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CHECK OUT OUR 2024 SPEAKERS!
James River Writers is pleased to announce the accomplished slate of presenters for our 22nd Annual James River Writers Conference. We are adding confirmed speakers daily, so be sure to check back…
Keynote Speaker JARRETT J. KROSOCZKA
Jarrett J. Krosoczka
| Jarrett J. Krosoczka, known since boyhood as “JJK,” is the New York Times bestselling author/illustrator behind more than forty books for young readers, including his wildly popular Lunch Lady graphic novels, select volumes of the Star Wars™: Jedi Academy series, and Hey, Kiddo, which was a National Book Award Finalist. Krosoczka creates books with humor, heart, and deep respect for his young readers—qualities that have made his titles perennial favorites on the bookshelves of homes, libraries, and bookstores over the past twenty years. In addition to his work in print, Krosoczka produced, directed, and performed in the full-cast audiobook adaptations of his graphic novels. The Hey, Kidoo audiobook garnered both Audie and Odyssey Awards for excellence in audiobook production. The Lunch Lady audiobook cast is led by Kate Flannery (The Office) and is rounded out by famed audiobook narrators and real kid actors! Krosoczka has been a guest on NPR’s Fresh Air with Terry Gross, profiled in The New York Times, featured on Good Morning America, and delivered three captivating TED Talks, which have accrued millions of views online. Krosoczka garners millions more views online monthly via the tutorials he produces for YouTube and TikTok. As well as working on his books’ film and television adaptions, Krosoczka has also written for The Snoopy Show (Apple TV+) and served as a consultant for Creative Galaxy (Prime Video), and appeared in live segments for the show. Realizing that his books can inspire young readers beyond the page, Krosoczka founded School Lunch Hero Day, a national campaign celebrating school lunch staff. A consummate advocate for arts education, Krosoczka also established the Joseph and Shirley Krosoczka Memorial Youth Scholarships, which fund art classes for underprivileged children in his hometown of Worcester, Massachusetts. Krosoczka lives in western Massachusetts with his spouse, their three children, pugs Ralph and Frank, and a French bulldog named Bella Carmella. |
Find out more about Jarrett on his website HERE.
Confirmed Speakers
Nancy Agabian | MASTER CLASS INSTRUCTOR
| Nancy Agabian is the author of The Fear of Large and Small Nations, a finalist for the Foreword Indies Prize in Multicultural Fiction, recently published by Nauset Press. Her previous books include Princess Freak (Beyond Baroque Books), a collection of poetry, and Me as Her Again: True Stories of an Armenian Daughter (Aunt Lute Books), a memoir. In 2021 she was awarded Lambda Literary Foundation’s Jeanne Córdova Prize for Lesbian/Queer Nonfiction. A longtime adjunct writing professor at NYU and CUNY, she has also led creative writing workshops for community organizations in NYC, L.A. and Armenia. |
Shastri Akella
| Shastri Akella‘s debut novel, The Sea Elephants, was published by Flatiron Books in 2023. His fiction is/will appear in Best American Short Stories, Guernica, Fairy Tale Review, Masters Review, and elsewhere. He’s a professor of creative writing at Michigan State University |
Kristi Tuck Austin
Kristi Tuck Austin helps authors increase their books’ discoverability, build their platforms, and turn new readers into loyal fans. She’s also worked in TV development for America’s Next Great Author, Can Do Entertainment, and Gum Street Productions.
Catherine Baab-Muguira
Catherine Baab-Muguira is a writer and journalist who has contributed to the Wall Street Journal, Slate, Literary Hub, Electric Lit, CNBC and NBC News, among many others. A frequent podcast and radio guest, with appearances on NPR, the Daily Stoic, and Lifehacker’s Upgrade, she lives in Richmond, Virginia. Her award-winning nonfiction debut, Poe for Your Problems: Uncommon Advice from History’s Least Likely Self-Help Guru, was published by Running Press/Hachette in 2021. Find out more at poecansaveyourlife.substack.
Rachel Beck | AGENT
Rachel Beck joined Liza Dawson Associates in 2020 after working at a boutique literary agency for four years. She has been in the publishing industry since 2009, and she worked at Harlequin editing romance novels for nearly six years before transitioning her skills to the agent world in order to be an advocate and champion for authors. Rachel lives outside of Pittsburgh with her husband, three young children, and endlessly entertaining cat.
L. Andrew Bell, PhD
Dr. L. Andrew Bell is a technology consultant in the Teaching and Scholarship Hub where he consults with University of Richmond faculty on effective integration of digital tools into their teaching and scholarship. Andrew is also an instructor in the FYS (First-Year Seminars) program and Psychology department where he teaches courses in neuroscience and data analysis.
Amy Bishop-Wycisk | AGENT
Amy Bishop-Wycisk (why-zick) is an agent at Trellis Literary Management, cultivating a wide-ranging list in upmarket and book club fiction, grounded SFF, expert-driven narrative nonfiction, cultural criticism, history, and select YA, with a special interest in underrepresented voices. Her authors’ books have been New York Times, USA Today, and indie bestsellers, a Reese’s Book Club selection, James Beard and Edgar Award winners, and Book of the Month picks.
Bill Blume
Bill Blume’s love for the written word started in high school with an addiction to comics that was later hijacked by novels such as Frankenstein and Dragonflight. The first book in his young adult, vampire hunter series, Gidion’s Hunt, was published back in 2013. His adult fantasy debut, West of Apocalypse, was released in August 2023, and nominated for an Indieverse Award. The Dragon Spy, his young adult Cold War novel, comes out this October.
Amy Bonnaffons | MASTER CLASS INSTRUCTOR
Amy Bonnaffons is the author of the story collection The Wrong Heaven and the novel The Regrets, both published by Little, Brown. Her writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Kenyon Review, The Sun, and elsewhere, and has been read on NPR’s This American Life. Amy is a founding editor of 7×7.la, a literary journal devoted to collaborations between writers and visual artists. Born in New York City, she now lives in Athens, GA.
Lyn Liao Butler
| Lyn Liao Butler is a Taiwanese American author of thrillers, upmarket fiction, and rom-coms. Her thriller, Someone Else’s Life, was an instant Amazon bestseller and her second book Red Thread of Fate was a finalist in the WFWA Star Awards for 2023. Before becoming an author, she was a professional ballet and modern dancer, and is still a fitness and yoga instructor. She and her husband and son split their time between New York and Kauai. |
Rosa Castellano | MODERATOR
John Copenhaver
John Copenhaver won the Macavity Award for Best First Mystery for Dodging and Burning, and the Lambda Literary Award for Best Mystery for The Savage Kind. He is a co-founder of Queer Crime Writers, a board member of Mystery Writers of America, and co-hosts the House of Mystery Radio Show. He teaches in the University of Nebraska Omaha’s Low-Residency MFA program and at VCU. His new novel, Hall of Mirrors, is the sequel to The Savage Kind.
Joan B. Davis
Joan B. Davis is an attorney with Schroder Brooks Law Firm located in Richmond, Virginia. Licensed to practice law in both Virginia and New York, Joan has over a decade of experience representing entertainment clients, including authors, artists, musicians, and fashion designers. Joan‘s background gives her a unique perspective of the literary and fashion law landscapes. The book she co-authored, Feng Shui Love, hit the “Chick-lit” world with complementary merchandise and design lines. Joan can’t wait to get back to fiction writing, but her most recently published work is a chapter in a book published in Europe titled “Fashion Law And Sustainability, Fashion The Planet,” released in May 2023 by Water Mill Press. She is currently writing a chapter for a similar book focusing on upcycling fashion in Europe and The United States. In her spare time, Joan enjoys reading, learning Italian, teaching aqua Zumba classes, and studying Feng Shui and the metaphysical properties of crystals and Tarot.
Camille DeAngelis
Camille DeAngelis writes fantasy novels for readers of all ages. Her young adult novel Bones & All won an Alex Award from the American Library Association in 2016, and Luca Guadagnino’s film adaptation was released in November 2022. She’s also written a travel guide to Ireland and two more books of nonfiction, Life Without Envy: Ego Management for Creative People and A Bright Clean Mind: Veganism for Creative Transformation. Camille lives in Richmond, VA.
Wendy DeGroat
Wendy DeGroat is a poet, teacher-librarian, and mindfulness instructor in Richmond, Virginia. She’s the author of Beautiful Machinery (poetry book) and the newsletter Furrow and Fire where she contemplates what to cultivate in her next chapter. Her poems have appeared in Cider Press Review, Commonplace, the museum of americana, Rust + Moth, and elsewhere. She’s currently planning the serial publication of her documentary poetry manuscript about Grace Arents, a Progressive-era philanthropist and educator, and Grace’s companion, Mary Garland Smith.
Ana Edwards
Ana Edwards is a public historian and assistant professor in the Virginia Commonwealth University Department of African American Studies. She is founding chair of the Sacred Ground Historical Reclamation Project, a community-centered effort to strengthen awareness of 18th century Black life in Richmond and its significance in 19th century Shockoe Bottom, the city’s oldest district and one-time epicenter of the US domestic slave trade. The project’s community-generated proposal to create a 9-acre memorial park is now part of TheShockoeProject.com. Edwards holds a B.A. in visual art from California State Polytechnic University (Pomona, 1983) and an M.A. in history from VCU (Richmond, 2020).
Melanie Figueroa | AGENT
Melanie Figueroa is a literary agent at Root Literary and a member of the Association of American Literary Agents (AALA). She represents award-winning and bestselling authors of children’s literature and adult fiction. A Southern California native, she was born and raised in a multicultural, blended family, so she has a soft spot for books that shine a spotlight on the nuances of relationships, identity, and culture.
Cherise Fisher | MASTER CLASS INSTRUCTOR
Cherise Fisher began her career in publishing more than 25 years ago, spending many years editing and publishing several national bestselling and award-winning authors at Simon & Schuster and Plume, where she was Editor-in-Chief. She works with novelists who have multiple compulsively readable yarns in their head (both historical and contemporary), memoirists who showcase the diversity of human experience, and non-fiction writers who seek to provoke, inspire, and educate.
Helen Montague Foster, MD
Helen Montague Foster, MD is a retired psychiatrist with over thirty years of experience in the psychotherapy of adults. Her poems have appeared in JAMA, The Pharos, Rattle, Hektoen International, and Tuck Magazine. One of her stories appeared in the Owl Canyon Press Hackathon 2018 anthology, No Bars and a Dead Battery. She is the author of two novels, The Silent Hen (Atmosphere Press, 2023) and Lost Graces (Atmosphere Press, 2024). Before her retirement, she was a Clinical Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at VCU School of Medicine.
Terry Menefee Gau
Terry Menefee Gau is an accomplished actor & writer. She has a varied theatre and film resume, spanning over twenty-five years as an actor, producer, writer, and director. Terry is a proud member of James River Writers and the Virginia Screenwriters Forum, and she has several award-winning scripts under her belt. She also works as a Senior Copywriter for a local start-up. Terry received her M.Div. and MACE from Union Presbyterian Seminary, focusing in Narrative and Film Theology, and she has a B.S. in Mathematics from James Madison University. She loves the dichotomy of art and logic, spirit and reason.
J.T. Glover | MODERATOR
J. T. Glover has published short fiction in Best New Horror, Pseudopod, and Nightscript, among other venues. His ”The Song Between the Songs” appeared recently in Dark Corners of the Old Dominion, a Virginia horror anthology supporting Scares That Care. His nonfiction has appeared in many publications, including The Silent Garden and Thinking Horror. By day he’s an academic librarian specializing in the humanities, and he lives in Central Virginia.
Alix E. Harrow
Alix E. Harrow is the New York Times–bestselling and Hugo Award–winning author of The Ten Thousand Doors of January, The Once and Future Witches, Starling House, and various short fiction. A former adjunct and Kentuckian, Harrow now lives in Virginia with her husband and their two semi-feral kids. You can find her Substack, The Written World, HERE. |
Cheryl A. Head
Cheryl A. Head’s 2023 novel, Time’s Undoing, is historical crime fiction based on her family’s personal tragedy and was a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, and the Agatha and Lefty Awards for Historical Mystery. Head writes the award-winning, Charlie Mack Motown Mysteries, set in Detroit, and whose female PI protagonist is queer and black. Cheryl lives in Washington, DC with her partner and is Board Chair of the Bouchercon World Mystery Convention.
Adriana Herrera | MASTER CLASS INSTRUCTOR
| Adriana Herrera was born and raised in the Caribbean, and writes stories about people who look and sound like her people, getting unapologetic happy endings. The New York Times calls her books “sweet and thoughtful, but delightfully filthy too.” She is a trauma therapist in New York City. |
Jordan Hill | AGENT
Jordan Hill is a Literary Agent at New Leaf Literary and Media. Jordan is primarily pursuing upmarket and genre fiction for adults. She loves intergenerational stories that grapple with complexities of families and culture through time and anything with an unreliable narrator or a speculative bent. She’s also a fan of weird short fiction. Across the board, she also considers historical fiction or retellings with a fresh approach and compelling perspective.
Halle Hill
Halle Hill is the author of Good Women (Hub City Press), which was named a 2023 Best Book of the Year by Kirkus Reviews, O Magazine, Electric Literature, Book Riot, and Southwest Review. A finalist for the 2023 Weatherford Award, she is the winner of the 2020 Crystal Wilkinson Creative Writing Prize and the 2020 Oxford American Debut Fiction Prize. Her short stories have been translated into French and published in Joyland, New Limestone Review, Ursa Short Fiction, and The Oxford American, among others. A born and raised East Tennessean, she currently lives, works, and teaches in North Carolina.
Phil Hilliker
Phillip Hilliker is a creatively restless writer and illustrator with credits spanning many fields and genres. Formerly JRW\’s membership coordinator, he is currently a script writer for a video production and marketing firm in central Virginia.
Katherine Howe
Katherine Howe is a New York Times bestselling and award-winning historian and novelist. She lives and sails in New England with her family, where she is at work on her next novel.
Laura Q. Jimenez
Dr. Laura Q. Jimenez is a speculative fiction author, scientist, and professor in the heartland of Virginia. Her short fiction has appeared in a Dragon Soul Press anthology, and her dieselpunk-fairytale Piper was the editor’s top choice for that year. Her poetry has also appeared in the Horror Writers of America Poetry Showcase. She is a member of the Board of Directors for James River Writers and a Municipal Liaison for the Richmond chapter of NaNoWriMo.
Rachel Kahan
Rachel Kahan is Vice President/Executive Editor at William Morrow/HarperCollins. A passionate advocate for commercial fiction and non-fiction, she has edited dozens of New York Times and international bestsellers. Her authors have won or were listed for numerous awards, including the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award, the National Jewish Book Award, the Whiting Creative Non-Fiction Grant, the Carol Shields Prize, the Women’s Prize for Fiction, and the National Book Award. Born and raised in Arlington, Virginia, she graduated from the College of William and Mary and the Radcliffe Publishing Course.
Iwalani Kim | AGENT
Iwalani Kim is an associate agent at Sanford J. Greenburger Associates, which she joined in 2018. She represents adult upmarket and literary fiction, as well as nonfiction, and her clients include writers like Megan Kamalei Kakimoto, Naomi Xu Elegant, Reena Shah, and Alice Evelyn Yang, among others. She’s from Honolulu, Hawai’i.
Mary Kole | MASTER CLASS INSTRUCTOR
Former literary agent Mary Kole founded Mary Kole Editorial in 2013 and provides consulting and developmental editing services to writers of all categories and genres. She founded Good Story Company in 2019 with the aim of creating valuable content—like The Good Story Podcast, YouTube channel, and Good Story Learning classes and resources—for writers of all categories and ability levels. Mary has appeared at regional, national, and international SCBWI conferences, as well as independent conferences including Writer’s Digest, Penn Writers, Writer’s League of Texas, San Francisco Writers Conference, WIFYR, Writing Day, and dozens of others. She has guest lectured at Harvard, the Ringling College of Art and Design, the Highlights Foundation, and the Loft, and her classes can be found online at Writing Mastery Academy, Writing Blueprints, Udemy, and LinkedIn Learning. She holds an MFA in Creative Writing and has worked at Chronicle Books, the Andrea Brown Literary Agency, and Movable Type Management.
Amy Lacey
Amy Lacey is an Emmy award-winning journalist with nearly 30 years of television, digital, radio, and public relations experience. Amy is currently the Director of Local Programming at WTVR-TV CBS6, a role that includes co-hosting the talk and entertainment show Virginia This Morning. Amy received undergraduate degrees in journalism and psychology from Duquesne University and completed a journalism program at American University. She also earned certificates in digital marketing and leadership from the University of Richmond. Amy is a regular guest speaker and emcee in the Richmond area and serves in several volunteer leadership roles including the boards for the Public Relations Society of America-Richmond and March of Dimes-DMV chapters, the Virginia Cancer Conference marketing committee, and Fresh Start. When she isn’t working, Amy enjoys exploring new places with her favorite plus one, her almost seven-year-old daughter Rowan Kate.
Brandi Larsen | MASTER CLASS INSTRUCTOR
| Brandi Larsen is a writer and speaker, building a more inclusive publishing landscape. Her work at Penguin Random House helped create New York Times bestsellers, and her journalism pieces earned Emmy nominations. Her talks about publishing, leadership, and purpose inspire audiences from Zoom to Harvard. She serves as President Emeritus for Literary Cleveland and writes books and essays. Brandi is the 2024 Writer in Residence at the William N. Skirball Writers’ Center, CCPL, and the co-writer of New York Times-recommended UNCULTURED: A Memoir, from St. Martin’s Press. |
Courtney LeBlanc
Courtney LeBlanc is the author of the full-length collections Her Whole Bright Life (winner of the Jack McCarthy Book Prize); Exquisite Bloody, Beating Heart; and Beautiful & Full of Monsters. Her next collection, Her Dark Everything is forthcoming in April 2025. She is the Arlington County Poet Laureate and the founder and editor-in-chief of Riot in Your Throat, an independent poetry press. She loves nail polish, tattoos, and a soy latte each morning.
Judah Leblang | MASTER CLASS INSTRUCTOR
Judah Leblang is a Boston-based writer, teacher, and storyteller. His essays and commentaries have been broadcast on 200 ABC radio and NPR network stations around the United States. He has written two memoirs-Finding My Place (2012), and Echoes of Jerry (2019). He teaches memoir writing in Boston, Cleveland, and in Calgary, Canada.
Joanna Lee
Doctor, poet, and small business owner Joanna Lee is a founder of local writing community River City Poets. Her work has been published in JAMA, Rattle, Contemporary American Voices, and elsewhere. She is the author of Dissections and co-editor of the anthology Lingering in the Margins; most recently, she collaborated with the Richmond Symphony to create “Letter to the City,” which premiered at the Carpenter Theatre to sold out crowds in February 2024. She is the current Poet Laureate for the city of Richmond.
Tracey Livesay
Tracey Livesay‘s latest release, The Duchess Effect, is the sequel to 2022’s American Royalty, which evokes the real-life romance between Prince Harry and Duchess Meghan Markle, if Meghan was Megan Thee Stallion. She’s been featured in The New York Times, The Washington Post, and Entertainment Weekly. A former criminal defense attorney, she lives in Virginia with her husband—who she met on the very first day of law school—and her three kids.
Jeffrey Dale Lofton
| Jeffrey Dale Lofton hails from Warm Springs, Georgia. Today, he is a Senior Advisor at the Library of Congress, surrounded by books and people who love them. Red Clay Suzie is a fictionalized memoir written through his lens as gay and living with a disability in a conservative family in the Deep South. It was longlisted for the 2023 Center for Fiction First Novel Prize and named an Indie Next List Pick by the American Booksellers Association. |
Francesca P Lyn
| Francesca Lyn is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies at Virginia Commonwealth University. Her teaching emphasizes the integration of lived experiences in scholarly inquiry. Francesca helped create Comic Arts Richmond, an independent small-press comics show. She is also a member of the Small Press Expo’s executive committee and assists with the Ignatz Awards. |
Annette Marquis
Annette Marquis is a community builder, wanderer, and author of two serialized memoirs, Living Into the Truth: A Daughter’s Journey of Discovery, and Accidental Mentors: Inspirational Stories of Women Who Shaped My Life by Just Being Themselves, and one short-form memoir, Resistance: A Memoir of Civil Disobedience in Maricopa County. In a past life, she co-authored twenty-five software books, mostly about Microsoft Office. She works for Living Legacy Project, Inc., and lives with her wife, Wendy, in Richmond, VA.
Courtney Maum | MASTER CLASS INSTRUCTOR
Courtney Maum is the author of five books, including the groundbreaking publishing guide that Vanity Fair recently named one of the ten best books for writers, Before and Afer the Book Deal, and the memoir The Year of the Horses, chosen by The Today Show as the best read for mental health awareness. A writing coach, director of the writing workshop “Turning Points,” and educator, Courtney’s mission is to help people hold on to the joy of art-making in a culture obsessed with turning artists into brands. Passionate about literary citizenship, Courtney sits on the advisory councils of The Authors Guild and The Rumpus and runs a bestselling Substack on publishing conundrums.
Alethea McCollin | MODERATOR
Alethea McCollin is a writer of stage and screen plays. She is also a producer, director, and actor. Alethea is a renowned shoe addict, who has produced her work locally and at various theatre festivals nationally. In August 2024, she will be showing her short film The Next Great Writer at the Virginia Screenwriters Forum Short Film Showcase. Alethea serves on the board of James River Writers. She is a member of the Dramatist Guild and Virginia Screenwriters Forum. Alethea enjoys working out. She is a passionate gardener, and loves to bake, though she says she still hasn’t mastered either pastime.
Amber McBride
| Amber McBride estimates she reads about 100 books a year. Her work has been published in literary magazines including Ploughshares and Provincetown Arts. Her debut young adult novel, Me (Moth) was a finalist for the National Book Award, and won the 2022 Coretta Scott King/John Steptoe Award for New Talent, among many other accolades. She was a professor of creative writing and literature for 10 years at JMU, NOVA and University of Virginia. She lives in Charlottesville, Virginia. |
Kate McKean | AGENT
Kate McKean is Vice President and Literary Agent at the Howard Morhaim Literary Agency. She represents a wide variety of clients, from New York Times bestseller Alix E. Harrow to the internet’s home to the best doggos, We Rate Dogs. She is the author of Agents & Books, a newsletter about authors, editors, and agents (katemckean.substack.com), a monthly column in Poets & Writers about publishing myths, and the forthcoming book Write Through It: Publishing, Books, and Navigating the Creative Life, due out in May, 2025 by Simon Element.
Meg Medina
| Meg Medina is the current National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature. She is the author of the Newbery Medal–winning book Merci Suárez Changes Gears, which was followed by two more acclaimed books about the Suárez family: Merci Suárez Can’t Dance and Merci Suárez Plays It Cool. Her young adult novels include Yaqui Delgado Wants to Kick Your Ass, which won the 2014 Pura Belpré Author Award; Burn Baby Burn, which was long-listed for the National Book Award; and The Girl Who Could Silence the Wind. She is also the author of numerous award-winning picture books: Evelyn Del Rey Is Moving Away, illustrated by Sonia Sánchez; Mango, Abuela, and Me, illustrated by Angela Dominguez; Tía Isa Wants a Car, illustrated by Claudio Muñoz; and her recently released No More Señora Mimi, illustrated by Brittany Cicchese (Sept 2024.) The daughter of Cuban immigrants, she grew up in Queens, New York, and now lives in Richmond, Virginia. |
Natalie Naudus
“A fave among audiobook listeners” (Buzzfeed), Natalie Naudus is one of the most beloved audiobook narrators working today. She has won an Audie award and nine Earphones awards, and maintains a robust social media following. She lives with her family on a mountain in Virginia. Gay the Pray Away is her debut novel.
Emily Okamoto-Green
| Emily Okamoto-Green is a half Japanese poet, essayist, educator, and animal lover. She received her MFA at George Mason University, and she currently teaches poetry and embroidery at the Visual Arts Center of Richmond. Her life highlights include Arthur Sze once saying her poem had a sense of wonder, and any time a cat or dog has come up to her without her first initiating the interaction. Some of her newest work can be found in the 2023 edition of Rhino. |
Amaryah Orenstein | MASTER CLASS INSTRUCTOR
| Amaryah Orenstein is the founder and president of GO Literary. She began her career at the Laura Gross Literary Agency in 2009 and, prior to that, worked at The Tauber Institute, where she edited books for Brandeis University Press/University Press of New England. Originally from Montreal, Amaryah earned a BA at McGill before coming to the United States to pursue graduate work in American History. She received her MA from the Contemporary History Institute at Ohio University and her PhD from Brandeis. |
Nadia Owusu
Nadia Owusu is a Brooklyn-based writer and urbanist. Her debut memoir, Aftershocks, was heralded as one of the best books of 2021 by over a dozen publications, including Time, Vogue, and Esquire. Her recent honors include a Whiting Award and residencies from Yaddo and Art Omi. Her writing has appeared in The New York Times, Granta, The Guardian, Bon Appétit, and elsewhere. She teaches creative writing at Columbia University and the Mountainview MFA program. |
Kiki Petrosino
Kiki Petrosino is the author of White Blood: A Lyric of Virginia and three other poetry books, all from Sarabande. Her memoir, Bright, was released in 2022 from the same press. A National Endowment for the Arts Fellow, Petrosino teaches at the University of Virginia as a Professor of Poetry. |
Ty Phelps
Ty Phelps’ work has appeared in Poets.org, Barstow and Grand, Streetlight, Zizzle, and elsewhere. He won the 2021 Nancy Ludmerer Fellowship for Flash Fiction, Virginia Commonwealth University’s 2019 Catherine and Joan Byrne Poetry Prize, and The Gravity of the Thing’s 2016 Six Word Story Contest. He holds an MFA from VCU, where he served as the Cabell First Novelist Award Fellow. He is the 2023-24 Writer-in-Residence at the Visual Arts Center of Richmond.
Dr. DaNika Neblett Robinson MODERATOR
Dr. DaNika Neblett Robinson is the author of The Metamorphic Journey, a novella that explores three teenage mothers’ quest to succeed. This fictional work is based on her experiences of becoming a teen mom, first-generation college student, and ultimately the recipient of multiple academic degrees, including master’s and doctoral degrees. The Metamorphic Journey is also the name of a movement that DaNika founded to foster individuals’ personal growth. Additionally, she is the founder of Wailing Women Ministries, a nonprofit organization that provides book scholarships to female high school seniors. DaNika is a higher education administrator and expert in transformational leadership who speaks widely about the benefits of diversity, equity, inclusion, belonging, justice, and leadership in the workplace. She also coauthored an anthology, On Womanhood: Connecting and Thriving in Every Season, featuring personal essays penned by women ages 21 to 72.
David B. Robinson, CPA
David B. Robinson, CPA is the only Certified Public Accountant in the United States allowed to refer to himself as a GreatCPA®. He has built this trademarked, original brand over 40 years, specializing in personal tax preparation for individuals, entrepreneurs, and small Limited Liability Companies. He works with clients that desire passionate, solutions-oriented, collaborative assistance from him. He is very experienced with print and digital content creators, authors, self-publishers, social media influencers, vloggers, and streamers.
Rebecca Schinsky
| Rebecca Schinsky is the Chief of Staff at Riot New Media Group, which operates Book Riot, the largest independent literary publication in North America. She has more than fifteen years of experience developing products, content, and communities for book lovers. When she’s not behind the scenes, Rebecca co-hosts The Book Riot Podcast and writes about current events in the publishing industry for the popular Today in Books newsletter. She lives in Richmond, Virginia. |
Jen Shepley
Jen Shepley has worked in different types of libraries for more than 30 years. She is currently the Community Services Manager at Chesterfield County Public Library, overseeing programming, communication, marketing and community partnerships for the library. She has been a reader for as long as she can remember. Her greatest accomplishment has been passing on a love of reading to her kids. Be a reader, raise a reader!
Melissa Scott Sinclair | MODERATOR
Melissa Scott Sinclair is a fiction writer, essayist and environmental journalist. She is the recipient of the 2023 Lit/South Award in Fiction and the 2021 Michael Kenneth Smith Novel Fellowship. Melissa’s bylines have appeared in The Washington Post, Audubon, Richmond magazine, and other publications. Look for her pieces about the ancestral dens of the timber rattlesnake and other fascinating fauna in the new book Atlas Obscura: WILD LIFE.
SJ Sindu
| SJ Sindu is a Tamil diaspora author of two literary novels, two hybrid chapbooks, two graphic novels, and a collection of short stories. Her most recent book, The Goth House Experiment, won the Story Prize Spotlight Award. Her next book, Tall Water, a graphic novel about the 2004 tsunami set in Sri Lanka, comes out in September 2024. Sindu is an assistant professor of creative writing at Virginia Commonwealth University, and a co-editor for Zero Street, a literary fiction series featuring LGBTQ+ stories through the University of Nebraska Press. |
Hampton Sides
Hampton Sides is the author of the New York Times bestselling narrative histories Ghost Soldiers, Blood and Thunder, Hellhound On His Trail, In the Kingdom of Ice, On Desperate Ground, and, most recently, The Wide Wide Sea. He lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
Patricia Smith | MODERATOR
Patricia Smith is the author of the novel The Year of Needy Girls, a 2018 Lambda Literary Award finalist. Her nonfiction has appeared in several anthologies and literary magazines. She received a Special Mention from Pushcart for her essay “Holy War.” She lives in Chester, VA with her wife and teaches Amer-ican Literature and Creative Writing at the Appomattox Regional Governor’s School.
Kris Spisak
Kris Spisak wrote her first three books—Get a Grip on Your Grammar, The Novel Editing Workbook, and The Family Story Workbook—to help writers of all kinds sharpen their storytelling and empower their communications. Her award-winning debut novel, The Baba Yaga Mask, was inspired by her family’s experience in the post-WWII Ukrainian diaspora, and her fifth book, Becoming Baba Yaga: Trickster, Feminist, and Witch of the Woods, explores the complex origins of this Slavic folktale character. |
Zachary Steele
| Broadleaf Writers Association Founder & Executive Director Zachary Steele is the author of four novels, including The Weight of Ashes, nominated for Georgia Author of the Year in 2021, and Perfectly Normal. He has been featured in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Publisher’s Weekly, Writer’s Magazine, Shelf Awareness and City Lights with Lois Reitzes on NPR. You can follow his ramblings on writing and life at http://zacharysteele.com/. |
Jennifer Udden | AGENT
With over a decade of experience agenting, including time spent at the Donald Maass Agency, the Barry Goldblatt Agency, and New Leaf Literary, Jennifer Udden is very excited to now join the team at LDLA. She has worked with a wide variety of notable authors of genre fiction, among them New York Times bestsellers and Hugo award finalists and winners. She’s also worn many other hats, including comics recruiter, freelance editor, and romance novelist, has a soft spot for the Golden Age of Detective Fiction, and runs a weekly newsletter about publishing and writing called A Faster No.
Julie Valerie | MODERATOR
Julie Valerie, bestselling author of Holly Banks Full of Angst and The Peculiar Fate of Holly Banks, is both novelist and editor, with professional-level proficiencies using the Chicago Manual of Style, backed by a University of Chicago editing certificate. A former international trend forecaster with speaking credentials in thirteen countries, her diverse skills extend to advanced certifications in wine theory and blind tasting, while her M.Ed. enriches her role as a professor at VCU School of the Arts.
Ran Walker
Ran Walker (he/him) is the author of over 30 books. His short stories, flash fiction, microfiction, and poetry have appeared in a variety of anthologies and journals. Prior to becoming a writer and educator, he worked in magazine publishing and practiced law in Mississippi. He is the winner of the Indie Author Project’s 2019 National Indie Author of the Year Award, the 2019 Black Caucus of the American Library Association Best Fiction Ebook Award, the 2018 Virginia Indie Author Project Award for Adult Fiction, and the 2021 Blind Corner Afrofuturism Microfiction Contest. Ran is an Associate Professor of English and Creative Writing at Hampton University and a Contributing Editor at Writer’s Digest. He lives in Virginia with his wife and much better half, Lauren, and his amazing daughter, Zoë.
Junious 'Jay' Ward
Junious ‘Jay’ Ward is a poet and teaching artist from Charlotte, North Carolina. He is a National Slam champion (2018), an Individual World Poetry Slam champion (2019), author of Sing Me A Lesser Wound (Bull City Press 2020) and Composition (Button Poetry 2023). Jay currently serves as Charlotte’s inaugural Poet Laureate and is a 2023 Academy of American Poets Laureate Fellow. Ward has attended Breadloaf Writers Conference, Callaloo, The Watering Hole and Tin House Winter Workshop. His work can be found in Columbia Journal, Four Way Review, DIAGRAM, Diode Poetry Journal and elsewhere.
Kalela Williams
| A writer and history enthusiast, Kalela Williams‘ YA novel, Tangleroot (October 15, Feiwel & Friends), explores the historical landscape of the U.S. South. Kalela directs Virginia Humanities’ Virginia Center for the Book, which includes their Book Arts program, the Virginia Festival of the Book, and other programs throughout the year. She lives in Staunton, Virginia, where she stays busy adding to the town’s arts and culture scene by volunteering for her partner’s organization The Off Center; as well as writing and shepherding their three cats. |