Cecile Andrews

The author of Slow Is Beautiful: New Visions of Community, Leisure and Joie de Vivre, and The Circle of Simplicity, Return to the Good Life , Cecile is a former community college administrator. She has been a visiting scholar at Stanford University and affiliated scholar at Seattle University. She is founder of the Phinney Ecovillage in Seattle. Her work has been featured in the PBS video Escape from Affluenza and the TBS video Consumed by Consumption (featuring Cecile, Ed Begley Jr., and Phyllis Diller), CBS News Eye on America, New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Esquire, and various PBS and NPR programs. Cecile received her doctorate in education at Stanford University and gives workshops and presentations; she has written a column for the Seattle Times; and she has co-hosted a local NPR program. www.cecileandrews.com

Wendy Call

A freelance writer, editor and teacher of creative writing, Wendy is currently Writer in Residence at Seattle's Richard Hugo House. the country's third-largest literary center. Beginning in September 2008, she will be Visiting Assistant Professor of English at Pacific Lutheran University. She is also Writer in Residence with Seattle's Writers in the Schools Program and a 2008 Fellow in Seattle's Jack Straw Writers Program. She co-edited, with Mark Kramer,Telling True Stories: A Nonfiction Writers’ Guide from the Nieman Foundation at Harvard University . Wendy’s narrative nonfiction book-in-progress, No Word for Welcome, explores how economic globalization intersects with village life in a region of southern Mexico. Grants from the arts commissions of Seattle, King County, and Washington State, as well as the Oberlin College Alumni Association, have supported the research and writing of the book. Wendy’s writing has appeared in English, Spanish, and French in more than thirty magazines and literary journals, as well as several, anthologies. Often her photographs accompany her writing. She holds a BA in biology from Oberlin College and an MFA in writing and literature from the Bennington College Writing Seminars. www.wendycall.com/bio

Jamie Cat Callan

Jamie is the author of three young adult novels, including the best-selling, Scholastic Book Club novel, Over the Hill at Fourteen. Library Journal recommends her relationship book, Hooking Up or Holding Out, as "empowering and enlightening, not your mother's dating book."  Her recently released The Writers Toolbox is a kit of writing exercises and games based on 25+ years of teaching creative writing. Jamie's work has appeared in The New York Times Modern Love  column, The Missouri Review, American Letters & Commentary, Best American Erotica, Story Magazine, The Baffler, and other publications. Her forthcoming book French Women Don't Sleep Alone is scheduled for release in 2009. Jamie's literary awards include the PEN Syndicated Fiction Award, The Samuel Goldwyn Award in Screenwriting, The New York State Council on the Arts Grant, First Prize in the Writers Digest Fiction Competition, a Connecticut Commission on the Arts Grant, and fellowships from the Vermont Studio Center, Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, Ragdale Foundation, Djerassi Foundation, Edna St. Vincent Millay Foundation and Helene Wurlitzer Foundation. Jamie has taught writing at Yale University, Wesleyan University's Graduate Liberal Studies Program., NYU,  UCLA, Fairfield University,  Grub Street in Boston, Media Bistro and the University of Maine's Stonecoast MFA program.  www.mac.com/jamiecatcallan

Warren Read

Warren Read is a writer who teaches elementary school on Bainbridge Island, Washington. He earned a Master of Education from Western Washington University in Bellingham, Washington. His book, The Lyncher in Me, was released in March of 2008 by Borealis Books. It was selected as the headlining title for their spring collection. Currently, he is knee-deep in a meticulously researched historical fiction project set during WWII America. Shortly after Warren attended the Whidbey Island Writers Conference in 2006, he signed a publishing contract for The Lyncher in Me. He lives on five garden-filled beautiful acres with his partner of 12 years and three active, strong-willed and adorable sons, ages 8, 11 and 14.  www.thelyncherinme.com

Chuck Sambuchino

The editor of Guide to Literary Agents and the assistant editor of Writer's Market  (both Writer's Digest Books), Chuck Sambuchino, is a former staffer of newspapers and magazines -- most notably Writer's Digest. In addition, he was recently named the founding editor of Screenwriter's and Playwright's Market, a directory and instructional resource for those who write scripts and plays. He is a playwright, with both original and commissioned works produced. Also, Chuck is a freelance editor, public speaker, and award-winning journalist -- with accolades from both the Kentucky Press Association and the Cincinnati Society of Professional Journalists. He is a magazine freelancer, with recent articles appearing in Watercolor Artist, Pennsylvania Magazine, Cincinnati Magazine and New Mexico Magazine. Although Chuck does not acquire book-length manuscripts, he is open to article pitches for the WD books properties: Writer's Market, Novel & Short Story Writer's Market, Children's Writer's & Illustrator's Market, Songwriter's Market, Artist's & Graphic Designer's Market, Photographer's Market, Guide to Literary Agents, Poet's Market, as well as Screenwriter's & Playwright's Market. www.guidetoliteraryagents.com/blog

Marsha Scarbrough

Marsha Scarbrough, author of Medicine Dance: One woman's healing journey into the world of Native American sweatlodges, drumming meditations and dance fasts, (a finalist in USA Book News National 2007 Best Books Awards, New Age Nonfiction category) is a freelance journalist who has had over 75 articles published in national magazines. Marsha wrote, produced and directed the award-winning children's video, The Magic of Martial Arts. As a graduate of the Directors Guild of America's prestigious Assistant Directors Training Program, Marsha spent 17 years scheduling, planning and running the sets of major feature films, prime time television series, movies of the week and network sitcoms. Marsha has traveled with Buddhist teacher Joan Halifax, danced with movement guru Gabrielle Roth, earned a brown belt in karate from martial arts legend Tak Kubota, participated in healing ceremonies with Native American mystic Beautiful Painted Arrow/Joseph Rael and produced workshops for Nigerian master drummer/Yoruba ceremonial leader Ayo Adeyemi. In 2006, Marsha moved from her native Los Angeles to Santa Fe, New Mexico. www.medicinedancebook.com

Floyd Skloot

A nonfiction writer, poet, and novelist Floyd's work has appeared in The New York Times Magazine, Atlantic Monthly, Harper’s, Poetry, American Scholar, Georgia Review, Sewanee Review, Southern Review, Boulevard, Creative Nonfiction, and Shenandoah.  His15 books include the memoirs In the Shadow of Memory, A World of Light , and The Wink of the Zenith: The Shaping of a Writer's Life ( forthcoming fall 2008); the poetry collections The Evening Light, Approximately Paradise, The End of Dreams, Selected Poems: 1970-2005 , and The Snow's Music (forthcoming fall 2008); and the novels Summer Blue and Patient 002 .  He contributes book reviews to the Boston Globe, Chicago Tribune, New York Times Book Review, Philadelphia Inquirer, San Francisco Chronicle and is a member of the National Book Critics Circle. Floyd’s awards include the PEN USA Literary Award in Creative Nonfiction; the Independent Publishers Book Award in Creative Nonfiction; Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association Book Award; Oregon Book Awards in both Creative Nonfiction and Poetry; three Pushcart Prizes; two appearances in The Best American Essays and The Best American Science Writing, and once each in The Best Spiritual Writing, The Best Food Writing, and The Art of the Essay; and residencies at the Rockefeller Foundation’s study center in Bellagio, Italy, and the Heinrich Böll Cottage on Achill Island, Ireland.  In 2006 he received an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree from Franklin and Marshall College, his alma mater. Floyd has taught at the Mid-Atlantic Creative Nonfiction Summer Writers Conference at Goucher College and the Paris Writers Workshop. He lives in Portland, Oregon, with his wife, Beverly Hallberg, a landscape painter. www.floydskloot.com