Thursday, February 20, 2025, 7 p.m.

Highland Park High School

Celebrating our 30th anniversary, we are excited to announce that Mark Sullivan, New York Times bestselling author of Beneath a Scarlet Sky and a former investigative reporter, will be the featured speaker of this year’s community keynote event on February 20, 2025, in the Highland Park High School Auditorium. Doors will open at 6:30 p.m. and the program will begin at 7 p.m. Admission is free.

The HP LitFest Committee would like to thank La Fiesta de la Seis Banderas for generously supporting our Community Event for over 20 years, enabling HP LitFest to achieve prominence as a community literary festival.

Mark is the acclaimed author of over 18 novels, including the #1 New York Times bestselling “Private” series, which he writes with James Patterson. His beloved book, Beneath a Scarlet Sky, based on the epic tale of forgotten war hero Pino Lella, has resonated deeply with audiences everywhere. Mark’s newest powerful historical novel, All the Glimmering Stars, is inspired by a true story of two teens kidnapped by an African warlord who find salvation and healing through love.

Before becoming a celebrated novelist, Mark was a correspondent at Reuters and a reporter at States News Service, where he served as a backup reporter to the D.C. bureaus of the New York Times, Newsday, and the New York Daily News. He later became an award-winning investigative reporter at the San Diego Tribune, where his unique journalistic style focused on the cultures of the things he was investigating. His first novel, The Fall Line, was named a New York Times Notable Book of the year, a rare honor for a debut author. Later, his breakout novel, The Purification Ceremony, made bestseller’s lists all over the world. 

Donations: To support our public and student programs, please contribute by texting HPLITFEST to 44321. Thank you.