Co-founder and President Emeritus of the Zora Neale Hurston/ Richard Wright Foundation, Marita Golden is a veteran teacher of writing and an acclaimed award-winning author of over a dozen works of fiction and nonfiction. As a teacher of writing she has served as a member of the faculties of the MFA Graduate Creative Writing Programs at George Mason University and Virginia Commonwealth University and in the MA Creative Writing Program at John Hopkins University. She has taught writing workshops nationally and internationally to a variety of constituencies.

Her new novel is The Wide Circumference of Love. Her other books include the novels After and The Edge of Heaven and the memoirs Migrations of the Heart, Saving Our Sons and Don’t Play in the Sun: One Woman’s Journey Through the Color Complex. She is the recipient of many awards including the Writers for Writers Award presented by Barnes & Noble and Poets and Writers and the Fiction Award for her novel After awarded by the Black Caucus of the American Library Association. Website: https://maritagolden.com/

And make sure you don’t miss Marita Golden on Thursday, August 31, 2017 for our August Master Class: The Naked Truth: Writing a Memoir that Moves Readers

Cheryl Pallant is an award winning author of twelve books, primarily in poetry, but also nonfiction. Her poetry collection, Her Body Listening, was released earlier this year, and will be followed up by her memoir, Ginseng Tango, due out next month. She has published short stories, essays, and poems in numerous journals and anthologies throughout the U.S. and abroad. She wrote for Style Weekly for 12 years and teaches at University of Richmond. Website: cherylpallant.com

Patrick Dacey is the author of the novel, The Outer Cape, an Amazon Editor’s Pick, and the collection of stories, We’ve Already Gone This Far, selected by the American Bookseller’s Association as a Top Ten Debut. He holds an MFA from Syracuse University and has taught writing at various schools, including the College of William and Mary. His stories have been featured in The Paris Review, Zoetrope All-Story, and Guernica, among other publications.

Melissa Scott Sinclair writes for Richmond magazine, Style Weekly and other publications. Melissa’s creative nonfiction was recently published in Nine Lives: A Life in 10 Minutes Anthology. Her short story “Everything Must Go,” a ghost story set in the decaying corporate headquarters of Circuit City, appeared in the Richmond Macabre collection. Website: http://www.melissascottsinclair.com/