Featured Authors 2026

Each year, the Literary Lions Gala brings together an extraordinary group of authors whose stories reflect the depth, diversity, and creativity of our region and beyond. Our 2026 Literary Lions represent a wide range of voices, genres, and lived experiences, from beloved local writers to nationally recognized storytellers.

Together, this lineup celebrates the power of libraries to connect people to ideas, imagination, and one another. Whether you are drawn to fiction or nonfiction, poetry or prose, memoir or mystery, our Literary Lions offer something for every reader and remind us why stories matter and why libraries remain at the heart of vibrant communities.

Explore the lineup below and get to know the authors who will help make this year’s gala an unforgettable evening at the Bellevue Library.

Martha Brockenbrough

At THE EDGE OF LOST

Martha Brockenbrough is program director at the University of San Francisco MFA in Writing for Young Readers. A lifelong Seattle resident, Martha has written two books for adults and 25 books for young readers. Her work has won multiple state book awards—including Washington—a Sid Fleischman Award for humor, and was a finalist for the Kirkus Prize. At the Edge of Lost is her latest middle grade novel, an adventure set in Seattle about a boy and his dog who get separated during an outbreak of Avian influenza.

Basque-born, Aran Goyoaga is an award-winning author, photographer, and professionally trained pastry chef. She is a three-time James Beard-finalist. Aran’s latest cookbook The Art of Gluten-Free Bread (Artisan) was published on September 23rd. Her work has been featured in The New York Times, Washington Post, Good Morning America, Vanity Fair, Bon Appetit, Martha Stewart, Epicurious, and more. Aran lives in Seattle with her family.

Danielle Kartes

BUTTER, FLOUR, SUGAR, JOY

Danielle Kartes is an author, recipe maven, and entrepreneur living near Seattle, Washington with her husband Michael, a photographer, and their two sweet boys. Together, the Karteses run their boutique food, lifestyle, and commercial photography business, Rustic Joyful Food. Rustic Joyful Food promotes loving your life right where you are, no matter where you are, and creating beautiful, delicious food that’s fuss-free with whatever you have available to you. Danielle and Michael are also the principles of the Rustic Joyful Literary group, the agency arm of Rustic Joyful Food devoted to the representation of authors in the food and children’s books spaces. Danielle is driven by her love for Jesus, her family, and happy accidents in the kitchen. She has written and published four cookbooks, nine children’s books, and one devotional memoir. Danielle appears often on national television and is a regular culinary contributor to The Kelly Clarkson Show. 

David B. Williams is an award-winning author, historian, naturalist, and tour guide whose books include Homewaters: A Human and Natural History of Puget Sound, Too High and Too Steep: Reshaping Seattle’s Topography, Seattle Walks: Discovering History and Nature in the City, Spirit Whales and Sloth Tales: Fossils of Washington State (co-authored with Elizabeth Nesbitt), Cairns: Messengers in Stone, and most recently, Wild in Seattle: Stories at the Crossroads of People and Nature (illustrated by Elizabeth Person). Williams’s website is geologywriter.com, where you can learn more about his books and subscribe to his free weekly newsletter, the Street Smart Naturalist.

Jess Walter, #1 New York Times bestseller, National Book Award finalist, and a “writer who has planted himself firmly in the first rank of American authors” (Boston Globe), leans into the dysfunction of modern America in his new novel, SO FAR GONE (Harper; June 10, 2025). Walter’s much-awaited eighth novel is the keenly observed, salient, and sharply funny story of a journalist who, after seven years living off the grid, returns to “civilization” to rescue his kidnapped grandchildren. The spirited road trip that unfolds perfectly deploys the singular perspective and narrative talents that have made Walter “a national treasure” (Anthony Doerr). Ann Patchett writes, "I loved this book and marveled how Jess Walter managed to build such a warm, funny, loving novel out of so many horrible parts. It's an American original."

Nathan Vass is an artist, filmmaker, photographer, and author by day, and a Metro bus driver by night. His community-building work has been showcased on TED, NPR, The Seattle Times, KING5 and landed him a spot on Seattle Magazine’s 2018 list of the 35 Most Influential People in Seattle. His art and film work has been screened internationally, with over 40 photography shows and 9 films; his first book, The Lines That Make Us, is a Washington State Book Awards Finalist; his latest book, Deciding to See, is a Seattle bestseller and textbook at Seattle University.

Elizabeth George

A Slowly Dying Cause

Elizabeth George is the New York Times and internationally best-selling author of twenty-three British crime novels featuring Detective Inspector Thomas Lynley and his unconventional partner Detective Sergeant Barbara Havers. Her crime novels have been filmed for television and have been featured on the BBC, Britbox, PBS Masterpiece, and Netflix.  

A longtime instructor of creative writing, she has taught at colleges, universities, writers' retreats, and conferences internationally. Her work has been honored with the Anthony and Agatha awards, two Edgar nominations, and both France’s and Germany’s first prize for crime fiction. She is also the author of five young adult novels, two books of nonfiction, and two short-story collections. She lives in Washington state.

Lynda V. Mapes specializes in coverage of the environment and Indigenous cultures and governments. Over the course of her 27-year career as a reporter at The Seattle Times she earned numerous awards, including twice winning the Kavli Gold Award for Science Journalism from the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 2012 and 2019. She and a team of journalists at the Seattle Times were finalists for the 2025 Pulitzer Prize for local reporting. She has written seven books, including most recently The Trees are Speaking: Dispatches from the Salmon Forests from the University of Washington Press. She is the winner of the 2021 National Outdoor Book Award and a 2021 Washington State Book Award. 

Isabel Cañas is a Mexican-American speculative fiction writer. After having lived in Mexico, Scotland, Egypt, Turkey, and New York City, among other places, she has settled in the Pacific Northwest. She holds a doctorate in Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations and writes fiction inspired by her research and her heritage.

Jessica Hernandez

Growing Papaya Trees

Dr. Jessica Hernandez is a globally recognized Indigenous scientist, climate justice leader, and best-selling author whose groundbreaking work is redefining environmentalism through an Indigenous lens. Rooted in the Pacific Northwest, she bridges Indigenous science, traditional ecological knowledge, and Western frameworks to address the most urgent environmental crises of our time. She is the founder of Earth Daughters, a transnational Indigenous-led nonprofit that mobilizes rapid climate crisis response, cultivates grassroots leadership, and uplifts the voices and resilience of Indigenous women and youth across the Americas.

Matt Dinniman

Dungeon Crawler Carl

Matt Dinniman is the New York Times Bestselling author of multiple books, including the Dungeon Crawler Carl series. He lives in Gig Harbor, WA.

Moira Macdonald

Storybook Ending

Moira Macdonald is the longtime arts critic for The Seattle Times, where she has written about movies, books, dance, television and fashion since 2001. Her debut novel, Storybook Ending, is being published worldwide, translated into 18 languages. She lived in Bellevue as a child and has very fond memories of the Lake Hills and Bellevue libraries.

Kevin O'Brien

Everyone a Stranger

Before his thrillers landed him on the USA Today and New York Times Bestseller lists, Kevin O’Brien was a railroad inspector.  The author of 24 internationally-published thrillers, he won the Spotted Owl Award for Best Pacific Northwest Mystery. His work has been translated into over a dozen languages. Press & Guide said: “If Alfred Hitchcock were alive today and writing novels, his name would be Kevin O’Brien.” Kevin’s latest nail-biter, EVERYONE A STRANGER, will be in bookstores on September 30, 2025. Kevin lives in Seattle, where he is hard at work on his next thriller.

Natalie Hammerquist is a Seattle-born herbalist, forager, and author of Medicinal Plants of the Pacific Northwest and Edible Plants of the Pacific Northwest. Trained at The Evergreen State College and by renowned herbalists including Cascade Anderson Geller, she has taught more than a thousand students through the Adiantum School of Plant Medicine, which she founded in 2016. Natalie is known for her engaging, practical teaching style and shares her work through classes, YouTube, and Patreon. Natalie invites readers and learners to slow down, pay attention, and rediscover their deep, embodied connection to nature. She lives in Roslyn, WA, inspired by the landscapes she hikes, forages, and photographs.

Sonora Jha

Intemperance

Sonora Jha is the award-winning author of the novels The Laughter and Foreign as well as the mem­oir How to Raise a Feminist Son. Her work has been featured in The New York Times and literary anthologies, on the BBC, and elsewhere. Formerly a journalist in India and Singapore, she is now a Loyola Endowed Professor at Seattle University and lives in Seattle.