Presenting Speakers for the 2013 Conference:
Featured Speaker: For more than 20 years, R.J. King has generated award-winning coverage as editor and co-founder of DBusiness magazine and as a business writer at The Detroit News. Mr. King has written more than 5,000 articles and interviewed hundreds of business owners, CEOs, entrepreneurs, scholars, artists, and politicians. He also attends 200-plus corporate and charitable events annually. In his new book, Passport to the Corner Office, Mr. King shows you how to achieve success in the corporate, civic, and political worlds. The book also offers a Corporate Resource Guide that covers business etiquette skills, successful networking tips, a formal dining guide, and a comprehensive listing of what to tip a maître d’, a manicurist, an executive driver, and dozens of other service providers.
Lev Raphael has published twenty-four books in many genres: memoirs, mysteries, essays, literary novels, historical fiction, supernatural fiction, short story collections, psychology, biography, and self-help. His fiction and creative non-fiction have been taught at colleges and universities coast-to-coast and he’s had stories and essays appear in several dozen anthologies. Lev blogs for the Huffington Post and you can read his blogs on writing and publishing (and more about his books) at www.LevRaphael.com. He currently teaches creative writing at Michigan State University and his latest book Writer’s Block is Bunk is available at Amazon and Barnes & Noble.
Joni Hubred-Golden has spent nearly 30 years telling other people’s stories, as a community journalist, publicist and blogger. Her current assignment is with Patch.com, where she covers neighborhoods, local government, businesses, schools and more in Farmington, Farmington Hills and West Bloomfield. In addition, she runs Michigan Women’s Media, Inc., a nonprofit organization that provides scholarships to journalism students interested in writing about women’s issues. Visit her website at www.jonihubredgolden.com
Kelly Fordon’s work has appeared or is forthcoming in The Kenyon Review (KRO), Rattle, The Florida Review, The Windsor Review, The Montreal Review and various other journals. Her poetry chapbook, On the Street Where We Live, won the 2011 Standing Rock Chapbook Contest. Her new poetry chapbook, Tell Me When It Starts to Hurt, was published by Kattywompus Press in April 2013. She works for the Inside Out Literary Arts Project in Detroit. She received her MFA in fiction writing from Queens University. www.kellyfordon.com
Dawne Prochilo is a published erotic romance and romance author, with 22 books in publication since 2009, she is a freelance writer and online journalist, owner of several promotional blogs, and most recently opened her own e-publishing house. She is also the Promotions Director, Review Coordinator and Acquisitions Editor for Secret Cravings Publishing, and she was named the 2012 Seriously Reviewed Review Coordinator of the Year. She has 14 years experience as a freelance writer and staff writer for various newspapers, including a fall 2011, publication in USA TODAY. Dawne’s prolific writing style has allowed her to expand in the publishing industry quickly.
Alice Speilburg founded Speilburg Literary Agency in 2012, bringing with her the editorial and business expertise she had developed in previous publishing positions, at John Wiley & Sons and at Howard Morhaim Literary Agency. She is currently building her client list and represents a wide range of fiction and non-fiction. Recently relocated from New York City to Michigan, Alice is readjusting to the Midwest – her neighborly smile had been a bit out of practice since she left her home state of Kentucky five years ago – but she’s glad to be here. For more info about her agency and for submission guidelines, please visit the agency website: www.SpeilburgLiterary.com
Stan Williams is an international award-winning video producer, filmmaker and show creator. Since 1972, he has managed hundreds of industrial and dramatic productions, including numerous documentaries, live shows, theater, live and broadcast television as producer, director, writer, editor, and executive producer. Stan holds a Ph.D. in Narrative Theory, and is frequently hired by novelists and Hollywood screenwriters and producers for help on story structure due to his book, The Moral Premise: Harnessing Virtue and Vice for Box Office Success. Most notably since 2008 he has worked with Will Smith as a story and script doctor on various motion picture projects. Read more about Stan by visiting his story craft blog and his work can be found at www.moralpremise.com.
Amy Huntley is the author of the Morris Award short-listed young adult novel, The Everafter. A high school English teacher of 23 years, she loves working with high school students and is a huge fan of young adult literature. Her job as both a high school teacher and writer gives her the opportunity to read YA extensively which helps inspire her writing with new ideas. She’s hugely indebted to her critique group, loves both rough drafting and revising, and hopes to inspire others with a love of the writing process! She lives in East Lansing, Michigan.
Carol A. Grund has been a published author for more than ten years, with stories, poems and plays appearing in many children’s magazines and book anthologies. In 2010, Pauline Books & Media published her first novel for middle grade readers. Anna Mei, Cartoon Girl is the story of an eleven-year-old girl who worries that she’s just too different to ever fit in. Two sequels followed in 2011, and the third title—Blessing in Disguise—won a Catholic Arts and Letters Award. Carol’s other credits include essays in two Chicken Soup for the Soul collections for adults.
Ruth McNally Barshaw, life-long writer and artist, has worked in the advertising field, illustrated for newspapers, and won numerous essay-writing contests. She lives in Lansing, Michigan, with her family. See her Ellie McDoodle books and cartoon sketch-journals at www.ruthexpress.com
Erin Janda Rawlings is an adjunct professor at Walsh College where she teaches Social Media Strategy for Business. She is also a freelance Social Marketing manager. Erin is a mother to her young son and daughter, who supply her with plenty of thought-provoking issues that she processes at her personal blog, Mommy on the Spot. She is a regular contributor at the Detroit NewsMichMoms parenting blog. Erin is also is a contributor at The MotherCompany, a website devoted to helping parents to raise good people.
Joe Ponepinto is the former Book Review Editor for the Los Angeles Review. He is the winner of the 2011 Springfed Arts Writers Contest (Michigan) in fiction. His work has been published in a variety of journals, most recently Apalachee Review, Midwest Literary Magazine, Vestal Review, Stymie, The Chaffin Journal and 100 Stories for Queensland. He lives in Michigan with his wife, Dona, and Henry, the coffee drinking dog. Visit JoePonepinto.com for more information.
Dora Badger is a writer and web designer living in Detroit. She worked as an assistant editor and horror book reviewer for Sonar4 Ezine, was one of the editors of Third Reader, edited books and stories for White Cat Publications, and was the senior editor for DetroitStandUp.net. Dora is the author of the dark fiction blog Menace and Whimsy, where she links you to really great dark fiction finds from around the internet.
Andrea Walker was born and raised in SE Michigan and considers herself a true Suburban Detroiter. Walker launched her own publicity & marketing company at 25, and now continues to consult through Andrea Walker Publicity Consulting. Walker created ala cart marketing and public relation services to small organizations that may not have the resources for full-time marketing staff, but still want to get the word out on their events, products and services through marketing, press releases and media relations.
View the Conference Schedule for the time each presenter goes on …
Rochester Writers 