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National Writers Series of Traverse City

Find out why you may want to head north to learn from some of your favorite authors

TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. - The National Writers Series in Traverse City, Michigan is a year-round book festival and a destination for conversations with today’s finest authors. 

Nearly 9,000 people attend each year. This year, as with every year, there are a myriad of events and authors will be in Traverse City. Check out the following list to see who will be where and when:

June 26 ~ An Evening with Daniel Pink with guest host Angie Morgan

Meet Daniel H. Pink, author of six provocative books, including his newest, WHEN: The Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing—an instant New York Times bestseller that remained on the list for four months! Pink uses scientific data to provide insights about how to design your ideal day when it comes to taking an exam, visiting your doctor, exercising, taking a nap, answering emails, and much more. He’ll talk with Angie Morgan, a leadership consultant and author of Spark: How to Lead Yourself and Others to Greater Success.

A graduate of Yale School of Law, Dan worked in politics, including a two-year stint as chief speechwriter for VP Al Gore. His TED Talk about motivation ranked as one of the 10 most-watched TED Talks of all time, with 20 million views. Pink also hosted and produced “Crowd Control,” a TV series about human behavior. He has appeared frequently on NPR, PBS, ABC, and CNN.

June 27 ~ An Evening with Steve Hamilton and Bryan Gruley

Expect only fun when two friends—and two fantastic writers who set their crime thrillers in Michigan—take the stage to interview each other.

After five years, Steve Hamilton is back with Alex McKnight, hero of his Edgar Award-winning series. “This is one helluva comeback. … The deepest, darkest, most complex book in the award-winning, million-plus-selling series,” writes author Don Winslow. 

Author of 15 novels, Hamilton has either won or been nominated for every major prize and accolade in crime fiction. The Second Life of Nick Mason was praised by the King of Horror himself, who tweeted, “Trust Stephen King. This book is the real deal.” The Nick Mason series is currently in film development with Lionsgate. 

Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Bryan Gruley returns to the NWS stage with his latest Michigan mystery, Bleak Harbor.Hamilton praises his latest effort as “… the best book Gruley has written and unlike any crime novel I’ve ever read.”

Gruley penned the highly-praised Starvation Lake  series, a trilogy set in a fictional town modeled on Bellaire, Michigan. Gruley worked for the Detroit News before beginning a career at The Wall Street Journal  where he shared the Pulitzer Prize awarded for coverage of the 9-11 terrorist attacks. Gruley now writes long-form features for Bloomberg Businessweekmagazine.

July 13 ~ An Evening with Doug Brinkley with guest host John U. Bacon

The political, social, and technological factors that made the 1960s a turbulent decade also aligned to make it one of the most revolutionary periods in modern history. The year was 1962, and President John F. Kennedy had just announced his intention to put a man on the moon by the decade’s end. Dougalas Brinkley takes readers along for the race of a lifetime, recounting the nationalistic fervor surrounding the Space Race against Russia in riveting detail with all-new first-hand accounts from the likes of astronaut John Glenn, rocketeer Wernher von Braun, and his own signature insights and depth of historical knowledge.  

Brinkley, a professor of history at Rice University, is author of several New York Times best-selling works of nonfiction including  The Wilderness Warrior: Theodore Roosevelt and the Crusade for America and  The Great Deluge: Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans, and the Mississippi Gulf Coast and is editor of two volumes of  Reagan Diaries. 

Guest host John U. Bacon is a journalist, public speaker, sports writer and bestselling author of 13 books including The Great Halifax Explosion, an account of the largest man-made explosion the world would see until the U.S. bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki during World War II.

AUGUST 11 ~ An Evening with Karl Marlantes

New York Times bestselling author Karl Marlantes will return to the Opera House stage to talk about his new book, Deep River. Friends can get their tickets TODAY by calling 231-941-8082, ext. 201. Tickets will go on sale to the public on June 10.

Karl was first here in 2010 to talk about his Matterhorn: A Novel of the Vietnam War. His new book, Deep River, is completely different—a family saga chronicling Finnish immigrants to the Pacific Northwest.

Inspired by his own family history, the story follows the Koski siblings who flee Finland and settle in a Finnish logging community in Washington state. Ambition, adventure, and romance co-mingle as development crops up as quickly as the gigantic trees are brought down. Marlantes merges vivid historical detail with lush descriptions of the American backcountry in a riveting tale that readers will not soon forget. 

August 29 ~ Summer Book Club Social

A FREE EVENT at the City Opera House

Pencil in the Summer Book Club Social with New York Timesbestselling romance writer Tanya Anne Crosby with guest host Rose Hollander, both from Leelanau County. This annual event is free and celebrates area book clubs with prizes, a preview of the National Writers Series fall season, refreshments, a book exchange and a chance to mingle with like-minded book lovers! Crosby is a New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of 30 novels. She’ll talk about her latest book, Everyday Lies, an unflinching book about the everyday lies we tell ourselves and the power within each of us to find truth. 

This event is hosted by the National Writers Series, Traverse Area District Library and Horizon Books!

For more information, visit: https://nationalwritersseries.org/

Information courtesy of the National Writers Series

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