PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] —At 6:30pm on November 15, 2012, Brown University Library will host a panel discussion featuring several of America’s most successful and renowned thriller writers. Author Jon Land ’79, will moderate the discussion between David Baldacci, Steve Berry, Neslon DeMille, Lisa Gardner, and R.L. Stine in Salomon Hall.  A book signing and reception will follow in Sayles Hall. The Thriller Panel is supported by Friends of the Library, Brown University Library, Brown University Bookstore, and Brown’s Office of University Event and Conference Services.

The program, book signing, and reception are free and open to the public. No registration required. Doors open at 5:45pm. Brown University Bookstore will sell books by all authors at the reception in Sayles Hall.

Thanks to the work of Jon Land, author, Friends of the Library board member, Providence resident, and Vice-President of Marketing for the International Thriller Writers, Brown University is currently establishing a Thriller Archive. Land wrote his first thriller as a senior thesis in English at Brown. Today he is a critically acclaimed and bestselling author of 32 books. Land has already donated his manuscripts to the Hay, and more donations will follow.

Land spearheaded the planning for the Thriller Panel as a kick-off for the archive. As he explained, “These incredibly successful authors represent an amazing range of thrillers from action, to political, to psychological suspense to young adult and even children’s.  I can’t think of a better way to celebrate the thriller genre in general, and the collection to be housed at our own John Hay Library in particular.”

David Baldacci
David Baldacci made a splash on the literary scene in 1996 with the publication of his first novel, Absolute Power. A major motion picture adaptation followed, with Clint Eastwood as director and star.  Baldacci has published 24 novels, all of which have been national and international bestsellers.  His novels have been translated into more than 45 languages and sold in more than 80 countries; over 110 million copies are in print worldwide. Baldacci has also published two children’s books.  Most recently, he was inducted into the 2011 International Crime Writing Hall of Fame and received the 2012 Barnes & Noble Writers for Writers Award. Baldacci is involved with several philanthropic organizations. His greatest efforts are dedicated to his family’s Wish You Well Foundation®. Established with his wife, the Foundation supports family and adult literacy in the United States by fostering and promoting the development and expansion of new and existing literacy and educational programs. In 2008 the Foundation partnered with Feeding America to launch Feeding Body & Mind, a program to address the connection between literacy, poverty, and hunger. Baldacci and his wife are the very proud parents of two terrific teenagers, and the generally proud owners of two not-so-well-behaved Labradoodles. They live in Northern Virginia.

Steve Berry
Steve Berry’s books have been translated into 40 languages with more than 14 million printed copies in 51 countries.  His work consistently appears in the top echelon of The New York Times, USA Today, and Indie bestseller lists. History lies at the heart of every Steve Berry novel, a passion he shares with his wife, which led them to create History Matters, a foundation dedicated to historic preservation. Since 2009, the couple has crossed the country to save endangered historic treasures, raising money via lectures, receptions, galas, luncheons, dinners, and their popular writers’ workshops. In 2012, the American Library Association recognized Berry’s devotion to historic preservation naming him the first spokesman for National Preservation Week.  Berry is also a recipient of the Royden B. Davis Distinguished Author Award, and a founding member of International Thriller Writers—serving three years as its co-president. Berry’s best-selling novels include: The Columbus Affair, The Jefferson Key, The Emperor’s Tomb, The Paris Vendetta, The Charlemagne Pursuit, The Venetian Betrayal, The Alexandria Link, The Templar Legacy, The Third Secret, The Romanov Prophecy, and The Amber Room.

Nelson DeMille
Nelson DeMille is a former U.S. Army lieutenant who served in Vietnam and is the author of sixteen acclaimed novels, including the #1 New York Times bestsellers Night Fall, Plum Island, and The Gate House. His other New York Times bestsellers include The Charm School, Word of Honor, The Gold Coast, Spencerville, The Lion’s Game, The Lion, Up Country, Wild Fire, and The General’s Daughter, which was a major motion picture starring John Travolta. He co-authored Mayday with Thomas Block and has also contributed short stories, book reviews, and articles to magazines and newspapers. DeMille is a member of The Authors Guild, the Mystery Writers of America, and American Mensa. He has three children and lives on Long Island.

Lisa Gardner
The New York Times #1 best-selling suspense novelist Lisa Gardner began her career in food service. After catching her hair on fire, she focused on writing instead.  Over 16 million copies of Gardner’s books are now in circulation, along with four movies. In 2010, Gardner’s The Neighbor received the award for Best Hardcover Novel from the International Thriller Writers and was named to the American Library Association’s “Best Adrenaline Novel Reading List.” Her latest novel, Catch Me, is the most recent addition to her Detective D.D. Warren series, set in Boston, MA. Gardner’s other works include the FBI Profiler Series, The Other Daughter, The Survivors Club, and I’d Kill For That.  A one-time Rhode Island resident, Gardner now lives in the mountains of New Hampshire with her race-car driving husband, speed-skiing daughter, two extremely barky dogs, and one incredibly hostile cat.

R.L. Stine
R.L. Stine is one of America’s best-selling authors and is cited in The Guinness Book of World Records as the best-selling series author in history. Over the past 20 years, Stine’s Goosebumps series has sold over 300 million copies in the United States alone and has become a publishing phenomenon in 32 languages around the world. Stine’s other popular children’s book series include Fear Street, Mostly Ghostly, The Nightmare Room, and Rotten School. In 2012, R.L. Stine’s The Haunting Hour, an anthology TV series of horror stories for the whole family, began its third season on The Hub TV Network, while the original Goosebumps TV episodes continue to air daily. In October 2012, Stine will publish Red Rain through Touchstone Books, a horror novel aimed at adult readers. Stine’s previous adult novels include: Superstitious, published by Warner Books, and The Sitter and Eye Candy, published by Ballantine Books. Stine lives in New York City with his wife Jane, an editor and publisher.

The Brown University Library is home to more than 6.8 million print items, plus a multitude of electronic resources and expanding digital archives serving the teaching, research, and learning needs of Brown students and faculty, as well as scholars from around the country and the world. http://library.brown.edu/

Contact: Amy Atticks | Amy_Atticks@brown.edu | (401) 863-6913

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PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] – At 5:30pm on Wednesday, March 21, 2012, Brown/Ziggurat Press will host a reading and book signing in the John Hay Library for BREATHTAKEN, a long poem by CD Wright with visual accompaniments by Walter Feldman. Following the reading, there will be a reception in the foyer during which visitors can view displayed books, and purchase copies for Walter Feldman and CD Wright to sign. This event is free and open to the public.

As Feldman explains “BREATHTAKEN is a dark and moving poem, appropriate to my way of making images.” BREATHTAKEN is a Brooke Hunt Mitchell Distinguished Artist Series book, presented in an accordion style, housed in a stunning cover, and featuring original block prints on archival paper. It is published in a numbered edition of 75, and is offered for purchase at $150 plus tax. Purchases of the book support the continuation of work through Brown/Ziggurat Press. If you are unable to attend and would like to purchase a book, contact Friends of the Library at FOL@brown.edu or (401) 863-2163. A short interview with Walter Feldman and a sampling of his previous work in collage and printmaking is available here.

CD Wright was born in 1949, in Mountain Home, Arkansas. She received a BA from Memphis State College (now the University of Memphis) and an MFA from the University of Arkansas. She teaches at Brown University, and has published numerous volumes of poetry as well as two literary state maps. She has received several awards including the 2011 Lenore Marshall Prize from the Academy of American Poets, the Griffin Poetry Prize, the Poetry Center Book Award, the Witter Bynner Prize, and a Whiting Award; as well as fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Guggenheim Foundation, MacArthur Foundation, and the Bunting Institute. In 1994 she was named Poet Laureate of Rhode Island.

Walter Feldman was born in 1925 in Lynn, Massachusetts. He received a BFA and MFA  from Yale School of Fine Arts, after which he served as an Instructor of Painting. In 1953 he was appointed to the art faculty at Brown University. He has received numerous awards including a senior Fulbright Fellowship, gold medal in Milan’s “Mostra  International,”  and a George A. and Eliza Gardener Howard Fellowship. His artist’s books are in over 150 public collections including the Museum of Modern Art and the Albert and Victoria Museum. Feldman inaugurated the Ziggurat Press in 1985 with a book of poems by James Schevill. He acquired a Vandercook press and published a series of books of poetry printed from metal type and relief blocks that he created. In 1995 he was appointed John Hay Professor of Bibliography. In 2007 he retired from teaching and gave his press to Brown. It is now in use in the Art of the Book classes he inaugurated. He continues to work in painting, printmaking and is presently working on a suite of drawings relating to music.

Contact: Amy Atticks | Amy_Atticks@brown.edu | (401) 863-6913

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