Speakers

Gail Galloway Adams - author of short stories, she captures untidy lives in which the pain of living is confounded with a grin. Her latest book, The Purchase of Order, won the Flannery O’Connor Award for Short Fiction. She is a professor of English and creative writing at West Virginia University. She resides in Morgantown, West Virginia.

Nancy Slonim Aronie - humorist, essayist, NPR commentator, founder and director of The Chilmark Writing Workshop on Martha’s Vineyard. In addition to her numerous essays, she has published Writing from the Heart: Tapping the Power of Your Inner Voice. She teaches at Harvard University.

Robert Bailey - novelist. His first novel Private Heat, won the “Josiah W. Bancroft” award at the Florida First Coast Writer’s Festival in 1998. Bailey spent five years as a corporate security director in the Detroit area, and twenty years as a licensed private investigator. He will share tips on publishing your first novel.

Sheree Bykofsky - New York literary agent, author of more than a dozen books, including The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Getting Published and the newly published The 52 Most Romantic Dates In and Around New York City, as well as co-author of The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Publishing Magazine Articles. She teaches publishing at NYU.

Lisa Carrier - Children’s author. T. Rex at Swan Lake, which she coauthored with novelist Lenore Hart, is her first picture book. It was adapted from a poem she wrote in which she decided to “marry” the two unlikely themes of dinosaurs and dance. She currently lives in Misty country - Chincoteague Island - off the Eastern Shore of Virginia, with her husband and two children.

Tim Dorsey - a former newspaper reporter and editor, he is the author of four “black comedy suspense action thriller crime mystery novels”, Florida Roadkill, Hammerhead Ranch Motel, Orange Crush and the newest, Triggerfish Twist. He lives in Tampa with his wife, Janine, and two daughters. Visit his Web site.

John Dufresne - novelist, author of Deep in the Shade of Paradise, Louisiana Power & Light, and Love Warps the Mind a Little as well as the short story collection, The Way that Water Enters Stone. Louisiana Power & Light is currently being made into a movie. Dufresne teaches in the Creative Writing program at Florida International University and lives in Dania Beach, Florida, with his wife and son. Visit his Web site.

Ingrid Elfver-Ryan - agent with the New Brand Agency Group in Ft. Lauderdale and the founder of One Essence, a nonprofit organization devoted to the teaching of whole living. As an agent, she works exclusively with authors of “magical” books in the following categories: personal growth, self-help, spirituality and fiction. Prior to becoming an agent, she traveled the world as a healer.

Sohrab Homi Fracis - fiction writer. His story collection, Ticket to Minto: Stories of India and America, won the 2001 Iowa Short Fiction award. His fiction has been published in American and Canadian magazines, and has won several awards, including the Josiah W. Bancroft Prize at the Florida First Coast Writers’ Festival in 1992. He teaches creative writing and literature at the University of North Florida in Jacksonville.

Lenore Hart - poet, writer of fiction and horror. Her newest books, Waterwoman, a historical novel, and T. Rex at Swan Lake, a children’s book, will be published in 2002. Other works include novels Black River and Weirwood, and a collection of short stories, Florida Gothic. She teaches fiction writing at Old Dominion University in Virginia.

Robert Inman - novelist and screenwriter. A former newspaper reporter, Inman is the author of four novels, Captain Saturday (2002), Home Fires Burning (1987), Old Dogs and Children (1991), and Dairy Queen Days (1997). His first two novels received the “Outstanding Fiction Award” from the Alabama Library Association. In addition, Inman has written nonfiction, and screenplays for six TV movies, two of which have been “Hallmark Hall of Fame” presentations. He lives in North Carolina. Visit his Web site.

Frances Keiser - children’s author, naturalist and wildlife rescue volunteer. She has worked with children in the public school system as well as in children’s craft workshops. With her husband Hugh, she has published three Adventures of Pelican Pete books. Her books help educate young children on ways to aid our wildlife and environment and have been awarded Book of the Year for environmental education. She lives in St. Augustine.

Hugh Keiser - artist and illustrator. He has been painting and drawing for over 40 years, being the recipient of many awards. He began to explore the computer as an art medium about the time he and Frances moved to Florida and fell in love with the Brown Pelicans. Illustrations of three Adventures of Pelican Pete books and a series of Pelican Pete trading cards are the result. He lives and works in St. Augustine.

Sandra Kitt - romance writer, author of The Color of Love, Significant Others, Between Friends, Close Encounters, Girlfriends, and others. She was the first black writer to ever publish with Harlequin. A native of New York City, Kitt holds a Bachelor and Masters Degree in Fine Arts from the City University of New York, and has studied and lived in Mexico. Sandra is currently an Information Specialist in astronomy and astrophysics at the American Museum of Natural History in New York. Visit her Web site.

Mary Sue Koeppel - poetry writer, editor of Kalliope, a Journal of Women’s Literature and Art. She authored the extremely relevant In the Library of Silences - Poems of Loss, published just days before September 11, 2001. Her poetry, fiction, and essays have appeared in over 50 journals, anthologies and magazines. Koeppel teaches at Florida Community College at Jacksonville.

Elizabeth Lund - poetry editor, The Christian Science Monitor. She teaches workshops to students in K-12, as well as to elderly writers. She also teaches poetry at MCI-Framingham, the women’s prison in Massachusetts. Her poems have appeared in the United States, Canada, and Great Britain, and she been a finalist for the Brittingham Prize and the Four Way Books Intro Prize.

Shelley Fraser Mickle - writer of southern humor whose newest novel is The Turning Hour. Her first novel, The Queen of October, was named a Notable Book of 1989 by The New York Times. Replacing Dad was made into a TV movie. She has also published a collection of essays. In addition , she is a commentator for National Public Radio’s “Morning Edition”, and writes a weekly newspaper column called “Novel Conversations”.

Kitty Oliver - former staff writer and columnist for the Miami Herald, now a professor and Writer in Residence at Florida Atlantic University’s Davie campus. Her newest book, Multicolored Memories of a Black Southern Girl, is a collection of autobiographical essays. A prominent ethnic diversity researcher and oral historian, she is also a professional jazz vocalist. Visit her Web site.

Kathy Pories - editor of fiction and nonfiction books at Algonquin Books. She has worked with a number of authors, including Daniel Wallace (whose novel Big Fish is soon to be a major motion picture), Silas House (Clay’s Quilt), and Stacey D’Erasmo (TEA). She also profiles authors regularly for the National Public Radio affiliate in Chapel Hill, NC.

David Poyer - novelist whose recent books include Winter Light and Fire on the Waters. His new book Black Storm, about the war in Iraq, will be available in May. He has published twenty-three novels, including such bestsellers and critically praised works as The Circle, The Gulf, The Only Thing To Fear, Thunder on the Mountain, and Down to a Sunless Sea. His work is required reading in the Literature of the Sea course at the U.S. Naval Academy, along with that of Joseph Conrad and Herman Melville. Poyer lives on Virginia’s Eastern Shore with his wife Lenore and their daughter Naia. Visit his Web site.

Arthur Rosenfeld - novelist. His latest novel, Diamond Eye, is his seventh. Other works include A Cure for Gravity, Dark Money, Dark Tracks, and Harpoons. He has published stories in magazines ranging from Vogue and Vanity Fair to Motorcyclist. Rosenfeld is a multiple Black Belt holder in Chinese martial arts. He lives in South Florida. Visit his Web site.

Mark Ryan - literary agent and president, New Brand Agency in Ft. Lauderdale. Ryan represents both fiction and nonfiction, and has placed work with most major publishing houses. He has published numerous articles for writers, and served as a columnist on WritersMarket.com.

Richard Michael Stefanik - screenwriter. He was a Screenwriting Fellow at the American Film Institute and has worked at several Hollywood studios, including Paramount Pictures and Walt Disney Productions. He taught a Feature Film Development Workshop: Making Megahit Movies, based on the content in his website at the UCLA Extension Department of Entertainment Studies in 2001. He presently conducts Online Story Design and Humor classes for Scr(i)pt magazine.

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