Authors & Illustrators represented by Don Congdon Associates

Jessie Daniels is the author of White Lies and a Professor of Sociology, Critical Social Psychology, and Africana Studies at Hunter College and CUNY’s Graduate Center. She also serves as Faculty Affiliate at Harvard University’s Berkman Klein Center. Her writing on race has appeared in The New York Times, NPR, and Forbes. She lives in New York City.  

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Jenny Dearborn is a leading authority on sales enhancement and training, with expertise in big data and predictive analytics. As Senior Vice President and Chief Learning Officer for SAP, she designs and drives employee learning and enablement strategy. Dearborn was recognized as one of the 50 Most Powerful Women in Technology in 2014 by the National Diversity Council. Through the Fortune Most Powerful Women Network, she is a mentor for the U.S. State Department to female  entrepreneurs in developing countries. Her team was named by eLearning Magazine the #1 top performing corporate learning organization in the world in 2013. Her first book, Data Driven, was long-listed for the Business Book of the Year Award by 800 CEO Reads. 

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Jill de Jong was born in Holland, and her successful modeling career brought her to the US. She was based in New York for many years, explored Miami for a few years, and then fell in love with Los Angeles, where she currently resides; a great place to pursue her passion for health and wellness. She made the career shift from full-time modeling to health coach, personal trainer, and chef, and has never looked back.

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Jerry Dennis grew up in rural northern Michigan and has earned his living since 1986 writing about the places where nature and human culture meet. His essays and short fiction have appeared in more than 100 publications, including The New York Times, Smithsonian, Audubon, Orion, American Way, Gray’s Sporting Journal, and Michigan Quarterly Review. His books, many of them illustrated by artist Glenn Wolff, are widely acclaimed, have won numerous awards, and have been translated into Chinese, Japanese, German, Portuguese, Czech, and Korean.

In 1999 the Michigan Library Association named Jerry the Michigan Author of the Year, and in 2003 the University of Louisville’s School of Arts and Sciences recognized his achievements in literature with its Outstanding Alumnus of the Year Award. He is a frequent guest speaker at universities and elsewhere and serves on the faculty of the University of Michigan’s Bear River Writers Conference, where he teaches creative non-fiction. He and his wife, Gail, live near the shore of Lake Michigan not far from Traverse City, Michigan. 

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Carlo D'Este (1936-2020) was a military historian, biographer, lecturer, consultant and book reviewer for the New York Times, Washington Post and other publications. His books include Decision in Normandy (1983); Bitter Victory: 'The Battle for Sicily, 1943 (1988); World War II in the Mediterranean, (1990) and Fatal Decision: Anzio and the Battle for Rome (1991); and three biographies: Patton: A Genius For War, HarperCollins (1995); Eisenhower: A Soldier’s Life, Henry Holt (2002); and Warlord: A Life of Winston Churchill at War, HarperCollins (2008). All of his books have been selections of the BOMC/Bookspan and published in the U.K., and some in foreign countries. A&E adapted Patton to television for its Biography series in 1995. In addition to television appearances on C-Span, Fox News Channel and the History Channel, D’Este has lectured at the U.S. Army Command & General Staff College, the National War College, and is an annual visitor to the U.S. Army War College military history program. He served as an advisor to President Clinton upon the occasion of his 1994 visit to Italy, England and Normandy to commemorate the 50th anniversary of World War II events; and from 1994-1997 was a member of the Department of the Army Historical Advisory Committee. He was the 2010 winner of the Andrew J. Goodpaster Prize awarded by the American Veterans Center. Also in 2010 he delivered the prestigious Kemper Lecture on Churchill at Westminster College, Fulton, Missouri. 

Jinny S. Ditzler (1940 - 2020) was the founder of the personal and executive coaching industry, having originated the process in the U.K. in 1981. Jinny was also the founder and CEO of Best Year Yet, a global business that has trained over 350 Program Leaders and Coaches, who have worked with over 750 companies in 14 countries. Her expertise was in coaching, facilitation, writing and speaking, and she was recognized as a thought leader in the fields of organizational revitalization and personal transformation. She was active in nonprofit organizations both in the U.K. and U.S., serving on industry boards and on the Board of Trustees for The Hunger Project. She was also one of the early founders and a president of the Executive Service Corps in Aspen, Colo., an organization that trains business leaders and independent professionals to provide consulting and coaching to nonprofits. 

Robert C.S. Downs (1937 - 2023) was a Guggenheim Fellow and recipient of a NAACP Image Award for the screenplay of his fourth novel, White Mama. He taught in and was director of the MFA programs at Penn State and the University of Arizona. He was a Distinguished Professor Emeritus at Penn State University.  Downs lived in State College, Pennsylvania.