Alabama Writers' Conclave Conference July 16-18, 2010 Hilton Birmingham Perimeter Park 8 Perimeter Park South, Birmingham AL 35243 MEET THE FACULTY Jo S. Kittinger (Childrens' Literature) is the author of 15 books for children. Most recently released are Jane Goodall and George Washington Carver, Scholastic News Nonfiction Readers with Children's Press. Jo is anxiously awaiting the release of two picture books: Rosa's Bus, with Boyds Mills Press, illustrated by Steven Walker, and The House on Dirty-Third Street, with Peachtree Publishers, illustrated by Thomas Gonzales. In addition, Jo has published numerous items in various books, magazines, educational materials and newspapers. Jo currently serves as a Regional Advisor for the Southern Breeze region (AL, MS, GA) of the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators, where she organizes two conferences for writers and illustrators of children's literature each year. Visit her at jokittinger.com. Thomas Lakeman (Fiction/Screenwriting) is the author of three mystery novels published by St. Martin's Minotaur: The Shadow Catchers (2006), Chillwater Cove (2007) and Broken Wing (2009), a continuing about a pair of FBI special agents, Mike Yeager and Peggy Weaver. Lakeman also wrote the screenplay Triptych, an independent feature produced by Tea Tree Films, as well as numerous stage plays for production by the Playhouse in the Park in Mobile, Alabama. Lakeman earned his B.A. in English and Theatre from The University of the South, Sewanee, TN and his M.F.A. from Carnegie Mellon University. In 1986 he was awarded a Thomas J. Watson Fellowship for independent study abroad. During the 1990s he worked in the marketing department of Universal Pictures and was a founding partner of Digital Planet, a southern California Web design company later acquired by iXL, Inc. He was also writer and co-creator of the animated Web series Madeleine's Mind. He currently resides in Fairhop, Alabama, but is currently serving as the Tennessee Williams Playwright-in-Residence at the University of the South. Susan Luther (Poetry), a native of Nebraska, has lived in her mother's home region of the South nearly all her adult life, earning degrees from L.S.U., the University of Alabama in Huntsville, and Vanderbilt University. Her publications include academic criticism; two chapbooks of poetry, Poems on the Line, composed during a residency at the Vermont Studio Center, and Greatest Hits: 1975-2000 (Pudding House); a full-length volume of poetry, Breathing in the Dark; individual poems in a wide range of journals and anthologies, including Whatever Remembers Us: An Anthology of Alabama Poetry; and miscellaneous prose. Her work has won several Hackney Awards, awards from the Alabama State Poetry Society and others, and has been a finalist in various competitions such as the Richard Snyder Award (Ashland Poetry Press) and the New Letters Literary Awards. A past Assistant/Associate Editor of POEM magazine and member of the founding board of directors of the Alabama Writers' Forum, she has been a resident of Huntsville, Alabama for many years, and has lectured and taught at UA Huntsville as well as in a variety of other academic, community and private settings. Kathy Rhodes (creative nonfiction) is Senior Writer/Editor at TurnStyle Writing, Editing & Publishing. She is Publisher/Editor of Muscadine Lines: A Southern Journal. Kathy is author of Pink Butterbeans: Stories from the heart of a Southern woman and co-editor of Gathering: Writers of Williamson County. Her essay, “An Open Letter,” was published in The Best Creative Nonfiction Vol. 3 and was singled out for a review in The New Yorker. Kathy is on the Board of Directors of the Tennessee Writers Alliance, a member of the Nashville Writers Alliance, and Past-President of the Williamson County Council for the Written Word. She is co-director of the 2010 Oxford Creative Nonfiction Conference (Oxford MS), featuring Lee Gutkind. She holds a BA in English from Delta State University, did graduate work at the University of Memphis, and is a former English teacher. Kathy was born and raised in the Mississippi Delta and now lives in Franklin, Tennessee, where she enjoys hiking and kayaking. She can be reached online here. Sonny Brewer (Writer-in-Residence) is the author of the novels, The Poet of Tolstoy Park, A Sound Like Thunder, Cormac - The Tale of a Dog Gone Missing, and The Widow and the Tree. Sonny edits the anthology Stories from the Blue Moon Cafe. He founded Over the Transom Bookstore in Fairhope and its annual literary conference, Southern Writers Reading, and is also founder of the non-profit Fairhope Center for Writing Arts.