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Michael Abraham (Not Taking No for an Answer: Experiences and Options in Self-Publishing) is a businessman and writer with four books in print, two fiction and two nonfiction. With his wife Jane, he is owner of Pocahontas Press, a 27-year-old publishing company in Blacksburg that they acquired when the founder died in 2010. He is based in Blacksburg. |
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Betsy Ashton (Blog Panel) is a writer based at Smith Mountain Lake whose first novel, Mad Max: Unintended Consequences, is scheduled to be published in March. She has a bachelor’s degree from U.C.L.A. and master’s and a Ph.D. from Southern Cal (comparative literature and Asian Studies). She is president of the Virginia Writers Club. |
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Erin Ashwell (Legal Protections for Writers, with James O’Keeffe) is an associate in Woods Rogers' Litigation Section. A native of Bedford County, she graduated magna cum laude from Harvard College in 2002 with a degree in government and before law school, Erin worked as a staff assistant in the United States Senate. She earned her J.D., cum laude, from Harvard Law School in 2006. She was a Virginia Governor's Fellow and a summer associate in an international law firm in Washington D.C. and in Hong Kong. Erin was also a teaching fellow in the Harvard government gepartment, where she was awarded a certificate for distinction in teaching. She worked as a trial attorney for the United States Department of Justice and has been a lecturer in political science at Hollins University. |
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Judy Ayyildiz (Memoir: What's So Important about Your Life?) is the author of the recent novel Forty Thorns, a 2012 Literary Fiction winner in International Book Awards. Her other books are First Recital, Smuggled Seeds, Mud River, Creative Writing across the Curriculum, Easy Ideas for Busy Teachers, The Writers' Express, Nothing but Time, and Some of My Ancestors are Ottomans and Turks. She has taught creative writing at all education levels for 30 years and has been published internationally. She was editor of Artemis for 13 years and was a founder of the Blue Ridge Writers Conference. She has won prizes for poetry and was a 2010 Educator of the Year. |
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Carrie Brown (Fiction/A Thousand Words: Visual Images as the Source of Stories) Distinguished Professor of Creative Writing at Hollins University, is the author of five novels—Rose’s Garden, Lamb in Love, Confinement, The Hatbox Baby, and The Rope Walk — as well as a collection of short stories, The House on Belle Isle. A sixth novel, The Material World, will be published by Pantheon Books in 2013. She has won awards for her work, including a National Endowment for the Arts fellowship, the Barnes and Noble Discover Award, the Janet Heidinger Kafka Prize, The Great Lakes Book Award, and, twice, the Library of Virginia Award. Her short fiction has appeared in journals including One Story, Glimmer Train, The Georgia Review, and The Oxford American. A graduate of Brown University and the M.F.A. program in creative writing at the University of Virginia, where she held a prestigious Henry Hoyns Fellowship, she has taught creative writing at Sweet Briar College, the University of North Carolina-Greensboro, and at summer conferences. |
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Mollie Cox Bryan's, (Writing Cookbooks), second cookbook, Mrs. Rowe's Little Book of Southern Pies, was named one of the "Best Cookbooks of the Year" by All Foods Considered. She has also written for NPR's "Kitchen Window," The Christian Science Monitor, the Chicago Sun Times, Relish Magazine, Grit Magazine, Taste of the South Magazine, as well as in several regional parenting magazines. She is also a novelist. Her first book is Scrapbook of Secrets: A Cumberland Creek Mystery. She lives in Waynesboro. |
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Dan Casey (Telling Stories) has been metro columnist of The Roanoke Times since 2009, and he's been telling stories for much longer than that. The best ones, he insists, can’t be published in the newspaper for both legal and taste reasons. In this session he'll spin one of his favorite career yarns: "The Day Pat Robertson's Bodyguard Pulled a Gun on Me." He'll also run down good story-telling strategies writers can employ. This year, Casey was honored for column writing from the national Society of Professional Journalists and the Virginia Press Association. |
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Amanda Cockrell's (The Craft of the Art) newest book is the young adult novel What We Keep Is Not Always What Will Stay. She has received fellowships in fiction from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Virginia Commission for the Arts, and holds a master’s degree in English and creative writing from Hollins. She is managing editor of Hollins’ literary journal, The Hollins Critic, and director of the university’s graduate program in children’s literature. She also teaches in the university's Master of Arts in Liberal Studies program and has taught in the Creative Writing M.F.A. program. Her other books include Pomegranate Seed; The Deer Dancers and The Horse Catchers trilogies; The Legions of the Mist; and The Moonshine Blade, set in southwestern Virginia. (Diane Goff photo.) |
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Hollins Horizon Program graduate Bonnie Cranmer (Blog Panel) is a green living and travel enthusiast and a business marketing strategist. She is also a freelance writer and a nationally-known blogger. Her business is focused on creating digital marketing systems for professionals, small businesses and nonprofits. Bonnie has over 20 years experience in tourism, event promotions, nonprofit management, and business marketing. |
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Kathleen Grissom’s (Successfully — Very Successfully— Marketing Your Work) 2010 novel The Kitchen House has sold half a million copies worldwide, primarily through her own efforts, even though she has a major publisher. Born and raised in Saskatchewan, she is now rooted in Lynchburg, on 27 acres that was once a stagecoach stop (circa 1830s). She has had an herb farm, a tearoom, and a gift shop filled to the barn rafters with work from local artisans. A former nurse and ad executive, she came to writing late, and The Kitchen House is her first novel. She is working on her second. |
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Gina Holmes (10 Things You Can Do Now to Promote the Book You Haven't Even Sold Yet, with River Laker) is the founder of the influential literary site, Novel Rocket. Both her novels, Crossing Oceans and Dry as Rain hit bestsellers lists and were named winner/finalists of multiple awards. Her latest novel, Wings of Glass, tells the story of an abused wife who learns to live and laugh again with the help of two women from very different worlds. Besides being a wife, mother, and novelist, she also works with Silver Seas, a culturally-focused PR firm. Her websites are www.ginaholmes.com or NovelRocket.com. |
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Sarah Beth Jones (The No B.S. Guide to Networking) is a veteran newswoman who own, with her husband, Rob, Nary Ordinary Business Services (NO B.S.) in Floyd. She is a former columnist and a native of North Carolina. She and Rob consult with small business owners in a number of ways. |
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Christina Koomen (Making Your Photos Better) has worked in media and communications for more than 20 years. She has been a television videographer and producer, as well as a writer, editor, and page designer on the print side. She is the former editor of the Charlottesville Business Journal, once worked on a week-long TV shoot with Bob Vila, and most recently worked in the public information office at the City of Roanoke. Her footage of U.Va. men's basketball games has appeared on ESPN highlight reports, and her articles and photographs have appeared in a number of publications in the Commonwealth. |
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Bill Kovarik (Why New Media Changes the Way We Write and What We Can Do About It) is a professor of communication at Radford University, teaching journalism, media history, media law, and science writing. He has written extensively about media technology and environmental history for publications ranging from The New York Times to Earth Island Journal. His professional experience as a journalist includes reporting and editing for columnist Jack Anderson, the Associated Press, The Charleston (S.C.) Courier, The Baltimore Sun, Time-Life Books, Business Publishers, Appalachian Voice, and the National Center for Appropriate Technology. He is also environmental historian and has served as a consultant for "Bill Moyers Now." He has degrees from VCU, South Carolina, and a Ph.D. from the University of Maryland. He has written four books and is working on a history of sustainable energy. He edits the online publication, New River Voice. |
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River Laker (10 Things You Can Do Now to Promote the Book You Haven't Even Sold Yet, with Gina Holmes) spent several years transforming how people interact with traditional brick and mortar entities, reinventing them as vital, accessible, and popular cultural venues. But he became too successful a publicist for local government to any longer contain, so he moved on to launch Silver Seas, a PR company with a simple, focused mission to popularize culture. Specializing in obtaining media coverage for cultural events, organizations, businesses and people, his driving philosophy is that "we are all stars, baby." Born and raised in England, he was educated in literary studies, contemporary art, film, and religion, before moving to the U.S. to study counseling psychology. Laker then became a minister, a teacher, and a failed door-to-door salesman. |
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Roland Lazenby (Developing Ideas That Publishers Will Buy) is author/co-author of more than 60 titles. His latest is a biography, Jerry West, The Life and Legend of a Basketball Icon, a Los Angeles Times bestseller. He is at work on a biography of Michael Jordan for Little, Brown. He is a former publisher, journalist, and force behind a Virginia Tech student website that garnered acclaim for its coverage of the Tech shootings. He has taught journalism at Virginia Tech and Radford University. |
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Terri Leidich (Understanding Your Publishing Options Before Your Manuscript Is Finished) is the founder of Boutique of Quality Books Publishing Company (BQB Publishing) in Atlanta. She is the author of two books, From a Grieving Mother’s Heart and For a Grieving Heart. She lives in Christiansburg with her husband and has a daughter and two granddaughters in Roanoke and a son in the Judge Advocate General Service of the Army. |
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Brooke McGlothlin (Self-Publishing: How and Why) is the co-founder and creator of the MOB Society, an online community for mothers of boys. She's the author of the best-selling eBook Warrior Prayers: Praying the Word for Boys in the Areas They Need it Most, and co-author of Hope for the Weary Mom: Where God Meets You in Your Mess. She blogs at www.brookemcglothlin.com. Find her on Twitter as @BrookeWrites. |
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Michael Miller (Writing Humor: Did I Tell You the One About ...) is senior licensing manager for Virginia Tech Intellectual Properties in Blacksburg. He is the technology columnist for Valley Business FRONT. His consulting company is Kire Technology. He spent more than 25 years as an inventor, technology manager, and tech business consultant, working with Fortune 500 companies and startups. He screens businesses for presentation to the World’s Best Technology Showcase and provides mentoring for tech startups through association with Development Capital Networks and the National Science Foundation. He has been an essayist for Public Radio, a columnist for The Roanoke Times, and an NCAA photographer. |
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Jim Minick (Playing with Time: The diverse Ways Writers Manipulate Time on the Page) is the author of The Blueberry Years, winner of the Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance's Best Nonfiction Book for 2010. Minick has written a collection of essays, Finding a Clear Path, two books of poetry, Her Secret Song and Burning Heaven, and he edited All There Is to Keep by Rita Riddle. In 2008, the Virginia College Bookstore Association awarded Burning Heaven the Jefferson Cup for best book of the year. Minick’s work has appeared in many publications and he teaches writing and literature at Radford University. He lives in the New River Valley with his wife and two dogs. |
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James J. O’Keeffe (Legal Protections for Writers, with Erin Ashwell) of Gentry Locke Rakes & Moore law firm in Roanoke helps clients with appeals and complex civil litigation. He is a frequent speaker and author on state and federal appellate topics. Jay publishes a blog, "De Novo," that is available at www.virginiaappellatelaw.com. He earned his bachelor’s degree at the College of William and Mary, magna cum laude, 1999; and is a graduate of Harvard Law School, cum laude, 2002. He has substantial experience briefing and arguing cases before the Supreme Court of Virginia and the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. |
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Karen Osborn (Working in a Changing Publishing Environment) is a former Roanoker, Hollins graduate, and 2013 writer-in-residence at Hollins. Her novel, Patchwork, won a New York Times Notable Book of the Year Award in 1991 and her latest (No. 4) — hot off the press is — Centerville, a look at the effects a revenge bombing that kills 10 people has on a small Midwestern town. It is based on an incident from her childhood. Karen teaches at Mount Holyoke College in Massachusetts. |
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Cherie Reich (Blog Panel) is a writer, freelance editor, book blogger, and library assistant in Roanoke. Her short stories have appeared in magazines and anthologies. Her e-books include the horror series Nightmare, a short story collection with authors Aubrie Dionne and Lisa Rusczyk titled The Best of Raven and The Writing Desk, the futuristic space fantasy novelette trilogy Gravity, and The Foxwick Chronicles, a series of fantasy stories. She is a member of Valley Writers and the Virginia Writers Club. |
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Neil Sagebiel (Refining the Pitch for Your Book) is a writer, blogger and author who lives in Floyd, VA, with his wife and two daughters. He is the author of The Longest Shot: Jack Fleck, Ben Hogan, and Pro Golf’s Greatest Upset at the 1955 U.S. Open (St. Martin’s Press—May 2012). He also is the founder and editor of Armchair Golf Bag and is a former copywriter for a Seattle ad agency and major newspaper. His second book is scheduled to publish in September 2014. |
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Angie Smibert (Selling Your Young Adult Novel 101) is the author of three young adult novels, including Memento Nora, The Forgetting Curve, and the upcoming Meme Plague. Memento Nora was nominated for YALSA’s Best Fiction for Young Adults and Bankstreet’s Best Children’s Books of the Year, 2012. Her short fiction has appeared in Odyssey, Cicada, Pedestal, and numerous other magazines. A graduate of Hollins University and Virginia Tech, she spent a decade working at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. She now lives in Roanoke. |
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Dan Smith, (Conference director) is a 2010 inductee into the Virginia Communications Hall of Fame, and founding editor of Valley Business Front magazine. A journalist for more than 45 years, he has won awards in every significant journalistic discipline: Virginia Business Journalist of the Year 2005; awards for business ethics, environmental education, environmental journalism, support of the arts and the first (2009) Perry F. Kendig Literary Award, given by the Arts Council of the Blue Ridge. He is also an active community volunteer and member of a number of boards of directors. Has had four books published and recently finished his first novel. He is an award-winning public radio essayist and photographer. Smith is founder of the Roanoke Regional Writers Conference and was the organizer of the 2011 Women’s Forum at Hollins. |
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Greg Trafidlo (Structuring a Song) has performed musically from Beijing, China to Cork, Ireland — the historic, Ryman Auditorium in Nashville to Wrigley Field. His songs have been performed by folk icons such as Pete Seeger, Steve Gillette, and Cindy Mangsen, and recorded by numerous performers. He has performed with Bill Monroe, Peter Yarrow, Tom Paxton, Janis Ian, and with Kathy Mattea on Nashville’s WSM-Radio. He has opened for Emmylou Harris, John Prine, John Hartford, John McCutcheon, Robin and Linda Williams, and others. He has credits as a publisher and record producer of more than 45 releases and he appears on over 60 albums. He has won the USA Songwriting Competition and Louisville Songwriting Competition. |
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Tiffany Trent (Don't Be Afraid of the Dark: Writing Dark Fantasy and Horror for Young Adults) is a Roanoke native and the author of the young adult fantasy novels, The Unnaturalists (Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers) and the Hallowmere series (Wizards of the Coast/Mirrorstone). Her short stories have appeared in Magic in the Mirrorstone, Corsets & Clockwork, Subterranean Magazine, and Willful Impropriety, among others. She is the editor of Breaking Waves, a charity anthology for Gulf Coast relief. She lives near Blacksburg with her husband and various animals, including thousands of bees. Visit her at www.tiffanytrent.com. |
