Speakers Attending | Speaker Bios

List of Authors and Speakers:

Author/Speaker Biographies:

Jane Adams

Jane Adams, the author of Sugar Time, a novel, is a best-selling Seattle writer, speaker, coach and media commentator whose eleven previous books include three novels--Tradeoffs, Good Intentions, and Seattle Green--and several nonfiction books exploring the issues that concern women and their families: sex, love, careers, money, health, parenting adult children, and work-life balance. A founding editor of the Seattle Weekly, her work has appeared in major national newspapers and magazines, among them the New York Times, Cosmopolitan, More, Woman's Day, Glamour, Working Woman and Psychology Today. She has appeared on Oprah, Today, Good Morning America, and The CBS Early Show, as well as PBS' new series, Life, Part 2.

Kathleen Alcalá

Kathleen Alcalá is the author of a story collection, Mrs. Vargas and the Dead Naturalist, and three novels set in 19th Century Mexico: Spirits of the Ordinary, The Flower in the Skull, and Treasures in Heaven. A co-founder of and contributing editor to The Raven Chronicles, Alcalá has been a writer in residence at Seattle University, Richard Hugo House, and the University of New Mexico. A 2007 recipient of an Artist Trust Fellowship, she teaches in the MFA program of the Northwest Institute of Literary Arts on Whidbey Island. Her collection of essays, The Desert Remembers My Name, was published by the University of Arizona Press and received two awards at Book Expo 2008. For more information, go to www.kathleenalcala.com.

Keely Alexander

Keely Alexander McCammon was born and raised in Montana and now lives in Seattle, where she edits scripts for a gaming company. Velani Mynhardt Witthoft, a native of South Africa, studied law and now works on immigration reform in Seattle. As Keely Velani, their collaborative effort is Davy Brown Discovers His Roots, a book for middle school students about immigration. Volumes on global warming and AIDS are in the works.

Matthew Amster-Burton

Matthew Amster-Burton is a Seattle food writer, blogger, and frequent contributor to the Seattle Times and MSN. His work was featured in Best Food Writing in 2003, 2004, 2006, and 2007. He is the author of Hungry Monkey: A Food-Loving Father's Quest to Raise an Adventurous Eater, and his favorite food is phad thai.

Peggy King Anderson

Peggy King Anderson has been writing for children for thirty years. Her published books include The Fall of the Red Star (Boyds Mills Press, co-author, Helen Szablya) featured on Children's Book TV. Her work is also published frequently in children's magazines, including stories and articles in Highlights for Children, and three fiction series published by Pockets Magazine.

She has taught creative writing to adults for twenty-five years both in community college classes and at writing conferences ranging from SCBWI, Washington State, to the Highlights Foundation Writers Workshop in Chautauqua, New York. She also teaches creative writing in the schools for kids of all ages from Kindergarten through High School. She is a frequent presenter at Young Author's Conferences. More information can be found at www.peggyking.com.

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Sara Anderson

Sara Anderson is a designer and children's book author, illustrator, and publisher. She lives amid the cacophony and characters of Pike Place Market which has been her home for close to 30 years. More information can be found at www.saranderson.com

Kim Baker

Kim writes stories for kids while volunteering as the Assistant Regional Advisor for the Society of Children's Book Writers & Illustrators (www.scbwi.org). She lives in Seattle with her family and a small zoo of animals. You can find out more at www.kimberlycbaker.com.

Kit Bakke

Kit Bakke, a Seattle native, lives there still. She is a former nurse and specialist in information systems technology and business consulting. Her debut book, Miss Alcott's E-mail: Yours for Reforms of All Kinds, is a bio-memoir involving the author and Louisa May Alcott exchanging e-mails across time, interleaved with historical essays about Alcott's life and Bakke's own politically radical past.

Anna Bálint

Anna Bálint is the author of Horse Thief, a collection of short fiction, (Curbstone Press 2004), as well as two earlier books of poetry: Out of the Box and spread them crimson sleeves like wings. In the wake of 9/11 she organized "Evidence of Compassion: A Reading of Middle Eastern & Central Asian Poetry and Literature" and co-edited Poets Against the War, an anthology of poems protesting the Gulf War (1991). Her poems and stories have been published in numerous journals and magazines including Calyx, Briar Cliff Review, Raven Chronicles, Clackamas Literary Review, Stringtown, and Knock. She is currently a Jack Straw Writer in Residence. In 2001, she received the Starbucks Leading Voices award for outstanding work with urban youth in the field of creative writing. She teaches at Antioch University and Richard Hugo House in Seattle.

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Flor Fernandez Barrios

Cuban-born Flor Fernandez Barrios has lived in the US since the age of fourteen. She holds a doctorate in Transpersonal Psychology, is in private practice as a psychotherapist in Seattle, and is a nationally recognized workshop leader on multicultural issues and spirituality. She has also written or been anthologized in several books, including Blessed by Thunder, The Mask of Oyá, The Fabric of the Future: Women Visionaries Illuminate the Path to Tomorrow, and I Wanna Be Sedated: 30 Writers on Parenting Teenagers.

Steve Batts

Author, poet, and spoken word artist Steven Eric Batts is an AAWA member who performs often. The native of Indianapolis, Indiana, began writing poetry and short stories at a very early age. Hundreds have seen and heard the former serviceman read and recite in the Pacific Northwest, Midwest, Germany, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, and Kuwait. He is the author of the thought-provoking novel Word on the Street.

Erica Bauermeister

Erica Bauermeister is the author of the novel The School of Essential Ingredients, an international bestseller and Indie Next Pick, as well as two non-fiction works, 500 Great Books by Women: A Reader's Guide and Let's Hear It For the Girls: 375 Great Books for Readers 2-14. Learn more at www.ericabauermeister.com.

Sean Beaudoin

Sean Beaudoin is the author of Going Nowhere Faster, Fade to Blue, and the forthcoming You Killed Wesley Payne (Little, Brown Fall 2010). His articles and short stories have appeared in numerous publications including the Onion, Narrative Magazine, Glimmer Train, Opium, The San Francisco Chronicle, The New Orleans Review, and Barrelhouse. He lives in Seattle with his wife and daughter. Find out more at www.seanbeaudoin.com

Mary Jane Beaufrand

Mary Jane Beaufrand is the author of Primavera and The River, and several short-stories. She has an MFA in Creative Writing from Bennington College. She lives with her husband, two kids, drooling Saint Bernard, and wussy Basset Hound in Seattle, Washington. Visit her at www.mjbeaufrand.com

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Bonny Becker

Bonny Becker is the author of 12 children's books including picture books and novels. Her book, A Visitor for Bear was a New York Times Bestseller, Amazon's 2008 Picture Book of the year and winner of the Golden Kite Award and the E. B. White Read Aloud Award. She's an instructor for the Whidbey Writers MFA in Writing program. She has two new books out this fall, A Birthday for Bear and The Magical Ms. Plum. Read more at www.bonnybecker.com.

Linda Beed

Dr. Linda Beed is the award-winning author of Business Unusual. The debut novel has been described as "Christian Fiction In Its Purest Form." Although Christian fiction is the genre by which she has made her presence known, she presses forward as she pens Continued Business, the second book in the Covenant Series. As a workshop coordinator and facilitator she has shared in the success of the Seattle African American Book Festival, the Seattle Rainbow Book Festival, the African American writer's workshops for the Romantic Times Convention and the Romance Slam Jam. Dedicated to helping others reach their goal of publishing works of standard, she co-moderates BWChristianLit, an online writing group, and is the Review Editor for KDgospel Media Magazine. Beyond her writing ministry Dr. Beed is an educator, speaker, storyteller and Children's minister. She and her family reside in Seattle, Washington.

Sheila Bender

Sheila Bender earned her M.A. in Creative Writing from the University of Washington in 1982. She has taught at universities and community colleges in Seattle, Los Angeles, and Tucson, and has published nine books on writing and two books of poetry. Today she lives with her husband in the Port Townsend house her son Seth Bender designed. At writingitreal.com, she publishes a weekly online magazine about writing from personal experience, launched in honor of Seth on October 1, 2002, the 27th anniversary of his birth.

Janey Bennett

Janey Bennett's research for The Pale Surface of Things led her into the study of classical Greek, Byzantine icon painting, geology, archaeology, botany, the vernacular architecture and sociology of Greek villages, Minoan culture and art, World War II on Crete, and criminal law in Greece. Bennett has enjoyed colorful and varied careers including radio announcer, horse trainer, drama critic, teacher to Buddhist nuns in Thailand. Her writings on architecture have been published in the United States and Finland, where she held a Fulbright research fellowship. A cellist, freelance editor, and author, Bennett divides her time between Bellingham, WA, and Hornby Island, BC.

Knute Berger

A third-generation Seattleite, Knute Berger was the editor of the Seattle Weekly for a decade, ending in 2006. Before that, he was the founding editor of Eastsideweek. He currently writes for Crosscut.com, Washington Law & Politics, Seattle magazine, and can be heard on KUOW radio.

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Libuse Binder

Seattle resident Libuse Binder is a writer, teacher, and coach whose focus is on finding innovative ways to be a socially and environmentally conscious consumer. She is the author of Ten Ways to Change the World in Your Twenties, and she founded an organization of the same name. It is devoted to promoting "tangible ideas for creating a better world."

Pam Binder

Pam Binder is an award-winning and New York Times bestselling author. Pocket Books, a division of Simon and Schuster, published five of Pam's historical novels, including the NY Times bestselling anthology, A Season In The Highlands. Pam is the Preident of PNWA, and an instructor in the University of Washington's Popular Fiction extension program. Her newest project is a historical novel based on the life of a notorious pirate.

Dave Boling

A native of the Chicago area, Dave Boling is a sports columnist for the Tacoma News Tribune. His first novel, Guernica, is being published in 15 territories and 13 languages, with an English-language edition sold world-wide. It won the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association award for fiction for 2009, and was a Barnes and Noble "Discover Great New Writers" selection. Waterstone's (UK) selected it as one of 12 "New Voices" novels for 2009. Also in the UK, it was selected as one of Richard and Judy's Summer Reads of 2009. It was voted the favorite of the eight summer read selections by a poll of readers and viewers.

Ryan Boudinot

Ryan Boudinot is the author of the novel Misconception (Grove Atlantic/Black Cat, 2009) and the short story collection The Littlest Hitler (Counterpoint, 2006). He is a writer-in-residence at Richard Hugo House, and teaches in Goddard College's MFA program in Port Townsend. His work has appeared in McSweeney's, The Best American Nonrequired Reading, Monkey Bicycle, and is forthcoming in The Best American Fantasy and Golden Handcuffs Review.

Jerry Brewer

Jerry Brewer is a sports columnist for The Seattle Times. He was nominated for a 2008 Pulitzer Prize for the "A prayer for Gloria" series that led to his first book, Gloria's Miracle. Before coming to Seattle in 2006, Brewer worked at three other newspapers: The Courier-Journal in Louisville, Ky., The Orlando Sentinel and The Philadelphia Inquirer. He has received awards for his work from numerous journalism organizations, including the American Association of Sunday and Features Editors, Associated Press Sports Editors, Society of Professional Journalists, Best of the West and National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association.

Matt Briggs

Matt Briggs is the author of six books, including The Remains of River Names (Black Heron Press), and Shoot the Buffalo (Clear cut Press). Shoot the Buffalo was awarded a 2006 American Book Award from the Before Columbus Foundation and will be re-issued in November. Briggs second novel, The Strong Man, is forthcoming in January 2010. Recent fiction has appeared in Spork, First Intensity, Seattle Magazine, and The Clackamas Literary Review. Briggs writes regularly for Reading Local: Seattle, and keeps a blog at: mattbriggs.wordpress.com.

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Martha Brockenbrough

Martha Brockenbrough is author of Things That Make Us [Sic], a hilarious guide to grammar, good and bad. She's the founder of National Grammar Day and SPOGG, the Society for the Promotion of Good Grammar. See www.SPOGG.org or www.MarthaBee.com for more.

Royce Buckingham

Bestselling author Royce Buckingham is a Washington writer with an English degree from Whitman College and a law degree from the University of Oregon. Royce wrote for 13 years before he sold his first novel, Demonkeeper, to Penguin/Putnam and his screenplay for Demonkeeper to 20th Century Fox - almost simultaneously. Since Demonkeeper debuted in 2007, Royce has made reading lists, garnered good reviews, hit the bestseller list in Germany, and inked deals for three more books. His latest is Goblins, which Kirkus calls "a riotously good adventure." Find out more at www.demonkeeper.com

Janet Lee Carey

When not driving with a teacup on the roof of her car, Janet Lee Carey is usually writing. Her award winning YA novels are: Stealing Death, School Library Journal starred review, Dragon's Keep an ALA Best Book for Young Adults, The Beast of Noor, NYPL Best Books for the Teenage, and Wenny Has Wings Mark Twain Award 2005, Sony Feature Film, Japan 2008.

Carol Cassella

Carol Wiley Cassella is the author of Oxygen, which was voted as one of the year's best novels by LibraryJournal.com and an Indie List pick for July 2008. She majored in English Literature at Duke University and graduated from Baylor College of Medicine in 1986. Carol currently practices anesthesia in Seattle and is a freelance medical writer specializing in global public health advocacy for the developing world. She lives on Bainbridge Island with her husband and their two sets of twins, and is working on her next novel.

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Goldie Caughlan

Goldie Caughlan has served for 26 years as Nutrition Education Manager with PCC Natural Markets, the nation's largest and oldest member-owned cooperative. Goldie has a degree in Health Education from the University of Washington. In 1983, she founded the FoodWorks program, a nutrition, health and cooking program emphasizing seasonal, whole, organic foods and offering a wide range of classes. She stepped down from managing the popular program in 2000, when she accepted a five-year appointment to the National Organic Standards Board at USDA.

Goldie continues to write a monthly column for the Sound Consumer, PCC's newsletter, available in-store and online. She also does staff training, advises staff and shoppers on organic issues, including teaching numerous free Walk, Talk & Taste classes regularly at PCC stores. Prior to serving on the national organic board, Goldie had served seven years on the organic advisory board for Washington State Department of Agriculture's Organic Food Program in its formative years. Current board service includes the national Cornucopia Institute, the local PCC Farmland Trust, and the Cascade Harvest Coalition, as well as the advisory council of Washington Tilth Producers.

Tara Larsen Chang

From my earliest memories I've been captivated by the illustrations in fairy tales and children's books and couldn't think of anything else I'd rather do when I was grown up than create my own. When I'm not painting in the studio, I can probably be found working in my gardens to make sure that there are plenty of havens for visiting fairies. Find out more at www.taralarsenchang.com

Randy Sue Coburn

Randy Sue Coburn is the author of three novels: A Better View of Paradise, Owl Island, and Remembering Jody. Born in Chicago and raised in South Carolina, she is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of The University of Georgia. She began her career as a journalist whose essays and articles appeared in numerous national magazines and major newspapers. Randy Sue lives along the waterfront in downtown Seattle and relishes morning strolls through the Pike Place Market with Binx, a floppy-eared terrier known by name to many more vendors in the Pike Place Market than his mistress.

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Minnie A. Collins

Minnie A. Collins writes about her childhood in Virginia, living with her grandmother, and being a mother. Journal writing is her nightly ritual that becomes a repository of ideas for poems and stories read at bookstores and galleries. Her peer-reviewed poems and educational articles have been published in CrossCurrents, Innovation Abstracts, and the Washington English Journal. She also volunteers at her church and coordinates teacher workshops and retreats.

Gabriel Constans

Gabriel Constans is a freelance journalist who has written for magazines, newspapers and web sites in North America, Europe, Asia and Africa. He has 12 books published in the U.S. (including the recently released novel Buddha's Wife - www.buddhaswife.com) and is an advisor to the Rwandan Orphan's Project in Kigali (www.rwandanorphansproject.com).

Paul Constant

Paul Constant is the Books Editor for The Stranger, a position earned through a combination of 12 years of retail book experience and three years of covering gay orgies and Republican cocktail parties as The Stranger's Party Crasher. His writing has also appeared in The Chicago Reader, The Progressive, and Utne Reader.

Colleen Conway

Colleen Conway has worked as a children's sales rep for Penguin Group USA for the last ten years, covering the Pacific Northwest and part of California. Before that, she was a children's book buyer for Powell's Books in Portland, OR for five years. She lives in Seattle, in a house crammed full of books, and loves reading so much she even dressed up as a librarian for several Halloweens.

Larry Crist

Larry Crist has stories or poems soon to appear or already out in Alimentum, Bloodroot, Chiron Review, Riverwind, Rotten Vacation Anthology, Rattle, Pearl, J. Journal, Hawaii Review, Dos Passo Review, Phantasmagoria, Slipstream, Karamu and many others. He has received one Pushcart nomination and has been published numerous times in Floating Bridge Press & Pontoon, Stringtown and Real Change, Seattle's homeless newspaper. He is originally from California, and has lived in Philadelphia, where he attended grad school, as well as Chicago, Houston, and London, to name but a few.

Brian Culhane

New York native Brian Culhane studied at City U. and Columbia. At the UW, he studied English lit and classics and earned a PhD, in 1992. His poetry has appeared in The Hudson Review, The New Republic, and The Paris Review. In 2007, he was awarded the Poetry Foundation's Emily Dickinson Prize and his winning manuscript, "The King's Question," was published by Graywolf Press in 2008. An Artist Trust/Washington State Arts Commission fellowship winner, and MacDowell Colony fellow, he teaches film and English at Seattle's Lakeside School.

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Mary Daheim

Mary Richardson Daheim, a Seattle native, penned her first novel at age 11. She is a graduate of the School of Communications at the University of Washington, where she was the first female editor of The Daily. Publishing credits include Just Desserts and Fowl Prey (the first two books in the Bed-in-Breakfast series), The Alpine Advocate and The Alpine Scandal (of the Emma Lord series), and numerous short stories for mystery anthologies and magazines. Daheim has been an Agatha Award nominee, winner of the 2000 Pacific Northwest Writers Association Achievement Award, and is a member of the Authors Guild, Mystery Writers of America, and Romance Writers of America. Mary and her husband, David, live in Seattle and have three grown daughters.

Ron Dakron

Ron Dakron's works range from surrealism to sci-fi pastiche. He has published three collections of poetry and four novels through Blue Heron Press: -infra, Newt, Hammers, and Mantids. Kirkus Reviews dubbed his work "cartilaginous prose, soft as fishbone, sense-bending and scattershot as a Robin Williams shtick."

Lacy Danes

Lacy Danes made a New Year's resolution to write a hot, historical romance. A year and a half later, she achieved her goal. She lives in Seattle, Washington, where besides writing she enjoys horseback riding, gardening, and savoring a good glass of wine while watching the world go by.

Heather Davis

Heather Davis is the author of Never Cry Werewolf (HarperTeen September 2009) and forthcoming novel The Clearing (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, April 2010). Heather is one of the founding members of "Books, Boys, Buzz," a popular Young Adult fiction blog. She loves writing empowering, transformational stories for teens. Visit her at www.heatherdavisbooks.com.

Pete Dexter

Pete Dexter began his working life with a U.S. Post office in New Orleans, Louisiana. He wasn't very good at mail and quit, then caught on as a newspaper reporter in Florida, which he was not very good at, got married, and was not very good at that. In Philadelphia he became a newspaper columnist, which he was pretty good at, and got divorced, which you would have to say he was good at because it only cost $300.

Dexter remarried, won the National Book Award and built a house in the desert so remote that there is no postal service. He's out there six months a year, pecking away at the typewriter, living proof of the adage What goes around comes around-that is, you quit the post office, pal, and the post office quits you.

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Rebecca Dickinson

Rebecca Dickinson lives and works . . .
Over near Seattle, where the rain falls damp and wet,
In an old spooky house, with three children and her pets.
She loves to write and draw about fun and creepy creatures, because, of course, Halloween is her very favorite holiday. Over in the Hollow is her fifth book. Find out more at www.rebeccadickinson.com.

William Dietrich

William (Bill) Dietrich is the author of a dozen books, both fiction and non-fiction, a long-time Northwest journalist and Pulitzer winner who just recently left the Seattle Times, and a professor of environmental journalism at Western Washington University's Huxley College of the Environment. Journalistic and literary adventures have taken him around the world and from the Arctic to the South Pole, and he enjoys sharing the adventures of his globe-trotting Napoleonic-era hero Ethan Gage, the light-hearted protagonist of his last three novels. Ethan's latest romp, The Dakota Cipher, takes him from Napoleon in Paris to dinner with Thomas Jefferson in the new Washington, D.C., and on to the frontier in search of Norse explorers and Thor's hammer. A fourth Gage novel, bringing the saga full circle, will be out in the spring.

Maria Dolan

Maria Dolan has written essays and journalism for such publications as Salon.com, Seattle Times, Parenting, Women's Adventure, and Audubon, on such eclectic topics as goat farming, adventurous mothers, and urban owls. She is a contributing writer at Seattle Magazine, and produces profiles for local public radio station KUOW. Her co-authored guidebook, Nature in the City: Seattle, was described by the Seattle Times as a "first-rate guidebook...a treasure map to the city's wild and not so wild places." She is also the author of Outside Magazine's Urban Adventure: Seattle.

Margaret Doyle

Margaret Doyle independently published The Fisherman's Quilt in 2004, after 10 years spent fitfully trying to engage editors, publishers and literary agents. That decade was also spent considering markets, the author's role in marketing, book design and the essential book cover and blurbs to articulate the novel's story. With no advance marketing, the book sold 1,000 copies in its first six months, and has gone into four printings. Doyle formed her own publishing company, Port Gamble Publishing, and has a print and online newspaper. Doyle is working on a memoir, The Wild and Holy Child, which relates growing up Boomer Catholic on Seattle's Capitol Hill. She is also editor of stroke victim Anthony Sheridan's Race of Kings, also a memoir, the publisher of a daily online news service (Orcas Issues), coordinator of a tax-supported social services program, and a vocalist and musician with several choirs. Currently, Doyle lives primarily in the San Juan Islands, and has a family home in Indianola. She has three grown children.

Adam Eisenberg

Adam Eisenberg is the author of A Different Shade of Blue: How Women Changed the Face of Police Work. In addition, he is Commissioner of Seattle Municipal Court, where he presides over criminal and traffic court matters. Before taking the bench, Commissioner Eisenberg was a criminal prosecutor, a civil trial attorney, an advocate on mental health and domestic violence issues, and a Los Angeles-based entertainment journalist. Please visit www.adifferentshadeofblue.com.

Kevin Emerson

Kevin Emerson is the author of The Oliver Nocturne Series (Scholastic, 2008) and the stand-alone middle-grade novel Carlos is Gonna Get It (Arthur A. Levine Books, October 2008). He's also a Writer in Residence with Writers in the Schools, a program of Seattle Arts & Lectures, and a teacher at 826 Seattle. When you're asleep at night, Kevin is playing rock shows with his band, Central Services. Visit him at www.kevinemerson.net, and dive into Oliver's world at www.olivernocturne.com.

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Esther Ervin

Esther has an MFA in Medical Illustration. She has exhibited Fine Art and Illustration in several major exhibitions in California and Washington and has had work published in several technical journals. She currently works at Al Doggett Studio, which specializes in restoration of vintage and recent photographs. Her experience with damage to many types of photographs led to research in prevention and preservation. Out of this, her book, Identification and Preservation of Documents and Photographs: Do-It-Yourself Guidelines, was created.

Jonathan Evison

Jonathan Evison is the author of All About Lulu (Soft Skull, 2008) and the forthcoming West of Here (Algonquin, Fall 2010). He likes rabbits and beer. He lives on an island in Puget Sound, where he spends a lot of time in sweat pants, petting rabbits and drinking beer.

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Robert Ferrigno

Robert Ferringo has had a colorful career. After graduating with a Bachelor's degree in Philosophy and a Master's in Creative Writing, he became a college professor. His occupational choice wasn't fulfilling, so he returned to his first love, poker. Five years later, he used some of his winnings to start a punk rock magazine, "The Rocket," which launched him into a job as a feature writer for the adventure-and-new-money beat at a daily newspaper in Southern California. Later, he flew with the Blue Angels, drove Ferraris, and participated in desert survival training. He now lives and writes novels full-time in Washington State.

Karen Fisher

Karen Fisher's first novel, A Sudden Country (Random House), was cited by reviewers around the country as one of the best novels of 2005. It won numerous awards, including the Washington State Book Award and the Mountains and Plains Bookseller's Award, and was named finalist for the PEN/Faulkner. She lives with her three children on Lopez island, where she raises horses and works as a carpenter. Her second novel, set on Idaho's Nez Perce reservation in 1889, is still in progress.

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Ellen Forney

Ellen Forney has been a professional cartoonist/illustrator since 1992. She teaches comics at Seattle's Cornish College of the Arts, paints large-scale acrylic work for solo and group shows, and is an avid swimmer and yoga practitioner. Ellen grew up in Philadelphia and currently lives in Seattle.

Sundee T. Frazier

Sundee T. Frazier earned her MFA in Writing for Young Adults and Children from the Vermont College of Fine Arts in 2004. She is the award-winning author of Brendan Buckley's Universe and Everything in It (Coretta Scott King/John Steptoe New Talent Award), Check All That Apply: Finding Wholeness as a Multiracial Person, and the forthcoming novel The Other Half of My Heart, about biracial twin sisters. She currently lives in Renton, WA, with her husband and two daughters. You can learn more about her and her work at www.sundeefrazier.com.

Peter Gajdics

Peter Gajdics, a native of Vancouver, Canada, is the winner of Opium magazine's 2009 500-word memoir contest, and has also been published in Gay Times, The Gay and Lesbian Review/Worldwide, and The Printed Blog. The New York Tyrant will publish a 5,000-word excerpt from Peter's first book, a memoir called CHORA, in their forthcoming issue. CHORA tells the story of Peter's six years in a psychiatric cult undergoing primal therapy in order to change from gay to straight, and the medical malpractice suit he filed against his former psychiatrist for treating his homosexuality as a disease.

Kathryn O. Galbraith

Kathryn O. Galbraith is the author of 13 books for children, including her newest picture book, Boo, Bunny! In addition to writing and teaching at the University of Washington and various conferences, she loves to read, read, read and take long walks with her dog-but not at the same time! Find out more at www.kathrynogalbraith.com.

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Liz Gallagher

Liz Gallagher is the author of The Opposite of Invisible (Wendy Lamb Books, January 2008) and a forthcoming companion novel. She is a graduate of the Vermont College MFA program in Writing for Children and Young Adults, where she got to study under literary rockstars. As Seattle HOST for readergirlz (www.readergirlz.com), Liz documents the excitement of local teen book events for a nation-wide audience. Visit her at www.lizgallagher.com

Jo Gershman

As a little girl I constantly asked my mother to trace over my favorite Black Beauty illustrations so that I could color them in, dreaming of creating my own pictures for the stories I loved. I am now doing exactly what I always wanted to do -- illustrating greeting cards and books. Animals are my favorite subjects to draw and paint and my life is filled with many, including a big and patient white horse, and three opinionated cats who have me very well trained. Find out more at www.jogershman.com

Jerome Gold

Jerome Gold served in the 5th Special Forces Group in Vietnam in 1965-66. He later received a Ph.D in anthropology from the University of Washington and did field work in Montana and Samoa. With Les Galloway, he founded Black Heron Press, which celebrated its 25th anniversary in August. Gold is also the author of several novels, and collections of stories and interviews. In addition to running a press and writing his own books, he also worked for fifteen years at a state facility for teenager offenders. Seven Stories Press released his memoir, Paranoia & Heartbreak, this past May.

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Ann Gonzalez

Using the traumatic experiences of growing up with a mentally ill mother, Ann Gonzalez has authored a well-received novel for young adults, Running for My Life (Everbind, Westside Books). This book was written under the auspices of the Nanowrimo (National Novel Writing Month) program, and was given a Flamingnet Top Choice Award. Ms. Gonzalez currently teaches writing at North Seattle Community College and online, and she often speaks at writers' conferences and bookfairs.

David Gravender

David Gravender has been the recipient of an NEA Fellowship and the William Stafford Award, among other prizes. His poetry has appeared in numerous literary journals and on metro Buses. He lives in Mountlake Terrace with his wife and daughter, where he tries to remember the words behind the words.

Allison Green

Allison Green is the author of the novel Half-Moon Scar (St. Martin's) and stories and poems in Zyzzyva, Raven Chronicles, Willow Springs and other publications. She is working on a memoir about her adolescent obsession with Richard Brautigan's Trout Fishing in America.

Gary Groth

Instead of chasing girls or putting his nose to the grindstone, Gary Groth published a comic book fanzine throughout high school. In 1975, after acquiring a half-assed education by attending four different colleges and graduating from none, he partnered up with a friend, Mike Catron, and decided that the best way to start a publishing company was to make a load of capital by putting on a rock 'n' roll convention. Rock 'N' Roll Expo, which boasted an appearance by a semi-stoned Hunter S. Thompson, among others, was a financial disaster, but they started a publishing company anyway. In 1976, Groth co-founded Fantagraphics Books by editing and publishing The Comics Journal, which quickly acquired a reputation within the comics profession as anomalous, elitist, persnickety, and muckraking. Following in the tradition of underground comix—acknowledging the cartoonists' ownership of their work and giving them free editorial rein—Fantagraphics started publishing comics in 1981 with Jack Jackson's Los Tejanos, a graphic novel about the Texas-Mexican war, followed by Love & Rockets (in 1982), an anthology comic by two young cartooning brothers, Jaime and Gilbert Hernandez. Peter Bagge and Daniel Clowes followed in 1984 and 1985. Under the stewardship of Groth and his partner Kim Thompson, Fantagraphics went on to publish "graphic novels" before the recent graphic novel fad, including many books by pioneering cartoonists who had become established icons. In 2007, Fantagraphics published its first literary novel, the brilliant Laura Warholic, by Alexander Theroux. Several collections of Groth's interviews with cartoonists are available, and a collection of his essays will be published in 2010. He lives in Seattle with his comics reading son, Conrad.

Michael Gruber

Michael Gruber has an eclectic past; his resume includes stints as a marine biologist, chef, Carter administration worker, and rock group roadie, just to name a few. He is the author of several novels of fantasy and mystery, both under his own name and for other people. His books include The Book of Air and Shadows, The Forgery of Venus, The Witch's Boy and also non-fiction magazine articles on biology. He has published with Harper Collins and Morrow. He lives in Seattle.

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Mary Guterson

Mary Guterson's novels include We Are All Fine Here (Putnam, 2005) and the recently released Gone to the Dogs (St Martin's, 2009). She lives on Bainbridge Island and works at a bookstore.

Mary Ann Gwinn

Mary Ann Gwinn is the book editor at The Seattle Times, where she coordinates books coverage, edits the Sunday books page and writes Lit Life, a column about Seattle books culture that runs each Monday in the Times. She is a vice president of the National Book Critics Circle. She won a Pulitzer Prize in 1990 for her contribution to the Seattle Times coverage of the Exxon Valdez disaster. She lives in West Seattle, where her nightstand groans with half-read books.

Chris Hamer

Chris Hamer, M.S.,CDBC, has worked with dogs and their families to develop better relationships for roughly thirty years. After getting her Master's degree in Animal Behavior from Western Washington University in 1985, Chris began professionally training gun dogs and was one of the first women to actively train gun dogs, including hunting retrievers, pointers, and flushers. She competed in AKC and NARHA hunt tests and is a qualified judge for all levels of the hunt test program. From 1983-1997, Chris owned and operated Wyndhaven Kennels in Northwest Washington State where she would oversee the training of over 50 dogs each day. She is the creator of DogSense Seminars; a two-day intensive training designed to turn dog owners into their dog's teacher. Currently, Chris gives private and in-home training. She is a certified member of the International Association of Animal Behavior Counselors (IAABC) and the chairperson for the IAABC Education Collaborative.

Chris coauthored Parenting with Pets: the Magic of Raising Children with Animals (2007) and is a contributing author of Dog Tales for the Soul. She is a regular contributor for the nationally syndicated radio broadcast, Pet Tales and writes a bimonthly column on dog behavior for the Skagit Valley Herald. Chris lives in Mount Vernon, Washington, with two teenage boys, twelve laying hens, three dogs, a cat, a duck, two horses, and her husband of twenty-seven years.

Sam Hamill

Sam Hamill is the author of more than forty books, including fifteen volumes of original poetry (most recently Measured by Stone and Almost Paradise: New & Selected Poems & Translations); four collections of literary essays, including A Poet's Work and Avocations: On Poetry & Poets; and some of the most distinguished translations of ancient Chinese and Japanese classics of the last half-century. He co-founded, and for thirty-two years was editor at, Copper Canyon Press. He taught in prisons for fourteen years and has worked extensively with battered women and children. An outspoken political pacifist, in 2003, declining an invitation to the White House, he founded Poets Against War, compiling the largest single-theme poetry anthology in history.

He has been awarded fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Guggenheim Foundation, the Woodrow Wilson Foundation, the Mellon Fund, and the Japan-U.S. Friendship Commission; other honors include the Stanley Lindberg Lifetime Achievement Award for Editing, the Washington Poets' Association Lifetime Achievement in Poetry Award, two Washington Governor's Arts Awards, a Western States Book Award, a PEN-Oakland Anti-censorship Award, a PEN Center/USA First Amendment Award, the Charity Randall Award, and the Condecoración de la Universidad de Carabobo in Valencia, Venezuela. Mr. Hamill's work has been translated into a dozen languages. He presently divides his time between his studio in Port Townsend, Washington, and Buenos Aires.

Jim Harris

Since 1972, I've owned a bookstore, worked as a sales rep for Crown Publishers and Random House Value Publishing, been an independent sales rep with multiple publishing and sideline clients and was Inside Sales Manager for a book wholesaler. All except for the bookstore (New Jersey) have been in the Pacific Northwest since January, 1975. In addition to sales, I've set up author tours (regionally) and helped small publishers and self published authors with marketing/promotion and other publishing related jobs.

Eli Hastings

A native of Seattle, Eli Hastings has taught Creative Nonfiction and English courses at UNC in Wilmington, North Carolina. His work has appeared in several publications including Rivendell, Cimarron Review, and The Seattle Review. His essay in Third Coast was nominated for a Pushcart Prize and one in Alligator Juniper won their nonfiction contest. Falling Room, a book of essays, won Best Nonfiction Thesis at UNCW and is now published with Bison Books (University of Nebraska Press).

Lyanda Lynn Haupt

Lyanda Lynn Haupt is an author, speaker, and naturalist based in Seattle, WA. Her most recent book, Crow Planet: Essential Wisdom from the Urban Wilderness (Little, Brown and Company, 2009), explores the intricate relationship of crows with the urban landscape. Her collection of essays Rare Encounters with Ordinary Birds (Sasquatch, 2001) was a winner of the 2002 Washington State Book Award. She is also author of Pilgrim on the Great Bird Continent: The Importance of Everything and Other Lessons from Darwin's Lost Notebooks (Little, Brown and Company).

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Mike Hickey

Mike Hickey is currently working on a sequel to his first novel, Counterclockwise. He has also published a poetry chapbook, In Defense of Eve, as well as won numerous awards for his poetry, teaching, and as a labor leader. In addition to being a tenured creative writing instructor at South Seattle Community College, he has taught as a volunteer at children's bereavement camps, to at-risk youth in White Center, as well as inmates at the Monroe Correctional Complex and the King County Youth Detention Center. Last November he was voted Seattle's "Poet Populist".

David Horowitz

David D. Horowitz founded and manages Rose Alley Press, which primarily publishes books featuring Pacific Northwest rhymed metrical poetry. His new poetry collection, from Rose Alley Press, is Stars Beyond the Battlesmoke. Other collections, from Rose Alley, include Wildfire, Candleflame; Resin from the Rain; and Streetlamp, Treetop, Star. His poems have been published in fine literary journals, such as The Lyric, Candelabrum, and The New Formalist. In 2005, David won the PoetsWest Achievement Award.

Thomas Hubbard

Thomas Hubbard, a retired writing instructor, won Seattle's Grand Slam in 1995. He authored Nail and other hardworking poems, Year of the Dragon Press, 1994. He published Children Remember Their Fathers, an anthology of performance poets; Junkyard Dogz, a chapbook also available on audio CD; and Injunz, a chapbook. His book reviews have appeared in Square Lake and Raven Chronicles. Recent publication credits include poems in Arabesques Review: International Poetry and Literature Journal, and ToTopos Poetry International Fall 2006, Albani: Indigenous Poetry and a short story in Red Ink. He presented instruction at Whidbey Island Writers Conference in March, 2007 and has featured for several Pacific Northwest venues, including Tacoma's Distinguished Writers Series and Whatcom Poetry Series: The Poet as Art. A poem is scheduled for publication in Harvest International: A Journal Where Writers From Around The World Meet In Community in fall, 2008. He serves editorially on Raven Chronicles and Cartier Street Review. He writes poetry, fiction and book reviews in a cabin on Blanchard Mountain, in the Washington Chuckanut Mountains.

Paul Hunter

Paul Hunter has lent a hand where it was needed-whether as teacher, performer, grassroots arts activist, worker on the land, or shade-tree mechanic. For the past 14 years he has published fine letterpress poetry under the imprint of Wood Works, currently including 24 books and 60 broadsides. His poems have appeared in Alaska Fisherman's Journal, Beloit Poetry Journal, Bloomsbury Review, Iowa Review, North American Review, Poetry, Poetry Northwest, Prairie Schooner, Raven Chronicles, The Small Farmer's Journal, The Southern Review and Spoon River Poetry Review, as well as in five full-length books and three chapbooks. His first collection of farming poems, Breaking Ground (2004 Silverfish Review Press), was reviewed in the New York Times, and received the 2004 Washington State Book Award. A second volume of farming poems, Ripening, was published in 2007, and a third companion volume, Come the Harvest, just appeared in 2008. He was recently a featured poet on The News Hour with Jim Lehrer.

Paul lives in Seattle, and he serves on the board of the Small Farms Conservancy. After a good while spent teaching high school English, history, arts and manners, he mostly writes, whittles, sets type, and plays music.

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Pamela Huteson

Author and illustrator Pamela Huteson is a Native Alaskan who hails from Prince of Wales Island in southeast Alaska. She has contributed entries to several encyclopedias including The Encyclopedia of Time, The Encyclopedia of Race Ethnicity, Ethnicity and Society, and The Encyclopedia of Anthropology, all from Sage Publications. Her areas of expertise include totems, masks, and other aspects of Native Alaskan and indigenous Canadian culture. Her Tlingit name is Klinn-T'ode.

Sibyl James

Sibyl James has published eight books (poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction), most recently Pistols and Hearts and China Beats. Individual works have appeared in over 100 journals internationally. She has received awards from Artist Trust, the Seattle Office of Art and Cultural Affairs, 4Culture, and Washington State Arts Commission. James has worked as a writer in residence and has also taught at colleges in the U.S., China, Mexico, and (as Fulbright professor) Tunisia and Cote d'Ivoire.

Chellis Jensen

Chellis Jensen's book, Mrs Annathena Gilly Gully From Puddle Rumple Tilly Willy, was made up for her granddaughter in 2007. This is her first book and has been enthusiastically received by hundreds of school children, ages 7-9, and their teachers. Chellis is a native Tacoman and WSU graduate in Speech/Drama. She spent over 20 years as singer, Rhinestone Rosie, entertaining all ages; restored a 34 foot cabin cruiser (knowing nothing about boats); helped build 60+ houses for Habitat for Humanity; had breast cancer three times; and played French horn. Know her better by visiting her website for children and adults: www.chellisjensen.com.

Margot Kahn

Margot Kahn's first book, Horses That Buck, was nominated for seven awards in 2009 including the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Award. The biography of an old rodeo cowboy, the book was a finalist for the WWA Spur Award as well as the best first book and best woman writer categories of the High Plains Book Awards. Margot received her M.F.A. in creative nonfiction from Columbia University and has worked professionally as a journalist, editor, speechwriter and arts administrator. She currently curates writing programs for kids and teens at Richard Hugo House. Her fiction and book reviews have appeared in Pindeldyboz and Publishers Weekly, among others, and she is currently working on a collection of essays. More information can be found at www.margotkahn.com.

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Stephanie Kallos

Stephanie Kallos believes that writing fiction is like "cultivating a benign form of schizophrenia." She is a former actress and author of Broken for You (Grove Press) which as her first published novel was a national best-seller and book club selection for NBC's Today Show. She was nominated for the Quill Award "Debut Novelist of the Year," the Raymond Carver Award, and the Pushcart Prize. Her second novel is Sing Them Home (Atlantic Monthly Press). After many moves, Ms. Kallos lives with her family in Seattle.

Megan Kelso

Megan Kelso was born in 1968 in Seattle, Washington, where she lived on and off for 33 years. Then she moved to Brooklyn, New York with her husband. After 6.5 years and 7 very moist summers in New York, they moved back to Seattle. She's been drawing comics for 18 years and plans to continue doing so until she is an old, old lady. Her third book, Artichoke Tales, will be published by Fantagraphics Books in spring, 2010.

Bharti Kirchner

Fantastic cook and prolific author Bharti Kirchner has published four cookbooks and four novels. Her latest novel is Pastries: A Novel of Desserts and Discoveries (St. Martin's Press). She has won two Seattle Arts Commission literature grants and an Artist Trust GAP grant. In 1993, her second cookbook, Indian Inspired (Lowell House) was named by USA Today as one of the top ten cookbooks and praised by The Chicago Tribune as one of the best cookbooks of that year also. Ms. Kirchner is a freelance book reviewer for The Seattle Times and speaks frequently at book festivals, writers' conferences and universities.

Amber Kizer

Amber Kizer is addicted to trashy reality television, sour candy, loud pop music and the scent of fresh lilies. Like the character of Auntie in her novel, Meridian, Amber finds inspiration in quilting and baking. She likes to write with book specific scented candles (Meridian used pine and fir) and a book specific playlist (Celtic folk and rock) going in the background. She lives on an island with a menagerie of animals and too many to-be-read books. Her debut novel One Butt Cheek at a Time was included in the prestigious NYPL Best Books for the Teen Age 2008 list. She has toured nationally and appeared on television and radio. She loves visiting schools and book clubs. Her official website is www.AmberKizer.com and more about Meridian can be found at www.MeridianSozu.com.

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Karl Krogstad

Karl Krogstad is arguably the best-known independent film maker in the Pacific Northwest. His films have won awards from most major film festivals in the world. His book Shot to Death, available only from his website, karlkrogstad.com, includes a compilation of the "theory sheets" which he creates as an adjunct to his films, as well as other meanderings and musings. He is also a painter and still photographer.

Larry Laurence

Larry Laurence's poems appear in the anthologies How Much Earth: The Fresno Poets, Roundhouse Press, 2001, and Jack Straw Writers, 2006, and in journals including CutBank, Poetry Northwest, POOL, Southern Poetry Review, and The Raven Chronicles. Awards include grants from Seattle Arts Commission and Artist Trust plus residencies at Squaw Valley Community Of Writers and Cummington Center For The Arts. Books are Life Of The Bones To Come (Black Heron Press, 1999), chosen as a National Poetry Month 2000 selection by the National Association Of College Stores, and Scenes Beginning With The Footbridge At The Lake (Brooding Heron Press, 1992).

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Mike Lawson

Mike Lawson is author of House Secrets (Atlantic Monthly Press, 2009), his newest Joe DeMarco thriller. House Secrets is Mr. Lawson's fourth novel of thrilling suspense set in Washington, D.C. (following The Inside Ring, The Second Perimeter, and House Rules). Mr. Lawson draws from his former career as a member of the government's Senior Executive Service and as the top civilian at a naval shipyard, bringing authenticity and depth to the suspense of his fast-paced novels. He resides in the Pacific Northwest.

Kim-An Lieberman

Kim-An Lieberman is an almost-lifelong resident of Seattle. She holds a Ph.D. in Vietnamese American literature from the University of California, Berkeley. By day, she is a high-school English teacher. Her poems and essays have appeared in Poetry Northwest, Prairie Schooner, CALYX, ZYZZYVA, and the anthology Asian America.Net: Ethnicity, Nationalism, and Cyberspace. She has also been featured locally in The Stranger and the Jack Straw Writers Program. Her first book, Breaking the Map, was published last fall by Blue Begonia Press. www.kalieberman.com

Peggy Lindgrin

I have been reading since before I can remember. I went from college to working in a Crown Book Store. It was a wonderful experience for about 4 years then the natural next step was being a sales rep for a book publisher. I have been a sales rep since December 1991 and I love my job 80% of the time. I have always loved fantasy and romance because they let you escape from reality and there's always a happy ending of some kind.

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Eric Liu

Eric Liu is an author, educator, and civic entrepreneur. He is the founder of the Guiding Lights Network, dedicated to the practice of mindful and imaginative mentorship. His previous books include Guiding Lights: How to Mentor and Find Life's Purpose (the official book of National Mentoring Month) and The Accidental Asian: Notes of a Native Speaker, a New York Times Notable Book. He is also co-author, with Nick Hanauer, of The True Patriot. Eric served as a White House speechwriter for President Bill Clinton and later as the President's deputy domestic policy adviser. He speaks regularly at conferences, campuses, and corporations. Eric now lives in Seattle, where he teaches at the University of Washington and serves on the Washington State Board of Education.

Wendy Liu

A former Chinese citizen, Wendy Liu has a BA in English from Xi´an Foreign Languages Institute in China and an MS in Technology And Science Policy from Georgia Institute of Technology in the US. Over the two decades in America, she has been a China business consultant, translator and writer. Her writings have appeared in The Seattle Times, Northwest Asian Weekly, Chinese American Forum, American Chronicle, and Huan Qiu Shi Bao (Global Times) in Beijing, China.

Ms. Liu is presenting her new book Everything I Understand about America I Learned in Chinese Proverbs. She is also the author of Connecting Washington and China—The Story of the Washington State China Relations Council.

Amanda Lorenzo

Former diversity trainer and educator, Amanda Lorenzo, has created a series of illustrated chapter books for children that is sure to delight. As a gifted storyteller and a firm believer in the inherent strength that our diversity affords us, Ms. Lorenzo is a natural to offer stories that show a unique family in action. Her Runt Farm books feature a "found family", a multi-species band of characters that take over an abandoned farm. There they must fend off weasels and other villains, experience a variety of scrapes and escapes, and most importantly face their own foibles with good humor. Amanda is a denizen of the Ballard neighborhood of Seattle and is often seen out and about in her distinctive hat, retro glasses and more beads than your aunt Matilda.

Deb Lund

Deb Lund is the author of Harcourt's celebrated dinoseries, and Monsters on Machines. The Publishers Weekly starred review says, "Lund's rhyming story, about a team of ghoulish monsters who ride bulldozers and cranes, has just about everything a child could hope for, from fantastical characters to vehicles, from muck and mud to screams and shouts to monsteroni and cheese..." Deb is a frequent presenter and performer at conferences, workshops, libraries, and schools. More picture books, an upper middle grade novel, and a book on teaching writing are Deb's current projects. Learn more about Deb at www.deblund.com.

Sarah Mangold

Sarah Mangold is the author of Household Mechanics and the chapbooks Parlor, Picture of the Basket, Boxer Rebellion and Blood Substitutes. She has received fellowships from MacDowell and the Djerassi Resident Artists program as well as an Individual Artist Award from the Seattle Arts Commission. She edits Bird Dog, a journal of innovative writing and art (www.birddogmagazine.com). This summer her poem "Household Mechanics" premiered as a piece for chamber ensemble at the Brevard Music Festival in North Carolina.

Lynda Mapes

Lynda V. Mapes is the author of Breaking Ground: The Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe and the Unearthing of Tse-whit-zen Village (A Capell Family Book, June 2009), which tells the story of the discovery of one of the largest and oldest Native American archaeological sites in Washington state and the controversy regarding its excavation for construction of a massive dry dock. Ms. Mapes is also author of Washington: The Spirit of the Land (Voyageur Press, 2002).

John Marshall

John Marshall (a.k.a. J.W. Marshall) co-owns and operates Open Books, the fourteen-year-old poetry-only bookstore in Seattle. He won the 2007 Field Poetry Prize and his book, Meaning A Cloud, was published by Oberlin College Press in 2008. Poetry of his has appeared in Alaska Quarterly Review, Cranky, Field, LitRag, MARGIE, Ploughshares, Raven Chronicles and other magazines. His chapbooks, Taken With (2005) and Blue Mouth (2001), published by Wood Works, were finalists for the Washington State Book Award.

Carlos Martinez

Carlos Martinez teaches creative writing and literature at Western Washington University. Originally from New York City, he's been a Northwest resident since 1979. He has had four chapbooks published, most recently The Raw Silk of the Dark, and his work has appeared in various literary magazines and anthologies.

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Ellie Mathews

Ellie Mathews, million dollar grand prize winner in the Pillsbury Bake-Off, takes readers on a delightful journey of her experience in The Ungarnished Truth: A Cooking Contest Memoir (Berkley Books, 2008). She is also author of The Linden Tree (Milkweed Editions, 2007), winner of the 2007 Milkweed Prize for Children's Literature, and Ambassador to the Penguins: A Naturalist's Year Aboard a Yankee Whaleship (Godine, 2003). Ms. Mathews lives with her husband on Washington State's Olympic Peninsula.

Larry Matsuda

Larry Matsuda was born in the Minidoka, Idaho, World War II Relocation Center. Approximately 120,000 Japanese Americans were held without due process for three years or more. Matsuda has a Ph.D. in education and was a visiting professor at Seattle University. Black Lawrence Press will publish his first book of poetry entitled A Cold Wind from Idaho in 2010. His poems appear in Raven Chronicles, New Orleans Review, Floating Bridge Review and Cerise Press (Spring 2010).

Georgia McDade

Georgia Stewart McDade loves reading and writing. She wrote and produced plays for the youngsters in her neighborhood and collaborated with church youth to write plays for special occasions. As a charter member of the African-American Writers' Alliance, she began reading her stories in public in 1991. She credits the group with making her write poetry. For a number of years she has written poems inspired by artists at such sites as Gallery 110, Seattle Art Museum, Columbia City Gallery, and Art/Not Terminal. Georgia writes for Pacific Newspapers, especially the South District Journal, and reports for community radio station KBCS (91.3 FM). She hopes soon to publish a collection of stories and the journals she kept on her six-month, solo trip around the world. Her first volume of poetry, Outside the Cave, was published in 2009.

John J. McLaughlin

Columbia City resident John J. McLaughlin is the author of Run in the Fam'ly (University of Tennessee Press, 2007), winner of the Peter Taylor Prize for the Novel, and the Texas Institute of Letters' awards for Best First Novel and Best Novel of 2007. The book was greatly shaped by his years of work with homeless and incarcerated individuals in California and Seattle. He is a graduate of the University of Iowa Writers' Workshop, as well as the University of Virginia, and his writing has appeared in The Washington Post, National Catholic Reporter, America, and Hunger Mountain, among other publications. He now directs Education Across Borders, a nonprofit organization that serves indigent communities in the Dominican Republic. An excerpt from his book about that work is forthcoming in Young and Catholic (Paulist Press, 2010). His son, JJ, is unofficially the cutest kid in Columbia City. Find more information at www.johnjmclaughlin.net.

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Deanna Meyerhoff

Deanna Meyerhoff has worked as a sales representative for Random House Children's Books for the better part of 13 years. Prior to that, she worked at independent bookstores on both coasts, including The Elliott Bay Book Company. She lives in Seattle with her husband, her test audience three kids and her towering piles of books. More information can be found at www.randomhouse.com.

Brenda Miller

Brenda Miller is the author of Season of the Body (Sarabande Books, 2002) and co-author of Tell it Slant: Writing and Shaping Creative Nonfiction (McGraw-Hill, 2003). Her newest collection of essays, Blessing of the Animals, was released by Eastern Washington University Press on February 1, 2009. Her work has received five Pushcart Prizes and has been published in many journals, including Fourth Genre, Creative Nonfiction, The Sun, Utne Reader, The Georgia Review, and The Missouri Review. She is an Associate Professor of English at Western Washington University and serves as Editor-in-Chief of the Bellingham Review. Brenda lives in Bellingham, WA.

Paul Nelson

Father/Poet/Teacher Paul Nelson co-founded the Northwest SPokenword LAB and founded Global Voices Radio. He is the author of Organic Poetry (Oct. '08, VDM Verlag, Germany) as well as poems/essays in: Golden Handcuffs Review, Jacket Magazine, Fulcrum, OlsonNow Blog, The Argotist, Raven Chronicles, elsewhere. During 26 years in radio, he interviewed Allen Ginsberg, Michael McClure, Anne Waldman, Robin Blaser, Sam Hamill, Wanda Coleman, Eileen Myles, Jerome Rothenberg, George Bowering and others. A Time Before Slaughter (Apprentice House, October '09) is his first book of poetry and he writes one American Sentence every day.

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Edward C. Nixon

Edward C. Nixon has spent the last five decades pursuing the responsible use of natural resources around the globe. After receiving his bachelor's and master's degrees from Duke and NC State, he embarked on a successful career working for and serving as an advisor to several cutting edge companies in the field of earth science. He is president of Nixon World Enterprises, Inc., and current chairman of the Pyron Solar Advisory Board in San Diego, California. By reflecting on heritage, education, extensive world travel, plus the encouragement of his older brother, President Richard Nixon, the author tells the story of an ordinary family striving to make a positive difference in the world. Their global mission aims to inspire more young Americans to reach for a new threshold of greatness for the country.

Amanda Noll

Born and raised in Canberra, Australia, Amanda moved to the United States as a teen. After marrying her college sweetheart, she began working in the purchasing division of a private university (ironic, since she despises shopping). After a while, Amanda left the business world to attend to the business of raising children and to concentrate on her writing. She blames her fundamentally twisted sense of humor on either genetics or being raised on a steady stream of Australian humor and science fiction. Read more at www.amandanoll.com

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Kevin O'Brien

Before his thrillers landed him on The New York Times Bestseller list, Kevin O'Brien made his living as a railroad inspector, and did all his writing at night. His second novel, Only Son was optioned for film rights, thanks to interest from Tom Hanks, and also chosen by Readers Digest for its Select Editions. His third novel—and first thriller—The Next To Die (2001), jumped up the bestseller charts. He's been writing full-time ever since. His last four thrillers have all been New York Times Bestsellers. The most recent is Final Breath. Kevin O'Brien lives in Seattle, loves Hitchcock movies, and is hard at work on his eleventh novel, Vicious, which will be released later this year.

John Olson

John Olson's prose poetry has most recently appeared in the American Poetry Review, New American Writing, Dusie, Denver Quarterly, Hawai'i Pacific Review, The Raven Chronicles, Talisman, and the Golden Handcuffs Review and An Introduction to the Prose Poem. Recent publications include Backscatter: New and Selected Poetry from Black Widow Press in 2008, and Souls of Wind, a novel about the exploits of Arthur Rimbaud in the American West where he meets Billy the Kid, which was shortlisted for a Believer Book Award. "Strange Matter," an essay about the experiments being conducted at CERN in Geneva, Switzerland in quest of the God Particle, & Higgs Boson, is forthcoming in The American Scholar.

Karen L. Olson

Karen L. Olson has been active in both politics and community service since her early teens. After receiving a bachelor's degree in political science from the University of Washington, she combined her education, political experience, and writing talents to work as a director of research and development, grant writer, and international adoption program coordinator. She has since embarked on her own freelance career as a writer, editor, researcher, and translator. Karen attributes her decision to become a writer to the encouragement given to her by Richard Nixon, whom she met for the first time in 1962. She coauthored The Platinum King: Andrew Olson's Story, a biography of a pioneer miner in Alaska, with Jan Olof G. Lindstrom.

Dave Patneaude

David Patneaude finally heeded the advice, "It's never too late to have a happy childhood," and began writing seriously (more or less) in the mid 1980's. His first novel, Someone Was Watching, was published in 1993. His books have been placed on young readers' lists in more than thirty states and honored by the New York Public Library (The Last Man's Reward), the Society of School Librarians International (Framed in Fire), the Winnetka (Illinois) Public Library's "One Book, Two Villages" program (Thin Wood Walls), and the Washington State Public Library (Thin Wood Walls). His newest book, Epitaph Road, is due out in March 2010. When he's not sitting in a coffee shop writing, or at a school or library or conference talking about writing, or out on the running trail thinking about writing, he's at home in Woodinville, Washington, with his wife Judy, a junior high librarian. See www.patneaude.com for more information.

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Jackie Pels

Family After All: Alaska's Jesse Lee Home (Vol. II, Seward, 1925-1965), the latest book by Jackie Pels (Jacquelin Benson Pels), features—among hundreds of other true-life accounts—the story of Alaska Native writer/editor Harriet Lange, whose work is the focus of a Sunday presentation. Born in Seward, reared mostly in coastal Alaska, Jackie founded Hardscratch Press (www.hardscratchpress.com) in 1990 when her Norwegian stepfather, Ralph Soberg, then 82, wrote the first of four well-received books about his boyhood and later years. Other books by Ms. Pels: Unga Island Girl [Ruth's Book], Any Tonnage, Any Ocean, and Cuando llegabas, nieto mío.

Peter Pereira

Peter Pereira is a family physician in Seattle, and was a founding editor of Floating Bridge Press. His books of poetry include What's Written on the Body (Copper Canyon 2007), Saying the World (Copper Canyon 2003) and The Lost Twin (Grey Spider 2000). His poems have been recently featured on Garrison Keillor's The Writers Almanac, and in the 2007 Best American Poetry.

Lola Peters

AAWA member Lola Peters writes poetry to cleanse her soul, essays to clear her mind, and plays to teach. Her commitment to creating a just and equitable world forms the underpinning to her writing. In addition to her published poems, she has written commentary for and edited several newsletters, including a national newsletter for social justice activists. She has also written book reviews for Boston University's Gustavus Myers Center for the Study of Bigotry and Human Rights in North America. Born in Ethiopia to an African-American father and Afro-European mother, then raised during the 1950s in a predominantly white, northern California suburb has given her a unique view of life.

Matthew Porter

Matthew is the author of Monkey World: An A - Z of Occupations. He currently has four books published with Vancouver, BC, publishing house Simply Read Books. Two more books are in the works for release in 2010. In addition to his children's books, Matthew co-owns Bluebottle Art Gallery and Store in Seattle with his wife, Andrea. Bluebottle is headquarters for Matthew Porter's infamous Monkey World paintings and products. To find out more, see www.matthewporterart.com and www.artcraftanddesign.blogspot.com.

Midge Raymond

Midge Raymond's short-story collection, Forgetting English (Eastern Washington University Press, 2009), received the Spokane Prize for Short Fiction. Her work has appeared in American Literary Review, Ontario Review, Indiana Review, North American Review, Bellevue Literary Review, Passages North, the Los Angeles Times, and other publications. She is on the editorial board of the literary journal Green Hills Literary Lantern. Ms. Raymond lives and writes in Seattle, where she also teaches at the Richard Hugo House. More info at: www.MidgeRaymond.com

Jerome Richard

Jerome Richard is the author of the novel The Kiss of the Prison Dancer (runner-up for the 2005 PEN/Hemingway Award) and editor of The Good Life. He also writes about social issues for various magazines and websites, and is a grievance officer with the National Writers Union. He has an M.A. in creative writing from San Francisco State and has taught writing and American literature at University of Montana, Goddard College, and Western Washington University. He was born and nurtured in New York and lives at present in Seattle.

Eli Richardson

Heir-to-the-throne and world-class jack-ass, Eli Richardson likes to get in awkward positions and watch his limbs fall asleep one by one. He's written a big pile of stuff he keeps in a box in the closet; & I Am, Manslaughter, Make Me, Passing Eddy, Americans Vs Aneurysms, Angry Orange. Hardcopies of Pooch available thru Arundel Books.

Sheila Roberts

Sheila Roberts lives on a lake in the Pacific Northwest. She's happily married and has three children. Writing since 1989, she's seen over twenty-five books in print under different names and in different languages. Her novel, On Strike for Christmas, has been optioned for film and is now in stores for a third holiday season. Her books Bikini Season and Love in Bloom were chosen for Target's breakout novel program, and Bikini Season was a Nielsen BookScan Top 50 romance and chosen as an Amazon summer read. Love in Bloom is soon to be a Reader's Digest Condensed Book. Her newest book, Angel Lane, has gotten great reviews and is in stores now. When she's not hanging out with her girlfriends or speaking at conferences, Sheila can be found writing about those things near and dear to women's hearts: family, friends, and chocolate.

Judith Roche

Judith Roche is the author of three poetry collections, most recently, Wisdom of the Body, an American Book Award winner, has published widely in various journals and magazines, and has poems installed on several Seattle area public art projects. As Literary Arts Director for One Reel she produced the Bumbershoot Bookfair and Literary Program for over twenty years. She was Distinguished Northwest Writer-in-Residence at Seattle University in 2007 and currently teaches at Hugo House and at Cornish College of the Arts.

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Steven Roxborough

Stephen Roxborough (aka roxword) is a dual-citizen gemini and two-time Pushcart Prize nominee. His titles include spiritual demons (2001), making love in the warzone (2001), impeach yourself! (2006), blurst (2008) and son of blurst (2009). Currently, Rox is Head Poet for Madrona Center and a keen student of North American culture.

Harry Rutstein

Harry Rutstein is author of In the Footsteps of Marco Polo: A 20th Century Odyssey (Viking Press, 1980) which tracks his fantastic ten year adventure following the 13,000 mile overland route of Marco Polo from Venice to Israel, Turkey, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and finally crossing China to Beijing; and The Marco Polo Odyssey: In the Footsteps of a Merchant Who Changed the World (The Marco Polo Foundation, 2008). Harry Rutstein has been a merchant of high technology in China for 30 years and wrote two books about his travels to authenticate the stories told by Marco Polo. He and his wife reside in Seattle, Washington.

Michael Schein

Michael Schein is the author of Just Deceits: A Historical Courtroom Mystery (Bennett & Hastings 2008), described as "the perfect book for lovers of courtroom thrillers, historical fiction, mysteries, or anyone looking for an exciting page-turner that also stimulates the mind." He also writes poetry, plays and short stories, and serves as Director of the annual LiTFUSE Poets' Workshop. His poetry has been widely published, nominated for the Pushcart twice, and stuck to the refrigerator by magnets.

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Allison Wedell Schumacher

Allison Wedell Schumacher is the author of Shaking Hands with Shakespeare: A Teenager's Guide to Reading and Performing the Bard. A current writer and editor and former professional actress who has performed with such local companies as the 5th Avenue Theatre and Theater Schmeater, she holds a BA in Theater and English from St. Olaf College and an MFA in Acting from the University of Louisville. She learned to love Shakespeare in her hometown of Cheyenne, WY, and currently makes her home in Seattle's Columbia City with one husband, one daughter, and one cat.

Anne Schwartz

Anne Schwartz lives and farms with her husband Michael Brondi in Eastern Skagit County in NW Washington State. While her husband maintains a full time job off the farm, Anne has operated Blue Heron Farm since 1979. Blue Heron Farm produces several acres of organic berries and vegetables for sale to farmers markets, and several area businesses. They also operate a nursery and specialize in bamboo planting stock, poles and shoots. As one of the pioneering organic farmers and advocates for change, Anne has been active with several organizations advocating for sustainable agriculture for over 30 years. She has served on the Board since 1979, with many years as President, for Tilth Producers of Washington, the organization serving organic agriculture.

Her early focus was developing legislature and regulations to define and institute Organic Certification programs in both Washington State and at the Federal level for the National Organic Program. She was also instrumental in creating the Center for Sustaining Agriculture and Natural Resources at Washington State University. She has served on the advisory board for the CSANR since it's inception in 1987. In 2003, she was awarded Woman of the Year by the College of Agriculture at WSU for Leadership and Public Service. Anne has continued to work closely with WSU Faculty and Administration as well as the Washington State Legislature on issues affecting rural communities and agriculture. Anne and Mike have also served as EMT/Firefighters for their local fire department for 30 years.

Maria Semple

Maria Semple, former television writer (Ellen, Saturday Night Live, Arrested Development, Mad About You), makes her literary debut with This One Is Mine (Little, Brown and Company, 2008). In This One Is Mine, Ms. Semple takes the reader on a humorous and satirical ride through the glamour, celebrity, and absurdities that are Los Angeles and Hollywood. Ms. Semple lives in Seattle with her boyfriend and daughter.

Joni Sensel

Joni Sensel is the author of books for young readers and others who know reality is not quite what it seems. Her titles include The Farwalker's Quest and The Timekeeper's Moon, published by Bloomsbury, and Reality Leak and The Humming of Numbers, published by Henry Holt. She's also the author of two picture books, one of which won a 2001 Henry Bergh Honor. She lives in the woods near Mt. Rainier with two dogs, sundry elk, and the occasional mouse. Read more at www.jonisensel.com

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Jennie Shortridge

Bestselling author Jennie Shortridge is the author of four novels: When She Flew (NAL, November, 2009), Love and Biology at the Center of the Universe (NAL, 2008), Eating Heaven (NAL, 2005), Riding with the Queen (NAL, 2008). Her non-fiction work has appeared in Mademoiselle, Glamour, Southwest Art, and Natural Home, as well as several in flight publications. When Ms. Shortridge isn't writing she enjoys being with friends and family, traveling, music, cooking, and gardening.

Clete Smith

Clete Smith's first novel, Grandma's Intergalactic Bed and Breakfast, will be published by Disney-Hyperion in the spring of 2011, with a sequel to follow the next year. The story is a humorous middle-grade adventure about a young boy who learns that his grandma's rural inn secretly caters to vacationing aliens. A lifelong Pacific Northwest resident, Smith will graduate in January with an MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults from the Vermont College of Fine Arts.

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Louise Spiegler

Louise is the author of The Amethyst Road and also teaches History and English at Cascadia Community College. She lives in Seattle with her husband and two sons. Her upcoming novel, The Jewel and the Key, will be published by Clarion next year. For more information, go to www.amethystroad.net.

Joannie Kervran Stangeland

Joannie Kervran Stangeland is the author of two poetry chapbooks, Weathered Steps (Rose Alley Press) and A Steady Longing for Flight, which won the Floating Bridge Press Chapbook Award. Poems have appeared in Raven Chronicles, Iota Magazine, and Valparaiso Poetry Review, and Joannie has participated in the Jack Straw Writer's program. In her day job, Joannie is working on a writer-focused video series called "A Writer's Guide to Microsoft Office."

Garth Stein

Garth Stein is the author of three novels: the New York Times bestseller The Art of Racing in the Rain, How Evan Broke His Head and Other Secrets, and Raven Stole the Moon, and a play, Brother Jones. He has worked as a documentary filmmaker and lives in Seattle with his family.

Chris Sutterland

Now a publishers' representative, Chris Sutterland was a bookseller in two independent Northwest bookstores for 26 years. She co-owned the Snow Goose Bookstore in Stanwood for nine years before taking this job, and was a children's' book buyer for most of those years. She has been with Scholastic for two years, serving twelve states.

M. Anne Sweet

M. Anne Sweet is a poet and artist. Her poetry collection, Nailed to the Sky, is out from Gazoobi Tales Publishing. She has read extensively throughout the Puget Sound area, individually and with the Seattle Five Plus One. Her poetry has appeared in many print and online literary journals. She has won awards for both her visual art and her literary works, including that she is a past winner of the Bart Baxter Poetry in Performance Award.

Kathryn True

Co-Author of Nature in the City: Seattle, Kathryn True's love of the wild has been nourished on the Wonderland Trail encircling Mt. Rainier, in the island nooks of Desolation Sound, along Nepal's infamous Annapurna Circuit, and by the deserts and hot springs of the Baja Peninsula. She's partial to forest paths that lead to salty shores. True is a regular contributor to Sunset Magazine and Seattle Times' Northwest Weekend section. Her writing has also appeared in In Context, Simple Living, The Seattle Weekly, and ParentMap. A moonlighting gardener, True edited and contributed to Seattle Tilth's Maritime Northwest Garden Guide. She lives with her family amongst the brambles and forests of Vashon Island.

Samantha R. Vamos

Samantha Vamos grew up on the East Coast, where she attended Georgetown University Law Center and practiced law in Washington, D.C. and later, Chicago, Illinois. Samantha and her family moved to the Pacific Northwest in 2007. Before You Were Here, Mi Amor (Viking Children's Books, 2009), a bilingual children's picture book about all the things that one family does to welcome a new child into the world, is her first book. Her second children's picture book, The Cazuela That the Farm Maiden Stirred (Charlesbridge Publishing, fall 2010) is being illustrated by artist and children's illustrator, Rafael López. Please visit Samantha online at www.samanthavamos.com

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Santiago Vega

"Half the time I think I'm crazy, and the other half I know I'm crazy," said AAWA member Santiago Vega of himself. This craziness is akin to the craziness of Gandhi, Malcolm, and King, the kind of craziness that compels one to say what he believes is true though he may be forced to stand alone. After listening to some of his ideas, many folks realize his craziness is the kind that can change the world for the better, the kind of craziness the world needs. Multilingual and multitalented, Santiago writes, recites, dances, and teaches. This musician shares his talent with many cultures. Knowing everything is political, Santiago usually always writes about political issues of the day. This poet/philosopher ought to be heard.

Maria de Lourdes Victoria

A native from Veracruz, Mexico, Maria has been published in Spain, Argentina, Mexico and United States. She has been the recipient of numerous literary awards, including the James W. Hall for Fiction, the Jimmy Knudsen Memorial, and Crepusculo, an Argentinean Literary Journal. Her first novel, Les Dejo el Mar (Ediciones B, 2005) was a finalist for the Mariposa Book Award (best first Spanish novel) and took third place as the best overall Historical Novel. She is co-owner and faculty member of Casa de Escritores / House of Writers (www.houseofwriters.com) a bilingual online academy offering writing workshops and literary translations.

Wendy Wahman

Wendy Wahman is the author/illustrator of Don't Lick the Dog...Making Friends with Dogs. An artist with the Seattle P-I until its fall last Spring, Wendy now devotes her time to children's books, her poodles and kitty cats. Her next book, Velvet Paws, Pointy Claws publishes Spring 2011. Don't Lick the Dog was selected for this years Original Art Show in NY.

Leigh Walton

Leigh Walton is the marketing director and web editor at Top Shelf Productions, a publisher of fine comics and graphic novels for readers old and young. Top Shelf's titles, which share a distinctive blend of literary depth, visual charm, and popular accessibilty, have received dozens of awards and include several New York Times bestsellers. In addition to his work with Top Shelf's printed books, Leigh edits the webcomics site Top Shelf 2.0, which presents new comics for free, five days a week. He is based in Portland.

Jim Whiting

Jim Whiting has written more than 100 children's nonfiction books and edited another 150 or so in the past eight years. Before that, he published Northwest Runner, a monthly regional running magazine, for 17 years. He's also written hundreds of newspaper and magazine articles, penned light poetry, done venue and event write-ups and photos for AOL, advised a national award-winning high school newspaper, served as sports editor for the Bainbridge Island Review, been history sub-editor for Irish-based gurubooks.com, generated ad copy for an online retailer, and even covered the Antarctica Marathon as writer and photographer. Please see www.jimwhiting.com for more information.

David B. Williams

David B. Williams is a natural history writer who focuses on the connections between nature and people in the urban landscape. He is the author of Stories in Stone: Travels Through Urban Geology and The Seattle Street-Smart Naturalist: Field Notes from the City. He regularly teaches workshops about geology in Seattle.

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Lee W. Wimberly

Lee Wimberly 's developed a life-long interest in the relationship between science and religion, an interest that grew out of the stark contrast he found between his early Christian education and his under graduate degree in Philosophy. He received his degree in 1975 from Metropolitan State College in Denver Colorado. That same year, he moved with his new bride, Karen, to Seattle. He worked for the Boeing Company for 27 years as a technical writer and systems analyst. In July 2007, Lee retired from the Boeing to focus on Exploring the Gap Between Science and Religion. In his own words: "Exploring the Gap Between Science and Religion is more than a book. It is an invitation to the reader to explore the key issues residing at the very heart of this conflict." In addition to writing, Lee enjoys photography, sailing, and playing with his grand nieces in Denver. More at www.explorethegap.net

Velani Witthoft

Keely Alexander McCammon was born and raised in Montana and now lives in Seattle, where she edits scripts for a gaming company. Velani Mynhardt Witthoft, a native of South Africa, studied law and now works on immigration reform in Seattle. As Keely Velani, their collaborative effort is Davy Brown Discovers His Roots, a book for middle school students about immigration. Volumes on global warming and AIDS are in the works.

Adam Woog

By day, Adam Woog writes books for middle-school and elementary students -- biography and history whenever possible. By night, he reads way too much for a monthly column in the Seattle Times on crime and mystery fiction. He is married to Karen Kent, who has a real job, and they have a daughter who is now a freshman in college.

Brenda Wright

Brenda Gale Wright was born and raised in Washington State. An AAWA member, Brenda loves to use words that capture a reader's or listener's mind and heart. She loves to write about everyday events and occasions, and has been known to use humor to soften the words of life. Brenda is delighted and honored that the gift of writing has been bestowed upon her and plans to write until the last ink well runs dry.

Maged Zaher

Maged Zaher was born and raised in Cairo, Egypt, and came to the U.S. to pursue a graduate degree in Engineering. His English poems have appeared in magazines such as "Columbia Poetry Review", "Exquisite Corpse", "Jacket", "New American Writing", "Tinfish", and others. He performed his poems at Subtext, Kootenay School of Writing, Bumbershoot, St. Mark's Poetry Project, Evergreen State College, and other places.

Speakers Attending | Speaker Bios