Doors at 6:30 - Event at 7:00
Virtual tickets $14 - Door $20
Includes Q&A
National Writers Series is kicking off our fall season with Traverse City’s Pulitzer Prize-winning author, Bryan Gruley and his brand-new crime thriller: Bitterfrost. Gruley will be joined in conversation with NWS favorite John U. Bacon.
Seats are general admission. It is encouraged to arrive early to choose seating. Tickets do not include a copy of the book. If you’d like a book, you can purchase one through Horizon Books.
Thirteen years ago, former ice hockey star Jimmy Baker quit the game after almost killing an opponent. Now, as the Zamboni driver for the amateur team in his hometown of Bitterfrost, Michigan, he’s living his penance. Until the morning when he awakens to the smell of blood…
Jimmy soon finds himself arrested for a brutal double murder. The kicker? He has no memory of the night in question. And as the evidence racks up against him, Jimmy’s case is skating on thin ice. Could he have committed such a gruesome crime?
As his defense attorney, Devyn Payne, and the prosecuting detective, Garth Klimmek, race to uncover the truth, time is running out for Jimmy. Because all he can really be sure of is that he is capable of taking a life. The question is, in his blacked-out state, did he take two?
BRYAN GRULEY
Bryan Gruley is the Edgar-nominated author of six novels – PURGATORY BAY, BLEAK HARBOR, the Starvation Lake Trilogy, and his most recent, BITTERFROST – and one award-winning work of nonfiction.
A lifelong journalist, he shared in The Wall Street Journal’s Pulitzer Prize for coverage of the September 11 terrorist attacks.
He lives in northern lower Michigan with his wife, Pamela, where he can be found playing hockey, singing in his band, or spending time with his children and grandchildren.
JOHN U. BACON
John U. Bacon has written 14 books, including seven national bestsellers.
He has written for dozens of major American publications, appears often on national TV, and won NPR’s prize for the nation’s best commentary in 2014. He also hosts a popular leadership podcast, Let Them Lead, now in its second season.
In 2009 the University of Michigan students awarded him the Golden Apple Award as their favorite teacher. The Daily Beast called Bacon’s course one of the “ten hottest classes in America.” In 2019, he was appointed a trustee of Michigan Technological University, and delivered the 2022 commencement speech.
John is a decent Spanish speaker, an average hockey player, and a poor piano player, but he still enjoys all three. He lives in Ann Arbor and northern Michigan with his wife and son. John will be back to the National Writers Series on Thursday, November 6th to talk about his next novel: The Gales of November: The Untold Story of the Edmund Fitzgerald.
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