Presentations by author Steve Hamilton, Edgar Award-winning author of the Alex McKnight crime fiction series and noted writer/photographer Monte Nagler as well as their works are featured at an authors' luncheon scheduled from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Friday, June 10.

The event, which is sponsored by Huron Valley Council for the Arts and takes place at Bakers of Milford, 2025 S. Milford Road in Milford, also serves as a book launch for Hamilton's latest edition to the Alex McKnight series, from which he had taken a short hiatus to write two stand-alone novels.

Hamilton's either won or been nominated for every other major crime fiction award in America and the UK since then, and his books are now translated into 15 languages. His awards include the Michigan Author Award from the Michigan Library Association (2006) and the Michigan Center for the Book, which recognized his overall body of work.

Hamilton was born and raised in the Detroit area, and attended the University of Michigan, where he received the prestigious Hopwood Award. His Alex McKnight series is set in Michigan. He currently lives in New York's Hudson Valley with his wife and two children.

A blurb about the book reads: "On June 7, 2011, after a five-year break, Alex McKnight will finally return in Misery Bay. It will all begin on a frozen January night, when a young man loops one end of a long rope over the branch of a tree. A snowmobiler will find him 36 hours later, his lifeless eyes staring out at the endless cold water of Lake Superior. Alex McKnight doesn't even know this young man, and he won't even hear about the suicide until another cold night, two months later and 250 miles away, when the door to the Glasgow Inn opens and the last person Alex would ever expect comes walking inside to ask for his help."

Nagler, a noted writer, lecturer and teacher of photography, started a serious photography career after studying with photography legend Ansel Adams. "It was during that period of intensive work that I realized that making photographs is a way to experience beauty instead of just looking at it," he says. He believes that photographers should communicate feelings that are inside them. Through their photographs, a photographer should be saying: "This is what I saw and felt and I'd like to share that!"

He also has written a popular photography column and authored several photography books, including How To Improve Your Photographic Vision; Statements of Light; Monte Nagler's Michigan; Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand - A Photographic Journey; Amos Walker's Detroit (co-authored with Loren Estleman), and Quartets - Photographs In Visual Harmony. He often judges contests and speaks about photography. His newly created division, "Photos for Healing," concentrates on art in the healthcare industry.

Nagler's photographs, which have won numerous awards, are found in many private and public collections including the Detroit Institute of Arts; the University of Michigan Museum of Art; the Dayton Art Institute; the Grand Rapids Museum of Art; the Center for Creative Photography; The Brooklyn Museum; The State of Michigan; General Electric Corporation; BASF Corporation; Compuware; and Ford, Chrysler, and General Motors. Galleries and art dealers throughout the country also represent his photography. He also received the Farmington Area Arts Commission's prestigious Artist in Residence Award, and is a member of the esteemed Cameracraftsmen of America. (There are only 40 members worldwide.)

Those attending the event will have a chance to meet the authors, purchase their books and get autographs.

Tickets for the event are $25, and include lunch as well as the author's presentations. Lunches must be pre-ordered by the deadline of May 27; there are three choices available, which include a salad, roll and non-alcoholic beverage. Limited seating may or may not be available at the door without lunch.

For more information, or to get tickets and pre-order lunch for this event, call Huron Valley Council for the Arts at 248-889-8660.

Written and submitted by Anne Seebaldt

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