Barbara Abercrombie has published novels, children’s picture books, and books of nonfiction. Her essays have appeared in national publications and in many anthologies. Her most recent books are Cherished: 21 Writers on Animals They’ve Loved & Lost; A Year of Writing Dangerously, which was chosen by Poets & Writers Magazine as one of the best books for writers. (http://www.pw.org/best-books-for-writers); and her fifteenth book, Kicking in the Wall, published by New World Library. She received the Outstanding Instructor Award and the Distinguished Instructor Award at UCLA Extension, where she teaches creative writing. She also conducts private writing retreats and blogs at www.barbaraabercrombie.com and www.TheIntimidatedCook.com. She lives in Santa Monica and Lake Arrowhead, California.
Sherry Amatenstein, Licensed Clinical Social Worker, is the author of several books, including The Complete Marriage Counselor: Relationship Saving Advice from America’s Top 50+ Couples Therapists, Love Lessons from Bad Breakups, and Q&A Dating Book. She runs relationship seminars around the country and works with patients in person and over the phone. She writes for many publications and websites and is frequently called upon to give love advice on national radio and TV programs including the Today Show, Early Show, NPR, CBS News, and Huffington Post Live. Her website is www.marriedfaq.com.
Regina Anavy was born in Minneapolis and received a BA in French Literature from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1965. She worked on voter registration with the Congress of Racial Equality, was involved in the womens’ movement in Washington, D.C., and traveled to Cuba with the Fourth Venceremos Brigade in 1971. Anavy is the author and editor of Larry’s Letters, a true story about a Jewish family in North Dakota (Hummingbird Press, 2005). Her memoir, Out of Cuba: Memoir of a Journey, was published by Cognitio Press in 2013. Her articles and essays have appeared in magazines, anthologies, and newspapers. Anavy is part of a worldwide network of volunteer translators for independent Cuban journalists who are censured in Cuba. She lives in San Francisco with her husband.
Chloe Caldwell is the author of the novella Women and the essay collection Legs Get Led Astray (Future Tense Books, 2012). Her work has appeared in VICE, Salon.com, The Sun, Men’s Health, Nylon, and The Rumpus. Her essays have been anthologized in Goodbye to All That: Writers on Loving and Leaving New York (Seal Press) and True Tales of Lust and Love (Soft Skull). She lives in Hudson, New York. Learn more at www.chloecaldwell.com.
Jimmy Camp is a father, husband, son of a preacher, political consultant, musician, and tattooed white-trash punk. He lives in Southern California with his wife, author Samantha Dunn; their six-year-old son, Ben; and their two horses, two dogs, cat, pig, and Silverstreak trailer. Jimmy enjoys reading, gardening, hiking, camping, mountain biking, skateboarding, drinking, cussing, fighting, and other general forms of mayhem.
Zoe FitzGerald Carter is a graduate of Columbia Journalism School and has written for numerous publications, including the New York Times, the San Francisco Chronicle, Vogue and Salon. Her memoir, Imperfect Endings (Simon & Schuster, 2011) chronicles her mother’s decision to end her life after living with Parkinson’s for many years. She lives in the Bay Area where she sings in a band, Do Wrong Right, and is a proud member of the San Francisco Writers Grotto. Details about her various classes and writing retreats can be found at: www.zoefitzgeraldcarter.com.
Debra LoGuerico DeAngelo is a columnist with McNaughton Newspapers, managing editor of the award-winning weekly newspaper Winters Express, and cofounder, coeditor, and CEO for iPinion Syndicate. She has received multiple first-place awards from the National Newspaper Association and California Newspaper Publishers Association for column writing and was the 2002 winner of the Front Porch Syndicate’s national column-writing talent search. She has served as judge for the California Newspaper Publishers Association for twenty-two years and has written a weekly column for twenty-four years, covering topics ranging from humor to politics to parenting and, from time to time, cats. Debra’s columns can be found at www.ipinionsyndicate.com. Read more at www.debradeangelo.com.
Marika Rosenthal Delan is a scientist/nurse by trade and an artist/freedom fighter by birth who once choreographed her little brother and his friends in a rousing rendition of Divo’s “Whip It,” as performed by Alvin and the Chipmunks. After a severe back injury sidelined Marika from nursing, she has found her happy place in writing, music, and her family. She is coauthoring a book with her husband, Pastor Peter Delan, about the profound ways in which his near-death experience changed the course of their lives (visit www.tolunitedministries.org for the complete backstory). Her work has been featured on Jennifer Pastiloff’s The Manifest-Station, Elephant Journal, and The Huffington Post. Visit her blog at www.bestillandstillmoving.com.
Hollye Dexter is author of the forthcoming memoir Fire Season (She Writes Press, 2015) and coeditor of the 2012 Seal Press anthology Dancing at the Shame Prom. Her essays and articles about women’s issues, activism, and parenting have been published in anthologies as well as in Maria Shriver’s Architects of Change, Huffington Post, The Feminist Wire and more. In 2003, she founded the award-winning nonprofit Art and Soul, running arts workshops for teenagers in the foster care system. She currently teaches writing workshops and works as an activist for gun violence prevention in Los Angeles, where she lives with her husband and a houseful of kids and pets. Visit her at www.hollyedexter.blogspot.com.
Beverly Donofrio, recently dubbed a master memoirist by the Daily Beast, has published three memoirs: the New York Times bestseller, Riding in Cars with Boys, which was made into a popular movie; Looking for Mary, a Barnes and Noble Discover pick; and Astonished, called “astonishing” by more than one reviewer. Her latest children’s book, Where’s Mommy, was selected as New York Times Best Children’s Book of 2014; she has written documentaries for NPR, and her essays have appeared in the New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, O, The Oprah Magazine, Marie Clair, More, Slate, among others, as well as in numerous anthologies. She is an instructor at Wilkes University’s low-residency MFA program and lives in Woodstock, New York, where she is working on an essay collection.
Beth Bornstein Dunnington is a writer, editor, singer/actor, and stage director who lives on the Big Island of Hawaii. She leads bimonthly women’s writing workshops, as well as the Big Island Writers’ Workshop. She wrote and performed the stage play Que Sueñes Con Las Angelitas, and cowrote the documentary film The Road To Q’ero: A Journey Home. Her essays have appeared in a number of anthologies, and she was a scriptwriter and story editor for animated TV series, including Tiny Tunes Adventures, Batman, GI Joe, Transformers, My Little Pony, Doug, Thundercats, and more. Beth is married to developer Steve Dunnington and has two kids, Marena and Sean. Read more at her blog: http://wakingupinhawaii.com.
Matt Ebert lives and works on a dairy farm in Sheshequin, Pennsylvania. He spent his life pursuing a variety of odd jobs in movies, technology, labor, agriculture, and now as a writer. The author is an activist for progressive politics, and a staunch advocate for healthcare reform, the environment, and workers’ rights. In 2014, he began publishing a blog in The Huffington Post. He is currently at work on his first novel.
Betsy Graziani Fasbinder’s debut novel, Fire & Water, was published by She Writes Press in 2013 with the audiobook released in 2014. Her works have been honored with the Floyd Salas Award for Fiction, a silver medal in the Wishing Shelf Book Awards, a Jack London Award, and two East of Eden Awards. “Search for the Silver Cup” is a memoir piece she wrote as part of a healing journey following the loss of her brother. Betsy is a psychotherapist, practicing for more than twenty-five years, and lives in Marin County, California, with her husband in their newly empty nest. Learn more at www.betsygrazianifasbinder.com.
Pam L. Houston is the author of two collections of linked short stories, Cowboys Are My Weakness and Waltzing the Cat; the novel, Sight Hound; a collection of essays, A Little More About Me; and her most recent novel, Contents May Have Shifted, all published by W.W. Norton. Her stories have been selected for Best American Short Stories, The O. Henry Awards, The 2013 Pushcart Prize, and Best American Short Stories of the Century. She is Professor of English at UC Davis, directs the literary nonprofit Writing by Writers, teaches in the low-residency MFA program at the Institute of American Indian and at writer’s conferences around the world. She lives on a ranch in Colorado near the headwaters of the Rio Grande. Visit her at https://pamhouston.wordpress.com or on Facebook and Twitter.
Mark S. King has written about his experiences living with HIV since he tested positive the week the HIV test became publicly available in 1985. His book, A Place Like This, is a personal chronicle of Hollywood, the phone sex trade, and the dawn of AIDS in Los Angeles during the 1980s. Mark attributes his thirty-year survival to AIDS activism, patient empowerment, the love of a good man, and double-chocolate brownies made from scratch. His writings and videos can be found on his award-winning blog www.MyFabulousDisease.com.
David Lacy began writing for a daily city newspaper when he was fifteen, covering county politics, features, and occasionally sports. In 2003, his weekly column, “Growing Younger,” won First Place in the California Newspaper Publishers Association’s Better Newspapers Contest. He has a BA in English from UC Davis and an MA in English from UC Irvine. He has written for multiple magazines and newspapers. He is a full-time writing specialist and former lecturer at UC Irvine and part-time Professor at Orange Coast College. He has also taught at CSU Long Beach. David is the cofounder of iPinionSyndicate.com, an online column and blogging site. The Northern California native now resides in Orange County, California, with his fiancée and two dogs.
Caroline Leavitt is the New York Times bestselling author of Is This Tomorrow and Pictures of You, and eight other novels. Pictures of You was on the Best Books of the Year from the San Francisco Chronicle, Bookmarks Magazine, The Providence Journal and Kirkus Reviews. Caroline teaches writing online at Stanford and UCLA Extension Writers Program and also works with private clients. A book critic for People, the Boston Globe, and the San Francisco Chronicle, she has also published essays and stories in the New York Times, Salon, More, Redbook, and various anthologies. She lives with her husband, the writer and editor Jeff Tamarkin, near New York City and has a college-age son. Visit her at www.carolineleavitt.com, on Twitter @leavittnovelist, and Facebook https://www.facebook.com/carolineleavitt.
Patti Linsky was a highly regarded Cantor at Temple Ahavat Shalom for over twenty-four years when a life-threatening condition forced her to retire. She embarked on a spiritual quest that led her to write a funny, poignant one-woman musical memoir, Altar EGO, which debuted in 2013. In addition to her show, Patti remains active in the Jewish community as a freelance Cantor officiating for Lifecycle events, performing in concerts, recording in the studio, and as visiting Artist-in-Residence throughout the country. Patti and her husband have two children and live in Los Angeles. Learn more at http://www.pattilinsky.com.
Karen Lynch was a Homicide Investigator for San Francisco Police Department, and prior to being promoted, she worked as a street patrol officer for nine years. After twenty-nine years of police work and a bout with breast cancer, she retired to become a full-time writer. Her 2014 memoir, Good Cop, Bad Daughter: Memoirs of an Unlikely Police Officer, tells the story of how being raised by a bipolar mother and a tribe of hippies provided her the perfect training to become a cop. She is a native San Franciscan, and proud UC Berkeley Cal Bear. She has been married to Greg for twenty-five years, with whom she has three children.
Lira Maywood holds a BA in Humanities and Creative Writing from The New School in New York City and has studied fiction and creative nonfiction writing at Columbia College of Chicago and the UCLA Extension Writer’s Program. Following her husband’s suicide in 2010, Lira started a blog (https://hourbeforedawn.wordpress.com) that chronicled her grief and gradual healing process. Her commitment to writing on the blog for a full year was also a promise to herself and her loved ones to keep going, no matter how dark her road to healing became. Her current blog, about caregiving for her mother with dementia, can be found at https://momentsandstories.wordpress.com. Lira lives in Los Angeles and is working on a full-length memoir.
C.O. Moed grew up on the Lower East Side of New York City when it was still a tough neighborhood. A recipient of the Elizabeth George grant for fiction, her short stories and dramatic works have been published in several anthologies and literary reviews. She chronicles brief moments and old memories that still survive in a disappearing city in the multimedia project, “IT WAS HER NEW YORK” at https://myprivateconey.blogspot.com. The rest of the time she works a day job and lives in New York City with her partner, fellow writer Ted Krever, and their two cats.
Mark Morgan is an American film and television producer. His credits include such commercial successes as The Wedding Planner, the Cody Banks franchise, The Riches, the Percy Jackson franchise, and the Twilight Saga franchise. He currently heads Mount Diablo Entertainment.
Linda Joy Myers is president of the National Association of Memoir Writers and has been a therapist for thirty-five years. She’s the award-winning author of Don’t Call Me Mother—A Daughter’s Journey from Abandonment to Forgiveness, The Power of Memoir—How to Write Your Healing Story, The Journey of Memoir and Becoming Whole—Writing Your Healing Story. Don’t Call Me Mother and Becoming Whole were finalists in the Foreword Magazine’s Book of the Year Award. Linda coteaches the program Write Your Memoir in Six Months, and offers editing and coaching for writers. Visit www.namw.org and http://memoriesandmemoirs.com for more information.
Christine Kehl O’Hagan is the author of Benediction at the Savoia, a novel, and the memoir The Book of Kehls. Both books received starred reviews in Kirkus Reviews, the latter a Kirkus Best Book of 2005 selection. Her essays have appeared in thirteen anthologies, the New York Times, Newsday, and several Long Island publications. She is a recipient of the Jerry Lewis Writing Award and a former writing instructor at Hofstra University. Christine lives on Long Island with her husband, Patrick, and is working on a second memoir.
Jennifer Pastiloff is a writer, yoga teacher, and creator of the popular website The Manifest-Station. Jennifer and her Manifest-Station workshops and retreats have been featured on Good Morning America and CBS News, and in New York magazine, Salon, The Rumpus, Oprah. com, and more. She studied poetry and writing at NYU and Bucknell University and is currently finishing her first book, Girl Power: You Are Enough. She lives with her husband in Los Angeles (when she’s not on an airplane), but you can find her online at jenniferpastiloff.com and on Twitter and Instagram as @jenpastiloff.
Angela M. Giles Patel’s work has appeared in The Healing Muse, The Nervous Breakdown and The Manifest-Station. She tweets as @domesticmuse, and when inspired, updates her blog at www.thenervousbreakdown.com. She lives in Massachusetts where she conquers the world, one day at a time.
Ruth Pennebaker’s most recent novel was Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakthrough, the story of three generations of women living under one roof. The author of six other books, Ruth was a columnist for the Dallas Morning News, and her work has appeared in the New York Times, Texas Monthly, and other national publications. She is currently working on Pucker Up! The Subversive Woman’s Guide to Aging with Wit, Wine, Drama, Humor, Perspective, and the Occasional Good Cry with artist Marian Henley. She lives in Austin with her mad-scientist husband and blogs at www.geezersisters.com.
Alexa Rosalsky is a sophomore at the College of William and Mary. She loves fencing, college, skiing, writing, reading, her family, her friends, linguistics, and making the world better (not necessarily in that order). She spent the summer after her freshman year working at an orphanage in Nepal and is the middle child between two brothers.
Elizabeth Rosner is a bestselling novelist, poet, and essayist living in Berkeley, California. Her first novel, The Speed of Light, was translated into nine languages and won several literary prizes. Her second novel, Blue Nude, was a San Francisco Chronicle Best Book of the Year. Her 2014 novel, Electric City, was among NPR’s Best Books of the Year and was released alongside her poetry collection, Gravity. Hers essays have appeared in the New York Times Magazine, Elle, the Forward, Hadassah Magazine, and several anthologies; her poems have been published by Poetry Magazine, Southern Poetry Review, and many others. She teaches writing workshops and lectures on contemporary literature. Her book reviews appear frequently in the San Francisco Chronicle and the Los Angeles Review of Books. Visit her at www.elizabethrosner.com.
Kathyn Rountree is a former radio and TV personality. Currently she has her own voiceover recording business and is the voice for companies all over the country. She is an advertising sales executive for Performance Santa Fe and is in the process of finishing her first screenplay. Katie is married and the mother of two children and lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
Kitty Sheehan is a former teacher, corporate trainer, consignment store owner, and graphic designer. Now a writer, editor, and photographer, she is the founder and director of the annual Dartbrook Writers Retreat in Keene, New York. She is also a freelance copywriter, social media editor, and consultant for several brands. Her resume makes her own head hurt. Kitty is a past contributor to Hudson Valley Magazine and, like almost everyone else she knows, is also working on a book. When she’s not writing, she makes jewelry and collages. Visit her at www.kittysheehan.com and on Twitter at @KittyASheehan.
Jenna Stone is a Fulbright Scholar and a former high school teacher. She is a published author/digital artist, a cohost of the radio show “You’ve Got Moxie,” a columnist for iPinion, and a Creative Regressionist for CreateShops. She currently hangs her hat on a tall Saguaro in Arizona. Visit her at www.linkedin.com/in/jstonesquared.
judywhite is the award-winning author and photographer of several nonfiction books, including the encyclopedia, Taylor’s Guide to Orchids (Houghton Mifflin). Principal photographer at GardenPhotos.com, she has thousands of photo credits in major magazines, books, and the advertising world. A former research neurobiologist, judywhite began her writing career as a humor columnist for Seventeen Magazine. Her first screenplay, Lies I Told My Little Sister, dealing with the aftermath of the death of her older sister, has been made into an award-winning drama-comedy feature film, to be released in 2015. Visit the website at www.liesitoldmylittlesister.com
Samantha White’s writing career began when she wrote, directed, and starred in her sixth-grade class play, “A Christmas in France.” She had never visited France nor met anyone who had but felt confident in her project because she knew the word “crèche.” Samantha studied creative writing with Joseph Heller and Kurt Vonnegut and developed writer’s block when they both offered to introduce her to their agents. She participated in the Emerging Playwrights series at Theater Rhinoceros in San Francisco. Her work has been produced in New York, London, San Francisco, and if you count the French play, North Carolina. She is currently working on a book trilogy for tweens.