2021 Conference Speakers
Keynote Speaker
Melissa Fay Greene
2021 Keynote Topic
The Writer as Witness to Change: Capturing the Changing Communities Around Us Melissa Fay Greene will share her experience writing about enormous changes happening in a very small place, and how she captured the remarkable voices of the people involved, including the deeper levels of their personal histories, their philosophies, and their humor. Praise for Melissa Fay Greene “Greene’s achievement recalls Jane Austen’s description of her novels as fine brushwork on a ‘little bit (two Inches wide) of Ivory’… What Greene has written is political history of a rare kind…” –James Lardner, The New Yorker “Melissa Greene is a journalist who writes with the lyricism of a poet and the skill of a novelist…” –Julius Lester, The Washington Post Book World “Let there be no suspense about my reaction to this book. I intend to try to make a joyful noise here. Melissa Fay Greene has written a superb account of life and struggle in a tiny place. Because of its themes and the brilliant way the author has handled them, this book could stand as a metaphor for the halting American effort to become something better than we have been… " –Roger Wilkins, Los Angeles Times Praying for Sheetrock isn’t a novel: it is a highly original work of sociology with elements of what we seek in serious fiction…. the personalities in this remarkable book are like Faulknerian characters. The lost cause of the Confederacy is still alive in one of the Deep South backwaters of apartheid… Praying for Sheetrock is rare for a book rooted in oral history: it is stylishly written… her imagery and selectivity come alive in this imaginative work of nonfiction.” –Herbert Mitgang, The New York Times “Everyone has a story, and if you wait long enough, you just might get to hear it. For 15 years, Melissa Fay Greene waited and listened to the stories of McIntosh County, Georgia — black, white, young, old and down-right ancient. …Praying for Sheetrock, a monumental social history with implications that go far beyond the borders of a tiny coastal Georgia county. Through a combination of oral history and interpretive narrative, Greene has created a work of great drama, a chorus of voices that is both disturbing and inspiring.” --The Boston Sunday Globe |
Melissa Fay Greene is the author of six books of nonfiction: Praying for Sheetrock (1991), The Temple Bombing (1996), Last Man Out (2003), There is No Me Without You: One Woman’s Odyssey to Save her Country’s Children (2006), No Biking in the House Without A Helmet (2011), and The Underdogs (2016). The latest is an expansion of “Wonder Dog,” a 2012 New York Times Magazine feature story which became one of the most-searched-for and most-shared TIMES stories of the year.
Melissa’s work has been translated into 12 languages and has been honored with a Guggenheim Fellowship (2015-2016), two National Book Award nominations, a National Book Critics Circle Award nomination, the Robert F. Kennedy Book Award, the Chicago Tribune Heartland Prize, the Southern Book Critics Circle Award, the ACLU National Civil Liberties Award, an Anthony J. Lukacs Book Prize finalist citation, the Hadassah Myrtle Wreath Award, Elle Magazine Readers’ Prize, the Salon Book Prize, a Lyndhurst Foundation Fellowship, the Lillian Smith Book Award, the Georgia Author Award, another Georgia Author Award given by a different organization, an honorary doctorate of letters from Emory University in 2010, induction into the Georgia Writers Hall of Fame in 2011, and the Georgia Governor’s Award in the Arts & Humanities in 2013. She has contributed to The New York Times, The New Yorker, The Washington Post, The Atlantic, New York Magazine, Newsweek, LIFE, CNN.com, and other periodicals, and has been a frequent public radio guest. Sheetrock was named one of the Top 100 Works of American Journalism of the 20th Century and appeared on Entertainment Weekly’s list of “The New Classics—The 100 Best Books of the Last 25 Years.” A native of Macon, Georgia, and 1975 graduate of Oberlin College, Melissa is the Kirk Distinguished Writer-in-Residence at Agnes Scott College. She and her husband, prominent criminal defense attorney Don Samuel, live in Atlanta and are the parents of nine and grandparents of one. For more information on our keynote speaker, visit www.MelissaFayGreene.com |
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Workshop Intensive
Make Your Story Stronger: Insights from a Book Coach/ Developmental Editor Join us as traditionally published author & experienced book coach Sheila Athens shares the secrets she’s gained by providing developmental edits on dozens of manuscripts. During this course, novelists will learn how solidifying the bones of a story before you write will make your fiction stronger. We’ll discuss the point of your story, the protagonist’s goal, the lessons your protagonist needs to learn along the way and other essentials. These are the elements that make literary agents, acquiring editors and final readers latch onto a story & fall willingly under its spell. 
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Sheila Athens is a traditionally-published author and a book coach who specializes in mainstream fiction, women’s fiction and romance. She has her own private book coaching practice and is also associated with Author Accelerator, the nation’s premiere book coaching company. During her time with them, she has coached writers in a variety of genres and mentored book-coaches-in-training. Her debut novel, The Truth About Love, was published in three languages. She has stayed current on the publishing landscape by serving as chairperson for the Women’s Fiction Writers Association Agent Pitch Events. For more about Sheila, visit SheilaAthens.com.
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G. Wayne Clough was the 12th Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution from 2008 to 2014. Clough launched a new era at the Institution, expanding the Smithsonian's global relevance and helping the nation shape its future through research, education, and scientific discovery on major topics of the day. Before his appointment to the Smithsonian, Clough was president of the Georgia Institute of Technology for 14 years. Things New and Strange chronicles a research quest undertaken by G. Wayne Clough, the first secretary of the Smithsonian Institution born in the South. Clough now resides in Atlanta.
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Session Topic
Making Sense of Your Research: From Scavenger Hunt to Story G. Wayne Clough’s research in the Smithsonian collection changed his book -- a memoir about 15 years in the life of a boy -- to a 15,000 year narrative about how the place where the boy grew up came to be. In this session, he will discuss the challenges and rewards of integrating your research into the context of your writing and adding depth and richness to the story. 
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Session Topics
Secrets of Successful Picture Books Elizabeth Dulemba, author and/or illustrator of over two dozen picture books, will talk about common misconceptions around the writing of picture books, walk you through some tricks to shape up your stories, and share the things a picture book must have to make it appeal to editors, parents – and kids! Writing Historical Fiction Elizabeth Dulemba will talk about how she used research and interviewing techniques to turn an historical environmental crisis into a compelling young adult novel, A Bird on Water Street, and share how the story is growing new legs and new relevance today. 
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Award-winning author and illustrator Elizabeth Dulemba is the new Associate Professor of Illustration at Winthrop University in South Carolina. Dulemba has over two dozen books to her credit, including her debut novel “A Bird on Water Street,” winner of 14 literary awards, most notably as 2014 "Georgia Author of the Year." Her three most recent picture books as illustrator were written by New York Times Best-selling author Jane Yolen. Dulemba holds an M.F.A. in Illustration from the University of Edinburgh; a B.F.A. in Graphic Design from the University of Georgia; and is completing her Ph.D. in Children’s Literature at the University of Glasgow School of Education in Scotland. Learn more at Dulemba.com and subscribe to her weekly newsletter with weekly author/illustrator interviews and giveaways.
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Laura Newbern is the author of Love and the Eye, selected by Claudia Rankine for Kore Press first book award. Her poems have appeared in The Georgia Review, Poetry, The Atlantic, The Threepenny Review, and elsewhere; her work has been recognized with a residency at Yaddo and a Writer’s Award from the Rona Jaffe Foundation. She teaches at Georgia College and edits the journal Arts & Letters.
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Session Topics
Poetry: Being Ready to Hit “Submit” A discussion, including Q&A, on all aspects of submitting your work to literary journals. Closure, Ending, Arrival: How to End a Poem This session will discuss and examine the challenging work of finding, or recognizing, a poem’s stopping place—especially in cases where form provides little guidance. 
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Session Topics
Editing as Creative Process in Fiction Writing Session attendees will discuss how fiction writers can and should include editing as part of their creative process. Though similar, revision and editing are distinct acts. Creative fiction writers assume revision as part of their writing process. Editing is generally assumed to happen “after the fact,” or after the act of creation. But integrating editing—from substantive to copy editing—into your creative writing from the start will help you realize your vision. Find Publishers Who'll Meet Your Goals-- Not the Other Way Around Bonnie Robinson will help you find a publisher by anticipating and meeting their goals—even before you begin the submission process. Before looking at a manuscript, publishers know what they want from it. And they’ll reject it if it doesn’t meet their goals, however original or well-written it might be. But you can authentically add publishers’ goals to your creative process. Finding publishers and submitting your manuscript will then become ways for you to find publishers who'll meet your goals. |
Bonnie (B.J). Robinson is Director of the University of North Georgia Press. She also teaches literature, writing, and publishing classes at the University of North Georgia. She has won several publishing grants, including a National Endowment for the Humanities digital start-up grant on digital publishing in the Humanities. She has published scholarly works on late Victorian literature and Creative Writing pedagogy and served on the editorial boards of Turn-of-the-Century Women, the William Morris Newsletter, and OScholars, and as guest editor of a special issue of Victorian Poetry: Women Writers, 1890-1918. She has also published creative fiction and poetry, including He/She/Eye.
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Jennifer JabaleySpeaker Panel Moderator
Jennifer Jabaley is the author of LIPSTICK APOLOGY (Razorbill/Penguin Young Readers, 2009). LIPSTICK APOLOGY was nominated for Pennsylvania's Young Reader Choice Award and Jennifer won the title of Georgia Author of the Year in the YA category for this debut. Her second novel, CRUSH CONTROL (Razorbill, 2011) was released to strong reviews by VOYA and School Library Journal and garnered a spotlight in Justine Magazine. Jennifer enjoys school author visits and actively participated in The Georgia Peach Author tour, traveling throughout Georgia to speak to students about writing and a career as an author. |
