Book & Author Dinner lineup announced

A best-selling novelist who grew up in Virginia, a seasoned practitioner of biography, four other novelists and a cookbook author have been chosen as the honorees who will share their stories at the Junior League of Richmond's annual Book & Author Dinner, set for May 1 at the Greater Richmond Convention Center.

Adriana Trigiani, who was raised in Southwest Virginia and whose debut novel was "Big Stone Gap," draws on her Italian roots for her 12th novel, "The Shoemaker's Wife." At the turn of the 20th century, Enza, a beauty, and Ciro, a mountain boy, meet as teenagers in Italy and fall in love. But when Ciro is sent to America to become an apprentice shoemaker in New York's Little Italy, the lovers are separated. Enza also is soon forced to go to America, where she takes a factory job in Hoboken, N.J., and the two are reunited.

Trigiani's focus in "The Shoemaker's Daughter" is on the American dream. She is married to Tim Stephenson, the Emmy Award-winning lighting designer of "The Late Show with David Letterman," and they live in Greenwich Village with their daughter, Lucia.

Sally Bedell Smith, author of biographies of William S. Paley, Bill and Hillary Clinton, John F. and Jacqueline Kennedy, Pamela Harriman and Diana, Princess of Wales, returns to Britain's royal family for her latest study, "Elizabeth the Queen."

Written to coincide with the 60th anniversary of Elizabeth II's ascension to the throne, the biography takes a close-up view of the queen and draws on interviews with many of her friends and acquaintances.

A contributing editor at Vanity Fair since 1996, Smith previously worked at Time and The New York Times. She and her husband live in Washington. They have three grown children.

The author of two works of nonfiction, Wiley Cash turns to fiction in "A Land More Kind Than Home," a novel that finds its basis in religion and small-town life.

Cash, a native of North Carolina, lives with his wife in West Virginia and teaches English and creative writing at Bethany College. He holds a doctorate in English from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette.

Another debut novelist, Erin Duffy, sets her novel far from a small town. The protagonist of "Bond Girl," Alex Garrett, is determined to make a success of her job with Wall Street brokerage Cromwell Pierce. But she soon finds herself — and her firm — spiraling down in the stock-market crash of 2008.

Duffy, a 2000 graduate of Georgetown University with a bachelor's degree in English, has spent more than 10 years in fixed-income sales on Wall Street.

Margot Livesey, who grew up in the Scottish Highlands where her father taught at a private school for boys, is no stranger to fiction, and her seventh novel, "The Flight of Gemma Hardy," reverberates with some of Livesey's experiences. Gemma, orphaned young, is sent to a boarding school where she is both servant and student. As a young adult, she takes a job as an au pair on the Orkney Islands in a story that pays homage to Charlotte Bronte's "Jane Eyre."

Livesey, an English and philosophy graduate of the University of York in England, has taught at several institutions throughout the United States. She is currently a distinguished-writer-in-residence at Emerson College, lives with her husband in Cambridge, Mass., and returns to London and Scotland whenever she can.

The subgenre of historical novels finds a veteran writer in Matthew Pearl, whose fourth novel, "The Technologists," is set near Boston in 1868. The Civil War is over, but the Massachusetts Institute of Technology is rising. And the conflict between past and present, tradition and technology, becomes the heart of the story.

Pearl, who grew up in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., is a graduate of Harvard University and Yale Law School. He has also taught literature and creative writing at Harvard and Emerson College and lives in Cambridge, Mass.

Like desserts (and who doesn't)? Alice Medrich, author of "Sinfully Easy Delicious Desserts," will talk about her life, her business and her creations.

Medrich is a businesswoman, baker and cookbook author with a particular interest in chocolate. She founded the Cocolat chain of chocolate stores and has written numerous cookbooks. She is often referred to as the First Lady of Chocolate.

Journalist Bob Deans again will serve as master of ceremonies for the event, which is the longest-running dinner of its kind in the country.

All proceeds directly support the Junior League of Richmond's work to help at-risk women, children and families through volunteerism and developing the potential of women.