Ronald M. Gauthier was a library branch manager in New Orleans before Hurricane Katrina forced him to relocate to Atlanta. In addition to working in the library, he has served as an adult literacy instructor for the prison system in Louisiana and a social services counselor. He is the author of Hard Time on the Bayou, a prison novel based on his experiences working in corrections, Prey for Me: A New Orleans Mystery and its sequel, Crescent City Countdown, which is the only work of fiction depicting the slavery reparations issue as part of the storyline.

 The recipient of a master's in library and information science from LSU and a master's in counseling from Xavier University, he is presently a library branch manager in Gwinnett County, Georgia, a suburban community 25 miles outside of Atlanta. Mr. Gauthier is currently co-authoring a nonfiction title chronicling the odyssey of John Thompson, a man wrongfully convicted of murder and sentenced to death in Louisiana. He is also working on the final installment of the trilogy that began with Prey for Me, tentatively entitled Second Line Showdown. His books are being reviewed in forthcoming issues of New Orleans Review, a literary journal at Loyola University and the Callalloo: Journal of African American Literature. He currently resides in Atlanta.

Gauthier will be speaking on 2 panels at the Book Festival: "Murder & Mayhem" (Sunday March 1, 11:30 a.m. in Richland Meeting Room A&B) and "What Writers are Reading" (Sunday, March 1, 3:10 p.m. in Congaree Meeting Room).  For a complete listing of speakers and presentations at the Book Festival, please visit www.scbookfestival.org.