Faculty & Participants
Jeff Bens is the author of the novel, Albert, Himself and numerous short stories and essays. His short documentary film, Fatman's, screened on North Carolina PBS and in festivals around the world. Jeff directs the undergraduate writing program at Manhattanville College.
Jane Cleland is the author of the multiple-award nominated and Independent Mystery Booksellers Association best-selling Josie Prescott Antiques Mystery series (St. Martin’s Minotaur), an Antiques Roadshow for mystery fans. Killer Keepsakes, the fourth in the series, will be published in April 2009. She is the former president of Mystery Writers of America/New York Chapter and the chair of the Wolfe Pack’s literary awards.
Esther Cohen has published five books, and edited several hundred, from national book award winning authors to books of cartoons. She co-founded a book publishing company, two literary magazines, and is currently writing a novel about upstate New York.
Martha Cooley is the author of two novels, The Archivist (a national bestseller) and Thirty-Three Swoons, both published by Little, Brown. She is an assistant professor of English at Adelphi University and teaches in the Bennington Writing Seminars. Her short fiction and essays have appeared in AGNI, A Public Space, and numerous other journals.
Joanna Clapps Herman has recently co-edited Wild Dreams: The Best of Italian Americana, and Our Roots Are Deep with Passion. She is the winner for 2008 of the Chase Award for Literary Excellence, Keynote Speaker and Honoree of The Annual Litchfield Review Writers Conference, Fall 2008. Her essay “My Homer,” will be included in Dr. Luisa Del Giudice’s collection, Speaking Memory, to be published October 2009 (Palgrave Publishers). Her most recent poetry is forthcoming in Feile-Festa and Inkwell.
Patricia Lee Gauch, author of over 35 books for young people, is vice president and editor-at-large of Philomel Books. Publisher of both picture books and novels, she is editor for Andrew Clements, Janet Lisle, T.A. Barron, as well as Caldecott winners David Small, Jane Yolen, John Schoenherr and Ed Young.
John Herman is an associate director of Manhattanville’s graduate writing program. He is the author of two novels for adults published by Doubleday/Nan Talese: The Light of Common Day; and The Weight of Love, which was chosen by Publishers Weekly as one of the best novels of that year. He also wrote two young adult novels, Deep Waters and Labyrinth, and a children’s book, A Winter’s Night, all published by Putnam/Philomel.
James Howe is the author of more than 70 books for young readers, including the popular and award-winning series about Bunnicula and his friends. Among his other books are the Pinky and Rex series, The Misfits, Totally Joe, and the Sebastian Barth mysteries.
Kelly Leonard is Executive Director, Online Marketing, for Hachette Book Group.
Phillis Levin is the author of four books of poetry: Temples and Fields (University of Georgia Press); The Afterimage (Copper Beech Press); Mercury (Penguin); and May Day (Penguin). Her poems have appeared in The New Yorker, Paris Review, The Best American Poetry and elsewhere. She is a professor of English and poet-in-residence at Hofstra University, and also teaches in the graduate creative writing program at New York University.
Rick Moody is the author of the novels Garden State, which won the Pushcart Press Editors’ Book Award, The Ice Storm, Purple America, and The Diviners; two collections of stories, The Ring of Brightest Angels Around Heaven and Demonology; and a memoir, The Black Veil, winner of the PEN/ Martha Albrand Award. He has also received the Addison Metcalf Award, the Paris Review’s Aga Khan Prize, and a Guggenheim Fellowship. Right Livlihoods (Hachette Book Group, 2008) is his eighth book.
Gregory Orr is the author of The Blessing, which was chosen by Publisher’s Weekly as one of the fifty best non-fiction books of 2002. His nonfiction and personal essays have appeared in many anthologies including, most recently, The Best American Creative Nonfiction (to be published in 2009). An acclaimed poet, his tenth collection, How Beautiful the Beloved, was published in February 2009 (Copper Canyon). He teaches at the University of Virginia, where he founded the MFA Program in Writing in 1975.
Martha Otis is Senior Vice President, Advertising & Promotion for Hachette Book Group.
Kevin Pilkington is the author of six award-winning poetry collections, including Spare Change, the winner of the La Jolla Poets Press National Book Award, St. Andrew’s Head, winner of the Ledge Poetry Prize, and Ready to Eat the Sky, part of River City Publishing’s new poetry series and a finalist for an Independent Publishers Books Award.
Karen Sirabian is Director of Manhattanville College’s Master of Arts in Writing Program and one of the founders of Inkwell, the nationally recognized literary journal affiliated with program. Her poetry and fiction have appeared in numerous venues, including RUNES: A Review of Poetry, Writer’s Forum and The Madison Review.
EDITORS AND AGENTS PANEL
Tuesday, June 23, 1:00-3:00pm