2025 Explore the Floor / Authors on the Floor
Sunday, September 28 - 4:30 pm- 7:00 pm
Spokane Convention Center, Spokane WA, Ballroom 100BC
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Sponsored by: |
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Open to all badged Attendees |
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Portland writer and bookseller Mo Daviau's second novel tells the story of one woman's life through the lens of a deathbed letter, as she reckons with both her triumphs and her mistakes. In Epic and Lovely (West Virginia Univ.Press) Nina Simone Blaine recollects the precarious events of the last years of her life, from her disabling genetic disease, to the unlikely and dangerous love she has found with a fellow sufferer, to the unexpected child she never thought she would have. Mo Daviau is the author of Every Anxious Wave, a finalist for the Oregon Book Award, and works as a bookseller at Annie Bloom's.
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A fresh take on an old classic is sure to delight fans of Austen-esque romance in Christina Hwang Dudley's Pride and Preston Lin (Third State Books/IPG). Lissie Cheng is working two jobs just to get through college. Preston Lin is a handsome golden boy from a privileged background. When Lissie makes a mistake serving at her family's restaurant, she finds herself running afoul of the powerful Lin family, and especially Preston. But sparks fly nonetheless. Pride and Preston Lin was chosen as a 2024 best pick by Kirkus, Library Journal and Booklist. Bellevue writer Christina Hwang Dudley has previously produced two popular Regency romance series online, gaining her a devoted following.
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Acclaimed author and screenwriter Luke Goebel's forthcoming novel, Kill Dick (Red Hen Press/IPS), is a literary thriller that plunges the reader headlong into the chaos of Los Angeles where addiction, privilege, and corruption combust. Dark, satirical, and razor-sharp, Kill Dick unflinchingly dissects wealth, exploitation, and the perilous line between survival and self-destruction. Goebel's debut novel, Fourteen Stories, None of Them Are Yours, won the prestigious Ronald Sukenick Innovative Fiction Prize and the Joan Scott Memorial Fiction Award. He co-wrote the screenplays for the films Eileen and Causeway, and is the co-editor at The New York Tyrant. Kill Dick will be published in March, 2026.
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Shann Ray | Where Blackbirds Fly | University of Nebraska Press
Booth 35 Spokane writer and educator Shann Ray's Where Blackbirds Fly (University of Nebraska Press) is a novel in five novellas, peopled with a compelling cross-section of characters from the modern American West inhabiting narratives both lovely and heartbreaking. Throughout the book blackbirds appear, suggesting the presence of the divine mystery as their wings metaphorically cast patterns of mercy over the landscapes of human life. Shann Ray teaches leadership and forgiveness studies at Gonzaga and poetry at Stanford. He is the author of the story collection American Masculine, winner of numerous prizes including the American Book Award; the novel American Copper; and the poetry collection Atomic Theory 7.
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Drawing from the mythology of his Tlingit background, Bellingham writer Caskey Russell introduces an epic fantasy debut, The Door on the Sea (Solaris/S&S). When Elān trapped a salmon-stealing raven in his cupboard, he never expected it would hold the key to saving his people from the shapeshifting Koosh invaders plaguing their shores. In exchange for its freedom, the raven offers a secret that can save Elān’s home: the Koosh have lost one of their most powerful weapons, and only the raven knows where it is. An enrolled member of the Tlingit Nation, Caskey Russell is a professor in Western Washington University's Fairhaven College.
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Set during the 1968 Prague Spring, J. M. Sidorova's The Witch of Prague (Homeward Books) is a unique blend of magical realism, political intrigue and the timeless struggle against authoritarian regimes. Teenaged Alica escapes her troubled home by answering a newspaper ad for work as a secretary in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, a place under constant surveillance and rife with corruption. While her city teeters on the brink, Alica discovers unearthly powers within herself, powers that only she can wield. Seattle writer J. M. Sidorova's previous novel, The Age of Ice, was named as an honorable mention in Tor.com's best fiction of 2013 list. The Witch of Prague will be published in March, 2026.
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Eastern Washington writer Maya Jewell Zeller makes her second appearance at the show for her forthcoming memoir Raised by Ferns (Porphyry Press). Born in a Pacific Northwest gas station to itinerant, countercultural parents, Maya Jewell Zeller came of age in a landscape where poverty, wildness, and self-reliance intertwined. Raised by Ferns traces the path of a feral girl craving both freedom and safety to a middle-class adult life shaped by academia, motherhood, and uneasy privilege. It is a story of survival, but more importantly, of questioning for what—and who—it is worth surviving for. Raised by Ferns will be published in March, 2026
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Award-winning author Donna Barba Higuera returns to the show with Xolo (Levine Querido), her newest book for young readers. Xolo is the story of Xolotl, the dog-headed twin brother of the great Aztec god Quetzalcoatl, presented in a lushly illustrated chapter book perfect for reluctant middle grade readers. Higuera's previous books have won numerous awards and accolades, including the Newbery Medal, the Sid Fleischman Award for Humor, the Pura Belpré Award, and a PNBA Award. Donna Barba Higuera grew up in Central California, where her favorite hobbies were calling dial-a-story over and over again, and sneaking into a restricted cemetery to weave her own spooky tales using the crumbling headstones as inspiration. She now lives in Washington.
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