2021 Moderators

Rachel Kempster Barry has been an author, publisher marketing exec, indie bookseller, and book festival director. She has co-written several books about creativity and kindness including The Happy Books (Sourcebooks) and This Book Is About You (DK Books). She teaches at The Writing Circle and is the VP of Marketing for global publisher Insight Editions. 

Moderating YA sessions with Brigid Kemmerer and Caroline Tune Richmond, and Jordyn Taylor and Katie Zhao.

Elizabeth Gaffney is the author of Metropolis, a Barnes and Noble Discover Great New Writers selection, and When the World Was Young. Her short stories have appeared in many literary magazines, including A Public Space, VQR, Conjunctions, and The Michigan Quarterly Review. Her story “Six-X” won the 2019 Lawrence Prize for Fiction. She’s also the founder and host of the virtual writers space the24hourroom.org and has translated four books from German—a literary thriller, a memoir, a young adult novel, and a middle grade novel.

Moderating session with Courtney Zoffness.

Chad E. Leinaweaver is the Director of the Morristown & Morris Township Library, a position he has held since 2016. He currently serves on the board for the Morristown Festival of Books and also serves on the Board of Directors of MAIN, a consortium of 49 libraries in northern New Jersey. Previously, Chad served as the Head of the Special Collections Division of the Newark Public Library, the Director for the Library and Museum Collections for The New Jersey Historical Society and the Director of Library User Access Services of the New England Historic Genealogical Society. Chad has authored portions of the Dictionary of New Jersey History, served as the chair of the New Jersey Studies Academic Alliance Author Awards, and has been an archival consultant and on the advisory board for the Caucus Archival Projects Evaluation Service (CAPES).

Moderating session with Wendy Whitman.

Amanda Toronto is the Children’s Book Buyer for WORD Bookstores in Brooklyn and Jersey City. She has her Ph.D. in English and American Literature from New York University. Amanda lives in NYC with her family.

Moderating YA session with Meredith Ireland and Nisha Sharma.

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