Welcome and Spoken Word with Gill Sotu

Join us for the opening of festival day two with spoken word artist Gill Sotu and local San Diego poets sharing their work on the theme, Poetry as Protest. Hosts Marni Freedman and Jeniffer Thompson will present a 2021 SDWF award to Chris Baron, author of All of Me and The Magical Imperfect, and Matt Coyle, author of The Rick Cayhill series; Julie Slavinsky (Warwick’s La Jolla) will share her list of the most anticipated books of the year, and, as with day one, we will give away books written by our 2021 speakers. Grab a cup of coffee or tea and meet us online to jump-start another day of inspiration and creativity!

Event Sponsor: Ben Teeter, author of Falling Into All

Meet the Speakers

Gill Sotu is a multi-faceted artist weaving poetry, music, soul, humor, and thought-provoking passion into captivating and memorable performances. He is a two-time Grand Slam Poetry Champion, two-time Raw Performing artist of the year, and a three-time TEDx San Diego presenter. He has opened for rap legend Talib Kweli at the San Diego Symphony. Currently, he is a teaching artist and a commissioned playwright with The Old Globe Theatre in San Diego as well as the Artist In Residence at Makers Church. He has been commissioned to produce original pieces for leading arts and community organizations such as The San Diego Symphony, San Diego Fashion Week, The Unity Way of San Diego County, Feeding America, SD Fringe Fest, and the San Diego Museum of Man to name a few. A magnetic performer, Sotu uses his words and energy to bring stories to life on stage and screen and leaves audiences of all sizes entertained and inspired.

Chris Baron is the award-winning author of two Middle-Grade novels in verse, ALL OF ME, and THE MAGICAL IMPERFECT (2021) from Feiwel & Friends/Macmillan, a contributor to the Young Adult Anthology, EVERYBODY SHINES, (2021) from Bloomsbury, and the author of Under the Broom Tree, (2012) from CityWorks Press as part of Lantern Tree: Four Books of Poems: winner of San Diego Book Award. He is a Professor of English at San Diego City College and the director of the Writing Center. Baron has published numerous poems and articles in magazines and journals around the country, performed on radio programs, and participated in many readings, lectures, and panels. He grew up in New York City, but he completed his MFA in Poetry in 1998 at SDSU. He lives in San Diego with his family. He is represented by Rena Rossner from the Deborah Harris Literary Agency. Learn more about Chris. 

Matt Coyle is the author of the best-selling Rick Cahill crime novels. He knew he wanted to be a crime writer when he was fourteen and his father gave him the simple art of murder by Raymond Chandler. He graduated with a degree in English from University of California at Santa Barbara. His foray into crime fiction was delayed for thirty years as he spent time managing a restaurant, selling golf clubs for various golf companies, and in national sales for a sports licensing company.

Writing at night for over a decade his debut novel, Yesterday’s Echo, was finally published in 2013. The wait was almost worth it as it won the Anthony Award for Best First Novel, the San Diego Book Award for Best Mystery, the Ben Franklin Award for Best New Voice in Fiction.

Matt’s second book in the Rick Cahill series, Night Tremors, was a Bookreporter.com Reviewers’ Favorite Book of 2015 and was an Anthony, Shamus, and Lefty Award finalist.

Dark Fissures (Cahill #3) was a finalist for the Macavity and Lefty awards and was a 2016 Top Pick for Bookreporter.com. Blood Truth (Cahill #4) was a Shamus finalist, Lefty Award finalist, a Foreword Reviews Book of the Year Silver Award winner for Thriller/Suspense, and a top pick by Bookreporter.com for Best Mysteries of 2017. Wrong Light (Cahill #5) was a Lefty Award finalist, a San Diego Book Award finalist, and was nominated for a Shamus Award. It was also a top pick by Bookreporter.com for Best Mysteries of 2018. Lost Tomorrows (Cahill #6) was a winner of the Shamus Award and the Lefty Award for Best Mystery. Blind Vigil (Cahill #7) has been nominated for the Lefty, Barry, Macavity, and Shamus awards. His short story, The #2 Pencil, was a finalist for a Derringer and Macavity Award.

Matt lives in San Diego with his yellow Lab, Angus, where he is writing his eighth crime novel.

Julie Slavinsky is the Director of Events for Warwick’s Bookstore. She has been in the book business for sixteen years, has been with Warwick’s for eleven of those, ten of them as the Director of Events. She was born and raised in Los Angeles, has a Bachelor of Arts degree from San Diego State University, and has called San Diego home since 1979. Her passion is reading and connecting readers and authors.