Marci Alboher is a Vice President at Civic Ventures, a nonprofit think tank on boomers, work and social purpose.

She is the author of the book, One Person/Multiple Careers: A New Model for Work/Life Success (Warner Books, February 2007), which popularized the term “slasher” to refer to a new breed of individuals who can’t answer “What do you do?” with a single word or phrase. She also created the popular Shifting Careers blog and column for The New York Times, where she has contributed hundreds of freelance pieces. Marci’s journalism has appeared in scores of national publications including Time Out New York, Travel and Leisure, The Chronicle of Philanthropy, The International Herald Tribune and More Magazine.

Marci makes frequent appearances in the national media offering advice and commentary about encore careers and other workplace trends. She has been featured in such outlets as The Today Show, The NBC Nightly News, and National Public Radio as well as countless print and web publications.

Marci is on the advisory boards of The Op-Ed Project, an initiative expanding the range of voices we hear from in the world, and SheWrites.com, an online community for women writers. She holds an undergraduate degree in English from the University of Pennsylvania and a law degree from the Washington College of Law at American University.

Marci grew up on the Jersey Shore, living above a motel, and has lived in Philadelphia, Washington, DC, and Hong Kong. She always finds her way back to New York City, where she has spent more than 15 years. Marci spends her free time reading, traveling, walking, and playing low-stakes poker. She lives in Greenwich Village with her husband, an entrepreneur/designer, and their French bulldog, Sinatra.

For more information, visit www.heymarci.com.

Jennifer Belle burst on to the literary scene in 1996 with her critically-acclaimed, best-selling novel Going Down, which was named best debut novel of the year by Entertainment Weekly, published in many languages, and optioned for the screen by Madonna for whom she wrote the screenplay. Her second novel High Maintenance, was also a national-bestseller, and optioned by HBO and Fox. Her new novel Little Stalker was just out in paperback in summer 2008. She is the author of Animal Stackers, a picture book for children, and her essays and short stories have appeared in The New York Times Magazine, The New York Observer, London’s The Independent, Cosmopolitan, Harper’s Bazaar, Ms., Mudfish, and several anthologies. She has taught novel-writing at Marymount and The New School, has led an on-going workshop in her home since 1997, and appears on the acknowledgments pages of dozens of published novels by friends and students she has helped along the way. Visit her at www.jenniferbelle.com

Jacqueline Bishop is the author of five books, most recently “Snapshots From Istanbul” (Peepal Tree Press.) She is also an accomplished visual artist with recent exhibitions in Italy and Belgium. Ms. Bishop was a 2008-2009 Fulbright scholar to Morocco and is the 2009-2010 UNESCO/Fulbright Fellow. She is a full time Master Teacher in the Liberal Studies Program at New York University.

Maureen Brady is the author of the novels Ginger’s Fire, Folly, and Give Me Your Good Ear, the short story collection The Question She Put to Herself and three books of nonfiction. Her short story, Billy’s Mark, was published in The Bellevue Literary Review, Spring, 2008, and her story, Five ‘n Dime, is forthcoming summer, 2008, in Just Like a Girl: A Manifesta. Ginger’s Fire was nominated for a Lamda Literary Award, the Ferro Grumley Award and the ALA Gay Book Award. Other essays or stories have appeared in In The Family; Cabbage and Bones: Irish American Women Writing (Henry Holt); Mom, and Intersections: Poetry and Fiction by Banff Writers, among others.

She also teaches creative writing at NYU and Il Chiostro in Italy, and works as a freelance editor for fiction and nonfiction writers. Several of her students and clients have gone on to publish their books: Susan Breen, The Fiction Class, Plume, 2008; Aaron Hamburger, Faith for Beginners, Random House (winner of Prix Roma, 2006); Heather Benedict Terrill, The Crysalis, Random House, 2007; Danielle Ofri, Singular Intimacies: Becoming a Doctor at Bellevue, Beacon Press, 2005. Maureen has received grants from The New York State Council on the Arts, The Ludwig Vogelstein Foundation and The Barbara Deming Money for Women Fund, among others. She is currently Board President of The Barbara Deming Memorial Fund.

Visit her website at www.maureenbradyny.com for further information.

Susan Breen is the author of the novel The Fiction Class, published in February 2008 by Plume, a division of Penguin, and Headline Review (UK). MORE Magazine named TFC a ”Don’t Miss Book,” IN TOWN Magazine featured it as its ”Mother’s Day choice,” and dearreader.com chose it as its novel of the week. In addition, Susan holds the distinction of being one of the first people to sell her work through the New York Pitch and Shop Conference. Her articles have been published by The Writer and Writer’s Digest; her short stories have been published by more than a dozen literary magazines, among them anderbo.com, The Chattahoochee Review and American Literary Review and she has taught fiction classes for the last six years. She has also worked as a reporter for FORTUNE Magazine and an editor at the Foreign Policy Association.

June Rifkin Clark is a partner in Get There Media, Inc., a promotion and brand development company, providing strategic guidance to writers, experts, and businesses, by building platforms, creating awareness, and providing PR outreach to consumers and the media.

For over 20 years, June worked in marketing and promotion, retained by numerous agencies to write and develop promotional materials for companies like Food Network, Bravo, A&E, NBC, AOL, eBay and Kraft Foods, many of which won PMA and Reggie Awards. June also worked in cable TV at Showtime, Group W Cable, and as head of her own agency, Concepts. She is the recipient of a Cable ACE/Emmy award.

After receiving her MA in Writing and Publishing from Emerson College, June became a literary agent at the Peter Rubie Literary Agency in New York (now FinePrint Literary Management), specializing in nonfiction books. Clients include floral designer Michael George, Forbidden Broadway creator Gerard Alessandrini, Cosmopolitan’s “Bedside Astrologer” Hazel Dixon-Cooper, I Love Lucy writer Madelyn Pugh Davis, Soupy Sales, and The Friars Club. She is still an Agent-at-Large at FinePrint to serve her long-term clients.

A published author and playwright, June wrote (and co-wrote) four books, several plays, and has given workshops on topical issues on writing and publishing.

For more information, visit www.juneclark.com.

Mike Cohen is a graduate of the MFA writing program at The Ohio State University and has a BA in English Literature from Dartmouth College. At Ohio State, Mike had the privilege of studying with Melanie Rae Thon, Lee K. Abbott and Michelle Herman; he also taught undergraduate creative writing classes and served two years as the Associate Editor for the Sandstone Prize.

He is the recipient of an artist’s residency from the National Arts Club, and his short stories have been published in The Gettysburg Review, Web Del Sol, Stonefence Review, and other journals. Mike also wrote a play called, The End of You, which was developed by the Directors Company and directed by Erica Schmidt. The play was produced off broadway by Lit Live Production and Pennyseal Productions at The Lion Theatre on Theatre Row. A short film he wrote called Leave You in Me has appeared in over a dozen festivals, winning Best Fiction Film at Action/Cut Festival.

Mike is represented by the literary agency ICM. He has written two novels; the second is currently under submission.

Patty Dann is the author of THE GOLDFISH WENT ON VACATION: A Memoir of Loss (and Learning to Tell the Truth About it), and THE BABY BOAT: A MEMOIR OF ADOPTION. She has also published two novels, SWEET & CRAZY and MERMAIDS, which has been translated into French, German, Italian, Portuguese and Japanese. MERMAIDS was made into a movie, starring Cher, Winona Ryder and Christina Ricci. Her articles have appeared in The New York Times, O Magazine, Redbook, More Magazine, The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Chicago Tribune, The Writer’s Handbook, and Poets & Writers Magazine.

She has served as a judge for the Scholastic Young Writers Awards. She has an MFA in Writing from Columbia University and a B.A. from the University of Oregon. Dann has taught at Sarah Lawrence College and the West Side YMCA. She was cited by New York Magazine as one of the ”Great Teachers of NYC.”

Les Edgerton is the author of 13 books, including the writer’s texts, Hooked and Finding Your Voice. His latest novels were the thrillers, Just Like That and The Perfect Crime along with The Bitch an existential thriller, which was voted the #1 thriller of 2011 in the Preditors and Editors Readers Poll. Forthcoming in January, 2012 is his second short story collection, Gumbo Ya-Ya from Snubnose Press. His work has been nominated for or won: the Pushcart Prize, O. Henry Award, Edgar Allan Poe Award, PEN/Faulkner Award, Texas Institute of Letters Jesse Jones Book Award, the Violet Crown Book Award, and others. He has taught writing for the UCLA Writer’s Program, the University of Toledo, Trine University, Writer’s Digest, St. Francis University and Phoenix College. Forthcoming in 2012 are a new noir thriller, a black comedy novel, and his memoir. Les maintains a blog at www.lesedgertononwriting.blogspot.com/.

Gail Eisenberg is the co-writer and co-star of Cat Eisenberg, Dog Eisenberg, an original Web series commissioned by LOGO. She is co-Executive Producer of Girls Who Like Boys Who Like Boys, produced for the Sundance Channel with World of Wonder, premiering fall of 2010.

A former writer/ producer in Comedy Central’s On-air promotions department, Gail is also a freelance copywriter, journalist, and co-author of A Mother Loss Workbook. Her work has appeared in/on The Daily Beast, Psychology Today, Time Out New York, The Daily News, The New York Post, Newsday, Petside.com, as well as on air on Comedy Central, HBO, and LOGO’s first-ever NewNowNext Awards.

Visit Gail’s Web site at www.gaileisenberg.com.

Allison Estes grew up in Oxford, Mississippi, playing on Faulkner’s grave. She has written fifteen middle grade and young adult novels, including the Short Stirrup Club series (Simon and Schuster.) Her most recent book is Paw & Order: Dramatic Investigations by an Animal Cop on the Beat (adult nonfiction, April 2008.)

Allison has been teaching children and adults in various venues for more than twenty years. She has a daughter in college and a 5-year-old son, and when she isn’t busy writing, editing and parenting, now that the grave of a famous author is not readily accessible, she plays softball as much as possible.

Visit Allison’s web site at www.allisonestes.com.

Laura Zinn Fromm is the author of the forthcoming How I Killed the Tooth Fairy and Other Tales of Flawed Mothering. She holds an MFA in fiction writing from Columbia University and teaches fiction and creative non-fiction in the Columbia Artists/Teachers program. A former editor at Business Week magazine, she is the winner of the Clarion Award and the Newspaper Guild’s Page One Award for Labor Reporting. Visit her blog at flawedmom.blogspot.com.

Juliann Garey has sold original screenplays and television pilots to Sony Pictures, NBC, CBS, Columbia TriStar Television and Lifetime TV. As a Journalist she has been on staff or contributed to over a dozen publications including Marie Claire, Glamour, More, Redbook, Entertainment Weekly, Elle, NY Magazine, The L.A. Times and The Huffington Post. She has received fellowships in fiction writing at The Virginia Center for the Creative Arts and The Vermont Studio Center. She has taught creative writing as a visiting lecturer at Sweet Briar College in VA. As a book editor, she specialized in non-fiction essay anthologies, among them: Voices of Bipolar Disorder—Stories of courage, comfort and strength and Women Reinvented—True stories of empowerment and change. Her short fiction has been published in Ducts.org. Garey is a graduate of Yale University and the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism. Her first novel, Electric Madeleine, is forthcoming.

Doug Garr is the author, most recently, of IBM Redux: Lou Gerstner and the Business Turnaround of the Decade, (HarperBusiness, 1999). He is also the author or co-author of three other books. He wrote economic speeches for former New York Governor Mario Cuomo during his last administration, and he was the principal ghostwriter of the governor’s book, The New York Idea: An Experiment in Democracy (Crown, 1994). His magazine work has appeared in several national publications, including Business Week, Fortune’s Technology Review, GQ, Popular Science, Worth, New York, Strategy & Business, and MIT’s Technology Review. His essays have appeared in The East Hampton Star and on the Op-Ed Page of The New York Times.

Mark Goldblatt has written hundreds of political and human interest columns for a combination of the NY Times, NY Post, USA Today, Daily News, Newsday, National Review, the New English Review and the American Spectator as well as book reviews for Commentary, Reason, the Claremont Review, Ducts Webzine and the Common Review. His first novel, Africa Speaks, was published by Permanent Press in 2002; his second novel, Sloth, was published in 2010 by Greenpoint Press. He teaches freshman writing and religious history at Fashion Institute of Technology (SUNY), where he is a tenured professor. His website is: www.MarkGoldblatt.com.

Richard Goodman is the author of A New York Memoir, The Soul of Creative Writing and French Dirt: The Story of a Garden in the South of France.  His book, The Bicycle Diaries: One Man’s Journey Through September 11th, with original color wood engravings by Gaylord Schanilec, was published in 2011 in a fine press limited edition.  Of French Dirt, the San Francisco Chronicle wrote, “it is one of the most charming, perceptive and subtle books ever written about the French by an American.”  Richard Goodman has written on a variety of subjects for many national publications, including The New York Times, Harvard Review, Creative Nonfiction, the AWP Writer’s Chronicle, Commonweal, Vanity Fair, Saveur, Ascent, French Review and The Michigan Quarterly Review. He wrote the introduction for Travelers’ Tales Provence. His essay, In Search of the Exact Word, appears in the Oxford American Writer’s Thesaurus. He teaches creative nonfiction at Spalding University’s Brief Residency MFA in Writing program in Louisville, Kentucky. He is Visiting Assistant Professor in Creative Nonfiction Writing at the University of New Orleans for 2011-12.  For more information, and an extensive sampling of Richard Goodman’s writing, please go to his homepage.

Mary Stewart Hammond was reared in Roanoke, Virginia and Baltimore, Maryland. Her poems have been published in many magazines, including American Poetry Review, The American Voice, The Atlantic Monthly, Boulevard, Field, The Gettysburg Review, The New Criterion, The New England Review, The New Yorker, The Paris Review, and The Yale Review. Recent poems have appeared in The New Yorker, The Alaska Quarterly Review, Ploughshares, Shenandoah, and The Southern Review. New work is forthcoming in The Southwest Review.

Anthologies where her poems have appeared include Women’s Work: Modern Women Poets Writing in English (ed. Eva Salzman and Amy Wack), The Music Lover’s Poetry Anthology (ed. Helen Houghton and Maureen Draper), Sweet Jesus: Poems About the Ultimate Icon (ed. Nick Carbo and Denise Duhamel), Wedding Readings: Centuries of Writing and Rituals for Love and Marriage (ed. Eleanor Munro), The KGB Bar Book of Poems (ed. David Lehman and Star Black), Inventions of Farewell: A Book of Elegies (ed. Sandra M. Gilbert), Stone and Steel and Where Books Fall Open (ed. Bascove).

Her book, Out of Canaan, received the Best First Collection of Poetry Award from the Great Lakes Colleges Association. Other awards include MacDowell Colony and Yaddo fellowships, and a Writer’s Community Poet-in-Residence fellowship. She lives in New York City. Besides conducting workshops and giving readings at many colleges and universities in the East and the Midwest, she taught advanced level workshops at the Writer’s Voice of the West Side Y for nine years and at the JCC for one. She now conducts workshops privately from her home. Her students, some of whom come to her already possessing a few publication credits, or graduate degrees from various writing programs, or just raw talent, go on to win awards such as the Discovery/The Nation, the Nicholas Roerich book publication Prize from Story Line Press, Pushcart Prizes, chap book publication prizes. Others achieve more substantial publishing credentials, or admittance into top graduate writing programs. More information can be found on her website, www.marystewarthammond.com.

Bronwen Hruska has sold original movie and television scripts to Columbia Pictures, NBC, CBS and Lifetime. Her writing has appeared in numerous magazines and newspapers, including The New York Times, More, Premiere, Entertainment Weekly, Cosmopolitan, George, TV Guide, Good Housekeeping, The Los Angeles Times, The San Francisco Chronicle, New York Newsday and The Village Voice. She is currently working on a novel.

Martha Hughes, a free-lance editor, is author of Precious In His Sight, Viking/Penguin;  A Buyer’s Guide to Cosmetics, Random House; and The Woman’s Day Book of Household Hints, Wm. Morrow/Fawcett. A personal essay is in the Random House anthology, Out of Her Mind: Women Writing on Madness, ed. by Rebecca Shannonhouse. Her work has also appeared in “Details,”  “Bomb” and Cosmopolitan magazines.

In 1991, she founded The Peripatetic Writing Workshop, Inc., a nonprofit summer writing workshop and retreat, which has met on Shelter Island and Woodstock, NY; Achill Island, Ireland; and for the past three years in Guatemala.  She teaches the Advanced Fiction Workshop in New York University’s SCPS program and has also taught essay writing at Marymount College, the Bronx Community College, Mount Saint Mary’s in Newburgh, as well as English as a Second Language for NYANA. She received her MFA in Creative Writing at Bennington College and her BFA in Fine Arts at Hunter College.    

Kaylie Jones was born in Paris, France and attended French schools until she returned with her family to the U.S. in 1974.  Her father, novelist James Jones, bought a farm house in Sagaponack, Long Island, near the home of his best friend, Willie Morris.

Helen Kaplan‘s short film Return to Sender has screened at over 20 festivals and received many awards. She has taught screenwriting and filmmaking at Barnard’s Pre-College Program, Hunter College, MediaBistro, The 92nd St Y/Makor, The New York Film Academy, and the International Film and Video Workshops in Maine. Helen also contributed a chapter on subplots for the screenwriting book Writing Movies. She has worked as a film editor and was an associate producer on the PBS documentary New York. Helen received an MFA in film from Columbia University.

Laurence Klavan wrote the mystery novels, The Cutting Room and The Shooting Script, which were published over the past few years by Ballantine Books. He won the Edgar Award for the novel, Mrs. White, written under a pseudonym. His graphic novels, Germantown and The Fielding Course, co-written with Susan Kim, will soon be published by First Second Books. His work has been published or is forthcoming in such print and online journals as Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, Playgirl, The Alaska Quarterly, The Literary Review, Conjunctions, Louisville Review, Cafe Irreal, SN Review, Foliate Oak, Brink, Conte, Sliptongue, and Killing the Buddha. He received two Drama Desk nominations for the book and lyrics to Bed and Sofa, the musical produced by the Vineyard Theater in New York. His one-act, The Summer Sublet, produced in the Ensemble Studio Theater Marathon in New York, is included in Best American Short Plays 2000-2001.

Sally Koslow is the author of three novels: With Friends like These; The Late, Lamented Molly Marx, which Target recently selected as a Book Pick; and Little Pink Slips, inspired by her experience as editor-in-chief of McCall’s Magazine, which was taken over by a celebrity. She has workshop’d all three novels in New York Writers Workshop groups. Her fiction has been published in eleven other countries, including Germany, where Ich, Molly Marx, Kurzlich Verstorben was a bestseller. Currently, Sally is under contract with Viking to write Slouching Towards Adulthood, her first non-fiction book. Pub date is June 2012. In addition to teaching at New York Writers Workshop, she is a creative writing instructor at The Writing Institute of Sarah Lawrence College; a frequent contributor to major magazines including More, Real Simple and O, the Oprah Magazine as well as The Huffington Post; and an independent writing coach, working with clients throughout the United States as well as–face-to-face–those in the New York metropolitan area. She invites you to visit her website: www.sallykoslow.com.

Jonathan Kravetz host and founder of Trumpet Fiction (1999) is also the founder and Editor-in-Chief of the literary webzine DUCTS.org His play, Better Lucky Than Smart, was produced by Manhattan Theatre Source in August/September, 2010.  His play, Prayer, was produced to sold-out houses at the New York City Fringe Festival, 2008. Prayer was a semi-finalist in the annual Reverie Productions Play competition in New York, 2008. Violins, a ten-minute play, was one of the winners of the Bite-Sized International Playwriting Competition and was performed at the Brighton Fringe Festival in spring, 2008 and was an audience favorite at the InGenius festival, New York, New York. His plays, Get Bruised, Parts 1 and 2, played at the TestoGenius festival in New York and were selected audience favorites.  His play, Jim and Dana, was a 2009 finalist in the Oxford, MS Ten-Minute Play Contest. He has several published short stories and has written a dozen science non-fiction books for children. Mr. Kravetz has edited and ghostwritten several essays and and one memoir, The Missing Cub, the story of Chicago Cub lefty Darcy Fast. Mr. Kravetz is one of the founding members of the prestigious Writers Forum at the Manhattan Theatre Source in New York. Jonathan holds a Masters Degree in Cinema Studies from NYU and teaches fiction, memoir and screenwriting in New York City.  He is currently pursuing his MFA in playwriting at Queens college.

Jeff McCracken (director, writer, producer, actor) developed and co-produced the Robert Redford feature film, Quiz Show that won the New York Film Critics Award as well as being nominated for an Academy Award for Best Picture. He also Executive Produced, One Cup of Coffee, which won the Audience Award for Best Picture at the Sundance Film Festival before being released by Miramax as Pastime. He’s directed over seventy episodes of television including NYPD Blue, Still Standing, Boy Meets World, Dinosaurs. As an actor he’s starred on Broadway, Off-Broadway, films and television. He’s written the dramatic play, Nectar From the Gods, and the feature film, Jimmy Nolan, that he’s also directing and producing.

A Creative Writing graduate of Goddard College, he is currently an associate professor at Chapman University’s Dodge College of Film and Media Arts.

Hermine Meinhard‘s book Bright Turquoise Umbrella, published by Tupelo Press, was a finalist for the Poetry Society of America’s Norma Farber First Book Award. Her poems have appeared in American Letters & Commentary, Barrow Street, Drunken Boat, How2, La Petite Zine and Verse Daily among other journals; and have aired on WSUI Iowa City and KSFR Sante Fe. Other honors include being named a finalist for PSA’s Robert H. Winner Memorial Award, the grand prize for the Sue Saniel Elkind Poetry Award, a Pushcart Prize nomination and fellowships at Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, the Blue Mountain Center and the Ragdale Foundation.

She has read her work widely in venues such as Live at Prairie Lights Bookstore, Hudson Valley Writers Center, the Kitchen, KGB Bar, and the Bowery Poetry Club and has been interviewed and profiled by the online journals Margin and Chicago Post Modern Poetry. Former poetry editor of the literary journal 3rd bed, she is currently Adjunct Associate Professor of Humanities at New York University and has been guest instructor at the Il Chiostro Workshops in Italy. She has an MFA in poetry from Sarah Lawrence College.

To learn more about her life and teaching, and to find links to her poems, visit this site.

Jenny Milchman is a literary suspense writer whose debut novel just sold to Ballantine. COVER OF SNOW will be published in early 2013. Her short fiction has appeared on Amazon bestseller lists, and another story is forthcoming in an anthology called ADIRONDACK MYSTERIES II. Jenny teaches courses on polishing, pitching, and publishing your work for New York Writers Workshop. She co-hosts the series Writing Matters, which draws speakers from both coasts to events held at a local independent bookstore. Last year she founded Take Your Child to a Bookstore Day, which was celebrated in 30 states, Canada, England, and this year spread to Australia. Jenny welcomes authors in the Made It Moments forum on her blog. Please look for her at http://jennymilchman.com.

Anne Mironchik is an experienced and supportive teacher, jazz vocalist, pianist, composer and lyricist with a conservatory degree in jazz from Manhattan School of Music and advanced studies with prominent, NYC jazz instructors.  She performs regularly in the Metro NYC area and at venues and festivals in several cities throughout the U.S.  Her shows include a toe-tappin’ mix of jazz standards, jazzy adult-contemporary favorites and her original, crowd-pleasing and critically acclaimed songs that are rooted in rock, blues, R&B and country.  Her recent CD, “Cookin’ in the Kitchen” has played on over 100 jazz radio stations nationwide.

Visit Anne’s website at www.annemironchik.com.

Christopher Moore is freelance editor, writer and blogger with extensive experience in New York City. He recently began giving lectures about life in New York City for Explore New York, an elder-hostel.

Most recently he served from January 2008 through May 2009 as the executive editor of Avenue magazine, an upscale magazine chronicling the city’s elite. Before that, for eight years he was the editor of Our Town, the West Side Spirit, the Chelsea Clinton News and the Westsider. All are weekly newspapers and part of Manhattan Media, as is Avenue.

Moore’s news pieces, columns and theater reviews have been honored by the New Jersey Press Association, the National Newspaper Association and the Society of Professional Journalists. Three times in four years, he won the Best Column Award from the New York Press Association. While at Columbia Journalism School, he was selected to represent the school at the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association annual convention.

He is a 1990 graduate of the George Washington University in Washington, D.C. and a 1999 graduate of the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. He lives on Riverside Drive with two adorable cats.

Jonathan Rabb is the author of the novels Rosa, The Book of Q, The Overseer, and the forthcoming Shadow and Light to be published with FSG in 2009. Rosa was awarded Best Novel at the 2006 Semana Negra Festival in Spain, and was also chosen as one of the Best in Crime Fiction novels of 2005. His books have been translated into over ten languages. He has also written non-fiction essays, articles and reviews for Opera News, American Biography, and the collection I Wish I’d Been There (Doubleday, 2006). He has taught courses on the novel at the 92nd Street Y/Makor and also in private workshop. He is currently at work on his next novel.

Francesca Rizzo is an award-winning filmmaker and playwright cited in MovieMaker Magazine as an Artist to Watch. She’s a fellow of the New Jersey State Council on the Arts and recipient of the SUNY Chancellor’s Award.  Her short, Sullivan’s Last Call; A sexy little film about celibacy garnered numerous festival awards and her Nick at Nite satire, How To Be Donna Reed, won a gold medal at the NY Film & Television Festival. Two feature screenplays, Mafia Wives, Inc. and Pardon My French have placed in both More Magazine and Sundance competitions.

Francesca co-founded The Perfectly Frank Writers Theatre, an Off-Off Broadway collective producing 32 new works and her plays Good in Bed, April Showers and The Cherry Sisters have been produced in NY, NJ and Florida. Her latest solo show, Never Underestimate Dames Like Her, in NYC at The Cornelia Street Cafe and Stage Left Studio.

A professional voice-over actor, Francesca also coaches authors uncomfortable with public reading and has directed staged readings for both theatrical and literary works.

Contact:  fran@francescarizzo.com

Sites:  www.francescarizzo.com, www.dameslikeher.com and www.therizzocreativegroup.com

Charles Salzberg is a freelance writer whose work has appeared in Esquire, New York Magazine, GQ, Elle, Redbook, Ladies Home Journal, Good Housekeeping, The New York Times Arts and Leisure, The New York Times Book Review, The Los Angeles Times Book Review and various other publications. He is the author of From Set Shot to Slam Dunk, An Oral History of the NBA, and On A Clear Day They Could See Seventh Place, Baseball’s 10 Worst Teams of the Century (with George Robinson) and co-author of My Zany Life and Times, by Soupy Sales, Missy Hyatt, The First Lady of Wrestling (with Mark Goldblatt,) and the forthcoming Catch Them Being Good by Tony DiCicco and Colleen Hacker, PhD.

He is currently a visiting professor of magazine journalism at the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University and teaches advanced non-fiction at Sarah Lawrence College. He was cited by New York Magazine as one of New York’s Great Teachers.

Check out Charles’s latest books, The Mad Fisherman and Swann’s Last Song, and visit Charles’s website as well as Henry Swann’s website.

 Charlie Schulman is a playwright and a screenwriter.

Charlie is the bookwriter of The Fartiste (Best Musical International Fringe NYC 2006). The Fartiste is based on his original screenplay of the same name and will begin an Off-Broadway commercial run in September. His new musical, An American Family, was presented in May 2008 at the JCC of Manhattan. Off-Broadway credits: Angel of Death, The Ground Zero Club and The Birthday Present. His plays are published by The Dramatists Play Service and in several anthologies. His chapter on playwriting is published in The Portable MFA. (Writers Digest)

Charlie is a three-time winner of The Avery Hopwood Award in Drama from The University of Michigan. He received a Charles MacArthur Award for Comedy from The National Playwright’s Conference and is a recipient of a grant from the National Foundation For Jewish Culture. He teaches at New York University and Spalding University’s MFA program. Charlie is a founding member of New York Writers Workshop.

Rachel Sherman is the author of the The First Hurt (Open City Books, 2006), a book of short stories, and the novel Living Room (Open City Books, 2009). The First Hurt was a finalist for The 2006 International Frank O’Connor Short Story Award, short-listed for the 2007 Story Award, and was chosen as one of the 25 Books to Remember from 2006 by the New York Public Library. Her fiction has appeared in McSweeney’s, Nerve, Post Road, Conjunctions, n+1, Story Quarterly, and Fence among other publications. She holds an MFA from Columbia University and teaches creative writing at Rutgers University and Columbia Universities.  www.rachelsherman.net

Daniel Stern has written for several of the nation’s top publications, including The New York Times, U.S. News & World Report, The Washington Post, and Salon. He has covered a wide range of topics from science to pop culture, in feature articles, book reviews, essays, short stories, and news reports.

Most recently he has taught creative writing, literature, poetry, and publishing courses at various institutions, including Hunter College and the 92 Street Y in New York City and the University of Colorado in Boulder. He was selected to this summer’s residency program for artists at the esteemed Vermont Studio Center. In addition, he runs a premier private tutoring and college prep company in Manhattan, Metro Academic Prep, and a national website that improves college essay writing, CollegeEssayOptimizer.com.

The Joy of Funerals won the Ingram Award, and was named Best Debut Novel by The New York Resident. Alixʼs essays have been anthologized – most recently in Sex, Drugs & Gefilte Fish: The Heeb Storytelling Collection. Her short fiction has appeared in the Primavera Literary Journal, Hampton Shorts Literary Journal, The Idaho Review, Quality Women’s Fiction, The Blue Moon Café III, and A Kudzu Christmas. Her short story, “Shrinking Away”, won the David Dornstein Creative Writing Award. She is the recipient of several awards and fellowships from programs such as the Wesleyan Writers Conference, the Skidmore College Writerʼs Institute, the Sarah Lawrence Summer Program, and the Squaw Valleyʼs Screenwritersʼ Summer Program.

Alix lectures extensively, having spoken at over 100 events and symposiums. She was chosen to speak at the National Jewish Book Festival, and is on the National Speakers Bureau for Israeli Bonds. In addition, she has spoken at numerous conferences and panels including: The Southern Festival of Books, The Northwest Bookfest, The New England’s Writer’s Conference, Wesleyan Writer’s conference, The 92nd Street Y, NYU, Center For Communications, Mediabistro, Columbia University, among others. She hosted a monthly event at Makor called Word of Mouth Thursdays, featuring readings of personal essays, works in-progress, and novel excerpts.

For more information, visit her website.

Tim Tomlinson is a co-founder of New York Writers Workshop, and co-author of its popular text, The Portable MFA in Creative Writing.  Recent fiction and poetry appear or are forthcoming, online and in print, in Asia Writes, Caribbean Vistas, InterlitQ,Mandala Journal, The New Poet, the New York Quarterly, Pank, Prick of the Spindle, riverbabble, Salt River Review, and in the anthology Long Island Noir (Akashic Books).  He was featured poet in Saxifrage Press (Dec 2011).  “Blue Surge, with Prokoviev,” in Sea Stories, was nominated for Best of the Net 2011.  Tim has been running workshops since 1991, and he’s taught or consulted in the US, the UK, Italy, Thailand, Singapore, the Philippines, and now China.  He’s lived in London, Florence, Paris, Cha’am (Thailand), Manila, Boston, Miami, New Orleans, Andros Island (the Bahamas), and now Shanghai.

Gini Kopecky Wallace has been an editor at Ladies’ Home Journal, Viva, Redbook, Life and Family Circle, among other publications. She has co-authored two nonfiction books, Masculinity Reconstructed, and Do They Hear You When You Cry, and has edited or book-doctored three others. She has been a contributing editor at Ladies’ Home Journal and Redbook, and her articles and essays have appeared in more than 35 other publications, including Viva, Life, Family Circle, Glamour, The New York Times Sunday Magazine, NYT Sunday Arts & Leisure, Ms., The Village Voice, American Health, Shape and American Forests.

She has been involved in the creation and/or editorial direction of six special-interest publications covering subjects including women’s and family health, college life, and the planet’s water resources, and she has a long-standing special interest in dolphins and whales. She has taught magazine- and essay-writing at Fordham University, Lincoln Center, has been a frequent panelist and guest speaker at writing conferences and courses, and has made regular guest appearances on TV.

Laura Weiss, a journalist with extensive online experience, has written for AOL and for the TIME and Food Network web sites; some of her other credits include The New York Times, The NY Daily News, Travel + Leisure and Interior Design. She was also a director at AOL, where she managed entertainment content partnerships. In addition, she is an adjunct professor at NYU’s Carter Journalism School, and blogs about the Upper West Side food scene at www.foodandthings.com. Laura is the author of Ice Cream: A Global History (Reaktion Books).

Sharyn Wolf is the author of Love Shrinks: A Memoir of a Marriage Counselor’s Divorce forthcoming in May from Soho Press. Previously she has written five self-help books, including Guerrilla Dating Tactics, How to Stay Lovers for Life, and This Old Spouse. These books have been translated into eight languages. Sharyn has appeared on more than 400 television and radio shows, including eight visits on Oprah. Through her writing, she has been a spokesperson in the corporate sector for products from Oil of Olay cosmetics to Viagra. In the past, she led workshops across the United States. The most popular was 72 Ways to Flirt.

Sharyn is a New York State licensed psychotherapist in private practice with more than twenty years experience in individual, couple and group psychotherapy. She has written two books on couple counseling. A former jazz vocalist, she also works part-time as a social worker for the Jazz Foundation of America.

www.sharynwolf.com