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Frank Anjakos
Frank Anjakos lives in the Wild West, where he avoids writing about anything Western. Upon graduation from college in Michigan he was unwilling to get a real job, and so went to law school at the University of Arizona, where he studied listlessly, overcome by the desert heat, and obtained a law degree in the usual amount of time. After recovering from the stifling law school style of writing, he returned to his true passion, fiction…both writing and living it. Coerced by his son Finn, he turned away from adult science fiction and began writing children’s books. Now, if he could just get his son to actually read one. |
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John Attanas
John Attanas was born, raised, and still lives in New York City. He earned a BFA in dramatic writing and a MA in english literature from NYU, and a MA in english/creative writing from Queens College. John started out his writing career as a playwright, and from 1989 to 2000 had over fifteen productions in New York, Los Angeles, and suburban Chicago. In 2006 John's play Henry Kissinger: A Romantic Comedy was presented in the New York International Fringe Festival to glowing reviews. John began writing for children in the mid-1990s, and studied with novelist Isabelle Holland. John's novel Eddie and the Jets was published in hardcover in 2005 by Darby Creek Publishing, and was then licensed in 2007 by Scholastic Book Clubs. John also writes non-fiction, and has published two books on music: Yo-Yo Ma: A Life in Music, and Daniel Barenboim: His Life, Music, and Art. John has been happily married for over one year to the wonderful Anne Miller Attanas. |
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Julie Baker
Julie Baker is the author of three nonfiction books for young-adult readers, a social studies textbook for 4th grade learners, several history-related articles for American History Magazine, and is a contributor to EBSCO's online research database. She received the 2007 award for Outstanding Work of Children's Literature from the New Hampshire Writers' Project for The Bread and Roses Strike of 1912 and was the 2002 recipient of the prestigious Nonfiction Work-In-Progress Grant awarded by the Society for Children's Book Writers and Illustrators. Julie earned her BA degree in anthropology and history from the University of Texas and her M. Ed from Boston College. When she’s not researching or writing about people and places of the past, Julie works as an adjunct professor of English at Southern New Hampshire University. |
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Don Benson
Don Benson
teaches history in Weston, Massachusetts, has published a number of articles about teaching and coaching, and is a contributor to the upcoming Third H Book of Harvard Athletics (to be published in 2011). Don writes both fiction and nonfiction picture books inspired by his work. His fiction work embellishes some of his zanier classroom moments, while his nonfiction writing, primarily biographies, explores the contributions of significant yet underrepresented historical figures. |
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Steve Björkman
Steve Björkman has been an illustrator for over thirty years. To date, over one hundred million of the cards he creates with his brother Carl have been sold through Recycled Paper Greetings. In addition, he has illustrated over 80 children’s books, including Flat Stanley, I Hate English, and the New York Times bestseller, Dirt on My Shirt. Steve lives with his wife their dog, cat and California desert tortoise in Irvine, California.
www.stevebjorkman.com |
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Pamela Chanko
Pamela Chanko
has authored and co-authored a wide array of titles, both fiction and nonfiction, in prose and in verse, for audiences ranging from age three to older than they will likely admit. She has written on such diverse subjects as baby animals, new shoes, and civil rights, and also on various grades of paper. (Her soft cover books are longer, but the ones with the cardboard pages are best for chewing.) A native New Yorker, Pamela finds unexpected sources of inspiration in her previous lives as preschool teacher, singing waitress, street cart vendor, and voguing instructor (not really, as you can see from the picture she knows how to strike a pose) but definitely counts writing as her favorite career yet. She gets to show up in pajamas every day and enjoys the commute to her living room, which boasts a three-inch view of the East River and a fort under the desk for her two intractable but vigilant terriers. |
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Michele Corriel
Michele Corriel is an award-winning journalist, columnist and freelance writer. During her eleven years as a newspaper journalist, she garnered First Place awards from the Montana Newspaper Association and was recognized by the National Newspaper Association. During her years in New York City, Michele was executive editor and publisher of an arts monthly magazine covering performance art, music, film, books and visual artists.
Michele's interview with William Burroughs was published in 2001 by The University of Mississippi Press in their series “Literary Conversations," and two articles appeared in Faces of Freedom (Pioneer Press, 2002). Her poetry has been published in The Lower East Side Anthology, The Grey Rock Review, Cover Arts New York, and in a work by the Fusion Arts Movement in the Whitney Museum and Museum of Modern Art's Permanent Book Collection. She is the creator of the Poetry Dispenser, a Montana arts project, which disperses community poetry in the form of a paper towel dispenser.
As a freelance writer she has had articles published in Western Art and Architecture, Home, Jack and Jill Magazine, US Kids, Twist, Horizon Air Magazine, The Big Sky Journal, Montana Magazine, The High Country Independent Press, The Bozeman Daily Chronicle, Bicycle Magazine, At Home, Fencelines, Outside Bozeman, Distinctly Montana, Montana Parent and others. Michele was awarded the National Children’s Empowerment Award for a newspaper series she did on bullying in the schools.
Michele is the Regional Advisor for the three-state area called the Big Sky Region of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators. |
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Tina Nichols Coury
Tina Nichols Coury, author, award winning multi-media artist, blogger, vlogger, book trailer producer and all around Renaissance woman. Tina’s article on Book Promotion, “Blog Tours to Book Trailers” was published in Children’s Writer’s and Illustrator’s Market 2010. Tina’s first picture book, Hanging Off Jefferson’s Nose, Growing up on Mount Rushmore (Dutton) will be released in the spring of 2012. Tina’s has interviewed more than 150 authors for her popular kidlit blog, Tales from the Rushmore Kid, including Neil Gaiman, Sherman Alexie, Joan Bauer, John Green, Kathleen Duey just to name a few. You can view Tina’s vlogs on her You Tube channel. Tina is the founder of Tina’s Trailers, a book trailer production house that creates trailers for authors, publishers and literary organizations tinanicholscoury.typepad.com/tinas_book_trailers |
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Bonnie Datt
Bonnie Datt is a comedy writer, producer and, previously, an award winning stand-up comic. In television, she’s written for shows on the USA, PBS, Oxygen, MSNBC, UPN, Disney and ABC networks, including doing punch up on the ABC sitcom Hope & Faith and co-writing an original animated pilot, which was optioned by Disney. Her print contributions include articles for Spy magazine, Tony Hendra’s My Wall Street Journal parody and Food & Beverage magazine. For the stage, she’s written for other stand-up comics and for presenters at the last four Writers Guild of America, East Awards. She was also the Talent Producer of the 2010 WGAe awards. For the web, Bonnie has written for comedycentral.com, msnbc.com, and the UK music site trakmarx.com. She is currently a regular contributor to the fashion site racked.com, as well as one of the writer-producers of the popular animated web series, The Confirmed Bachelors.
Along with writing, Bonnie’s professional career has extended to politics and the music industry. In politics, she worked as an Advance Person for the Clinton/Gore campaign and as the Director of Volunteer VIP Drivers for their first Inauguration. In music, she worked as New Music Marketing and Promotion Representatives for A&M and MCA Records, respectively. A native of Cleveland, Ohio, Bonnie graduated summa cum laude from New York University with a BA in American Studies and went on to graduate studies at the University of Pennsylvania's Annenberg School for Communication.
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MJ Diem
MJ Diem grew up in Racine, Wisconsin, and the oldest of five children. She spent twelve years in Catholic school uniforms and is therefore fashion dyslexic. MJ has been a humor columnist, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel food writer, special correspondent for the Rittman & Mueller radio show, cheerleading and track coach, palm reader, clueless floral arranger, video editor, freelance journalist and, once, an office manager with no organizational skills. She writes humorous middle grade novels and has mad video editing skills to produce her own book trailers. She and her husband, Patrick, an Information Technology genius who keeps her in computers, have four children. |
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Kama Einhorn
Kama Einhorn has written more than 30 books for young people, their parents, and their teachers, and has been published by Random House, Simon & Schuster, and Scholastic. Growing up in a small beach town in Connecticut, she published her first work, the mimeographed Gumdrop Gazette, at the age of eight (her reporting garnered numerous awards from her dad). Einhorn is the former deputy editor of Sesame Street Magazine and recently worked on the start-up of the new Electric Company, both of which allowed her to indulge her Peter Pan syndrome. When she’s not at her desk fighting over the keyboard with her cats, she’s volunteering for animal-welfare organizations and wishing every homeless cat and dog a loving home. She lives in Brooklyn and plays a mean game of Scrabble. |
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Thomas Evans
Thomas Evans is a visual artist living in New York City. Born in Bedford Hills, New York, the first time that Evans held a camera he felt a powerful connection to it, a gift which allowed him to explore lighting and composition in ways far beyond the ordinary. In his art, Evans has no fear. His camera is an open door to the world.
Evans is a photographer for The Patrick McMullan Company, and has shot fashion shows, celebrities, parties, and red carpets events. His work has been published in numerous magazines including Go, Paraphilia, Trystate, HX and Next. In addition to editorial work, Evans has shot cover art for recording artist and done portraiture for the wildly varied artist community of New York City.
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Marcus Ewert
Marcus Ewert lives, like Rapunzel, lives in an honest-to-goodness turret. (Unlike Rapunzel, however he is bald.) Marcus is very proud of first children's book, the groundbreaking 10,000 Dresses, which the American Library Association cited as an outstanding children's book dealing with lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender themes in their 2009 Rainbow List. Currently, Marcus is busily working on many more stories for both adults and kids. |
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L.A. Fields
L.A. Fields is the author of novel Maladaptation, published by Queer Mojo/Rebel Satori Press in 2009. Her work has been featured in Wilde Stories 2009, Best Gay Romance 2010 and the Bram Stoker Award winning Unspeakable Horror: From the Shadows of the Closet. She has a degree in English Literature from the New College of Florida, and currently lives in transition.
You can follow L.A. at la-fields.livejournal.com. |
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Conor Firth
Conor Firth was born on the rugged coast of Northern Ireland. He grew up by the sea on the not so rugged coast of Dublin, where he spent carefree summers sailing, teaching sailing and rescuing people from sailing mishaps. He attended university in the city, studying Real Estate and Art History. But a recession dampened his spirits so he packed up and moved to New York. He progressed up the art ladder, working in galleries and auction houses, however the business of art never made him happy. He needed to express his creative side and began to paint at the Art Students' League. It was soon discovered that he was not the next Picasso, but he did meet a beautiful woman who would later become his wife.
Returning to Ireland he set up his own gallery and online business. It was the dot-com era and he hoped it would be a fast way out of the art world. During this turbulent entrepreneurial period he began to write. At first he wrote about his own experiences and then he began to incorporate fiction. His first novel, Art Star, drew the attention of an Irish literary agent but never a publisher. In 2005 he moved back to New York with his wife and settled down in Brooklyn where he lives by the sea. There he wrote his first young adult novel, The Little Yarnmouth Abduction. He is currently working on his second young adult novel. |
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Karyn Friedman-Everham
Karyn was raised on Motown and gefilte fish. A brief, ill-spent affair with engineering studies in the snowy Keweenaw confirmed wanderlust. She became a farmhand in Oregon, an education major in Milwaukee, a Peace Corps teacher in Africa, a new mom in the Caribbean National Forest. Some years ago Karyn traded her hiking boots for a home and warm roots in Florida. She writes poetry and fiction for children and adults. |
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Heather L. Hansen
Heather L. Hansen lives on a tropical island in the East China Sea. With two kids and a marine husband, she writes to keep her sanity. Heather writes young adult novels that are a little particular, always sassy, with just a touch of angst. And of course kissing!
You can visit her for the daily dish at
heatherhansen.blogspot.com
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Laban Carrick Hill
Laban Carrick Hill's newest book America Dreaming: How Youth Changed America in the 60's recently won the 2007 Parenting Publications Gold Award. The New York Times Book Review wrote, "Excellent." Howard Zinn praised the cultural history as "a phenomenal piece of work, extensively researched and visually stimulating; an essential resource for children and adults of all ages." America Dreaming examines the legacy of the sixties, and how the events that took place then inform our lives today.
Hill is the author of more than 25 books, including the 2004 National Book Award Finalist Harlem Stomp!: A Cultural History of the Harlem Renaissance, a book he researched for more than a decade. He was drawn to this era because the Harlem Renaissance seemed to embody Ralph Ellison’s sense that America could not be America without African Americans. Hill has also taught writing at Columbia University, Baruch College, and St. Michael’s College in Vermont. He is currently teaching at Pine Manor College Solstice MFA in Writing Program. In the fall of 2008, he was a visiting professor of creative writing at the University of Cape Coast, Cape Coast, Ghana. He is also the co-founder of the Ghana Poetry Project, which was formed to promote a literary culture and to publish books of poetry in Ghana.
In fall 2010, Hill's poem Dave the Potter will be published as a picture book with illustrations by acclaimed artist Bryan Collier. Also in 2010, his picture biography of DJ Kool Herc, the founder of Hip Hop, will be published by Roaring Brook Press. His most recent novel is A Brush with Napoleon, published by Watson Guptil in 2007. His young adult novel, Casa Azul, based on the Frida Kahlo painting Self Portrait (with Monkey and Hummingbird) was selected as a New York Public Library 2006 Book for the Teen Age. His poems have been included in the Contemporary Poetry of New England anthology and in numerous literary magazines, including Tar River Review and Denver Quarterly. He was one of the founding editors of American Letters & Commentary. His Reader’s Companion to Jonathan Franzen’s The Corrections (SparkNotes) appeared in print in 2003. He has also written critical biographies for Scribners American Writers and British Writers series on J. M. Coetzee, Bobbie Ann Mason, and Jane Kenyon.
www.labanhill.com
www.ghanapoetryproject.com |
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Ruth Horowitz
Ruth Horowitz has worked as a librarian in a Catholic girls’ high school, raised two children, run for public office, taught Torah at a Hebrew school, dispensed advice in a sex column, and served the causes of truth and grammar as an editor at Vermont’s alternative weekly newspaper, Seven Days, where she also contributed news stories, features and personal essays. The Vermont Press Association named “Kosher Caskets,” a profile of a coffin salesman, Best Feature Writing in a Non-daily for 2003.
As the youngest of four siblings (father an editor at The New York Times, mother a middle school librarian), it’s not surprising that Ruth’s children’s books so often champion unfairly maligned creatures: bats in Bat Time, horseshoe crabs in Crab Moon (a National Science Teachers Association Outstanding Science Trade Book for Children for 2000), cockroaches in Break-Out At The Bug Lab and Big Surprise in the Bug Tank, and a baby brother in Mommy’s Lap.
Since growing up in Montclair, New Jersey, Ruth has lived in Paris, Los Angeles and Burlington, Vermont. She and her husband recently relocated to Rhode Island. Her current projects include a novel for adults and more children’s books.
You can follow Ruth at ruthhorowitz.wordpress.com. |
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Brian Kell
Brian Kell was born, bred and buttered in L.A. (Lower Akron, Ohio). During his forty plus years gracing the planet, Brian went back to college numerous times for his degree in Civil Engineering. But, as you can guess, his first love has been, and always will be, white chocolate Kuna blend espressos (writing comes in a close second). He’s been married to his high school sweetheart for over twenty years and he’s cursed... err, blessed with... four daughters! That’s right... four! (Quick Stock Tip: invest in bathroom paper products and toiletries.) Since he never gets a moment to speak, he writes humorous young adult and middle grade novels, usually with a supernatural twist. He’s been writing since 1994, but didn't really attack it until 2005 after his last go at college. He’ll never admit his love for the family cat. Never. Does he blog? You bet!
brian-ohio.livejournal.com
twitter.com/brian_ohio
www.facebook.com/home.php#/brian.kell?ref=name
www.briankell.net |
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Pooja Makhijani
Pooja Makhijani is the editor of Under Her Skin: How Girls Experience Race in America (Seal Press, 2004), an anthology of essays by women that explores the complex ways in which race shapes American lives and families, and the author of a picture book, Mama’s Saris (Little, Brown, 2007; Random House India, 2009).
www.poojamakhijani.com |
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Jess Mowry
Jess Mowry was born in 1960 in Mississippi and raised by his father in Oakland, California. Jess has been a truck driver and heavy equipment operator in Arizona, and engineer on a tugboat in Alaska as well as working on cargo airplanes. Returning to Oakland in 1988, he bought a used typewriter and began writing stories for kids at a local youth center. Today he is the author of twelve novels and two story collections. Among his novels are Way Past Cool, Six Out Seven, Babylon Boyz and Voodu Dawgz. His stories have also appeared in anthologies such as In The Tradition, Cornerstones, School Is Not Cool, Follow That Dream, I Believe In Water, Face Relations and Brotherman.
Of his writing Mowry says: "After over thirty years of working with kids and raising four of my own, along with a few strays–none of whom are in prison or collecting welfare–not to mention almost twenty years of writing books and stories for and about kids, I've found that it's a lot easier for people to be 'pro-child' about some kids than it is for them to care about and champion 'other' kids. Almost all my stories and books are for and about black kids, who are not always cute and cuddly. My characters often spit, sweat and swear, as well as occasionally smoke or drink. Just like their real-world counterparts, some are 'overweight' and have no desire to be skinny, or may look 'too black,' or are otherwise unacceptable by superficial American values...including some African-American values. Like on-the-real kids, they often live in dirty, violent environments, and are forced into sometimes nasty lifestyles.
And virtually no one writes books or stories about them–at least seldom in ways that don't exploit them, and/or don't glorify gangs, guns, drugs and violence. When I first began writing I wanted to write many different kinds of books: adventure novels, and stories about magic and ghosts. These were the kinds of books I grew up reading, though I often wondered why there were no black heroes such as ship captains or airplane pilots...no black Indiana Joneses, Hardy Boys or Hobbits."
timoun.tripod.com |
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Jason Roer
Jason Roer found himself by luck or fate in the prestigious Toy Design program at FIT in New York City, where he decided it was simply better to remain a child and play with stuff. After graduation, Jason found a job with an eccentric businessman designing everything from cartoon characters to filming live events. It was under the auspices of this enigmatic man, that Jason recognized his true calling as a storyteller.
Jason has now written and directed four short films, and written a feature screenplay. His latest short, Faceless, played at many festivals around the world, winning awards including Most Disturbing Film at the International Horror and SciFi Film Festival sponsored by Lionsgate Films.
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy was Jason's favorite book as far back as he can remember. It was this book that led Jason on most of his early creative exploits, and he can even remember writing a short story inspired by the insane lunacy of it while staying at his grandmother's apartment many years ago. To this day, that story remains unpublished, and rightly so. However it was this story that made him want to write a story that could in fact be published.
Jason has now completed his first novel, The Kringle Khronicles Volume 1: The Legend of Winterdale. He is presently deep in the trenches writing Volume 2.
All this, and he still has time to break his hand and ribs snowboarding, be a stay-at-home dad to amazing 22-month old, Jaden, and get Sting to play a role in one of his films!
www.bjasonroer.com |
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Nicole Rubel
Nicole Rubel is an author/illustrator known for her uniquely colorful illustrations and charming stories. She has over sixty books to her credit and is the co-creator of the popular Rotten Ralph series.
Raised in Coral Gables, Florida, Ms. Rubel received a Bachelor of Science in Art Teaching from the Boston Museum School in association with Tufts University. Ms. Ruble’s art style was inspired by the paintings of Henri Matisse and the art deco architecture of her hometown of Miami. Her imaginative, poignant and sometimes comical storylines are often derived from growing up with her identical twin sister, Bonnie. As a child she let her sister speak for her. Through the encouragement of an insightful teacher, Ms. Rubel learned to speak and write for herself. Therefore, a significant theme in her stories is finding oneself and learning to express one’s feelings and thoughts.
She currently resides with her husband on a farm in Aurora, Oregon. Fang the Corgi, their horses Dancer and Hippo and their sheep Lilly keep them busy with mischief.
www.nicolerubel.com/ |
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Wilfred Santiago
Location: Chicago, IL.
Education: Self-taught.
Clients: Little, Brown and Company, Simon & Schuster, Penguin Group, Marvel Comics,DC Comics, Fantagraphics Books.
Most recent graphic novel: 21: The Story of Roberto Clemente, Fantagraphics Books.
Influences: Looney Tunes, Latin literature, magazines, history, pre-1990s comic books, science, psychology, David Lee Roth, Ice-T, modern painters, nature, politics, the city, bacon.
Philosophy: The function of an illustration, canvas, or graphic novel dictates the aesthetic of each work. Context and improvisation play a critical role in adapting to new ideas.
Mission: Destroy 2,000 years of culture.
www.WilfredSantiago.com |
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Robyn Schneider
Robyn Schneider is a 23-year-old videoblogger/social media personality who divides her time between New York and London. Her forthcoming Knightley Academy trilogy, written as Violet Haberdasher, follows the adventures of a Victorian serving boy turned knight in a steampunky version of 1800's England. Publisher's Weekly praised the first installment as "a welcome change of pace from fictional academies that revolve around magic." A former associate editor at popular gossip website IvyGate, stand up comedienne, and Off-Broadway actress, Robyn is currently earning a masters of medical ethics at the University of Pennsylvania. She is also the author of Better Than Yesterday (2007) and The Social Climber's Guide to High School (2007). You can follow her adventures on Twitter (twitter.com/robynschneider), YouTube (youtube.com/robynisrarelyfunny), her blog (queuedpaper.blogspot.com), BlogTV (blogtv.com/people/robynschneider) or check out her choose-your-own-adventure project at GnomeTwilight.com.
"Henry and his outcast friends are an appealing group with great chemistry, and it’s easy to enjoy their fast-paced adventures as they navigate classes and thwart bullies." -Booklist |
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Rebecca Van Slyke
Rebecca Van Slyke has an MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults from Vermont College of Fine Arts.
She writes picture books, easy readers, nonfiction, and poetry, and has illustrated several art books for children.
She is a teacher in Lynden, Washington, where she lives with her husband, daughter, and a very spoiled dachshund. |
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Deana Sobel
Deana Sobel was born and raised in California and is based in San Diego and New York. She writes and illustrates picture books with irreverent characters who delight in the world around them. She draws inspiration from classic children's books, London parks, Paris museums, and kids on the street.
Deana is also a freelance cartoonist and patent attorney. She earned national recognition for her cartoons as an undergraduate at UC Berkeley, and in 2008 received a J.D. from UC Berkeley’s School of Law. She drew her first cartoon, The Wacky Couples, at the age of eight, around the time her grandmother taught her to oil paint.
www.deanasobel.com
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Trina Sotira
A member of the Society of Children’s Books Writers and Illustrators, Trina Sotira is a young adult novelist and manuscript consultant for award-winning authors. A graduate student of American and British literature, she is pursuing a Ph.D. in English at Northern Illinois University. Her academic research was featured at Western Illinois University, Northern Illinois University, and the Illinois Reading Council. She has taught writing workshops through the SCBWI, and was on the faculty of the DePaul Summer Writing Conference. Trina helped found MuseWrite—a community outreach for artists. In her most recent article for WOW! Women On Writing, she shows writers how to use their past to create memorable teen fiction. After watching her transgendered friend struggle with trying to live as a guy trapped in a girl’s body, Trina wrote In Her Skin. |
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James St. James
James St. James is the author of the Disco Bloodbath, the Edgar-Award nominated nonfiction book that was made into the movie Party Monster, starring Macaulay Culkin and Seth Green, and the ground-breaking young adult novel Freak Show, voted on of the best of 2007 by Kirkus and School Library Journal. James's ground-breaking voice is one in a million; as he himself puts it, "I have two influences sitting on my shoulders when I write, an angel and a devil. Diana Vreeland is the angel, saying “More, more!” And Samuel Beckett is the devil, saying “Cut, cut!”
Hailed by Newsweek magazine as a celebutante, James was one of the original Club Kids and has been a fixture on the nightlife scene for over twenty years. Despite his busy social and writing schedule, James still finds time to contribute to the World of Wonder website and make numerous appearances of pop culture TV shows such as Tyra, America's Next Top Model, and the break-out hit RuPaul's Drag Race.
James St. James lives in Los Angeles. |
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Yves Lola St. Vil
Yves Lola St.Vil was seven when she first came to this country from Port-au-Prince, Haiti. She didn’t want to stand out, so she quickly got rid of her accent. In learning English, she also learned to love the written word. While attending Columbia College in Chicago, her main focus was creative writing. In addition to plays, she began to write screenplays and fell in love with the craft of writing as a medium for the masses.
Yves Lola was later commissioned by both ABC and CBS to write episodes of their daytime shows. She was also hired by Princeton University to write a stage version of her first screenplay, The Talented Tenth. It went on to win the TADA! Annual One-Act Playwriting Contest. Her latest play, Bones of Lesser Men premiered in LA to positive reviews from LA Times, Variety and LA Weekly. It has been nominated for two LA Weekly awards and three NAACP theatre awards. Yves Lola won the NAACP theatre award for Best Playwright of 2009. |
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Terry Trueman
Terry Trueman was born on December 15, 1947 in Birmingham, Alabama, but grew up in Seattle. He attended the University of Washington, where he received his BA in creative writing. He also has an MS in applied psychology and an MFA in creative writing, both from Eastern Washington University. The father of two sons, Henry and Jesse, Terry Trueman makes his home in Spokane, Washington, where he has lived since 1974.
His novel, Stuck in Neutral was a Printz Honor recipient. Inside Out, his second novel, was released in August 2003. In October of 2004, his third novel Cruise Control was released, a companion to Stuck in Neutral that tells brother Paul McDaniel's intimate side of the story. Swallowing the Sun, which follows a teen’s heroic efforts to save friends and family after his Honduran village is destroyed by a devastating mudslide was published in October of 2003. No Right Turn is Trueman's fifth novel.
Trueman's hobbies include his Sea Ray boat and his 1976 Corvette Stingray, and his fiery red Corvette! One of his heroes is poet Charles Bukowski. He considers Terry Davis and Chris Crutcher two invaluable mentors. |
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Mary Whitsell
Mary Whitsell, who feels funny referring to herself in third person, enjoys writing for teenagers and adults. An expatriate American, Mary has lived and taught in six different countries if you count Wales and Scotland separately (which she does), and she often incorporates the places where she has lived into her work. Her writing has appeared in Eclectica, Glassfire, Flashquake, Burst, and other journals. She currently lives in Scotland and prides herself on being one of the select few who actually appreciate Scottish weather. Mary writes a weekly blog, ResidentAlien. |
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BD Wong
Born and raised in San Francisco, California, Wong is the only actor ever to have received all five major New York Theater awards for a single role. For his performance in M. Butterfly, his Broadway debut, he received the Drama Desk Award, the Outer Critics Circle Award, the Theater World Award, the Clarence Derwent Award, and the Tony Award.
BD is in his ninth season on the top-rated series Law & Order: Special Victims Unit where he appears as Dr. George Huang, a forensic psychiatrist and expert on the criminal mind.
Wong gained notice as a cast regular on HBO’s critically acclaimed series Oz, playing the resilient prison priest, Father Ray for the show’s five-season run. His other television credits include a starring role in ABC’s All-American Girl and HBO’s telefilm And the Band Played On, as well as guest-starring roles on Welcome to New York, Chicago Hope, The X-Files, Bless This House and Shannon’s Deal and the Hallmark Mini Series, Marco Polo.
Wong has also appeared in more than 20 feature films, including Jurassic Park, The Freshman, Father of the Bride (1 & 2), Seven Years in Tibet, Executive Decision, The Salton Sea and Stay. Wong can also be heard as the voice of Shang in the Disney animated films Mulan and Mulan II.
Wong’s additional New York theater credits include The Tempest, A Language of Their Own, As Thousands Cheer, and the Broadway musical revival of You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown in a critically acclaimed performance as Linus and the Roundabout Theatre’s production of Stephen Sondheim’s Pacific Overtures, for which he received a Drama League nomination for distinguished performance. He recently produced and directed The Yellow Wood for NYMF. This season he appeared in Herringbone at The McCarter Theatre.
Wong published his first book, Following Foo: (the electronic adventures of the Chestnut Man) (Harper Entertainment), which chronicles his son Jackson’s struggle for life after he was born 11 weeks premature.
Community service recognitions from the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund, Asian AIDS Project, GLAAD, National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, Association of Asian-Pacific American Artists, East/West Players, Second Generation.
Board member: Actors’ Fund of America
Wong currently resides in New York City.
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Blythe Woolston
Blythe Woolston doesn’t remember learning how to read, but she suspects someone taught her as a ploy to keep her out of trouble in a slightly dangerous world full of bears and chainsaws and swift rivers. Today she reads books and writes the indexes the appear on their final pages. She lives in a wonder cupboard: one drawer is full of peppercorns, another holds the skull of a hoplitomeryx, another holds lint that might be useful in making bandages if it comes to that. The Freak Observer is her first novel. Follow her blog at www.blythewoolston.com or blythewoolston.blogspot.com |
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