Celebrating 20 years!!! 2023 Nick Linn Lectures Series

Fiona Davis is the nationally bestselling author of historical novels set in iconic New York City buildings, including The Lions of Fifth Avenue, The Chelsea Girls, The Masterpiece, The Address, and The Dollhouse and her latest The Magnolia Palace. She was born in Canada but raised in New Jersey, Utah, and Texas, and her passion for old buildings probably stems from trips back to England to visit relatives, where she loved exploring castles, ruins, and grand estates.

Fiona went to the College of William & Mary for her undergraduate work, studying International Relations and English Literature. She first came to New York City as an actress, working on Broadway, off-Broadway, and in regional theater. After getting a master’s degree at Columbia Journalism School, she fell in love with writing, leapfrogging from editor to freelance journalist. Her work has been published in national magazines including O the Oprah Magazine, Women’s Health, and The Daily.

She’s a co-editor for the upcoming anthology, Suffragette City – a series of short stories centered around a 1915 New York City parade for women’s suffrage – which will be published in October, 2022. Her books have been translated into over a dozen languages, appeared on the Indie Next List and been LibraryReads Picks and TheSkimm Reads Pick of the Week. Her book, The Masterpiece, was featured on Late Night with Seth Meyers for his “Fred Judges a Book by its Cover” segment. Fiona is based in New York City.

Delia Owens is the co-author of three internationally bestselling nonfiction books about her life as a wildlife scientist in Africa.  This award-winning book is Cry the Kalahari.  Her first novel, Where the Crawdads Sing topped The New York Times Best Sellers of 2019 and 2020 and was on the list for a total of 135 weeks.

At a young age, Delia, demonstrated a natural ability in writing.  But by the time she started university, she had decided to pursue a career in science, instead of literature.  She received a Bachelor of Science degree in zoology from the University of Georgia and a Ph.D. in Animal Behavior from the University of California in Davis.  Her doctoral degree focused on the evolution of social denning of brown hyenas.

Delia wrote her nonfiction books with her former husband, Mark Owens.  In 1974, they set up a basic campsite in a very remote area in the central Kalahari of Botswana and studied six lion prides.  They also studied the elusive brown hyenas.  During these years, Delia became fascinated with social groups of mammals which are almost always made up of females with males coming and going.  The Owens moved to the North Luangwa Valley in Zambia to continue wildlife research.  Again, Delia observed the herds were made up of closely bonded females and their offspring.  Delia’s research and conservation work in Africa earned her the Golden Ark award from Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands and the University of California Award for Excellence.  She has been awarded the John Burroughs Award for Nature Writing and has been published in Nature, The African Journal of Ecology, and many other publications.  The project the Owens’ began in Zambia continues to this day, funded in part by the Owens Foundation for Wildlife Conservation.

The importance of female grouping in social mammals also has influenced her fictional writing.  Where the Crawdads Sing explores the behavioral impact on a young woman who is forced to live much of her young life without a group.

Mary Alice Monroe is a New York Times bestselling author of 27 books, including The Summer of Lost and Found, the 2021 novel that included COVID in the story line.  Mary Alice also has published children’s books which complement the environmental themes she is know for in her adult novels.  Her middle grade series, written with Angela May, The Islanders, debuted #2 on the New York Times book review.  The second book in the series, Search for Treasure, is due to be released in the summer of 2022.

Mary Alice has earned numerous accolades and awards such as:  the Southwest Florida Author of Distinction Award; The International Book Award for Green Fiction; and the prestigious Southern Book Prize for Fiction.  Her bestselling novel, The Beach House, is a Hallmark Hall of Fame movie.  Monroe is the co-creator of the weekly web-show and podcast Friends and Fiction.

The fragility of the earth’s wild habitat, particularly the southern coast of the United States, has been an important focus of Mary Alice’s work.  For her novels Mary Alice immerses herself in academic research, works with wildlife experts, and does hands-on volunteering with animals.  She then uses her knowledge and experience to craft captivating stories that identify important parallels between nature and human nature.

An active conservationist, Mary Alice, serves on the South Carolina Aquarium Board Emeritus, The Leatherback Trust, The Pat Conroy Literary Center Honorary Board, and Casting Carolinas Advisory Board.  She is especially proud to be a twenty-year-plus state-certified volunteer with the Island Turtle Team.

When not writing a novel, she is with her family or working with wildlife somewhere in the world.

Robert Dugoni is the critically acclaimed New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post and #1 Amazon bestselling author of the Tracy Crosswhite police series set in Seattle, which has sold more than 8 million books worldwide. He is also the author of The Charles Jenkins espionage series, the David Sloane legal thriller series and  several stand-alone novels including The 7th Canon, Damage Control, and the literary novels, The Extraordinary Life of Sam Hell – Suspense Magazine’s 2018 Book of the Year, for which Dugoni’s narration won an AudioFile Earphones Award and The World Played Chess; as well as the nonfiction exposé The Cyanide Canary, a Washington Post Best Book of the Year. Several of his novels have been optioned for movies and television series. Dugoni is the recipient of the Nancy Pearl Award for Fiction and a three-time winner of the Friends of Mystery Spotted Owl Award for best novel set in the Pacific Northwest. He is also a two-time finalist for the International Thriller Award, the Harper Lee Prize for Legal Fiction, the Silver Falchion Award for mystery, and the Mystery Writers of America Edgar Award.

Robert Dugoni’s books are sold in more than twenty-five countries and have been translated into more than thirty languages.

Visit his website at www.robertdugoni.com, and follow him on twitter @robertdugoni and on Facebook at www.facebook.com/AuthorRobertDugoni

David Baldacci is a national and international bestselling author.  His books have been published in over 45 languages.  He is best known for his suspense novels and legal thrillers.

David is a lifelong Virginian.  He received his Bachelor’s degree from Virginia Commonwealth University and his law degree from the University of Virginia School of Law.  He practiced law in Washington, D.C. and while practicing law he wrote Absolute Power which was published in 1996.  This, his first novel, was adapted into a movie, starring Clint Eastwood and Gene Hackman.  His work includes eight series, standalone novels, short stories and novellas, and novels for young readers.  In total, David has published 44 books for adults; all have been national and international bestsellers and several have been adapted for film and television.  He also has written 7 novels for young readers.

In addition to being a prolific writer, David and his wife Michelle are devoted philanthropists.  They are cofounders of the Wish You Well Foundation which supports family and adult literacy programs in the United States.  In 2008, the Foundation partnered with Feeding America to launch Feeding Body & Mind, a program to address the connection between literacy, poverty and hunger.  This Foundation has collected and distributed more than 1 million new and gently used books through food banks to families in need.