Washington

May 07: Joanne Leedom-Ackerman on The Far Side of the Desert

May 7, 2025

A terrorist attack. A kidnapping. The ultimate vacation gone wrong.

The Far Side of the Desert with author Joanne Leedom-
Ackerman

Visit the The Far Side of the Desert today with storyteller Joanne Leedom-Ackerman as we discuss her latest novel — an international political thriller that takes us from Spain to Washington to Morocco to Gibraltar to the Sahara Desert.

What would you do if a loved one was kidnapped before your eyes in a foreign country? How far would you go to rescue them? What if you were the one kidnapped? Would you hold on to the faith that your family would find you?

We also discuss writing: What to consider when creating an international thriller, challenges of pacing and plot, character development, and more.

Meet Joanne Leedom-Ackerman

Award-winning author, journalist, and human rights advocate Joanne Leedom Ackerman — known for her powerful storytelling and deep insight into global issues — illuminates the human condition through her fiction and nonfiction works. Her fiction includes Burning Distance, The Dark Path to the River, and No Marble Angels. Joanne’s recent nonfiction book, PEN Journeys: Memoir of Literature on the Line, drew inspiration from her job as a vice president of the worldwide writers and human rights organization PEN International. She is also on the boards of the American Writers Museum, the International Center for Journalists, Words Without Borders, and Refugees International. She is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the Texas Institute of Letters. The Far Side of the Desert is her latest novel.

Nov 16: A Ghost of Caribou with Alice Henderson

November 16, 2022

Author’s love of wildlife inspired her Alex Carter suspense series

Alice Henderson created a strong, female protagonist whose career as a wildlife biologist gets her into all kinds of hairy situations, including murder. In A Ghost of Caribou Alex Carter arrives in the Selkirk mountains of northeastern Washington, and what begins as a search for an elusive caribou leads into mystery, suspense, and mayhem.

In addition to sharing snippets from her book and writing adventures, Alice shares insight into the plight of caribou and how climate change impacts them. We also discuss why we should reframe the way we look at climate change, and how we can help create a better future.

About Alice Henderson

A Ghost of Caribou is the 3rd book in the Alex Carter series. In addition to being a prolific writer, Alice Henderson is a sanctuary monitor for the Humane Society Wildlife Land Trust, where she checks remote cameras, documents mapping, and delivers wildlife surveys to determine what species are present and that there’s no evidence of poaching. She’s surveyed for the presence of grizzlies, wolves, wolverines, jaguars, endangered bats, and more. Alice has also written media tie-in novels, including official novels for the TV shows Supernatural and Buffy the Vampire Slayer. While working at LucasArts, Alice wrote content for Star Wars video games.