Previous Speakers
Meet our speakers
2022-Lisa Wingate
#1 NYT bestselling author
2019-Jodi Picoult
#1 NYT bestselling author
2018-Lee Child
Author of the "Jack Reacher" series
2017-Sandra Brown
Author of 67 New York Times bestsellers
2016-Craig Johnson
Author of the Walt Longmire series
2015 - Brad Meltzer
Bestselling author of fiction, non-fiction, advice, children's and comic books.
2014 - Scott Turow
no one writes a better mystery suspense-LA Times
2013 - Carl Hiaasen
America's finest satirical novelist
2012 - James Patterson
The only author to have five hardcover novels debut at #1 in one year
2011 - Nicholas Sparks
New York Times #1 bestselling author with 15 books to his name and six blockbuster movies based on his books
2010 - Charles Johnson
National Book Award Winner for "Middle Passage"
2009 - Neil deGrasse Tyson
Host of Nova Science Now and the author of nine books including "Pluto Files" and "Death by Black Hole"
2008 - Boone Pickens
Author of "The First Billion is the Hardest"
2007 - James Bradley
Son of Iwo Jima flag raiser John Bradley, author of the New York Times #1 bestseller "Flags of Our Fathers"
2006 - Michael Wallis
Route 66 author and authority, consultant for Pixar's "Cars" and voice of the sheriff
2005 - Frank Deford
Author of 14 books, senior writer at Sports Illustrated, NPR commentator, and HBO Real Sports correspondent
2004 - Billie Letts
"Where the Heart Is," featured in the Oprah Book Club, was the basis of the 2000 movie of the same name
2003 - Ken Burns
Award-winning filmmaker and author, best known for his epic documentaries, "The Civil War," "Baseball" and "Jazz"
2002 - S.E. Hinton
Author of "The Outsiders," basis of the Frances Ford Coppola movie of the same name
2001 - Oliver Sacks
Author of "Awakenings," basis of the Academy Award-nominated movie of the same name
2000 - William Bernhardt
Author of the Award-winning "Justice" series
1999 - Doris Kearns Goodwin
Author of "No Ordinary Time: Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt"
1998 - Judith Viorst
Beloved children's book author, poet and author of the best selling "Necessary Losses"
1997 - William F. Buckley Jr.
Author, advisor, columnist, and founder of the National Review
1996 - Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
Internationally-known author of "Slaughterhouse Five"
1995 - Baxter Black
Cowboy poet and author of "Hey, Cowboy Wanna Get Lucky?"
1994 - Andrei Codrescu
Romanian-born writer and National Public Radio commentato
1993 - Tony Hillerman
Author of the best selling Joe Leaphorn/Jim Chee mystery series
1992 - Alvin Granowsky
Noted humorist
1991 - Michael Wallis
Award-winning reporter and author of "Route 66: the Mother Road"