Spring 2016 Speakers

Speakers include:

Linda Angér is the owner of The Write Concept, Inc., a marketing communications company. Her clients have included DaimlerChrysler Corporation, Valeo Corporation, The Crittenton Hospital Medical Center Foundation, HAVEN, The Royal Park Hotel, Whole Bubble Thinking (Brisbane, Australia), Hanek Book Design (NYC), and hundreds of small businesses. Her business writing has been featured in Black Engineer Magazine, Profiles in Diversity Journal, MultiCultural Law Journal, and online business magazines. Her poetry and fiction have appeared in national publications such as Mused-the Bella Online Journal, Still Crazy Magazine, and the Almost Touching Anthology. She is an active member of two Toastmasters Clubs, and a popular speaker on topics ranging from Speaking Skills for Writers to Finding the Joy in Adversity.

Stanley 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.

Lin Klaassen is considered one of the world’s top experts in the field of Face Reading, an ancient science practiced by visionaries such as Aristotle and Da Vinci that correlates facial features to character traits, and has been scientifically validated to 92% accuracy. She has been lecturing internationally for over 23 years; she presents workshops on both Face Reading and Body Language and serves as a business, relationship, jury and poker consultant. The physical structure of the human face is a living history of a person and it can be read like a book. For more information on Lin at www.facereadingbylin.com

Lynne Golodner is the author of eight books, a renowned blogger at www.lynnegolodner.com who has traveled the world to blog for people, and a spiritual entrepreneur dedicated to helping people make a difference and pursue their passions – through work, community involvement, and words. Lynne’s public relations firm, Your People LLC, www.yourppl.com, helps people grow businesses and nonprofits, improve personal satisfaction, develop skills and find ways to live their passion. She believes storytelling, relationships, and higher purpose are the keys to success.

Lisa Lenzo’s first story collection, Within the Lighted City, was chosen by Ann Beattie for the 1997 John Simmons Short Fiction. Lenzo’s other awards include a Hemingway Days Festival Award, a PEN Syndicated Fiction Project Award, and first prize for 2013 from the Georgetown Review. Lenzo’s most recent publication, Strange Love (Wayne State University Press, 2014), is a 2015 Michigan Notable Book Award winner, as well as a finalist for the 2015 Foreword INDIEFAB Book of the Year Award and 2015 Next Generation Indie Book Award. www.lisalenzo.com

Lolita Hernandez, born and raised in Detroit, is the author of Autopsy of an Engine and Other Stories from the Cadillac Plant, winner of a 2005 PEN Beyond Margins Award. She is a 2012 Kresge Literary Arts fellow and after over thirty-three years as a UAW worker at General Motors, she now teaches in the creative writing department in the University of Michigan Residential College. Making Callaloo in Detroit (Wayne State University Press, 2014) won a 2015 Michigan Notable Book Award and was a 2015 Next Generation Indie Book Award finalist. www.lolitahernandez.com

L.E. Kimball has her MFA in creative writing from Northern Michigan University. She is an associate editor for Passages North literary journal. She is also the author of A Good High Place and has been published in journals such as Alaska Quarterly Review and Gray’s Sporting Journal. Most of the year she lives off the grid on a trout stream with her son, Josh, and her English shepherd, Maggie. Her newest collection, Seasonal Roads (Wayne State University Press, 2016) comes out this spring. www.lekimball.com

We encourage all attendees to bring a fully charged laptop or tablet. Although not necessary, a computer will enhance the experience with a hands-on feel. Use the hashtag: #RochesterWriters before, during and after the event in your posts, likes, and tweets.

Fresh hot coffee and tea available throughout the day. Light breakfast snacks and a full lunch included with registration. Please contact us if you have special dietary concerns.

Attendees will be able to choose one presentation per session time at the conference. Schedule could change without notice – Rochester Writers reserves the right to add, subtract, or substitute any of the presentations and speakers. Thank you.