Fiction | Nonfiction | Memoir | Poetry | Screenwriting | Top Authors | Literary Agents

Schedule a Manuscript Critique with Michelle.

Cherise Fisher began her career in publishing more than twenty-five years ago, spending many years editing and publishing several national bestselling and award winning authors at Simon & Schuster and Plume (an imprint of Penguin Random House), where she was Editor-in-Chief.

As an agent with Wendy Sherman Associates for the past seven years, she has represented story-driven fiction with full bodied characters, both contemporary and historical. She seeks out memoirs and narrative nonfiction that showcase the diversity of human experience, and well-platformed non-fiction writers who seek to provoke, inspire, and educate on diverse subjects, including self-help, finance and career, health and wellness, spirituality, and social justice

An active member of the American Association of Literary Agents, and a very popular workshop leader for several writer’s conferences including the Grub Street Writing Center, Cherise also teaches the “Introduction to Publishing” class as a part of the Publishing Certificate Program at the City College of New York.

Her intention is that all the books she helps bring into the world are relevant, enduring, and help readers maximize their lives.

Schedule a Pitch Session with Cherise.

Schedule a Manuscript Critique with Cherise.

Linda Oatman-High is an experienced and versatile children’s book author of over 25 books for children (and teens), including picture books and middle grade and YA novels. Her work includes Hound Heaven, which was nominated for the Rebecca Caudill Award; City of Snow: The Great Blizzard of 1888, which was added to the 2005 NCSS Notable Social Studies Trade Book list; and many others. Linda holds an MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults from Vermont College, and she teaches both nationally and internationally.

Stacey Kendall Glick, Vice President, joined Distel, Goderich and Bourret in 1999 after working in film and television development for five years. Following a number of internships in the entertainment business, her first job after college was at PolyGram Filmed Entertainment, where she looked for book projects to be adapted into feature films. Next, she worked as a story editor at Hearst Entertainment, where she scouted material for television movies. Stacey grew up just outside of Manhattan and is a former child actress who appeared on television, on stage, and in feature films. She now lives in New Jersey with her husband, four daughters (the youngest are identical twins) and two dogs, and enjoys cooking, food and wine, yoga, taking pictures, theater, going to Mets games and eating cheese, chocolate and spicy tuna hand rolls (not necessarily in that order) when she can find the time. She has a wide-ranging and eclectic client list, a consistent theme of which is to help people live better and happier lives. She is interested in many subjects, on the adult side: practical and narrative nonfiction across categories including (but not limited to) cooking and food, psychology, self-help, mental health and wellness, lifestyle, women’s issues, parenting, current events, pop culture, science, biography, and memoir. And on the children’s side: select YA, middle grade, nonfiction, and picture books. Stacey is a member of the AAR, Women’s Media Group, and is a former council member of the Rutgers University Council on Children’s Literature.

Stacey’s firm, DGB, has a strong interest in children’s and young adult books.

Learn more about Stacey and DGB at www.dystel.com

Schedule a Pitch Session with Stacey.

Schedule a Manuscript Critique with Stacey.

Heidi Pitlor has been the series editor of the annual bestselling anthology The Best American Short Stories since 2007. Before that, she was a senior editor at Houghton Mifflin Harcourt for ten years. In 2022, she founded Heidi Pitlor Editorial, a small freelance firm that provides editorial services to agents, editors, and published writers. Of HPE, MacArthur “genius” grant recipient and Pulitzer Prize finalist Karen Russell said, “Heidi Pitlor is one of the kindest and keenest editors I’ve ever had the pleasure of working with and her notes have been invaluable to me.” Heidi is also the editorial director of the literary studio, Plympton, where she fosters collaboration between the tech and publishing industries. She has worked with Stephen King, Margaret Atwood, Cheryl Strayed, Min Jin Lee, Anthony Doerr, Rainbow Rowell, Jesmyn Ward, and many other writers.

Heidi is the author of the novels The Birthdays, The Daylight Marriage, which was optioned for film, and Impersonation, of which Good Morning America said, “[it] highlights what’s important in life, parenthood, and ambition in this compulsively readable story.”

Her writing has been published in The New York Times, The Boston Globe, Lit Hub, Ploughshares, The Huffington Post, and elsewhere.

Heidi will be teaching the master class:
How to Write a Great Short Story: Cultivating Empathy, Voice, and Character in Short Fiction

INDIVIDUAL CONSULTATIONS:

Reserve an individual session with Heidi to discuss you manuscript.

Elizabeth Rosner is the author of three novels, a poetry collection, and most recently, a book of creative nonfiction. Survivor Café: The Legacy of Trauma and the Labyrinth of Memory was a finalist for a National Jewish Book Award; interviews with Rosner were featured on National Public Radio and in the New York Times. Her prize-winning novels have been translated into ten languages; her essays and poems have appeared in Elle, the Forward, the NY Times Magazine, and numerous anthologies. She leads writing workshops internationally.

“In addition to being an accomplished novelist, memoirist, and poet, Liz has the extraordinary gift of ability to coax the authentic voice from each participant. In words and silences, in rhythms and pauses, in verbs and nouns each voice enters the hallowed space of committed listeners to sing its soul into the circle of comrades traveling the anguished path. Whatever the background, an inviting arena of warmth and patience welcomes each participant. Liz’s instruction alone is worth the time and cost, but the real bargain is her ability to generate that magnetic allure where each participant’s muse cannot resist emerging to be heard.” — student testimonial

Elizabeth will be teaching the Master Class – Making It New: Writing in Hybrid Forms.

learn more at:

www.elizabethrosner.com

Kealoha, born and raised in Honolulu, was the first poet laureate of Hawai‘i and the first poet in Hawai‘i’s history to perform at a governor’s inauguration. As an internationally acclaimed poet and storyteller, he has performed throughout the world — from the White House to the ‘Iolani Palace, from Brazil to Switzerland. He was selected as a master artist for a National Endowment for the Arts program, was named an American Academy of Poets Laureate Fellow, and is a teaching artist for the Hawai’i State Foundation Culture and the Arts, Artists in Schools Program. Kealoha received a Community Inspiration Program grant from the Native Arts and Cultures Foundation towards the creation of his multi-media theater piece, The Story of Everything, which is now a full-length film, produced and directed by Engaging the Senses Foundation that condenses 13.8 billion years into an hour and 45 minutes of various cultural elements and scientific disciplines to approach the question that has challenged humans from the very beginning: “Where do we come from?” And even more importantly: “Where are we going?”

Kealoha is the founder of Hawai‘i Slam, which was ranked second in the nation in 2015; Youth Speaks Hawai‘i, two-time international champions; and First Thursdays, the largest registered slam poetry competition in the world with an average attendance of more than five hundred people. Kealoha graduated from Punahou School and with honors from MIT with a degree in nuclear physics and a minor in writing, served as a business consultant in San Francisco, and played around as a surf instructor prior to becoming a professional poet in 2002.

He was invited to give the commencement address for MIT’s 2020 & 2021 graduating classes. MIT President L. Rafael Reit wrote, “The classes of 2020 and 2021 faced challenges none of us could have imagined. To make it up to them, we sought a speaker who would deliver a message of hope and agency. You provided that and so much more – a call to action and a performance none of us will ever forget.”

James Sturz is both a travel writer and novelist. About his latest novel, Underjungle, Junot Díaz said: “Luminous, strange, thought-provoking and as profound as the seas, the pelagic brilliance of Underjungle cannot be overstated. This is the brilliant novel Prince Namor would have written had he had more poetry classes.”

Jean-Michel Cousteau said, “Underjungle is poetry, fantasy, love, war, mystery and philosophy. This book will make you think about the ocean in ways you haven’t before, and that might just make you want to protect it. I’ve dived with James, and I’m pleased to see that he has created this fascinating and complex story about the ocean and our deep connection to it.”

His background as a travel writer gave James a remarkable gift of bringing to life an array of unusual locations. He’s been a contributor to “Italy: The Best Travel Writing from The New York Times,” “Best Food Writing 2007,” and to more than 90 newspapers and magazines, including The Atlantic, The Wall Street Journal, Outside, National Geographic Adventure, Afar, Men’s Journal, The New Republic, New York Magazine, The New York Observer and Travel + Leisure. His many awards include Winner, Destination Canada Award for Excellence for Adventure Writing 2017, and honorable mention in “The Best American Sports Writing,” 2010 and 2012. He wrote a biweekly column for Coastal Living about building a house in Hawaii from 2015 to 2018. James’s fiction and journalism have been published in 18 countries and translated into nine languages. His first novel, Sasso, was set in the cave homes of Basilicata, Italy, far from the water.

James will be teaching the Master Class – Creating a Sense of Place.

John Grisham is the author of forty-seven #1 bestsellers, including A Time to Kill, The Firm, The Pelican Brief and The Client. His books have sold more than 300 million copies worldwide. He practiced law for a decade and served as a member of the Mississippi House of Representatives. His first book was rejected by 28 publishers before Wynwood Press, an unknown publisher, agreed to give it a modest 5,000 copy printing. He went on to have the number one best selling book of the year for fifteen consecutive years.

To learn more about John Grisham and his books, visit jgrisham.com

On Saturday morning during the conference, John Grisham will present a live Zoom session together with Scott Turow and Lee Child on

The Art of the Elegant Thriller.

They will delve deeply into what makes their books so captivating, the essential elements they strive for and where in their writing they have best achieved this.

Dr. Patsy Y. Iwasaki received a research grant from the Goto of Hiroshima Foundation which later inspired her to collaborate with artist Berido to create the graphic novel Hāmākua Hero: A True Plantation Story about Katsu Goto, a 19th century labor advocate and key figure in the Japan-Hawai‘i immigration, labor and social evolution narrative. In addition to conducting research and developing educational projects about Goto, she is currently creating and producing a documentary film about him.

Dr. Iwasaki is an assistant professor of English at the University of Hawai‘i at Hilo. She received her Ph.D. in Learning Design and Technology from the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa and also has an M.Ed. in education. Her research interests and teaching practices include instructional design and development, English studies, media writing, migration narratives in graphic novels, documentary film, diversity, place and community-based, culturally relevant resources in education, and cross-cultural exchange and collaboration.

She has conducted extensive research activities, published articles, and given presentations in the United States, Asia and Europe in these areas. Her teaching and research awards include the UH Hilo Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Teaching and the Koichi and Taniyo Taniguchi Award for Excellence and Innovation. She is active in the community, serving on the boards for several organizations dedicated to diversity, education and youth.

Read this article to learn more.

Lee Child is the author of more than two dozen New York Times bestselling Jack Reacher thrillers, with most having reached the #1 position. At the age of 40, Child was fired from his long-term job as a TV production director as a result of corporate restructuring. Always a voracious reader, he decided to see an opportunity where others might have seen a crisis and sat down to write a book, Killing Floor, the first in the Jack Reacher series. He has gone on from there to sell more than 100 million books worldwide. He was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2019 Queen’s Birthday Honours List for services to literature.

To learn more about Lee Child and his books, visit jackreacher.com

On Saturday morning during the conference, Lee Child will present a live Zoom session together with John Grisham and Scott Turow on

The Art of the Elegant Thriller.

They will delve deeply into what makes their books so captivating, the essential elements they strive for and where in their writing they have best achieved this.

Joëlle Delbourgo is President and Founder of Joëlle Delbourgo Associates Literary Agency. She represents a broad range of adult nonfiction and fiction.

Her authors include New York Times bestselling fiction writer Ben H. Winters, winner of both the Edgar Award and the Philip K. Dick Award; Jim Obergefell, named plaintiff in the Supreme Court marriage equality case (Obergefell v. Hodges), Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Debbie Cenziper and Dale Russakoff; Dr. Michele Borba, award-winning educator and parenting contributor to The Today Show; the late Dr. Susan Forward, memoirists Ariel Burger, Ashley Rhodes-Courter, and Israel Meir Lau (former Chief Rabbi of Israel); historians Philip Freeman and Elizabeth White; true crime writer James Renner; novelists Marilyn Simon Rothstein, Julie Valerie, Marj Charlier and Lindsey J. Palmer, among many others.

What Joelle would like to see more of right now: history and science (especially neuroscience) that tells a great story or is cutting edge, nonfiction and fiction with a strong voice or point of view, lifestyle books with an innovative twist, out of the box thinkers, diverse and own voices, literature in translation.

Prior to founding the agency, Delbourgo was a senior editorial executive at HarperCollins and Ballantine Books, a division of Random House for more than two decades. Among the authors she worked with are Ken Davis, Abraham Verghese, Lee Smith, Barbara Tuchman, Carl Sagan, Robert Massie, James P. McPherson, Jim Davis, Sophy Burnham, Delia Ephron and Margaret George. She began her editorial career at Bantam Books, where she discovered and launched the Choose Your Own Adventure series for kids, which sold millions of copies worldwide.

Joëlle is a member of AALA (Association of American Literary Agents), an industry organization that upholds ethical standards.

She holds a Master of the Arts in English and Comparative Literature with Honors from Columbia University, and a Bachelor of the Arts from Williams College, where she graduated Magna Cum Laude, Phi Beta Kappa with a double concentration in History and English Literature. Joëlle is as sought-after speaker, panelist, workshop leader and instructor at writing conferences. She has taught publishing and editing at Rutgers University to graduate students. She has lived on three continents, is fluent in French, and considers herself to be a citizen of the world. The proud mother of two, she is an ardent student of Latin and ballroom dance and a dedicated home baker.

Joëlle Delbourgo Associates Literary Agency is a boutique literary agency based in the greater New York City area. We represent a wide range of authors writing for the adult trade market, from creative nonfiction to expert-driven nonfiction, commercial fiction to literary fiction, as well as new adult, young adult and middle grade fiction and nonfiction. Founded in September 1999, the agency and its co-agents have negotiated over 1,000 contracts with publishers throughout the world, and for adaptation into other media, such as film and television and audiobooks.

As former editors who have worked a major publishing houses, we are creative, know the publishing world from both sides, and pride ourselves on helping our authors at every stage of the publishing process, from creation of submission material, to pitching and selling, negotiating strong deals, and extending the reach of our client’s work internationally and in multiple formats. We enjoy helping authors to build careers over multiple books. We have a wide range of contacts throughout the industry. Our philosophy is to build bridges and effective partnerships.

We look for both narrative and prescriptive nonfiction: “big think” books, groundbreaking research-based nonfiction, history and politics, psychology, parenting, business and economics, science, memoir, health and wellness, and true crime . We love to see smart practical books in crafts, cooking and gardening, supported by strong author platforms. Our fiction spans mainstream quality commercial women’s fiction to literary fiction, upscale mysteries, and and occasionally, romance and fantasy. We seek quality first and foremost, distinctive voices, and original points of view.

Learn more at delbourgo.com

Schedule a Pitch Session with Joëlle.

Schedule a Manuscript Critique with Joëlle.

Sally Wofford-Girand has worked with such luminaries as Salman Rushdie, Grace Paley, Kim Edwards, and Alice Hoffman as the foreign rights director at a boutique literary agency. Her particular areas of interest are: history, memoir, women’s issues, cultural studies, and, most of all, fiction that is both literary and gripping. Favorite authors include Cormac McCarthy, Kate Atkinson, Jennifer Egan, Elizabeth Strout, Anne Patchett, John Green, Jose Saramago, and Wallace Stegner. She is a hands-on agent with a passion for great storytelling. She loves the thrill of discovery in working with debut novelists. Sally is on the board of AAR and a board member of Writers Omi, an international writers colony in New York State.

Union Literary is a full-service boutique agency specializing in literary fiction, popular fiction, narrative non-fiction, memoir, social history, business and general big idea books, popular science, cookbooks and food writing. We excel at project development, hands-on editing and placing our projects with domestic and foreign publishers, film and television companies.

Authors include: novelists Alyson Richman (The Velvet Hours); Kim Barnes (In The Kingdom of Men), Vanessa Diffenbaugh (New York Times bestselling The Language of Flowers, published in 40 countries), Jardine Libaire (White Fur), Kaylie Jones (A Soldier’s Daughter Never Cries, adapted into a Merchant-Ivory film), Geoff Nicholson (Booker finalist), Jenny Offill (Dept. of Speculation), Kristen Roupenian (You Know You Want This); Ellen Sussman (national bestselling French Lessons); memoirists Kate Braestrup (New York Times bestselling Here If You Need Me, optioned by CBS), Conor Grennan (New York Times bestselling Little Princes, published in 12 countries), Ashley Judd (New York Times bestselling All That is Bitter and Sweet), Michael Frank (The Mighty Franks); scientist John Marzluff (national bestselling The Gifts of the Crow); young adult and middle grade authors Steven Arntson (forthcoming The Trap), Jenny Lee (Elvis and the Underdogs); cookbook authors Emily Elsen and Melissa Elsen (Pie: Four & Twenty Blackbirds), Maria Speck (Ancient Grains for Modern Meals, winner of multiple awards including IACP’s Julia Child Award); and the estates of Gracey Paley, Pamela Moore, James Jones and David Markson.

Learn more at unionliterary.com

Schedule a Pitch Session with Sally.

Schedule a Manuscript Critique with Sally.

Wendy Sherman has been in publishing more years than she cares to admit. She has held senior, executive positions at Simon & Schuster, Macmillan, and Henry Holt where she was Associate Publisher. During her time at these major publishing houses, she worked in the areas of subsidiary rights, marketing, sales, and editorial. She left to pursue her dream of becoming a literary agent and founded Wendy Sherman Associates Literary Management in 1999.

Wendy loves voice and story-driven fiction that hits that sweet spot between literary and mainstream. She has a passion for Southern voices, suspense with a well-developed protagonist, and has a weakness for family secrets, mother-daughter relationships, and realistic love stories.

She is also interested in non-fiction with a unique twist by authors with a strong, well-developed media platform. Areas of interest include memoir, narrative non-fiction, practical and prescriptive, self-help and popular psychology, parenting, lifestyle, pop-culture, health, wellness, and spirituality, and and just about anything to do with food or dogs.

Wendy is a member of the Association of American Literary Agents (AALA) and the Women’s Media Group.

Wendy Sherman Associates, Inc. is the home of award-winning writers and bestselling books. With a unique perspective on the publishing process, and an invaluable blend of experience in editorial, acquisitions, sales, marketing, and contract negotiations, we offer our clients a comprehensive strategy for navigating the publishing terrain. Our office is based in New York City, but we are a bi-coastal establishment with agents in San Francisco and Seattle. As a full service agency, we also partner with major film and television agents in Los Angeles.

With a long-standing tradition of attracting and identifying quality material and a strong knowledge of market trends, we have proven success discovering first time authors as well as managing the work of those with established careers. We pride ourselves on cultivating long-term relationships with clients as well as with publishers throughout the world.

Learn more at wsherman.com

Schedule a Pitch Session with Wendy.

Schedule a Manuscript Critique with Wendy.

Ayesha Pande founded APL in 2007. Before becoming an agent she held several editorial positions, including most recently as a senior editor at Farrar Straus and Giroux. She is on the board of Art Omi and the AALA (Association of American Literary Agents) where she founded the Committee on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion and helped launch the non-profit Literary Agents of Change. Her client roster includes Ibram X. Kendi, Patricia Engel, Danielle Evans, Matthew Salesses and Lisa Ko. While her interests are wide-ranging and eclectic, she works mostly with literary fiction, narrative nonfiction across a broad range of topics including history and cultural commentary, memoir and biography, and the occasional work of young adult fiction. She is drawn to distinctive voices with a compelling point of view and memorable characters. Ayesha’s greatest joy is in finding and launching new literary voices.

Ayesha Pande Literary is an acclaimed Harlem-based literary agency known for successfully launching award-winning, bestselling authors, scholars, and emerging writers.

WE LOVE TO WORK WITH WRITERS WHO DARE TO INNOVATE, TAKE RISKS, EXPRESS SOMETHING MEANINGFUL ABOUT OUR WORLD.

We bring conviction and passion to everything we do: from developing concepts and ideas to strategizing long-term career goals, selling foreign, film and other subsidiary rights, brainstorming marketing and publicity plans; and advocating for our authors.

We are especially passionate about discovering and nurturing talented new voices, and we work hard to procure and negotiate contracts and guide authors through the bewildering publication process. We work with clients on setting career goals; consult with them on creating an effective online media platform and advocate for their interests with the publishing companies. We believe good writing is everything and bring our extensive editorial experience to bear in editing and polishing clients’ work before submitting it to publishers. We provide every client with personal attention and because of this we limit the number of clients we take on. We pride ourselves on being transparent, communicative and ethical.

FOREIGN and SUBSIDIARY RIGHTS

We work with a group of highly experienced co-agents throughout the world who aggressively sell translation rights on our client’s behalf. We attend international book fairs in order to meet with foreign publishers and pitch our clients’ projects to them. We have close relationships with several film agents and have successfully placed film and television rights with high profile production companies and studios.

Learn more at pandeliterary.com

Schedule a Pitch Session with Ayesha.

Schedule a Manuscript Critique with Ayesha.

Chris Vogler

If you’ve been to the movies in the last 25 years, you have seen the influence of Hollywood story consultant and author Christopher Vogler. Inspired by Joseph Campbell’s The Hero with a Thousand Faces, Vogler transformed that famed analysis of mythic storytelling into a 12-stage narrative structure for screenwriters, based on ancient archetypes. It became the most impactful guide for screenwriting of the modern era and is the basis for the now-standard three act structure.

A staple in film classes the world over, Vogler’s influential guide, The Writers Journey: Mythic Structure for Writers, tracks the hero’s path from trials to triumph, a flexible template that has stood the test of time. “Stories are resilient and seem to be adapting to a new age and new realities with the help of writers who are always looking for unexpected ways to put together the elemental pieces,” Vogler says.

Vogler has worked for Disney, Fox and Warner Brothers and was instrumental in developing some of their most iconic films.

Christopher will be teaching the master class:
The Hero’s Journey in Fiction and Film

Jane Green is the author of eighteen New York Times Bestselling novels, and known as one of the world’s leading authors in women’s fiction, with over ten million books in print, and translations in over 25 languages.

Previous novels have included The Beach House, Second Chance, Jemima J, and Tempting Fate.

She joined the ABC News team to write their first enhanced digital book— about the history of Royal marriages, then joined ABC News as a live correspondent covering Prince William’s wedding to Kate Middleton.

A former journalist in the UK, she has had her own radio show on BBC Radio London, and is a regular contributor on radio and TV, including as well as regularly appearing on television shows including Good Morning America, The Martha Stewart show, and The Today Show.

Together with writing books and blogs, she contributes to various publications, both online and print, including anthologies and novellas, and features for The Huffington Post, The Sunday Times, Cosmopolitan and Self. She has taught at writers conferences, and does regular keynote speaking, and has a weekly column in The Lady magazine, England’s longest running weekly magazine.

A graduate of the French Culinary Institute in New York, Green is bringing out her first cookbook: Good Taste , with Berkley in October 2016.

She is a storyteller for The Moth radio hour on NPR, and lives in Westport, Connecticut with her husband and their blended family. When she is not writing, cooking, gardening, filling her house with friends and herding chickens, she is usually thanking the Lord for caffeine-filled energy drinks.

Learn more at janegreen.com

Jane will be teaching the master class
Lessons from Historical Fiction
with Priya Parmar:

Angie Kim is the debut author of the international bestseller and Edgar winner Miracle Creek, named a “Best Book of the Year” by Time, The Washington Post, Kirkus, and The Today Show, among others. Her novel also won the ITW Thriller Award, the Strand Critics’ Award, and the Pinckley Prize.

A Korean immigrant, former editor of the Harvard Law Review, and one of Variety Magazine’s inaugural “10 Storytellers to Watch,” Kim has written for Vogue, The New York Times Book Review, The Washington Post, Glamour, and numerous literary journals. She lives in Northern Virginia with her husband and three sons.

Learn more at angiekimbooks.com

Angie will be teaching the master class:
Story Architecture

“[T]hought-provoking journey of ideas disguised as a courtroom page-turner…Miracle Creek becomes a fascinating study of the malleability of truth in the courtroom. For the reader, learning the killer’s identity matters less than parsing the moral compromises each character makes to guard his or her own version of truth.”

―The New York Times Book Review

“A deeply moving story about parents and the lengths they will go for their children…Readers will be riveted by the book’s genre-bending structure and superb pace. Miracle Creek is a stunning debut about parents, children and the unwavering hope of a better life, even when all hope seems lost.”

―The Washington Post

“In her mesmerizing debut novel, Miracle Creek, Angie Kim takes readers into the courtroom for a story of lies and a trial to find the truth…She shows an enormous amount of empathy for her characters, infusing them with such intense humanity that I sat weeping for them in an airplane middle seat, between two strangers, for several minutes after I finished the book. With clear, assured prose and penetrating emotional intelligence, she takes us deep into their inner lives . . . The plotting is deliberate and detailed and marvelously done.”

―The Los Angeles Times

Adriana Trigiani

Beloved by millions of readers around the world for her “dazzling” novels, (USA Today) Adriana Trigiani is The New York Times bestselling author of twenty books in fiction and nonfiction. She has been published in 38 countries around the world. The New York Times calls her “a comedy writer with a heart of gold,” her books “tiramisu for the soul.” She wrote the blockbuster The Shoemaker’s Wife, the Big Stone Gap series, the Valentine trilogy and Lucia, Lucia. Trigiani’s themes of love and work, emphasis upon craftsmanship and family life have brought her legions of fans around the world. Their devotion has made Adriana one of “the reigning queens of women’s fiction” (USA Today).

Adriana’s latest novel, The Good Left Undone, was an instant New York Times best seller, Book of the Month pick and People’s Book of the Week. The book also garnered recognition from book clubs across the country – it was named a Read with Jenna Best Beach of All Time, a Katie Couric Media Must-Read Book of 2022, Bustle Magazine’s Most Anticipated Book of 2022, Goodreads Most Popular Historical Fiction of 2022, a Veranda Magazine Book Club Pick, an Emily Giffin Book Club Pick, a New York Journal of Books Book Club Pick and a LibraryReads Pick! The national book tour sold out crowds across the country, carrying the book to regional best seller lists (GLIBA, NEIBA, NAIBA, SIBA, MIBA, CALIBA) as well as national best seller lists: New York Times, USA Today and Publisher’s Weekly. Secure your own copy of the book from a local indie near you!

The House of Love (2021), Adriana’s first picture book for children with illustrations by Amy June Bates, incorporates elements from Adriana’s childhood in Appalachia, follows Mia Valentina Amore and her family as they come together to celebrate Valentine’s Day. The House of Love is available to order for young readers here.

Adriana was among the first creators on Bulletin, Facebook’s platform launched in 2021. Her newsletter “Adriana Spills the Ink,” covers all aspects of living with ideas gleaned from the world’s best authors and their books. Adriana provides the tips to help you find the tools to unleash the creativity in your own life. You can read the newsletter here.

Adriana is an award-winning playwright, television writer and producer, and filmmaker. She wrote and directed the film adaptation of her debut novel Big Stone Gap, shot entirely on location in her Virginia hometown with an all-star cast including: Ashley Judd, Patrick Wilson, Whoopi Goldberg, John Benjamin Hickey, Anthony LaPaglia, Jenna Elfman, Jane Krakowski, Judith Ivey, Mary Pat Gleason, Dagmara Dominczyk, Mary Testa, Paul Wilson, Chris Sarandon, Jasmine Guy, and introducing Erika Coleman and Bridget Gabbe, with music by John Leventhal, and songs performed by his lovely wife Rosanne Cash, the legendary Ralph Stanley, Papa Joe Smiddy and the Reedy Creek Boys, If Birds Could Fly and Michael Trigiani. Glorious local talent performed on the soundtrack and acted in the movie, sharing their gifts beyond the peaks of the Appalachian mountains.

Big Stone Gap opened the Virginia Film Festival on November 6th, 2014. Tickets for the 1000-seat house sold out in minutes, breaking a record for the festival. The film screened at the inaugural Bentonville Film Festival in May 2015 to three sold-out crowds; at the closing ceremony, Big Stone Gap took home the first award of the night for Best Ensemble. Big Stone Gap hit theaters nationwide on October 9th, 2015 and spent 11 weeks in theaters. The film was the #2 Romantic Comedy of 2015, and listed as a top-grossing women-directed film of that year. It is now available to own.

Adriana’s screen adaptation of her bestselling novel Very Valentine debuted on Lifetime television in June 2019. Produced by Larry Sanitsky, the film stars Jacqueline Bisset as Teodora Angelini and Kelen Coleman as Valentine Roncalli. Very Valentine launched Lifetime’s Book Club.

Adriana directed the feature film Then Came You, starring Craig Ferguson, Kathie Lee Gifford, Elizabeth Hurley, Phyllida Law and Ford Kiernan,filmed on location in Scotland. The film was released in October 2020, debuting as the #1 Comedy in America.

Adriana is the award-winning director of the 1996 documentary film, Queens of the Big Time. The documentary won the Audience Award at the Hamptons and Palm Springs International Film Festivals, and was featured at the Hong Kong and London International Film Festivals. Queens of the Big Time will soon be available on platforms for viewing.

Adriana’s novels have been honored at home and around the world. In the UK, Richard and Judy selected Lucia, Lucia as one of their first picks in 2005, and The Shoemaker’s Wife in 2012. In Ireland, Lucia, Lucia was long listed for the IMPAC award in 2005. Adriana won the Library of Virginia People’s Choice Award for Fiction in 2007 for Home to Big Stone Gap, and the RUSA Award from the American Library Association for Very Valentine in 2010 (click here to see the video of that hilarious evening). On April 7, 2016, Adriana was among one of seven honorees inducted into the Virginia Communications Hall of Fame by the Robertson School of Media & Culture at Virginia Commonwealth University.

Adriana’s non-fiction includes the instant New York Times bestseller Don’t Sing at the Table about the lives of her grandmothers, which was nominated for an Audi Award in the read by the author/memoir category. For fun in the kitchen, she co-authored Cooking with My Sisters with Mary Trigiani, with contributions from their sisters and mom. The book was featured at a New York Times culinary evening featuring Tyler Florence, Laurent Tourondel, and Rocco DiSpirito. Adriana relished her time as an ‘agony aunt’ when she wrote Ask Adri, a weekly advice column in The Irish Independent from 2007 – 2008.

Adriana enjoyed a fabulous run as a writer/producer in series television. She was mentored by the great Bill Persky and worked for some spectacular showrunners, including Janet Leahy, Matt Williams, Alan Zweibel and Susan Fales-Hill. She wrote 15 pilots for wonderful actors including Jasmine Guy, Raven Symone and Mario Cantone. She was a writer/producer for The Cosby Show and A Different World and executive producer and showrunner of CityKids, for ABC/Jim Henson Productions. She also wrote and executive-produced Growing Up Funny, a television special for Lifetime which garnered an Emmy nomination for Lily Tomlin. Adriana wrote the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade and a variety of television specials and series featuring great performers, including some of her all-time favorites: Madeline Kahn, Dolly Parton, Whoopi Goldberg, Laraine Newman, Marlo Thomas and Lily Tomlin, among others.

Adriana has made regular appearances on NBC’s Today Show for over 20 years, loving her moments with Kathie Lee and Hoda. Most recently, she discussed her latest novel Tony’s Wife. She appeared in Mary McDonough Murphy’s PBS documentary, Hey Boo, as well as a documentary about the work of Jane Austen. She has appeared on SiriusXM’s The Hoda Show with Hoda Kotb, WNYC’s The Leonard Lopate Show, NPR’s Diane Rehm Show and May Lily Lee’s Virginia Conversations. In 2015, she appeared in The Italian Americans for PBS, which features scenes from her award-winning documentary Queens of the Big Time. Adriana has been profiled by publications around the world, including The New York Times, Virginia Living, Publisher’s Weekly, and Writer’s Digest. Michael Patrick King tucked copies of her novels in scenes throughout the Sex and the City television series and movies. There’s a drinking game in South Bend, Indiana for the eagle-eyed viewers who spot the novels.

A sought-after speaker, Trigiani is as engaging on the stage as she is on the page. She regularly speaks to book clubs, classrooms, libraries, literary festivals, and conducts writing workshops with women’s groups across the country. In 2019, she spoke on the NYU SPS Media Talk panel along with Val Emmich and Harlan Coban, moderated by Pamela Paul of The New York Times, and the Virginia Festival of the Book with Douglas Brinkley, Lee Smith and Margot Lee Shetterly. She appeared at One Book, One Community Read events around the country, including Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and Bloomfield Township, Michigan. As a mistress of ceremonies, Adriana has hosted the prestigious Poets and Writers Gala in New York City, the Audio Book Awards during BEA and The Women’s Fund of East Tennessee Annual Women’s Luncheon, and serves as permanent host of the Library of Virginia Awards and Erma Bombeck’s AWB Annual Authors Luncheon.

She has received citations from The Sons of Italy, an honorary degree from Saint Mary’s College, two honorary degrees from the University of New Haven, and has given the commencement speech at University of Virginia at Wise, the University of New Haven and Emory & Henry College. Adriana has also been a guest speaker at New York University and The New School for Social Research in New York City. Adriana Skypes and speaks with book clubs, library groups and classrooms 2 to 3 times a week from home.

In 2019, the Elkhart Education Foundation honored Adriana with the dedication of the Adriana Trigiani Learning Commons at Hawthorne Elementary School in Elkhart, Indiana. Adriana is a proud board member of the National Organization of Italian American Women (NOIAW), and in 2021, Adriana was honored by the organization. She is a vested member of the Writers Guild of America, the Directors Guild of America and the Dramatists Guild of America. Adriana is honored to serve on the New York State Council on the Arts. She is a recipient of the Appalachian Heritage Writer’s Award, presented by The Shepherd University Foundation, The West Virginia Humanities Council, and The West Virginia Center for the Book. She received the 2019 Library of Virginia People’s Choice Award for Fiction for Tony’s Wife, and the 2007 Library of Virginia People’s Choice Award for Fiction for Big Stone Gap. Her novels have been selected for the book clubs at USA Today, People magazine and Target. She was a Pennie’s Pick at Costco, an honoree of Shepherd University’s Appalachian Author Series, as well as a selection for the all-community reads in Ohio, Illinois, Virginia, West Virginia and Tennessee.

In 2013, Adriana co-founded The Origin Project with Nancy Bolmeier Fisher, who serves as Executive Director of the program. The Origin Project is an in-school writing program that brings professional authors into the classroom to work with students on their creative writing skills – specifically, stories inspired by their own family history. The project culminates with a published anthology of student work at the end of the school year. Since The Origin Project’s launch in 2013, the program has expanded to include many more schools, now serving over 1,700 students grades 2-12 in the Appalachian mountains of Virginia.

Learn more at adrianatrigiani.com

Adriana will be teaching the master class:
Funny On the Page – Comedy Writing in Fiction

Read Adriana’s recent ‘By the Book’ piece in The New York Times!

“One of the reigning queens of women’s fiction.” — USA Today

“A comedy writer with a heart of gold.” — The New York Times

“Trigiani is a master of palpable and visual detail.” — The Washington Post

Billy Collins is the author of twelve collections of poetry including Whale Day, The Rain in Portugal, Aimless Love, Horoscopes for the Dead, Ballistics, The Trouble with Poetry, Nine Horses, Sailing Alone Around the Room, Questions About Angels, The Art of Drowning, and Picnic, Lightning. He is also the editor of Poetry 180: A Turning Back to Poetry, 180 More: Extraordinary Poems for Every Day, and Bright Wings: An Illustrated Anthology of Poems About Birds. A former Distinguished Professor at Lehman College of the City University of New York, Collins served as Poet Laureate of the United States from 2001 to 2003 and as New York State Poet from 2004 to 2006. In 2016 he was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Letters. He lives in Florida with his wife Suzannah.

Learn more at billycollinspoetry.com

Billy will be teaching the master class:
Guiding a Poem to an Ending

Jean Kwok is the award-winning, New York Times and international bestselling author of Searching for Sylvie Lee, Girl in Translation and Mambo in Chinatown. Her work has been published in twenty countries and taught in universities, colleges and high schools across the world. An instant New York Times bestseller, Searching for Sylvie Lee was selected for the Today Show Book Club and featured in The New York Times, Time, Newsweek, CNN, The New York Post, The Washington Post, O Magazine, People, Entertainment Weekly and more. Jean has been chosen for numerous honors including the American Library Association Alex Award, the Chinese American Librarians Association Best Book Award, an Orange New Writers title and the Sunday Times Short Story Award international shortlist. She has appeared on The Today Show and Good Morning America, and spoken at many schools and venues including Harvard University, Columbia University, Talks at Google and the Tucson Festival of Books. A television documentary was filmed about Jean and her work.

Jean immigrated from Hong Kong to Brooklyn when she was five and worked in a Chinatown clothing factory for much of her childhood while living in an unheated, roach-infested apartment. In between her undergraduate degree at Harvard and MFA in fiction at Columbia, she worked for three years as a professional ballroom dancer. Her beloved brother Kwan passed away in a tragic plane accident and was the inspiration behind Searching for Sylvie Lee. Jean is trilingual, fluent in Dutch, Chinese and English, and studied Latin for seven years. She lives in the Netherlands.

Learn more about jean at jeankwok.com

Jean will be teaching the master class:
Narrative Design | Keeping Readers Hooked

Patti Callahan Henry is a New York Times and USA Today best-selling author of sixteen novels and podcast host. She is the recipient of The Christy Award—A 2019 Winner “Book of the Year”; The Harper Lee Distinguished Writer of the Year for 2020 and the Alabama Library Association Book of the Year for 2019.

“With a belief that the power of story changes us and moves us, Patti’s historical fiction, SURVIVING SAVANNAH, WILD SWAN, and BECOMING MRS. LEWIS explores the untold stories of the past that affect us now.” (writing as Patti Callahan)

SURVIVING SAVANNAH, a new historical fiction, based on the true story of the Steamship Pulaski wreck, known as “The Titanic of the South” was released March 9, 2021.

The new podcast series, “The Untold Story Behind Surviving Savannah” is an in-depth exploration into the fascinating stories explored in her novel, Surviving Savannah. The podcast series (03/21) includes interviews with some of the foremost experts on the myth and lore of Savannah, shipwreck treasure hunting, the hidden stories in museums, and the astounding real-life family story that inspired the novel. Trailer and Episodes One-Six, available now.

WILD SWAN, a novella following the fiery life of one of history’s greatest heroines and the mother of modern nursing: Florence Nightingale by Patti Callahan was released December 2020, as an Audible Original performed by the award-winning narrator, Cynthia Erivo.

BECOMING MRS. LEWIS—The Improbable Love Story of Joy Davidman and C.S. Lewis was released in an expanded edition, March 2020. The author is also the host of the popular seven-part original “Behind the Scenes of Becoming Mrs. Lewis Podcast Series”—the podcast audiobook collection including bonus material was released in January 2020.

ONCE UPON A WARDROBEis another tenderly imagined and enchanting story that pulls back the curtain on the early life of C. S. Lewis from Callahan— October 19, 2021, and available now—published by Harper Collins’ new imprint —Harper Muse as their debut novel.

REUNION BEACH, Stories Inspired by Dorothea Benton Frank, a collaboration and tribute was released April 27, 2021. Patti joins a group of bestselling authors to present a moving anthology to pay tribute to the legendary NYT bestselling author and her literary legacy.

Patti Callahan is the co-host and co-creator of the popular weekly online Friends and Fiction live web show and podcast, featuring New York Times bestselling authors Mary Kay Andrews, Kristy Woodson Harvey, and Kristin Harmel. With endless stories and special guests, they are LIVE every Wednesday at 7 pm ET on the Friends and Fiction Facebook group page, their YouTube Channel, and Parade Magazine Facebook page. You can follow them on Instagram and, for weekly updates, subscribe to their newsletter.

In a recent essay series partnership with Parade Magazine, each Wednesday viewers get a new “life lesson” from one of the FF writers on Parade.com as well as a chance to discuss the themes later that evening on Facebook Live.

A full-time author, mother of three, and grandmother of two, she lives in Mountain Brook, Alabama with her husband, Pat Henry.

THE SECRET BOOK OF FLORA LEA: Her newest novel, The Secret Book of Flora Lea, is set outside Oxford in the hamlet of Binsey, and will be released on May 2nd, 2023 with Simon & Schuster Atria.

She’s spent countless hours, and yet not nearly enough hours, wondering and reading and talking about C. S. Lewis, Joy Davidman, and their life together.

Patti will teaching the master class From Inspiration to Publication: Creative Longevity in Memoir and Fiction with Adrienne Brodeur.

Learn more at
patticallahanhenry.com

Mary Kay Andrews is the New York Times bestselling author of 30 novels (including The Homewreckers; The Santa Suit; The Newcomer; Hello, Summer; Sunset Beach; The High Tide Club; The Weekenders; Beach Town; Save the Date; Ladies’ Night; Christmas Bliss; Spring Fever; Summer Rental; The Fixer Upper; Deep Dish; Blue Christmas; Savannah Breeze; Hissy Fit; Little Bitty Lies; and Savannah Blues), and one cookbook, The Beach House Cookbook.

A native of St. Petersburg, Florida, she earned a B.A. in journalism from The University of Georgia. After a 14-year career working as a reporter at newspapers including The Savannah Morning News, The Marietta Journal, and The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, where she spent the final ten years of her career, she left journalism in 1991 to write fiction.

Her first novel, Every Crooked Nanny, was published in 1992 by HarperCollins. She went on to write ten critically acclaimed mysteries under her real name, Kathy Hogan Trocheck. In 2002, she assumed the pen name Mary Kay Andrews with the publication of Savannah Blues. In 2006, Hissy Fit became her first New York Times bestseller, followed by fifteen more New York Times, USA Today and Publisher’s Weekly bestsellers. To date, her novels have been published in German, Italian, Polish, Slovenian, Hungarian, Dutch, Czech and Japanese.

She and her family divide their time between Atlanta and Tybee Island, GA, where they cook up new recipes in three restored beach homes, The Breeze Inn, Ebbtide, and Coquina Cottage—all named after fictional places in Mary Kay’s novels, and all available to rent through Tybee Vacation Rentals. In between cooking, spoiling her grandkids, and plotting her next novel, Mary Kay is an intrepid treasure hunter whose favorite pastime is junking and fixing up old houses.

Learn more at marykayandrews.com

Mary Kay will be teaching the master class:
Writing Modern Women’s Fiction

Story Summit at Kauai Writers Conference

We were thrilled when David Paul Kirkpatrick, former president of Paramount Pictures and Production President of both Walt Disney Studios and Touchstone Pictures, said he wanted to come to the Kauai Writers Conference and bring some of his screenwriting friends.

In his legendary career, he has overseen—to name just a few—the Indiana Jones and Star Trek franchises, and box office hits such as Top Gun, Ghost, and The Hunt for Red October. En route to becoming Paramount’s president, he was a story editor and helped develop such award-winning gems as Elephant Man, Ordinary People, and Terms of Endearment. At Disney, he oversaw Pretty Woman, The Little Mermaid, and Dead Poets Society, among many other hits.

Kirkpatrick started the Story Summit Writers School in 2020 along with long-time KWC faculty member Amy Ferris and author/teacher Debra Engle. The school aims to help emerging writers of both screenplays and books polish their craft and successfully get their words and their works out into the world—onto the screen or into publication.

David Kirkpatrick working on a scene with Sally Field and Kevin Kline in the comedy Soapdish

David will teach a four-day masterclass, Writing Scenes for the Screen.

Another Story Summit Writer’s School faculty member, Marta F. Kauffman, will teach a four-day Master Class on Writing for Television. She will be generously sharing stories and insights into creating and writing for television.

Marta is the co-creator, producer, writer and showrunner of both Friends and Grace and Frankie, two of the most successful series in the history of TV. Grace and Frankie is Netflix’s all-time longest running series. Among awards too numerous to list, Marta has won and been nominated multiple times for Golden Globe and Primetime Emmy Awards and is the winner of the Lifetime Achievement Award in Television by the Producers Guild of America.

black and white photo of Marta Kaufman on set of Grace and Frankie with Lily Tomlin and Jane Fonda

Marta Kauffman on set of Grace and Frankie with Lily Tomlin and Jane Fonda (Melissa Moseley / Netflix)

Amy Ferris and Linda Schreyer will be co-facilitating their popular Kauai Master Class: Writing/Right Your Life, The Art of Memoir.

Debra Engle will be joining the Kauai faculty as well. She is the bestselling author of The Only Little Prayer You Need: The Shortest Route to a Life of Joy, Abundance and Peace of Mind. It features a foreword by His Holiness, the Dalai Lama, and an endorsement by Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu. Debra will lead conference sessions on nonfiction writing, focusing particularly on writing about spirituality and self-development, and will be joined by bestselling author and Story Summit Writers School faculty member Alan Cohen.

Marta F Kauffman is an Emmy- and Golden Globe-winning television writer, producer, and showrunner behind the hit series Friends and Grace and Frankie. Kauffman got her big break alongside David Crane with their pilots Dream On (1990) and The Powers That Be (1992) before they co-created Friends. In 2015, Kauffman started her production company, Okay Goodnight, with industry veterans Robbie Tollin and Hannah KS Canter. Their first series, Grace and Frankie is Netflix’s longest-running original ever.

Marta Kauffman on set of Grace and Frankie with Lily Tomlin and Jane Fonda

Marta will be teaching the master class:
Writing for Series Comedy

Jim Burke is the President of Production at Focus Features. He won the 2019 Academy Award for best picture for producing Green Book, and was nominated for the best picture Oscar in 2012 for The Descendants.

Jim has a history of turning as-yet unpublished books into acclaimed films.

To learn more about Jim Burke, visit his IMDb.

David Paul Kirkpatrick

Most notably, David Kirkpatrick, was the President of Paramount Pictures and the Production President of Walt Disney Studios. He started as a screenwriter, selling his first script to Paramount at 16. He became story editor at Paramount at 25 where he managed thousands of screenplays. Over his long career, David has worked on over 200 motion pictures starting with ideas and seeing them through to successful production, marketing, and distribution. He has worked on such recognizable global franchises as Indiana Jones, and Star Trek. He has developed countless Academy Award winning movies including Ordinary People, Elephant Man, Witness, Terms of Endearment, and Forest Gump.

David Kirkpatrick working on a scene with Sally Field and Kevin Kline in the comedy Soapdish

David will be teaching the master class:
Writing Scenes for the Screen

Debra Landwehr Engle

Debra Engle is the author of five books, and she has contributed to several others. Her four books of nonfiction include The Only Little Prayer You Need: The Shortest Route to a Life of Joy, Abundance and Peace of Mind, which was translated into four languages and has been an international bestseller. It features a foreword by His Holiness the Dalai Lama and an endorsement by Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu. She is a two-time winner of the Nautilus Award, honoring better books for a better world.

A longtime teacher of A Course in Miracles, Debra has offered workshops and classes worldwide based on her books and the principles of ACIM. For 15 years, she co-created and presented an international women’s program of personal growth and spirituality.

She has worked in publishing her entire career, beginning as a newspaper copywriter and Better Homes and Gardens book editor, then starting a thriving freelance business. She’s written and edited hundreds of articles for such national publications as Better Homes and Gardens, Country Home, Country Gardens and other lifestyle magazines. She also has served as project manager on publications for Fortune 500 companies, sharpening her skills in crafting a story for any audience.

Debra holds an MFA in Creative Nonfiction from Goucher College in Baltimore. Now co-director of the Story Summit Writer’s School, she works with budding authors one-on-one, in small groups, and through retreats and online courses.

Spiritual Writing: Matters of the Heart and Soul
Talks by Debra Landwehr Engle and Alan Cohen

The interest in books with a spiritual message has surged in the past few years, giving more writers a chance to share and teach through memoir, self-help and inspiration. These stories encompass everything from Christianity to Buddhism to New Thought, and many defy classification, reflecting a uniquely personal spiritual path. The Spiritual Writing talks will address this booming and highly diverse market, with insights on crafting wisdom stories that elevate the author’s sense of purpose and also stand out from the crowd.

Alan Cohen, M.A., is the author of 30 popular inspirational books, including the best-selling A Course in Miracles Made Easy and The Dragon Doesn’t Live Here Anymore, the award-winning A Deep Breath of Life, and the classic Are You as Happy as Your Dog?

His books have been translated into 25 foreign languages. His work has been featured on Oprah.com and in USA Today, The Washington Post and 101 Top Experts. Alan’s radio program Get Real has been broadcast weekly on Hay House Radio, and his monthly column From the Heart is featured in magazines internationally.

Alan is a respected keynoter and seminar leader for professional meetings in the fields of personal growth, inspiration, holistic health, human relations, and achievement of work/life balance. He has served as Instructor of Individual and Group Dynamics at Montclair State College, stood on the faculty of Omega Institute for Holistic Studies, and is a professor at EnTheos Academy for Optimal Living. He is a featured presenter in the award-winning documentary Finding Joe, celebrating the teachings of visionary mythologist Joseph Campbell.

Alan brings a warm blend of wisdom, intimacy, humor, and vision to the path of personal, professional, and spiritual growth. He loves to extract lessons from the practical experiences of daily living, and find beauty in the seeming mundane.

Learn more about Alan at alancohen.com

Spiritual Writing: Matters of the Heart and Soul
Talks by Debra Landwehr Engle and Alan Cohen

The interest in books with a spiritual message has surged in the past few years, giving more writers a chance to share and teach through memoir, self-help and inspiration. These stories encompass everything from Christianity to Buddhism to New Thought, and many defy classification, reflecting a uniquely personal spiritual path. The Spiritual Writing talks will address this booming and highly diverse market, with insights on crafting wisdom stories that elevate the author’s sense of purpose and also stand out from the crowd.

Stuart Coleman is a writer, speaker and environmental advocate. He is the author of three books, including the award-winning biography Eddie Would Go. Coleman is the recipient of the Elliot Cades Award for Literature, the Excellence in Non-fiction Award from the Hawaii Book Publishers Association and several writing fellowships. He is the Co-Founder and Executive Director of an environmental nonprofit called WAI (www.WaiCleanWater.org) and lives in Honolulu with his wife and one-eyed dog.

Eddie Would Go tells the story of Eddie Aikau, the legendary Hawaiian surfer who rode some of the biggest waves in the world. As a lifeguard, he saved hundreds of lives on Oahu’s North Shore; and as a sailor, he sacrificed his life to save his fellow crew members when their voyaging canoe capsized during a storm in 1978. Though he disappeared at sea, Eddie went on to become an enduring cultural icon. After its release in 2002, Eddie Would Go became a best-seller in Hawaii and was later published in several international editions. For the 20th anniversary this year, St. Martin’s Press is releasing a new cover of the book, which explores the life and death of this Hawaiian hero.

To learn more about Stuart visit www.Stuart-Coleman.com.

Lauren Groff is the author of the novels The Monsters of Templeton, shortlisted for the Orange Prize for New Writers, Delicate Edible Birds, a collection of stories, and Arcadia, a New York Times Notable Book, winner of the Medici Book Club Prize, and finalist for the L.A. Times Book Award.

Her third novel, Fates and Furies, was a finalist for the National Book Award in Fiction, the National Book Critics Circle Award, and the Kirkus Award. It won the 2015 American Booksellers’ Association Indies’ Choice Award for Fiction, was a New York Times Notable book and Bestseller, Amazon.com’s #1 book of 2015, and on over two dozen best-of 2015 lists. It also received the 2016 American Bookseller Association’s Indies’ Choice Award for Adult Fiction and, in France, the Madame Figaro Grand Prix de l’Héroïne. Rights have been sold in thirty countries.

Her most recent collection of stories, Florida, was released in June 2018. It won the Story Prize, and was a finalist for the National Book Award, Kirkus Prize, and the Southern Book Prize.

Her work has appeared in journals including the New Yorker, the Atlantic Monthly, Harper’s, Tin House, One Story, and Ploughshares, and in the anthologies 100 Years of the Best American Short Stories, The Pushcart Prize: Best of the Small Presses, PEN/O. Henry Prize Stories, and five editions of the Best American Short Stories.

In 2017, she was named by Granta Magazine as one of the Best of Young American Novelists of her generation.

In 2018, she received a Guggenheim fellowship in Fiction and a Fellowship at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study.

She lives in Gainesville, Florida with her husband, two sons, and dog.

To learn more about Lauren
visit her website:
https://laurengroff.com

Meg Wolitzer is the New York Times bestselling author of The Interestings, The Uncoupling, The Ten-Year Nap, The Position, and The Wife. Her new novel, The Female Persuasion, was named to various Notable and Best Books of 2018 lists, including in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Atlantic, People, Glamour, and Kirkus Reviews. She was the guest editor of The Best American Short Stories 2017, and has also published books for young readers, including, most recently, To Night Owl From Dogfish, co-written with Holly Goldberg Sloan. Wolitzer has taught at the University of Iowa’s Writers’ Workshop, Skidmore College, Columbia University, and elsewhere, and is currently a faculty member in the Stony Brook Southampton MFA program, where she co-directs BookEnds, a one-year, non-credit intensive in the novel. A critically-acclaimed film based on her novel The Wife was released last year, starring Glenn Close and Jonathan Pryce.

Meg will be teaching the Turning Life Into Art Master Class along with Christina Baker Kline and Paula McLain.

To learn more about Meg
visit her website:
megwolitzer.com

Three films have been based on her work; This Is My Life, scripted and directed by Nora Ephron, the 2006 made-for-television movie, Surrender, Dorothy, and the 2017 drama The Wife, starring Glenn Close.

The Uncoupling was the subject of the first coast-to-coast virtual book club discussion, via Skype.

Reviews for The Female Persuasion:

“Uncannily timely, a prescient marriage of subject and moment that addresses a great question of the day.”
–The New York Times

“Ultra-readable. . . illuminates the oceanic complexity of growing up female and ambitious.”
–Vogue

“The perfect feminist blockbuster for our times.”
–Kirkus, starred review

Jeff Arch was teaching high school English when his spec script for Sleepless In Seattle sold in 1990. The screenplay was nominated for Academy, Writers Guild of America, and BAFTA (British Academy of Film and Television Arts) awards. Arch’s life has never been the same. He has written for many Hollywood studios and producers and directors, including Penny Marshall, Ron Howard and Barry Levinson. He has just released his first novel, Attachments, with widespread acclaim.

Arch has taught at seminars and conferences all over the US and abroad. He encourages aspiring writers not to mimic hits or write to trends, but to to mine their own life experiences for unique material. He and his wife live in Southern California and Maine, depending on the weather.

Jeff will be teaching the master class: The Way of Character

ATTACHMENTS (2021)

“Prior to reading this wonderful book, I had only known Jeff Arch’s body of work as a screenwriter, most famously for his Oscar-nominated Sleepless in Seattle. Now, with Attachments, Jeff brings his deep humanity, his unique and unmistakable voice, and his cinematic economy of style to this powerful story of love and betrayal and the possibility of forgiveness. With meticulous plotting and masterful language, he brings life and light to characters as real as they are unforgettable.”

―DAVID P. KIRKPATRICK, former production chief of Walt Disney Studios and president of Paramount Pictures

“There are plenty of novels about childhood friends and lovers, brought together in adulthood, only to learn explosive secrets about the others and themselves. But Attachments transcends them all . . . Letting each character tell his or her own tale, Arch has created people, not mere plot holders, and you’ll follow them eagerly as they move through love, loss, acceptance and forgiveness. There’s a deep humanity and compassion running throughout the story―you’ll care about his characters, flawed though they are, really care. I loved Attachments.”

―JANE HELLER, New York Times and USA Today bestselling author

SLEEPLESS IN SEATTLE

In 1989, Jeff Arch gave himself one year to write three screenplays. The second of those―a quirky romantic comedy where the two lovers don’t even meet until the very last page―sold almost immediately, and Sleepless in Seattle became a surprise mega-hit worldwide. For his screenplay, Jeff was nominated for an Oscar, as well as for Writers Guild and BAFTA awards, among others. His other credits include the Disney adventure film Iron Will, New Line’s romantic comedy Sealed With a Kiss, and the independent comedy Dave Barry’s Complete Guide to Guys. His script for Saving Milly, based on Mort Kondracke’s searing memoir, earned the 2005 Humanitas Nomination, an honor Jeff treasures. Jeff is a father, stepfather, father-in-law, and grandfather. Attachments is Jeff’s first novel.

“Sleepless in Seattle,” a real charmer, is a romantic comedy about an ultimate long-distance relationship. Emphasize “romantic.” Emphasize “comedy.” It delivers both.”

— Michael Wilmington Los Angeles Times.

Scott Turow is the author of many bestselling works of fiction, including The Last Trial, Testimony, Identical, Innocent, Presumed Innocent, and The Burden of Proof, and two nonfiction books, including One L, about his experience as a law student. It has remained a bestseller among law students for decades. Turow continues to practice law on a pro bono basis for cases of strong social importance. His books have been translated into more than forty languages, sold more than thirty million copies worldwide, and have been adapted into movies and television projects.

To learn more about Scott Turow and his books, visit www.scottturow.com

On Saturday morning during the conference, Scott Turow will present a live Zoom session together with John Grisham and Lee Child on

The Art of the Elegant Thriller.

They will delve deeply into what makes their books so captivating, the essential elements they strive for and where in their writing they have best achieved this.

Téa Obreht was born in Belgrade in the former Yugoslavia in 1985 and has lived in the United States since the age of twelve. Her debut novel The Tiger’s Wife won the 2011 Orange Prize for Fiction and was a 2011 National Book Award Finalist.

Her writing has been published in The New Yorker, The Atlantic, Harper’s, Vogue, Esquire and The Guardian, and has been anthologized in The Best American Short Stories and The Best American Nonrequired Reading. She has been named by The New Yorker as one of the twenty best American fiction writers under forty and included in the National Book Foundation’s list of 5 Under 35. Téa Obreht lives in New York.

To learn more about Téa visit her website www.teaobreht.com

In a Balkan country mending from war, Natalia, a young doctor, is compelled to unravel the mysterious circumstances surrounding her beloved grandfather’s recent death. Searching for clues, she turns to his worn copy of The Jungle Book and the stories he told her of his encounters over the years with “the deathless man”. But most extraordinary of all is the story her grandfather never told her–the legend of the tiger’s wife.

NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR

by The Wall Street Journal; O: The Oprah Magazine; The Economist; Vogue; Slate; Chicago Tribune; The Seattle Times; Dayton Daily News; Publishers Weekly; Alan Cheuse, NPR’s “All Things Considered”

SELECTED ONE OF THE TOP 10 BOOKS OF THE YEAR

by Michiko Kakutani, “The New York Times”; Entertainment Weekly; The Christian Science Monitor; The Kansas City Star Library Journal

Winner of the 2011 Orange Prize for Fiction

New York Times Bestseller

2011 National Book Award Finalist

2012 Indies Choice Adult Debut Book of the Year

Christina Baker Kline

It’s one thing to write accurately about real people and real events of the past. It’s another thing to pull a character from one’s imagination. Christina Baker Kline has shown with her best-selling books A Piece of the World (2017) and Orphan Train (2013) that she can do both at the same time.

Christina Olson, the subject of Andrew Wyeth’s best-known painting, Christina’s World, rented a studio to the artist, and was his friend and confidant for 30 years. Kline breathes life into Olson by blending deep historical research, her own knowledge of Maine, and even aspects of her own grandmother, also born in 1893.

Kline worked a similar magic in Orphan Train, which shed light on the 1854-1929 practice of relocating orphaned children from East Coast slums to the rural Midwest – where some were integrated into loving families and others harshly treated as indentured servants.

Orphan Train spent more than two years on the New York Times bestseller list, including five weeks at No. 1, has 3.5 million copies in print, and is under consideration for a movie.

Kline enraptured a capacity crowd at the 2018 Kauai Writers Festival leading a class with Alice Hoffman and Kristin Hannah. Her class for 2019 will be announced soon.

In addition to five other novels – including Bird in Hand, Desire Lines and Sweet Water – Kline has written or edited five works of nonfiction on the topics of parenting, grief, and women’s studies. She has taught at Yale, New York University, and the University of Virginia, and served as Writer-in-Residence at Fordham University. She lives with her husband and sons in New Jersey and Maine.

Christina will be teaching the master class Turning Life Into Art along with Paula McLain and Meg Wolitzer.

Learn more about Christina at www.christinabakerkline.com

Mary Roach specializes in popular science and humor. As of 2016, she has published seven books,: Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers (2003), Spook: Science Tackles the Afterlife (2005) (published in some markets as Six Feet Over: Adventures in the Afterlife), Bonk: The Curious Coupling of Science and Sex (2008), Packing for Mars: The Curious Science of Life in the Void (2010), My Planet: Finding Humor in the Oddest Places, Gulp: Adventures on the Alimentary Canal (2013), and Grunt: The Curious Science of Humans at War

Roach is noted for her curiosity and humor in addition to her research. Her many humor-laced articles in various publications over the decades include her monthly humor column, “My Planet”, in Reader’s Digest. Although Roach writes primarily about science, she never intended to make it her career. Roach stated in an interview with TheVerge.com, when asked what exactly got her hooked on writing about science,

“To be honest, it turned out that science stories were always, consistently, the most interesting stories I was assigned to cover. I didn’t plan it like this, and I don’t have a formal background in science, or any education in science journalism. Actually I have a bachelor’s degree in psychology.”

TV and radio shows have repeatedly asked Roach to appear as a guest so they could hear her opinions. She has appeared on programs including Coast to Coast AM, The Daily Show, and The Colbert Report. Roach has had monthly columns in Reader’s Digest (“My Planet”) and Sports Illustrated for Women (“The Slightly Wider World of Sports”).Besides being a best-selling author, Roach is involved in other projects. Roach reviews books for The New York Times, and was the guest editor of the Best American Science and Nature Writing 2011 edition. She also serves as a member of the Mars Institute’s Advisory Board, as an ambassador for Mars One and was recently asked to join the Usage Panel of the American Heritage Dictionary.

To learn more about Mary, visit her website at maryroach.net

Luis Alberto Urrea

Hailed by NPR as a “literary badass” and a “master storyteller with a rock and roll heart,” Luis Alberto Urrea is a prolific and acclaimed writer who uses his dual-culture life experiences to explore greater themes of love, loss and triumph.

A 2005 Pulitzer Prize finalist for nonfiction and member of the Latino Literature Hall of Fame, Urrea is the critically acclaimed and best-selling author of 17 books, winning numerous awards for his poetry, fiction and essays. Born in Tijuana to a Mexican father and American mother, Urrea is most recognized as a border writer, though he says, “I am more interested in bridges, not borders.”

His newest book, The House of Broken Angels, is a novel of an American family, which happens to be from Mexico. Angel de la Cruz knows this is his last birthday and he wants to gather his progeny for a final fiesta. The novel will be released in March 2018.

Last year, Urrea won an American Academy of Arts and Letters Fiction award and his collection of short stories, The Water Museum, was a finalist for the 2016 PEN-Faulkner Award and was named a best book of the year by The Washington Post and Kirkus Reviews, among others. Into the Beautiful North, his 2009 a novel, is a Big Read selection by the National Endowment of the Arts and has been chosen by more than 50 different cities and colleges as a community read. The Devil’s Highway, Urrea’s 2004 non-fiction account of a group of Mexican immigrants lost in the Arizona desert, won the Lannan Literary Award and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and the Pacific Rim Kiriyama Prize. The Hummingbird’s Daughter, his 2005 historical novel, tells the story of Urrea’s great-aunt Teresa Urrea, sometimes known as the Saint of Cabora and the Mexican Joan of Arc. The book, which involved 20 years of research and writing, won the Kiriyama Prize in fiction and, along with The Devil’s Highway, was named a best book of the year by many publications.

In all, more than 100 cities and colleges have chosen Into the Beautiful North, The Devil’s Highway or The Hummingbird’s Daughter (or another Urrea book) for a community read.

Urrea has also won an Edgar award from the Mystery Writers of America for best short story (2009, “Amapola” in Phoenix Noir and featured in The Water Museum). Into the Beautiful North earned a citation of excellent from the American Library Association Rainbow’s Project. Urrea’s first book, Across the Wire, was named a New York Times Notable Book and won the Christopher Award. Urrea also won a 1999 American Book Award for his memoir, Nobody’s Son: Notes from an American Life and in 2000, he was voted into the Latino Literature Hall of Fame following the publication of Vatos. His book of short stories, Six Kinds of Sky, was named the 2002 small-press Book of the Year in fiction by the editors of ForeWord magazine. He has also won a Western States Book Award in poetry for The Fever of Being and was in the 1996 Best American Poetry collection. Urrea’s other titles include By the Lake of Sleeping Children, In Search of Snow, Ghost Sickness and Wandering Time.

Luis will be teaching the master class Writing with Joy.

To learn more about Luis,
visit his website at:
luisurrea.com

Adrienne Brodeur Adrienne Brodeur is the author of the novel, Little Monsters, and memoir, Wild Game: My Mother, Her Lover and Me, which was described by The New York Times Book Review as: “Exquisite and harrowing. . . . The book is so gorgeously written and deeply insightful, and with a line of narrative tension that never slacks, from the first page to the last, that it’s one you’ll likely read in a single, delicious sitting.”

Published in October 2019 by HMH Books, Wild Game’s film rights were bought by Chernin Entertainment and is in development as a Netflix film with Nick Hornby attached to adapt and Deniz Gamze Ergüven, the director of Mustang, attached to direct.

Adrienne has spent the past two decades of her professional life in the literary world, discovering voices, cultivating talent, and working to amplify underrepresented writers. Her publishing career began with founding the fiction magazine, Zoetrope: All-Story, with filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola, where she served as editor in chief from 1996-2002. The magazine has won the prestigious National Magazine Award for best fiction four times. In 2005, she became an editor at Harcourt (later, HMH Books), where she acquired and edited literary fiction and memoir. Adrienne left publishing in 2013 to become Creative Director — and later Executive Director — of Aspen Words, a literary arts nonprofit and program of the Aspen Institute.

Adrienne will teaching the master class From Inspiration to Publication: Creative Longevity in Memoir and Fiction with Patti Callahan Henry.

To learn more about Adrienne,
visit her website at:
www.adriennebrodeur.com

Amy Ferris is an author, screenwriter, editor and playwright. Her memoir, Marrying George Clooney: Confessions From A Midlife Crisis debuted theatrically (Off-Broadway) in 2012. Ruth Pennebaker of The New York Times called her memoir “poignant, free-wheeling, cranky and funny.” Amy edited the anthology, SHADES OF BLUE, Writers on Depression, Suicide and Feeling Blue (Seal Press), co-edited the anthology DANCING AT THE SHAME PROM (Seal Press), and has contributed to numerous anthologies including He Said What? The Drinking Diaries, Exit Laughing, Hillary Clinton: Love Her Love Her Not, and The Buddha Next Door. Amy has written for both film and TV. Her screenplays include Mr. Wonderful (Directed by Anthony Minghella) and Funny Valentines (Directed by Julie Dash). Her YA novel, a greater goode (yes, all lowercase) was published by Houghton Mifflin. In 2018 Amy was awarded and named one of 21 Leaders for the 21st Century by Women’s eNews. She is currently co-authoring a book for HarperCollins.

To learn more about Amy visit her website marryinggeorgeclooney.com

Amy will co-facilitate Marta F. Kauffman’s master class: Writing for Series Comedy

Dr. Charles Johnson, University of Washington (Seattle) professor emeritus and the author of 23 books, is a novelist, philosopher, essayist, literary scholar, short-story writer, cartoonist and illustrator, an author of children’s literature, and a screen-and-teleplay writer.

A MacArthur fellow, Johnson has received a 2002 American Academy of Arts and Letters Award for Literature, a 1990 National Book Award for his novel Middle Passage, a 1985 Writers Guild award for his PBS teleplay “Booker“, the 2016 W.E.B. Du Bois Award at the National Black Writers Conference, and many other awards.

The Charles Johnson Society at the American Literature Association was founded in 2003. In 2020, Lifeline Theater in Chicago will debut its play adaptation of Middle Passage, titled “Rutherford’s Travels.” Dr. Johnson’s most recent publications are The Way of the Writer: Reflections on the Art and Craft of Storytelling, and his fourth short story collection, Night Hawks.

Charles will teach the master class The Way of the Writer.

Learn more about Charles here.

Nicholas Delbanco, making his fourth appearance at the KWF, has had a storied career as a writer, editor, teacher and literary judge. He has written thirty-one books of fiction and non-fiction (plus essays, short stories and reviews). He founded and led Bennington College’s writing program and is Robert Frost Distinguished University Professor of English Language and Literature at the University of Michigan, where he headed its renowned MFA and Hopwood Awards programs.

Delbanco has chaired the Fiction Panel for the National Book Awards, and served as judge for the Pulitzer Prize and the PEN/Faulkner award in fiction. He wrote the well-loved books on the craft of writing, The Sincerest Form: Writing Fiction by Imitation, and, with Alan Cheuse, the college text Literature, Craft and Voice.

Author Valerie Laken wrote of Delbanco’s role as a mentor: “He’s made a career of bringing together, supporting, and celebrating writers, and in doing that he made them all believe—not just in themselves, but in the value of literature itself.”

About his recent work The Count of Concord , Russell Banks wrote that Delbanco “brought his entire array of amazing gifts into play and has written a wonderfully sad, funny, bawdy, and intellectually adventurous novel.”

In the introduction to his non-fiction work about older artists, Lastingness: The Art of Old Age (2011), Delbanco wrote:

“This book is about tribal elders in the world of art. What interests me is lastingness: how it may be attained. For obvious reasons, this has become a personal matter; I published my first novel in 1966 and very much hope to continue.”

To learn more about Nicholas visit his website www.nicholasdelbanco.com

Nicholas Delbanco will teach the master class Revision and Improvement.

Helen Simonson’s bestselling first novel, Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand, has been published in 20 countries and translated into 18 languages. Helen has been awarded the 2010/11 Waverton Good Read Award, the Melissa Nathan Award for Comedy Romance, and an honorable mention for the 2011 PEN/Hemingway award for debut fiction. Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand carries within its deceptively charming pages a fully realized morality tale, a study of modern manners vs. well worn tradition, racial and cultural issues, religious tolerance, and the power of love to overcome all obstacles.

In her latest novel, The Summer Before the War, Helen Simonson returns with a breathtaking historical novel of love on the eve of World War I that reaches far beyond the small English town in which it is set.

“So vividly drawn it fairly vibrates…nothing short of a treasure.”

— Paula McClain, The Paris Wife and Circling The Sun

Helen is an Englishwoman who spent her early years in a tiny village in East Sussex.

She lives in New York with her husband and her two sons.

To learn more about Helen
visit her website:
www.helensimonson.com

Amanda Eyre Ward is the author of Sleep Toward Heaven, How to be Lost, Forgive Me, Close Your Eyes, The Same Sky, and the short story collection Love Stories in this Town. Her work has been optioned for film and television and published in fifteen countries.

The Same Sky is a beautiful and heartrending novel about motherhood, resilience, and faith. Amanda spent a year visiting shelters in Texas and California, meeting immigrant children and hearing their stories. The Same Sky is a ripped-from-the-headlines story of two families on both sides of the American border.

Her latest novel, The Jetsetters has received rave reviews.

“Treat yourself to The Jetsetters and let Amanda Eyre Ward’s wit, poignancy, and insight take you away. You deserve it. . . . The funniest novel that ever broke your heart.”

— Andrew Sean Greer

New York Times bestselling and Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Less

Amanda’s work has garnered many accolades, including the Violet Crown Book Award (Sleep Toward Heaven), a Target Bookmarked Pick (How to Be Lost and The Same Sky), and a Kirkus Best Book Pick (Close Your Eyes).

After spending time in Maine, Cape Cod and New Orleans, Amanda and her family settled in Texas, where she currently lives.

Amanda will be teaching the master class

Identifying & Overcoming Challenges In Writing Fiction

with Meg Wolitzer.

To learn more about Amanda
visit her website:
www.amandaward.com

Elena Delbanco recently retired after teaching for twenty-seven years at the University of Michigan’s Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy. Before moving to Ann Arbor, she worked at Bennington College in Vermont, where she and her husband, the writer Nicholas Delbanco, together with the late John Gardner, founded the Bennington Writing Workshops. Delbanco has long been engaged in the world of classical music. Her father was the renowned cellist Bernard Greenhouse (of the Beaux Arts Trio), who owned the Countess of Stainlein ex-Paganini Stradivarius violoncello of 1707. The imagined fate of that instrument, upon her father’s death, inspired The Silver Swan, her first novel.

Despite spending much of her life in the company of authors, Delbanco came late to writing. This has given her perspective on beginning to write at this stage of life. The story of her conception of The Silver Swan and seeing it through rounds of edits, publication, and finding critical acclaim inspired many attendees of the 2016 Kauai Writers Conference. We are pleased to have her back.

Paula McLain is the author of the New York Times bestselling novels, When the Stars Go Dark, The Paris Wife, Circling the Sun, and Love and Ruin.

She was born in Fresno, California in 1965. After being abandoned by both parents, she and her two sisters became wards of the California Court System, moving in and out of various foster homes for the next fourteen years. When she aged out of the system, she supported herself by working as a nurses aid in a convalescent hospital, a pizza delivery girl, an auto-plant worker, a cocktail waitress–before discovering she could (and very much wanted to) write. She received her MFA in poetry from the University of Michigan in 1996.

She is the author of The Paris Wife, a New York Times and international bestseller, which has been published in thirty-four languages. The recipient of fellowships from Yaddo, The MacDowell Colony, the Cleveland Arts Prize, the Ohio Arts Council and the National Endowment for the Arts, she is also the author of two collections of poetry; a memoir, Like Family, Growing up in Other People’s Houses; and a first novel, A Ticket to Ride. She lives with her family in Cleveland.

“[Paula] McLain has brought Hadley to life in a novel that begins in a rush of early love. . . . A moving portrait of a woman slighted by history, a woman whose . . . story needed to be told.”

—THE BOSTON GLOBE

“The Paris Wife creates the kind of out-of-body reading experience that dedicated book lovers yearn for, nearly as good as reading Hemingway for the first time—and it doesn’t get much better than that.”

—MINNEAPOLIS STAR TRIBUNE

“Exquisitely evocative . . . This absorbing, illuminating book gives us an intimate view of a sympathetic and perceptive woman, the striving writer she married, the glittering and wounding Paris circle they were part of. . . . McLain reinvents the story of Hadley and Ernest’s romance with the lucid grace of a practiced poet.”

—THE SEATTLE TIMES

Paula will be teaching the Turning Life Into Art Master Class along with Christina Baker Kline and Meg Wolitzer.

To learn more about Paula
visit her website:
www.paulamclain.com

Laura Lentz is a master writing teacher, author and developmental editor. She has taught themed creative writing workshops for over a decade to artists all over the world in intimate online groups and on Kauai’s north shore.

She is the author of Story-Quest, The Writer, the Hero, the Journey. Story-Quest is workbook for writers to guide them through the twelve stages of the Hero’s Journey by offering sequential writing prompts and literary examples for each stage of the hero’s journey out of best selling memoirs and poetry.

Laura helps writers expand their body of work by offering challenging and thought-provoking exercises inspired by poetry, science, music and excerpts from literature. Intimate groups of experienced writers from all over the world gather in small online groups for live, engaging workshops that are announced privately through her mailing list at www.literatiacademy.com.

Laura is also co-founder of Literati Academy, a community and school to support, encourage and assist writers in all creative endeavors. Laura is known for her Sex on the Page writing workshop, Ancestors and Epigenetics and her annual Poetry Room, which teaches writers how to use poetic form in all writing.

Laura is also the founder of the bi-annual Speak, Kauai spoken word performances on Hawaii that showcase writers from all over the world to sold out audiences, live streams and standing ovations.

To learn more about Laura, see her story on literati.academy or contact her at Laurawriter@me.com.

Dale Launer is the writer of some of the funniest movies ever made: My Cousin Vinny with Joe Pesci and Marissa Tomei, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels with Steve Martin and Michael Caine, and Ruthless People with Danny DeVito and Bette Midler. He also produced My Cousin Vinny and Dirty Rotten Scoundrels.

In May 2007, his film Tom’s Nu Heaven, which he produced, wrote and directed, won Best Picture at the Monaco Film Festival.

This twentieth anniversary tribute to My Cousin Vinny delves into its enduring role in film culture. Upon its release, New York Times film critic Vincent Canby noted:

“The film has a secure and sophisticated sense of what makes farce so delicious, which may not be surprising, since its credentials are about as impeccable as you can find in the peccable atmosphere of Hollywood.”

— Vincent Canby

Dale will be teaching a master class on Screenwriting: What works, what doesn’t, and why.

To learn more about Dale visit:
dalelauner.com

Interviews:

Writer Unboxed

Abnormal Use

Screencraft

Joshua Mohr is the author of the memoirs Model Citizen (2021) and Sirens (2017), as well as five novels including Damascus, which The New York Times called “Beat-poet cool.” He’s also written Fight Song and Some Things that Meant the World to Me, one of O Magazine’s Top 10 reads of 2009 and a San Francisco Chronicle best-seller, as well as Termite Parade, an Editors’ Choice in The New York Times. His novel All This Life won the Northern California Book Award. He is the founder of Decant Editorial.

Listen to Josh read an excerpt from Model Citizen over at Poets & Writers.

To learn more about Joshua visit his website www.joshuamohr.net

Joshua Mohr will be teaching the master class Narrative Stockholm Syndrome.

Priya Parmar’s novel, Vanessa and Her Sister was recently chosen as a New York Times Book Review ‘Editor’s Choice’ selection, an Entertainment Weekly ‘Must List’ pick, a People Magazine ‘Book of the Week’, and as an editor’s pick for: O Magazine, Oprah.com, Vanity Fair, Elle Magazine, New York Magazine, Christian Science Monitor, US Weekly and USA Today and Priya was chosen for the Barnes and Noble ‘Discover Great New Writers’ 2015 program.

Educated at Mount Holyoke College, The University of Oxford and The University of Edinburgh, she is the author of one previous novel, Exit the Actress. Priya divides her time between Kauai and London.

Priya is also the co-author of the wildly successful musical Sylvia, which debuted last year at London’s Old Vic theater.

To learn more about Priya, visit mirandasnotebook.com

Priya will be teaching the master class
Lessons from Historical Fiction
with Jane Green.

Sam Horn is the CEO of the Intrigue Agency. Her 3 TEDx talks and 9 books – including Tongue Fu!, POP!, Wash Post bestseller Got Your Attention, and SOMEDAY is Not a Day in the Week have been featured in New York Times, Forbes, Fast Company, Publishers Weekly, on NPR.

Her speaking clients include Oracle, Intel, Cisco, Accenture, Fidelity, Nationwide, Ernst Young. She’s been hired by Richard Branson’s New Now Leaders, TED Fellows, SXSW and NASA to coach their executives and project managers on media relations and public speaking.

Sam was Pitch Coach for Springboard Enterprises, which has helped female entrepreneurs generate $26 billion in funding/valuation, and was Exec.Director of Maui Writers Conference (which Writers Digest called “The best writers conference in the world”) for 17 years.

To learn more about Sam, visit her website at samhorn.com

Sam will be teaching the master class:
Promoting & Marketing your Book

Richard Russo is the author of seven novels, a memoir, and one short story collection. His fifth book, Empire Falls, won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 2002 and was later adapted for television by HBO based on Russo’s teleplay, earning him an Emmy nomination.

He also wrote the novel, Nobody’s Fool, which was adapted into a critically acclaimed film featuring Paul Newman. Known for his insightful, often humorous depictions of gritty northeastern towns and the characters that inhabit them, Russo has said that he wants,

“that which is hilarious and that which is heartbreaking to occupy the same territory in books,” because he thinks, “they very often occupy the same territory in life, much as we try to separate them.”

In 2016 he was given the Indie Champion Award by the American Booksellers Association; and in 2017 he received France’s Grand Prix de Littérature Américaine He taught English at Colby College for many years and lives with his wife in Maine.

Richard will be teaching the master class Beginning a Novel.

learn more about Richard here.

Linda Schreyer is an award-winning television writer. She has mentored countless writers to completion of their books, taught classes since 1995 and currently leads Slipper Camp – a popular structured online writing course, and conducted large writing workshops for organizations. Her books include, From Cowboy to Mogul to Monster, a biography of producer Mark Damon. Tears and Tequila (with Jo-Ann Lautman) is her first novel. You can find more about Linda at at her IMDB profile.

Linda will be teaching the memoir master class The Power of Words: Writing/Righting Our Lives with Amy Ferris.

Elizabeth Stark is the host of Story Makers Podcast, and author of the novel Shy Girl (FSG, Seal Press), finalist for the Ferro-Grumely and Lambda Literary Awards. A feature film she produced, Lost in the Middle, won Best Feature at the 2019 Broad Humor Film Festival and was a Festival Favorite at Cinema Diverse in Palm Springs. She co-directed and co-wrote several films, including FtF: Female to Femme, a creative documentary and Little Mutinies, a short (both distributed by Frameline). She earned an M.F.A. from Columbia University in Creative Writing and has taught at the Pratt Institute, UCSC, St. Mary’s, where she was the visiting distinguished writer, and elsewhere. She currently co-directs and teaches at Book Writing World and Sonoma County Writers Camp.

Learn more about Elizabeth at elizabethstark.com

Elizabeth will be teaching the master class Scene Making: The Essence of Storytelling with Ellen Sussman.

Ellen Sussman is the author of four national bestselling novels: A Wedding in Provence, The Paradise Guest House, French Lessons and On a Night Like This. All four books have been translated into many languages and French Lessons has been optioned by Unique Features to be made into a movie. Ellen is also the editor of two critically acclaimed anthologies, Dirty Words: A Literary Encyclopedia Of Sex and Bad Girls: 26 Writers Misbehave.

She was named a San Francisco Library Laureate in 2004 and in 2009. Ellen has been awarded fellowships from The Hawthordnen International Retreat, The Sewanee Writers Conference, The Napoule Art Foundation, Hedgebrook, Brush Creek, Ledig House, Ucross, Ragdale Foundation, Writers at Work, Wesleyan Writers Conference and Virginia Center for the Creative Arts. She has taught at Pepperdine, UCLA and Rutgers University. Ellen now teaches through Stanford Continuing Studies and in private classes out of her home. She has two daughters and lives with her husband in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Ellen is the co-founder and co-director, with Elizabeth Stark, of Sonoma County Writers Camp.

Ellen will be teaching the master class Scene Making: The Essence of Storytelling with Elizabeth Stark.

www.sonomawriterscamp.com

Learn more about Ellen at

www.ellensussman.com

and

Dana Newman is an LA-based independent literary agent representing authors of practical and narrative non-fiction in the areas of memoir, biography, business, popular culture, current affairs, lifestyle and wellness (health, mind/body/spirit and sports/fitness), and on the fiction side she focuses on literary fiction and women’s upmarket fiction. She’s always on the lookout for compelling voices, ideas and stories, and is a passionate believer in the power of books to connect and transform us.

Dana is also an attorney, focusing on publishing law and contracts. She’s a member of the California State Bar and the Association of Authors’ Representatives, and holds a B.A. in Comparative Literature from UC Berkeley, and a J.D. from the University of San Francisco. Before founding her literary agency she worked as in-house counsel in the entertainment industry.

More information about her agency is available at dananewman.com.

Schedule a Pitch Session with Dana.

Schedule a Manuscript Critique with Dana.

Roger Jellinek started his publishing career at Random House, and went on to be deputy editor of the New York Times Book Review; editor in chief of Times Books; a science newsletter editor with Columbia University; a map publisher in Honolulu; editorial director of a metaphysical publishing house on Maui; and since 2006 Executive Director of the annual Hawai‘i Book & Music Festival. With his wife Eden Lee Murray he founded Jellinek & Murray Literary Agency in Honolulu in 1995, and in addition to taking on occasional editorial projects he represents an eclectic list of literary fiction, and general nonfiction.

Schedule a Pitch Session with Roger.

Schedule a Manuscript Critique with Roger.

Vicky Bijur started her agency in 1988 after working at Oxford University Press and with the Charlotte Sheedy Literary Agency. She represents fiction and non-fiction.

Books she represents have appeared on the New York Times Bestseller List, in the New York Times Notable Books of the Year, Los Angeles Times Best Fiction of the Year, Washington Post Book World Rave Reviews of the Year, and been nominated for the L.A. Times Book Award as well as the National Book Critics Circle Award. Three of her mystery writers have won Edgar awards.

Vicky has served as president of the AAR (Association of Authors’ Representatives), the only organization of literary and dramatic agents in North America. She has been a member of the AAR Royalties Committee since 1993 and is currently Chair of its Ethics Committee.

Vicky has been profiled in Poets & Writers and in Literary Agents: A Writer’s Introduction by John Baker (Macmillan). She has been quoted on the subject of agenting in the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, and Entertainment Weekly. She can be heard on Writers on Writing here, here, and here.

Vicky is currently accepting submissions of literary fiction and commercial women’s fiction. She is not the right agent for science fiction, fantasy, romance, or self-help.

www.vickybijuragency.com

Schedule a Pitch Session with Vicky.

Schedule a Manuscript Critique with Vicky.

www.einsteinliterary.com

Susanna Einstein has worked as a literary agent since 2005, and launched Einstein Literary Management in 2015. She has worked in publishing since 1995, first in the publicity and editorial departments at what was then called Warner Books (now Grand Central Publishing) and then as a literary scout at Maria B. Campbell Associates. A native New Yorker, she graduated with distinction from Northwestern University. She lives in NJ with her husband and two children.

Susanna Einstein is a member of the board of directors of the Association of Authors’ Representatives and a member of the Women’s Media Group. She has a particular fondness for crime fiction, upmarket commercial women’s fiction, MG and YA fiction, and narrative non-fiction. She likes a good story well told.

Schedule a Pitch Session with Susanna.

Schedule a Manuscript Critique with Susanna.

Lisa Leshne has been in the media and entertainment business for almost 30 years. Prior to founding the Leshne Agency in 2011, Lisa was a literary agent at LJK Literary. Before working in book publishing, Lisa co-founded The Prague Post newspaper in 1991 and served as Publisher for almost a decade. She later became Executive Director, International, for WSJ.com, the Wall Street Journal Online, responsible for business operations in Europe and Asia, overseeing advertising, marketing and circulation. Her entire career has been spent working with and advocating for writers.

The Leshne Agency is a full-service literary and talent management agency, representing a select number of bestselling and debut writers interested in building their brands, audience platforms, and developing long-term relationships via all forms of traditional and social media. They take a deeply personal approach by working closely with authors to develop their best ideas for maximum impact, providing hands-on guidance and networking for lasting success.

Lisa is most passionate about narrative and prescriptive non-fiction, especially on social justice, sports, health, wellness, business, political and parenting topics. She loves memoirs that transport the reader into another person’s head and give a voyeuristic view of someone else’s extraordinary experiences. Lisa also enjoys literary and commercial fiction and young adult and middle-grade books that take the reader on a journey and are just plain fun to read.

leshneagency.com

Schedule a Pitch Session with Lisa.

Schedule a Manuscript Critique with Lisa.

www.lynnjohnstonlit.com

Lynn Johnston

The Lynn Johnston Literary Agency represents books called “firebreathing” and “righteous” by the New York Times, “exuberant” by O: The Oprah Magazine and “a godsend” by Publishers Weekly.

Lynn’s authors are purposeful, sincere and sometimes controversial and ever determined. Among their many accolades are the Pulitzer Prize, George Polk Award, Peabody Award, GLAAD Media Award, Global Teaching Prize (finalist) and National Headliner Award.

Lynn’s list includes New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Wall Street Journal and USA Today bestsellers, winner of the International Association of Culinary Professionals Cookbook Award, PEN finalist, and numerous “best of year” citations.

Lynn is a highly respected solo agent based in New York representing mostly nonfiction.

Asked to describe her approach to agenting, Lynn wrote: “I care,” I said off the top of my head. After thinking about it some more and searching for a better answer, I decided that’s really it. My entire unique selling proposition is I care about my authors, the important work they do, how it gets translated into book form, what happens to the book before and after publication and ultimately, the effect it has in the world.

Schedule a Pitch Session with Lynn.

Schedule a Manuscript Critique with Lynn.

Jeff Kleinman is a literary agent, intellectual property attorney, and founding partner of Folio Literary Management, LLC, a New York literary agency which works with all of the major U.S. publishers (and, through subagents, with most international publishers).

As an agent, Jeff feels privileged to have the chance to learn a great variety of new subjects, meet an extraordinary range of people, and feel, at the end of the day, that he’s helped to build something – a wonderful book, perhaps, or an author’s career. Books of his clients include the bestsellers The Art of Racing in the Rain (Garth Stein), The Snow Child (a Pulitzer finalist; Eowyn Ivey), Widow of the South (Robert Hicks), and Mockingbird (Charles Shields), among many others.

Learn more about Jeff at www.foliolit.com

Jeff will be teaching the Master Class – The Art and Business of Getting Published: Traditional, Indie, and Everything in Between along with Regina Brooks.

Schedule a Pitch Session with Jeff.

www.andyrossagency.com

Michelle Tessler has worked in the publishing industry for over twenty years. Before forming her boutique agency in 2004, Michelle worked at the William Morris Agency and the prestigious literary agency Carlisle & Company (now Inkwell Management). She also spent seven years working in content and business development in the Internet industry, beginning in 1994 when she was hired by best-selling author James Gleick to help launch The Pipeline. In light of the digital opportunities that are transforming publishing, Michelle’s experience in the Internet world is of great benefit to her authors, both as they navigate ebook opportunities, and as they look for creative and effective ways to market their books to niche communities that can be targeted online.

She represents a select number of best-selling and emerging authors in both fiction and non-fiction. Clients include accomplished journalists, scientists, academics, experts in their field, as well as novelists and debut authors with unique voices and stories to tell. She values fresh, original writing that has a compelling point of view. She represents, among many others, Paul Collins, Frans de Waal, Mira Jacob, Amy Stewart and Amanda Eyre Ward.

Learn more at www.tessleragency.com

Andy Ross opened his literary agency in 2008. Prior to that, he was the owner of the legendary Cody’s Books in Berkeley for 30 years. During that time, he sold more than 10 million books and hosted over 5000 events for some of the world’s greatest authors. In 1989, Cody’s was fire bombed in retaliation for the store featuring Salman Rushdie’s The Satanic Verses. This made them the first victim of Islamic terrorism in The United States, which goes to show that bookselling can be a dangerous business. They never stopped selling the book.

Andy’s agency represents books in a wide range of non-fiction genres including: narrative non-fiction, science, journalism, history, popular culture, and current events . They also represent literary, commercial, historical, crime, upmarket women’s fiction, and YA fiction. For non-fiction he looks for writing with a strong voice, robust story arc, and books that tell a big story about culture and society by authors with the authority to write about their subject. In fiction, he likes stories about real people in the real world. No vampires and trolls, thank you very much. He doesn’t represent poetry, science fiction, paranormal, and romance.

Authors Andy represents include: Daniel Ellsberg, Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson, Anjanette Delgado, Elisa Kleven, Tawni Waters, Randall Platt, Mary Jo McConahay, Gerald Nachman, Michael Parenti, Paul Krassner, Milton Viorst, and Michele Anna Jordan.

Andy also works as a freelance editor.

Schedule a Pitch Session with Andy.

Schedule a Manuscript Critique with Andy.

Susan Golomb is a senior agent at Writers House, representing writers of fiction and non-fiction, for both adult and juvenile books as well as illustrators. She works with literary and commercial fiction, women’s fiction, science fiction/fantasy, narrative non-fiction, history, memoirs, biographies, psychology, science, parenting, cookbooks, how-to, self-help, business, finance, young adult and juvenile fiction/non-fiction and picture books. In addition to referrals, she still takes on new clients from among the twenty to thirty unsolicited submissions that she receives daily.

Golomb graduated from the University of Pennsylvania and worked as a theatrical production coordinator and story editor before starting her literary agency in 1988. Her clients include Marisha Pessl (Special Topics in Calamity Physics – Viking, 2006), Tom Rachman (The Imperfectionists – Dial Press, 2010), Gwyn Hyman Rubio, author of Icy Sparks (Viking, 1998), and she discovered Jonathan Franzen’s first novel, The Twenty-Seventh City (FSG, 1988). She also represents Yvon Chouinard, Harry Dent, Joshua Max Feldman, Glen David Gold, Rachel Kushner, Krys Lee, and William T. Vollmann, among many others.

” Some of my books are kind of out there. They are ambitious in ways that are not the nicely crafted domestic novel. It’s hard to find assistants or interns who can pick up on the same potential that I see. I call some of the books that I represent my shaggy dogs. They’re exuberant and they try to do all kinds of things, but they may also have whole parts that need to be deleted or characters that need to disappear. They need a lot of grooming before they go out. I enjoy that process, and when I go out with those manuscripts, they’re so fresh and inventive and exciting that I do well with them.”

— from Poets & Writers Magazine feature interview with Michael Szczerban

Read more of the
interview with Susan here:

Poets & Writers Magazine,
Agents & Editors: Susan Golomb

Schedule a Pitch Session with Susan.

Schedule a Manuscript Critique with Susan.

Jay Mandel is interested in representing authors of autobiography and memoir, commercial fiction, journalism and investigative reporting, literary fiction, narrative nonfiction, and nonfiction. His clients Include Sloane Crosley, Mohsin Hamid, Terry Hayes, and Mary Roach.

“I like to know how writers see their work in the context of the marketplace. Which books are reminiscent of their own, why the success of certain titles or authors may bode well for them. I’m otherwise all about the facts. I don’t like elaborate attempts to be charming. I want to know what’s on offer. We can both preserve our charm for a later date.”

Schedule a Pitch Session with Jay.

Schedule a Manuscript Critique with Jay.

Erin Malone has been a literary agent at WME since 2006. Prior to books she worked in film/TV. She represents fiction as well as narrative (personal and investigative) and platform-driven nonfiction, and occasional lifestyle titles—primarily in the areas of psychology, science, culture, and food. More than any specific genre, she’s drawn to good stories and distinct points of view.

Among the clients she represents are New York Times bestselling authors, major book club selections, Thurber Prize finalists, Hugo and Edgar Award nominees, Fulbright Scholars, Goodreads Choice Award winners (and combinations thereof). She is looking to work with writers who make us think, as well as those who provide a great escape. She ascribes ardently to Carrie Fisher’s adage that “if life weren’t funny it would just be true, and that’s unacceptable.” Originally from the Midwest, she worked in WME’s NYC office before moving to LA, where she lives with her husband, an author and film producer, and their two kids.

Schedule a Pitch Session with Erin.

Schedule a Manuscript Critique with Erin.

Jane Friedman has 20 years of experience in the publishing industry, with expertise in business strategy for authors and publishers. She’s the editor of The Hot Sheet, the essential industry newsletter for authors, and has previously worked for F+W Media and the Virginia Quarterly Review. In 2019, Jane was awarded Publishing Commentator of the Year by Digital Book World.

Jane’s newest book is The Business of Being a Writer (University of Chicago Press); Publishers Weekly said that it is “destined to become a staple reference book for writers and those interested in publishing careers.” Also, in collaboration with The Authors Guild, she wrote The Authors Guild Guide to Self-Publishing.

In addition to being a columnist with Publishers Weekly and a professor with The Great Courses, Jane maintains an award-winning blog for writers at JaneFriedman.com; her expertise has been featured by The New York Times, The Washington Post, NPR, PBS, CBS, the National Press Club and many other outlets.

Jane has delivered keynotes and workshops on the digital era of authorship at worldwide industry events, including the Writer’s Digest annual conference, Stockholm Writers Festival, San Miguel Writers Conference, The Muse & The Marketplace, Frankfurt Book Fair, BookExpo America, and Digital Book World. She’s also served on grant panels for the National Endowment for the Arts and the Creative Work Fund, and has held positions as a professor of writing, media, and publishing at the University of Cincinnati and University of Virginia.

INDIVIDUAL CONSULTATIONS:

Reserve an individual session with Jane to discuss you manuscript.

https://www.janefriedman.com/

Learn more about Jane at

Stephanie Stokes Oliver heads SSO Media, an international consulting firm that specializes in book, magazine, and digital publishing. She serves as a literary scout for Simon & Schuster’s Atria Book Group, and as author curator for the Anguilla Lit Fest.

In 2004, Stephanie served as editor-in-chief of Essence.com. She was asked to assist in the merger of Essence Communications with Time Inc. in the capacity of deputy editor, returning to the magazine for the second time. Stephanie originally joined Essence as senior editor of the lifestyle section. During her 16 years at Essence, when the magazine reached the milestone circulation of 1 million, she rose from West Coast Editor to the second-in-command position of editor of the magazine.

In 1998, she formed SSO Media, Inc., a publishing and digital content consulting firm in the New York area, contributing as guest beauty editor to O, The Oprah Magazine, as consulting editor to start-up Lifetime magazine, writing for SpaFinder, and producing the website for the New York Women in Communications. In 2000, she became the founding editor-in-chief of NiaOnline, a popular digital magazine for Black women where she served for two years and wrote a monthly blog for six years.

Currently, Stephanie works “location independent,” living between Anguilla, where she moved from the New York City area in 2007, and Seattle, her high-tech hometown. At the Anguilla Community College, she teaches a course on Publishing 101. She also serves as author curator for the annual Anguilla Lit Fest, held each May for readers, writers, thinkers, and vacationers.

She is the author of Black Ink: Literary Legends on the Peril, Power, and Pleasure of Reading and Writing, Song for My Father: Memoir of an All-American Family, and Seven Soulful Secrets for Finding Your Purpose and Minding Your Mission.

INDIVIDUAL CONSULTATIONS:

Reserve an individual session with Stephanie to discuss you manuscript.

www.simonandschuster.com

Learn more about Stephanie at

Kevin Larimer is editor-in-chief of Poets & Writers, the leading literary organization in the United States. He has served as moderator / interviewer for many of the sessions of KWC online. Everyone who saw his presentations at the 2019 Kauai Writers Conference recognizes what a depth of knowledge Kevin brings, along with natural warmth and humor. We are most grateful for his participation.

Kevin is the author of The Poets & Writers Complete Guide to Being a Writer: Everything You Need to Know about Craft, Inspiration, Agents, Editors, Publishing, and the Business of Building a Sustainable Writing Career, published by Avid Reader Press, an imprint of Simon & Schuster.

He has given presentations and appeared on a number of panels on publishing at events such as the Library of Congress National Book Festival, the Sozopol Fiction Seminars, the Anguilla Lit Fest, the Slice Literary Writer’s Conference, the Kachemak Bay Writers’ Conference, Poets Forum, the Bronx Book Fair, and the Writer’s Hotel.

His poems have appeared in Poetry International, Fence, Pleiades, Verse, and a dozen other literary magazines. He has written book reviews for American Letters & Commentary, American Book Review, Chelsea, and the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. He holds a degree in journalism and received his MFA in poetry from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, where he was the poetry editor of the Iowa Review. His latest book, The Poets & Complete Guide to Being a Writer, was written with his wife, Mary Gannon, executive director of the Community of Literary Magazines and Presses.

As editor in chief of Poets and Writers Magazine, Kevin is deeply familiar with the whole spectrum of literary magazines. His consultations will focus on how to get pieces published in these magazines. Whether you write short story, essay, poetry, or longer works that could be excerpted, publication in a respected magazine can be an important step in your writing career. There are very few people more ideally positioned to give advice on how to go about this than Kevin. He will read a few pages of your work in advance and be prepared to talk with you about which magazines to approach, who to contact there, and how to handle the entire submission procedure.

J. D. Salinger was famously rejected by The New Yorker more than a dozen times over several years before they consented to publish one of his stories. Perhaps Kevin can help you to formulate a strategy to shortcut this process.

INDIVIDUAL CONSULTATIONS:

Reserve an individual session with Kevin to discuss you manuscript.

To learn more about Kevin’s
new book visit:

pw.org/completeguide

Regina Brooks is the founder and president of Serendipity Literary Agency LLC in New York, New York. Her agency is the largest African American owned agency in the country and has represented and established a diverse base of award-winning clients in adult and young adult fiction, nonfiction, and children’s literature. Her authors have appeared in USA TODAY, NY TIMES, and the Washington Post, as well as on Oprah, ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN, FOX, MSBNC, TV ONE, BET, and a host of others. In 2015, Publishers Weekly nominated Regina Brooks as a PW Star Watch Finalist, and she was honored with a Stevie Award in Business. Writer’s Digest magazine named Serendipity Literary Agency as one of the top 25 literary agencies. Formerly, she held senior editorial positions at John Wiley and Sons (where she was not only the youngest but also the first African-American editor in their college division) and McGraw-Hill.

Prior to her publishing career, she worked as an aerospace engineer and made history as the first African American woman to receive a Bachelor of Science degree in aerospace engineering from The Ohio State University. She is a graduate of The School of the Arts High School in Rochester, NY.

She is the author of Essence Magazine’s quick pick children’s book, NEVER FINISHED NEVER DONE (Scholastic), WRITING GREAT BOOKS FOR YOUNG ADULTS 2e (Sourcebooks), and YOU SHOULD REALLY WRITE A BOOK: HOW TO WRITE, SELL AND MARKET YOUR MEMOIR (St. Martin’s Press), and a well received blogger for the Huffington Post. Brooks is also on the faculty of the Harvard University publishing program the Whidbey Island Writers MFA, Western Connecticut MFA low residency programs, Writer’s Digest University and teaches annually at more than twenty worldwide conferences. She has been highlighted in several national and international magazines and periodicals, including Publishers Weekly, Forbes, Media Bistro, Writers and Poets, Essence Magazine, Ebony, Jet, Women on Writing, Writer’s Digest Magazine, The Writer, The Network Journal, and Rolling Out.

She was named Woman of the Year by The National Association of Professional Women, A New York Urban League Rising Star Award winner, and a finalist for the StevieTM Award for Women Entrepreneurs. Regina Brooks is featured in books such as The Guide to Literary Agents and the NAACP nominated Down to Business: The First 10 Steps for Women Entrepreneurs, How to Build a Platform, and Bill Duke’s Dark Girls. She is also listed in International Who’s Who under the categories of Professional Management, Technology, Entrepreneurs, and Engineering.

In November 2010, Brooks partnered with Marie Brown, of Marie Brown and Associates, and Marva Allen of Hue Man Bookstore to launch a new publishing imprint with Johnny Temple’s Akashic Books called Open Lens.

Further, Possibiliteas is the brainchild of literary agent and tea enthusiast, Regina Brooks, who believed that tea—the world’s oldest performance-enhancing beverage—could have a beneficial effect on her clients—writers, artists, and other creative professionals who were looking for fuel for their creative fire.

She is a pilot and cofounder of Brooklyn Aviation as well as a member of the Association of Author Representatives and New York Women in Film and Television.

Ms. Brooks is the founder and co-Executive Director of Y.B. Literary Foundation, Inc. (www.ybliterary.org), a not-for-profit organization designed to kindle a passion for literature within high school students and an appreciation for the possibilities and opportunities that reading can provide.

Learn more at www.serendipitylit.com

Regina will be teaching the Master Class – The Art and Business of Getting Published: Traditional, Indie, and Everything in Between along with Jeff Kleinman.

Schedule a Pitch Session with Regina.

Schedule a Manuscript Critique with Regina.

Stephanie Cabot is half French, half American and grew up in London, Paris and New England. She attended Harvard, where she studied History, and first worked in New York and London with JP Morgan. Her career as an agent began at WME in London, where she spent nine years and ran the office for the last five, before relocating to the US and to The Gernert Company in NYC, where she worked for fifteen years. Stephanie joined Susanna Lea Associates in the Spring of 2020.

Stephanie’s interests are a reflection of her own reading tastes which have always been wide and far ranging. She represents authors from all over the world and is drawn to the international narratives whether told in story, memoir or essays as well as literary fiction reflecting diverse, global voices, speculative fiction, upmarket commercial fiction, crime and thrillers.

Stephanie has spent the past ten years involved with a small internationally focused social justice NGO, World Connect, whose mission is to empower grassroots leaders to initiate change in their communities

Learn more at susannalea.com

Schedule a Manuscript Critique with Stephanie.

Schedule a Pitch Session with Stephanie.

Arielle Eckstut is co-founder of The Book Doctors, a company dedicated to helping writers get successfully published. She is the author of nine books including She is the author of nine books including The Essential Guide to Getting Your Book Published and The Secret Language of Color: The Science, Nature, History, Culture and Beauty of Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue & Violet.

She is also an agent-at-large at the Levine Greenberg Rostan  Literary Agency, where for over 25 years, she has been helping hundreds of talented writers become published authors.

Lastly, Arielle co-founded LittleMissMatched, the iconic company that sells socks that don’t match in packs of three.

To learn more about Arielle’s work with authors visit www.thebookdoctors.com

Lisa Sharkey, SVP and Director of Creative Development at Harper Collins Publishers, was recently described by one of her authors, number one bestseller Congressman Jamie Raskin as a “clairvoyant publishing wizard”. Following more than two decades producing, writing and developing Emmy award-winning network and syndicated television news, Lisa made the switch into books because of her love for literature, storytelling, and going deep.

Sharkey is a champion of powerful, poignant, and persuasive storytelling. More than 75 of the books she has published have become New York Times bestsellers, selling millions of copies in multiple languages across the globe over the past 15 years. Her authors have accomplished extraordinary things and changed the world by telling their stories. Sharkey publishes books in the categories of politics, journalism, true crime, music, sports, medicine, self-help, cooking, mindfulness, science, religion, military life, and inspirational memoir. Sharkey is a mother of three, a yoga teacher, and a mentor of military veterans who are transitioning into civilian life.

She lives in one of New York’s first ever eco houses that she designed along with her architect husband who co-authored their book Dreaming Green.

Lisa will be teaching the Master Class – Defining Your Author Brand

INDIVIDUAL CONSULTATIONS:

Reserve an individual session with Lisa to discuss you manuscript.

David Sterry is co-founder of The Book Doctors, a company dedicated to helping writers get successfully published. He is the author of 16 books on a wide variety of subjects, from memoir to middle grade fiction, sports to reference. His work has been translated into over a dozen languages, optioned by Hollywood, and appeared on the cover of the Sunday New York Times Book Review. Before writing professionally, David was a comic and an actor. His one man show, based on his memoir, Chicken, was named the number one show in the United Kingdom for its entire run at the Edinburgh Theatre Festival, Fringe by The Independent.

Learn more about David’s literary work at

davidhenrysterry.com

To learn more about his work with authors visit www.thebookdoctors.com

Brooke Warner

She Writes Press was founded by Kamy Wicoff and Brooke Warner in 2012 as a response to the barriers to traditional publishing getting higher and higher for authors. Kamy’s online community, She Writes, had been founded on the principle of connecting and serving women writers everywhere, offering a community for established and aspiring writers. Brooke had been the Executive Editor at Seal Press for eight years, and was witnessing firsthand the contracting publishing environment, where she personally was having to reject beautifully written books on a regular basis because the submitting author didn’t have a strong enough author platform.

Kamy and Brooke envisioned a company where authors would be invited to publish based on the merit of their writing alone. They wanted to found a press for women writers that would be a platform—that could launch their writing careers, and where they could legitimately compete with their traditional counterparts.

In 2013, She Writes Press secured traditional distribution through Ingram Publisher Services and established itself as a real player in the hybrid publishing world. This relationship secured the right for SWP authors to submit their books for review through traditional channels, creating a more level playing field. SWP authors have been featured in O! magazine, People, and USA Today, and have been reviewed in all of the trade magazines: Publishers Weekly; Kirkus; Booklist; Library Journal; and featured on Shelf Awareness.

Brooke is available for individual sessions to discuss your manuscript.