ThrillerFest 2026

I was the kid who watched The X-Files every week, hunted down Nancy Drew books at secondhand stores, and watched horror movies at wildly inappropriate ages. To this day, I still love escape rooms because I want to solve the puzzle before everybody else in the room.

I came to ThrillerFest last year because John Grisham was speaking, and I grew up reading every one of his books and watching every adaptation. Last year, I came purely as a fan. This year, I came celebrating the completion of my Master's degree - and finally starting to push past the imposter syndrome that kept me feeling like I didn't belong in rooms like this.

I made myself a promise when I moved to New York, that I would place myself in more interesting rooms, surround myself with people who inspire me, and start treating my writing life more seriously and professionally. The goal is to come back to ThrillerFest next year having read more, learned more, and written more.

Thank you to my brother, Frank Stucki, for coming with me, the co-presidents Lisa Unger and Gregg Horwitz, and everyone involved in creating such a welcoming and generously helpful conference for writers at every stage of their careers. It is rare to find spaces where aspiring writers can learn while standing shoulder-to-shoulder with the people who inspired them to begin in the first place.