2023 Festival Authors & Speakers

Dave Gonzales is a writer, producer, and podcast host living in Denver, Colorado. He has written about movies and pop culture for The New York Times, The Guardian, Forbes.com, TVGuide.com, VanityFair.com, Thrillist.com, Polygon.com, and Geek.com including a weekly column about Marvel at LatinoReview.com from 2013-2017. While attending New York University, he co-founded the independent podcast “Fighting In The War Room,” one of Time Magazine’s top ten podcasts of 2021. He has also co-hosted several television reaction podcasts with Joanna Robinson such as “A Storm of Spoilers” (Game of Thrones) and “Republic City Dispatch” (The Legend of Korra). After returning to Colorado, Dave expanded his podcast work, hosting “The Storm: A Lost Rewatch Podcast” and “Trial By Content for The Ringer network.” Along with with Neil Miller of One Perfect Shot and Film School Rejects, Dave hosts a Patreon podcast promoting film appreciation called “Da7e and Neil’s Pop Culture Adventure.” He bought Spectacular Spider-Man #226 in 1995 and believes Ben Reilly was the real Peter Parker. He has been an Animation Producer for the Teen Mom franchise on MTV since 2009. He’s on Twitter/X (@da7e) and Instagram/Threads (@grumpyda7e).

Featured Book

MCU: The Reign of Marvel Studios

Rachel Eliza Griffiths

Sheyda F.A. Jahanbani

Tania James

Tania James is the author of the novels The Tusk That Did the Damage and Atlas of Unknowns and the short story collection Aerogrammes. Her fiction has appeared in Boston Review, Granta, Guernica, One Story, A Public Space, and The Kenyon Review. She lives in Washington, D.C.

Tania James is the author of four works of fiction, all published by Knopf: The Tusk That Did the Damage, which was a finalist for the International Dylan Thomas Prize and the Financial Times Oppenheimer Award; Aerogrammes and Other Stories, named a Best Book of 2012 by Kirkus Reviews, Library Journal, and The San Francisco Chronicle; and the novel Atlas of Unknowns, which was a New York Times Editor’s Choice and a finalist for the DSC Prize for South Asian Literature. Her short stories have appeared in Freeman’s: The Future of New Writing; Granta; The New Yorker; O, The Oprah Magazine; and One Story, among other places, and featured on Symphony Space Selected Shorts. An associate professor of English in the MFA program at George Mason University, her new novel, Loot, was published in June 2023, and named a summer pick by The Today Show and The New York Times Book Review.

Featured Book

Loot

Bret Anthony Johnston

Peniel Joseph

Peniel E. Joseph is the Barbara Jordan Chair in Ethics and Political Values; founding director of the Center for the Study of Race and Democracy; Associate Dean for Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (JEDI) at the LBJ School of Public Affairs; Public Policy & International Affairs Program (PPIA) Board Chair; and distinguished service professor and professor of history at the University of Texas at Austin. An internationally recognized scholar-activist and author and editor of seven award-winning books, most recently The Third Reconstruction: America’s Struggle for Racial Justice in the Twenty-First Century, winner of the 2023 Robert F. Kennedy Book Award. Additionally in 2022, he was named the grand prize winner of the 2022 Hamilton Book Award, the University of Texas at Austin’s highest research honor for his book, The Sword and the Shield: The Revolutionary Lives of Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr. He is a frequent national commentator on issues of race, civil rights, and democracy. A fellow of the Society of American Historians and a contributing writer for CNN.com, he lives in Austin, Texas.

Featured Book

LBJ's America: The Life and Legacies of Lyndon Baines Johnson

Yvette Marquez-Sharpnack

Yvette Marquez-Sharpnack is a cookbook author, food blogger, YouTuber, and recipe developer in Denver, Colorado. She was raised in El Paso, Texas, and draws culinary inspiration from her grandmother’s old-world northern Mexican recipes and her mother’s comforting south-of-the-border home-style dishes. Though she writes primarily about her culinary adventures on her award-winning blog, MuyBuenoBlog.com, she also is a professional recipe developer, on-camera host, and is the author of Muy Bueno, Latin Twist, and her latest cookbook Muy Bueno Fiestas.

Yvette has been quoted in The New York Times, The Washington Post, CNN, The Huffington Post, and Yahoo. The Muy Bueno blog has received several online accolades, including being named a SAVEUR finalist for Best Use of Video and Best Food Blog in 2014. SAVEUR finalist for Best Regional Cuisine Blog and Best Group Blog in 2012. Best Food Blogs of 2013 by The Latin Kitchen.

Yvette was named one of the Latina Bloggers You Must Know in 2014 by Latina magazine. The Food Blogs You Should Be Reading Right Now, According To Saveur. She is known as one of the leading Latina bloggers in the U.S. and in 2012 was invited to the White House as part of LATISM’s Top Blogueras Retreat.

Besides her blog, Yvette has also been featured in Latina magazine, Cosmo for Latinas, People en Español, and the websites of NBC, Today, The Huffington Post, SAVEUR, Siempre Mujer, and BuzzFeed, among other media outlets. She has also been on several radio and TV shows.

Yvette is a brand ambassador and develops original recipes for a number of brands.

She lives in the beautiful state of Colorado with her husband and two children.

You can connect with her on Twitter and Instagram (@muybuenocooking) and on Facebook (Muy Bueno Cookbook).

Featured Book

Muy Bueno: FIESTAS: 100+ Delicious Mexican Recipes for Celebrating the Year

Claudia Guadalupe Martínez

Guadalupe García McCall