Karen Alea Ford holds an English Degree from Palm Beach Atlantic University and a Master of Fine Arts in Fiction Writing from Bennington College. She has published short stories, articles and personal essays. She is an alumna of the Sewanee Writers' Conference and a member of both Pen American and the Association of Professional Writers and Writing Programs.

www.karenalea.com

Bill Brown is the author of three chapbooks, four collections of poetry and a writing textbook. His most recent titles are Late Winter (Iris Press 2008) and Tatters (March Street, 2007).

During the past twenty years, he has published hundreds of poems and articles in college journals, magazines and anthologies.

Charlotte Rains Dixon is free-lance journalist, copywriter, ghostwriter, and author who also teaches and coaches writers. She is the author of a dozen books, including a book on fund-raising to be published by Atlantic Publishing, and Oregon Coast, for Beautiful American Publishing.

Her fiction has appeared in The Trunk, Santa Fe Writer's Project, Nameless Grace, and Somerset Studios. Her articles have been published in Vogue Knitting, the Oregonian, and Pology, to name a few. She is currently seeking an agent for her novel, Emma Jean's Bad Behavior.

Along with fiction and creative nonfiction, Charlotte will be a mentor in the new Blogging writing track at The Loft.

Visit her blog at www.wordstrumpet.com.

Like many Loft students, Kory began to pursue her long-time interest in writing after her formal education was complete, her primary career was well established, and her children were old enough to make themselves a sandwich if she became lost in the creative moment and forgot to make supper.

Her poetry collection Heaven Was the Moon, from March Street Press, features 28 poems that explore Southern small town life, contemporary suburban sprawl, music, motherhood, prejudice, faith, and more.

Jeff Hardin teaches at Columbia State Community College in Columbia, TN. His recent and forthcoming poems appear in The Hudson Review, The Southern Review, Ploughshares, The Gettysburg Review, Grist, Measure, Smartish Pace, Iron Horse Literary Review, Sou'wester, Zone 3, Meridian, The Florida Review,and Southern Poetry Review, among others. He is the author of two chapbooks, Deep in the Shallows(GreenTower Press) and The Slow Hill Out(Pudding House). His first collection, Fall Sanctuary, received the 2004 Nicholas Roerich Prize from Story Line Press.

River Jordan is a novelist and playwright. She is the founder of W.O.R.D. (Writing for Ourselves and Reading for Discovery), a writing and reading program designed to introduce and inspire a new generation to the power of story, and she teaches writing workshops and promotes literacy around the country.

Alvin is an instructor with the Department of English at MTSU, where he has taught Composition and Introduction to Literature, and he has taught college-level English courses at many Middle Tennessee schools.

He is widely published with his work appearing in such literary venues as Southern Indiana Review, Frisk Magazine, and Best Poems of 1995.

Paulette Licitra is Publisher and Editor-in-Chief of the award-winning literary journal, Alimentum - The Literature of Food. Alimentum publishes a wide range of writers including Mark Kurlansky and Oliver Sacks as well as never-before-published authors.

Paulette has taught creative food-writing workshops in New York City and Nashville, and Literary Magazine Editing and Production at Manhattanville College in Purchase, New York. Her work has appeared in the New York Times, Chicago Tribune Magazine, Global City Review, Spectacle, Journal of Italian Food, Wine & Travel, TEA a Magazine, Bird Watcher's Digest and other publications. She published the cult poetry journal poemail and also writes for museums, theatre and television. Paulette has just completed a collection of recipepoems with her co-editor, Esther Cohen, and is finishing a magic realist novel about a Kitchen Mystic and her hapless apprentice.

Paulette is a mentor in the new Food Writing track at the Loft.

Linda has taught on the faculties of Eastern Michigan University, Iowa State University, and the University of South Alabama. She is the author of two college-level textbooks. Her novel, Seven Laurels, was published in April 2004 by SEMO press (Southeast Missouri University Press).

Seven Laurels (under the title The Sum of Augusts) won the 2002 James Jones First Novel Fellowship. Linda has served as a student editor of The Louisville Review and was the publisher and editor of Mobile Bay Monthly.

David Pierce is a novelist and writer, with published short stories, magazine articles, journal articles, two children's books (Zonderkidz), and more to his credit. He is signed with William K. Jensen Literary Agency, based in Eugene, OR and managed by EzLu Entertainment Group, Inc.

David is an adjunct professor in MTSU's English Department. His short fiction has appeared in such publications as Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine and Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine. His new book, Don't Let Me Go, a memoir about climbing mountains with his teenage daughter, was released from WaterBrook Press in 2009.

Terry Price does not believe in standing still. An accomplished photographer, long distance cyclist, traveler, Appalachian Trail hiker, and sailor – he keeps things moving. He’s earned his living as an optician, a radio and television sports anchor and play-by-play announcer, and an attorney.

            During his 24 years of practicing law, he completed The Writer's Loft creative writing program at Middle Tennessee State University and earned an MFA in writing from Spalding University in Louisville.  He serves as Director Emeritus and a mentor of The Writer’s Loft program.   

            Terry has published several short stories, one of which was nominated for the Pushcart Prize. He is currently revising a short story collection for publication and is writing his first novel. Set in Nashville, its working title is An Angel's Share. You can follow its progress at www.anangelsshareblog.com

            Terry personally mentors writers one on one, leads workshops and retreats and is available for speaking engagements on writing and spirituality. You can visit his website at www.terryprice.net

            He lives on a small farm in Springfield, Tennessee with his family and two dogs, two goats, a small herd of Longhorns and lots of squirrels. 

Sheri Malman has spent the better part of twenty years in some corner of the book publishing industry. She's sold books for several publishers, at both the independent and national-chain level, and advertising for Publishers Weekly. Since 2004, as owner of ink plot, she's done everything from sales, marketing and book jacket copy writing to editing and ghost writing. She lives in Wilmington, NC, where she's pursuing an MA in English at the University of North Carolina Wilmington to go with her Vanderbilt BA in both History and English.

MELISA CAHNMANN-TAYLOR is Associate Professor in Language and Literacy education at the University of Georgia with an MFA in poetry from New England College and a Ph.D. in Educational Linguistics from the University of Pennsylvania. She has published poems and reviews in literary journals such as APR, Quarterly West, Puerto del Sol, Barrow Street, Womens Review of Books, Cream City, Georgia Review, and Literary Mama. She is the winner of several Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Prizes and a Leeway Poetry Grant, and has co-authored two books, Teachers Act Up: Creating Multicultural Learning Communities Through Theatre (Teachers College Press, 2010) and Arts-Based Research in

Education: Foundations for Practice (Routledge, 2008) as well as a poetry chapbook, Reverse the Charges. To review her educational scholarship and "scholARTistry" in education, visit her blog at www.teachersactup.com

Besides his novel, The Running Horse of Santa Teresa, Kevin A Brown's work has been published in the Oxford American and the anthologies Literary Austin and Maple Leaf Rag IV, and he was a second round finalist in the 2006 Austin Film Festival screenwriting competition.

Before beginning has career in higher education (Middle Tennessee State University; University of Alabama; University of Texas at El Paso), among other things, he worked construction, landscaped the Texas governor's mansion, and drove a school bus for eleven years—pursuits which supplied plenty of material for his writing. As contributing editor for the weekly Oak Hill Gazette, Brown covered a variety of issues relevant to the formerly unincorporated community in southwest Austin made up of independently-minded Texas Hill Country folks. Many of his researched feature articles about famous places and infamous incidents are still re-published in the annual "Historic Oak Hill"; issue of the Gazette.

Brown travels extensively and uses the places he goes and the characters he meets as the inspiration for much of his work. He has taught multi-genre introductory creative writing and advanced fiction, as well as special topic courses on setting (Breaking the Boundaries of Place) and putting together a collection (The Architecture of the Collection.) One of his in-progress projects is a novel set during the 1920s when thousands of residents of the Appalachian Mountains were evicted from their homes and farms in order to develop Shenandoah National Park. He is also working on a non-fiction book (working title: Land of the Flea, Home of the Plague) about the winter of 2002-2003 when he lived in the Four Corners area of New Mexico, where, following an reluctant return to his manual labor roots, he worked for four and a half months at a "detox center"; (really a drunk tank) just outside the boundaries of the Navajo reservation.

MSJ from Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism
BA English Literature with an emphasis on Creative Writing from Minnesota State University Moorhead
BA Mass Communications from Minnesota State University Moorhead

Jennifer Chesak is an East Nashville-based freelancer and editor. Through her business Wandering in the Words, she assists writers in honing their manuscripts for publication and manages the editorial, PR and social media content for several adventure-based companies. She has been published in Field & Stream online, Trail Runner, Motorcycle Cruiser, Escape, Baggers, Whaler, Sea Ray Living, ATV Rider, Lund and Renew magazines to name a few. Jennifer is also the editor at large for a custom publishing firm and travels the world writing about myriad topics ranging from boating and fishing to cooking and architectural design. Her experience as both a creative, editorial and marketing writer allow her to do what she loves for a living, play with the written word. She is currently working on her first memoir, Gurney Through Life, a collection of short stories about medical mishaps. Jennifer is passionate about helping others grasp the writer within and achieve the satisfaction of creative thinking and production. When not tethered to her pen or computer, she's usually out gardening or training for her next marathon.

EdD, University of Alabama
MA, Chapman College
BA, Chapman College

Jimmy Carl Harris writes, teaches, and edits, mostly fiction. His collections of prizewinning short stories, Walking Wounded and Wounds That Bind, were published by Iris Press in 2006 and 2007. His stories have appeared in The Louisville Review, Appalachian Heritage, Confluence, the Tulane Review, the Birmingham Arts Journal, and elsewhere. Some of his stories draw on his experiences as a Marine, including decorated service as a Sergeant Major. He held a number of positions in higher education, including assistant professor and department chair at Southeastern Louisiana University. In addition, he taught creative writing for the Alabama Writers Conclave, Southeastern Writers, West Virginia Writers, Tennessee Mountain Writers, and others. Jimmy Carl is currently an editor for Inspiration for Writers, an editorial service based in West Virginia.

Related web sites:

www.jimmycarlharris.com
www.inspirationforwriters.com

Agapi Theodorou is a 4^th year Ph.D. student specializing in Children’s and Young Adult Literature and Composition and Rhetoric. Agapi teaches courses in expository and argumentative writing and children’s literature, and she mentors first year teaching assistants. Agapi is currently working on her dissertation, which looks at the construction of girl writer characters in 19^th and 20^th century. She also co-wrote Rabbi Rami Guide to Parenting, Spirituality and Health Books, 2012.

Aaron Shapiro is a poet and essayist living in Murfreesboro, TN, where he teaches writing and literature with the English Department of Middle State Tennessee University. He received a BA in English from the University of Florida in 1996 and a Master’s in English from MTSU in 2010. Aaron has spoken at a number of conferences on topics ranging from creative writing to critical theory. Along with Rabbi Rami Shapiro, he is the co-author of Writing: the Sacred Art: Beyond the Page to Spiritual Practice, forthcoming from Skylight Paths, andhis work has appeared in Teaching in the Pop Culture Zone, Collage magazine, and The Mangrove Review. Aaron is a recipient of the Michael Hauptman Poetry Prize, a Vermont Studio Center Fellowship, a Paul Muldoon Poetry Fellowship, and the Tennessee Library Association’s Intellectual Freedom Award, as well as the Virginia Peck Award. 

Janet Wallace

I am the founder and CEO of Social Deviants, a thriving social marketing company that helps entrepreneurs and authors build online platforms that stand out, and stand-up for what they believe in, attract raving fans and loyal clients, and increase sales. 

I am also the founder and creator of utopYA, an annual writing convention and awards ceremony that both celebrate female writers of paranormal YA and the fans who love them.

I speak to local, national and international groups about how to effectively lead their dreams while building businesses of purpose and using their powers for good.

Previously I was a brand strategist for London-based, award-winning agency Michaelides & Bednash, working directly with clients such as Oxygen Women's Television, Film4/Channel4 London and Elle magazine, to name a few. I was an adjunct professor at Middle Tennessee State University where I lectured on Social Media for Authors, as well as previously on faculty at Room to Write at Scarritt-Bennett Center.

Social Deviants http://theSocialDeviants.com

utopYAcon & the utopYA Awards http://utopYAcon.com

http://Facebook.com/SocialDeviants

http://Facebook.com/utopYAcon