Fiction 2026
Founding Honorary Chair
Photo by Nina Subin
Alafair Burke
Founding Honorary Co-Chair
Alafair Burke is a New York Times bestselling author whose most recent novels include THE NOTE, FIND ME, THE BETTER SISTER, THE WIFE, and THE EX which was nominated for the Edgar Award for Best Novel.
THE BETTER SISTER, her electric thriller, is now a series on Prime Video starring Elizabeth Banks and Jessica Biel. She is also co-author of the bestselling UNDER SUSPICION series with Mary Higgins Clark.
Alafair currently serves as the President of Mystery Writers of America, the first woman of color to be elected to that position.
A former prosecutor, she teaches criminal law and lives in Manhattan and East Hampton.
For more information, visit alafairburke.com
Guests of Honor
Mike Stoner Photography
Jack Carr
Guest of Honor
Jack Carr is a former Navy SEAL who led special operations teams as a team leader, platoon commander, troop commander, and task unit commander. Over his twenty years in Naval Special Warfare, he transitioned from an enlisted SEAL sniper to a junior officer leading assault and sniper teams in Iraq and Afghanistan, to a platoon commander practicing counterinsurgency in the southern Philippines, to commanding a special operations task unit in the most Iranian influenced section of southern Iraq throughout the tumultuous drawdown of US Forces.
Jack retired from active duty in 2016 and lives with his wife and three children in Park City, Utah. He is the author of THE TERMINAL LIST, TRUE BELIEVER, SAVAGE SON, THE DEVIL’S HAND, IN THE BLOOD, ONLY THE DEAD, RED SKY MOURNING, and TARGETED: BEIRUT. His debut novel, THE TERMINAL LIST, was adapted into the #1 Prime Video series starring Chris Pratt. He is also the host of the top-rated Danger Close podcast.
Follow Jack on Instagram, X, and Facebook @JackCarrUSA.