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Author Panel: Young Rich Widows

May 29, 2024, 12:30pm–1:45pm

Admired and best-selling authors offer advice and discuss their latest books. 

Young Rich Widows

The #1 Audible Original comes to life. 

Kimberly Belle

Layne Fargo

Cate Holahan

Vanessa Lillie

Hosted by Ilana Levine, Actress and Podcaster, Little Known Facts with Ilana Levine

 

Kimberly Belle is the USA Today and internationally bestselling author with over one million copies sold worldwide, with titles including The Paris Widow, The Marriage Lie, a Goodreads Choice Awards semifinalist for Best Mystery & Thriller, and the co-authored #1 Audible Original, Young Rich Widows. Kimberly’s novels have been optioned for film and television and selected by LibraryReads and Amazon & Apple Books Editors as Best Books of the Month, and the International Thriller Writers as nominee for best book of the year. She divides her time between Atlanta and Amsterdam. 

Layne Fargo writes dark, dramatic stories that support women’s rights—and also women’s wrongs. She’s the author of psychological thrillers They Never Learn and Temper, co-author of the #1 bestselling Audible Original series Young Rich Widows (coming to paperback in spring 2024), and co-creator of the Unlikeable Female Characters podcast on Lit Hub Radio. Her first work of women’s fiction The Favorites is forthcoming from Random House in early 2025. Before becoming a full-time writer, Layne worked as a dramaturg, a librarian, and a corporate knowledge manager, and she still loves going down a good research rabbit hole. She lives in Chicago’s Rogers Park neighborhood with a rescue pit bull and cat who are best friends, the only man she never wants to murder (well, almost never), and way too many books.

Catherine "Cate" Holahan is the USA Today bestselling author of The Widower's Wife (August 2016), Lies She Told (Sept. 2017), Dark Turns (November 2015), and One Little Secret (July 9, 2019). An award-winning journalist and former television producer, her articles have appeared in BusinessWeek, The Boston Globe, The Record newspaper, and on many websites. She is a graduate of Princeton University and lives in New Jersey with her husband, two young daughters, and sometimes-good dog.

Vanessa Lillie is the USA Today bestselling author of Blood Sisters, which was a Target Book Club pick and GMA Book Club Buzz Pick, as well as a best mystery of the year from the Washington Post and Reader’s Digest. Her other bestselling thrillers are Little Voices, For the Best and she’s the creator and coauthor of the Young Rich Widows series set in Providence, RI where she lives. Originally from Miami, Oklahoma, she is a citizen of the Cherokee Nation. Vanessa was a Sisters in Crime board member and wrote a weekly column for the Providence Journal about her experiences during the first year of the pandemic. She hosts a weekly Instagram Live show, ‘Twas the Night Before Book Launch, where she chats with authors the night before their book is out in the world.

As an actress, Ilana Levine has performed on stage and screen to critical acclaim. On Broadway, Ilana is best known to musical theater fans for her comedic turn as "Lucy Van Pelt" in the Broadway revival of, You're A Good Man Charlie Brown. Ilana also starred in the Broadway productions of Jake's Women, Wrong Mountain and The Last Night Of Ballyhoo.  She has performed on the Tony Awards. Her ability to portray characters with raw honesty, humor, and pathos, has sustained her career as an actress for over 25 years.  She first appeared on the scene in the HBO series Tanner ’88 directed by Robert Altman and quickly was plucked by Vanity Fair journalist James Wolcott as an “up and comer to watch.”  Seinfeld fans recognize her from the infamous episode "The Contest."  She has appeared in many television shows and films including Divorce, Law and OrderTanner on TannerDamages, The JobCashmere MafiaConfessions of a ShopaholicKissing Jessica SteinGiganticIra and AbbyFailure to LaunchThe Nanny DiariesFriends With Kids and Five Flights Up. As a voice over artist she has done commercials and audio books. For the past three years Ilana has been cited as a “Twitter Influencer To Follow”.  She resides in Brooklyn, New York  with her husband, actor Dominic Fumusa, her two children, and their dog, Lola.