Featured Speakers
Colby Cedar Smith
About the Speaker
The gaps in history are often where the most compelling stories begin. Join award-winning poet and novelist, Colby Cedar Smith, for a thoughtful exploration of the women, music, and personal histories that inform her work. From her paternal grandmother, whose story inspired her first novel Call Me Athena, to Barbara Strozzi, the bold 17th-century composer at the heart of The Siren and the Star, Smith draws on history’s forgotten voices and invites you into a conversation about creativity, courage, and finding new ways to listen to the past.
Colby Cedar Smith is an award-winning poet, novelist, and educator and the author of two verse novels. The Siren and The Star (2025) and Call Me Athena (2021). Her lyric work focuses on the untold stories of women throughout history, and oftenexplores themes of body, gender, and identity, while incorporating images fromthe natural world. Colby’s work has been selected for an American BooksellersAssociation Indie Next Pick, an American Library Association Rise: Feminist Book selection, a Goodreads Choice for Poetry Nominee, and a New Jersey Council on the Arts Fellowship in Poetry. Her poems and narratives have been featured by Forbes, POETRY, and NPR. She holds a B.A. from Colorado College and an Ed.M. from Harvard University. Learn more about her visit herwebsite or follow her on Instagram @colby_cedar_smith.
Mike Dawson
About the Speaker
Mike Dawson is the award-winning author of The Fifth Quarter graphic novel series as well as The Hidden Dominion of Geordie James. His comics have appeared at The New Yorker, Slate, The Nib, Romper, and frequently within the pages of The New York Times. His work has been nominated for multiple Ignatz and Eisner awards and shortlisted for the Slate Cartoonist Studio Prize. In 2024 he received a Fellowship Grant in writing from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts. He lives by the Jersey Shore with his wife, children, and a number of dogs.
Ken Jaworowski
About the Speaker
Join our Book Festival guest speaker, Ken Jaworowski, to learn how years in the boxing ring helped shape his writing life. A New Jersey–based novelist and longtime New York Times editor, Jaworowski draws on lessons learned while absorbing—and avoiding—punches to show how facing your fears can sharpen both craft and character. He brings the same discipline and clarity to his fiction, including What About the Bodies. The result is a candid, funny, and deeply human look at creativity under pressure.
What About the Bodies will be released in paperback on Tuesday, Sept. 1. Here’s a free link to the NYT review. Ken Jaworowski ‘s third novel, ‘The Beautiful Burn,’ will be released on March 9, 2027. This thriller will be the final one set in that rough-and-tumble town of Locksburg, Pa. Click here for a sneak peek at the cover. You can even preorder at the link.
Author Panel
Mickey Flagg
Paranormal Fiction
About the Speaker
M. Flagg is a multiple award-winning paranormal fiction author whose imaginative world building echoes with the promise of destiny. Adventure, suspense, and romance are woven through plots brimming with supernatural tension where fate will always have one last card to play. Her mystical warriors, witches, not-so-normal creatures of the night and teenage ghosts speak to the heart. Also published in the field of music education and in Still Standing, a web-magazine about loss and healing, she is a member of LSFW, NJRW and NJ Author network and has served as a Professor in Residence at a local university. Always an avid reader, the realm of paranormal fiction is her favorite genre. She loves to edit and snuggle with her Maine Coon, and she is a life-long New Jersey resident, a member of Liberty States Fiction Writers, NJ Author’s Network, and NJRW.
Find out more about her novels at www.mflagg-author.com
Maria Imbalzano
Contemporary Romance
About the Speaker
While practicing law as a divorce attorney, I decided to try for some balance in my life and began writing romance. Thankfully, I found my creative bone. Instead of only drafting motions, legal memoranda, and briefs, although fascinating, I started to spend my free time creating memorable characters and taking them on their emotional journeys through my contemporary romance novels.
I am a member of New Jersey Romance Writers and have received many honors for my work including the ACRA Readers’ Choice Heart of Excellence Award, the Wisconsin Romance Writers Write Touch Readers Award, the NEST (National Excellence in Storytelling) Award, the Carolyn Award, the Stiletto Reader’s Choice Award, Long & Short Reviews Book of the Month Award, Still Moments Magazine Reader’s Choice Award,. the Firebird Award, the Carla Crown Jewel of Books Award, the New England Reader’s Choice Award, the NJ Romance Writers Golden Leaf Award, The RONE Award, Orange County Romance Writers Book Buyers Best Award, N.N. Light’s Book Heaven Awards. and Colorado Romance Writers’ Beverley Award.
Delia Pitts
Mystery
About the Speaker
Born and raised in Chicago, Delia Pitts graduated from Oberlin College with a Bachelor’s degree in history. After working as a journalist, she earned a Ph.D. in African history from the University of Chicago. She is a former university administrator and U.S. diplomat. Her contemporary noir mystery, Trouble in Queenstown, received a Shamus award for Best Private Investigator novel of 2024. It was published by Minotaur Books in 2024. The second book in the series, Death of a Ex, was published in 2025, also by Minotaur. The third book, Revenge in a Small Town, will be published December 1, 2026. All three feature Vandy Myrick, a Black woman who returns to her central New Jersey hometown to start a new life as a private detective. Delia has also published several acclaimed short stories, including, “The Killer,” which was selected for inclusion in Best American Mystery and Suspense 2021. Delia is an active member of Sisters in Crime, Mystery Writers of America, and Crime Writers of Color.
Delia and her husband live in East Windsor, New Jersey and have twin sons living in Texas and Philadelphia.
To learn more about Delia and her books visit her website, deliapitts.com.
Tom Tracy
Childrens
About the Speaker
Tom is a best-selling and award-winning children’s book author who has been featured by media outlets, such as CBS-Philly, South Jersey Magazine, and Gay Parent Magazine. Tom is a frequently invited guest on national podcasts, including the two-time People’s Choice Podcast Award winner, The Queer Family Podcast. Tom is also a children’s book reviewer for the Dear Author Book Review program sponsored by Speak Up Talk Radio.
As a gay dad and a father of two BIPOC daughters, Tom is committed to advancing stories that are inclusive of diverse families. Diverse families have been historically under-represented in children’s books; Tom’s work helps to fill this representation gap.
Professionally, Tom is a NJ Licensed Clinical Social Worker and has worked with at-risk youth and individuals living with mental illness for most of his career. Through that work, he has truly come to appreciate the value of sharing one’s lived experience with others through story-telling.