Sean Adams, a former NCAA All-American athlete, turned his love of sports into a life working with others through the use of sports. His first book, Sports for Life: Daily Sports Themes for Life Success, was published in 2006. His second book, based solely on attitude and titled, It’s Okay to Be Crazy, was published in 2008. Adams is a sportswriter, covering conferences across the country from the Atlantic to the Gulf Coast. In recent years, Adams focused his writing on the Texas Longhorns along with the Big 12 Conference and sports/society topics for Yahoo.com/Rivals.com. Sean was also a frequent analyst on the NFL Network’s “College Football Now” in 2007 and 2008. Each afternoon, Adams co-hosts “The Bottom Line” with Sean Adams and Chip Brown of Yahoo Sports on Austin’s #1 sports radio station, 1530 ESPN-Austin. During the height of college football season, Adams also co-hosts the 1530 ESPN-Austin "College GameDay" on Saturdays live from Scholz Garten. For more information, view Sean Adams's website.

April Lurie grew up in Dyker Heights, Brooklyn, a neighborhood populated by the Mafia. This inspired her to write Brothers, Boyfriends, & Other Criminal Minds (Delacorte 2007), a New York Public Library Book for the Teenage, and a selection for the 2008 Texas Lone Star List. Her most recent novel, The Latent Powers of Dylan Fontaine (Delacorte 2008), a BBYA nominee, was inspired by and dedicated to her son Daniel, but she still had to pay him twenty dollars to read it. April’s forthcoming novel, The Less-Dead (Delacorte 2010), is set in Austin and is narrated by a teenage boy who tracks down a serial killer. She lives in Round Rock with her family. To learn more information about April Lurie, view her website.

David Rice splits his time between writing, mentorship, teaching and community service. His collection of short stories, Crazy Loco, published in April 2001 received a wide variety of prestigious recognition, including the American Library Association's “Best Books for Young Readers 2001” award. Rice was born in Weslaco, Texas, in 1964, and lived in Edcouch, Texas, for much of his youth. Most of his stories are set in the Rio Grande Valley, a region to which he feels much loyalty. At age 27, he decided to focus on developing his talents as a creative storyteller, and began writing the stories which were published in his first book: Give the Pig a Chance. Rice's writing has been anthologized in New World: Young Latino Writers, Twelve Shots: Outstanding Short Stories about Guns, and Working Days: Short Stories About Teenagers at Work. He is a graduate of Southwest Texas State University in San Marcos.

Amanda Rosalie works by day as a deaf education elementary teacher with AISD, but by night she has spent nearly a decade involved with Austin’s music scene. A musician most of her life, Amanda started a solo career as a singer-songwriter in 2003 with just an acoustic guitar, her voice, and a few new songs. After just a few months of gigging, she started supporting other fledgling performers as host of a downtown open mic. During that time she met numerous Austin musicians and then put her solo career on hold to join a band. She spent four years as lead singer of The Flying Club and after helping to write and record their “Zombie Rock Opera,” joined the pop group The Unbearables as their lead female singer. In 2008 she turned to focus on her own songs once again. In 2009, she formed the indie-rock group framing strangers with three friends and a handful of new songs. Her main focus for the past year, this new project has combined Amanda’s passions for collaborating with a band and performing her own songs, and has seen remarkable early success. For more information about framing strangers view the links at myspace and Facebook.

Jake Silverstein was born in 1975. He received a B.A. in English from Wesleyan University, an M.A. in English from Hollins University in Virginia and an M.F.A. in Creative Writing from the Michener Center for Writers at the University of Texas at Austin. He was a reporter at the Big Bend Sentinel in Marfa from 1999 to 2000 and a 2002 Fulbright Scholar in Zacatecas, Mexico. He is a Contributing Editor to Harper’s Magazine, and his essay for that magazine, “Highway Run,” about a Mexican road race, won the 2007 PEN/USA Journalism Award. His journalism has also been featured in several anthologies, including the Best American Travel Writing 2002, and Submersion Journalism, a 2008 collection of first-person non-fiction. His first book, Nothing Happened and Then It Did, a Chronicle in Fact and Fiction will be published by W. W. Norton in 2010. He came to work for Texas Monthly in 2006 as a Senior Editor. In September 2008, he was named Editor of Texas Monthly. To see his blog at Texas Monthly, go to Page Break.

Duff Stewart is president and chief executive officer of GSD&M Idea City, a leading marketing communications and advertising company. After graduating from the University of Texas at Austin, Stewart worked in commercial real estate as vice president of marketing for Cornerstone Development. That role got him recognized by the founders of an Austin advertising agency with a growing national reputation. Stewart then began his 19 years with GSD&M Idea City during which he has served as the agency’s head of account management and as the three-time EFFIE award-winning group account director for clients including Fannie Mae, the Fannie Mae Foundation, The Steel Alliance, United Health Care and the United Health Foundation. Stewart helped capture and articulate the agency’s core values. With those values as a guide, he leads GSD&M Idea City in making a difference for its people, clients and communities. Of the many opportunities the agency has offered him, none compare with meeting and marrying his wife Liz. Together they have three children and live in Austin. For more information, go to GSD&M's website.

6th & 7th Grade Speakers

Kirk Bohls one of four boys, grew up in Taylor, Texas, where his father was a cotton farmer. He graduated from UT with a journalism degree where he had been a news writer for the Daily Texan. He has written for the Austin American-Statesman since 1973, has been a columnist since 1994, and co-authored two books about UT football called "Bleeding Orange" and "Long Live the Longhorns." He is married and the father of three sons. He enjoys reading mystery and literary fiction novels and loves to travel with Hawaii and Paris being favorite destinations. At home in Austin, his passion is working with the homeless which he has done for the last 19 years. A former tennis player, he now likes walking the trails of Lady Bird Lake. He loves the New York Yankees. Kirk Bohls and Cedric Golden will present together at the Literary Festival.