About
1997 Indian River Literary Society – Initial Board of Directors
Charlie Cooper, President Darby Gibbons
Charlotte Terry, Vice President Kevin Given
Mary Beth Vallar, Sec/Treasurer Jo Ann Merrill
Bob Bauchman Elizabeth Moulton
Marilyn Chenault Chuck Pistole
Alice du Pont Larry Reisman
Todd Fennell Mary Snyder
A Brief History of the Indian River Literary Society
The Indian River Literary Society dates to early 1997, when Northern Trust’s Vero Beach office decided to form the Society as a 501(C)(3) organization to promote reading, writing, and literary discussion. The initial Board of Directors is shown below; wonderful people who “birthed” a tremendous organization! At Literary’ s inception, Northern Trust partnered with the Vero Beach Press Journal as co-sponsors. The first meeting was held at Orchid Island’s Beach Club in October 1997. For perspective, Bill Clinton was President, Tiger Woods won his first Masters, and the Dow finished that year at 6,442.
When the Press Journal stepped aside, Northern Trust continued as the sole sponsor until the fall of 2013. At that time, the Vero Beach Book Center came on board as a new co-sponsor. Chad Leonard and team at the Book Center have been tremendous. The Book Center will hit its 10th anniversary of sponsorship this fall, and the Society is better for this involvement.
The pandemic resulted in the cancellation of two meetings in March and April 2020, and a suspension of the Society until November 2022. In early 2022, Northern Trust formally advised the Literary Society Board that after 25 years, it would be turning over the reins of the organization to the Board, helping with the transition to assure the Society’s continued success.
IRLS Authors since the beginning...
October 1997 to April 1998
David Hagberg - Assassin
Janice Daugherty - Earl in the Yellow Shirt
James W. Hall - Red Sky at Night
Jeff Shaara - Gods and Generals
Stefanie Matteson - Murder Under the Palms
Robin Hudnut - Poetry and Reminiscences of Robert Frost
Patrick D. Smith - A Land Remembered
October 1998 to April 1999
Rick Bragg - All Over But the Shoutin'
Timothy Dumas - Greentown
Stuart Woods - Orchid Beach
Nicholas Sparks - Message in a Bottle
Sharon Kay Penman - Cruel as the Grave
Connie Mae Fowler - Remembering Blue
Donald Maass - The Career Novelist
October 1999 to April 2000
Stuart McIver - Murder in the Tropics
Anita Shreve - Fortune’s Rocks
Jane Heller - Sis Boom Bah
Michael Cunningham - The Hours Adeline
Yen Mah - Falling Leaves
Ursula Hegi - The Vision of Emma Blau
Susan Hertog - Anne Morrow Lindberg, Her Life
October 2000 to April 2001
Randy Wayne White - Ten Thousand Islands
Martin Goldsmith - The Inextinguishable Symphony
Elinor Lipman - The Ladies’ Man
Laurel Blossom - What’s Wrong (Poems)
Jonathan Hull - Losing Julia
Susan Orlean - The Orchid Thief
Barbara Parker - Suspicion of Malice
October 2001 to April 2002
J.T. Glisson - The Creek Sena
Jeter Naslund - Ahab’s Wife
Stuart Kaminsky - A Few Minutes Past Midnight
Kent Haruf - Plainsong
Tim Junkin - Good Counsel
Marcel Theroux - The Confessions of Mycroft Holmes
Arlene Hutton - Last Train to Nibroc (Play)
October 2002 to April 2003
Martha Powers - Bleeding Heart
Alan Cheuse - Listening to the Page
Robert Hellenga - Blues Lessons
Andre Dubus III - House of Sand and Fog
Ann Patchett - Bel Canto
John Biguenet - The Torturer’s Apprentice
Anh Vu Sawyer - Song of Saigon
October 2003 to April 2004
Victoria Pope - Leap of Faith
Joseph Kanon - The Good German
Les Standiford - Last Train to Paradise
Richard Russo - Empire Falls
Carl Hiaasen - Basket Case
Sue Monk Kidd - The Secret Life of Bees
Leif Enger - Peace Like a River
Jeanne Ray - Eat Cake
October 2004 to April 2005
Aimee Liu - Flash House (Orchid Golf Club)
Stephanie Burke - To My Daughter in France
Meg Wolitzer - The Wife
Edna Buchanan - Cold Case Squad
Neely Tucker - Love in the Driest Season
Khaled Hosseini - The Kite Runner
Evelyn Mayerson - Net Loss (Play)
October 2005 to April 2006
Robert Alexander - The Kitchen Boy
Ron McLarty - The Memory of Running
Jeannette Walls - The Glass Castle
Audrey Neffenger - The Time Traveler’s Wife
Chris Bohjalian - Before You Know Kindness
Kermit Roosevelt - In the Shadow of the Law
Steve Berry - The Third Secret
October 2006 to April 2007
Joan Biskupic - Sandra Day O’Connor
Bill Belleville - Losing it all to Sprawl…
Mary Morris - Revenge
Jodi Picoult - The Tenth Circle
Philippa Gregory - The Boleyn Inheritance
John Berendt - The City of Falling Angles
Mary Doria Russell - A Thread of Grace
October 2007 to April 2008
Aryn Kyle - The God of Animals
Manette Ansay - Blue Water
Hilma Wolitzer - Summer Reading
Timothy Egan - The Worst Hard Time
Claire Messud - The Emperor’s Children
Jane Hamilton - When Madeline Was Young
John Hart - Down River
October 2008 to April 2009
Howard Frank Mosher - On Kingdom Mountain
Nancy Horan - Loving Frank
Rody Johnson - The Rise and Fall of Dodgertown
Sarah Gruen - Water for Elephants
Danny Danziger - Museum
Jennifer Cody Epstein - The Painter From Shanghai
Geraldine Brooks - The People of the Book
October 2009 to April 2010
Lily Koppel - Red Leather Diary
John Burnham Schwartz - The Commoner
Myron Uhlberg - Hands of My Father
Jay Parini - Promised Land
Julian Fellowes - Past Imperfect
Elizabeth Berg - Home Safe
Joseph O’Neill - Netherland
October 2010 to April 2011
David Beckworth - A New Day in the Delta
Tiffany Baker - The Little Giant of Aberdeen County
Kathleen Grissom - The Kitchen House
T. J. Stiles - The Last Tycoon
Abraham Verghese - Cutting for Stone
Jamie Ford - Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet
Ron Rash - Burning Bright
October 2011 to April 2012
Tatjana Soli - Lotus Eaters
Susan Vreeland - Clara and Mr. Tiffany
Tom Franklin - Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter
Sarah Blake - The Postmistress
Helen Simonson - Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand
Paula McLain - The Paris Wife
Minrose Gwin - The Queen of Palmyra
October 2012 to April 2013
Deborah Kogan - The Red Book
Jon Gertner - The Idea Factory
Amy Walden - The Submission
Alexandra Fuller - Cocktail Hour Under the Tree of Forgetfulness
Armor Towels - Rules of Civility
Mitchell Zuckoff - Lost in Shangri-La
Daisy Goodwin - The American Heiress
October 2013 to April 2014
Terry Teachout – Duke: The Life of Duke Ellington
Jennifer Chiaverini – Mrs. Lincoln’s Dressmaker
Barbara Shapiro – The Art Forger
Eleanor Morse – White Dog Fell From the Sky
William Landay – Defending Jacob
Will Schwalbe – The End of Your Life Book
Amanda Coplin – The Orchardist
October 2014 to April 2015
Hank Phillipi Ryan - Truth Be Told
Anthony Marra - A Constellation of Vital Phenomena
Julia Glass - And the Dark Sacred Night
Daniel James Brown - The Boys in the Boat
Marisa Silver - Mary Coin
Allison Pataki - The Traitor’s Wife/ The Accidental Empress
Robin Black - Life Drawing
October 2015 to April 2016
Kris Radish - The Year of Necessary Lies
Margaret Bradham Thornton - Charleston
Celeste Ng - Everything I Never Told You
Hector Tobar - Deep Down Dark
Lily King - Euphoria
Miriam Toews - All My Puny Sorrows
Thrity Umrigar - The Story Hour
October 2016 to April 2017
Cassandra King Conroy - LowCountry Heart: Reflections of a Writing Life
Andrew Schulman - Waking the Spirit
Sere Prince Halverson - All the Winters After
Angela Flournoy - The Turner House
Dominic Smith - The Last Painting of Sara de Vos
Janice Y.K. Lee - The Expatriates
Vicki C. Croke - Elephant Company
October 2017 to April 2018
Christopher Swann - Shadow of the Lions
Jessica Shattuck - The Women in the Castle
Kathleen Rooney - Lillian Boxfish Takes a Walk
Robert Olen Butler - Perfume River
Hala Alyan - Salt Houses
Monica Woods - The One-in-a-Million Boy
Paulette Jiles - News of the World
October 2018-April 2019
Rhiannon Navin – Only Child
Jasmin Darznik – Song of the Captive Bird
Aja Gabel – The Ensemble
Tara Westover – Educated
Wiley Cash – The Last Ballad
Mary Gordon – There Your Heart Lies
Alice McDermott – The Ninth Hour
October 2019-April 2020
Jeffrey Blount – Emancipation of Evan Walls
Chris Wilson – The Master Plan
Madeleine Miller – Circe
Rebecca Makkai – The Great Believers
Lynne Olson – Madame Fourcade’s Secret War
Fatima Mirza – A Place for Us (cancelled due to COVID)
Silas House – Southernmost (cancelled due to COVID)
Fall 2020-Spring 2021
Season cancelled due to COVID
Fall 2021-Spring 2022
Season cancelled due to COVID
November 2022-April 2023
Tracey Enerson Wood – The War Nurse
Victoria Murray – The Personal Librarian
Bonnie Garmus – Lessons in Chemistry (Chris Bohjalian) (sub)
Bryn Turnbull – The Woman Before Wallis
Nathaniel Miller – The Memoirs of Stockholm Sven
Meredith Hall – Beneficence (Author cancelled 4/9/23 due to COVID)