James Grippando to Receive Distinguished Author Award

Reserve September 17, 2005, for the Royden B. Davis Distinguished Author Award Ceremony. This year's recipient, James Grippando, best selling author of nine novels, provided us with additional information to supplement the flavor of his writing and personality readers can obtain from his website http://www.jamesgrippando.com/. He currently has three different books in production, including two more novels in his acclaimed Jack Swyteck series (Got The Look, January 2006 and The Disappeared, January 2007), and a novel for young adults. Grippando's young adult novel, Leapholes, is so historically accurate that it has earned the distinction of being the first novel for young readers ever to be published by the American Bar Association.

 

Grippando's novels have appeared on bestseller lists in USA Today and Knight-Ridder newspapers as well as the New York Times extended list. The Abduction (novel #3) was honored as one of the best novels of 1998 by Bookman News, and the audio version reached the No. 6 spot on the USA Today bestseller list. His books are enjoyed worldwide in twenty-one different languages. The French edition of Found Money (novel #4) was a Main Selection of France Loisirs, the oldest and largest book club in France. Beyond Suspicion (novel #7) was one of only six books in the world, and one of only two books by American authors, to be featured in the 2004 Sydney ( Australia)Telegraph "Best Reads Thriller Collection," the largest book promotion campaign in Australian history.

 

As librarians, we are interested in the attention to research in his writing. Grippando is often praised for the authenticity of his fiction. The New York Times says, "Grippando does his homework," Publishers Weekly says "Grippando has the imagination and research skills to plot up a storm," and John Douglas, the man who created criminal profiling at the FBI, says that "Grippando writes with the authenticity of an insider."

 

James says that his first job out of law school plunged him headlong into death penalty cases. That experience was an inspiration for his debut novel, The Pardon, a legal thriller that critics heralded as a "bona fide blockbuster." Before The Pardon, James was a successful trial lawyer at Steel Hector & Davis in Miami, and he is now affiliated with the law firm of Boies, Schiller & Flexner, LLP. James has published extensively in some of the nation's top law reviews, and his scholarly writings are frequently cited with approval by state and federal courts. He was a faculty member with the National Institute of Trial Advocacy, and he has served as an adjunct professor of law. James attended college and law school at the University of Florida. He graduated second in his class and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa in 1980. In 1982 he received his J.D. with honors and was elected to the Order of the Coif after serving as an editor on the Florida Law Review. He served as law clerk to the Honorable Thomas A. Clark on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit, and he was named by Florida Trend Magazine as one of Florida's emerging leaders.

 

As a lawyer, James was a frequent volunteer in the Miami-Dade County guardian ad litem program, where he represented neglected children in custody proceedings. As a writer, James lectures frequently to schoolchildren about his craft, and he is an active participant in the "Kids Love a Mystery Program" sponsored by the Mystery Writers of America. He serves on the Board of Trustees at St. Thomas Episcopal Parish elementary school, where he takes aspiring young writers with him on research trips to fun places like crime labs.

 

James lives and writes in Coral Gables, Florida, and he is married to Tiffany, his unofficial editor since book one. As Tiffany happily points out, it is now official: James is no longer clueless - "A James Grippando Thriller" was featured as 38 Across in a 2005 edition of the New York Times crossword puzzle.

 

Atty. Grippando will be at the University of Scranton Bookstore, Hyland Hall, from 2:30-4:30 p.m. on September 17 th. We are looking forward to a lively evening reception with light dinner fare and desserts in the Eagen Auditorium, Gunster Memorial Student Center. If you plan to attend, please reserve your seat by September 13 th, 2005. Contact the Library Office 570 941-7816 for ticket, donor and sponsor information. Please inform us if you would like to be seated with friends. Tickets are $50.00 person of which $25.00 is a tax-deducatable contribution to the Weinberg Memorial Library endowment. Tickets are $45.00 for members of the Friends of the Weinberg Memorial Library. Student tickets are $25.00; $20.00 for student members of the Friends.