Maui Writers Conference | writers workshops | writers retreats | speakers | authors

Steve Berry lives on the Georgia coast. He still practices a little law, and also serves as one of five members of the Camden County Board of Commissioners. He’s been writing since 1990, and though his undergraduate degree was in political science, it was Steve’s interest in history that led him to writing international suspense thrillers. He has six books in print, The Amber Room, The Romanov Prophecy, The Third Secret, The Templar Legacy, The Alexandria Link, and The Venetian Betrayal which have been New York Times, USA Today, and Publisher’s weekly bestsellers. His next one, The Charlemagne Pursuit, comes December, 2008. Steve is also an international bestseller. His books appear in 43 countries and 42 languages. Nearly 7,000,000 copies are in print worldwide. Starting in 2008, Ballantiine Books has signed Steve for four more thrillers. See Steve Berry's books.

William Bernhardt is the author of fourteen books, including the New York Times bestseller, Capitol Conspiracy, Primary Justice, Perfect Justice, Double Jeopardy, Naked Justice (which led the Library Journal to dub the author "master of the courtroom drama") Silent Justice and Murder One. He has twice won the Oklahoma Book Award for best Fiction and in 2000 he was presented the H. Louise Cobb Distinguished Author Award. See William Bernhardt's books »

Gary Braver is the bestselling and award-winning author of six critically acclaimed thrillers including Elixir, Gray Matter, and Flashback, which is the only thriller to have won a prestigious Massachusetts Book Award and which in a starred review Publishers Weekly called “an exceptional medical thriller.” His novels have been translated into five languages, and three have been optioned for movies. He is the only writer to have three books listed on the top-10 highest customer-rated thrillers on Amazon.com. His seventh novel, Skin Deep, a medical thriller centered on cosmetic surgery, will be published on July 22, 2008. It has already sold to foreign publishers. Under his own name, Gary Goshgarian, he is an award-winning professor of English at Northeastern University where he teaches courses in Modern Bestsellers, Science Fiction, Horror Fiction, and Fiction Writing. He has taught fiction-writing workshops through out the United States and Europe for over twenty years. This is his fourth return to the Maui Retreat. He is the author of five popular college writing textbooks and has written book reviews and articles on travel and scuba-diving in The New York Times, The Boston Globe, the Christian Science Monitor and elsewhere. See Gary Braver's books »

John Lescroart is the author of nineteen novels, including most recently BETRAYAL, the fourteenth book in the San Francisco based Dismas Hardy/Abe Glitsky series, and his twelfth New York Times bestseller. His books have been translated into twenty languages in more than seventy-five countries, and his short stories appear in many anthologies. John’s novels have been nominated for and/or won several awards – the San Francisco Foundation’s Joseph Henry Jackson Award, the Shamus and Anthony Best Mystery Awards, and in 2007, the American Author’s Association’s American Author Medal for THE SUSPECT as its Book of the Year. Each of the last several of John’s books have been Main Selections of one or more of the Literary Guild, Mystery Guild, and Book of the Month Club. See John Lescroart's books. »

Writers Conference Retreat Faculty William Martin

William Martin is the New York Times bestselling author of eight novels, an award-winning PBS documentary, and a horror movie that’s now considered a cult classic. His latest novel, The Lost Constitution, continues the chronicle of American history – and the story of modern treasure hunter Peter Fallon – that began with Back Bay. His subsequent novels, including Harvard Yard, Cape Cod, and Citizen Washington, have established him as a “story-teller whose smoothness matches his ambition” (Publisher’s Weekly). He is currently writing another Peter Fallon adventure, Full Faith and Credit, for 2009. He also reviews books for the Boston Globe. And in 2005, he was the recipient of the New England Book Award, given to an author whose “body of work stands as a significant contribution to the culture of the region.”See William Martin's books »

Jacquelyn Mitchard is the author of the number one New York Times bestselling novel, The Deep End of the Ocean -- chosen as the first book for Oprah Winfrey’s Book Club and named by USA Today in 2007 as the second most influential books of the past 25 years. She has subsequently written seven other bestselling novels, including The Most Wanted, A Theory of Relativity, Cage of Stars and Still Summer. She has written three Young Adult books, including All We Know of Heaven and The Midnight Twins, as well four children’s books, among them the award-winning Rosalie, My Rosalie. Her essays on family, ethics and modern life have been widely anthologized. A member of the 2002 Fiction Jury for The National Book Awards, she was speechwriter for former Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Donna E. Shalala. Mitchard lives in Wisconsin, with her husband and seven children.
See Jacquelyn Mitchard's books »

David Morrell is the author of First Blood, the award-winning novel in which Rambo was created. He holds a Ph. D. in American literature from the Pennsylvania State University and taught in the English department at the University of Iowa until he gave up his tenure to devote himself to a full-time writing career. “The mild-mannered professor with the bloody-minded visions,” as one reviewer described him, Morrell is the co-founder of the International Thriller Writers organization. His numerous best-selling novels include The Brotherhood of the Rose (the basis for a top-rated NBC miniseries broadcast after the Super Bowl), The Fraternity of the Stone, The Fifth Profession, and Extreme Denial (set in Santa Fe, New Mexico, where he lives). He is also the author of The Successful Novelist: A Lifetime of Lessons about Writing and Publishing. Morrell has been called “the father of the modern action novel.” He is a three-time recipient of the distinguished Bram Stoker Award, the latest for his novel Creepers. Comic-con International honored him with its prestigious Inkpot Award for his lifetime contributions to popular culture. Visit him at www.davidmorrell.net.

James Rollins is the New York Times bestselling author of international thrillers, sold to over thirty countries. His last three thrillers Map of Bones, Black Order, and The Judas Strain earned national accolades, such as one of 2005’s “top crowd pleasers (New York Times) and as one of 2006’s “hottest summer reads (People Magazine). He was also hand-picked to novelize this summer’s Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. His most current thriller, The Last Oracle, hit stands July 2008. See James Rollins books »

But that is only half the story . . .Under the pseudonym James Clemens, he has also written a five-book fantasy series for Del Rey Books (Wit’ch Fire, et al). His first book in a new fantasy series, titled Shadow Fall, was released in July 2005, followed by Hinterland in November 2006. He has also completed a middle-school children’s book, tentatively titled The Stone Dragon, which will be out sometime in 2009. And yes, he does occasionally come up for air. See James Clemen's books »

Ann Hood’s most recent book is Comfort: A Journey Through Grief. She is the author of seven novels, including Somewhere off the Coast of Maine and The Knitting Circle; a short story collection, An Ornithologist’s Guide to life; a memoir, Do Not Go Gentle: My Search for Miracles in a Cynical Time and a young adult novel, How I Saved My Father’s Life. Her stories and essays have appeared in many publications, including The New York Times, Tin House, Bon Appetit, The Paris Review, More, O, Good Housekeeping, and Traveler. She has won two Pushcart Prizes, a Best American Spiritual Writing Award, and the Paul Bowles Prize for Short Fiction. She lives in Providence, RI. . See Ann Hood's books »

Thomas H. Cook is the international bestselling author of twenty-one novels and two works of nonfiction. He has been nominated for the Edgar Allan Poe Award seven times in four different categories, and his novel The Chatham School Affair won the Edgar for Best Novel. Mr. Cook’s works have also been nominated for the Hammett Prize, the Macavity Award, and the Anthony Award. Red Leaves won the Barry Award in 2005, and was nominated for the Lawlie Dagger Award for Best Novel by the British Association of Crime Writers. His works have been the subject of motion picture and television productions including Evidence of Blood starring Academy Award nominees David Strathairn and Mary McDonnell, and have been translated into sixteen languages. See Thomas Cook's books »