affairs. A life member of the Council of Foreign Relations, Matt has worked as a diplomat all over the world. While on the secretary of state’s Policy Planning staff, Matt helped design and implement the Kimberly Process for certifying African diamonds as “conflict free.”

NICK SANTORA was a lawyer before his first screenplay won Best Screenplay of the Competition at the 2001 New York International Independent Film Festival. A co-creator, executive producer, and writer for the hit A&E show Breakout Kings and former writer and co-executive producer of Prison Break, Nick Santora lives in Los Angeles, California.

Olen Steinhauer grew up in Virginia, and has since lived in Georgia, Mississippi, Pennsylvania, Texas, California, Massachusetts, and New York. Outside the US, he’s lived in Croatia (when it was called Yugoslavia), the Czech Republic and Italy. He also spent a year in Romania on a Fulbright grant, an experience that helped inspire his first five books. He now lives in Hungary with his wife and daughter.

Philip Kerr is the author of nine widely acclaimed Bernie Gunter novels, most recently The Man Without Breath. Field Gray, the seventh in the series, was a finalist for the 2012 Mystery Writers of America Edgar Award for Best Novel. Kerr has also been a finalist for the Shamus Award for Best Hardcover Fiction and he won the British Crime Writers Association’s Ellis Peters Award for Historical Crime Fiction. Under the name P. B. Kerr, he is the author of the much-loved young adult series Children of the Lamp. He lives in London.

Ralph Pezzullo is a New York Times bestselling author and award-winning playwright, screenwriter and journalist. His books include Jawbreaker (with CIA operative Gary Berntsen) and Zero Footprint (with military contractor Simon Chase).

Richard Lange is the author of the story collections Dead Boys and Sweet Nothing and the novels This Wicked World and Angel Baby. He is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, the International Association of Crime Writers’ Hammett Prize, and the Rosenthal Family Foundation Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. He lives in Los Angeles.

Richard Montanari was born in Cleveland, Ohio, to a traditional Italian-American family. After university, he traveled Europe extensively and lived in London, selling clothing in Chelsea and foreign-language encyclopedias door-to-door in Hampstead. Returning to the United States, he started working as a freelance writer for the Chicago Tribune, the Detroit Free Press, the Seattle Times, and many others. His novels have now been published in more than twenty-five languages.

R.L. Stine is one of the bestselling children’s authors in history, with more than 400 million books sold to date. In 1989, Stine created the Fear Street series, one of the bestselling young adult book series in history, with 80 million copies sold worldwide. He is also the author of the bestselling children’s series Goosebumps, which began in 1992 and has sold 300 million copies around the world.

Robert Galbraith is a pseudonym for J.K. Rowling, bestselling author of the Harry Potter series and The Casual Vacancy. Lethal White is the fourth book in the highly acclaimed Cormoran Strike crime fiction series. The Cuckoo’s Calling was published in 2013, The Silkworm in 2014, and Career of Evil in 2015.

Dr. Robin Cook is the author of thirty previous books and is credited with popularizing the medical thriller with his wildly successful first novel, Coma. He divides his time between Boston and Florida.

Sam Hawken was born in Texas and currently lives outside Baltimore with his wife and son.

Sarah Lotz is a novelist and screenwriter with a fondness for the macabre. She is the author of Day Four and The Three, and lives in Cape Town with her family and other animals.

Sebastian Rotella is the author of Rip Crew, The Convert’s Song, and Triple Crossing, which the New York Times Book Review named its favorite debut crime novel of 2011, as well as the nonfiction book Twilight on the Line. He is a senior reporter covering international security issues for ProPublica, a newsroom dedicated to investigative journalism in the public interest. He worked for twenty-three years for the Los Angeles Times, serving as bureau chief in Paris and Buenos Aires. His honors include a Peabody Award; Columbia University’s Dart Award and Moors Cabot Prize for Latin American coverage; the German Marshall Fund’s Weitz Prize for reporting in Europe; five Overseas Press Club Awards; The Urbino Prize of Italy, and an Emmy nomination. He was a Pulitzer finalist for international reporting in 2006.

Simon Baatz is a New York Times-bestselling author and award-winning historian. He has graduate degrees in history from the University of Pennsylvania and Imperial College London, and he currently teaches United States history and American legal history at John Jay College, City University of New York. Simon grew up in London and has lived in Philadelphia, Washington, D.C., and Frankfurt am Main, Germany.

Simon Chase is the pen name of a former member of the elite Royal Marine Commandos. He was recruited into the British Special Forces, serving in the Special Boat Squadron (SBS). While there he carried out top secret missions around the world working alongside the CIA and DEA. More recently, he has worked with a close-knit team of U.S. Special Forces operatives to provide high-level protection and intervention services for individuals, corporations and governments all over the globe.

Stephen Jones studied at Royal Holloway College, University of London and is the director of a major London media agency. He is the author of The String Diaries.

Stuart Prebble is the author of The Insect Farm and a producer of documentary and current-affairs programs for television. He was formerly CEO of the UK television network ITV and is currently chairman of the TV production company StoryVault Films. He lives in London.

Tennessee Williams (1911-1983) is an American playwright and author of many stage classics, including The Glass Menagerie, A Streetcar Named Desire, and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. He also wrote poetry, essays, memoirs, and short stories.

Thomas O’Malley is a graduate of the University of Massachusetts, Boston, and the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, and currently teaches on the faculty of creative writing at Dartmouth College. He lives in the Boston area.

Thomas Mullen is the author of The Last Town on Earth, which was named Best Debut Novel of 2006 byUSA Today and was awarded the James Fenimore Cooper Prize for excellence in historical fiction, andThe Many Deaths of the Firefly Brothers. His books have been named Best of the Year by such publications as the Chicago Tribune, USA Today, theAtlanta Journal-Constitution, The Onion, and Amazon.com. He lives with his wife and sons in Atlanta.

T. Jefferson Parker is the award-winning author of nine previous novels, including Silent Joe, The Blue Hour, and Red Light–which was nominated for an Edgar Award for best novel. He lives in Fallbrook, California.

Walter Mosley is the author of the Easy Rawlins and Fearless Jones mysteries and numerous other works of fiction and nonfiction. He was born in Los Angeles and lives in New York. He has won the Anisfield-Wolf prize and numerous other honors, and in 2006 he was invited to deliver the Alain Leroy Locke lectures at Harvard.

Warren Ellis is the award-winning creator of graphic novels such as Fell, Ministry of Space, Planetary, and Transmetropolitan and the author of the novel Crooked Little Vein. His graphic novel RED was adapted into the #1 hit film of the same name starring Bruce Willis and Helen Mirren. He lives in London.

William Shaw is an award-winning pop culture journalist, who has written regularly for the UK’s Observer and Independent, as well as the New York Times. He is the author of the Breen and Tozer series and The Birdwatcher, his previous novel featuring Sergeant Alexandra Cupidi. Shaw lives in Sussex, England.