2011

The Writing Show

Thursday, August 25, 2011

Moderator:

Meriah Crawford is a professor at VCU, a writer, and a private investigator. Meriah began teaching part time about five years ago, after she finished her MFA in creative writing, and became a full-time assistant professor at VCU in August 2010. She has short stories, one poem, and a range of nonfiction pieces published, and a great deal more in the works. As a private investigator for over eight years, Meriah worked on a wide array of cases including background investigations, insurance accident and theft cases, patent infringement, counterfeiting, harassment, and even a murder.

Panelists:

Alma Katsu is a writer living in the Washington, D.C., area with her husband, musician Bruce Katsu. She graduated from Brandeis University, where she studied writing with novelist John Irving and children’s book author Margaret Rey, and received her MA in Fiction from Johns Hopkins University. The Taker is her first novel and is published by Gallery Books/Simon and Schuster.

Katherine Neville is the award-winning, best-selling author of The Eight (which was voted one of the top ten books of all time in a national poll by the noted journal El Pais), as well as A Calculated Risk, The Magic Circle and her latest thriller, The Fire (sequel to The Eight). Her novels have been translated into 40 languages and enthrall millions of readers around the world. Publishers Weekly described her books as having paved the way for books like The Da Vinci Code. Katherine also serves on the board of the Smithsonian Institution Libraries in Washington, D.C. She has appeared or spoken on the Today show, Voice of America, National Public Radio, and numerous conferences and award programs.

John Milliken Thompson is the author of America’s Historic Trails and Wildlands of the Upper South, and co-author of the National Geographic Almanac of American History. His debut novel, The Reservoir, has been chosen a July Indie Next Pick, a Summer 2011 SIBA (Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance) Okra Pick, and a recent Southern Indie Bestseller. Kirkus Reviews calls it “an engaging mystery novel rendered as Southern literature.”

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The Writing Show

Thursday, July 28, 2011

Website for Girls of Summer

 http://girlsofsummerlist.wordpress.com/about/

Recap

Podcast

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Moderators

Gigi Amateau is the author of the young adult novel, A Certain Strain of Peculiar, and the middle-grade novel, Chancey of the Maury River. Her debut young adult novel, Claiming Georgia Tate, was selected as a Book Sense Children’s Pick, a New York Public Library Book for the Teen Age, and a VOYA Review Editor’s Choice. She also contributed to the acclaimed anthology, Our White House: Looking In Looking Out. Gigi is a native of Mississippi. She grew up in Mechanicsville, Va., and graduated from Virginia Commonwealth University with a degree in Urban Studies and Planning. She lives in the city of Richmond, Va., with her husband and daughter.

Meg Medina has written for adults and children for over 15 years. Her stories and poems have appeared in numerous literary magazines. MILAGROS: Girl from Away is her first novel for young readers. Her first picture book, TIA ISA WANTS A CAR, is forthcoming from Candlewick Press in 2011. She’s currently working on a new young adult and new middle grade novel. She lives in Richmond, Va., with her husband and three children.

Panelists

Steve Watkins is the author of What Comes After, a young adult novel published in spring 2011, and Down Sand Mountain, winner of the 2009 Golden Kite Award for Fiction from the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators, both published by Candlewick Press. Another young adult novel, Juvie, is scheduled for publication by Candlewick in spring 2013. Steve is also author of a short story collection, My Chaos Theory, which was a finalist for the Paterson Fiction Prize and an Honorable Mention for the Library of Virginia Fiction Award. He also wrote the award-winning non-fiction book The Black O: Racism and Redemption in an American Corporate Empire, published in 1997 by the University of Georgia Press, which tells the story of the largest employment discrimination class action lawsuit in U.S. history. His fiction, poetry, and non-fiction articles have appeared in numerous publications, including The Nation, Poets & Writers, Mississippi Review, 100 Percent Pure Florida Fiction, North American Review, andThe Pushcart Prize Anthology. A graduate of Florida State University, Steve teaches journalism, creative writing, and Vietnam War literature at the University of Mary Washington.

Rebecca Lauren was born in Pennsylvania’s Susquehanna Valley and now lives in Philadelphia and teaches English at Eastern University. Her poetry has been published or is forthcoming in Prairie Schooner, Mid-American Review, The Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion, Quarter After Eight, Calyx and The Cincinnati Review, among others. Her coming-of-age poem, “In the Fifth Grade Locker Room,” appears in both audio and visual form in Poetry Speaks Who I Am, an anthology by Sourcebooks Jabberwocky. Her chapbook, The Schwenkfelders, was co-winner of the 2009 Keystone Chapbook Prize and is available through Seven Kitchens Press.

Valerie O. Patterson was raised in the Florida panhandle where the Gulf of Mexico inspired a love of blue and a fascination with the horizon and what lies beyond. She graduated in May 2008 with an MFA in Children’s Literature from Hollins University, where she twice received the Shirley Henn Award for Creative Scholarship. She has also received a Work-in-Progress grant from the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI). Her first novel, The Other Side of Blue, published in 2009, came out in paperback this April. In addition to SCBWI, she is a member of Mystery Writers of America, Sisters in Crime, the Women’s National Book Association, and the Authors Guild. She lives in the Washington, D.C., area with her husband.

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The Writing Show

Thursday, June 30, 2011

Podcast

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Video

WTVR-TV interview with Artisia Green

Moderator

David L. Robbins was born in Richmond and received his undergraduate and Juris Doctorate degrees from the College of William & Mary. He has taught creative writing at W&M and VCU, and has published nine novels, including his most recent, Broken Jewel, released in November 2009. He is a founding co-chair of James River Writers. At present, David is at work on his tenth, The Devil’s Waters, a novel about Somali piracy. He is also the co-founder of The Podium Foundation, working in partnership with Richmond Public Schools to support and advocate the teaching and practice of writing skills in the city’s high schools, and to create city-wide platforms of expression for RPS students.

Panelists

Helene Wagner is an accomplished, award-winning screenwriter and film teacher who, for a number of years, worked as a Writer’s Guild Literary Agent. Major Hollywood production companies optioned five of her screenplays, and her thriller, The Tenth Day, was in pre-production as a CBS movie of the week. She is also the founder and director of the Virginia Screenwriters’ Forum, now in its 21st year. Helene and her husband, Tom, working closely with the Virginia Film Office, created the Virginia Film Tours program, “Where Hollywood Meets History,” to introduce visitors to Virginia’s exciting history as a movie location. This fall, Helene is teaching a six-week Introduction to Screenwriting course and a Film Analysis Series at the University of Richmond’s School of Continuing Studies. The Film Analysis series is an excellent tool for the aspiring or advanced screenwriter, filmmaker, novelist, or playwright who wants to take their craft to a higher level, or for the cinema buff who loves to analyze and discuss great American movies.

Artisia Victoria Green, an Assistant Professor at the College of William and Mary, is an artist-activist whose creative conduits include directing, dramaturgy and writing. Her stage direction has been noted at ETA Creative Arts Foundation (Levee James, The Man Who Saved New Orleans), Chicago State University (227, Crowns, Yard Gal), Lehman College (…So Goes a Nation), Primary Stages – 45th Street Theatre (Harmonies of a Soul), Live Arts (Etchings of Soul Woman), Morgan State University (In the Blood), the SPARC/Theatre IV’s New Voices for the Theatre Festival, and the African-American Repertory Theatre (Hey Little Walter). Artisia was commissioned by Theatre IV to write A Woman Named Truth, a play about the life of Sojourner Truth. The work toured schools nationally from 2002-2004. She also wrote Me7 which was produced by Chicago State University Theatre. Recent dramaturgical credits include ETA Creative Arts Foundation’s productions of Herbert III and Contributions by Ted Shine and Daniel Beaty’s Tearing Down the Walls. She is an active member of the Black Theatre Network.

V. Mark Covington is the author of two novels, Bullfish and Heavenly Pleasure. His third novel, 2012 Montezuma’s Revenge, will be released this summer. His play Shakespeare in the Trailer Park debuted at the Barnstormers Theater in Philadelphia in April to glowing reviews. He holds a Bachelors degree in Organizational Behavior and a Masters degree in Industrial Psychology. Mark has worked as a banker, a college professor, a management consultant, an ice cream truck driver, a cemetery plot salesman, a state government bureaucrat and an information systems project manager. Mark lives in Richmond’s Museum District where he writes novels exploring the cosmically comical nature of the universe, the purpose of which is to create someone who lives in Richmond’s Museum District and writes novels exploring the cosmically comical nature of the universe.

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