Scott James is a veteran journalist, bestselling author, television news executive, producer, novelist, and newspaper columnist.
His most recent book is Trial by Fire, which reopens the case of the Station nightclub disaster, one of the deadliest fires and largest criminal cases in American history. 100 people died in just 90 seconds when a rock band ignited fireworks inside a crowded club. James’ decade-long investigation questioned whether the wrong people were convicted. As a result of the book, two men were publicly exonerated.
Trial by Fire won the top prize for nonfiction from the New England Society of New York, one of America’s oldest culture organizations, started by founding fathers. The book was adapted for television by CBS News for the program “48 Hours.” The first airing was viewed three million times and remains available on streaming services.
As a columnist, James covered California for The New York Times. Stories that became viral internet sensations included the tale of an ordinary local man who awoke one day to discover he’d been declared God by a British cult. Spoiler alert: he was not.
Earlier in his career James worked in TV news where he won three Emmy awards. In Rhode Island he headed an investigative team focused on government misuse of public funds. In a notoriously crooked state, “On a slow day you could do a corruption story,” he said.
James is also the author of two bestselling novels, The Sower and SoMa, honored as a finalist for debut fiction by the national Lambda Literary Awards. Both books take readers into the underground of San Francisco.
James has been with the Festival for 18 years, most often as an on-stage interviewer. Among his fondest memories is being backstage with Angela’s Ashes author Frank McCourt, who asked Scott for help with a bedeviling new gadget he’d just been given. A cell phone.
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