* = Moderator
** = Keynote

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Micro Marvels authors are listed here!

Born in New York City in 1950, Julia Alvarez‘s parents returned to their native country, Dominican Republic, shortly after her birth. Ten years later, the family was forced to flee to the United States because of her father’s involvement in a plot to overthrow the dictator, Trujillo.  Alvarez has written novels (How the García Girls Lost Their Accents, In the Time of the Butterflies, ¡Yo!, In the Name of Salomé, Saving the World, Afterlife), collections of poems (Homecoming, The Other Side/ El Otro Lado, The Woman I Kept to Myself), nonfiction (Something to Declare, Once Upon A Quinceañera, and A Wedding in Haiti), and numerous books for young readers (including the Tía Lola Stories series, Before We Were Free, finding miracles, Return to Sender and Where Do They Go?).  Her most recent novel isThe Cemetery of Untold Stories, was published in 2024. Alvarez’s awards include the Pura Belpré and Américas Awards for her books for young readers, the Hispanic Heritage Award, and the F. Scott Fitzgerald Award. In 2013, she received the National Medal of Arts from President Obama. In 2024, she was the subject of an American Masters documentary, “Julia Alvarez: A Life Reimagined,” on PBS. Alvarez is one of the founders of Border of Lights, a movement to promote peace and collaboration between Haiti and the Dominican Republic.  She lives in Vermont.

Skyla Arndt has always loved the creepy, crawly side of life. When she was younger, she thought that love might translate to hunting Bigfoot, but luckily for him, writing proved easier. Together We Rot is her debut novel. Connect with her at ArndtSkyla.com or @ArndtSkyla on Instagram or Twitter. (Howling at the moon works, too.)

Aashna Avachat is a young adult author from California who has worked in publishing since college. She studied English and Philosophy at the University of California, Berkeley, and law at Harvard Law School. When she’s not writing, she’s probably reading on a sunny patch of grass, going on long walks to grocery stores, or hanging out with one of her many foster kittens. Love Craves Cardamom is her debut novel.

Samara Cole Doyon is a poet and award-winning children’s book author with Haitian roots, living on unceded Wabanaki / Abenaki territory. She is a neurodivergent mother of neurodivergent children, continually learning more from her progeny than they could ever learn from her. Samara earned both a Lupine Award and an International Literacy Association Award for her debut picture book, Magnificent Homespun Brown. Each of her books has received the coveted starred designation in prepublication review from Kirkus, and her most recent picture book, Next Level, was a runner up for the Best Black Joy category in the 2024 Black Kidlit Awards. She works for Maine Writers and Publishers Alliance and lives with her husband, two children, rescue pup, and tabby cat in central Maine.

Barbara Davis is a Jersey girl raised in the south, now living and writing in Florida after a seven-year stint in New Hampshire. Confused? Constantly. Happy? Deliriously! But then, living your dream will do that! After fifteen years of wearing heels and schlepping a briefcase as an executive in the jewelry industry, I traded in my pinstripes for a little peace of mind, and decided to follow my dream of becoming a women’s fiction author. And what a ride it’s been! Nine books later, I’m still pinching myself, and I’m still as much in love with writing as I was the day I began this journey. Maybe it’s because I believe in miracles, in happy endings. Heaven knows I’ve had my share. I’m blessed to be married to my best friend and soul mate, Tom, who, I must say, sets the bar pretty high for my on-the-page heroes with breakfast in bed every day. When I’m not making up stories, you’re likely to find me reading, cooking, or watching college football. (Go Gators!)

Tammy Donroe Inman is the award-winning author of New England Brunch, New England Desserts, and Wintersweet: Seasonal Desserts to Warm the Home. A trained chef and cooking instructor, Inman got her start testing recipes for Cook’s Illustrated magazine and the TV show America’s Test Kitchen. After that, she worked as an editor for Boston magazine, and wrote articles for various print and online publications, including the Boston Globe, Fine Cooking, and Yankee Magazine. She’s also been interviewed by NPR’s All Things Considered, CBS Evening News, and Chronicle. She lives with her husband and two high-maintenance cats in the Boston area, where she can be found roller skating and moonlighting as a cheesemonger at Formaggio Kitchen.

Juliette Fay is the bestselling, award-winning author of eight novels, including The Harvey Girls, The Half of It, Catch Us When We Fall, City of Flickering Light, and The Tumbling Turner Sisters, a USA Today bestseller and Costco Pennie’s Book Club Pick. Previous novels include The Shortest Way Home, one of Library Journal‘s Top 5 Best Books of 2012: Women’s Fiction; Deep Down True, short-listed for the 2011 Women’s Fiction award by the American Library Association; and Shelter Me, a 2009 Massachusetts Book Award “Must-Read Book” and an Indie Next pick. Juliette is a graduate of Boston College and Harvard University, and lives in Massachusetts. Visit her at www.juliettefay.com.

**Lev Grossman is the author of the bestselling novel The Bright Sword, which was a New York Times Notable Book of 2024, and the #1 New York Times bestselling Magicians trilogy, which has been published in thirty countries and adapted as a TV show that ran for five seasons. He’s also a screenwriter and the author of two children’s books, The Silver Arrow and The Golden Swift. Grossman spent 15 years as a senior writer at Time magazine, where he was the book critic and lead technology writer; his journalism has also appeared in Vanity Fair, the Atlantic, the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, Slate, Wired and many other places. He lives with his wife and children in Sydney, Australia.

Kalee Gwarjanski is the author of the picture book Miss Macdonald Has a Farm. Her stories are sometimes silly, often lyrical, and nearly always include food. She writes to encourage children and their families to learn about where their food comes from and most importantly to have fun in the kitchen. Before turning to writing (and homeschooling her four children) full time, she was formerly a personal chef. When she isn’t writing or cooking, she enjoys reading, hiking, and crafting.

*Jane Healey is the author of The Saturday Evening Girls Club, Goodnight from Paris, The Secret Stealers, and The Beantown Girls, a Washington Post and Amazon Charts bestseller. Her next novel, The Women of Arlington Hall, released in July 2025. She is also the host of the Historical Happy Hour podcast, where she interviews fellow historical fiction authors about their latest novels. A graduate of the University of New Hampshire and Northeastern University, Jane shares a home north of Boston with her husband, two daughters, a cat, and a dog.
Facebook: /JaneHealeyBooks
Instagram: @HealeyJane
TikTok: @Jane.healey
Website: janehealey.com

Adriana Mather is the New York Times bestselling author of the How to Hang a Witch series and the Killing November series, with family roots that go back to Sleepy Hollow, the Salem Witch Trials, and the Titanic. Most recently she has embraced her love of swoon with her newest novels Mom Com and The Breakup Artists. She’s also an actor and producer and co-owns Zombot Pictures, a production company that makes feature films. Follow her at @AdrianaMather or @adrianamatherauthor.

Doug Most, the author of Launching Liberty, is a journalist and author of three books whose career has spanned newspapers, magazines, and universities up and down the East Coast, from Rhode Island to Washington, D.C., to South Carolina to New Jersey to Boston. His 2014 nonfiction book, The Race Underground, tells the story about the birth of subways in America and was adapted into a PBS American Experience documentary. He works now as executive editor of the university daily newsroom at Boston University.

Catherine Newman is the New York Times bestselling author of the memoirs Catastrophic Happiness and Waiting for Birdy, the middle-grade novel One Mixed-Up Night, the kids’ craft book Stitch Camp, the best-selling how-to books for kids How to Be a Person and What Can I Say?, and the novels We All Want Impossible Things, Sandwich, and Wreck (forthcoming from HarperCollins). Her books have been translated into a dozen languages. She has been a regular contributor to the New York Times, Real Simple, O, The Oprah Magazine, Cup of Jo, and many other publications. She writes Crone Sandwich on Substack and lives in Amherst, Massachusetts.

Ali Novak was born in Wisconsin and is a New York Times and internationally bestselling author of contemporary young adult novels. She started writing her debut book, My Life with the Walter Boys, when she was only fifteen. Since then, her work has received more than 150 million reads online. When she isn’t writing, Novak enjoys traveling with her husband, Jared; binding fan fiction; and reading any fantasy novel she can get her hands on. You can follow her on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, and TikTok @authoralinovak.

Dan Pashman is the three-time James Beard Award winning creator and host of The Sporkful food podcast, which was named one of the 100 Best Podcasts of All Time by Time Magazine in 2025. He’s also the inventor of the cascatelli pasta shape, which was named one of Time Magazine’s Best Inventions of 2021. The Sporkful podcast series about cascatelli’s creation was picked by the New York Times as one of the Best Podcasts of the Year. That project led Dan to write the cookbook Anything’s Pastable: 81 Inventive Pasta Recipes for Saucy People, which was a National Bestseller in 2024. Dan is a contributor to NPR and Milk Street Radio and has appeared on The Today Show, Good Morning America, CBS This Morning, Guy’s Grocery Games, and Beat Bobby Flay, as well as the public radio shows Morning Edition, All Things Considered, Radiolab and Planet Money. 

Maggie Pearson is an author, chef, recipe developer, and founder of Feast & Fettle, New England’s fastest-growing local meal delivery service. A former private chef turned food entrepreneur, Maggie is passionate about creating recipes that make mealtime easier and more enjoyable for busy individuals and families. She lives in East Providence, RI with her husband and two sons. You can find her on Instagram at @maggie.pearson.food

Rebecca Podos is the Lambda Literary Award-winning author of YA and Adult novels. Homegrown Magic, her adult fantasy debut co-written with Jamie Pacton, is their latest, with the sequel to follow in 2026.  Her next novel, What If… Kitty Pryde Stole the Phoenix Force? is the fourth entry in Marvel’s What If… series, and will be published in October 2025. By day, Rebecca is a Senior Agent at Neighborhood Literary.

*Rory Power lives in Rhode Island. She has an MA in prose fiction from the University of East Anglia and is the New York Times bestselling author of works for both adult and young adult readers, including Wilder Girls, In a Garden Burning Gold, and most recently, Kill Creatures.

Domenica Ruta is the NYTimes bestselling author of the memoir With or Without You and the novel Last Day, a 2019 NYT Notable book of the year, as well as co-editor of the anthology We Got This: Solo Mom Stories of Grit, Heart and Humor.  She’s published short fiction and essays in the Iowa Review, the Boston Review, the Indiana Review, Epoch, Ninth Letter, The Cut, People, and elsewhere, and has been anthologized a handful of times, most notably in Wanting. Her latest novel, All the Mothers, is on sale now everywhere books are sold.

Patricia Santomasso is an Earphones and Odyssey Award winning narrator who has recorded over 400 audiobooks. Throughout her 10+ years narrating, she has performed books by Brad Meltzer, Frieda McFadden, Kelley Armstrong, T. Kingfisher, and Josh Malerman, to name a few. Patricia has a BA in English from the University of Connecticut and is a professionally trained actor, having performed for years on stages across the country and in NYC. Her narration style has been described as “warm-but-tart” by Paste Magazine, “lush” by Booklist, and “skillful” by Library Journal, whose starred review of her work headlined “Patricia Santomasso Maximizes Terror.” Patricia’s favorite stories to tell are the spooky ones. She lives in Connecticut with her husband and fellow narrator Sean Patrick Hopkins and their daughter. On days when she’s not narrating she’s baking gluten-free desserts, watching cat videos with her daughter, and thinking up new fun projects.

*Sara Sheckells is an Earphones Award recipient for ensemble narration. She is also featured among AudioFile Magazine‘s Voices to Know. Performing both fiction and nonfiction works, Sara has voiced over 120 audiobooks. A lifelong New Englander, Sara came to narration as an avid listener and long-time pupil of dramatic arts and vocal performance. Her audiobook work has been described as “emotionally connected” and “engaging.” Sara was a radio host and performed as a costumed tour guide before launching a long-term career in academia. She loves dogs, coffee, and anything witchy. Sara lives north of Boston with her “wicked smaht” family.

Shveta Thakrar is a part-time nagini and full-time believer in magic. Her work has appeared in a number of magazines and anthologies, including Enchanted Living, Uncanny Magazine, A Thousand Beginnings and Endings, and Toil & Trouble. Her debut young adult fantasy novel, Star Daughter, was a finalist for the 2021 Andre Norton Nebula Award, and her second and third novels, The Dream Runners and Divining The Leaves, take place in the same universe. Her adult fantasy novella, Into the Moon Garden, is available as an original audiobook from Audible. When not spinning stories about spider silk and shadows, magic and marauders, and courageous girls illuminated by dancing rainbow flames, Shveta crafts, devours books, daydreams, travels, bakes, and occasionally even plays her harp.

Keja Valens is Professor of English at Salem State University. She teaches and writes on Caribbean literatures, multiethnic American literatures, and food writing. Her books include Culinary Colonialism, Caribbean Cookbooks, and Recipes for National Independence, Desire between Women in Caribbean Literature and the co-edited collection Passing Lines: Sexuality and Immigration. She is currently working on essays on Puerto Rican food sovereignty and “What to Eat after a Hurricane.” When not teaching or writing, she gardens, cooks, and eats.

Galina Vromen began writing fiction after more than 20 years as a journalist, mostly with Reuters News Agency, in Israel, England, the Netherlands, France, and Mexico. She then moved into the nonprofit sector as a director at the Harold Grinspoon Foundation, heading its operations in Israel where she launched two reading readiness programs, one in Hebrew and the other in Arabic. During her tenure, the programs gifted twenty million books to young children and their families in Israel and were named U.S. Library of Congress honorees for best practices in promoting literacy. Vroman’s stories have been performed on NPR’s Selected Shorts program and appeared in American Way, the Adirondack Review, Tikkun, Reform Judaism and other journals. She holds an MA in literature from Bar-Ilan University in Israel and a BA in media and anthropology from Hampshire College in Massachusetts. For more see www.galinavromen.com 

Weike Wang is the author of the novels Chemistry and Joan Is Okay. She is the recipient of a PEN/Hemingway Award and a Whiting Award and is a National Book Foundation 5 Under 35 honoree. She lives in New York City.

Nicole Wong was born in the Year of the Dragon in Fall River, Massachusetts. As a girl, she attended Chinese picnics with her family, and her yeye and nana brought her to basement restaurants in Boston’s Chinatown, where she tasted all kinds of unique and flavorful dishes. She is a graduate of Rhode Island School of Design and has illustrated over 25 books for children, including Kiyoshi’s Walk, If the Rivers Run Free, and Quiet as Mud. She lives with her husband, their daughter, and their pets. 

Michelle Young is an award-winning journalist and author. Her latest book, The Art Spy: The Extraordinary Untold Tale of World War II Resistance Hero Rose Valland was just longlisted for the 2025 American Library of Paris Book Award. Michelle’s work has appeared in The Wall Street Journal, The Guardian, Hyperallergic, The Forward, Town & Country, and Narratively. She is a graduate of Harvard College in the History of Art and Architecture and holds a master’s degree from Columbia University’s Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation, where she is a Professor of Architecture. She is the founder of the publication Untapped New York. She divides her time between the Berkshires, Massachusetts, New York City, and Paris.