This year’s featured author is Colleen Oakley. Colleen Oakley is the USA Today bestselling author of six novels including, The Mostly True Story of Tanner & Louise, The Invisible Husband of Frick Island, You Were There Too, Close Enough to Touch, Before I Go and her latest Jane and Dan at the End of the World, which was the Good Housekeeping book club pick for March 2025 and named a most-anticipated book for 2025 by People magazine, The Atlanta Journal Constitution, Zibby Media and more. Colleen’s novels have been longlisted for the Southern Book Prize twice and Close Enough to Touch won the French Reader’s Prize. Her seventh novel, In Concert, will be published by Berkley/Penguin in February 2027. A former magazine editor for Marie Claire and Women’s Health & Fitness, Colleen’s articles and essays have been featured in The New York Times, Ladies’ Home Journal, Women’s Health, Redbook, Parade, Woman’s Day, Fitness, Health, Marie Claire and Martha Stewart Weddings. A proud graduate of the University of Georgia’s school of journalism, Colleen currently lives in Atlanta with her husband, four kids, and a terrier mutt named Baxter.