Daily Star Pavilion's speakers an inspiring set

By Kristen Cook, Arizona Daily Star / January 17, 2010

The Arizona Daily Star's Pavilion will offer a timely lineup of speakers both days of the festival.

Saturday's theme is "Help for tough times," with inspiring authors.

The speakers "will assist participants in becoming more thoughtful writers, unlocking their creativity, finding opportunity in difficult situations, understanding how instinct guides them and how stress robs them, how to see humor in new ways and how to laugh more in 2010," said Arizona Daily Star Publisher and Editor John M. Humenik, who's also a festival founder.

Sunday focuses on "Behind the Byline," about the personalities behind the stories.

The Star teamed with BigSpeak speaker's bureau to assemble the lineup.

"We knew if we wanted to make the Arizona Daily Star Pavilion as memorable as possible, we needed to reach out to BigSpeak," Humenik said. "Finding authors who also are inspiring speakers with strong motivational messages isn't a simple task. BigSpeak, one of the nation's most respected leadership and learning companies, understood our goal to provide an exceptional audience experience and embraced the festival's purpose of supporting community literacy."

Saturday, March 13

10 a.m. Roy Peter Clark, author or editor of 15 books, the most recent of which is "Writing Tools: 50 Essential Strategies for Every Writer."

11:30 a.m. Gary Bradt, clinical psychologist, motivational speaker and leadership authority, author of "The Ring in the Rubble."

1 p.m. Jim Borgman and Jerry Scott, co-creators of the comic strip Zits, which appears in more than 1,500 newspapers worldwide, including the Star.

2:30 p.m. Michael Gelb, author of "How to Think Like Leonardo da Vinci: Seven Steps to Genius Every Day." He will launch his national book tour for his latest book "Wine Drinking for Inspired Thinking" at the festival.

4 p.m. Hendrie Weisinger, licensed psychologist with extensive experience in organizational psychology and New York Times best-selling author.

Sunday, March 14

10 a.m. Merl Reagle, crossword puzzle creator who sold his first crossword to the New York Times when he was a 16-year-old Tucsonan.

11:30 a.m. Mark Frost, best-selling author, television/film writer, director and producer whose latest book, "Game Six," gives an in-depth look of the 1975 World Series game. Tucsonan Pat Darcy, a Cincinnati Reds pitcher in that game, will appear with Frost.

1 p.m. Janice Kaplan, editor of Parade magazine and author and co-author of 11 books, will conduct an interview with Christopher Reich, bestselling author of five acclaimed novels, including "Rules of Deception."

2:30 p.m. Star columnist Greg Hansen, who has written about sports in Southern Arizona since 1982. His book, "Hustling to Beat Deadline," was published in December.

4 p.m. Jack Cox, president of The Communications Institute, will moderate a panel of national experts and authors that will discuss approaching the future with reason, not fear. The Communications Institute (TCI) is a nonprofit organization dedicated to raising the level of communication and discussion of critical issues in society.