Bill Howard is a New York-based author who has published widely on a variety of historical, military and political subjects.  His most recent books are The Battle of Ball’s Bluff: All the Drowned Soldiers (History Press, 2018) and What the RAF Airman Took to War (Bloomsbury, 2015).

Stephen Kiernan has had over four million words in print – first as a journalist and then as author of two non-fiction books and three novels (including the bestselling The Baker’s Secret). His work has been translated into many languages and The Curiosity is in production for television.

In this age of the Twitter thread, the Instagram story, Fake News, Russian bots, and the marriage proposal via emoji—what is the role of the storyteller, and specifically the writer of books? Even as our collective attention spans have been inexorably altered by the reckless pace of our lives, the paper book—that ancient, durable, prismatic technology—has remained as popular as ever. Novelist Reif Larsen explores the constraints of writing and storytelling in this strange new world and puts forth the argument that story, no matter the platform, is as critical as ever to understanding the self in turbulent times.

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Reif Larsen is the author of the novels I Am Radar and The Selected Work of T.S. Spivet, which was a New York Times bestseller and adapted for the screen by Jean-Pierre Jeunet (Amélie). Larsen's essays and fiction have appeared in The New York Times, The Guardian, GQ, Tin House, Travel & Leisure, one story, McSweeney's, and The Believer. He is currently serving as the Writer-in-Residence at the Troy Innovation Garage in Troy, NY.

Erik Schlimmer is founder of Beechwood Books and founding member of Friends of the Trans Adirondack Route. He's the author of seven books and has written for a dozen regional and national publications. Erik is a licensed therapist but, strangely enough, is now a professional bird catcher.

Hollis Seamon is a fiction writer who teaches for the Fairfield University MFA in Creative Writing program.  Her most recent books are Corporeality: Stories and the YA novel Somebody Up There Hates You.

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