Lynne BarrettLynne is the editor of the new anthology Making Good Time, True Stories of How We Do, and Don’t, Get Around in South Florida. Her third story collection, Magpies, received a Florida Book Awards gold medal, and her recent writing appears in The Hong Kong Review, New Flash Fiction Review, Mystery Tribune, Necessary Fiction, The Miami Rail, River Teeth, and Flash! Writing the Very Short Story. Her handbook, What Editors Want, guides writers through the submission process. A recipient of the Edgar Award for best mystery story, Barrett teaches at Florida International University and edits The Florida Book Review. www.LynneBarrett.com
Linda Bergman
Linda Bergman has written 24 films and produced 5 of them. She’s been nominated for an Emmy, Access Award, The Alpha Award, and the prestigious Writer's Guild Award. She’s taught in LA, NYC, Marin, San Miguel Allende and many locales for the IWWG. Linda wrote So You Think Your Life’s A Movie: Ten Steps to a Script That Sells, and So You Think Your Life’s A Movie? The Sequel. Her musical, Wanna Play?, was published by Sam French and produced on PBS. She’s circulating her 10-minute play, Forever, to festivals, and writing her third book on film and wicked tales. www.lindabergmancreativewriting.com
Kelly DuMarBoston’s Kelly DuMar is a playwright, poet, and writing workshop facilitator. Her award-winning plays and monologues have been produced around the U.S. and Canada and are published by dramatic publishers, including her award winning one-act play for youth, The Adventures of Rocky & Skye, published by Youth Plays. Kelly has published three chapbooks of poetry. She is a past president of Playwrights’ Platform, Boston, where she led new play development. Kelly currently serves on the Board of the IWWG and produces its annual Boston Conference. She founded and produces the Our Voices Festival of Women Playwrights at Wellesley College, now in its 13th year. www.KellyDuMar.com
Vanessa Jimenez GabbVanessa is the author of Images for Radical Politics, the Editor’s Pick in the 2015 Rescue Press Black Box Poetry Contest. Recent poetry has been featured in PEN America, The Poetry Project Newsletter and The Brooklyn Rail. She teaches at Newark Academy and for Brooklyn Poets. She is from and lives in Brooklyn, NY. www.vanessajimenezgabb.com
Jan GaryJanice Gary is the author of Short Leash: a Memoir of Dog Walking and Deliverance, winner of the Eric Hoffer Prize, Nautilus Book Award and a Finalist for the Sarton Award for Memoir. Her work has been published in River Teeth, Brevity, The Spring Journal, Ms. Magazine, and other publications and as part of the feminist anthology, Women Speak Out. She is on the faculty of the Master of Liberal Studies Program at Arizona State University and conducts writing workshops combining memoir, myth, and the self as metaphor. www.janicegary.com
June GouldJune Gould, Ph.D., is the author of The Writer in All of Us: Improving Your Writing through Childhood Memories (EP Dutton), Beyond the Margins: Rethinking the Art and Craft of Writing, and the novel In the Shadow of Trains; and the co-author of Counting the Stones, a book of Holocaust poetry. June has given readings at The 92nd Street Y (NY), The Holocaust Museum (Washington, DC), the Jewish Museum and Yeshiva Museum (NY), and libraries, synagogues, churches, universities, and bookstores throughout the U.S. and in Greece and Canada. She has been an IWWG workshop leader for over 25 years.
Dorothy Randall GrayAuthor of bestseller Soul Between The Lines (Avon/HarperCollins), inspirational teacher, award-winning visual artist, and LA Poet-in-Residence. Dorothy's publications include Muse Blues, The Passion Collection, Woman, Fierce With Reality, Family, Tamarinda, Sharing the Same Sky, as well as numerous anthologies and literary journals. She is ED of Women Writers & Artists Matrix, former NYU faculty, and Hunter College Poet-in-Residence. Her writing and healing workshops serve professional writers, incarcerated and homeless populations, veterans, at-risk youth, and post graduate students through PEN America, United Nations, Skidmore College, and Columbia University. A global activist, Dorothy changes the world one word at a time. DorothyRandallGray.com
Nakia HillNakia Hill is a writer and educator with a track record of effectively managing and scaling writing programs for urban youth. She specializes in managing creative writing spaces for underserved youth to fuel empowerment and to discover the writer within. With a background in journalism, her work has been published in The Christian Science Monitor, Huffington Post, The Bay State Banner, and Sister to Sister Magazine. Her latest work is created through a non-fiction lens in the form of poetry and reflective personal narratives. The theme of her work focuses on womanhood, self-care, and resiliency. www.nakiahill.com
Judy HugeJudith Huge has spent over 30 years developing innovative approaches to both learning and writing. As president of her own national consulting firm, teacher of both undergraduate and graduate-level college courses, and director of writing workshops across the country, she has made a difference in the way thousands of people find, craft, and promote their writing voices. She is a co-author of 101 Ways You Can Help: How to Offer Comfort and Support to Those Who Are Grieving (Sourcebook, 2009), as well as A Middle Aged Woman and the Sea, a tale of loss and transition.
Jen Malone
Jen Malone is the author of over a dozen middle grade and young adult titles including The Arrival of Someday (HarperCollins), The Sleepover (Simon & Schuster), Wanderlost (HarperCollins), and Follow Your Art (Dreamworks Animation/Penguin Random House). Jen once spent a year traveling the world solo, met her husband on the highway (literally), and went into labor with her identical twins while on a rock star's tour bus. These days she saves the drama for her books. www.jenmalonewrites.com
Jen Malone is the author of over a dozen middle grade and young adult titles including The Arrival of Someday (HarperCollins), The Sleepover (Simon & Schuster), Wanderlost (HarperCollins), and Follow Your Art (Dreamworks Animation/Penguin Random House). Jen once spent a year traveling the world solo, met her husband on the highway (literally), and went into labor with her identical twins while on a rock star's tour bus. These days she saves the drama for her books. www.jenmalonewrites.com
Cathleen O'Connor, PhD
Cathleen is a writer, speaker, teacher, coach, and intuitive who offers developmental editing, publishing, book layout, and marketing services to other writers. Books include The Everything Law of Attraction Dream Dictionary, High Heels on the Hamster Wheel - A Fable for the Modern Woman and The Collection: Flash Fiction for Flash Memory. She successfully developed a book launch plan for her 2014 book, 365 Days of Angel Prayers, keeping it at number 1 in its category on Amazon and eventually selling the rights in 2017. She is currently at work on her first romance novel. www.cathleenoconnor.com
Caridad PineiroCaridad is a transplanted Long Island girl who fell in love with the Jersey Shore. When she isn't taking long strolls along the boardwalk, she's also a NY Times and USA Today bestselling author with over a million romance novels sold worldwide. Caridad is passionate about writing and helping others explore and develop their skills as writers. She is a founding member of the Liberty States Fiction Writers and has presented workshops at the International Women’s Writing Guild, RT Book Club Convention, Romance Writers of America National Conference as well as various writing organizations throughout the country. When not writing, Caridad is also an intellectual property attorney. www.caridad.com
Judith PrestJudith is a poet, photographer, mixed media artist, and creativity coach. Her poems have been published in several literary journals and seven anthologies. Her chapbook, After, was recently published by Finishing Line Press. A retired school social worker, she works part time running recovery writing and expressive art groups at New Choices Recovery center in Schenectady, NY. She gives workshops and leads retreats for poetry, expressive arts, creativity, and healing. She lives in Duanesburg, NY with her husband, three cats, and her business – Spirit Wind Studio, LLC. Judith joined IWWG in 1996 and attended her first Summer Conference in 1997. www.soulcollage.com/judith-prest
Paula Chaffe Scardamalia
Paula Chaffee Scardamalia is a book coach and editor, dream and tarot intuitive, and the author of In the Land of the Vultures (novel), and Tarot for the Fiction Writer. For 20 years, Paula has presented workshops across the country at national and regional Romance Writers of America conferences and meetings; the San Diego University Writers Conference; and the International Women's Writing Guild. Paula publishes Divine Muse-ings, a weekly e-newsletter (since 2009) on writing, creativity, dreams, and tarot. She was dream consultant for PEOPLE Country Magazine, and is the award-winning author of Weaving a Woman’s Life: Spiritual Lessons from the Loom.
Paula Chaffee Scardamalia is a book coach and editor, dream and tarot intuitive, and the author of In the Land of the Vultures (novel), and Tarot for the Fiction Writer. For 20 years, Paula has presented workshops across the country at national and regional Romance Writers of America conferences and meetings; the San Diego University Writers Conference; and the International Women's Writing Guild. Paula publishes Divine Muse-ings, a weekly e-newsletter (since 2009) on writing, creativity, dreams, and tarot. She was dream consultant for PEOPLE Country Magazine, and is the award-winning author of Weaving a Woman’s Life: Spiritual Lessons from the Loom.
Linda Leedy Schneider
Linda Leedy Schneider is a psychotherapist in private practice and poetry mentor who was awarded The Contemporary American Poetry Prize by Chicago Poetry. She has written six collections of poetry including Through My Window: Poetry of a Psychotherapist (Plain View Press). A former faculty member at Aquinas College and Kendall College of Art and Design, Linda facilitates workshops nationally. Editor of two poetry anthologies, Linda’s poetry was included in Not a Muse: The Inner Lives of Women, a World Poetry Anthology for which she produced a reading to benefit The International Women’s Writing Guild at The Bowery Poetry Club (NYC).
Arielle SilverArielle Silver writes songs, personal essays, and poetry, often blurring the lines between. Her literary work has appeared in Matador Review, Jet Fuel Review, Lilith, and others. An alumna of Brandeis University and Berklee College of Music, Arielle earned her MFA in Creative Writing from Antioch University Los Angeles, where she teaches in the BA program and is former editor of Lunch Ticket. Her music has been licensed internationally for film/TV, and her latest album, A Thousand Tiny Torches, released this year. Arielle teaches yoga, writing, and meditation (…blurring the lines between…) at retreats and workshops in California and beyond.