Exceptional workshops led by amazing writers
The Writer’s Center has been sharing the craft of writing for nearly 50 years, and we couldn’t do that without the outstanding writers who lead our workshops.
Our instructors have won awards, published bestsellers, and achieved the highest levels of literary success. They’re ready to share their best tips and tools with you.
Fiction
Aaron Hamburger
Aaron Hamburger is the author of the story collection The View From Stalin's Head winner of the Rome Prize in Literature, and the novels Faith For Beginners (a Lambda Literary Award nominee), Nirvana is Here (winner of a Bronze Medal in the 2019 Foreword Indie Awards), and Hotel Cuba, forthcoming from HarperCollins in July 2023. His writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Chicago Tribune, Tin House, Crazyhorse, Boulevard, Poets & Writers, and O, the Oprah Magazine and many others. He teaches writing at the George Washington University and the Stonecoast MFA Program in creative writing.
Poetry
Abdul Ali
Abdul Ali is a poet, teacher, and nonprofit consultant. He is the author of Trouble Sleeping, his debut collection of poems that won the 2014 New Issues Poetry Book Prize and is the current Editor-at-Large of Pleiades. He has published his poems in numerous journals and publications including Copper Nickel, Plume, and Transition. He has taught writing at MICA, Johns Hopkins University, and Howard University. More about him at abdulali.net. Follow him on social media at @abdulalism.
Fiction
Afabwaje Kurian
Afabwaje Kurian received her MFA from the Iowa Writers' Workshop. Her short fiction has appeared in Callaloo, Crazyhorse, The Bare Life Review, Joyland Magazine, and McSweeney’s Quarterly Concern. She has received residencies from Ucross, Vermont Studio Center, and Ragdale and has taught creative writing at the University of Iowa and for the International Writing Program. She is currently at work on her debut novel. afabwaje.com
Songwriting
Al Basile
Poet/playwright, singer/songwriter and cornet player, Al Basile is known to blues fans world wide, with 19 solo albums and 8 nominations for Blues Music Awards. He has taught his song lyric writing course in person at the West Chester poetry conference and online at Newburyport Adult and Community Education.
Translation
Allison A. deFreese
Allison A. deFreese is a National Endowment for the Arts Literature Translation Fellow whose recent literary translations include María Negroni’s Elegy for Joseph Cornell (Dalkey Archive Press); José Moreno Hernández’s Soaring to New Heights: Memoir of a Child Migrant Farmworker Who Became a NASA Astronaut (Renuevo); Verónica González Arredondo’s Green Fires of the Spirits (Benemérita Universidad Autónoma de Puebla's University Press), and Karla Marrufo's Flame Trees in May DAP with Deep Vellum Publishing.
Poetry
Ann Quinn
Ann Quinn’s chapbook, Final Deployment, was published by Finishing Line Press (2018). Her poetry has appeared in journals including Poet Lore, Potomac Review, Little Patuxent Review, and Broadkill Review. Ann holds an MFA from Pacific Lutheran University, and is poetry editor for Yellow Arrow Journal. More about her at annquinn.net.
Poetry
Annie Przypyszny
Annie Przypyszny is a poet from Washington, DC. She is an Assistant Editor for Grace and Gravity and has poems published in The Northern Virginia Review, Jet Fuel Review, Watershed Review, The Healing Muse, North Dakota Quarterly, Tupelo Quarterly, Ponder Review, SWWIM, Lines + Stars, and others.
Fiction
Basil Sylvester
Basil Sylvester is the co-author of 2021 Lambda Finalist The Fabulous Zed Watson! (HarperCollins CA), and the forthcoming Night of the Living Zed (Jan. 2024, HarperCollins CA). They are a bookseller and freelance editor based in Toronto, Canada.
Nonfiction
Beth Kanter
Beth Kanter is the author of six books about Washington DC, including her latest, No Access DC. Beth’s essays and articles have appeared in a range of national newspapers, magazines, and online publications. She earned her MSJ from Northwestern’s Medill School of Journalism and has been leading Boot Camp for Writers for almost ten years.
Genre
Buku Sarkar
Buku Sarkar is a fiction writer and photographer based in New York. Her first book was published in 2023, a collection of short stories titled Not Quite A Disaster After All. BShe has written for various magazines including NYRB, NYTimes, Sewanee Review, where she received the Andrew Lytle Prize for the best story of the year, Threepenny Review, ZYZZYVA, Fence, and N+1.
Fiction
C Pam Zhang
C Pam Zhang is the author of the bestselling How Much of These Hills Is Gold and Land of Milk and Honey. She is a National Book Award 5 Under 35 Honoree. How Much of These Hills Is Gold was a New York Times, Washington Post, and NPR Notable Book of the Year; one of Barack Obama’s favorite books; and won the Asian/Pacific Award for Literature, the American Academy of Arts and Letters Rosenthal Award, and the California First Fiction Prize. Hills was also nominated for the Booker Prize and a finalist for over half a dozen other prizes, including the PEN/Hemingway Award, the National Book Critics’ John Leonard Prize, and the Center For Fiction First Novel Prize. Zhang’s writing appears in Best American Short Stories, The Cut, The New Yorker, and The New York Times. She is the recipient of fellowships from MacDowell, Civitella Ranieri, and the New York Public Library. Her work has been translated into twelve languages.
Fiction, Kid Lit
Caela Carter
Caela Carter is the author of eight novels for children and young adults including Forever or a Long Long Time and Me Him Them and It. She is a Charlotte Huck Award Honoree and has been listed on the ALA notable book list. She holds an MFA in Writing for Children and a Masters in Education.
Genre
Cara Seitchek
Cara Seitchek has written grant proposals for local, state, and national nonprofit organizations. She has also evaluated proposals for the Institute of Museum and Library Services, U.S. Department of Education Teaching American History program, American Association of Museums, and the Maryland State Arts Council. She has an M.A. in writing from The Johns Hopkins University.
Fiction
Carol Mitchell
Carol Mitchell is the author of the upcoming novel What Start Bad a Mornin' and eighteen books for children, including three published by HarperCollins UK. She holds an MFA, is a fellow of the Virginia Center for Creative Arts, and teaches writing at George Mason and George Washington Universities.
Fiction
Caroline Bock
Caroline Bock's debut short story collection, Carry Her Home, was the winner of the 2018 Fiction Award from the Washington Writers' Publishing House (now also available on Audible and ITunes). She is also the author of the acclaimed young adult novels: Lie and Before My Eyes from St. Martin's Press. Educated at Syracuse University, where she studied creative writing with Raymond Carver, she also earned in 2011 an MFA in Fiction from The City College of New York. Currently, she is at work on a new novel. More about her at carolinebockauthor.com.
Genre
Carolyn Clark
Carolyn Clark, PhD Classics, was born in Ithaca, NY and often lived abroad. She is the author of Poet Duet: A Mother and Daughter (2019); Choosing Lethe (2017); New Found Land (2017); Mnemosyne: the Long Traverse (2013) and has four poems in the Covid-19 anthology When the Virus Came Calling.
Screenwriting, Mixed Genre
Chris Lilly
Chris helps screenwriters and authors emotionally center themselves whenever they're writing so they can create for their hearts and impact their readers. He lives in Los Angeles and has worked in the entertainment industry for 15+ years.
Genre
Christian McEwen
Christian McEwen is a freelance writer and cultural activist, originally from the UK. Publications include World Enough & Time: On Creativity and Slowing Down and Legal Tender: Women & the Secret Life of Money. Her latest book is In Praise of Listening: A Gathering of Stories. More about her at: www.christianmcewen.com
Fiction, Nonfiction
Christine Koubek Flynn
Christine Koubek Flynn’s stories have appeared in The Washington Post; Poets & Writers; Brain, Child; Washingtonian, Bethesda, Arlington, and more. Her essays and profiles have received awards from the American Society of Journalists and Authors. Her fiction has appeared in Chautauqua and Hypertext and received a 2021 Elizabeth George Foundation grant as well as residencies from the Ragdale Foundation and the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts. She holds an MFA in Creative Writing from Fairfield University.
Fiction, Nonfiction
Christopher Linforth
Christopher Linforth's latest book is The Distortions (Orison Books, 2022). Recently, he has been awarded fellowships to the Ragdale Foundation, VCCA, BAU Institute at the Camargo Foundation, Tyrone Guthrie Centre, Kone Foundation, Sitka Center, and Château de Lavigny. He holds an MFA from Virginia Tech. He has published fiction and nonfiction in dozens of literary magazines, including The Millions, Gargoyle, Southern Humanities Review, The Rumpus, Notre Dame Review, Denver Quarterly, and many others. He has been awarded fellowships and scholarships to the Sewanee Writers’ Conference, Vermont Studio Center, and the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts.
Genre
Clarisse Baleja Saidi
Clarisse Baleja Saïdi received her MFA from the University of Michigan’s Helen Zell Writers’ Program and was a 2022-2023 fiction fellow at the Fine Arts Work Center. Her work has appeared in The Kenyon Review, The Fiddlehead, and Poetry magazine, among others. She’s received residencies from MacDowell, Yaddo, Hedgebrook, ART OMI, the Vermont Studio, and more, as well as grants and prizes in support of her fiction and nonfiction. Visit her at www.clarissebalejasaidi.com
Poetry
Claudia Gary
Claudia Gary’s villanelles, sonnets, and other metrical poems appear in journals and anthologies internationally. (For examples online, see: https://duckduckgo.com/?q=
Fiction
Cleo Qian and Jenzo DuQue-French
Cleo Qian is the author of the short story collection LET'S GO LET'S GO LET'S GO, out from Tin House in August 2023.
Jenzo DuQue-French is the Best American Short Story-winning author of the short story collection THE REST OF US, forthcoming from Viking.
Fiction
Courtney Eldridge
Over the past 20 years, Courtney Eldridge has published two novels, The Generosity of Women and Ghost Signs, and Unkempt, a short story collection. Record à battre, the translation of her first novella, “The Former World Record Holder Settles Down,” received France’s Prix du Marais in 2006 and was profiled in Vogue Paris. Eldridge’s work also appears in BOMB: The Author Interviews and The Better of McSweeney’s, Volume 1.
Poetry
Courtney LeBlanc
Courtney LeBlanc is the author of Exquisite Bloody, Beating Heart (Riot in Your Throat, 2021) and Beautiful & Full of Monsters (Vegetarian Alcoholic Press, 2020). She is a winner of the Jack McCarthy book prize and her next collection of poetry will be published by Write Bloody in spring 2023.
Genre
Curated Conversation(s)
Curated Conversation(s): a Latinx Poetry Show is a virtual discussion series pairing Latinx poets from the United Kingdom and United States for a deep dive into their poetry.
Poetry
Dan Brady
Dan Brady is the author of the poetry collections Strange Children (2018), Subtexts (2022), and Songs in E——, winner of the Barclay Prize for Poetry, forthcoming from Trnsfr Books (2022), along with two poetry chapbooks. He is the poetry editor of Barrelhouse, a magazine and small press based in Washington, DC. Previously, Brady served as the editor of American Poets, the journal of the Academy of American Poets, and worked in the Literature Division at the National Endowment for the Arts, where he received a Distinguished Service Award for his work on the Big Read, the largest community reading initiative in US history. Learn more at danbrady.org.
Fiction
Dana Cann
Dana Cann is the author of the novel Ghosts of Bergen County (Tin House). His short stories have been published in The Sun, The Massachusetts Review, The Gettysburg Review, The Florida Review, and elsewhere. He’s received awards from the Maryland State Arts Council, Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation, and The Sewanee Writers Conference. He also teaches in the MA in Writing program at Johns Hopkins.
Fiction
Dave Tevelin
Dave Tevelin has written four historical novels about crime in DC, the latest of which is Three Dead In Starbucks. A GW Law School graduate, he was an attorney at the Department of Justice and the Executive Director of the State Justice Institute before becoming an author.
Genre
David Hicks, PhD
David Hicks is an award-winning professor/Creative Writing Director at the nationally ranked Wilkes University MFA graduate program and the author of two novels--White Plains (Bower House Books) and The Gospel According to Danny (forthcoming, Vine Leaves Press)--along with an autobiographical children's book, The Magic Ticket (Fulcrum Books), all of which were drafted using the lesson of this workshop. An experienced developmental editor, David has helped over sixty writers to be published for the first time.
Fiction, Poetry
DeMisty D. Bellinger
DeMisty D. Bellinger is the author of the novel New to Liberty, and the poetry collections Peculiar Heritage and Rubbing Elbows. Her writing can also be found in journals and anthologies, in print and online. DeMisty has an MFA from Southampton College and a PhD from the University of Nebraska.
Nonfiction
Diana Parsell
Diana Parsell is the author of Eliza Scidmore: The Trailblazing Journalist Behind Washington’s Cherry Trees (Oxford University Press, March 2023). She has worked as a journalist, science writer and editor for a wide range of publications and nonprofits in Washington and Southeast Asia. See more on her website at dianaparsell.com.
Fiction
Diane Zinna
Diane Zinna is the author of The All-Night Sun (Random House, 2020), which was longlisted for The Center for Fiction’s First Novel Prize and the Cabell First Novelist Award. She received her MFA from the University of Florida and worked for ten years at AWP, the Association of Writers Writing Programs, which hosts the largest literary conference in North America each year. In 2014, Diane created the Writer to Writer Mentorship Program, helping to match more than six hundred writers over twelve seasons. Her new craft book on the art of telling our hardest stories, Letting Grief Speak, is forthcoming from Columbia University Press in 2024 and is based onher work teaching a free class, Grief Writing Sundays, for past three years. Meet her there or online at www.dianezinna.com.
Nonfiction
Elizabeth Chang
Elizabeth Chang is a freelance journalist and a Professional Writing instructor at the University of Maryland. Her 30-year career at The Washington Post included a long stint in Features, where she was an editor in the Sunday Magazine before serving as Wellness editor and Deputy Travel editor. Many of the narratives, trend stories and service stories she edited were written by freelancers. She is collaborating on a book about puberty to be published by an imprint of HarperCollins in 2025.
Fiction
Elizabeth Poliner
Elizabeth Poliner’s books include the novel, As Close to Us as Breathing (Little, Brown), winner of the Janet Heidinger Kafka Prize in Fiction and an Amazon Best Book, and Mutual Life & Casualty, linked stories. She’s published fiction in Kenyon Review, TriQuarterly, Story, Michigan Quarterly Review, and many other journals.
Genre
Emily DeDakis
Dr Emily DeDakis (Ireland/USA) is a writer & dramaturg. She’s developed dozens of scripts and performances on both sides of the Atlantic, and taught playwriting at Queen’s University Belfast, Ulster University, the Lyric Theatre, Grand Opera House, and Fighting Words NI’s Young Playwrights programme. Her writing has been broadcast on BBC television and radio.
Poetry
Emily Holland
Emily Holland (she/they) is a genderqueer lesbian writer. Their poems appear in publications including HAD, Shenandoah, Black Warrior Review, and the chapbook Lineage. They are the recipient of multiple fellowships from DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities. She is the editor of Poet Lore and an adjunct instructor at GWU.
Genre
Emily Jon Tobias
Emily Jon Tobias is an American author and poet with her debut story collection, MONARCH, forthcoming by Black Lawrence Press in May, 2024. She is an award-winning writer whose work has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize, along with other honorable mentions, and has been featured in literary journals such as Santa Clara Review, Talking River Review, Flying South Literary Journal, Furrow Literary Journal, The Opiate Magazine, The Ocotillo Review, Jerry Jazz Musician, Typehouse Literary Magazine, Tahoma Literary Review, Big Muddy, Spoon Knife, Peauxdunque Review, and elsewhere. Midwestern-raised, she now lives and writes on the coast of Southern California. She holds an MFA in Writing from Pacific University Oregon.
Nonfiction
Eric Lichtblau
Eric Lichtblau is a two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and best-selling author of The Nazis Next Door: How America Became a Safe Haven for Hitler's Men; as well as Bush’s Law: The Remaking of American Justice; and Return to the Reich: A Holocaust Refugee's Secret Mission to Defeat the Nazis. He is currently working on a book on the alarming surge in hate crimes and white supremacy in America. He was a Washington reporter for the New York Times for 15 years and has also written for The New Yorker and other publications.
Fiction
Eva Langston
Eva Langston received her MFA from the University of New Orleans and is represented by O’Conner Literary. Her short stories have won prizes (such as The Playboy Fiction Contest) and been nominated for the Pushcart Prize. She is currently revising a YA supernatural thriller.
Nonfiction, Mixed Genre
GG Renee Hill
GG Renee Hill is an author and workshop facilitator who helps others discover and express their truths through writing. She brings her experience as a memoirist and creative coach to the books, courses, and workshops she offers on her website, allthemanylayers.com. Through her offerings, she advocates for self-discovery and creative expansion through writing, as she provides safe spaces for others to own their voices and tell their stories. GG has hosted workshops for a diverse variety of organizations including The Writer's Center, The Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh, The Recording Academy, BAE Systems, Inc., Maryland Citizens for the Arts, REWRITE London, and Scottish BAME Writers’ Network.
Nonfiction
Ginny Barnes
Ginny Barnes is an artist and environmental advocate. She has published several articles on trees and nature. In particular for the magazine Plenty which sings the praises of Montgomery County's 93,000 acre agricultural reserve. She also serves as Vice-chair of Conservation Montgomery and has written several pieces on nature for their website: conservationmontgomery.org
Fiction
Hananah Zaheer
Hananah Zaheer is the author of Lovebirds (Bull City Press, 2021), a professor and a freelance developmental editor. She received her MFA from the University of Maryland and has taught writing for over twelve years in the Middle East and the United States. She is a fiction editor for Los Angeles Review, a senior editor for SAAG: A dissident literary anthology and currently, a guest editor for SmokeLong Quarterly. She is the founder of Dubai Literary Salon, a reading series, which also offers lectures and workshops. You can find her at hananahzaheer.com or on Twitter @hananahzaheer.
Mixed Genre
Hank Wallace
Hank Wallace, a Columbia Law School graduate, was a government reporter for New Jersey's Middletown Courier and Red Bank Daily Register, and the assistant director of law-school publishing for Matthew Bender. He wrote the FCC's plain-language newsletter and newswriting tips for the Radio Television Digital News Association. For more information about Hank Wallace, visit his website at: hankwallace.com.
Fiction, Nonfiction
Hannah Grieco
Hannah Grieco is a writer, editor, and teacher in Washington, DC. Her work can be found in a variety of literary and freelance publications, including The Washington Post, Al Jazeera, Huffington Post, Brevity, The Rumpus, Passages North, Fairy Tale Review and more. Her writing has been nominated for The Pushcart Prize, Best of the Net, Best Small Fictions, and Best Microfiction, and has been selected for the Wigleaf Top 50. She teaches writing at American University and The Writer's Center, is an editor at Alan Squire Publishing, and is the editor of the anthologies Already Gone (Alan Squire Publishing, 2023) And If That Mockingbird Don’t Sing: Parenting Stories Gone Speculative (Alternating Current Press, 2022).
Fiction
Hildie Block
Hildie S. Block's work has appeared in Gargoyle, Cortland Review, Washington Post, Salon, Literary Taxidermy, Porcupine Literary, Queer Sci Fi, Haunted MTL, 0-Dark-30, and in many anthologies.
Poetry
Indran Amirthanayagam
Indran is a poet with a global reach, writing and publishing in French, Spanish, Portuguese, Haitian Creole as well as English. He edits Beltway Poetry Quarterly; publishes at Beltway Editions; and hosts youtube.com/user/indranam. He has published 23 books. Indran has been nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature. He writes poems weekly for Haiti en Marche and El Acento. He has fellowships from the Foundation for Contemporary Arts, NY Foundation for the Arts, US/Mexico Fund for Culture, the MacDowell Colony.
Nonfiction
James Alexander
James Alexander has more than 30 years experience writing professionally, including stints as a political speechwriter at the Cabinet level. After earning a B.A. in Journalism at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, he worked as a bylined newspaper reporter at The Charlotte Observer and The Atlanta Journal-Constitution and also interned at The Washington Post. He later served on Capitol Hill as a U.S. Congressional Fellow and then worked as a Hill press secretary which involved writing lots of speeches and op-eds. As a ghostwriter, James penned dozens of op-eds for political figures with publications in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, USA Today, and The Washington Post, among others. He works full-time in media relations and still writes.
Fiction
Javed Jahangir
Javed Jahangir’s fiction has been published in LUMINA Literary Journal (Sarah Lawrence College), HIMAL Magazine, Smokelong Journal, LOST Magazine, Bengal Lights Journal, Six Seasons Review, Daily Star, Bangladesh, and others. He was on the 2011 panel of judges for the RISCA (Rhode Island State Council Arts) Fiction Fellowship award. He was part of Jenna Blum’s Master Class at Grub Street. He has contributed to, and been editor-in-chief for The Grub Street Writers’ 10 year Anthology, and has been a reader for the Harvard Review. His novel, Ghost Alley, was published by Bengal Foundation Publishing, and debuted at the Hay Festival in 2014. Ghost Alley was reviewed in Wasafiri Journal. He is currently working on a second novel, and a collection of short stories.
Genre
Jen Buxton
Jennifer Buxton has an MFA from the University of Virginia. Her stories have appeared in Epoch, Puerto del Sol, Blue Penny Quarterly, and Dr. TJ Eckleberg Review. She has taught at the University of Virginia and the Young Writers Workshop, and coaches high school seniors on the college application essay.
Public Speaking, Performance
Jennifer Hamady
Jennifer Hamady is a voice coach and therapist specializing in technical and emotional issues that interfere with self-expression, and the author of three books on musical and personal performance. Jennifer writes regularly for Psychology Today on matters of creative expression and frequently presents workshops and master classes on the same. More about her at FindingYourVoice.com.
Poetry, Nonfiction
Jenny Sadre-Orafai
Jenny Sadre-Orafai is a poet and essayist and the author of Dear Outsiders and three other poetry collections. Her poetry has appeared in Puerto del Sol, Cream City Review, Ninth Letter, and The Cortland Review. Her prose has appeared in The Rumpus, Fourteen Hills, and The Los Angeles Review. She co-founded and co-edits Josephine Quarterly and teaches creative writing at Kennesaw State University.
Poetry
Jodie Hollander
Jodie Hollander, originally from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, was raised in a family of classical musicians. She studied poetry in England, and her poems have appeared in journals such as The Poetry Review, The Yale Review, PN Review, The Dark Horse, The New Criterion, The Rialto, Verse Daily, The Best Australian Poems of 2011, and The Best Australian Poems of 2015. Her debut full-length collection, My Dark Horses, is published with Liverpool University Press (Pavilion Poetry) in the UK and Oxford University Press in the US.
Fiction
John DeDakis
Novelist and writing coach John DeDakis is a former editor on CNN's "The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer." DeDakis is the author of five mystery-suspense novels. His fourth novel, Bullet in the Chamber, is the winner of Reviewers Choice, Foreword INDIES, and Feathered Quill book awards. In his most recent novel, Fake, protagonist Lark Chadwick is a White House correspondent trying to walk the line between personal feelings and dispassionate objectivity in the era of “fake news” and #MeToo. More about him at johndedakis.com.
Poetry
John-Michael Bloomquist
John-Michael Bloomquist lives in DC with his wife, son, and their needy black cat. He is the author of Rocket Celestial (White Stag, 2023). His poetry has been published in Heavy Feather Review, The Michigan Quarterly Review, and Third Coast, among others.
Genre
Jonathan Roth
Jonathan Roth writes and illustrates the graphic novel series Rover and Speck (Kids Can Press, 2022+), the chapter book series Beep and Bob (Aladdin/S&S, 2018+) and the upcoming non-fiction picture book Almost Underwear (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, 2024). He lives in Rockville and teaches elementary art.
Poetry
Jose Hernandez Diaz
Jose Hernandez Diaz was born in Anaheim, CA (1984). He is a 2017 NEA Poetry Fellow. He is the author of a collection of prose poems: The Fire Eater (Texas Review Press, 2020). His work has appeared in The American Poetry Review, Boulevard, Cincinnati Review, Colorado Review, Georgia Review, Huizache, Iowa Review, The Nation, Poetry, POETS.org, The Southern Review, Yale Review, and in The Best American Nonrequired Reading. He has been a finalist for The Andrés Montoya Poetry Prize, The Colorado Prize, The Akron Prize, The Journal/Wheeler Prize, The Wisconsin Series, and The National Poetry Series. Currently, he is an editor at Frontier Poetry. Additionally, he teaches creative writing for various organizations, including Beyond Baroque, Litro Magazine, The Writer's Center, and elsewhere. His next poetry collection, Bad Mexican, Bad American, will be published in 2024 by Acre Books.
Genre
Joyce Winslow
Joyce Winslow served as OP ED/Commentary Editor of the nonprofit, non-partisan RAND Corporation. She has written and successfully pitched about 100 OP EDs to The Washington Post, The Wall St. Journal, USA TODAY, and many other mainstream newspapers for corporate, nonprofit, and political clients; and published a dozen OP EDs under her own byline.
Genre
Jubi Arriola-Headley
Jubi Arriola-Headley (he/him) is a Black queer poet, storyteller, first-generation United Statesian and author of the poetry collections original kink (Sibling Rivalry Press, 2020), recipient of the 2021 Housatonic Book Award, and Bound (Persea Books, 2024). He’s currently at work on a collection of essays, an excerpt of which won the 2023 First Pages Prize. Jubi lives with his husband in South Florida, on ancestral Tequesta, Miccosukee, and Seminole lands.
Poetry
Judith Harris
Judith Harris is the author of three poetry books, Atonement, The Bad Secret, and Night Garden (LSU and Tiger Bark) and two critical books on poetry and psychoanalysis Signifying Pain: Constructing and Healing the Self through Writing and The Poetry of Loss: Romantic and Contemporary Elegies (SUNY Press, Routledge Press) Her poems have appeared in The Nation, The Atlantic, The New Republic, The Hudson Review, Ploughshares, North American Review, Image, Alaska Quarterly Review, Literary Matters, Poetry East, Terrain, “American Life in Poetry,” American Academy of Poets Poem-a-day, Poetry Foundation’s Poem of the Day, NPR and Verse Daily. Her articles have appeared in AWP Chronicle, The British Journal of Psychoanalysis, the American Journal of Psychoanalysis, The Washingtonian, The Canadian Journal of Psychoanalysis, Midwest Quarterly, and Green Mountains Review.
Genre
Julia Tagliere
Julia Tagliere’s work has appeared in The Writer, Potomac Review, Gargoyle Magazine, and numerous anthologies. She completed her MA in Writing at Johns Hopkins University, and in 2017, won The Writer’s Center’s Undiscovered Voices Fellowship. She serves as an editor with The Baltimore Review. More about her at justscribbling.com.
Publishing
Katherine Pickett
Katherine Pickett is the owner of POP Editorial Services LLC (popediting.net), where she provides copy editing, proofreading, and developmental editing to authors and publishers across the country. She is also the author of the award-winning book Perfect Bound: How to Navigate the Book Publishing Process Like a Pro, the booklet Freelancing as a Business: 7 Steps to Take Before Launch Day, and several ebooks. Her personal essay “Dented” was published by Lowestoft Chronicle and selected for the 2011 Lowestoft Chronicle print anthology. Her articles have appeared on Publishing Perspectives, JaneFriedman.com, Writer Beware, IBPA Independent, and elsewhere in print and around the web. She lives in Silver Spring, Maryland, with her husband, Chris, and their two awe-inspiring daughters.
Fiction
Kathryn Johnson
Kathryn Johnson's 40+ popular novels (nominated for the Agatha Award, winner of the Heart of Excellence and Bookseller's Best Awards), include historical fiction (e.g., The Gentleman Poet, wherein Shakespeare escapes to the New World aboard a ship bound for disaster) and contemporary suspense. The Extreme Novelist (nonfiction) is the text based on her courses at The Smithsonian Associates and The Writer's Center. More about her at KathrynJohnsonLLC.com.
Kid Lit
Kathy MacMillan
Kathy MacMillan (she/her) is the author of nearly two dozen traditionally-published books for children, teens, and adults, including the Little Hands Signing series, The Runaway Shirt, She Spoke: 14 Women Who Raised Their Voices and Changed the World, and Compton Crook Award finalist Sword and Verse. More about her at kathymacmillan.com.
Nonfiction
Kenneth D. Ackerman
Kenneth D. Ackerman has authored five commercially-published books of Americana (including his most recent, Trotsky in New York, 1917) plus dozens of articles, posts, and a recent screenplay. He has practiced law in DC since the 1970s, including senior posts on Capitol Hill and in two Administrations. He lives in Falls Church with his wife Karen.
Screenwriting
Khris Baxter
Khris Baxter is a screenwriter and producer and the co-founder of Lost Mountain Entertainment. Baxter co-produced Above the Shadows (2019), starring Olivia Thirlby, Alan Ritchson, Jim Gaffigan, and Megan Fox, and is currently co-producing Out of Darkness, written and directed by Claudia Myers and starring Mary-Louise Parker and Emile Hirsch. As a writer-producer, Baxter is currently developing a slate of TV projects targeting streaming networks and premium cable. Baxter has been a screenwriter and script consultant for more than two decades. He teaches screenwriting at Dickinson College and The MFA in Creative Writing at Queens University of Charlotte. He’s been a judge for the annual Virginia Screenwriting Competition since 2004.
Fiction
Lacey N. Dunham
Lacey N. Dunham’s writing has been nominated to the Best American Short Stories and appears in Ploughshares, Witness, The Normal School, and Southwest Review, among others. She is a 2023 Arts Fellow with the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities. Lacey has been an editor for five different literary journals and multiple anthologies, served as a judge for the Minnesota Book Awards, and currently edits for Necessary Fiction and Story
Fiction, Nonfiction, Memoir
Laura J. Oliver
Laura J. Oliver, MFA, is a story development editor, newspaper columnist, NPR contributor, and writing mentor who has taught at the University of Maryland and St. John’s College. The author of The Story Within (Penguin Random House), Oliver teaches others to write successful short stories, novels, memoirs, and personal essays. Oliver's work appears in national publications such as The Washington Post, Country Living Magazine, The Writer Magazine, The Sun Magazine. Her editing clients have landed book contracts with publishers such as Simon and Schuster. Oliver won a Maryland Arts Council Award in Fiction, is an Anne Arundel County Literary Arts Award winner, and her work has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize.
Poetry
Laura Lannan
Laura Lannan is a recent graduate of the MFA program at American University where she received the Myra Sklarew Award for outstanding poetry thesis. Her work has been published or is forthcoming in THAT Literary Review, Burnt Pine Magazine, The Blood Pudding, and Prometheus Dreaming. A lover of horror movies, libraries, and heavy metal music, she lives in Washington DC with her partner.
Nonfiction
Lindsey Van Wagner
Lindsey Van Wagner is a writer, speaker, teacher, and lifestyle guide known for empowering clients to live with more intention and higher creativity. She has written for American University and Pathways Magazine and is passionate about health and wellness and she incorporates her personal story to help others transform.
Mixed Genre
Lisa Jan Sherman
Lisa Jan Sherman is an actor and improvisational acting and cognitive skills coach and team-builder. She has been a member of AFTRA and SAG for over 35 years and has performed, on stage, television, film and radio. Lisa received a B.A. in Theatre and Speech from University of Maryland. She is a founding member of NOW THIS! the totally improvised, musical comedy troupe which had a 27-year run. Facilitating communication skills groups with children since 1995, and finding that the improvisational 'piece' created a natural basis for social skill development, Lisa co-developed the 'Act As If' program and with Laura McAlpine co-wrote 'ACT AS IF' (improvisational activities for better social communication).
Nonfiction
Liz Tracy
Liz Tracy is a culture and health journalist. She started her career as a nightlife and arts blogger. She’s since contributed to The New York Times, The Atlantic, Glamour, No Depression, and many other publications. Liz was a music editor at an alt weekly and managing editor at Tom Tom, a magazine about female and nonbinary drummers. Liz taught essay writing at Boston’s Grub Street, ghost wrote two books, and writes for major arts and social justice organizations.
Genre
Lorin Drexler
Lorin Drexler is an American poet, fiction writer, musician, songwriter, and music producer. Currently residing in Phoenix, Arizona, and originally from Chicago, he graduated from Columbia College with a bachelor's degree in creative writing. His work has appeared in Vine Leaves Literary Journal, Apocrypha and Abstractions, Maudlin House, and others.
Fiction, Nonfiction
Lynn Auld Schwartz
Lynn Auld Schwartz is a writer, story development editor for fiction and nonfiction works, and has ghostwritten three books. Her plays and staged readings have been performed in Atlanta and NYC, including Lincoln Center. She founded the Temple Bar Literary Reading Series in NYC, has received two Individual Artist Awards in Fiction from the Maryland State Arts Council, and an Annie Literary Arts Award from the Arts Council of Anne Arundel County. Her stories have appeared in literary journals and she produces and directs a Page To Stage series, which offers teen and adult regional writers the opportunity to perform their life stories on stage. A graduate of The City College of New York, Columbia University, and The Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theater, Schwartz has taught fiction, flash fiction, and memoir at St. John’s College, The Writer’s Center, and is a Writing Guest Artist for Anne Arundel County’s Performing and Visual Arts Magnet program. More about her at writerswordhouse.com.
Genre
Margaret Coan
Margaret is the author of two published books. Writing is Margaret’s life raft, a safe place for discovery. She loves to share this gift with others and encourage them to write their stories and discover its power and joy. As an instructor Margaret’s focus is on process and exploration. More about her at: sacredlisteninghealing.com.
Genre
Marija Stajic
Marija Stajic is a Public Affairs Officer currently working for the Federal Government. Her short stories have been published in many literary journals (Prairie Schooner, Dr. T.J. Eckleburg Review, Gargoyle, South 85, Barely South Review etc.), awarded, anthologized and nominated for Pushcart Prize. She has published three books of poetry and she used to work for The New Yorker as a fact-checker, translator and consultant. She was the Writers Center’s Undiscovered Voices Fellow in 2013. She has a B.A. in Literature and Slavic Studies and M.A. in International Journalism. She’s represented by the Tobias Literary Agency and her second novel AMERICAN SORCERESS is currently on submission.
Nonfiction
Mary Collins
Mary Collins taught nonfiction part-time at the Johns Hopkins' MA in Writing Program in DC for 12 years, where she won the teaching award. Currently she is the Program Coordinator for the Writing Minors and a full professor at Central CT State University. For the last six years, she has also taught the nonfiction workshop for the Yale Summer Writing Program. The focus of her new book, A Play Book: Creating Writers, Creating Citizens, forms the core of the content of her workshop.
Kid Lit
Mary Quattlebaum
Mary Quattlebaum is the author of 30 award-winning children’s books (Pirate vs. Pirate, Jo MacDonald Hiked in the Woods, Hero Dogs) and of stories and poems in anthologies and children’s magazines (Cricket, Spider, Ladybug, Highlights). She teaches in the MFA program in writing for children at the Vermont College of Fine Arts and is a popular school and conference speaker.
Kid Lit
Mary Quattlebaum & Joan Waites
Mary Quattlebaum is the author of 30 award-winning children’s books (Pirate vs. Pirate, Jo MacDonald Hiked in the Woods, Hero Dogs) and of stories and poems in anthologies and children’s magazines (Cricket, Spider, Ladybug, Highlights). She teaches in the MFA program in writing for children at the Vermont College of Fine Arts and is a popular school and conference speaker.
Joan Waites has illustrated more than 40 children’s books and most recently has written and illustrated A Colorful Tail: Finding Monet at Giverny, A Purr-fect Painting: Matisse’s Other Great Cat, and An Artist’s Night Before Christmas. She teaches arts classes for children at her private studio and speaks frequently at schools and conferences.
Fiction
Mathangi Subramanian
Mathangi Subramanian, Ed.D., is an Indian American writer and educator. Her novel A People’s History of Heaven was longlisted for the PEN/Faulkner Award and the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize, and is a finalist for the Lambda Literary Award. Her middle grades book Dear Mrs. Naidu won the South Asia Book Award. Her personal essays and nonfiction have appeared in The Washington Post, Ms. Magazine, Zora Magazine, and Al Jazeera America, among others. She holds a doctorate in education from Columbia Teachers College and lives on the west coast with her husband and daughter.
Poetry, Kid Lit
Meg Eden Kuyatt
Meg Eden is a 2020 Pitch Wars mentee, and teaches creative writing at Anne Arundel Community College. She is the author of the 2021 Towson Prize for Literature winning poetry collection Drowning in the Floating World (Press 53, 2020) and children’s novels, most recently Good Different (Scholastic, 2023). Find her online at megedenbooks.com or on Twitter at @ConfusedNarwhal.
Genre
Mel Barrett
Mel Barrett is a writer, director, editor, producer, and script consultant. As a seasoned coverage editor for production companies like Circle of Confusion, Mel is responsible for identifying the production-viability of a screenplay. Mel's screenplays have also won numerous awards and have been produced for the big and small screen.
Poetry
Melanie Figg
Melanie Figg, author of the award-winning poetry collection, Trace, has received grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and others. As a certified professional coach, she offers women’s writing retreats and helps writers to finish projects, tame their inner critics, and add more ease and productivity to their creative lives. More about her at melaniefigg.net.
Poetry
Michele Wolf
Michele Wolf is the author of Immersion, Conversations During Sleep (Anhinga Prize for Poetry), and The Keeper of Light. Her poems have appeared in Poetry, The Hudson Review, North American Review, The Southern Review, and numerous other literary journals and anthologies, as well as on Poets.org, Poetry Daily, Verse Daily, and elsewhere. Her honors include a 2022 literary arts Independent Artist Award from the Maryland State Arts Council. Wolf has served as a contributing editor for Poet Lore. More about her at michelewolf.com.
Poetry
Nancy Naomi Carlson
Nancy Naomi Carlson, an NEA grant recipient, is a poet, translator, essayist, and editor, and has authored 10 titles. Her work has appeared in APR, The Georgia Review, The Paris Review, and Poetry, and An Infusion of Violets was named “new & noteworthy” by The New York Times. More about her at nancynaomicarlson.com.
Fiction, Nonfiction
Nani Power
Nani Power is the award winning author of three novels and three memoirs, to include Crawling at Night (Grove/Atlantic Monthly, 2001), a New York Times Notable Book of The Year and a finalist for The Los Angeles Times Book Award as well as the British Orange Award.
Poetry
Naomi Ayala
Naomi Ayala is the author of three books of poetry: Wild Animals on the Moon, This Side of Early (both published by Curbstone Press), and Calling Home: Praise Songs & Incantations (Editorial Bilingüe/Bilingual Press). She is also the translator of Luis Alberto Ambroggio’s La arqueología del viento/The Wind’s Archeology. Her most recent poems appear in Gargoyle, Little Patuxent Review, and Where We Stand: Poems of Black Resilience.
Genre
Natasha Oladokun
Natasha Oladokun is a Black, queer poet and essayist from Virginia. She holds fellowships from Cave Canem, The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), the Jackson Center for Creative Writing, and the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where she was the inaugural First Wave Poetry fellow. Her work has appeared in the American Poetry Review, The Academy of American Poets, Kenyon Review Online, Harper’s Bazaar, and elsewhere. She currently lives in Madison, WI, and is working on her first collection of poems.
Genre
Nevin Martell
Nevin Martell is the author of eight books and a veteran freelancer with over two decades experience whose work has been published by The Washington Post, USA Today, National Geographic, Fortune, and Washingtonian.
Fiction, Poetry
Nick Gardner
Nick Gardner holds an MFA from BGSU and has received support from The Elizabeth George Foundation, VSC, and The DeGroot Foundation. His writing has been widely published, including one book of poetry, So Marvelously Far, and a forthcoming novella, Hurricane Trinity. An Ohio native, he resides in Washington DC.
Mixed Genre, Comedy
Nikki Frias
Nikki Frias has contributed to Forbes, The Daily Beast, and Boardroom. She is an author, writing coach, and teacher specializing in comedy writing, and facilitating improv in the corporate world. After noticing the struggles with finishing her book, she started "Book on a Budget" coaching to help writers achieve their goals with an affordable a la carte style to help at any stage of the writing process. She is the author of "Damn, You Still Single?" and "Does this Divorce Make Me Look Fat?" and currently teaches sketch and comedy writing at The Writer's Center.
Fiction
Ofelia Montelongo
Ofelia Montelongo is a bilingual writer originally from Mexico. She received a BA in accounting and finance, an MBA, and a BA in English and Creative Writing. Ofelia is a freelance writer and photographer and has collaborated with magazines such as Phoenix New Times, So Scottsdale, and Phoenix Magazine. She led creative writing workshops in Spanish at Palabras Bilingual Bookstore and was the Editor-in-Chief for the journal Superstition Review in the fall of 2016. She taught Spanish at Arizona State University and she is pursuing her MA in Latin American literature at the University of Maryland. Her research interests include Chicano and Latin American literature, theory of translation, borderlands, creative writing, and more. Her work has been published in Latino Book Review, Four Chambers Press, Los Acentos Review, Rio Grande Review, and Ponder Review. She is currently reading for Potomac Review and she was the 2019 Undiscovered Voices Fellow at The Writer's Center.
Nonfiction
Pat McNees
Pat McNees is a writer and editor who for 25 years has helped individuals tell their life story. A former editor in book publishing (at Harper & Row and at Fawcett), she is also past president of the Association of Personal Historians, and manager-scribe of the local Washington Biography Group. She received training in Guided Autobiography and has taught life writing at The Writer’s Center for several years. More about her at writersandeditors.com.
Fiction
Patricia Gray
Patricia Gray, author of Rupture from Red Hen Press, formerly headed the Library of Congress’s Poetry and Literature Center. Her work appeared recently in Oberon and in Endlessly Rocking. She has published short fiction, judged the national Poetry Out Loud recitation contest, and directed a Dylan Thomas play with 18 actors playing 60 parts. She has received a 2023 Artist Fellowship in poetry from the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities.
Fiction
Paz Pardo
Paz Pardo is a playwright and a novelist. Her debut, The Shamshine Blind, was a most anticipated book of Winter 2023 at Bustle, Lithub, and Crimereads, and was described as “appealingly strange… a novel that’s both topical and entertaining” by the San Francisco Chronicle. Her plays include Movimiento Perpetuo/Perpetual Motion, which she has performed in eleven cities in three countries, YOU/EMMA (most recently at the Pear Ave Theater in Mountain View, CA), CIERTAS ASTILLAS/CERTAIN SHARDS (Two Rivers Theater Crossing Borders Festival 2021), Milton, MI (LTC Carnaval reading 2018, Bay Area Playwrights Festival Finalist 2016, NPC semifinalist 2019), Duct Tape Girl and Fetish Chick Conquer the World (BootStrap Theater Foundation, NYC), and RubberMatch (RED CARAVAN, NYC; NPC semifinalist 2015). Her writing has appeared in The Brooklyn Review, Encountering Ensemble, Howlround, and Volume 1 of the I Scream Social Anthology. Djerassi fellow 2019. MFA, UT Austin Michener Center for Writers, 2018. BA, Stanford, 2009. Fulbright Award, Buenos Aires, 2012.
Genre
Peter Mandel
Peter Mandel is the author of eleven books for children including Jackhammer Sam (Macmillan), Zoo Ah-Choooo (Holiday House), Bun, Onion, Burger (Simon & Schuster), Planes at the Airport (Scholastic), and Say Hey! A Song of Willie Mays (Hyperion). He’s a regular contributor to the travel sections of The Washington Post, The Boston Globe, and The Huffington Post. Learn more about him at www.petermandel.net.
Nonfiction
Rachel Coonce
Rachel Coonce is a graduate of the MFA program at Sarah Lawrence College, specializing in creative nonfiction writing. She has been awarded the Conger Beasley Jr. Award for Nonfiction by New Letters magazine, an Independent Artist Award by the Maryland State Arts Council, and she received an honorable mention in The Missouri Review’s Miller Audio Prize for her investigation into memory. She is cofounder of The Inner Loop, a literary arts nonprofit in Washington DC that has been praised by The Washington Post, Ploughshares, The Writer’s Center, and several others, and which received multiple Amazon Literary Partnerships and DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities grants for its projects. She is also creator, executive producer, and cohost of The Inner Loop Radio, a creative writing podcast that explores literary craft and celebrates local authors. Follow Rachel on instagram @rachel_coonce.
Memoir
Raquel Gutiérrez
Raquel Gutiérrez is a critic, essayist, poet and educator. Gutiérrez is a 2021 recipient of the Rabkin Prize in Arts Journalism, as well as a 2017 recipient of the The Andy Warhol Foundation Arts Writers Grant. Gutiérrez teaches in the Oregon State University-Cascades Low Residency Creative Writing MFA Program. Gutiérrez's first book Brown Neon (Coffee House Press) was named as one of the best books of 2022 by The New Yorker.
Playwriting
Richard Washer
Richard Washer is a playwright and director, and serves as Associate Artistic Director and First Draft Resident Playwright at The Rose Theatre Company. He holds a BA (University of Virginia) and an MFA (American University). His work has been produced at venues including Charter Theatre, Earl Hamner Jr. Theatre, Source Theatre, The National Conservatory of Dramatic Arts, New Works Theatre among many others. More about him at richardwasher.com.
Genre
Rob Jolles
A 30-year professional speaker and four-time bestselling author, Rob Jolles has traveled over 2.5 million miles delivering keynotes and workshops all over the world. He trains authors to promote their books and speak for some of the largest publishers in the country. More about him at jolles.com.
Poetry
Ryland Shengzhi Li
Ryland Shengzhi Li is a poet living in Northern Virginia. Over 150 of his haiku, tanka, and related works have been published in the leading journals for these forms, including Frogpond, Ribbons,
Kid Lit
Sam Cameron
Sam Cameron (she/her) is a high school history teacher, YA author, and Author Accelerator certified book coach, specializing in Kid Lit. She believes all children deserve to see themselves represented in great books. They deserve a chance to read your story....and you deserve a chance to tell it! You can learn more about Sam’s private coaching offerings, and subscribe to her newsletter by visiting truantpen.com.
Fiction, Nonfiction
Sam Nelson
Sam Nelson is a teacher and writer. He’s entertained young students with dramatic read-alouds for years and has taught creative writing and public reading to writers of all ages. He’s published work in The Washington Post, Two Hawks Quarterly, DCist, and other places. You can read more about his work here: samnelson.xyz
Poetry
Sandra Beasley
Sandra Beasley is the author of Made to Explode; Count the Waves; I Was the Jukebox, winner of the Barnard Women Poets Prize; Theories of Falling, winner of the New Issues Poetry Prize; and Don’t Kill the Birthday Girl: Tales from an Allergic Life, a disability memoir. She also edited Vinegar and Char: Verse from the Southern Foodways Alliance. She lives in Washington DC.
Poetry
Saúl Hernández
Saúl Hernández is a queer writer from San Antonio, TX who was raised by undocumented parents. Saúl has an MFA in Creative Writing from The University of Texas at El Paso. He's the winner of the 2021 Two Sylvias Press Chapbook Prize chosen by Victoria Chang. His poems have been nominated for a Pushcart Prize and Best of The Net. Saúl’s work is forthcoming/featured in Frontier Poetry, Poet Lore, Foglifter Journal, Oyster River Pages, Cherry Tree, and elsewhere.
Poetry
Sayan Ray
Sayan Ray is a writer and freelance editor, whose work has appeared in a Dedalus Press anthology and several literary magazines. As an editor, he assisted clients in successfully publishing their debut works. His poetry has also featured in UNESCO’s World Poetry Day and the curriculum of Swarthmore College.
Nonfiction
Shanon Lee
Shanon Lee is a contributor for Forbes and The Lily, published by The Washington Post. Her byline appears in publications including Cosmopolitan, ELLE, Marie Claire, Playboy, Redbook, Women’s Health and Parents Magazine. Her opinion essays on misogyny and racism are widely circulated, and have been shared by notables including bestselling author J.K. Rowling, rap legend MC Lyte and political activist Kevin Powell. Shanon is an alumna of the 2019 Women’s Media Center Progressive Women’s Voices program and a mentor-editor for The OpEd Project. She was named to The Tempest’s 40 Women To Watch 2019 list for advancing the dialogue around gender-based violence. She is represented by Agnes Carlowicz of the Carol Mann Agency and is currently working on a book about misogynoir in pop culture. mylove4writing.com.
Comedy
Sheila Wenz
Sheila Wenz is a writer and comedian who has worked on a variety of television series and films at CBS, ABC, Columbia Pictures, MGM, Warner Bros., Disney and on the writing staff at NBC’s Stage One on “The Tonight Show.” She is founder of Stand-Up Studios comedy school and coaching and is also a part time writing instructor at colleges on the east coast. More about her at standupstudios.com.
Fiction
Solveig Eggerz
Solveig Eggerz, a native of Iceland, is the author of two novels, Seal Woman and Sigga of Reykjavik. She teaches for Heard, an Alexandria, VA non-profit that brings the arts to under-served populations.
Poetry
Sue Ellen Thompson
Sue Ellen Thompson is author of six books of poetry, most recently Sea Nettles: New & Selected Poems (2022). She is also the editor of The Autumn House Anthology of Contemporary American Poetry. Her work has been included in the Best American Poetry series, read on NPR by Garrison Keillor, and featured in U.S. Poet Laureate Ted Kooser’s nationally-syndicated newspaper column. She taught at Wesleyan University, Middlebury College, Binghamton University, and Central Connecticut State University before moving to the Eastern Shore in 2006. She was awarded the 2010 Maryland Author Prize from the Maryland Library Association. More about her at: sueellenthompson.com.
Nonfiction, Memoir
Sufiya Abdur-Rahman
Sufiya Abdur-Rahman is author of the memoir Heir to the Crescent Moon, winner of the Iowa Prize for Literary Nonfiction. She is creative nonfiction editor for Cherry Tree, a national literary journal, at Washington College, where she teaches creative writing and journalism. Find her at sufiya.net and on Twitter @MrsAbolitionist.
Fiction
Susan Coll
Susan Coll is the author of six novels, most recently Bookish People. Her novel, The Stager, was a New York Times and Chicago Tribune Editor’s Choice. Her other books include Acceptance — which was made into a television movie starring Joan Cusack — Beach Week, Rockville Pike, and karlmarx.com. Her work has appeared in publications including the New York Times, the Washington Post, NPR.org, atlantic.com, and The Millions.
Fiction
Talia Lakshmi Kolluri
Talia Lakshmi Kolluri is a mixed South Asian American writer from Northern California. Her debut collection, What We Fed to the Manticore (Tin House 2022), was a finalist for the 2023 Carol Shields Prize for Fiction, among other honors. To learn more about Talia, visit taliakolluri.com.
Fiction
Tammy Greenwood
T. Greenwood is the author of fifteen novels. She has received grants from the Sherwood Anderson Foundation, the Christopher Isherwood Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Maryland State Arts Council. She has won four San Diego Book Awards. Five of her novels have been Indie Next picks. Bodies of Water was a finalist for a Lambda Foundation award, and Keeping Lucy was a 2021 Target Book Club selection. Her next novel, The Still Point, will be published on 2/20/24. She and her family split their time between San Diego, CA, and Vermont.
Fiction, Poetry, Mixed Genre
Tara Campbell
Tara Campbell is a writer, teacher, Kimbilio Fellow, and fiction editor at Barrelhouse. Prior publication credits include SmokeLong Quarterly, Masters Review, Jellyfish Review, Booth, and Strange Horizons. She's the author of a novel, TreeVolution, a hybrid fiction/poetry collection, Circe's Bicycle, and a short story collection, Midnight at the Organporium. She received her M.F.A. from American University in 2019. More about her at: taracampbell.com.
Poetry
Thibault Raoult
Thibault Raoult holds an MFA from Brown University and PhD from University of Georgia. He has published three books: Person Hour, Disposable Epics, and Pro(m)bois(e). A former editor at The Georgia Review, TR currently directs RealPoetik and makes letterpress and music (as Historic Sunsets) in and near Mount Rainier, Maryland.
Screenwriting
Timothy Tau
Timothy Tau is an award-winning writer, director and producer. He was named by Mic Magazine as one of "6 Young Asian-American Filmmakers Who Are Shattering America's Asian Film Bias."
Tau's short film Nathan Jung v. Bruce Lee (2016) won Best Original Script and Best Comedy Short awards from the Asians on Film Festival and screened at a number of film festivals in 2018-2019. Tau is also known for Keye Luke (2012), a short film biopic he directed, produced and co-wrote with Ed Moy. He received a Visual Communications "Armed with a Camera" Fellowship for Emerging Media Artists to make the film, and it has screened at over a dozen film festivals worldwide and has additionally won awards from the HollyShorts Film Festival (Audience Award) and the Asians on Film Festival (Best Original Score). Tau has also directed and written the black-and-white Film Noir/Sci-Fi/Horror genre-bender, The Case (2010).
Tau won Grand Prize in the Hyphen Asian American Short Story Contest for his short story "The Understudy," which is published in the Winter 2011 Issue of Hyphen Magazine. His short story "Land of Origin" also won Second Place in the 2010 Playboy College Fiction Contest and Second Place in the 2016 ScreenCraft Short Story Contest, judged by Academy Award winning screenwriter Diana Ossana (Brokeback Mountain). He is developing both stories and other scripts into feature films.
He is a graduate of the University of California, Berkeley, University of California, Los Angeles or UCLA, University of California Hastings College of the Law, and the University of California Berkeley School of Law. He has also graduated from the Professional Programs in Screenwriting and TV Writing from the UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television.
Fiction, Flash Fiction
Tommy Dean
Tommy Dean is the author of two flash fiction chapbooks Special Like the People on TV (Redbird Chapbooks, 2014) and Covenants (ELJ Editions, 2021), and a full flash collection, Hollows (Alternating Current Press 2022). He lives in Indiana where he currently is the Editor at Fractured Lit and Uncharted Magazine. A recipient of the 2019 Lascaux Prize in Short Fiction, his writing can be found in Best Microfiction 2019 and 2020, Best Small Fiction 2019 and 2022, Monkeybicycle, and numerous litmags. Find him at tommydeanwriter.com and on Twitter @TommyDeanWriter.
Nonfiction, Fiction
Tracy Hahn-Burkett
Tracy Hahn-Burkett is a writer and public policy advocate. Her work has appeared in Pangyrus, Experience Magazine, The Drum, The Washington Post’s On Parenting, WBUR’s Cognoscenti, Adoptive Families, and others. Her policy and politics background includes work at both the national and state levels. Tracy is revising her first novel.
Fiction
Virginia Hartman
Virginia Hartman’s novel The Marsh Queen was published by Gallery/Simon & Schuster in May 2022. Her fiction, poetry, and essays have appeared in many publications, including the Hudson Review, Alaska Quarterly Review, and the Washingtonian, and her work has been anthologized in Gravity Dancers: Even More Fiction by Washington Area Women (Paycock Press). Her writing has been supported by the Sewanee Writer’s Conference and the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts. She holds an MFA from American University and teaches creative writing at George Washington University as well as here at The Writer’s Center.
Nonfiction
William O’Sullivan
William O'Sullivan is an essayist and editor whose writing has appeared in Washingtonian, The Washington Post, The New York Times, The North American Review, 100 Word Story, and others. His work has been cited three times among the notable essays of the year in The Best American Essays.
