A New York Times Notable author, Louis Bayard has been nominated for both the Edgar® and Dagger awards, and his story, “Banana Triangle Six,” was chosen for The Best American Mystery Stories 2018. He is also a nationally recognized essayist and critic whose articles have appeared in the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times and Salon. His other novels include Fool's Errand and Endangered Species (Alyson). An instructor at George Washington University, he is on the board of the PEN/Faulkner Foundation and was the author of the popular Downton Abbey recaps for the New York Times.

The Saturday Visiter Awards is pleased to welcome the author of The Pale Blue Eye as our presenter and Guest of Honor at this year's ceremony, Saturday, October 5th, 2019.

"At West Point Academy in 1830, the calm of an October evening is shattered by the discovery of a young cadet's body swinging from a rope. The next morning, an even greater horror comes to light. Someone has removed the dead man's heart. Augustus Landor, who acquired some renown in his years as a New York City police detective, is called in to discreetly investigate. It's a baffling case Landor must pursue in secret, for the scandal could do irreparable damage to the fledgling institution. But he finds help from an unexpected ally: a moody, young cadet with a penchant for drink, two volumes of poetry to his name, and a murky past that changes from telling to telling. The strange and haunted Southern poet for whom Landor develops a fatherly affection, is named Edgar Allan Poe."

Katie Marquette is an independent radio producer and sound design consultant based in Baltimore, Maryland. She has worked on a number of local projects for 88.1, WYPR, Baltimore’s NPR station, including an original podcast, The Noir and Bizarre, featuring many Poe-related events! Katie has a master’s degree in conflict resolution and believes in the power of innovative storytelling to connect and reconcile diverse communities. She loves Baltimore's strange and wonderful history - and of course, Poe! 

J.W. Ocker is the Edgar Award-winning author of strange travelogues Poe-Land: The Hallowed Haunts of Edgar Allan Poe, A Season with the Witch, and the Grimpendium books, as well as the children’s novel Death and Douglas. He is also the creator of OTIS: Odd Things I’ve Seen (oddthingsiveseen.com). Ocker’s work has appeared in The Boston Globe, CNN, The Atlantic, The Guardian, and other places people stick writing. He’s from Maryland but has lived in New Hampshire for a decade. 

Thomas Brown, a Baltimore native, owns and operates a wood shop specializing in historically accurate reproductions of antique architectural milllwork.  A student of Early American and Renaissance English history, his first woodworking job was an apprenticeship with local craftsman James Cox making renaissance and medieval stringed instruments.  Then after switching between eight different Majors (one being English Literature) in various Colleges all over America, he finally completed a self-designed degree in Creative Anachronism at Stevenson University. 

Shortly after marrying his very bright and remarkably patient wife Kathleen (formerly President of the Poe Society of Baltimore) in 1991 and settling down in Ruxton, he founded Thomas Brown, Woodwright LLC.  In terms of his devotion to literature, we note that he provides for the Baltimore Shakespeare Factory’s use his Fearelesse Folio Actors’ Editions, working scripts which he developed in conjunction with his friend and mentor Lewis Shaw specifically to facilitate Early Practice and Original Pronunciation productions.  They are assembled from the First Folio and Early Quartos and carefully emended, and formatted to capture the appearance of the early printed Works, but in a practical form that actors can use for rehearsal of the Plays.  On the woodworking side, he is also steadily improving their permanent Elizabethan Stage in Hampden. 

As a currently-serving member of the Poe Baltimore Board of Directors, Tom has been instrumental in repairing and improving the wooden features of Poe's Amity Street residence, starting with a new door which he fabricated based on the oldest known photograph of the house.   A fan of antique volumes and papers, Tom is also assembling a small library of original printings of Poe’s works written while he actually lived in Baltimore.