Jubilee Jambalaya Writers’ Conference 2009

 New York Times best-selling author Cherry Adair took nearly ten years to become an overnight success.  Armed with a solid career plan and strategies to implement her dream, she’s become a bestselling author. Her innovative action-adventure novels have appeared on numerous bestsellers lists, won dozens of awards and garnered praise from reviewers and fans alike. With the creation of her anti-terrorist group, T-FLAC, years before action adventure romances were popular, Cherry carved a niche for herself with her sexy, sassy, fast-paced, action-adventure novels. She lives in the Pacific northwest where she is busy writing the next T-FLAC mission.  When not reading or writing, she loves puttering around in her garden. Adair will give a presentation on “Layering and Texturing Your Novel.”  She will also do a two-hour workshop on plotting your novel, and will sign books at the book fair for fans and attendees.

 After spending eight years as an editor, Pam Ahearn founded the Ahearn Agency in 1992 and currently represents over 30 authors, including award-winning authors Steve Berry, S. W. Hubbard, Wendy Linstrom, Sabrina Jeffries, Meagan McKinney, Laura Joh Rowland, and Carlene Thompson.  She lists over 200 books sold to Warner, St. Martin, Berkely, NAL, Leisure, Kensington, Ballantine, Pocket, Silhouette, and Harlequin.  The agency handles general adult fiction and specializes in women’s fiction and suspense.  Learn more at www.ahearnagency.com.

 Jack B. Bedell was born in Houma, Louisiana, in 1966, and grew up there.  He holds B.A. and M.A. degrees from Northwestern State University in Natchitoches, Louisiana, an M.F.A. in poetry from the University of Arkansas—Fayetteville, and a Ph.D. in English/Creative Writing from the University of Louisiana--Lafayette.  Currently, he is a Professor of English at Southeastern Louisiana University where he also serves as editor of Louisiana Literature.  His poetry, reviews and criticism have appeared in several journals, including Southern Review, Hudson Review, Connecticut Review, Texas Review, Kansas Quarterly, West Branch, Yarrow, Kentucky Poetry Review, Southern Humanities Review, Negative Capability, Short Story, and Critique.  His chapbook, Sleeping with the Net-Maker, was published in 1996 by The Devil’s Millhopper press.  His first full-length collection, At the Bonehouse, won the 1997 Breakthrough Award for Southern and Southwestern Poets and was published by the Texas A&M Press Consortium.  His most recent collections are What Passes for Love and Come Rain, Come Shine, both published by Texas Review Press.  Bedell is also a recent recipient of a Louisiana Division of the Arts Artist Fellowship.

  Michelle Benoit has written, produced, and directed numerous films and documentaries, often in collaboration with her husband Glen Pitre, including Harvest to Restore (documentary); Air Racers (documentary); The Man Who Came Back (a Western); Watermarks (narrative aftereffects of Katrina); American Creole: New Orleans Reunion ( for PBS); Willie Francis Must Die Again (Best documentary awards: Memphis, Charlotte, and Santa Monica International Film Festival; Winner, Best Social Justice Documentary, NY Independent Film & Video Festival); The Scoundrel’s Wife (Period drama, Grand Prize San Diego Film Festival; video & Lifetime cable sales); Wings Over the Wetlands (for the National Estuary Program); Good for What Ails You (documentary, Nationally broadcast); Belizaire the Cajun (Cote Blanche Films); Haunted Waters, Fragile Lands (documentary, national award winner; shown for Jazz Fest).  Books include Country Roads of Louisiana (travel book, with Pitre); and Great River (historical novel).
 Award-winning poet Darrell Bourque says about poetry: “For me poems are correspondences. The correspondence arranges itself in memory charts; in discourses with other poets, painters, musicians, and makers; in documentations of experience in variance and at variance with itself; and finally, in conversations with the physical world I live in. I find myself believing a line from Job: “...speak to the earth and it shall teach thee; and the fishes of the sea shall declare unto thee.” Poems are, for me, declarations negotiated by imagination faithful to language.”  Bourque, now Professor Emeritus of English at ULL, served as Louisiana’s Poet Laureate (2007-2008).  He has served as keynote speaker, presenter, and poetry-writing workshop leader on numerous occasions across Louisiana and the US.  His poetry books include The Blue Boat (2004), Burnt Water Suite (1999), The Doors Between Us (1997), and Plainsongs (bilingual, 1994).  He is presently working on two projects, Call and Response, in collaboration with Jack Bedell, and In Ordinary Light.
 Anne Butler has written two nonfiction books on stories from Angola; she has interviewed, researched, and documented crime stories.  When she became a crime victim herself, she wrote that story to give a voice to the often-silent crime of domestic violence.  She has done in-service training about domestic violence for police departments.  She has written the following nonfiction: The Spirit of St. Francisville, the Acadian Plantation Country Cookbook, the Bayou Plantation Country Cookbook, the Audubon Plantation Country Cookbook, A Tourist’s Guide to West Feliciana Parish: A Little Bit of Heaven Right Here on Earth, and Lost and Found at the Plantation Bed and Breakfast. Her fiction includes  The Ivory Bill Hotel, Ten Stories about Little Chase and Big Fat Aunt May, and More Stories about Little Chase and Big Fat Aunt May.  Her true-crime publications include Angola: Louisiana State Penitentiary, A Half-Century of Rage and Reform, Dying to Tell, and Weep for the Living.  Butler can be found hosting her bed and breakfast at Butler Greenwood Plantation in St. Francisville.  Her presentation will center on writing true-crime.  Her website is www.butlergreenwood.com.
 Barbara Colley grew up in Minden, LA, and attended Louisiana Tech and Nicholls State University.  She moved to a suburb of New Orleans after college and marriage.  Colley enjoys reading, being published in 17 countries, meeting her public, and spending time with her grandchildren.  She has created the Charlotte Larue mysteries, e.g., Polished Off, Death Tidies Up, Maid for Murder, Scrub-a-Dub Dead.  Her most recent book in the series is Wash and Die.  Also new out is Rachel’s War, the story of Rachel, Liz and Crystal.  An epic set against the background of fifty years of American wars, we learn of the private battles these women fight, the men they love, the secrets they keep, and the bonds of family.
 Judy Bartlett Creekmore of LaPlace has written for the River Parishes Picayune for nearly twenty years. She is the self-published author of "Celebrating 200 Years of River Parishes' History," and two unpublished cozy mysteries. Her short fiction most recently appeared in the 2008 Jubilee Anthology. Judy has taught various writing courses through St. Charles Parish Community Education and participated in programs on Louisiana history in St. John the Baptist Parish.
 Born in New Mexico, Charles E. Dellert, Jr. graduated from Southeastern Louisiana University with a M.A. in History, B.A. degrees in History and Political Science (summa cum laude), and a minor in International Studies. He has worked with students (including ESL) in writing across the curriculum at the University of New Mexico in Alamogordo. He has taught U.S. History and Government at Southeastern Louisiana University and English at Nicholls State University. He is presently working on a Ph.D. in Political Science at the University of New Orleans.
   John Doucet is Associate Professor of Biological Sciences and Director of the University Honors Program at Nicholls State University.  He is associate editor of the Proceedings of the Louisiana Academy of Sciences and the website Genetics and Louisiana Families.  In addition to scientific writing, he is author of 14 plays and has been awarded the Louisiana Native Voices and Visions Playwriting Award and the Louisiana Division of the Arts Fellowship in Playwriting.  He has authored and edited historical nonfiction (The Cheniere Caminada Story, Lafourche Country II, and the forthcoming Lafourche Country III).  He is the author of two collections of poetry, the chapbook A Local Habitation and a Name: Poems from the Lafourche Country and the forthcoming book Highway One Revisited.  He is a regular contributor of viewpoint columns to the Nicholls Worth.  Doucet has conducted numerous workshops on writing both poetry and drama. 
  Woody Falgoux writes, practices law and is the co-owner of Cherry Books in Thibodaux, Louisiana. He is the author of two narrative nonfiction books, Rise of the Cajun Mariners: The Race for Big Oil (Stockard James 2007) and  One Dream: The NFL (Sleeping Bear Press 2001).  He is currently working on two works of creative nonfiction, Last Man on the Levee and The Miracle of St. Genevieve. He holds a Bachelors of Journalism from the University of Missouri and a Juris Doctorate from LSU. His website is www.woodyfalgoux.com.
  Researcher, writer, and publisher Mary Gehman  is the owner of Margaret Media, Inc., a publishing company she founded in 1981. She wrote and published three books of her own : Women and New Orleans (1988), The Free People of Color of New Orleans (1994) and Touring Louisiana’s Great River Road (2003). Since early 2008 she has been actively seeking manuscripts from Louisiana authors on local topics and published four books that year from such submissions: Gumbo People, Down at the End of the River, Marietta’s House: A Grandmother’s Cottage, Matters of the Heart: A Creole Love Story and New Orleans Goes to the Movies: Film Sites in the French Quarter and Beyond. Pennsylvania native Gehman spent 33 years in New Orleans prior to being flooded out by Hurricane Katrina. In 2006 she moved along the River Road in Donaldsonville where she is restoring a century-old house. Her career as assistant professor of English at Delgado Community College in New Orleans ended with that move. She has also authored a variety of articles, short stories and poetry published in magazines and collections in Louisiana. For 12 years she edited the “Exploring New Orleans” section of Fodor’s travel guide.  Her education credits include a B.A. in Journalism from Loyola University and an M.A. in English from the University of New Orleans. She lectures frequently on the topics of her books, is fluent in Spanish and German, and holds a New Orleans tour guide license.  The mother of two sons, she is also the grandmother of 5.
   Dr. Norman German is an English professor at Southeastern Louisiana University and the fiction editor of Louisiana Literature. His historical novel No Other World fictionalizes the life of Coincoin, the ex-slave woman who became a slaveholder and founded Melrose Plantation near Natchitoches. His short fiction appears in literary and commercial magazines, including Shenandoah, The Virginia Quarterly Review, Salt Water Sportsman, and Sport Fishing.  His most recent novel, A Savage Wisdom, is based on the life of the only woman in Louisiana executed by the electric chair.  He and his wife, artist Raejean Clark, live on the Calcasieu River in Lake Charles, Louisiana. 
 New York Times and USA Today best-selling author Heather Graham (aka Shannon Drake) majored in theater arts at the University of South Florida. After a stint of several years in dinner theater, back-up vocals, and bartending, she stayed home after the birth of her third child and began to write, working on short horror stories and romances. Her first book was with Dell, and since then, she has written over one hundred novels and novellas including category, romantic suspense, historical romance, vampire fiction, time travel, occult and Christmas family fare. She wrote the launch books for the Dell's Ecstasy Supreme line, Silhouette's Shadows, and for Harlequin's mainstream fiction imprint, Mira Books.  Heather  is a founding member of the Florida Romance Writers chapter of RWA, and since 1999 has hosted the Romantic Times Vampire Party, with all revenues going directly to children's charity.  She is published in approximately twenty languages and has been awarded recognition from Walden Books, B. Dalton, Georgia Romance Writers, Affaire de Coeur, Romantic Times and more. She has had books selected for the Doubleday Book Club and the Literary Guild, and has been quoted, interviewed, or featured in such publications as The Nation, Redbook, People and USA Today and appeared on many newscasts, including local television and Entertainment Tonight.  Heather loves water and scuba diving, but her greatest love is her family.  Romance Writers of America has awarded her their lifetime achievement award.
  California native Barbara Hambly spins stories with memorable characters, twisted plots, and image-filled descriptions based on passionate research.  Her work creates sci-fi fantasy worlds and vampire visits and antebellum New Orleans.  Once she establishes characters, she writes series around them, so readers can re-visit their favorites again and again.  This prolific writer’s imagination knows no bounds: fantasy, historical mystery, graphic novels, and even romance.  Hambly’s character Benjamin Janvier (January) is set in 1830s New Orleans, and she has eight books about this surgeon/musician/sleuth/free man of color.  Her historical fiction includes Patriot Hearts, about America’s first three First Ladies, and the story of Mary Todd Lincoln, The Emancipator’s Wife. Her website can be found at www.barbarahambly.com and her blog is at Barbara-hambly.livejournal.com.
 Rhodi Hawk has been fascinated by storytelling since her earliest memory, when her grandmother read to her from Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens. Rhodi has been reading or writing ever since, and began her career as a transcription linguist in US Army intelligence. She later made a living as a technical writer during the Internet boom, working on her first novel in the early mornings and at night. She now writes fiction full time.  In 2007 Rhodi Hawk won the International Thrillerwriter's Scholarship for her first work of fiction, A Twisted Ladder, due to hit the shelves in summer 2009 through Tor/Forge. A Twisted Ladder is Rhodi Hawk's debut novel about a New Orleans psychologist who discovers a secret that unlocks the greatest possibilities of the mind, while also unleashing its darkest potential.  She is represented by Peter Miller of PMA Literary and Film Management.  A compulsive traveler, she dabbles in the culinary arts and lives in the New York City area with her dog Maggie, a connoisseur of rubber chickens.  Her website is www.rhodihawk.com.
  Earl Higgins is an authentic Y’at, an affectionate term for a local New Orleanian.  Armed with a B.A. in English and a juris doctorate from Tulane University, Higgins compiled an impressive resume of government service. He retired from the United States Navy in 1989 with the rank of commander, U.S. Naval Reserve, and from the United States Court of Appeals, Fifth Circuit, in 2002 as the assistant director of staff attorneys.  As for his creative leanings, reading has always been a passion. His interests are eclectic, from the twenty Aubrey-Maturin novels of Patrick O’Brian to the spiritual writings of Thomas Merton. If he had to choose one author as his favorite, Higgins would choose Nikos Kazantzakis. “I’m a Y’at, so to say that I’m a Mardi Gras enthusiast is sort of redundant,” says Higgins, who is a proud member of the Krewe du Vieux, a satirical Mardi Gras organization known for its parades lampooning the famous and infamous. Carrying on local traditions in post-Katrina New Orleans is important to Higgins, who humorously displays his affection for his hometown in The Joy of Y’at Catholicism.  Higgins is a ranger at the Jean Lafitte National Historical Park and Preserve and writes a column of humor, satire, and whimsy for the Delta Sierran, a bimonthly publication of the Sierra Club. He and his wife, Janet reside in River Ridge, Louisiana.
 Claire Domangue Joller is currently ghostwriting/collaborating on an anecdotal family history book that includes much of the history of Terrebonne parish. She is a long-time editor and writer, having earned her B.A. from Nicholls State University.  Once editor of the local Chamber of Commerce magazine Terrebonne Magazine, she is presently a columnist for the Bayou Catholic, writing a secular commentary entitled "Seeing Clairely."  These commentaries are recorded for a syndicated radio program originating in Connecticut.  She is proud of earning first place for her column from the Catholic Press Association. She has done public relations work for a local children's home and technical writing for an environmental research engineering firm.  For thirteen years she served as development director for a local high school.
 Greg Langley. is a native of Morgan County, Tennessee, and a graduate of the University of Tennessee. He has been a working journalist for 25 years and has been books editor at The Advocate, Baton Rouge, since 1997.  He lives with his wife, Lori, and three sons, Austin, Phil and Billy Joe, in Denham Springs, Louisiana.
 Susan Larson has been the book editor at The Times-Picayune since 1988; she is the author of the 1999 book, “The Booklover’s Guide to New Orleans,” which is currently being updated for a new edition. She has been a board member of the Tennessee Williams/New Orleans Literary Festival and the New Orleans Gulf South Booksellers Association. A published author of fiction and non-fiction, Larson is a member of the National Book Critics Circle. In 2007, she was honored with a lifetime achievement award from the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities.
 Deborah LeBlanc is an award-winning author from Lafayette, Louisiana. She is also a business owner, a licensed death scene investigator, and an active member of two national paranormal investigation teams.  She is the president of the Horror Writers Association, president of the Writers' Guild of Acadiana, president of Mystery Writers of America's Southwest Chapter, and an active member of Sisters in Crime, NINC, and International Thriller Writers Inc. In 2004, Deborah created the LeBlanc Literacy Challenge, an annual, national campaign designed to encourage more people to read, and soon after founded Literacy Inc., a non-profit organization dedicated to fighting illiteracy in America's teens. She also takes her passion for literacy and a powerful ability to motivate to high schools around the country. Her latest novel is WATER WITCH.  For more information, please go to www.deborahleblanc.com and www.literacyinc.com.
 Lauren Ledet is a native of Thibodaux, Louisiana, and 2006 graduate of Nicholls State University. She holds a Bachelor’s of Arts in English and is currently pursuing a Master’s of Library and Information Science from Louisiana State University. While attending Nicholls, she participated in the editorial process of the Mosaic and worked as an English tutor and writing consultant. She is the adult services and public relations coordinator for the Terrebonne Parish Library System. Her duties include coordinating and organizing Big Read activities; developing, writing, and implementing grant-funded programming; and providing marketing and public relation services for the library system. Her writing background includes grants, book reviews, and readers’ advisory work.  She has been a member of the Jubilee Jambalaya Writers’ Conference committee since 2007.
 C. C. Lockwood is a self-employed writer, photographer, and environmental artist.  C. C. was born in Missouri and grew up in Arkansas.  He moved to Louisiana in 1967 to attend LSU.  He soon fell in love with Louisiana’s swamps, taught himself photography, and headed out to an outstanding career in nature photography.  His latest book is C. C. Lockwood’s Atchafalaya, which explores the Atchafalaya Basin.  He has published 12 books on his own and two with collaborators, and his work appears in many journals, including National Geographic.  Lockwood’s work seeks to preserve the fragile ecosystems he is familiar with, such as Louisiana swamplands and the nation’s backcountry out West.  He has earned many awards and international acclaim, including the Sierra Club’s Ansel Adams Award, the Louisiana Legend Award from LPB, the American Library Association’s Notable Book of the Year (1981), and the LSU Alumni Hall of Distinction.  Marsh Mission is a part of a years-long effort to bring attention to the vanishing Gulf Coast wetlands.  He is a frequent lecturer on wildlife, conservation photography, and environmental issues.  Lockwood is our keynote speaker and will also entertain questions about publishing a book.  His website is www.cclockwood.com.
  Bev Marshall grew up in Mississippi and holds degrees from the University of Mississippi and Southeastern Louisiana University. She began her writing career during the years her husband served in the USAF, writing lifestyle pieces for military publications and various magazines and newspapers. After living in Mildenhall, England, for three years, Bev and her husband returned to the States where she began publishing short stories in literary magazines and anthologies. Her first novel, Walking Through Shadows, was a Booksense Pick, an alternate Literary Guild selection, and was chosen as one of the best debut novels of 2002 by the New Orleans Times Picayune. Her second novel, Right As Rain, won the Mississippi Library Association Fiction of the Year Award. It was also nominated for the National Book Critics Circle’s Fiction of the Year and the Mississippi Institute of Arts and Letters Fiction of the year. Right As Rain was chosen for the Best Novels of 2004 list by the Times Picayune. Both of Bev’s first two novels have been translated into German, and Walking Through Shadows has been adapted for a radio play in German. Bev’s third novel, Hot Fudge Sundae Blues, was selected by The New York Pubic Library for inclusion in Books for the Teen Age 2006 as one of the best novels published in the previous year.  Bev serves on the Board of Directors for the Tennessee Williams New Orleans Literary Festival, is the co-founder of the St. Tammany Parish Writers Group and the Southeastern Louisiana University Writers Group. She is currently writer-in-residence at Southeastern Louisiana University and frequently conducts seminars and workshops for writers groups and colleges.  Bev lives with her husband Butch in Ponchatoula, Louisiana, and her website is www.bevmarshall.com.
  David Middleton is Poet-in-Residence, Distinguished Service Professor, and Alcee Fortier Professor at Nicholls State University in Thibodaux, Louisiana. His books of verse include The Burning Fields (LSU Press, 1991), As Far as Light Remains (The Cummington Press,1993), Beyond the Chandeleurs (LSU Press, 1999), and The Habitual Peacefulness of Gruchy: Poem After Pictures by Jean-Francois Millet, (LSU Press, 2005). Middleton has also published several chapbooks of verse, the latest of which is The Language of the Heart, (Louisiana Literature Press, 2003).  Middleton's verse has appeared in The Southern Review, The Sewanee Review, Louisiana Literature, Xavier Review, Critical Quarterly, The South Carolina Review, The Lyric, and elsewhere. Middleton has served as poetry editor of The Anglican Theological Review and currently serves as poetry editor for The Classical Outlook and the national quarterly Modern Age.  In 2006 Middleton received The Governor’s Award for Professional Artist of the Year.
  Betsy Mitchell has been a science fiction/fantasy editor for over twenty years.  Her authors included Terry Brooks, William Gibson, Timothy Zahn, Octavia Butler, among many others.  She received a World Fantasy Award for co-editing Full Spectrum 4.  Mitchell received a degree in journalism from the University of Nebraska/Omaha and spent two years as a reporter for the Omaha World-Herald before moving to New York.  She served as managing editor at Analog magazine, senior editor of Baen Books, associate publisher of Bantam Spectra, and founded the Aspect line at Warner Books before joining Random House as Editor-in-Chief of Del Rey.  She has edited The Elves of Cintra by Terry Brooks, Virtual Light by William Gibson, Empire of Ivory by Naomi Novik (all NY Times bestsellers); the Hugo Award-winner Hyperion by Dan Simmons; and the Nebula Award-winner Parable of the Talents by Octavia Butler.  She has received a World Fantasy Award for co-editing the anthology Full Spectrum 4.  Her author discoveries include Cecilia Dart-Thornton, David Feintuch, Nab Hopkinson, J.V. Jones, Elizabeth Moon, Naomi Novik, and Sarah Zettel.  Mitchell’s historical fiction Journey to the Bottomless Pit: The Story of Stephen Bishop and Mammoth Cave, was published by Viking Children’s Books.  She and her family live in Brooklyn, New York.
 Ann Armstrong Peltier graduated from Louisiana State University with a major in Hospital Dietetics.  At LSU, she was chosen for Phi Kappa Phi honorary fraternity and Phi Upsilon Omicron, a Humane Ecology honorary fraternity.  She was tapped by Mortar Board and served as Vice President of Chi Omega Sorority.  After graduation she interned as a Hospital Dietitian at Charity Hospital in New Orleans.  She served on the Lafourche Parish Library Board for five years.  The governor of Louisiana appointed her to the Louisiana State Board of Commissioners, where she served twenty-one years as a member and three times as Chair. She has been active in Thibodaux, serving on the committee at Nicholls State University that started the John Folse Culinary Institute.  She has been a member and president of the Hermanas Club.  Sometimes God Says No is an account of a fourteen-year period in her life when four of her children died from a rare condition called hydrocephalus.  She had one healthy child and adopted two boys from Ireland.  This story also talks about her conversion to the Roman Catholic religion and her ensuing conflict with birth control.  The book also shows how she and her husband tried to live a normal life in spite of their children's illnesses and deaths, how their marriage was strengthened during these heartaches, and how her faith and love for God prevailed until the end. 
  At the age of 25 Glen Pitre was already being called the father of Cajun cinema; his French dialect “gumbo westerns” broke house records in south Louisiana.  His Belizaire the Cajun, his first film in English, was internationally lauded.  His work since then has earned him dozens of awards, including an honorary doctorate and a knighthood from France.  He has been interviewed by CNN, MSNBC and USAToday.  He has been proclaimed “a legendary American regional director” by film critic Roger Ebert.  His IMAX film, Hurricane on the Bayou, is showing worldwide.  He produced and directed American Creole, showing nationwide on PBS. His documentary Willie Francis Must Die Again has won four film festivals.   He wrote and directed the feature-length Southern Gothic Western, The Man Who Came Back, set in 1876 Thibodaux.  He has written two novels and three non-fiction books; helped craft the permanent exhibits of many Louisiana museums and visitor centers; produced Raconteurs, a 31-part radio series about storytelling; amassed oral history collections for university archives and the Library of Congress; and held one-man shows of his photography in the U.S., Canada, and Europe.  He has marketed LA as a state for films; published a catalog of LA products; and raised all the funds for his many productions.  His current mission is to use his talents to help restore New Orleans as an international Mecca for arts and creativity.
  Award-winning author Candice Proctor (aka C. S. Harris and C. S. Graham) graduated Phi Beta Kappa, summa cum laude with a degree in the classics before going on to earn an MA and Ph.D. in history.  A former academic, she has taught at the University of Idaho and Midwestern State University in Texas. She also worked as an archaeologist on a variety of sites, including a Hudson's Bay Company Fort in San Juan Island, a Cherokee village in Tennessee, a prehistoric kill site in Victoria, Australia, a Roman cemetery, and medieval manor house in Winchester, England. Most recently, she spent many years as a partner in an international business-consulting firm.  Her publications include the Sebastian St. Cyr Regency mystery series, seven historical romances, and a nonfiction historical study of the French Revolution. Writing with Steven Harris under the pseudonym “Steven Graham” she is also the author of The Archangel Project, a contemporary espionage thriller released in 2008.  Her novels are available worldwide and have been translated into over twenty-one different languages. The daughter of a career Air Force officer and university professor, Proctor loves to travel and has spent much of her life abroad. She now makes her home in New Orleans, Louisiana.  Her website is www.csharris.net.
  Poet Denise Rogers is Director of Freshman English at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. She received her undergraduate degree in Child Study from Webster College in Webster Groves (St. Louis County), Missouri. Until leaving for graduate school, she lived and worked in St. Louis, Missouri as a kindergarten teacher, then a library assistant, and last a legal secretary. She received the M.F.A. in Creative Writing (Poetry) at the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville in 1996, where she also participated in the Arkansas Writers in the Schools Project. In general, her work explores the theme of separation and memory. Much of her work is inspired by oriental woodblock prints, scrolls, gardens, and films, as well as western paintings and sculpture. But some of her work is based on her memory of family, particularly of her vacations and holidays with her grandparents in the French communities of southern Missouri.  Her articles and poetry have appeared in The CanadianHolmes, Plum in the Pudding, The Serpentine Muse, The Baker Street Miscellany. Her book The Scholar’s Daughter was published by Louisiana Literature Press.
  After working as a department manager for Famous-Barr, and briefly as a clerk at a bookstore, Bobbi Smith gave up on career security and began writing.  She sold her first book to Zebra in 1982.  Since then, Bobbi has written over 40 books and several short stories.  To date, there are more than five million of her novels in print.  She has been awarded the prestigious Romantic Times Storyteller of the Year Award and two Career Achievement Awards. Her books have appeared on numerous bestseller lists.  When she's not working on her novels, she is frequently a guest speaker for writers’ groups.  Bobbi is the mother of two sons and resides in St. Charles, Missouri, with her husband and three dogs.
  As a screenwriter, Alexandra Sokoloff has sold original mystery and thriller scripts and written novel adaptations for numerous Hollywood studios.  Her adaptation of Sabine Deitmer's psychological thriller Cold Kisses was filmed in Germany.   Her debut novel, The Harrowing  (2006), was nominated for both a Bram Stoker award and Anthony award for Best First Novel.  She is contracted with St. Martin’s Press for three more supernatural thrillers, including the just-released The Price.  Alex sings as a Killerette in the all-author Killer Thriller Band, performs with Heather Graham’s Vampire Dinner Theater, and is an activist in the Writers Guild of America.
 Dee Dee Thurston is managing editor of The Houma Courier.
  Emily Toth is Professor English and Women’s Studies at LSU.  Toth (rhymes with both) is an author, teacher, and gadfly who’s published two biographies and three other books on Kate Chopin, as well as Ms. Mentor’s Impeccable Advice for Women in Academia and Inside Peyton Place: the Life of Grace Metalious, recently bought by Sandra Bullock and Fox 2000 for a feature film. Emily Toth’s eleventh book, Ms. Mentor’s New and Ever More Impeccable Advice for Women and Men in Academia, was published in 2008. At LSU she teaches courses on women writers, Louisiana women, food, and best sellers, and she’s always looking for material for her courses on women’s secrets and gossip about American writers.
 Katherine Tracy is a native of New Orleans, LA.  She has a M.A. in English and B. of A. (cum laude) in English and French with minors in Technical Writing, Creative Writing, and Journalism. Her journalism experience includes articles on public affairs and feature stories. Her poetry has been published on the Internet and in a number of anthologies.  She has an expertise in prepress layout and design.  She edits and designs books for various small presses. She edits and publishes L'Intrigue Webzine. Her most recent publications include A Savage Wisdom by Norman German (July 2008), In the Eye: A Collection of Writings  (2007, all profits donated to Habitat for Humanity); The Creative Writing Murders by Heather Ross Miller; and French Connections: A Gathering of Franco American Poets.  She recently edited and designed the book, Through Her Eyes:  Value, Belief and Experience in Women’s Jail Based Adult Education, by Alexandra Mageehon.  Katherine has taught English and writing across the curriculum, including WebCT and ESL instruction, at New Mexico State University.  Presently, she is an English instructor in the Dept. of Languages and Literature at Nicholls.  She has more than twenty years experience in technical writing for the oil and gas industry which includes exploration and development: geological/geophysical terminology, drilling reports, safety, engineering, OSHA reports, state and federal reports. Katherine has set up a website for the Jubilee Writers' Conference (www.jubileewritersconference.org) which will be an ongoing project. She will serve on a panel explaining the process of taking a book through publication.
  Chris Tusa is a poet and fiction writer from New Orleans whose work has appeared in Connecticut Review, Texas Review, Prairie Schooner, The New Delta Review, Passages North, Spoon River, New York Quarterly, Louisiana Literature, Tar River, StorySouth, South Dakota Review, Southeast Review, and others.  His B.A. and M.A. are from Southeastern and his M.F. A. in Creative Writing from the University of Florida.  He has studied under a number of notable writers, including Tim Gautreaux, Sidney Wade, and Debora Gregor.  His debut collection of poems, Haunted Bones, was published in 2006.  Tusa teaches in the English Department at LSU and acts as Managing Editor for Poetry Southeast.  Tusa’s debut novel, Dirty Little Angels, will be released by the University of West Alabama in March of 2009.  His website is www.christophertusa.com.
  Ron Yee-Mon, a native of Trinidad, is the spiritual director of the Lumen Christi retreat center in Shriever,  His poetry is based on life experiences, often painful ones, his own or others’.   His poems and spiritual reflections have been published in Catholic publications and his poem “The Mountain Top” appeared in the 2007 Jubilee Anthology.  Yee-Mon hosts a writers’ workshop/retreat annually, and also an artists’ retreat.  Yee-Mon will discuss writing poetry that arises from spiritual experiences.
 Robin Wells has written 14 critically-acclaimed romantic comedies which have been translated into more than a dozen languages.  Wells has won the National Golden Heart Award, two National Readeer’s Choice Awards, among others.  Wells’ next book, How to Score, will hit bookstores in June. Wells will present on “How to Write in Scenes.” Besides teaching a writing class for SLU, she is an oncologist and a resident of Mandeville, LA.
 Kimberly Whalen is a Literary Agent and Vice President of Trident Media Group.  She came to Trident from the Jane Rotrosen Agency, where she served as the Rights Director and was responsible for foreign, film, audio, and serial rights for all their clients.  She was also a literary agent and represented several domestic writers in both fiction and non-fiction.  She came to Rotrosen from St. Martin’s Press, where she grew her experience and stellar reputation with five years’ experience as the Managing Director of Foreign Rights.  She was appointed to the St. Martin’s Editorial Board, a position that required her to assess the viability of potential book projects.  Whalen developed strong international relationships through visits and conferences in Europe and the far East, including the UK, Germany, Scandanavia, China, Taiwan, Japan and Korea.  At Trident Whalen is a full-time Domestic agent, handling commercial fiction and nonfiction, women’s fiction, suspense, paranormal, and pop culture.  Her clients include New York Times best-selling authors Cherry Adair, Allison Brennan, Kat Martin, and Mary Alice Monroe.  Other bestselling clients include Jeff Anderson, Stephanie Bond, Patti Callahan Henry, Julie Kenner, and Roxanne St. Claire. The Trident website is www.tridentmediagroup.com.
 F. Paul Wilson is the award-winning, NY Times bestselling author of thirty-seven books and nearly 100 short stories spanning science fiction, horror and contemporary thrillers, adventure, medical thrillers, and virtually everything between.  More than eight million copies of his books are in print in the US and his work has been translated into twenty-four languages.  He also has written for the stage, screen, and interactive media.  His latest thriller, Bloodline, stars the notorious urban mercenary, Repairman Jack.  The Keep and The Tomb have hit the New York Times Best-seller Lists.  Wheels Within Wheels won the first Prometheus Award; The Tomb received the Porgie Award from the West Coast Review of Books.  The Tomb is in development as Repairman Jack by Beacon Films. His novelette Aftershock won the Bram Stoker Award. Wilson currently resides at the Jersey Shore and can be found on the Web at www.repairmanjack.com.