2022 Nick Linn Lecture Series: In-Person and Virtual

Kristin Harmel is the New York Times bestselling, USA Today bestselling, and #1 international bestselling author of The Book of Lost Names, The Winemaker’s Wife, and a dozen other novels that have been translated into twenty-nine languages and are sold all over the world.

A former reporter for PEOPLE magazine, Kristin has been writing professionally since the age of 16, when she began her career as a sportswriter, covering Major League Baseball and NHL hockey for a local magazine in Tampa Bay, Florida in the late 1990s.  After stints covering health and lifestyle for American Baby, Men’s Health, and Woman’s Day, she became a reporter for PEOPLE magazine while still in college and spent more than a decade working for the publication, covering everything from the Super Bowl to high-profile murders to celebrity interviews.  Her favorite stories at PEOPLE, however, were the “Heroes Among Us” features – tales of ordinary people doing extraordinary things.

In addition to a long magazine writing career (which also included articles published in Travel + Leisure, Glamour, Ladies’ Home Journal, Every Day with Rachael Ray, and more), Kristin was also a frequent contributor to the national television morning show The Daily Buzz and has appeared on Good Morning America and numerous local television morning shows.

Kristin was born just outside Boston, Massachusetts and spent her childhood there, as well as in Columbus, Ohio, and St. Petersburg, Florida.  After graduating with a degree in journalism (with a minor in Spanish) from the University of Florida, she spent time living in Paris and Los Angeles and now lives in Orlando, with her husband and young son.  She is also the co-founder and co-host of the weekly web show and podcast Friends & Fiction.

Brad Taylor, Lieutenant Colonel (Ret.), is a 21-year veteran of the U.S. Army Infantry and Special Forces, including eight years with the 1st Special Forces Operational Detachment – Delta, popularly known as Delta Force.  Taylor retired in 2010 after serving more than two decades and participating in Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom, as well as classified operations around the globe.  His final military post was as Assistant Professor of Military Science at The Citadel.  Brad has written fourteen New York Times bestsellers.  When not writing, he serves as a security consultant on asymmetric threats for various agencies.  He lives in Charleston, SC with his wife and two daughters.

Scott Turow is a writer and lawyer.  He is the author of twelve bestselling works of fiction, including Presumed Innocent, The Burden of Proof, and his most recent novel, another New York Times bestseller, The Last Trial.  He is also the author of two nonfiction books, including One L, about his experience as a law student.  His books have been translated into more than forty languages, sold more than thirty million copies worldwide, and have been adapted into movies and television projects.  He has frequently contributed essays and op-eds to publications such as The New York Times, Washington Post, Vanity Fair, The New Yorker, and The Atlantic.

A former federal prosecutor, Mr. Turow has been a partner in the Chicago office of Dentons US, LLP, an international law firm, since 1986, concentrating on white collar criminal defense, while also devoting a substantial part of his time to pro bono matters.  He has served on a number of public bodies, including the Illinois Commission on Capital Punishment to recommend reforms to Illinois’ death penalty system, and was the first Chair of Illinois’ Executive Ethics Commission which was created in 2004 to regulate executive branch employees in the Illinois State government.  He was also President of the Authors Guild, the nation’s largest membership organization of professional writers, and is an Emeritus Trustee of Amherst College.