Mary G. Barlow is the author of the memoir, Home, My Story of House and Personal Restoration. Mary blends literary, medical writing, and journalistic talents. As a medical writer, Mary writes extensively for commercial organizations on numerous diseases, life sciences products, and on the business of healthcare. Before her medical writing career, Mary served as a journalist, banging out articles for the Blackstone Valley Tribune, a small community newspaper that operated in Northbridge, Massachusetts and for the Telegram and Gazette, a daily paper circulated in Worcester County. In Home, Mary combines storytelling with her talents as a medical writer in discussing her brother’s Down Syndrome, her mother’s suicide, and the impact of emotional trauma on a child. Photo credit: Glenn Livermore Photography.
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Mary Ellen Bramwell, a bestselling and award-winning author, has been writing stories since she was ten years old. She has published five books, but much as she enjoys assembling words, she is passionate about rearranging them. She has edited fiction (adult, young adult, children’s) and non-fiction. Her many clients include a USA Today bestselling author, and she is the developmental editor for Black Rose Writing, a small press out of Texas. Mary Ellen is a slayer of word echo and filler of plot holes. Slightly obsessed with jigsaw puzzles and board games, she is a chocolate enthusiast and known for giving impractical, amusing gifts. She has five grown children and resides with her husband in the beautiful Mountain West.
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Jeffrey Ford is the author of the novels The Physiognomy, Memoranda, The Beyond, The Portrait of Mrs. Charbuque, the Edgar Award–winning The Girl in the Glass, The Cosmology of the Wider World, The Shadow Year, and The Twilight Pariah, and his collections include The Fantasy Writer’s Assistant, The Empire of Ice Cream, The Drowned Life, Crackpot Palace, and A Natural History of Hell. He lives near Columbus, Ohio, and teaches writing at Ohio Wesleyan University. Photo credit: HarperCollins.
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Sandy Keigh’s writing encompasses a diverse range, from detailed technical manuals to novels—fiction being her passion. Her books are often sparked by real-life events woven into stories incorporating loving friendships, dysfunctional families, and contemptuous relationships, creating a uniquely immersive reading experience. Although Sandy’s stories often present life challenges, she approaches the topics utilizing humor, kindness, discord, and remorse, aiming toward resilience, resolution, and hope for the protagonist.
She has a degree in psychology, and her personal experience with abuse motivated her to spend time volunteering at a mental health agency counseling young women in crisis and also inspired her novel, “The Archives of Her Mind.” Sandy recently retired from teaching technology at Harvard Business School and has primarily focused on writing novels since retiring.
Away from her literary pursuits and professional endeavors, Sandy embraces cooking, art projects, and her love for golf and languages. She delights in the challenge of the greens, and when she’s not golfing, she’s likely practicing her French and Papiamento, which she speaks with an awkwardness rivaling her golf swing. Photo credit: Susan Schale.
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Karen Kirsten is the author of Irena’s Gift, an Epic WWII Memoir of Sisters, Secrets, and Survival (2024), a National Jewish Book Award finalist for Autobiography & Memoir, winner of Zibby Awards for Best Family Drama & Best Story of Overcoming, and Australian Jewish Book Award finalist. Karen’s essay was selected by Narratively as one of their Best Ever stories and nominated for The Best American Essays. Her writing has also appeared in Salon.com, Huffington Post, The Week, The Jerusalem Post, Boston’s National Public Radio station, The Boston Herald, The Christian Post, The Sydney Morning Herald and more. Photo credit: linderpix.
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David O’Connell is the author of Our Best Defense (Červená Barva Press) and the chapbook A Better Way to Fall (The Poet’s Press). His work has appeared in New Ohio Review, Ploughshares, Cincinnati Review, Southern Poetry Review, and North American Review, among other journals. David holds an MFA from Ohio State University and has received fellowships in poetry from the Rhode Island State Council on the Arts.
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Since his first job out of college at Sesame Workshop, Kevin has always worked at the intersection of business and creative. He has hands-on experience in a variety of media: animation, live action TV, toys, apparel, live shows, music, and educational apps. He’s worked for Fisher-Price, VTech, Kidz Bop, Barnes & Noble, and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. He’s inked deals with Chrysler, Nestle, Intel, McDonalds, and all the major publishers.
As an agent, Kevin takes on serious adult nonfiction (Brian McCullough’s How the Internet Happened, Claude Andrew Clegg’s The Black President). On the adult fiction side, he represents the acclaimed San Francisco novelist Colin Winnette. Winnette’s Users was a finalist for the 2024 PEN Faulkner Award.
Pajammin,’ a picture book by Ziggy Marley based on his father’s hit song “Jamming,” comes out in June.
For middle grade readers, he’s the agent behind the Russell Ginns’s Samantha Spinner series; Cas Hyman’s Mango Delight; and Steven B. Frank’s Armstrong and Charlie. The Writing Gym’s interview with Kevin titled, What Does a Literary Agent Do, explored how he approaches his work.
Kevin is a Columbia University graduate and the founding director of The Center for Nonfiction, a project born out of his time as a Bundles Scholar at Columbia. He is currently a master’s candidate in Biography and Memoir at the City University of New York’s Graduate Center.
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Dennis James Sweeney is the author of How to Submit: Getting Your Writing Published with Literary Magazines and Small Presses, a guide for writers. His first book, In the Antarctic Circle, won the Autumn House Rising Writer Prize and was a Debut Poetry Book of 2021 in Poets & Writers. You’re the Woods Too, his second book, was a Small Press Distribution bestseller and a finalist for the Deborah Tall Lyric Essay Prize. Most recently, The Rolodex Happenings won the Stillhouse Press Novella Prize.
His fiction, nonfiction, and poetry have appeared in Ecotone, Ninth Letter, The New York Times, The Southern Review, and Witness, among others. Formerly a Small Press Editor at Entropy and Assistant Editor at Denver Quarterly, he has an MFA from Oregon State University and a PhD from the University of Denver. Originally from Cincinnati, he lives in Amherst, Massachusetts, where he teaches at Amherst College. Photo credit: Melanie Zacek Photography.
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Skye Wentworth, Book Publicist, provides book marketing consultation, public relations campaigns, media promotion, and author branding for authors and publishers worldwide. A graduate of Boston University with a M.Ed. in Media and Technology, she has worked as director of public relations in advertising studios, executive director of performing art centers, and senior book publicist for publishing houses. Since 1996, Skye has consulted with upwards of 300 authors and directly promoted more than 400 titles.
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