Writing Teachers

Marci Alboher is a regular contributor to the The New York Times and is currently guest blogging for Yahoo! on her new blog, Working the New Economy. Her recently released book, One Person/Multiple Careers: A New Model for Work/Life Success (Warner Books, February 2007), popularized the term "slash" to refer to a new breed of individuals who can't answer, "What do you do?" with a single response.

Marci's career insights have been featured throughout the media including the Today Show, The Wall Street Journal, MSNBC, CNBC, BusinessWeek Magazine, National Public Radio, USA Today, The Boston Globe, The Philadelphia Inquirer and The Kansas City Star.

Marci is herself a slash. The author/journalist/speaker began her career in law after graduating from The University of Pennsylvania and American University's Washington College of Law. After nearly ten years of practice, she used her law background as a springboard to a second career as a journalist.

Her articles have appeared in numerous national publications including: Time Out New York, Travel and Leisure, Marie Claire, The Chronicle of Philanthropy and Legal Affairs, covering such topics as workplace issues, entrepreneurship and travel. A regular contributor to The New York Times since 2001, she currently writes the Shifting Careers column and blog.

A popular teacher at the New York Writers Workshop, where she sits on the executive committee, Marci helps novices break into journalism and coaches a select group of experienced nonfiction writers to the next level. Marci is also a sought-after speaker on workplace trends, career advice, and writing.

Marci lives in New York City with her beau, Jay, an entrepreneur/designer. For more information, visit www.heymarci.com.

Back to top

Roberta Allen is the author of eight books, including the micro fiction collections, CERTAIN PEOPLE and THE TRAVELING WOMAN, both praised by The New York Times Book Review; a novella-in-micro fictions, THE DAUGHTER, praised by the Voice Literary Supplement; the novel, THE DREAMING GIRL, praised by the Village Voice; the travel memoir, AMAZON DREAM; the writing guides, FAST FICTION, (also in German), and THE PLAYFUL WAY TO SERIOUS WRITING. More than 150 of her micro fictions have been published in journals and magazines, including Bomb, Open City, Epoch, and The Brooklyn Rail. She has been teaching at The New School for seventeen years, has taught in the writing program at Columbia University, and has been teaching private workshops since 1991. A visual artist and photographer as well, she has exhibited worldwide, with work in the collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art. She is completing a new micro fiction collection, called NOW THAT HE'S DEAD. For more info, visit her website: robertaallen.com.

Back to top

In 1996 Jennifer Belle burst on to the literary scene 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.

Back to top

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.

Back to top

JAMES BRALY is the writer and performer of the monologue Life in a Marital Institution, which premiered at the 2007 Edinburgh Festival Fringe, sold-out 59E59 Theaters in New York City, and transferred Off Broadway to the Soho Playhouse. The show has played over 120 performances, and will tour nationally in 2009. Optioned for film & television by Meredith Vieira Productions, Life in a Marital Institution is also a forthcoming memoir from St. Martin’s Press.

James has performed other autobiographical stories on NPR and at The Whitney Museum, Long Wharf Theatre, and The Moth, where he was featured on the TNT National Story Tour and is the only two-time winner of the Moth GrandSlam storytelling competition. His commentaries have been broadcast nationally on Marketplace, and his essays appear in the recently published anthologies Mr. Beller’s Neighborhood, from W.W. Norton, and Afterbirth, from St. Martin’s Press.

Visit James's website at www.jamesbraly.com.

Back to top

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.

Back to top

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.

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.''

Back to top

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.

Back to top

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.

Back to the top

Bio pending....

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.

Back to top

Richard Goodman is the author of The Soul of Creative Writing and French Dirt: The Story of a Garden in the South of France. He 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 and is featured in Best Travel Writing 2008 from Travelers’ Tales. He created, wrote and narrated a six-part series about New York City for Public Radio in Virginia. He teaches creative nonfiction at Spalding University's Brief Residency MFA in Writing program in Louisville, Kentucky. For more information, and an extensive sampling of Richard Goodman's writing, please go to his homepage.

Back to top

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.

Back to top

Amy Hest is the author of more than 40 books for children of all ages, including IN THE RAIN WITH BABY DUCK (Boston Globe – Horn Book Award winner); WHEN JESSIE CAME ACROSS THE SEA (Christopher Award winner); and KISS GOOD NIGHT (a New York Times best seller and Christopher Award winner). Her two most recent books are REMEMBERING MRS. ROSSI (an ALA Notable Book) and LITTLE CHICK. Amy lives, writes, and goes for long walks with a dog called Billy in New York City.

Back to top

Bronwen Hruska

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.

Back to top

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.

Back to top

Adina Kay earned an MFA in nonfiction writing from Columbia University where she was awarded a departmental research fellowship. Her writing has been published in 580 Split, the Blood Orange Review, the non-fiction anthology Have I Got a Guy for You, nextbook.org, The Jerusalem Report, The Jerusalem Post, The Jewish Week, The Forward and The International Herald Tribune. Adina has taught creative writing at Columbia University and she currently teaches writing at Hofstra University. Adina lives in New York City and is working on a memoir about her experiences growing up in New York and Jerusalem.

Back to top

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.

Back to top

Jee Leong Koh is the author of Payday Loans (Poets Wear Prada Press). His poem, "Brother," was selected by Natasha Trethewey for the Best New Poets 2007 anthology, published by the University of Virginia Press. Other poems have appeared in Crab Orchard Review, Gay & Lesbian Review Worldwide, and Mimesis (UK). His work has also been anthologized in No Other City: The Ethos Anthology of Urban Poetry, Love Gathers All: The Philippines-Singapore Anthology of Love Poetry, and, most recently, Over There: Poems from Singapore and Australia, edited by John Kinsella and Alvin Pang. His awards include a writing residency at the Kimmel Harding Nelson Center for the Arts, and fellowships from Kundiman, and Soul Mountain. He holds a BA in English (first class honors) from Oxford University, and an MFA in poetry from Sarah Lawrence College. You can read his poems at his weblog, Song of a Reformed Headhunter.

Back to top

Sally Koslow is the author of the novel Little Pink Slips, published in April by Putnam, optioned by Lifetime TV for Women and soon to be translated into Russian, Chinese and Dutch. She has recently signed a two-novel deal with Random House/Ballantine for books to be published in 2009 and 2010.

Koslow is the former editor-in-chief of both McCall's and Lifetime Magazine, which she launched for Hearst and Disney. Prior to heading a masthead, Koslow was an editor at Mademoiselle and Woman's Day. Currently, she teaches non-fiction writing at the New York Writer's Workshop and Sarah Lawrence College's Writing Institute and consults and writes for various magazines and publishing companies.

Her essays and reporting have been published in the New York Observer, O The Oprah Magazine, Harper's Bazaar, Glamour, More, Good Housekeeping, Ladies' Home Journal, Self, Town & Country, Redbook and many other national publications. Koslow's been a frequent guest on television and radio news programs and has lectured at Yale, Columbia, New York University and The University of Wisconsin as well as to many professional and community groups.

Visit Sally's website at www.sallykoslow.com.

Back to top

Instructor Jonathan Kravetz is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of DUCTS.org, a biannual literary webzine devoted to publishing engaging personal essays, memoirs, art, fiction, humor and more. His play, Prayer, was produced to sold-out houses at the New York City Fringe Festival, 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. Prayer was a semi-finalist in the annual Reverie Productions Play competition in New York, 2008. Jim and Dana, another ten-minute play, finished in the top ten of the 2009 Oxford, MS Ten Minute Play Contest. Mr. Kravetz is one of the founding members of the prestigious Writers Forum at the Manhattan Theatre Source in New York. He is also the founder of the monthly reading series, Trumpet Fiction, which is held the second Saturday of every month at KGB Bar in the East Village. Jonathan holds a Masters in Cinema Studies from New York University.

Back to top

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 and then 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 directing and producing. He is also an adjunct professor for the Dodge College of Film and Media Arts at Chapman University.

Back to top

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 her website: www.herminemeinhard.net.

Back to top

Anne Mironchik is a vocalist, pianist, composer and lyricist with a conservatory degree in jazz and roots in rock, blues, R&B and country. She teaches private voice, piano and musicianship and is offering the first class in lyric writing at the NYWW in 2008. Her music is reminiscent of adult contemporary hits of 70s & 80s. Her live shows include her original songs and well-known jazz standards. She has received grants from the Musician's Foundation and ASCAPlus. Her song was selected as a finalist with the UniSong International songwriting competition. Look for news about "Cookin' in the Kitchen", her CD release, celebration and tour dates at www.annemironchik.com.

Christopher Moore is the executive editor of Avenue magazine. From December 199 through January 2008, he served as an 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 the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, 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.

Back to top

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.

Back to top

Elizabeth Rosengren is an actor, writer, director and producer with over ten years of professional experience in theater and film. She most recently performed the leading role in her original show Chekhov’s Chicks at Manhattan Theatre Source. Credits include, NY: After People (Manhattan Theatre Source), Othello (Abingdon Theatre), Happy Hour (Big Little Theatre), Spirit Shall Fly (Inner Circle Theater Company); Regional: Romeo and Juliet, Don Juan, Arabian Nights (Marin Shakespeare Co.); The Glass Menagerie, The Whole Banana (Theater 150); The Mating Dance of the Werewolf (Rubicon Theatre Co.); Film: Deadly Sins, Which Way Home, The Good Shepard. Training: The Actors Center, American Academy of Dramatic Art, South Coast Rep, Williamstown Theatre Festival, and a B.A. in Drama from Kenyon College. Elizabeth is the former Artistic Director of Theater 150 in Ojai, California, former Drama Department Director at Besant Hills High School, has ten years of teaching experience with all ages in public and private schools and private studios, and is currently Managing Director of Inner Circle Theater Company.

Back to top

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 his website.

Back to top

Rachel Sherman is the author of the The First Hurt (Open City Books, 2006), a book of short stories. 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, Open City, Post Road, Conjunctions, n+1, and Story Quarterly, and in the book Full Frontal Fiction: The Best of Nerve Anthology (Three Rivers Press, 2001), among other publications. She holds an MFA from Columbia University and teaches creative writing at Rutgers University. Her forthcoming novel, Shooting the Gap, will be published in Spring 2009 by Macadam/Cage.

Back to top

Charlie 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.

Back to top

The media savvy social satirist has been a featured lifestyle trend writer on national morning shows and talk shows including ABC, CBS, CNN and most recently, VH1.  Her articles cover a range of topics, from beauty and food trends to celebrity interviews, appearing in an array of publications and newspapers such as: The New York Times, The New York Post, and Daily News, as well as national magazines: Time Magazine, Town & Country Travel, Travel & Leisure Golf, Marie Claire, Self, Men's Health and Outside, among others.  Alix has been writing about lifestyle trends for the past two years covering such topics as: High-end invites, A-list parties, Goodie bags, Diva Diets, Slumber parties, Must-have-beauty-products and Trailer-trash treats.  Her collection of shorts, THE JOY OF FUNERALS, was published by St. Martin's Press in both hard and soft cover.  The Joy of Funerals will be heading to the big screen with Stockard Channing attached to direct.  Alix will write the screenplay as well.  Currently, she is working on a novel.

The Joy of Funerals is the recent winner of the Ingram Award, and was named Best Debut Novel by The New York Resident. In addition, Alix's work has been anthologized, and her short fiction has appeared in the 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: The Wesleyan Writers Conference, Skidmore College Writer's Institute, Sarah Lawrence Summer and Squaw Valley's Screenwriters' Summer program.

Alix 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, readings of personal essays, works in-progress and novel excerpts.

For more information, visit her website.

Back to top

Erich Sysak is the author of Dog Catcher (Monsoon 05), a novel that explores the hostile sub-culture of organized greyhound racing in Central Florida. His short stories, articles and essays also appear in Oxford Magazine, storySouth, the Paumanok Review, and Projected Letters, the Bangkok Post, the Nation newspaper, Antiquarian Book Review, Knot Magazine and International Living.

He's taught Creative Writing at Webster University, Cha'am, and other locations in Thailand. He currently resides on Phuket off Thailand's southwest coast.

Back to top

Daniel 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.

Back to top

Alissa Torres is the widow of Luis Eduardo Torres, known to his loved ones as Eddie Torres. Eddie died at age 31 on September 11, 2001, at the World Trade Center, North Tower, on his second day of work at Cantor Fitzgerald. At the time, Alissa was seven and a half months pregnant with their son Joshua Eduardo Torres, who was born in October, 2001.

Eddie came to New York from Cali, Colombia as an illegal immigrant in 1990 and labored in the menial jobs that were readily available to him. But he also worked hard to rise above these circumstances. He learned English fluently and earned the respect and admiration of all his employers and co-workers. Through his work and good fortune -- that tragically became his bad fortune – Eddie began working on Wall Street in 1995 where he eventually became a well paid currency broker for emerging markets in Latin America.

After her husband died, Alissa Torres wrote through her grief. She kept journals and published seven personal essays on Salon and one in Redbook magazine. All of the writing she did, the raw and the refined, kept her centered and sane and she continues to write today. In 2007, Alissa won a State Farm Embrace Life Award, given to widows who inspire others with their achievements.

Prior to September 11, 2001, Alissa worked as an instructional designer for the New York City Department for the Aging. She currently lives in New York City with her family. AMERICAN WIDOW is her first book.

Back to top

Tim Tomlinson's fiction has appeared in many venues, including The Missouri Review, The Gettysburg Review, Libido, Hampton Shorts, Columbia: A Journal of Literature and Art, and The North American Review. Recent stories can be found online at Pif and Del Sol Review. He has published haiku in Black Bough, Modern Haiku, Parnassus Literary Journal, Potpourri, and Time Haiku. His articles on travel, scuba diving, and the arts have appeared in The New York Times, The New York Post, The New York Daily News, Musician, Downtown Express and Spa Magazine.

He has taught fiction and screenwriting workshops in the Philippines and Thailand. He consults with television and screenwriters for the Media Development Authority in Singapore. He is fiction editor of the webzine ducts.org. At NYU he teaches courses on writing and contemporary culture.

Back to top

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.

Back to top

Diana Amsterdam

Elaine Edelman

Corie Feiner

Rita Gabis

Alex Simmons
Creator/writer/publisher. Over the past 20 years he has written (and in some cases also created) a number of juvenile mysteries under a variety of pseudonyms for many well-known publishers. He has also penned two educational documentaries, and several stage plays. One of his plays, SHERLOCK HOLMES & THE HANDS OF OTHELLO, received critical praise and was published in an anthology by Signet/Mentor Books. Simmons has written three movie novelizations for Disney and three biographies for Steck-Vaughn, including one on Denzel Washington. Simmons has also created/written and independently published a critically acclaimed adventure comic book series, BLACKJACK, about an African-American soldier of fortune in the 1930s. Simmons co-created an African-American hero for DC Comics in their BATMAN books; authored several SCOOBY-DOO comic book stories; 12 interactive mysteries for the Tiger Toys electronic game, WHO DONE IT, (which received three educational awards). He is currently writing a middle grade mystery series, THE RAVEN LEAGUE (Penguin Books); and consulting on several exciting entertainment projects. Simmons has traveled the country as a guest speaker and teaching artist for many years, creating and conducting numerous workshops in creative writing (prose, comics, and playwriting). Simmons is the Educational Outreach Co-ordinator for the Museum of Comics and Cartoon Art (MoCCA) and sits on the board of the New York State Alliance for Arts Education.

Back to the top