In honor of Women’s Fiction Day 2024, please join me for a special episode of Hear Us Roar featuring a roundtable discussion between the finalists for the 2023 Star Award for General Fiction – Erin Litteken (The Memory Keeper of Kyiv), Lyn Liao Butler (Red Thread of Fate) and Anna Collins (These Numbered Days). We talk about the genre of women’s fiction and the alternative ways of categorizing this type of story, the current state of publishing today and the career paths each of these talented writers has taken to bring their stories to readers.

 Erin Litteken is an international bestselling author of historical fiction. Her debut, THE MEMORY KEEPER OF KYIV, has been translated into sixteen languages and was the 2023 winner of the Women's Fiction Writers Association Star Award and the She Reads Best Historical Fiction Award. With a degree in history and a passion for research, Erin draws inspiration from her family roots, and in particular, her great-grandmother’s stories about life in Ukraine before, during, and after WWII. She lives outside of St. Louis with her husband and two children. For more information about Erin and her books, click here.

Lyn Liao Butler is a Taiwanese American author of thrillers, upmarket fiction, and rom-coms. Her thriller, Someone Else’s Life, was an instant Amazon bestseller and her second book Red Thread of Fate was a finalist in the WFWA Star Awards for 2023. Before becoming an author, she was a professional ballet and modern dancer, and is still a fitness and yoga instructor. She and her husband and son divide their time between New York and Kauai. To learn more about Lyn, click here.

Anna E. Collins is an award-winning Seattle-area author of contemporary romantic comedies and women’s fiction. Her work has earned praise from Kirkus, Publisher’s Weekly, Booklist, and Library Journal, as well as coverage in USA Today, Woman’s World, and Popsugar, among other outlets. Once upon a time, Anna was a high school teacher with a master’s degree in educational psychology, but when she realized she had stories to tell, she picked up the proverbial pen and ventured into uncharted fictional waters. Nowadays, she spins her imaginary yarns under the careful watch of her mini goldendoodle, Archie, who is a Very Good Boy. To learn more about Anna, click here.