Alabama Writers' Conclave Conference July 15-17, 2011
Huntsville Marriott
5 Tranquility Base, Huntsville, AL
MEET THE FACULTY
Chris Roerden (Fiction/Voice) is best known
for her award-winning books for writers: DON'T
SABOTAGE YOUR SUBMISSION, Insider Information from a Career Editor, and its original
version, DON'T MURDER YOUR MYSTERY, 24
Fiction-Writing Techniques to Save Your
Manuscript from Turning Up D.O.A. Chris has
edited fiction and nonfiction manuscripts
published by St. Martin's Press, Harlequin,
Berkley Prime Crime, Walker & Co., Midnight Ink,
Intrigue, Perseverance Press, Oceanview, Rodale,
Viking, and numerous small presses. She's written
11 books and a game, ghostwriting all but four.
Her books have won the prestigious Agatha
Award for Best Nonfiction (2006), Benjamin
Franklin Award for Literary Criticism (2009),
Florida Writer's Best Educational Book, and 2009
Royal Palm Book of the Year. Both books were
short-listed for the national Anthony, Macavity,
USA Best Books, and ForeWord Magazine's
Writing Book of the Year.
A summa cum laude graduate of the University of
Maine, Chris taught writing there and at the
University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. She's past
president of a Midwest trade association of 250
commercial and university presses and now chairs
the Mystery Writers of America/McCloy
Scholarship Program. Visit Chris at writersinfo.info.
Sue Walker (Poetry), Poet Laureate of
Alabama, and Stokes Distinguished Professor of
Creative Writing is a descendent of olive warblers,
sings tiddle-tiddle-tiddle-ter. Listed in the phone
book of loblolly pines, she whispers soft phew
calls to keep in contact. She believes in earth-
music, the symphony of friends, feathered and
furred, and those of human kind who give voice
to verse. Her latest warbling is She Said from
Rivers Edge Publishing and on line at http://
www.deadmule.com/fiction/2010/07/sue-walker-
good-grief/ and http://connotationpress.com/
poetry/513-sue-brannan-walker-poetry. She reads
the book of Nature on a daily basis, espouses the
expressive existence of Being: birdcall and breath,
the voice of the river, and wind free in environing
air.
Jennie Ivey (Nonfiction) writes a personal column
for the Herald-Citizen newspaper in Cookeville,
Tennessee. Since beginning that gig in the late
1980s, she has written more than four hundred
columns. She also writes inspirational nonfiction
for publications including Chicken Soup for the
Soul, Guideposts, and Cup of Comfort. She is the
co-author of three books: Tennessee Tales the
Textbooks Don’t Tell (Overmountain Press 2002), E
is for Elvis (Rutledge Hill Press 2006) and Soldiers,
Spies and Spartans: Civil War Stories from Tennessee
(Overmountain Press 2011). She lives in Cookeville,
Tennessee.
Jim Minick (Memoir) is the author of The Blueberry Years, a memoir about one of the mid-Atlantic’s first pick-your-own, certified-organic blueberry farms. He is also the author of two books of poetry, Her Secret Song and Burning Heaven, a collection of essays, Finding a Clear Path, and he edited All There Is to Keep by Rita Riddle. Minick has won grants and awards from the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities, Virginia Commission for the Arts, Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, Appalachian Writers Association, Appalachian Heritage, Now and Then Magazine, and Radford University, where he teaches writing and literature. His work has appeared in many publications including Shenandoah, Orion, San Francisco Chronicle, Encyclopedia of Appalachia, Conversations with Wendell Berry, The Sun, Appalachian Journal, Wind, and The Roanoke Times. He lives in the mountains of Virginia with his wife and four dogs. Visit his website here
Rabbi Rami Shapiro, Ph. D. (Writer-in-
Residence) an award winning author, poet,
essayist, and educator, is adjunct Professor of
Religion and Director of The Writers’ Loft at Middle
Tennessee State University, and the Director
of Wisdom House, a center for interfaith study,
dialogue, and contemplative practice at the Scarritt-
Bennett Center in Nashville. Author of over twenty
books on religion and spirituality, Rami also writes a
regular column for Spirituality and Health magazine
called Roadside Assistance for the Spiritual Traveler,
and blogs at http://rabbirami.blogspot.com. His
most recent books are Recovery, the sacred art
(Skylight Paths), and Ecclesiastes: Annotated and
Explained. He can be reached via his website,
www.rabbirami.com.
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