Faculty for the 4th Annual Writers' Conference:
Dianna Hutts Aston is the author of many children’s books, including the awarding-winning bestsellers AN EGG IS QUIET and A SEED IS SLEEPY, both illustrated by Sylvia Long. Once upon a time, she was a journalist who was certain it would be easy to whip out publishable manuscripts for children. After all, she had some wise moral messages to share with children, who need to revel in such righteousness. Editors called her first attempts “coy” and “didactic,” if they called them anything at all. Four years after she submitted her first awful manuscript, she sold a good one: WHEN YOU WERE BORN, illustrated by E.B. Lewis. www.diannaaston.com
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Nina Burleigh is the author of four critically acclaimed nonfiction books. Her latest, Unholy Business: A True Tale of Faith, Greed and Forgery in the Holy Land (Collins 2008), tells the story of the unraveling of a Bible relic forgery scheme in Israel, and the intriguing world of biblical archaeology and relic collectors.Previous books include Mirage: Napoleon's Scientists and the Unveiling of Egypt (Harper Collins, 2007), chronicles the first large-scale interaction between Western civilians and Islam in the modern era; The Stranger and the Statesman, (Morrow, 2003) about the mysterious life of 18th Century scientist James Smithson and his bequest to the nation; and A Very Private Woman: The Life and Unsolved Murder of Mary Meyer, (Bantam 1998), the true story of the unsolved murder of an American aristocrat in 1964, set in the bizarre and exclusive world of the wives of the Cold Warriors in Washington, D.C.
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“Heather Burt fits naturally and beautifully into that group of writers who have given Canadian literature its reputation for creating compelling psychological landscapes peopled by wonderfully wise and complex characters.” ~The Winnipeg Free Press. Heather’s first novel, Adam’s Peak, was shortlisted for the 2008 Ethel Wilson Prize for fiction. Her short stories have been published in Canadian and American literary journals, and her second novel, Driving, is nearing completion. Heather grew up in Montreal and Vancouver and has been teaching the craft of writing in various ways and to audiences of different ages for twenty years. She and her partner, novelist Paul Headrick, currently teach fiction writing and English literature at Langara College, Vancouver. For more information, or to get in touch, please visit www.heatherburt.ca
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Paul Headrick was born and raised in Vancouver, Canada. He has an MA in Creative Writing from Concordia University, Montreal, and a PhD in English Literature from York University, Toronto. Before entering academics he worked in the forest industry and as a reporter in private radio. Paul’s short stories have been published in journals in the United States and Canada. His first novel, That Tune Clutches My Heart, was published this fall by Gaspereau Press. Paul teaches Creative Writing and English Literature at Langara College. He lives in Vancouver with his partner, novelist Heather Burt.
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 Instructor: Judyth Hill
Poetry
Judyth Hill is a stand-up poet and teacher of poetry, living in beauty where the Rockies meets the Plains, near Las Vegas, NM. She received a 2006/7 and again, a 2007/8 Witter Bynner Poetry Foundation grant to create and direct Poetry AField, a place-based poetry/theatre program for Las Vegas, NM elementary and high school students, and has been selected as a New Mexico Endowment for the Humanities “Road Scholar”, touring her lecture, “Dharma Lineage of American Poetry”. Her six published books of poetry, include Baker’s Baedeker, The Goddess Cafe, Hardwired For Love, Presence of Angels, Men Need Space, which is in its second printing, and Black Hollyhock, First Light. Visit her website, www.Rockmirth.com for more details.
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After working in advertising – as a writer and creative director – for more than thirty years in Toronto, Detroit, Washington, New York, London and Paris, Terry left the business to enter the lucrative poetry and literary essay biz in 1999.
Since then he has written and published poetry, essays and short fiction in magazines ranging from “little” quarterlies to The Actuary, the official magazine of the American Society of Actuaries.
Terry is also the co-author of three hilarious but unclassifiable books – Two Guys Read Moby-Dick, Two Guys Read the Obituaries, and the latest – Two Guys Read Jane Austen. This last, written in a shameless attempt to cash in on the current Jane Austen craze.
In 2005, he won the Playhouse on the Green (Bridgeport, CT) playwriting competition with his first play Hamlet – The Sequel.
For seven years he taught the “Creativity” and “Presentation Skills” courses in the CAAP (Canadian Advertising Agency Practitioners) degree program in Toronto.
Terry has a BA in English from the University of Michigan and a JD from Wayne State University. He was admitted to the State Bar of Michigan in 1969. He is a veteran of countless poetry and book readings in three different countries.
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Fred Hills has edited books in virtually every genre of adult publishing, including literary and commercial fiction, biography, psychology, history, memoir, business, finance and how-to. Among his many successful authors are Vladimir Nabokov, short story writer Raymond Carver, Nobel Prize Winner Heinrich Boll, Pulitzer Prize winners William Saroyan, Justin Kaplan and major bestselling authors M. Scott Peck, Jane Fonda, Judith Viorst, Marcus Buckingham, Charles Givens, Ann Rule, Phil Donahue, Robert Atkins, Nathan Pritikin and Arianna Huffington.
Formerly editor-in-chief of the General Books Division of McGraw-Hill, Mr Hills was for 26 years Vice-President, Senior Editor and member of the Editorial Board of Simon & Schuster. At S&S, Mr. Hills set the record for the greatest number of New York Times National bestsellers - more than the total for some entire trade publishers.
He received a bachelor’s degree from Columbia College where he was mentored by Pulitzer Prize poet Mark Van Doren and literary critic Lionel Trilling, and his masters degree from Stanford University, where he studied with Pulitzer Prize novelist Wallace Stegner. He is married to the writer Kathy Matthews and lives in Westchester, NY and on Shelter Island, NY.
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Margaret Howard is a registered dietitian and food consultant to government and industry. She has worked in the food industry for many years, most recently as Consumer Services Manager for Thomas J. Lipton in Toronto, Canada.
She has written or co-authored more than 15 cookbooks on topics including books for people with diabetes, barbecuing, preserving, and a 4-ingredient cookbook. She will have copies of these books available for sale in the bookshop at the conference.
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Instructor: Eva Hunter
The 15 Point Self-Editing Checklist
Eva Hunter, an award-winning and prolific writer, has published in over 100 magazines and newspapers in the over-20 years she has been writing professionally, including Redbook, The Oregonian, Oregon Business Magazine, Portland, The New York Times Magazine and many, many more. In addition to teaching creative writing at Portland State University, The Portland Art Museum School of Art, and at writing conferences internationally, Hunter is co-founder of two writing schools. They are: CONNEXUS: THE WRITERS' SCHOOL, and THE WRITER'S WORKSHOP: SAN MIGUEL. She teaches both fiction and nonfiction. A short story, "Iris Wanted to be A Movie Star: The Kind that Sings and Dances, Too" was published in the recent anthology of San Miguel writing, Solamente En San Miguel. Her book, The Lord of the Dolls: Voyage In Xochimilco—a literary nonfiction/fine arts photography collaboration with photographer Jo Brenzo—was published in 2007. Hunter teaches creative writing in San Miguel de Allende throughout the year.
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Lauded by Time magazine as "one of the new generation of intrepid young female travel writers," Laurie Gough is author of the recently released Kiss the Sunset Pig and Kite Strings of the Southern Cross, shortlisted for the Thomas Cook Travel Book Award, and silver medal winner of ForeWord Magazine's Travel Book of the Year in the US. Eighteen of her stories have been anthologized in various literary travel books, including Salon.Com's Wanderlust: Real-Life Tales of Adventure and Romance; AWOL: Tales for Travel-Inspired Minds; Sand in My Bra: Funny Women Write From the Road; Hyenas Laughed at Me and Now I know Why: The Best of Travel Humor and Misadventure; and A Woman's Passion for Travel. She has written for salon.com, The L.A. Times, The Globe and Mail, The National Post, Outpost, Canadian Geographic, and numerous literary journals. www.lauriegough.com
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Sandra Gulland is author of four historical novels. Her latest, Mistress of the Sun, isset in the French court of the charismatic Sun King and is inspired by the life of Louise de La Vallière, an extraordinary equestrian and mistress of the king. It has received glowing reviews since its publication in February of 2008, landing on a Canadian best-seller list four months. Gulland's previous publication was the Josephine B. Trilogy, internationally best-selling novels based on the life of Josephine Bonaparte. The Trilogy is now published in fifteen countries and has sold over a million worldwide.
An American-Canadian, Sandra Gulland was born in Miami, Florida, and lived in Rio de Janeiro, Berkeley and Chicago before immigrating to Canada in 1970 to teach in an Inuit village in northern Labrador. Settling in Toronto, she worked as a book editor for a decade before moving with her husband and two children to a log house in northern Ontario, where, in 1985, she began writing full-time. She and her husband now live half the year in Ontario, and half in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico.
For more information about the author, her research and work, go to www.sandragulland.com.
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Betsy James
Middle Grade & Young Adult Novels
Betsy James is the award-winning author and/or illustrator of sixteen books for children and young adults, most recently Listening at the Gate (Simon & Schuster 2006), a Tiptree Honor Book and New York Public Library Best Book for the Teen Age. She lives in Albuquerque, New Mexico, where she teaches, leads noisy workshops (in English and Spanish) in the public schools and Indian Pueblos, and slopes off to hike in the desert. You’ll find more awards, tales, and Betsy’s knock-you-dead portfolio, not to mention a photo of her catching a rattlesnake, at her website: www.betsyjames.com
Betsy James es la honrada autora y/o ilustradora de dieciseis libros para juveniles y adolescentes, más recentemente Listening at the Gate (Simon & Schuster 2006), un Tiptree Honor Book y New York Public Library Best Book for the Teen Age. Betsy vive en Albuquerque, Nuevo México, donde enseña, dirije talleres ruidosos (en ingles y español) en las escuelas públicas y Pueblos Indios, y escape para caminar en el desierto. Se puede encontrar más honores, historias, e imágines—ni mencionar un foto de Betsy agarrando una vibora de cáscabel—en su sitio web: www.betsyjames.com
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Susan McKinney de Ortega is a Philadelphia-born writer living in San Miguel since 1992. She writes about raising a bicultural family with her Mexican husband in the upcoming One Big Happy Family: 18 Writers Talk About Polyamory, Househusbandry, Mixed Marriage, Open Adoption and Other Realities of Truly Modern Love, edited by Rebecca Walker (Riverhead Books, 2009). Selections from her memoir-in-progress are included in Mexico: A Love Story, (Seal Press, 2006); Not What I Expected, The Unpredictable Road from Womanhood to Motherhood,( Paycock Press, 2007); salonmagazine.com; elevenbulls.com and upcoming on sportsliterate.com (2009). Also, personal essays and fiction appear in The Hawk Will Never Die, Tales from St. Joseph´s Hardwood,( 2005); Philadelphia Stories,(2006) and the San Miguel Writer, (1994). An essay on bicultural living was broadcast on National Public Radio, (2000).She has also written for various magazines and newspapers.
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CM Mayo is the author of Miraculous Air: Journey of a Thousand Miles through Baja California, the Other Mexico, a work lauded by the Los Angeles Times as "luminous" and the Interamerican Studies Institute as "perhaps the best new book about Mexico in many years". She is also the author of Sky Over El Nido, which won the Flannery O'Connor Award for Short Fiction. Her many other awards include three Lowell Thomas Awards for travel journalism and three Washington Writing Prizes. An avid translator of Mexican literature, Mayo is the founding editor of Tameme, a bilingual (Spanish/ English) literary journal now operating as a chapbook publisher. www.cmmayo.com
Jeannie Ralston’s first book, The Unlikely Lavender Queen: A Memoir of Unexpected Blossoming, was recently published by Doubleday Broadway. Her work has been published in Life, Time, National Geographic, The New York Times, Smithsonian, Audubon, Texas Monthly, Glamour, Conde Nast Traveler and Travel & Leisure. She is a contributing editor at Parenting magazine and blogs regularly for The Huffington Post. She lives in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, with her husband, National Geographic photographer Robb Kendrick, and their two sons.
 Instructor: Sally Shields
How to Become an Amazon.com Bestseller
Sally Shields is an author, speaker, award-winning pianist and composer. She is the recipient of the Editor's Choice Award from the International Library of Poetry, and a frequent contributor to various magazines. Winner of the 17th annual Great American Jazz Piano Competition, her first book, Modern Jazz Piano, is the standard theory manual for several music programs, including Princeton University. She performs worldwide, most recently with bestselling author and musician James McBride. Shields was a finalist in the John Lennon Songwriting Contest and her music is currently featured on the ABC TV daytime drama All My Children. Her first Amazon.com bestseller was THE DAUGHTER-IN-LAW RULES: 101 Surefire Ways to Manage (and Make Friends with) Your Mother-in-Law! Her current book is: THE COLLABORATOR RULES: 101 Surefire Ways to Manage (and Stay Friends with) Your Co-Author! www.theDILRules.com
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 Rosemary Stimola
Literary Agent
In 1997, calling upon her experience and reputation as an educator and bookseller, Rosemary Stimola founded the Stimola Literary Studio, LLC, a full service agency devoted to the management and representation of a select, but varied, clientele---authors and author/illustrators of fiction and nonfiction, preschool through young adult, who bring unique and substantive contributions to the industry and to the young people for whom their words and/or art are intended. Clients include the award-winning authors, Matt Travers, (Mudball, Oliver's Game, and 'Twas the Night Before Christmas), Jodi Lynn Anderson, (Peaches, and the trilogy May Bird and the Ever After), Dianna Hutts Aston, (An Egg Is Quiet and A Seed is Sleepy) and many more. For complete client list go to www.stimolastudio.com
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 Lulu Torbet
Panel Moderato
Photographer and painter Lulu Torbet ran a graphic design studio in Manhattan before being lured into the writing trade by an editor who picked her up on the street, desperate for a book on macramé. She moved from writing craft books to her first collaboration, with pioneering self-help guru George Bach, and wrote three books with relationship therapist Harville Hendrix, before turning to ghostwritten autobiography. With thirty books to her credit, she is also a developmental editor and book proposal specialist. (Complete book list at www.lauratorbet.com; photography at www.lulutorbet.com )
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Previous Faculty for the Writers' Workshops:
Instructor: Beverly Donofrio
Memoir Writing
Beverly Donofrio studied literature at Wesleyan University and received an MFA in Writing from Columbia University. The author of two memoirs as well as numerous personal essays that have been included in books and national magazines, her first memoir, Riding in Cars with Boys, became a cult classic, which was made into a movie directed by Penny Marshall and starring Drew Barrymore. Her second memoir, Looking for Mary, was published to critical acclaim and is also on its way to becoming a cult classic. Beverly is president of the English speaking chapter of PEN in Mexico and has given lectures around the United States. She has written for PBS, network TV, and National Public Radio, where her personal essay/documentaries have won awards. In the eighties Donofrio taught writing at New York University and more recently at the University of Wyoming. Teaching writing is a new focus and passion in her career, for which she has received thanks and enthusiastic praise. www.beverlydonofrio.com
Instructor: Kaylie Jones
Fiction Writing
Born in Paris to novelist James Jones, Kaylie Jones studied language and literature at Wesleyan University and received an MFA in Writing from Columbia University. She is the author of five novels including A Soldier’s Daughter Never Cries, which was made into a Merchant Ivory Film directed by James Ivory and starring Kris Kristofferson and the critically acclaimed novel, Speak Now. Kaylie also worked at Poets & Writers, Inc. in the Readings/Workshops Program and later as the assistant to the Director of Development. She taught fiction workshops at The Writers Voice, then became involved in the creation of the MFA Program in Writing at LIUs Southampton campus, where she still teaches Literature and Fiction Writing. In addition, Kaylie chairs the James Jones First Novel Fellowship, which awards $10,000 yearly to an unpublished first novel. In the last ten years, seven of the winners have been published to impressive critical acclaim. www.kayliejones.com
Instructor: Tony Cohan
Travel Writing
Tony Cohan is the author of the bestselling travel memoir On Mexican Time. He has taught courses in Travel Narrative at the yearly Book Passage Travel Writers Conference. His recent memoir Native State was a Los Angeles Times Notable Book of the year. His articles, essays and reviews have appeared in Conde Nast Traveler, The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times, The London Times, and many other publications. His novel Opium was a Literary Guild selection, his novel Canary a New York Times Notable Book of the Year. Reviewers have said of On Mexican Time: “Terribly seductive, an enticing and intoxicating vision of Mexico.” (Denver Post) “Chapters read like carefully crafted short stories.” (Washington Post) “One of those rare, delightful books that allows the reader to enter the author’s mind and float effortlessly from place to place, thought to thought.” (Albuquerque Sunday Journal) His newest travel memoir, Mexican Days, was published by Broadway/Random House in 2006 to equally rave reviews.
Instructor: Wayne Greenhaw
Memior/Poetry
Wayne Greenhaw, 2006 recipient of the Harper Lee Award for Distinguished Writing, has published 18 books. In 2005, Greenhaw was recipient of the ninth Clarence Cason Award for Nonfiction, given annually by the University of Alabama’s College of Communication, joining such distinguished writers as Gay Talese, Rick Bragg, Diane McWhorter, and Howell Raines. A native of Alabama, he first traveled to San Miguel on the train in 1958. Greenhaw's short story, "The Old Guy," won first place in the Hackney Literary Awards at Birmingham Southern College's 2007 Writing Today conference. His first book of poetry will be published in April by River City Publishing who will also issue a paperback edition of his 1993 novel, KING OF COUNTRY. At that time Chicago Review Press will also publish his last book, THE THUNDER OF ANGELS: The Montgomery Bus Boycott and the People who Broke the Back of Jim Crow, in paperback. www.waynegreenhaw.com
Instructor: Laura Fraser
Memoir & Personal Essay / Food Writing
Laura Fraser is the author, most recently, of An Italian Affair, a travel memoir, which was a New York Times bestseller and translated into five languages. She is a contributing editor to More magazine, and writes for Gourmet, O the Oprah Magazine, the New York Times, and many other national magazines. Her articles have been collected in numerous anthologies, including Mexico: A Love Story, Best Food Writing 2004, Italy: A Love Story, Best Women’s Travel Writing 2005, and The Kindness of Strangers. Her first book, an expose of the diet industry called Losing It, landed her on the Today Show, Good Morning America, MTV, CNN, and NBC Nightly News, and the cover story in Newsweek. She has taught writing at the University of California at Berkeley’s Graduate School of Journalism, Aspen Summer Words, and other venues. She is a long-time member of the San Francisco Writers’ Grotto, a literary collective. www.laurafraser.com
Instructor: Sarah Lovett
Memior/Fiction Writing
Sarah Lovett's five best-selling novels have been translated into 11 different languages and have been optioned for film and television. They include Desperate Silence (Villard; February 1998), Dantes' Inferno, (Simon & Schuster; April 2001), and most recently Dark Alchemy (Simon & Schuster, March 2003). Her new novel, When It's Raining in the Milky Way, is the first of a trilogy set in the California Delta. She has studied writing for page, stage, and screen with Sam Shepard, Robert McKee, Christopher Vogler, Irene Fornes, Natalie Goldberg and Miriam Sagan. In addition to her best-selling fiction, Sarah's non-fiction books include the award-winning "Extremely Weird" children's series, which aired as a television special. Her short fiction and how-to pieces are included in anthologies, and she has worked as a freelance writer for newspapers and magazines. She also teaches writing and works privately as a writing consultant and coach in Santa Fe where she lives with her husband Michael, their daughter Pearl Xing, and their two dogs. www.writingcoachsarah.com
Instructor: Gina Hyams
Travel Writing
Gina Hyams, author and editor, specializes in mysterious and confounding subjects. Some of her books include Pacific Spas: Luxury Getaways on the West Coast (2006), In a Mexican Garden: Courtyards, Pools, and Open-Air Living Rooms (2005), The Campfire Collection: Thrilling, Chilling Tales of Alien Encounters (2005), Incense: Rituals, Mystery, Lore (2004),– all published by Chronicle Books. She is also co-editor of the recently-published anthology, Searching for Mary Poppins: Women Write About the Relationship Between Mothers and Nannies (Hudson Street Press/Penguin U.S.A.). Gina's essays and articles have appeared in national magazines as well. www.ginahyams.com
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