Authors and Presenters

Rusty Barnes lives in Revere MA with his family. He edits Night Train, an online journal, and has published two collections of fiction from sunnyoutside press and a chapbook of poetry called Redneck Poems. He also runs a blogazine of Appalachian and rural literature called Fried Chicken and Coffee.

Brunonia Barry is the New York Times and Internationalbestselling author of The Lace Reader and The Map of True Places. The firstAmerican writer to win the International Women’s Fiction Festival Baccante Award, a two time Indie Next Pick, and recipient of Ragdale’s Invitational fellowship, Ms. Barry lives in Salem, MA with her husband Gary Ward and their 16 year old Golden Retriever, Byzy. Find her online at www.brunoniabarry.com.

Frederic Marshall Bauer began his creative career as an advertising copywriter in the early 1970’s. After a decade and a half performing functions ranging from television producer to creative director, he became a free-lance audio/visual screenwriter and creative consultant. From 1977 to 1998, he wrote and produced over 200 videos and computer-based programs for marketing and training. He was the coauthor, with Dr. Albert Forgione, of Fearless Flying—the Complete Program for Relaxed Air Travel, published by Houghton Mifflin in 1981. An avid Eighteenth century student and re-enactor, he was the drummer for Glover’s Marblehead Regiment from 1975 to 1996. His home is situated on the site of the Old Fountain Inn, where Charles Henry Frankland discovered Agnes Surrage.

Alethea Black was born in Boston and graduated from Harvard College in 1991. Her father was a mathematician, and for a long time she believed her name, the Greek word for truth, was his way of tipping his cap to the idea of absolutes. Then one day her mother overheard her and said, “No, we got your name from a TV show.” (Judd, for the Defense.) Her debut collection of short stories, I Knew You’d Be Lovely (Broadway Books/Random House), was chosen as a Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers pick for Fall 2011, and is an Oprah.com Book of the Week. Black lives with her dog Zoe in Dutchess County, NY.

Jenna Blum is the New York Times and internationally bestselling author of Those Who Save Us  and The Stormchasers.  She is also one of Oprah’s Top Thirty Women Writers.  Jenna lives in Boston, where she teaches and writes columns for Grub Street Writers, and Minnesota, where she writes in the town in which her mother and grandmother were born.  For more information, please visit Jenna at www.jennablum.com.

Michelle Bonanno is a publicist with Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, where she works with renowned authors such as Joyce Carol Oates, Temple Grandin, Ward Just, Thomas Perry, Susan Freinkel, and Sara Gran. She has a Master of Arts from Emerson College’s School of Publishing and Writing, and Bachelors of Arts in Theater, Dance, and Performance Studies, and Mass Communication from the University of California, Berkeley. Originally from the Bay Area, California, Michelle currently lives, works, and plays in Boston. When she’s not Skyping with her Big Fat Greek Family back home, you can find her running along the water, at a yoga class, hiking Blue Hills with her boyfriend, buying gummie bears at Sugar Heaven, or gabbing the night away with friends

Robert Booth is the author of the new nonfiction book Death of an Empire: The Rise and Murderous Fall of Salem, America’s Richest City (Thomas Dunne Books, St. Martin’s Press). Booth, a Harvard graduate and native of Marblehead, grew up on salt water, racing sailboats and working as a lobsterman. He is an authority on historic architecture and maritime culture, and helped to rescue America’s only Revolutionary War privateering base, which was moved from Marblehead to Derby Wharf in the Salem Maritime Historic Site. He works as executive director of the Center for Clinical Social Work, a national advocacy and education association for members of the largest mental-health-care profession in the country. His guidebook, Boston’s Freedom Trail, has stayed in print for nearly thirty years, and he writes about history for the Boston Globe online Salem edition. He is curator emeritus of the Pickering House of Salem, a co-founder of the on-line Salem History Society, and the author of an essay in Salem: Place, Myth & Memory (Northeastern U. Press, 2004). He lives in Marblehead with his wife and children.

Recently named one of Boston’s 50 most powerful women by Boston Magazine, Eve Brirdburg is the founder and Executive Director of Grub Street, one of the country’s largest and most vibrant writing centers. In creating Grub Street, her goal was to create a supportive yet rigorous place to study writing beyond the halls of academia. In 2005, Eve joined the Boston office of The Zachary Shuster Harmsworth Literary and Entertainment Agency. As a literary agent, she developed, edited, and sold a wide variety of books to major publishers including Random House, Harpercollins, Penguin, Grand Central, Abrams, and St. Martins. Her titles include Donovan Campbell’s New York Times Best Seller Joker One,Blogger Matt Logelin’s Two Kisses for Maddy (a New York Times bestseller), Kirsten Menger-Anderson’s critically acclaimed short story collection Doctor Olaf Van Schuler’s Brain, and Len Rosen’s thriller All Cry Chaos. Eve also developed a list of expert-driven parenting, health, and spiritual titles by working closely with experts and collaborative writers in an effort to bring cutting edge thinking and research to trade audiences. She returned to Grub Street last year where she has been hard at work overseeing Grub Street’s next phase of growth with an eye toward educating and equipping writers to take full advantage of the new opportunities ushered in by the digital age. Before starting Grub Street, Eve attended Boston University’s Writing program on a teaching fellowship, farmed in Oregon, ran an international bookstore in Prague and graduated Phi Beta Kappa with awards for academic excellence in Philosophy and Religion from Colgate University.

Dana Cameron’s Fangborn story Swing Shift is nominated for an Agatha, an Anthony, and a Macavity this year; her third Fangborn story, Love Knot, was published in August.  Disarming and Ardent (in Cape Cod Noir) follow her colonial noir story, Femme Sole, which was nominated for the Edgar, Anthony, Agatha, and Macavity awards. When not exploring the dark colonial past or the violent but hopeful lycanthropic present, Dana finds herself writing across a wide range of crime genres.  Dana will be the Toastmaster at Malice Domestic 2012.  She lives in Beverly, Massachusetts, but you can also find her on FaceBook, Twitter (@danacmrn), or at www.danacameron.com or www.femmesfatales.typepad.com.

Crissa-Jean Chappell’s debut YA novel, Total Constant Order (HarperTeen) is an Editor’s Choice Book (starred review, VOYA), a Florida Book Award Medalist, and a New York Public Library Book For The Teen Age. She teaches creative writing at Miami International University of Art and Design. Her second YA novel, NARC, (Flux Books) is scheduled for publication in summer 2012.

Marie Cloutier is a librarian, blogger (Boston Bibliophile) and writer originally from the North Shore; she now makes her home in the Boston area and is at work on her first novel. She reads and reviews literary fiction, narrative non-fiction and the occasional graphic novel.

Myfanwy Collins lives in Newbury, MA and has work published in mixer, The Kenyon Review, AGNI, Quick Fiction, flatmancrooked, Caketrain, PANK, Mississippi Review, Cream City Review, Potomac Review, Jabberwock Review, Saranac Review, SmokeLong Quarterly and other venues. Her work is also included in Rose Metal Press Field Guide to Writing Flash Fiction and the 2008 & 2010 DZANC Books Best of the Web Anthologies. She was the recipient of the 2010 Flatmancrooked fiction prize.

Kevin Cooney is the voracious reader and lead writer at the helm of the book blog Boston Book Bums. The blog covers reviews of both fiction and non-fiction works; as well as gathering news from around the book world, feature stories and interviewing new and established authors. The blog also maintains constant and vigorous interaction with readers on Twitter and by engaging in weekly conversation starters. Cooney is a veteran Boston-based marketer specializing in field and social media marketing. Additionally, Cooney has over seven years experience as a daily newspaper journalist in metro-Boston. His interests include history and archaeology, hiking and Boston sports; as well as writing a series of pulp novellas and short stories.

Dr. Theresa DeFrancis is an Assistant Professor of American Literature and English Education at Salem State University. Her book Women-Writing-Women: Three American Responses to the Woman Question examines the strong female characters created by Kate Chopin, Willa Cather, and Nella Larsen. Dr. DeFrancis’s research interests center around representations of race, gender, and sexuality within American Literature.

Erin Dionne is the author of three humorous novels from Penguin’s Dial Books for Young Readers. The most recent, Notes from an Accidental Band Geek (2011) features a stuffy orchestral superstar’s experience in the polyester and plumed world of competitive marching band.  When not writing, Erin is a mom, an Assistant Professor of Liberal Arts at Montserrat College of Art in Beverly, MA;  and a Red Sox fan.

Author Hallie Ephron writes the kinds of novels she hopes will keep you up nights. Reviewers call her latest, Come and Find Me “well-plotted and entertaining… a lightning-quick read, and the suspense will keep you turning the pages from the first to the very last.” Her award-winning novel Never Tell a Lie was made into the film And Baby Will Fall for the Lifetime Movie Network. She also writes a regular crime fiction book review column for the Boston Globe and teaches at writing conferences. An avid reader and book lover, she also wrote 1001 Books for Every Mood and The Bibliophile’s Devotional.

Katherine Flynn joined the Kneerim& Williams Literary Agency in 2008. After graduating from Johns Hopkins University, Katherine worked at theliterary agency of Nicholas Ellison/Sanford J. Greenburger Associates,Inc. in New York. She then pursued her Ph.D. in History at Brown University, where she is now A.B.D. Prior to joining Kneerim&Williams,Katherine edited history books at the publishing company of Bedford/St.Martin’s. She has also taught English literature and composition to highschool students and has worked in a rare book shop. She represents bothfiction and nonfiction, particularly history, adventure, nature, science, and narrative nonfiction, and crime, historical, and women’s fiction.

Julia Fox Garrison’s memoir, Don’t Leave Me This Way: or when I get back on my feet you’ll be sorry (HarperCollinsPublishers), chronicles her recovery from a massive brain hemorrhage and paralyzing stroke. The book’s irreverent tone and biting humor garnered national attention and awards, including: an appearance on Good Morning America, an article in People Magazine, selection by Barnes & Noble for their Discover Great New Writers program, selection by The Reader’s Digest for its Today’s Best Non-fiction edition. Julia lives north of Boston with her husband and son where she is working on her next book about growing up in a loving, if chaotic, household with eight brothers. In addition to her writing pursuits, Julia does motivational speaking, evangelizing for humaneness in medicine. She also speaks to support and patient advocacy groups, businesses, and communities, where she shares her story of personal triumph against overwhelming odds.

Ethan Gilsdorf is the author of the travel memoir / pop culture investigation Fantasy Freaks and Gaming Geeks: An Epic Quest for Reality Among Role Players, Online Gamers, and Other Dwellers of Imaginary Realms, named a Must-Read Book by the Massachusetts Book Awards. Based in Somerville, Massachusetts, he publishes travel, arts, and pop culture stories regularly in the New York Times, Boston Globe, and Christian Science Monitor, and has been published in dozens of other magazines, newspapers and guidebooks worldwide, including National Geographic Traveler, Psychology Today, the San Francisco Chronicle, the Australian Financial Review, USA Today, the Washington Post, and Fodor’s travel guides. He is a book and film critic for the Boston Globe and the film columnist for Art New England. His blog Geek Pride is seen regularly on PsychologyToday.com, and he also blogs for Boston.com’s Globetrotting, Tor.com, and TheOneRing.net. Gilsdorf has also been a guest as a fantasy and escapism expert on radio programs such as Air America’s Inside Story and NPR’s “Around And About”; has lectured at universities such as MIT; appeared at conventions such as Pax East, Gen Con and DragonCon; and read at book festivals nationwide. Follow Ethan’s adventures at ethangilsdorf.com.

Julia Glass is the author of Three Junes, winner of the 2002 National Book Award for Fiction; The Whole World Over; and I See You Everywhere, winner of the 2009 Binghamton University John Gardner Book Award. She has received fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the New York Foundation for the Arts, and the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study. Her short fiction has won several prizes, and her personal essays have been widely anthologized. She lives in Massachusetts with her family.

New York Times and USA Today best-selling author Heather Graham 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. After some trial and error, she sold her first book, When Next We Love, in 1982 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 holiday 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 was a founding member of the Florida Romance Writers chapter of RWA and, since 1999, has hosted the Romantic Times Vampire Ball, with all revenues going directly to children’s charity.

She is pleased to have been published in approximately twenty languages, and to have been honored with awards frorn Waldenbooks. 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 travel and anything have to do with the water, and is a certitified scuba diver. Married since high school graduation and the mother of five, her greatest love in life remains her family, but she also believes her career has been an incredible gift, and she is grateful every day to be doing something that she loves so very much for a living.

Lynne Griffin writes about family life. She is the author of the novels Sea Escape (Simon & Schuster, 2010) and Life Without Summer (St. Martin’s Press, 2009); and the nonfiction parenting title, Negotiation Generation (Penguin, 2007). Lynne teaches family studies at the graduate level, at Wheelock College, and writing at Grub Street Writers in Boston.  She appears regularly on Boston’s Fox Morning News talking about family life issues.  For more about Lynne’s work visit her website, LynneGriffin.com, or her blog, Family Life Stories.

Megan Kelley Hall is an author and literary publicist based North of Boston. She is currently represented by Elisabeth Weed of Weed Literary with her first YA novels Sisters of Misery and The Lost Sister published by Kensington in August 2008 and 2009. Both books were recently re-released into mass market and optioned for film by Hollywood director, Allison Anders. Megan founded Young Adult Authors Against Bullying and is an editor of the anthology Dear Bully: 70 Authors Tell Their Stories (HarperTeen, September 2011).

Rebekah Hall is the co-founder of mixer publishing. She grew up inTexas, Idaho, Illinois, Washington, California, and Japan, which means she could have been a redneck, but instead ended up bilingual and well-traveled. Currently she is an MFA student at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago where she is writing a collection of short, twisted tales and a mixed-genre novel about forbidden love in a small town where cultural memes lead to murder and freedom is found in an unexpected place. She prefers to write tragic tales and likes to read dark plots, whether serious or satirical.

Laura Harrington, award winning playwright, lyricist and librettist, winner of the 2008 Kleban Award for “most promising librettist in American Musical Theatre,” has written dozens of plays, musicals, operas and radio plays which have been produced in 28 states, Canada and Europe, in venues ranging from Off-Broadway to Houston Grand Opera to the Paris Cinemateque.

Harrington has twice won both the Massachusetts Cultural Council Award in playwriting and the Clauder Competition for best new play in New England.  Additional awards include a Boston IRNE Award for Best New Play, a Bunting Institute Fellowship at Harvard/ Radcliffe, a Whiting Foundation Grant-in-Aid,  the Joseph Kesselring Award for Drama,  a New England Emmy, and a Quebec Cinemateque Award.

Laura teaches playwriting at MIT where she was awarded the 2009 Levitan Prize for Excellence in Teaching.  She has also been a frequent guest artist at Tufts, Harvard, Wellesley, Skidmore, and the University of Iowa.

Alice Bliss, her first novel, has been chosen by Barnes & Noble for their “Discover Great New Writers” program for Fall 2011.

Michelle Hoover is the author of the novel The Quickening (Other Press, 2010). She teaches writing at Boston University and Grub Street. She has published fiction in Confrontation, The Massachusetts Review, Prairie Schooner, and Best New American Voices, among others. She has been a Bread Loaf Writer’s Conference scholar, the Philip Roth Writer-in-Residence at Bucknell University, a MacDowell fellow, a Pushcart Prize nominee, and in 2005, the winner of the PEN/New England Discovery Award for Fiction. The Quickening was shortlisted for the Center for Fiction’s Flaherty-Dunnan First Novel Prize and is a finalist for the 2010 Indies Choice Debut of the Year. Read more about Michelle at www.michellehoover.net.

Katherine Howe was born in Houston, Texas, and holds degrees in art history and philosophy from Columbia and in American and New England Studies from Boston University. She is the author of The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane, which debuted at #2 on the New York Times bestseller list, was named one of USA Today’s top ten books of 2009, and which has been translated into more than twenty languages. She will be teaching a seminar in historical fiction at Cornell University in the spring. Her next novel, a historical fiction thriller set in 1915 Boston, will be released in 2012.

Joshilyn Jackson is the New York Times bestselling author of four critically acclaimed novels: gods in Alabama, Between, Georgia, The Girl Who Stopped Swimming, and Backseat Saints. She teaches creative writing seminars and classes all over the country, most recently at Vermont College of Fine Arts and Emory University. Jackson’s next novel, A Grown-Up Kind of Pretty, is a multi-voiced new Southern Gothic tale about identity, sexuality and redemption set on the Mississippi Gulf Coast, forthcoming from Grand Central in Janury, 2012. She lives in quasi-rural Georgia with her husband, their two children, and way too many feckless animals. You can visit her on the web at http://joshilynjackson.com.

Jennifer Jean is the author of two poetry collections, In the War (Big Table Publishing) and Fishwife (Whale Sound).  Her third collection, The Archivist, is forthcoming in fall 2011.  Jennifer’s poetry, essays, literary interviews and reviews have been published in numerous journals including: North Dakota Quarterly, Denver Quarterly,Southern California Review, Relief Quarterly, Caketrain, Wilderness House Review, TheMOM Egg,and Tidal Basin Review.  Her poem “Fishwife with Child,” as set to music by composer Sarah Eide, won the 2011 Curtain Up! Prize, her long poem The Legend of Liban the Merrow was a finalist for the 2010 Firewheel Chapbook Award, and she’s received an Agnes Butler Award from the Academy of American Poets.  Jennifer is a feature writer for Art Throb, is librettist for the collaborative project Fishwife Tales: Music, and teaches writing and literature at Salem State University and Endicott College. For more information about Jennifer Jean, visit: www.fishwifetales.com.

Gloria Kelley has had an extensive career in business management. She served as president of both an advertising agency and a tradeshow and event design company. She is also an award-winning advertising copywriter. Her involvement in global tradeshows infuses Kelley & Hall with the organization and top management skills needed to oversee our clients’ nationwide publicity campaigns.

Jocelyn Kelley, a partner at Kelley & Hall Book Publicity has worked for one of the largest publishing houses in the country. Additionally she has been an independent book reviewer as well as a freelance marketing consultant. Jocelyn is an established freelance journalist for national publications including Glamour, Self, and Elle. Jocelyn has been a frequent contributor to Oprah’s Book Club and has made a number of appearances on The Oprah Winfrey Show. A magna cum laude graduate of Emerson College, Jocelyn hosted and produced an Associated Press, award-winning, public affairs radio program. Kelley & Hall has been the team behind many successful New York Times Bestselling authors such as Brunonia Barry (The Lace Reader), Lisa Genova (Still Alice), Lauren Belfer (A Fierce Radiance), Michael Palmer, Jacquelyn Mitchard and Laura Kasischke. Kelley & Hall has been profiled in Publishers Weekly, Self Magazine, Poets & Writers, The Boston Globe, Boston Herald and The Writer Magazine.

Toni L.P. Kelner is the Agatha Award-winning author of the forthcoming “Family Skeleton” mysteries, the “Where are they now?” mysteries, and the Laura Fleming mysteries. She has also coedited with Charlaine Harris four very successful fantasy/mystery anthologies, all of which have debuted on the New York Times best seller list. Their most recent is Home Improvement: Undead Edition.  Kelner was awarded a Romantic Times Career Achievement Award, and her short stories have been nominated for the Agatha, the Anthony, the Macavity, and the Derringer awards.  She lives in Massachusetts with her husband, fellow author Stephen P. Kelner, Jr. and their two daughters.

Shawn was born squarely in the palm of Michigan, and grew up between there and Central Ohio. After studying English and Geological Sciences in the beautiful foothills of Appalachia at Ohio University, he moved to Jackson, Wyoming for what he thought would be a one year break from graduate work, and has been there ever since.

Hilary Emerson Lay has a BFA in Children’s Writing & Publishing from Emerson College and has been involved with the book and publishing business since her first job behind the counter of her neighborhood bookstore at the tender age of 13½. She has managed The Spirit of ’76 Bookstore since 2002.  She changes her hair color on a pretty regular basis, but usually sticks with cupcake pink.

Holly LeCraw was born in Atlanta and grew up working in her father’s beloved institution of a bookstore, Oxford Books. When not at the bookstore she could be found reading on the sofa, in bed, in the car, in public, and/or late into the night. She attended Duke University, where she was active in theater both musical and non-, and graduated with honors in English. She spent the next several years writing, getting cold feet, trying to do things that were almost writing but not quite, and then finally committing to the writer’s life. Along the way she waitressed (badly), temped, answered phones, taught freshman composition, worked in academic publishing and got a Master’s in English from Tufts University. She wrote many almost-published short stories and a few published ones, plus a novel-in-a-drawer, before completing The Swimming Pool. The Swimming Pool was published by Doubleday in 2010 and recently was released in paperback. It was a Kirkus Top Debut of 2010 and was named a “Best Book of Summer” by The Daily Beast and Good Morning America. LeCraw’s short fiction has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize and was chosen by Tom Perrotta to appear in NO NEAR EXIT: WRITERS SELECT THEIR FAVORITE WORK FROM POST ROAD MAGAZINE, recently published by Dzanc. She is at work on her second novel, which will also be published by Doubleday. Now firmly bi-regional, LeCraw lives outside Boston with her husband, journalist Peter Howe, and their three children, and spends part of each summer on Cape Cod. Her accent will come out when it feels safe, which is usually only below the Mason-Dixon line.

Lauren E. MacLeod joined the Strothman Agency after graduating cum laude from Emerson College with a BFA in Writing, Literature and Publishing. Lauren’s primary interests are middle grade novels, young adult fiction and nonfiction, as well as highly polished literary fiction and narrative nonfiction. She also works closely with the agency and its clients to create effective digital platforms and capitalize on the many opportunities presented by social networking. Recent sales include: Books two and three in the Real Mermaids series by Hélène Boudreau (Sourcebooks/ Jabberwocky), The Newsoul Trilogy by Jodi Meadows (HarperCollins/ Katherine Tegen Books) and The Widening Gyre: A Journey Across a Melting Landscape by Christopher White (St. Martin’s).

For many years, Lois Markham has been a free-lance writer of nonfiction for young people. In addition to writing trade books and text materials, she has written extensively about history and other subjects for Kids Discover magazine, covering such topics as Colonial America, the American Revolution, and Revolutionary Women.

Lois has also taught school, volunteered as a tour guide at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City, and worked as an interpreter of historic homes at Strawbery Banke Museum in Portsmouth, NH.

Lois grew up in Marblehead, Massachusetts, and has lived for 24 years in Beverly, both of which claim to be the “birthplace of the American Navy.” Having heard the arguments from both sides for many years, she is pleased to be part of “John Glover’s War,” which, she hopes, presents a balanced view of the story.

Author Margaret McLean’s novel, Under Fire (Tor/Forge, June 2011) was hailed by reviewers as “a compelling legal thriller with vivid characters, a realistic feel to the proceedings, and a case that ignites our interest…she knows her stuff and, even better, knows how to translate it to fiction.”  Under Oath, another legal thriller, will be published in April 2012.  Her play, Under Oath, is in development with the Actor’s Studio in New York City.  Margaret practiced law as a prosecutor and litigation attorney, and teaches law at Boston College. She is President of MWA NE, co-chair of The New England Crime Bake writer’s conference, and hosts a weekly radio show near LA.  Margaret lives in Norwell, MA with her three children.

Ellen Meeropol is a literary late bloomer and former nurse practitioner. Her debut novel, House Arrest, received a starred review from Publishers Weekly as ”thoughtful and tightly composed, unflinching in taking on challenging subjects and deliberating uneasy ethical conundrums.”  Her short stories and essays explore the intersection of ethical dilemma, political turmoil and family life and have been published in Bridges, Rumpus, Portland Magazine, Off Our Backs, Women’s Times, Pedestal and others.

Randy Susan Meyers is the author of The Murderer’s Daughters, released by St. Martin’s Press in January 2010. Her family drama is informed by her work with batterers and victims of domestic violence, as well her experience with youth impacted by street violence. The Los Angeles Times deemed the books, “A knock-out debut.” The Murderer’s Daughters was recently chosen the Target “Club Pick” for February/March and chosen as a Massachusetts Council for the Book as a “Must Read.” The Murderer’s Daughters was just named a finalist for the Massachusetts Book Award. Meyers next novel will be released by Atria/Simon&Shuster in January 2013.

Colleen Michaels is the Director of the Writing Center at Montserrat College of Art where she hosts The Improbable Places Poetry Tour. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in The Patterson Literary Review, Blue Collar Review, The Mom Egg, Literary Mama, and her poem “Align” appears in an art installation at Crane Beach in Ipswich, Massachusetts. She lives is Beverly, Massachusetts with her family, and she is a member of the Salem Writers Group.

Meg Mitchell Moore worked for several years as a journalist. Her work has been published in Yankee,Continental, Women’s Health, Advertising Age and many other business and consumer magazines. She received a B.A. from Providence College and a master’s degree in English Literature from New York University. The Arrivals is her first novel. Her second novel will be published by Reagan Arthur Books in 2012. Meg lives in Newburyport, Massachusetts, with her husband, their three children and a beloved border collie.

Erin Morgenstern is a writer and a multimedia artist, who describes all her work as “fairy tales in one way or another.” She lives in Massachusetts.

Captivity, Deborah Noyes’ second historical novel for adults, is the fascinating story of the birth of the American Spiritualist Movement. In 1850, the Fox Sisters stunned family and neighbors in upstate New York by appearing to be able to communicate with the dead through a series of rapping sounds. Deborah Noyes first adult novel was Angel and Apostle, a sequel to The Scarlett Letter. She has also written and edited numerous acclaimed books for younger readers, including The Ghosts of Kerfol and Encyclopedia of the End. She lives in Massachusetts with her family.

James O’Brien’s fiction is forthcoming this summer the 2011 Writer’s Digest Short-Short Story Collection and this fall from mixer publishing. It has appeared in the Moonlight Mesa anthology Award Winning Tales, and in Haunts. His unpublished short story “Bing Red” won second prize in The Pinch’s 2011 Literary Awards. In 2010, he was a finalist for the Santa Fe Writers Project Literary Award, the Basil Bunting Poetry Award, and the Aesthetica Creative Works Competition. His poetry has appeared in Flatmancrooked’s Slim Volume of Contemporary Poetics, Dark Sky Magazine, Tidal Basin Review, and Bacopa Literary Review.

January Gill O’Neil is the author ofUnderlife(CavanKerry Press. Her poems and articles have appeared in Poets for Living Waters, North American Review, The MOM Egg, Crab Creek Review, Ouroboros Review, Drunken Boat, Crab Orchard Review, Callaloo, Literary Mama, Field, Seattle Review, and Cave Canem anthologies II and IV, among others. Underlifewas a finalist for ForeWord Reviews Book of the Year Award, and the 2010 Paterson Poetry Prize. In December 2009, January was awarded a Money for Women/Barbara Deming Memorial Fund grant. She was featured in Poets & Writers magazine’s January/February 2010 Inspiration issue as one of its 12 debut poets. One of her poems has been nominated for a 2011 Pushcart Prize. Most recently, she was added to the advisory board/planning committee for the 2011 Massachusetts Poetry Festival. A Cave Canem fellow, January is a senior writer/editor at Babson College, runs a popular blog called Poet Mom (http://poetmom.blogspot.com), and lives with her two children in Beverly, Massachusetts.

Rebecca Oliver is a book agent with William Morris Endeavor (WME) having joined the newly formed company when the William Morris Agency and the Endeavor Talent Agency merged in 2009.  Prior to the merger she was one of the founding agents of Endeavor’s book department and, before that, she worked for 11 years in the subsidiary rights departments at two major publishing houses (as Subsidiary Rights Manager at St. Martin’s Press and as Associate Director of Subsidiary Rights at Warner Books, now Grand Central Publishing).

Steve Owen is the co-founder and executive editor of mixer publishing, and former assistant editor of Flatmancrooked Publishing. He wasrecently awarded a full ride scholarship to attend the MFA program atNotre Dame and a fellowship to be an editor on the Notre Dame Review. He holds an MA and BA in English and a BA in Philosophy from California State University Sacramento. He is a multiple Bazzanella Literary Award winner in poetry, short fiction, and expository prose.He likes fiction and poetry that are chewy from bone and gristle, and cradles his epistemology very closely to his chest.

Dawn Paul writes fiction, poetry, and essays. Her short fiction has been published in The Sun, Junctures (New Zealand), 14 Hills, Talking River, The Redwood Coast Review, and several anthologies. She is the author of two novels: The Country of Loneliness, published in 2009 by Marick Press, and Still River, published in 2006. Dawn has an MFA from Goddard College and was a writing resident at Vermont Studio Center , the Ragdale Foundation (Chicago), and the Spring Creek Project (Oregon). She teaches at Montserrat College of Art in Beverly, Massachusetts.

Joanna Philbin was born in Los Angeles and grew up in New York City. She is the daughter of television host Regis Philbin and started her first novel at the age of seven, but only got as far as the second chapter. Joanna now lives in Los Angeles, California, and is currently working on her fourth Daughters novel, coming in November 2011.

Wendy Dubow Polins is a writer, architect and artist whose work is characterized by an artistic vision and rigor. She knows that a book, a painting, a building or one person can change your life.

Like her protagonist, Wendy holds a masters degree in architecture from Columbia University and attended Barnard College where she graduated Phi Beta Kappa and Magna Cum Laude in political philosophy and art history.

She has spent many hours in the painting and architecture studios, both as a teacher and student. She is a member of the Director’s Circle at Grub Street- Boston’s premier literary center to over 10,000 writers.

Born in Ann Arbor, Michigan to Canadian parents, she traveled extensively and grew up in Montreal spending much of her childhood in her room reading everything she could get her hands on. She lives on the North Shore of Massachusetts in a small oceanfront community with her husband, two daughters, and golden retriever. Wendy is currently teaching art history, designing things and working on her second book-the prequel to Fare Forward, continuing her research into art, science and the mysteries of her imagination.

Cornelia Read is the author of the mysteries A Field of Darkness, The Crazy School, and Invisible Boy. She has been nominated for an Edgar® and six other awards, but actually managed to win the Shamus for best short story and a creative writing fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts, yee ha! Read is currently at work on her fourth novel featuring foul-mouthed snarky bitch Madeline Dare: Valley of Ashes.

Boston native, Suffolk University Law School alum, and former partner of Saltzman & McNaught, LLP, J.R. Reardon has practiced in many areas including civil and criminal litigation. She has taught insurance law with her father, Attorney Stephen R. McNaught, and is published in the Suffolk University Law Review. Reardon is admitted to practice in the state and federal courts of Massachusetts, the District of Columbia Bar and the United States Supreme Court. She is also active in several legal associations in both Massachusetts and the District of Columbia.

After living in the Washington, D.C. area for 7 years, Reardon has returned with her family to the Boston area where she is working more regularly in her legal practice as well as continuing her new role as mystery author. Most recently, she is enjoying a more active role as a member of Sisters In Crime New England.

Reardon has authored two legal thrillers: Confidential Communications (Xlibris, 2008), and Dishonored (Outskirts Press, 2010), both of which received starred reviews.  Due to popular demand, Reardon is currently working on the 3rd installment of the “Rebecca Tameron Mystery Series”.  For more information, please visit her website at www.jrreardon.com.

Dawn Rennert is an avid reader who is especially fond of social history, personal memoir, literary fiction, and children’s picture books.  She enjoys connecting readers and books via her active book blog, She Is Too Fond of Books (founded in early 2008), and as the Community Relations Coordinator for her local independent bookstore, the Concord Bookshop, in Concord, MA.  Dawn is an advocate for independent bookstores, highlighting them both on her primary blog and on Spotlight on NYC Bookstores.  She is a member of the National Book Critics Circle.

Sarah Rettger is equally at home behind the counter of an independent bookstore and at her computer, covering the book industry. At Archimedes Forgetshttp://sarahrettger.blogspot.com, she blogs about children’s and young adult books, journalism, and Anne Shirley.

Agatha, Anthony and Macavity winning investigative reporter Hank Phillippi Ryan is on the air at Boston’s NBC affiliate. She’s won 27 EMMYs and dozens of other journalism honors.  Her debut, Prime Time, won the Agatha. Face Time is a BookSense Notable Book; Air Time an Agatha and Anthony nominee. Her latest, Drive Time  , is an Anthony, Agatha and Daphne nominee. Hank’s story “On the House” won the Agatha, Anthony and Macavity. She’s on the NE board of Sisters in Crime and national board of Mystery Writers of America.   www.HankPhillippiRyan.com

Eliezra Schaffzin split her childhood between Philadelphia and Jerusalem. She attended Brown University and later the University of Florida, where she studied  with author Padgett Powell, and has since taught writing at Harvard University and the Rhode Island School of Design. She is currently at work on a novel, a story of magic, seduction, and the first American department stores, for which she received a research grant from the New-York Historical Society. Her short pieces have appeared or are forthcoming with Fifty-Two Stories, Agni Online, Post Road, SmokeLong Weekly, Barrelhouse, Word Riot, Knee-Jerk, PANK, and other publications, and are indexed at eliezraschaffzin.com.

Melissa Schorr is the author of the young adult novel Goy Crazy, a romantic comedy about interfaith dating inspired by her essay, “The Joy of Goys,” originally published in GQ magazine. A graduate of the Bronx High School of Science and Northwestern University, Schorr was a Knight Science Journalism Fellow at M.I.T. and is an assistant editor for the Boston Globe Sunday Magazine. She currently lives outside Boston and is currently at work on her next YA novel.

Janet Spurr is an independently-published author whose book, The Beach Chair Diaries (Lightning Source, May 2008) has sold over 3,500 copies. She has taught workshops on self-publishing at venues across the country, including the National Writer’s Union, Publisher’s University and Grub Street. Visit her website at www.beachchairdiaries.com. In addition to being an author, Janet works as a full time sales rep selling to stores throughout New England.

Diane Stern is co-anchor of the WBZ Afternoon News heard each weekday from 3:00pm to 8:00pm. She has anchored the news at WBZ NewsRadio 1030 since 1983.  Prior to joining the station,  she worked as a morning anchor at WEEI Radio in Boston from 1978 to 1983, WITS and WMEX Radio in Boston from 1976 to 1978, and WMLO Radio in Danvers, Massachusetts from 1975 to 1976.

Stern has been honored with several Associated Press awards for her work in radio, was a finalist in the New York Radio Festival Awards and won for Best Newscaster in the March of Dimes Achievement in Radio Awards of 2000. One of the highlights of her career was covering the New England Blizzard of 1978 for WMEX Radio when the broadcasts were conducted by phone in candlelit studios. Stern also conducted a live interview with President Clinton in 1995. Her reporting focus is on medical and consumer news.

A Massachusetts native, Stern attended Marblehead High School and received her Bachelor’s degree from BostonUniversity. She also studied at SchillerCollege in Heidelberg,Germany.

Stern is as an ESL tutor at the Immigrant Learning Center in Malden, volunteers for My Brother’s Table in Lynn, and emcees events for charitable groups including The Arthritis Foundation and the Preeclampsia Foundation.

Laurie Faria Stolarz grew up in Salem, MA, attended Merrimack College, and received an MFA in Creative Writing from Emerson College in Boston. Visit her at www.lauriestolarz.com.

Sarah Strohmeyer is a bestselling and award-winning novelist  whose books have been adapted to television. Her writing has appeared in numerous publications, including The Plain Dealer and The Boston Globe. She lives with her family outside Montpelier, Vermont

Michelle Toth divides her time between New York City and Boston, where she serves on the board of directors of the non-profit Grub Street Writers. A graduate of the University of Massachusetts, Amherst and Harvard Business School, Michelle works as the director of talent development for an investment management firm. Annie Begins is her first novel.

Walnut-Da Lyrical Geni is a human rights activist, poet, hip-hop-artist, composer and producer currently residing in Lynn Massachusetts.  He has been performing for over 30 years.  He adopted the name Walnut because it symbolized his life due to the shell’s hard rough rugged surface which is the body protecting a very delicate inner being which is the soul.  The name Da Lyrical Geni it speaks for itself—he believes that writing should come from the soul whether fact or fiction.  Walnut’s first album once tha shell is broken, was released in 2006; his newest album, Love is in Your Face, was released in 2011. Walnut has teamed up with a local political street theater organization ‘Agit Arte,’ is host to the Building Community Series, and is a member of the Lynn Cultural Council.

Therese Walsh’s debut novel, The Last Will of Moira Leahy (Crown, Random House), was named one of January Magazine’s Best Books of 2009, was nominated for a RITA Award for Best First Book, and was a TARGET Breakout Book in 2010. She co-founded Writer Unboxed with Kathleen Bolton in 2006, a blog about the craft and business of genre fiction that was named as one of the top 100 sites for writers by Writer’s Digest in 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, and again in 2011. She is also the founder and president of RWA-WF, the women’s fiction chapter of RWA. Before turning to fiction, she was a researcher and writer for Prevention magazine, and then a freelance writer. She has a master’s degree in psychology. She’s currently deep in edits with what will become her 2nd novel.

Daniel Waters is the author of the Generation Dead series.  He lives in Connecticut with his family.

Nancy Werlin grew up in Peabody, graduated from Peabody Veterans Memorial High, and received a B.A. in English from Yale. She has published eight young adult novels. The most recent are Extraordinary (Dial/Penguin, 2010) and Impossible (Dial/Penguin, 2008, a New York Times Bestseller), and her novel The Rules of Survival was a finalist for the National Book Award in Young People’s Literature in 2006. She lives with her husband in Melrose. Visit her website at www.nancywerlin.com.

Raffi Yessayanis the former chief of the Gang Unit in the Suffolk CountyDA’s Office.  He has worked closely with law enforcement agencies in identifying and prosecuting violent, repeat offenders and has lectured nationally on the issues of gangs, guns and crime prevention strategies.  He is also the co-creator of the Understanding Violence film and curriculum, a prevention initiative designed to keep young people from getting involved with guns, drugs and gangs.

Yessayan, the author of the thrillers 8 in the Box (Ballantine Books, June 2008) and 2 in the Hat (Ballantine Books, spring 2010) is currently in private practice as a criminal defense attorney in Quincy,MA.

He uses his experience as a prosecutor and as a private attorney to create fictional worlds where the good guys don’t always win and the bad guys are never who you think they are.