Texas Book Festival Staff

Lois Kim

Executive Director

Lois serves as Texas Book Festival’s chief executive, responsible for managing staff, programs, operations, external relations, and resource development. An immigrant from Seoul, Korea, Lois grew up in Williamsville, New York. She holds a bachelor’s degree in English from the University of Michigan and a master’s degree and Ph.D. in English from the University of Texas at Austin, where her research focused on Shakespeare and early modern culture. In her early career, she taught high school English at a boarding school and pursued graduate coursework from the Bread Loaf School of English at Middlebury College. Prior to joining the Texas Book Festival, Lois served as the associate director of University Extension at UT Austin, where she managed student and academic affairs for college credit students. She also served on the board of the Austin Public Library Friends Foundation for six years, four of those as Vice President. Her husband, Phillip Reed, is a principal of Cotera + Reed Architects and they have two children: Sylvia (16) and Nate (13). She has been a member of her book club for more than 20 years and favorite book genres are contemporary literary fiction and the 19th-century novel.

Julie Wernersbach

Literary Director

Julie Wernersbach

Literary Director

julie@texasbookfestival.org

Julie serves as Texas Book Festival’s literary director, responsible for developing and implementing year-round literary programming in Austin and other Texas cities, including the annual two-day Festival in Austin. She has ten years of experience as an independent bookseller, most recently serving as marketing director for BookPeople, the largest independent bookstore in Texas and one of the most high profile independent bookstores in the country. Before moving to Austin in 2011, Julie served as publicist and events coordinator for Book Revue, a large independent bookstore on Long Island. She has a B. A. in English from Boston University. In addition to acting as TBF’s literary director, Julie is the author of the books Vegan Survival Guide to Austin and The Swimming Holes of Texas. Her fiction has been published in Arcadia magazine, which nominated her short story, ‘Happiness,’ for a Pushcart Prize. She is currently at work on a novel. Julie loves books of all stripes and is particularly drawn to short and literary fiction.

Financial and Administrative Coordinator

Maris Finn

Financial and Administrative Coordinator

maris@texasbookfestival.org

Maris serves as the Financial and Administrative Coordinator for Texas Book Festival. She is responsible for daily operations including supporting the entire staff and making sure the office runs smoothly. She has her MFA in Creative Writing from Columbia University and a bachelor’s degree in English from The State University of New York at Geneseo. Before joining the festival, Maris worked as the Executive Assistant at The Center for Generational Kinetics, and as a ghostwriter for the New York-based firm Katz Creative, Inc. Her literary interests include literary and speculative fiction, as well as short stories and poetry. Her own short fiction has been published by Molotov Cocktail online journal and Gandy Dancer Literary Magazine, Literal Latte, and Noble/Gas Quarterly. Her story "Whale Summer" was recently nominated for a Pushcart Prize. She is working on a short story collection and a novel.

Lydia Melby

Literary and Communications Coordinator

Lydia Melby

Literary and Communications Coordinator

lydia@texasbookfestival.org

Lydia serves as Texas Book Festival’s Communications Coordinator, responsible for managing the Festival’s communications to media and the public (as well as having a good time updating on the Texas Book Festival’s and Texas Teen Book Festival's social media). She holds a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing from Iowa State University, as well as a BA in English from Abilene Christian University. Before joining Texas Book Festival, Lydia was the publicity assistant at Broadside PR, a full service literary PR agency, and the events and communications coordinator at Brazos Bookstore, a major independent bookstore in Houston. Her work has been published in Ninth Letter, The Rumpus, LIT Journal, and Drunken Boat magazine, and she is now working on a novel. Lydia reads widely across all genres and loves many sorts of books, but pays special attention to queer literature, graphic narrative, middle grade and young adult novels, and science fiction.

Nicole Wielga

Nicole serves as Texas Book Festival’s Logistics and Volunteer Coordinator. She is responsible for organizing all volunteer efforts for the Festival as well as working with the contract logistics team. Born in Houston, Texas, she spent her formative years in Singapore before returning to America. She holds a bachelor’s degree with honors for Theatre with a concentration in Stage Management from Roger Williams University. Prior to working at the Texas Book Festival, she has worked in entertainment and events with SXSW, Stand Up to Cancer, Think It Up, The Skouras Agency, and The Rhode Island International Film Festival as well as several theatrical, musical, and film productions and Oscar campaigns. Surprisingly, her favorite books to read are cookbooks as reading the lists of ingredients and cooking steps give her a sense of peace. She also enjoys reading young adult novels and memoirs.

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