2008 ALA Annual Conference

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First Author, First Book
Sunday, June 29
1:30 p.m. - 3:30 p.m.
Anaheim Convention Center
Room 203 A

Join new (and soon to be best-selling) authors as they talk about their first adventure in writing - what motivates them and how they got published. This program has become a favorite for those looking for the “next big thing” in print. Authors include Kaya McLaren (Church of the Dog, Penguin), Scott Douglas (Quiet, Please, Perseus Books), Mark Sarvas (Harry, Revised, Bloomsbury USA), Daniel White (The Cactus Eaters: How I Lost My Mind—and Almost Found Myself—on the Pacific Crest Trail, HarperCollins), Janelle Brown (All We Ever Wanted Was Everything, Spiegel & Grau), and Anya Ulinich (Petropolis, Penguin). This program will be moderated by Barbara Hoffert, Editor of the Book Review, Library Journal. A book signing will follow.

Kaya McLaren, author of Church of the Dog
Kaya McLaren lives and teaches elementary school art on the east slope of Snoqualmie Pass in Washington State. When she's not working, she likes to telemark ski, sit in hot springs, moonlight hike, and play in lakes with her dog, Big Cedar.

Scott Douglas, author of Quiet, Please
Scott Douglas is a librarian at the Anaheim Public Library, a job he has been chronicling for the McSweeney's Web site since 2003.

Mark Sarvas, author of Harry, Revised
Mark Sarvas is the founder of the popular litblog, "The Elegant Variation," which Forbes and Entertainment Weekly have named as one of the best blogs on the web. His fiction has appeared in Troika Magazine, The Wisconsin Review, Apostrophe, Thought Magazine, Pindeldyboz and as part of the Spoken Interludes and Vermin on the Mount reading series in Los Angeles. His criticism has appeared in the New York Times Book Review, the Three Penny Review, and the Philadelphia Inquirer. This is his first novel. He lives with his wife in Los Angeles.

Daniel White, author of The Cactus Eaters: How I Lost My Mind—and Almost Found Myself—on the Pacific Crest Trail
Dan White is a journalist and author whose work has appeared in the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, and Backpacker magazine. He received his MFA from Columbia University, and he lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Janelle Brown, author of All We Ever Wanted Was Everything
Janelle Brown is a freelance journalist who writes for The New York Times, Vogue, Wired, Elle, and Self, among other publications, and was formerly a senior writer for Salon. She lives in Los Angeles. This is her first novel.

Anya Ulinich, author of Petropolis
Anya Ulinich was seventeen when her family left Moscow and immigrated to the United States. She attended the Art Institute of Chicago and received an MFA in painting from the University of California. She lives in Brooklyn, New York.