2026 Nick Linn Lecture Series

Taylor Adams graduated from Eastern Washington University with the Excellence in Screenwriting Award and the Edmund G. Yarwood Award.

He is the author of several critically acclaimed thrillers, two of which have been Book of the Month Main Selections and Amazon Editor’s Picks. His 2018 novel NO EXIT has been published in 32 languages and was recently adapted by 20th Century Studios as a Hulu Original Film.

Adams lives in Washington State.

Brian Freeman is a New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of more than thirty psychological thrillers, including the Jonathan Stride series and multiple popular stand-alone novels.  He was also selected by the Robert Ludlum estate to take over Ludlum’s iconic Jason Bourne series.  He has since published six Bourne novels and brought the series back to the New York Times bestseller list for the first time in many years.

Since 2005, Freeman has sold books in 46 countries and 24 languages.  He was an Edgar Award finalist for his novel The Deep, Deep Snow, and his novel Spilled Blood won the award for Best Hardcover Novel in the ITW Thriller Awards.  Kirkus Reviews named his novels among their Best Mysteries and Thrillers of the year in both 2020 and 2021 (for The Bourne Evolution and Infinite).  He is a two-time winner of the Minnesota Book Award.

Freeman’s writing has been praised by critics and bestselling authors alike, including Michael Connelly, Nelson DeMille, Jeffrey Deaver, and Lisa Gardner. “A master of psychological suspense,” Gardner said of Freeman.  London’s Daily Mail called Freeman “up there with Harlan Coben in the psychological crime stratosphere.”

Freeman lives in Florida with his wife, Marcia.  They have been married for 40 years.

Michael Koryta (pronounced Ko-ree-ta) is a New York Times bestselling author whose work has been lauded as “a master” by Stephen King and “the best of the best” by Michael Connelly. His books have been translated into more than 20 languages and won the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, Great Lakes Book Award, Alex Award, and Barry Award, in addition to being nominated for the Mystery Writers of America’s Edgar® Award multiple times.

Michael has written for the screen in both feature film and television, and the film adaptation of “Those Who Wish Me Dead” starred Angelina Jolie, Nicholas Hoult, Tyler Perry, Jon Bernthal and Aidan Gillen, directed by Taylor Sheridan.

Michael’s first novel, the Edgar-nominated Tonight I Said Goodbye, was accepted for publication when he was 20 years old. He wrote his first two novels before graduating from college and was published in nearly 10 languages before he fulfilled the “intensive writing requirement” classes required for his diploma.

Michael was raised in Bloomington, Indiana, where he graduated from Indiana University with a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice. In 2008, he was honored as a “distinguished young alumni” by Indiana University, and in 2010 he was named “distinguished alumni’ by the criminal justice department. Formerly of St. Petersburg, Florida, he and his wife, Christine, now divide their time between Bloomington and Camden, Maine.

Michael Connelly was born in Philadelphia, PA on July 21, 1956. He moved to Florida with his family when he was 12 years old. Michael decided to become a writer after discovering the books of Raymond Chandler while attending the University of Florida. Once he decided on this direction he chose a major in journalism and a minor in creative writing — a curriculum in which one of his teachers was novelist Harry Crews.

Michael is the bestselling author of forty novels and one work of non-fiction. With over eighty-nine million copies of his books sold worldwide and translated into forty-five foreign languages, he is one of the most successful writers working today. His very first novel, The Black Echo, won the prestigious Mystery Writers of America Edgar Award for Best First Novel in 1992. In 2002, Clint Eastwood directed and starred in the movie adaptation of Connelly’s 1998 novel, Blood Work. In March 2011, the movie adaptation of his #1 bestselling novel, The Lincoln Lawyer, hit theaters worldwide starring Matthew McConaughey as Mickey Haller. His most recent New York Times bestsellers include The Waiting, Resurrection Walk, Desert Star, The Dark Hours, The Law Of Innocence, The Night Fire, and Dark Sacred Night. Michael’s crime fiction career was honored with the Diamond Dagger from the CWA in 2018, and the Outstanding Contribution To Crime Writing Award at the 2022 Theakston’s Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival in Harrogate, England, and the Grand Master title from the Mystery Writers of America in 2023.