Words, Wit & Wisdom

Hank Phillippi Ryan

Emcee

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Hank Phillipi Ryan is the USA Today bestselling author of 15 psychological thrillers, winning the most prestigious awards in the genre: five Agathas, five Anthonys, and the coveted Mary Higgins Clark Award. She is also on-air investigative reporter for Boston’s WHDH-TV, with 37 EMMYs and dozens more journalism honors. National book critics call her “a superb and gifted storyteller” and “master of suspense.” She’s the only author to win the Agatha in four categories: Best First, Best Novel, Best Short Story and Best Non-Fiction. Her newest is the page-turning standalone thriller One Wrong Word—a twisty non-stop story of gaslighting, manipulation, and murder. David Baldacci says, “A story with all the goods… Buckle up and read.” B.A. Paris says, “A gripping rollercoaster of a read… This is Hank at her very best!” And James Patterson says, “If you’re looking for riveting suspense that keeps you up late—in One Wrong Word you get your wish.”

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Hank is a founder of MWA University, host of CRIME TIME on A Mighty Blaze, and co-host of First Chapter Fun and The Back Room.

Jean Kwok

Author

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Jean Kwok is the award-winning, New York Times and international bestselling author of The Leftover Woman, Searching for Sylvie Lee, Girl in Translation and Mambo in Chinatown. Her work has been published in twenty countries and taught in universities, colleges, and high schools across the world. 

The Leftover Woman was a Good Morning America Book Club Buzz Pick, CBS New York Book Club Top 3 Pick, Book of the Month Pick, and a LibraryReads Top 10 Pick selected by library staff across America. It was featured in The New York Times, Time, Elle, People, NPR, The New York Post, Variety and more. An instant New York Times bestseller, Searching for Sylvie Lee was selected for the Read with Jenna Today Show Book Club. 

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Jean has been chosen for numerous honors including the American Library Association Alex Award, the Chinese American Librarians Association Best Book Award, an Orange New Writers title, and the Sunday Times Short Story Award international shortlist. 

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She was one of twelve authors asked by the Agatha Christie estate to write an original, authorized Miss Marple story for Marple: Twelve New Mysteries. All of her books are in development for film and television. 

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She has appeared on The Today Show and Good Morning America, and spoken at many schools and venues including Harvard University, Columbia University, Talks at Google and the Tucson Festival of Books. A television documentary was filmed about Jean and her work.

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Jean immigrated from Hong Kong to Brooklyn when she was five and worked in a Chinatown clothing factory for much of her childhood while living in an unheated, roach-infested apartment. In between her undergraduate degree at Harvard and MFA in fiction at Columbia, she worked for three years as a professional ballroom dancer. Jean is trilingual, fluent in Dutch, Chinese and English, and studied Latin for seven years. She divides her time between the Netherlands and New York City. For more information, visit www.jeankwok.com.

Nina Simon

Author

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Nina Simon writes crime fiction about strong women. She is the New York Times-bestselling author of Mother-Daughter Murder Night. This big-hearted whodunnit is a Reese's Book Club pick and a "best of 2023" selection for Amazon, Barnes & Noble, CrimeReads, and LibraryJournal.

 

Before turning to fiction, Nina wore many hats: NASA engineer, slam poet, game designer, museum director, and nonprofit CEO. Her work on community participation in museums, libraries, parks, and theaters has been featured in the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, NPR, and the TEDx stage.

 

Mother-Daughter Murder Night is Nina’s first novel. She wrote it as a love letter to her mother, as a way to entertain, comfort, and connect with her during a major health crisis. Born and raised in Los Angeles, Nina now lives off-the-grid in the Santa Cruz Mountains with her family. 

Brendan Slocumb

Author

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Brendan Nicholaus Slocumb was raised in Fayetteville, North Carolina. He is a graduate of the University of North Carolina at Greensboro with a degree in music education, concentrations on Violin and Viola. For the past two decades, he has been a public and private school music educator from kindergarten through twelfth grade, teaching general music, orchestra and guitar ensembles. His students were often chosen for district and regional orchestras. In 2005, Brendan was named Teacher of the Year for Robert E. Lee High School; he has been named to Who’s Who of American teachers and is a Nobel Teacher of distinction. Brendan also serves as an educational consultant for the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. 

 

Music has always played a major part of Brendan’s life. He believes that it’s a life-saving force, and a gift we should always offer our children. When he was nine, he started playing violin through a public school music program. Friends he grew up with are today sitting in jail; when they were out running the streets, he was in rehearsals. When they were breaking into people’s houses, he was practicing Dvorak and Mozart. His violin opened the door to opportunity, and he ran through it. Since then, Brendan has performed with the Washington Metropolitan Symphony, the McLean Symphony, the Prince George's Philharmonic, and the Alexandria Symphony. He has served as the concertmaster for the NOVA-Annandale Symphony Orchestra and regularly performs chamber music with members of the Alexandria Chamber Music Society. He maintains a private music studio teaching lessons to students on violin, guitar and piano. Brendan believes that everyone can learn to appreciate and love music, and that it can be a new way of communicating, building bonds, and connecting with people who may look, sound, or speak differently. 

 

In 2022, Brendan published his first novel, THE VIOLIN CONSPIRACY (Anchor Books), a GMA Book Club Pick, the riveting story of a young Black musician who discovers that his old family fiddle is actually a priceless Stradivarius: when it’s stolen on the eve of the world’s most prestigious classical music competition, he risks everything to get it back. In 2023, Brendan published his second novel, SYMPHONY OF SECRETS (Anchor Books), about a music historian who discovers that the world's greatest composer may have stolen the music from a neurodivergent Black woman – and the powers-that-be will do anything to silence the historian. Brendan is now at work on his third novel, to be published in early 2025. For more information, visit brendanslocumb.com

Kathrine Switzer

Athlete. Activist. Author.

Woman of the Year​

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Kathrine Switzer has long been one of running’s most iconic figures. Not just for breaking barriers as the first woman to officially run the Boston Marathon in 1967, but also for creating positive global social change. Because of her millions of women are now empowered by the simple act of running.

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Highlights of Kathrine’s iconic career

• Broke gender barrier at 1967 Boston Marathon

• Inducted into the National Women’s Hall of Fame in October 2011 for creating positive global social change

• Winner, 1974 NYC Marathon

• Emmy Award-winning TV commentator

• Author, Marathon Woman, Running and Walking for Women Over 40, the Road to Sanity and Vanity, co-author 26.2 Marathon Stories

• Founder, Avon Running Global Women’s Circuit

• Winner of Abebe Bikila Award for Global Contribution to Sport of Running from New York Road Runners

• First class of inductees into the National Distance Running Hall of Fame

• Named one of the Visionaries of the Century (2000) and a Hero of Running (2012), and Runner of the Decade (1966-76) by Runners World Magazine

 

Her work began accidentally in 1967 when she was the first woman to officially enter the Boston Marathon, at that time considered a men’s-only race. Her entry revolutionized the sports world when she was physically attacked by the race director for wearing official bib numbers in the race. The photo of this incident flashed around the globe and became one of Time-Life’s “100 Photos that Changed the World.”

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Switzer finished the ‘67 Boston Marathon but was radicalized by the incident and determined to create change for women. She campaigned to make women official in the Boston Marathon in 1972 and later that year was one of the creators of the first women’s road race. Now, four decades later, the incident continues to capture the public imagination and is largely the reason Switzer has dedicated her multi-faceted career to creating opportunities on all fronts for women.

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Switzer has run 41 marathons, won the 1974 New York City Marathon and in 1975, her two-hour and 51-minute marathon in Boston was ranked sixth in the world and third in the USA in women’s marathon. She is still running marathons today.

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After a successful athletic career and in tandem with her work to improve circumstances for women athletes, she turned her attention to a sports marketing career, broadcasting, and motivating others in both fitness and business.

In 2004, Switzer decided to focus her considerable energies on writing, speaking and, to a lesser extent, television broadcasting, all of which she had done for 25 years on a part-time basis.

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Her first book, Running and Walking for Women Over 40 was first published in 1997. In 2005, 26.2 Marathon Stories, co-authored with husband Roger Robinson, was published, followed in 2007 by her memoir Marathon Woman (Soft cover published in 2009).

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Her articles have appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, Parade, Next, Women’s Today, Runners World, Running Times and other publications. She is the current ‘On the Road’ columnist for Marathon & Beyond magazine.