In addition to the conference schedule and information that attendees will receive upon arrival at the conference, an online version of the conference schedule is available. Links to session handouts will be added to the session details as they are made available.
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| Nancy Pickard is the author of eighteen popular and critically acclaimed novels, including the Jenny Cain and Marie Lightfoot mystery series. Nancy has won the Agatha, Anthony, Macavity, and Shamus awards for her short stories. She won the first-ever Anthony Award for Best Paperback Original Mystery for her second Jenny Cain novel, Say No to Murder. She has won multiple Agatha and Macavity awards for her novels. The Los Angeles Times says, "Pickard pushes at the presumed limits of (crime fiction)." The San Diego Union says, "Nancy Pickard is acclaimed as one of today's best mystery writers. Mounting evidence suggests that this description is too limited. . .Pickard (is) one of today's best writers, period." She is a 4-time Edgar Allen Poe award nominee, having been a finalist three times for Best Novel and once for Best Short Story. Her three Edgar-finalist novels are: I.O.U., The Whole Truth, and The Virgin of Small Plains. She is also a Mary Higgins Clark award finalist, and a recipient of a Lifetime Achievement award for suspense fiction, from Romantic Times. |
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| Jamie LaRue has been the director of the Douglas County Libraries, headquartered in Castle Rock, CO, since 1990. He is the author of The New Inquisition: Understanding and Managing Intellectual Freedom Challenges, and has written a weekly newspaper column for over 23 years. He was the Colorado Librarian of the Year in 1998, the Castle Rock Chamber of Commerce's 2003 Business Person of the Year, and in 2007 won the Julie J. Boucher Award for Intellectual Freedom.
Jamie is a frequent keynote speaker for library associations. He has been a featured presenter for regional workshops, facilitator and presentor for staff days, a last-minute panelist, and a moderator and master of ceremonies for everything from debates to awards dinners. Lately, he has also been running hiring processes for non-profit and municipal CEOs. He particularly enjoys facilitating highly focused planning sessions for organizations that want to know what they do right, and what they need to do next. |
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| Thomas Averill is Writer-in-residence and Professor of English at Washburn University of Topeka, where he teaches courses in Creative Writing and in Kansas Literature, Folklore and Film. His publications include two novels: Secrets of the Tsil Cafe, published by BlueHen/ Penguin Putnam, in 2001 and The Slow Air of Ewan MacPherson (BlueHen/Berkley, 2003). A collection of short stories, Ordinary Genius, was published by the University of Nebraksa Press in April 2005. He is represented by agent Alice Tasman of the Jean V. Naggar Agency. He is the 2006 recipient of the Kansas Arts Commission Fellowship in Fiction. |
