Conference Faculty
Gracious, generous educators with a passion for community.
Featuring over 25 award-winning writers, editors, agents, educators, and other internationally recognized creative writing professionals, our faculty are here to do more than expand your skill set or open new ways of thinking about your work. They're here to share their experiences, answer questions, and spend time connecting with conference attendees.
Our 2021 faculty include Sally Ball, Mahogany L. Browne, Suyi Davies Okungbowa, Alan Dean Foster, Tod Goldberg, Raquel Gutiérrez, Marcelo Hernandez Castillo, Linda Hogan, Jenny Irish, Beverly Jenkins, Kirby Kim, C.B. Lee, Connie J. Mableson, tanner menard, Christopher Morgan, Chantelle Aimée Osman, Cynthia Pelayo, Evan Winter, and Erika T. Wurth.
To meet our faculty, keep reading.
You can also meet our fellows, view the schedule, or learn more about the conference.
Meet this year's faculty
Sally Ball
Sally Ball is the author of three collections of poems, Hold Sway, Wreck Me and Annus Mirabilis. An associate professor of English at Arizona State University, Ball is also an associate director of Four Way Books. She has been with the press for 23 of its 26 years. She has received fellowships from the Arizona Commission on the Arts, the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, CAMAC Centre d’Art, and elsewhere.
Mahogany L. Browne
Mahogany L. Browne is a writer, organizer, and educator. She is the Interim Executive Director of Urban Word NYC & Poetry Coordinator at St. Francis College. Browne has received fellowships from Agnes Gund, Air Serenbe, Cave Canem, Poets House, Mellon Research & Rauschenberg.
Hallie Ephron
Hallie Ephron (http://hallieephron.com) is the NY Times bestselling author of 17 books including 6 domestic suspense novels reviewers call “deliciously creepy.” Her recent "Careful What You Wish For" (Wm.
Alan Dean Foster
Born in New York City in 1946, Foster was raised in Los Angeles. After receiving a Bachelor's Degree in Political Science and a Master of Fine Arts in Cinema from UCLA (1968, l969) he spent two years as a copywriter for a small Studio City, Calif. advertising and public relations firm.
Tod Goldberg
Tod Goldberg is the New York Times bestselling author of over a dozen books, including Gangster Nation, Gangsterland, a finalist for the Hammett Prize, The House of Secrets, which he co-authored with Brad Meltzer, Living Dead Girl, a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, two collections of short stories, and the popular Burn Notice series.
Raquel Gutiérrez
Raquel Gutierrez is an arts critic/writer, poet and educator. Born and raised in Los Angeles Gutierrez credits the DIY queer and feminist post-punk 'zine culture of the 1990s plus County and Getty paid arts internships with introducing her/them to the various vibrant art & music scenes and communities throughout Southern California.
Marcelo Hernandez Castillo
Marcelo Hernandez Castillo is a poet, essayist, translator, and immigration advocate. He is the author of the collection Cenzontle (2018), which won the 2017 A. Poulin Jr. prize, and the chapbook Dulce (2018). His memoir, Children of the Land (2020), is his most recent publication.
Jenny Irish
Jenny Irish is from Maine, but lives and teaches in Arizona. She is the author of the collections Common Ancestor and I Am Faithful.
Beverly Jenkins
Beverly Jenkins is the recipient of the 2017 Romance Writers of America Nora Roberts Lifetime Achievement Award, as well as the 2016 Romantic Times Reviewers’ Choice Award for historical romance. She has been nominated for the NAACP Image Award in Literature, was featured both in the documentary “Love Between the Covers” and on CBS Sunday Morning.
Hena Khan
Hena Khan is an award winning Pakistani American children’s author. Her middle grade novel Amina’s Voice was named a Best Book of 2017 by the Washington Post, Kirkus Reviews, NPR, and others. She is the author of the Zayd Saleem Chasing the Dream series and More to the Story, a middle grade novel inspired by Little Women.
Kirby Kim
A native of Los Angeles, California, Kirby Kim attended Pomona College and got his JD at UC Hastings College of the Law. Kim got his first job in publishing working for Charlotte Sheedy Literary, at that time an affiliate of Sterling Lord Literistic, then moved to Vigliano Associates and WME before joining Janklow & Nesbit Associates.
Yi Shun Lai
Yi Shun Lai (say "yeeshun" for her first name) lives in Southern California. Her debut novel, Not a Self-Help Book: The Misadventures of Marty Wu was a semi-finalist for the Thurber Prize for American Humor. Her memoir Pin Ups will be published in September 2020 by Homebound Publications. She teaches in the MFA programs at Bay Path and Southern New Hampshire Universities.
C.B. Lee
C.B. Lee is a Lambda Literary Award nominated writer of young adult science fiction and fantasy. Her works include the Sidekick Squad series (Duet Books), Ben 10 graphic novels (Boom!
tanner menard
tanner menard is a poet & composer, a Louisiana Creole & a member of the Atakapa Ishak Nation. They have published ten albums of ambient music, a chapbook, were thrice nominated for a Pushcart Prize & are published in magazines such as Entropy & Beestung. The Wire Magazine called their sound poetry collaboration with Andrew Weathers an influential modern composition.
Patricia Colleen Murphy
Patricia Colleen Murphy founded Superstition Review at Arizona State University, where she teaches creative writing and magazine production. Her book Bully Love won the 2019 Press 53 Poetry Award.
Suyi Davies Okungbowa
Suyi Davies Okungbowa is a Nigerian author of fantasy, science fiction and horror inspired by his West-African origins. His highly-anticipated debut, the godpunk fantasy novel David Mogo, Godhunter (Abaddon, 2019), was hailed as “the subgenre’s platonic deific ideal.” His epic fantasy trilogy, The Nameless Republic, is forthcoming from Orbit in 2021.
Cynthia Pelayo
Cynthia “Cina” Pelayo is the author of Loteria, Santa Muerte, The Mission, Poems of My Night, Into the Forest and All the Way Through, and multiple short stories and poems. Her adult horror thriller debut, Children of Chicago by Agora/Polis Books, will be available February 2021. She is an International Latino Book Award winning author and an Elgin Award nominee.
Alberto Álvaro Ríos
Alberto Ríos, Arizona’s inaugural poet laureate and a chancellor of the Academy of American Poets, is the author of eleven books and chapbooks of poetry, including The Theater of Night—winner of the 2007 PEN/Beyond Margins Award—three collections of short stories, and a memoir about growing up on the border, Capirotada.
Evan Winter
Called "Canada’s answer to George R. R. Martin" by the Globe and Mail, Evan Winter, winner of the Reddit/Fantasy Award for Best Debut Fantasy Novel, is a Barnes & Nobles, Amazon, and Locus best selling author of speculative fiction.
Stephanie Winter
Stephanie Winter is an associate agent at P.S. Literary. She first joined the agency as an intern before becoming the agency’s relations assistant. Stephanie holds a B.A. from the University of Toronto in English Literature and an M.A. in English: Issues in Modern Culture from University College London. She is looking for diverse, inclusive voices in fiction and graphic novels for adults and young readers.
Erika T. Wurth
Erika T. Wurth’s publications include two novels, Crazy Horse’s Girlfriend and You Who Enter Here, two collections of poetry and a collection of short stories, Buckskin Cocaine. A writer of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry, she teaches creative writing at Western Illinois University and has been a guest writer at the Institute of American Indian Arts.