• Joseph Finder

    OPENING KEYNOTE: The Power of Persistence: Making a Life as a Writer  |  Craft Session: Great Beginnings for Novelists  |  
    Plus An Interview With Joe Finder (moderated by Nanette Lavoie-Vaughan)

    Joseph Finder is the New York Times best-selling author of fourteen suspense novels, including The Switch, a stand-alone thriller, and Guilty Minds, the third to feature “private spy” Nick Heller. Heller was introduced in Vanished (2009) and returned in Buried Secrets (2011). Finder’s novels High Crimes (1998) and Paranoia (2004) have been adapted as major motion pictures. Guilty Minds (2016) and Company Man (2005) won the Barry Award for Best Thriller. Killer Instinct (2006) won the International Thriller Writers’ Thriller Award for Best Novel. Buried Secrets won the Strand Critics Award for Best Novel. A founding member of the International Thriller Writers, Finder is also a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the Association of Former Intelligence Officers. He is a graduate of Yale College and the Harvard Russian Research Center, and lives in Boston. (josephfinder.com)

  • Dan Barkin

    Nonfiction Writing That Pops

    Dan Barkin recently retired as the managing editor of the Raleigh News & Observer after more than 40 years in daily journalism. He joined the N&O in 1996 as business editor. He has also been a reporter and editor at the Baltimore Sun and The Virginian-Pilot of Norfolk, VA. Barkin has a bachelor’s degree in business administration from Old Dominion University and a master’s in journalism from the University of Maryland. He and his wife live in Clayton, N.C., and have two adult children. Barkin also freelances for Business North Carolina magazine, writing a column and stories.

  • Jaki Shelton Green

    Finding Our Poetic Voices Inside Our Stories

    In 2003, the North Carolina Award for Literature was bestowed on Jaki Shelton Green for "outstanding performance (and achievement) in literature." In November 2009, she was named the first Piedmont Laureate by a collection of Triangle-area arts councils. Green was inducted into the North Carolina Literary Hall of Fame in 2014. She was recognized and appointed to be the 9th North Carolina Poet Laureate in June 2018, North Carolina's first African American to receive this recognition. Green teaches Documentary Poetry at Duke University within the Center for Documentary Studies. She currently resides in Mebane, N.C. (Duke’s Center for Documentary Studies)

  • John Claude Bemis

    Secrets of Writing for
    Kids and Teens

    John Claude Bemis is the award-winning author of seven books for young readers including The Wooden Prince (Disney-Hyperion) and The Nine Pound Hammer (Random House). He was selected as North Carolina’s Piedmont Laureate for Children’s Literature and received the Excellence in Teaching Award from UNC-Chapel Hill for his work as an author-educator. He teaches writing workshops and does story consultations. Bemis lives in Hillsborough, N.C. (johnclaudebemis.com)

  • Erika Hoffman

    Chicken Soup for the Soul and More: Crafting and Selling Personal Essays

    Erika Hoffman pens inspirational, nonfiction essays that have appeared in anthologies. Her stories can be found in 15 Chicken Soup for the Soul books, and her true tales are featured regularly in Sasee of Myrtle Beach. Hoffman’s advice on writing humor has appeared in The Writer, and her essays on the craft have been published in the online Funds for Writers magazine. She produces a monthly column on the subject of writing for The Writers’ Table section of the Page & Spine ezine. Additionally, Hoffman teaches a course for the Olli Institute at Duke University on composing the personal essay. Last spring at the Durham Rescue Mission, she helped the homeless, the addicted, and inmates on work release record their stories. Hoffman has also produced more than 300 published works. In 2019, her mystery Why Mama will be published by Library Partners Press of Wake Forest University. Hoffman lives in Chapel Hill, N.C.

  • LaVerne St. George

    Panel: Always A Happy Ending: Writing and Selling Romance Fiction (moderated by Nanette Lavoie-Vaughan)

    LaVerne St. George is an award-winning author of historical, contemporary, inspirational and paranormal romance, all created with sweet intensity. St. George has been writing since elementary school, but when she received a college care package from her aunt that included Kathleen Woodiwiss’ The Flame and the Flower, she caught romance fever and never looked back. A librarian by training and a consultant for over 15 years in the pharmaceutical industry, St. George’s instinctive answer to almost any question is “Let’s go look that up!” As a member of Romance Writers of America and Heart of Carolina Romance Writers, she has experience speaking before groups both large and small, and her writing is known for delightfully satisfying stories and believable characters. A fan of sea turtles and happy endings, St. George now lives with her husband in the North Carolina Piedmont halfway between the ocean and the mountains, just where she likes it. (lstgeorge.com)

  • Jane Shoup

    Panel: Always A Happy Ending: Writing and Selling Romance Fiction (moderated by Nanette Lavoie-Vaughan)

    Jane Shoup is the award-winning, multi-genre author of Down in the Valley, Spirit of the Valley (Kensington), A Choice of Captors, Zan, Birth of a Legend and many others. Her latest release was the Gothic romance Knightfall (Boroughs). Shoup writes erotic romance under the pen name Mia Easton. She lives in Greensboro, N.C. with her husband Scott. (janeshoup.com)

  • Nancy Young

    Panel: Always A Happy Ending: Writing and Selling Romance Fiction (moderated by Nanette Lavoie-Vaughan)

    A former editor, reporter, and college educator, Nancy Young is the author of the Regency romance Wit and Prattles and the Something in the Dark Series: Seeing Things, Hearing Things, and Sensing Things (currently a finalist in the RWA Best Banter Contest). The series is set in Raleigh's historic Oakwood neighborhood. Young is also a prize-winning poet; her other works include the poetry collection The Last Girl Standing and dozens of poems, articles, and short stories that have appeared in various journals, magazines, newspapers and anthologies. For more info, check out her Pinterest pages for the books. (nancymyoung.com)

  • Kris Spisak

    Seeking Grammartopia

    Kris Spisak wrote her book Get a Grip on your Grammar: 250 Writing and Editing Reminders for the Curious or Confused (Career Press, 2017) with the goal of helping writers of all kinds sharpen their craft and empower their communications. Her "Words You Should Know" podcast and "Grammartopia" events follow the same mission. A former college writing instructor, having taught at institutions including the University of Richmond and Virginia Commonwealth University, Spisak now works as a ghostwriter and freelance editor, specializing in fiction. She is on the board of directors of James River Writers and is also the co-founder/director of creative strategy at Midlothian Web Solutions. (kris-spisak.com)

  • Paula Murphey

    CONCLUDING KEYNOTE: From Both Sides Now: Revelations From a Writer/Editor  |  Craft Session: It's A Mag, Mag, Mag, Mag World!  | 
    Plus An Interview With Paula Murphey (moderated by Don Vaughan)

    Paula M. Murphey is the managing editor for Boys’ Life, Scouting, and Eagles’ Call magazines, the national publications of the Boy Scouts of America. After graduating with a master’s degree in English from the University of Texas at Tyler, Murphey first tried her hand at teaching and then copywriting in the advertising industry. She then found her true calling in the magazine world and has now worked on the BSA magazines staff for almost 14 years. When she’s not roughing it out in the woods on assignment, Murphey lives in Dallas/Fort Worth with her husband and two cats.