2023 Presenters

Keynoters

Publishers Weekly and #1 Amazon bestselling author, Dani Pettrey has sold nearly 800,000 copies of her 17 novels to readers eagerly awaiting the next release. Dani combines the page-turning adrenaline of a thriller with the chemistry and happy-ever-after of a romance.

Her novels stand out for their "wicked pace, snappy dialogue, and likable characters" (Publishers Weekly), "gripping storyline[s]," (RT Book Reviews), and "sizzling undercurrent of romance" (USA Today).

She researches murder and mayhem from her home in Maryland. Find more information at: https://www.danipettrey.com

Amy Collins, Associate Agent with Talcott Notch Literary Services, has over 30 years’ experience matching books with readers. As a former book buyer, publisher, and sales director for one of the largest non-fiction publishers in the US, Amy has been focused on market and sales potential research for authors for over ten years. As an agent, she represents many authors who have signed deals with major publishers for non-fiction projects such as The Unseen Photos of Sesame Street (Abrams), Sex and the City (Globe Pequoit), and You’re Going to Die Alone and Other Good News (Blackstone). Amy is the author of several non-fiction books ranging from self-help (It’s The Little Things, (Simon & Schuster/Adams Media) to books on Publishing and working toward becoming a successful author. She is currently traveling the country with her two dogs meeting with editors and authors and can be found on Twitter at @askamycollins and online at www.amysadvice.com.

She is on the national advisory board for IngramSpark, a member of Mensa, a featured columnist for Writers Digest, IBPA, and a trusted teacher at conferences world-wide. She has taught and spoken at many of the publishing industry’s top festivals and conferences including Scottish Writers Association, Publisher’s Weekly’s BookCon, Oklahoma Writer’s Conference, Rocky Mountain Writers Conference, AAPS, Dublin Writers Conference, BAIPA, PALA, St. Louis Writer’s Conference, Writers Digest, Las Vegas Writers Conference, and many others.

Literary Agents

Steven Salpeter, formerly of Curtis Brown, Ltd, is now President of Literary and IP Development at Assemble Media. He is looking for new authors of:

commercially minded fiction
literary fiction for a broad audience short story collections
magical realism
romantic comedies
love stories
grounded science fiction
fantasy
graphic novels
historical fiction
horror
thrillers
young adult
middle grade
narrative nonfiction
true crime with a singular visual image at its heart
gift books
humor
popular science

Amy is looking for:

FICTION: Fantasy, Graphic Novel, Historical, Science Fiction, Young Adult

NONFICTION: Cookbook, Food/Lifestyle, Gardening, Pop Culture

Lori Colvin is a literary agent with Birch Literary. She has a special empathy for authors, having penned over 150 books herself, under a successful pen name. A fierce advocate for her fellow writers, Lori understands the publishing industry from many different viewpoints, and she does her absolute best to tailor her approach to meet each author’s needs.

If a book doesn’t grab Lori on the first page, she generally won’t read any further, so bring out your best right away. Lori's looking for fresh viewpoints in multiple genres, including: just about every genre; General fiction and most subgenres; Women's Fiction; Suspense; Thriller; Book Club Fiction; Mystery (but no Cozy); and more.

Things she's not seeking at the moment: Fantasy, Sci-Fi, YA, MG, PB, and steamy Romance.

If you can make Lori laugh, cry, gasp, or stay up all night reading, you may be a good match.

Emily Williamson is a literary agent at Williamson Literary, She and her team represent a variety of projects in fiction and nonfiction, working with major publishers, university presses, and boutique imprints alike to find the perfect home for her clients. As a writer herself, she understands the investment of time and heart it takes to follow this challenging path. It is the core of Williamson Literary—to support the careers of dedicated writers who deserve to see their ideas and imaginings realized. Williamson Literary is also about building relationships: agent-author, agent-publisher, author-publisher.

Emily is looking for:

ADULT FICTION: General fiction, literary, upmarket and commercial. Send us writing that sings rather than tells; vivid scenes; lyrical or experimental writing is welcome (but not always); unusual and unforgettable characters; unique settings; strong voice; stories where place is a character too; adventure, international, sci-fi or science inspired, fantasy, magical realism.

NONFICTION: History, sports, science, environment, biographies, travel, culture, adventure, educational, motivational (i.e. work that informs or inspires social change or advocates for women and BIPOC). Give thought to your author platform and develop a strong marketing section for your book proposal.

What we are not seeking:

The heavily partisan, inflammatory, or hateful
Children’s picture books, Middle Grade or Young Adult
Genre Romance or Erotica
Horror (as a strict genre, but we like classic horror elements)
Hard Science Fiction and High Fantasy (again as a strict genre, but we love out-of-this-world stories)

Katharine Sands is a literary agent with the Sarah Jane Freymann Agency. She has worked with a varied list of authors who publish a diverse array of books. She is the agent provocateur of Making the Perfect Pitch: How to Catch a Literary Agent’s Eye, a collection of pitching wisdom from leading literary agents. Actively building her client list, she likes books that have a clear benefit for readers’ lives in categories of food, travel, lifestyle, home arts, beauty, wisdom, relationships, parenting, and fresh looks, which might be at issues, life challenges or popular culture. When reading fiction she wants to be compelled and propelled by urgent storytelling, and hooked by characters. For memoir and femoir, she likes to be transported to a world rarely or newly observed.

Katharine is looking for:

NONFICTION: Cookbooks, Humor, Memoir, Pop Culture, Psychology, Travel

Favorite sub-genres: Beauty, Femoir, Food, Home Arts, Lifestyle, Parenting, Relationships, Self-help, Wisdom

FICTION: Literary, Commercial, and Young Adult

Other Workshop Presenters

Erin Beaty studied rocket science at the U.S. Naval Academy (really). After tours as weapons officer on a destroyer and a leadership instructor, she quit the navy to raise five kids, and once they were all in school, her brain didn't know what to do with that much free time so she started writing books. She and her husband make a home wherever the navy sends them, which has ranged from Kansas to Korea.

Erin teaches classes for The Muse Writers Center in Norfolk and the Armed Services Arts Partnership (ASAP) and has also served on the advisory board of Hampton Roads Writers. She is represented by Valerie Noble of Donaghy Literary Group. Please send all read requests and other professional inquiries to her via email.

Keri-Rae Barnum is the Executive Director of New Shelves Books, one of the largest book sales and marketing content providers in the US. A sought-after publishing expert, Keri works with both traditional and indie press authors on creative marketing campaigns to achieve their goals.

She is a trusted authority in book marketing, speaking to numerous writing and publishing groups each year. Some of her favorite conference collaborations have been with IBPA, Future in Publishing, Women in Publishing, Crime Bake and Moonlight & Magnolias.

Her career has been largely focused on working with bookstores and libraries as well as digital and Print On Demand platforms. She loves teaching authors “the ropes” and spends a large portion of her time working on education and sharing her knowledge with the writing and publishing communities. A favorite venue for this is the New Shelves Books advice vlog, www.NewShleves.com/FAF.

Outside of office hours, Keri spends her time wrangling her two children and energetic IrishDoodle puppy with the help of her husband. A military veteran spouse and avid cook, she enjoys traveling as often as possible; but when she can’t hop on a plane, a good book is her favorite escape. Follow Keri on Instagram at @keribarnum for a glimpse into her other life.

Dr. J. Dennis Bounds has taught in the areas of cinema and TV history, aesthetics, and writing at universities both nationally and internationally for over 30 years. At Regent University, Bounds developed and was the first director of the Master of Fine Arts in Screenwriting. Bounds has also taught at Virginia Wesleyan University, Old Dominion University, and Christopher Newport University when he is not working with his wife as a media specialist and freelance writer.

Bounds’ book Perry Mason: The Authorship and Reproduction of a Popular Hero (Greenwood Press, 1996) serves as a key text on the character “Perry Mason” in literature, broadcasting, and film. Other publications include an essay in the anthology The Silence of the Lambs: Critical Essays on a Cannibal, Clarice, and a Nice Chianti (Rowman & Littlefield, 2016) and a book he co-wrote titled Divine Film Comedies: Biblical Narratives, Film Sub-Genres, and the Comic Spirit (Routledge, 2016). He is currently writing a novel titled The House of Trent Adderley – a Horror/SciFi novel – and a second edition of his book on “Perry Mason”.

Bounds lives in Suffolk, VA, with his wife, Margaret, and attack poodle, Della.

Bill Glose is a combat veteran, a former paratrooper, and a much-published writer in multiple genres. The author of five poetry collections, one book of fiction, and hundreds of magazine articles, Glose was named the Daily Press Poet Laureate in 2011 and featured by NPR on The Writer’s Almanac in 2017. Other honors include the F. Scott Fitzgerald Short Story Award and the Dateline Award for Excellence in Journalism. His work has appeared in numerous publications, including The Writer, Rattle, Virginia Living, Narrative Magazine, and The Sun. His website (www.BillGlose.com) includes a page of helpful information for writers.

Bill is the author of five books of poetry—Postscript to War (Main Street Rag Press, 2020), Virginia Walkabout (San Francisco Bay Press, 2018), Personal Geography (David Robert Books, 2016), Half a Man (FutureCycle Press, 2013), and The Human Touch (San Francisco Bay Press, 2007)—and two chapbooks, Child of the Movies (Finishing Line Press, 2019) and Memory of Spring (Orchard Street Press, 2021). He was also the editor of the story anthology, Ten Twisted Tales (San Francisco Bay Press, 2008). His latest book is All the Ruined Men (St. Martin's Press (August 2, 2022).

Author, educator, and broadcast journalist, Karen Jones is the author of the romance novel Kingdom of Hearts and co-author of Up the Bestseller Lists. She holds degrees in English and Education from the University of Virginia. Jones’ first novel, Kingdom of Hearts was published in 1997 by the duplicitous and financially corrupt Commonwealth Publications in a disaster of epic proportions. The resulting scandal helped inspire former FBI agent Jim Fisher’s book Ten Percent of Nothing The Case of the Literary Agent from Hell.

Her second book, Up the Bestseller Lists, Adams Media, 2001, offers hands-on advice and guerilla techniques for authors who want to aggressively and successfully promote and market their work. Her third book, Death for Beginners, Quill Driver Books, 2010, 2012, is a nonfiction how-to practical guide for arranging a graceful exit written with baby boomers in mind.

Jones has fifteen years experience in television news at WVEC, an ABC affiliate, as an on-air anchor and feature reporter. In addition, working as a series producer she wrote and hosted the long-form Associated Press Award winning series “The Haunting of Virginia”. She also collaborated with the BBC on its award winning series “Pocahontas”. Karen’s media experience also includes stints as an on-air personality at WNOR, WAFX, and WNIS, in both the talk-radio and rock-n-roll radio format.

She directed the Virginia Writers Conference for five years, was an advisor for the Bay School for the Arts, and is a member of the National League of American Pen Women and The Authors Guild.

Karen has worked for ten years as an educator in the public schools, both teaching and writing curriculum. She has taught writing workshops and seminars at Louisiana State University, Austin Peay University, Old Dominion University and has taught courses in romance novel writing at the University of Richmond and Christopher Newport University.

Her fourth book, the historical romantic suspense The Highland Witch is on Kindle and other e-readers. Karen’s most recent work, The Summer of Grace, a southern literary fiction coming of age story was released 11/3/2022 by Brother Mockingbird Publishing.

Charlotte Matthews' published works include a memoir, Comes with Furniture and People, which was a finalist for Indie Awards in the category of Women’s Issues, a novel, The Collapsible Mannequin, and five poetry collections, three of which are: Still Enough to Be Dreaming, Green Stars, and Whistle What Can’t Be Said.

Recipient of The Adele F. Robertson Award for Excellence in Teaching, she has received fellowships from The Chautauqua Institute, The Virginia Foundation for the Humanities, and The Virginia Center for Creative Arts. She is an associate professor of writing at The University of Virginia.

Charlotte is also the cofounder of Whistle Words, an organization that helps women in and post cancer treatment to reclaim their sense of self. They conduct regular writing workshops in the Charlottesville community designed for women who have never written and those who have always written. A documentary film and anthology are also in the works from the writings of workshop participants.

Mary Miley (Theobald) is a historian and writer. She received her B.A. and M.A. from the College of William and Mary, worked for Colonial Williamsburg, and taught American history at Virginia Commonwealth University for many years. She has taught writing classes at various conferences and schools, and to inmates at the Richmond City Jail. Mary has written 14 nonfiction books and more than 200 articles for a variety of magazines and newspapers, plus nine mysteries set in the Roaring Twenties. The first of those, The Impersonator, won a national competition for Best First Crime Novel.

For fun, she is helping start up a winery near Charlottesville, where everything she does would have been illegal during the 1920s.

Michael Khandelwal is the co-founder and Executive Director of The Muse Writers Center, a nationally recognized literary center in Norfolk, Virginia. An award-winning writer and teacher, he writes poetry, fiction, editorials, profiles, and feature articles, which have appeared in Rattle, Coastal Virginia Magazine, Alt Daily, and elsewhere.

A Hampton Roads native, Michael attended the University of Southern California as an undergraduate and graduate student (M.P.W. with three theses: fiction, poetry, screenplay) and has studied under poets James Ragan, William Matthews, and Yevgeny Yevtushenko and writers Betty Friedan, Shelly Berman, Paul Gillette, John Rechy, Ben Masselink, Sy Gomberg, Shana Alexander, and Gay Talese.

In Los Angeles, he also worked in film and on the radio while teaching neuroscience at USC and poetry, drama, and acting in the city.

He is a past web content management specialist for The American Council on Education and is the past President of the 2008 Electoral College of Virginia and a past member of the Norfolk Electoral Board and Norfolk Arts Commission. He was an active member of the board of the Cultural Alliance of Greater Hampton Roads and For Arts Sake, the Young Affiliates of the Chrysler Museum.

He and also serves on the nonprofit boards for Hampton Roads Writers and the Christopher Newport University Writers Council and is the chair of the Norfolk Arts Commission’s Nonprofit Advisory Group and an occasional member of the grants advisory panel for the Virginia Commission on the Arts.

Besides teaching fiction and poetry workshops at The Muse, he has also taught or presented for The Poetry Society of Virginia, Chesapeake Bay Writers, the Hampton Roads Writers Conference, The CNU Writers Conference, and the Association of writers and Writing Programs, among others. He has served as a poetry judge for Teens With a Purpose and the Virginia Commission for the Arts’ Poetry Out Loud Program.

Under his leadership, The Muse Writers Center has grown from a small nonprofit to one of the top-7 literary centers in the nation. His goal at The Muse is to help create programs, events ,and classes that grow literary excellence in the Hampton Roads area.