About James River Writers

Board of Directors

Virginia Pye (JRW Chair, 2010) is a fiction writer and poet. Her work has been published in numerous literary magazines including The North American Review, and recently her stories received honorable mention awards from Glimmer Train. She holds an MFA from Sarah Lawrence College and a BA from Wesleyan and has taught writing and literature at NYU and the University of Pennsylvania. She has recently completed a new novel about three generations of an American family in China.

Lee Gimpel (JRW Vice-Chair, 2010) covers business, technology and the intersection thereof for such publications as Entrepreneur, Fast Company, Inc., Worth and BusinessWeek SmallBiz. In addition, he writes a regular biz-and-tech column for the in-flight magazine Go. His articles about culture, lifestyle, travel and history have appeared in such publications as Budget Travel, Executive Traveler, Best Life, Las Vegas, Men's Journal and The Washington Post. His first book, Fighting Wars, Planning for Peace, recounts the life of Gen. George C. Marshall and the Marshall Plan. He is currently working on a book about his travels through emergent India. He previously served as treasurer of James River Writers.

Gigi Amateau is the author of the young adult novel, A Certain Strain of Peculiar (Candlewick Press, 2009), and the middle-grade novel, Chancey of the Maury River (Candlewick Press, 2008). Her debut young adult novel, Claiming Georgia Tate (Candlewick Press, 2005), was selected as a Book Sense Children's Pick, a New York Public Library Book for the Teen Age, and a VOYA Review Editor's Choice. She also contributed to the acclaimed anthology, Our White House: Looking In Looking Out (Candlewick Press, 2008). Gigi is a native of Mississippi. She grew up in Mechanicsville, VA and graduated from Virginia Commonwealth University with a degree in Urban Studies and Planning. She lives in the city of Richmond, VA with her husband and daughter.

Doug Blue operates his own "boutique" PR firm, D.L. Blue & Associates, Inc., providing a variety of corporate communication services. He began his career as a daily newspaper reporter. Then for 35+ years he worked in corporate public relations, writing everything from speeches and investor publications to op-eds, magazine articles, Web features and countless press releases. He is currently working on an account of his Scottish ancestors who fled persecution to settle in the Cape Fear River Valley of North Carolina in the 18th Century.

Bill Blume is a fantasy writer whose short stories have been published in Spinetingler Magazine. He is the creator of the online comic strip "The Wildcat's Lair." He was also chair of the organizing committee for the 2007 James River Writers Conference and is a member of the "Ten Page Club." Bill earned a BA in Journalism from University of South Carolina and worked as a news producer for WTVR-TV in Richmond until 2001. Check out Bill's blog at wildcatslair.blogspot.com

Ellen Firsching Brown is a freelance writer whose work is regularly featured in Fine Books & Collections magazine. She also has written for Georgia Backroads, Modernism, and Sweetbay Review. She is a member of Virginia Press Women and the Authors Guild and also serves on the board of both the Library of Virginia Foundation and Friends of the Richmond Public Library. Her first book, a publishing history of Gone With the Wind, will be released by Taylor Trade in 2011. She is a former Assistant Attorney General and was a Senior Counsel at Dominion Resources.

Shawna Christos has written manuals, booklets, and papers for a variety of companies, including a local Fortune 500 company, and earned intercompany recognition and awards for graphics, art, computer, and database work.

Ryan Frazier is a corporate communications and editorial services specialist at Dominion Resources, Inc., where he focuses on communications, media, and speechwriting. His background is in politics and editorial journalism. Dominion has a history of sponsoring the JRW Conference and programs, and Ryan will serve as a liaison between JRW and Dominion.

Susan Early is Vice President for Development and Special Events with the Visual Arts Center of Richmond. She has over 27 years of development experience and has worked at the United Way and several hospitals and small non-profits. She is a past board member of the Virginia Association of Fundraising Executives (VAFRE) and a current board member of the local chapter of the Association of Fundraising Professionals (AFP). Susan has a BA from Goucher College and an MA in poetry from The Johns Hopkins University's Writing Seminars.

Reginald Gordon, a Richmond native, is the CEO of the American Red Cross, Greater Richmond Chapter. Previously, he served as Executive Director of William Byrd Community House and founding Executive Director of Homeward: Richmond’s Regional Response to Homelessness. He received a degree in Public Policy from Duke University and a law degree from Howard School of Law. He has served as Chair of Leadership Metro Richmond and also served on the boards of the Richmond Behavioral Health Authority and Virginia Blood Services. Reggie is also a screenwriter and playwright. His non-profit experience will help JRW increase its organizational and development capacities and focus on strategic planning.

Valley Haggard, the director of Richmond Young Writers and Style Weekly's Book Editor, writes a monthly "Alternatives" column for Belle, freelances for Richmond Home Magazine and teaches creative writing for ART 180. She has a five-year old son, a husband, a dog and a cat. She is hard at work on her first book. Check out her bookish blog at www.valleyhaggard.blogspot.com.

Katharine Herndon has taught middle school English and Drama at The Millwood School in Chesterfield County for the past 10 years. She received her B.S. in English from Davidson College and her M.A. in English, with a concentration in creative writing, from the University of Central Florida. Katharine is also a graduate of St. Catherine’s School. She placed second in Style Weekly’s 2003 fiction contest; her fiction received awards and recognition while at Davidson, as well. She is an active JRW member and currently serves on the Conference Committee. She will chair the Membership Committee.

Elizabeth Mason Horsley is a partner with the law firm of Williams Mullen. Her practice focuses on civil litigation, including both trial and appellate work, with a concentration in fiduciary litigation, financial services litigation, and trust and estate litigation. She is a long-time supporter of JRW and is enthusiastic about serving as chair of the Strategic Planning Committee.

Emyl Jenkins wrote a dozen non-fiction books, a monthly column for Art & Antiques, a syndicated antiques column, and countless magazine articles before turning her hand to fiction. Her first two novels in the prize-winning Sterling Glass series -- Stealing With Style (Algonquin, June 2005) and The Big Steal (Algonquin, July, 2009) -- received starred reviews from Booklist. Emyl, who also serves on the Library of Virginia Foundation Board, is currently working on the third novel in the series.

Doug Jones writes plays for children and adults, 40 of which have been produced in venues around the country. Jones holds degrees from the University of Chicago and the University of Virginia. He has taught at the University of Virginia, TheatreVirginia, the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, the UVA Center for Continuing Education, and the Virginia Opera, as well as in private schools in the Richmond area. Jones has also published short stories, poetry, and nonfiction, as well as scripts for radio and video. He is a member of The Dramatists Guild and The Authors League of America. His interests in JRW’s work include: The Writing Show, the JRW Conference, and JRW contests.

Jann Malone, whose first memory is holding a book in her hands, has been a writer and editor of magazines and newspapers in Georgia and Virginia for 38 years. Currently, she writes features for AARP, book reviews for the Richmond Times-Dispatch and articles on books and authors for BoomerLife Magazine. Over the course of her 32 years at The Times-Dispatch, she edited the book and food sections and wrote lifestyle columns, garden articles, food features, children’s fiction and countless news stories. She has taught news, feature and magazine writing at the University of Richmond. She helped plan the 2008 JRW Conference and serves on the 2010 Conference Committee. In addition to her work with JRW, her other volunteer activities include judging the Library of Virginia’s nonfiction literary award and writing a trail guide for Menokin, a historic home on the Northern Neck, part of her ongoing work as a Certified Master Naturalist.

Kris Spisak Petroski has taught writing at Virginia Commonwealth University, University of Richmond, John Tyler Community College and J. Sargeant Reynolds Community College. She also works as a freelance editor between semesters. In the spring of 2006, Kris was briefly the Writer-in-Residence at St. Catherine’s School, and the sixth grade class of that year read her in-process middle grade novel. Her research and writing has been published in the archives of the Richmond History Center and in the marketing materials of the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, and her short fiction has been published in Dark Sky Magazine. Presently, Kris is working on a thriller as well as a non-fiction project examining the controversial and greatly unknown American history on which the thriller is based.

Brewster Rawls is a medical malpractice attorney with a passion for literature and reading. He holds a B.A. in politics from Wake Forest University. Following a brief career as an artillery officer in the U.S. Army at Fort Campbell, Kentucky, he earned a law degree from the T.C. Williams School of Law at the University of Richmond. He now employs 30 attorneys at his firm, Rawls & McNelis. Brewster is active in the Virginia Association of Defense Attorneys, as well as the Defense Research Institute. He is also a frequent instructor at Continuing Legal Education seminars. He has served as senior warden for St. James Episcopal Church where he worked on the finance committee.

Maya Payne Smart is a professional writer who has written hundreds of articles for newspapers, magazines and web sites. Her 2010 client list includes Black Enterprise, CNNMoney.com and Savoy Professional. She received a bachelor's degree in Social Studies from Harvard University and a master's degree in editorial journalism from the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University. She serves on the board of governors of the Society of American Business Editors and Writers and is a member of the National Association of Black Journalists and The Society of Professional Journalists. Maya is especially interested in working with JRW on outreach and programs for children.

Paula C. Squires is managing editor for Virginia Business, a statewide business news magazine. Before joining the staff in 2000, she reported for the Virginian-Pilot in Norfolk and the Richmond-Times Dispatch. During her career, Squires has covered everything from politics to business and consumer affairs. Along the way, her stories have won awards from the Virginia Press Association, the National Association of Press Women and The Alliance of Area Business Publications, an organization representing more than 70 regional business publications across the country. Squires also has taught news writing as an adjunct at the University of Richmond and Virginia Commonwealth University.

George Tisdale is a creative director and copywriter who sought the answer to “How many bank ads can one person write?” when he was a senior writer and VP at Martin Retail of The Martin Agency. (Eventual answer: Too many.) His consultancy Can’t Stop Writing LLC serves financial, industrial and educational clients, non-profits, and marketing communications firms, among them ColorTree Envelope, Communication Design, CornerStone Partners, The Flores Shop, Genworth Financial, JHI, St. Christopher’s School, William and Mary, Virginia Historical Society, and Wealthcare Capital Management. George attends most JRW events, serves as a JRW Conference volunteer, and will edit JRW’s twice-monthly Get Your Word On newsletter. He is currently working on a novel about a not-quite-starving sculptor who enters the world of mail-order collectibles and barely escapes with his sanity. And the girl.

Cynthia Cros White is an International Baccalaureate trained English teacher with an endorsement in Gifted Education in Prince George County. Currently, Cynthia is working on her Masters in English. When she is not inspiring young adults, she dabbles in short story writing and annually attends the Sarah Lawrence College summer writing program in Bronxville, New York. Her interests are not limited to writing; theater is also a passion. Cynthia recently served as the President of the Board of Directors of Sycamore Rouge, a local theater in Petersburg, Virginia whose mission is to promote and contribute to an environment that fosters creativity through theatre, music and cabaret. Saving historic buildings is another passion and Cynthia has overseen the renovation/rehabilitation of several historic properties in Richmond and Petersburg, Virginia. Currently she has undertaken the rehabilitation of an old kitchen dependency on High Street in Petersburg where she lives with her husband, Christopher White, and her three Shih Tzu, Aidan Quinn Bradshaw White, Theodore Preston Roosevelt White, and Ernesto "El Che" Guevara White. In August 2010 Cynthia's family will double with the arrival of twins.

JRW Office Staff

Administrative Director
Anne Westrick has been a teacher, paralegal, college administrator, and volunteer for organizations from Odyssey of the Mind to the Reading Olympics, the READ Center, and the Girl Scouts. She has written for Boys' Quest magazine, completed a novel for middle grade readers, and is writing a second novel while working on her MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults (Vermont College).  Anne is a graduate of Stanford University and Yale Divinity School. Contact Anne via email at: anne@jamesriverwriters.org

Development Coordinator
Meg Medina has written for adults and children for over fifteen years. Her stories and poems have appeared in numerous literary magazines. MILAGROS: Girl from Away (Henry Holt, 2008) is her first novel for young readers. Her first picture book, TIA ISA WANTS A CAR, is forthcoming from Candlewick Press in 2011. She's currently working on a new young adult and new middle grade novel. She lives in Richmond, VA, with her husband and three children. Contact Meg via email at: meg@jamesriverwriters.org

Bookkeeper and Database Manager
Erin Cundiff, a graduate of James Madison University and Virginia Commonwealth University, is an elementary school teacher currently staying home with her two children. Erin writes when she can and reads even when she can't. Her current interests include opera, geology, 18th-century America, trains, classical music, the Spanish language, and Latin American culture.

Advisory Board

Samuel M. Bemiss is Managing Director of Ewing Bemiss & Co., a private investment banking firm based in Richmond. Sam is a Director of the People of America Foundation, a Trustee of Elk Hill Farm and of Camp Pasquaney, a member of the Corporation of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and a member of the Board of Governors of St. Christopher's School. He is a graduate of Yale University, and received a juris doctor and a master's degree in business administration from the University of Virginia. He lives in Richmond with his wife, Elsie, an interior designer and amateur architect specializing in the renovation and rehabilitation of older homes, and their four children.

Clay McLeod Chapman is the creator of the rigorous storytelling session The Pumpkin Pie Show. He is the author of rest area, a collection of short stories, and miss corpus, a novel. He teaches writing at The Actors Studio MFA Program at Pace University.

Susann Cokal is the author of two critically praised novels, Mirabilis and Breath and Bones, and of short stories that have appeared in numerous journals. She holds two PhD's: one from Berkeley in comparative literature, and one from Binghamton University in creative writing, and she has published critical work on writers such as Jeanette Winterson, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and Georges Bataille. She also reviews fiction for The New York Times Book Review. She moved to Richmond in 2004 to teach creative writing and contemporary literature at Virginia Commonwealth University.

Constance Costas is editor of skirt! magazine's Richmond edition. A former staff writer for Self magazine, she has also covered health, fitness, medical, and parenting topics for Redbook, Health, Fitness, Shape, Ladies Home Journal, Working Woman, and Harper's Bazaar. Her essays have appeared in skirt!, where she has also been a contributing editor and columnist.

Kirk Ellis served as writer and co-executive producer for the seven-part HBO miniseries, John Adams, based on David McCullough's Pulitzer Prize-winning biography and starring Paul Giamatti and Laura Linney. The series picked up 23 Emmy nominations (the second most-nominated miniseries in TV history after Roots) including two for Ellis as writer and co-executive producer. He also received an Emmy nomination and won the Writers Guild of America and Humanitas Awards for the ABC miniseries Anne Frank. He received the Western Writers of America's Golden Spur Award for Best Drama Script for Hell on Wheels. Following John Adams, Ellis will continue his association with David McCullough and the American Revolution as writer and co-executive producer of 1776, based on McCullough's book.  His newest project is Black Gold: The Teapot Dome Scandal, a four-hour miniseries for AMC based on Laton McCartney's book.

Mary Flinn is the Senior Editor at Blackbird: an online journal of literature and the arts, published as a joint venture of the Department of English at Virginia Commonwealth University and New Virginia Review. Since 1985, she has been the Director of New Virginia Review, Inc., and is the editor, with George Garrett, of Elvis in Oz, New Writing from the Hollins College Creative Writing Program (1992). She also facilitated the editing of The Gazer Within by Larry Levis (2001), and she has served as the Poetry and Fiction editor of 64 Magazine and as editor of New Virginia Review. She has participated on editors' panels, as a literature fellowship judge for numerous art councils, and as a review panelist for the National Endowment and the Virginia Commission for the Arts. She was the first recipient of the Theresa Pollack Award for Words presented by Richmond Magazine.

Phaedra Hise is a founding co-chair of the James River Writers. As a journalist, her work has been anthologized and has appeared in national publications including Glamour, Salon, Forbes ASAP, Popular Mechanics, Ladies' Home Journal, Prevention and Smithsonian Air & Space. She is a former Staff Writer for Inc., and currently a Contributor to Fortune Small Business. She has written four books, most recently Pilot Error: Anatomy of a Plane Crash, called "a compelling page-turner" by the Boston Globe. She has given radio commentary and interviews, appeared on national television, and speaks regularly at conferences and universities.

Caroline Kettlewell is the author of two critically praised non-fiction books: the memoir Skin Game (St. Martin's, 1999), and Electric Dreams (Carroll & Graf, 2004), which was optioned for feature film. As a freelance writer, she has been a regular contributor to the Washington Post, and her work has appeared as well in Virginia Living, skirt!, Vegetarian Times, and two anthologies. She maintains a blog dedicated to narrative nonfiction, Welcome to the Hinterlands.

A Richmond native, Dean King is the award-winning author of, most recently, Unbound: A True Story of War, Love, and Survival (Little, Brown, 2010) and eight other works of non-fiction, including the Daily Telegraph book of the year Patrick O'Brian: A Life and the national bestseller Skeletons on the Zahara. For Unbound, which follows the struggles of the women marchers on the year-long, 4,000-mile Long March in China, in 1934, Dean interviewed the last surviving female marcher and trekked through the Tibetan Snowy Mountains of Northwest Sichuan province (see also "In the Land of the Human-Sucking Bogs" in Outside magazine, April 2010). The subject of a two-hour History Channel documentary filmed in Essaouira, Morocco, Skeletons is currently being developed as a feature film by Independent Film (London). Dean's writing has also appeared in Esquire, Men's Journal, National Geographic Adventure, the New York Times, and in the recent anthology Richmond Noir. 

Jon Kukla aims to present first-rate historical scholarship to a general readership. His recent books, Mr. Jefferson's Women (Alfred A. Knopf, 2007) and A Wilderness So Immense: The Louisiana Purchase and the Destiny of America (Alfred A. Knopf, 2003), were selections of the History Book Club and the Book of the Month Club. Born in Wisconsin, Kukla was graduated from Carthage College and took his Ph.D. from the University of Toronto. He lives and writes in Richmond, where he is working on a fresh narrative of the American Revolution under contract with Simon and Schuster.

David L. Robbins was born in Richmond and received his undergraduate and Juris Doctorate degrees from the College of William & Mary. He has taught creative writing at W&M and VCU, and has published nine novels, including his most recent, Broken Jewel, released in November 2009. He is a founding co-chair of James River Writers. At present, David is at work on his tenth, The Devil's Waters, a novel about Somali piracy. He is also the co-founder of The Podium Foundation, working in partnership with Richmond Public Schools to support and advocate the teaching and practice of writing skills in the city's high schools, and to create city-wide platforms of expression for RPS students.

Tom Robbins is the author of eight books, the latest being Wild Ducks Flying Backward (Random House, 2005), a collection of his short writings. He was the keynote speaker at the first James River Writers Conference (then called a Festival) in October, 2003.

David B. Robinson, CPA is an extremely well-rounded accountant whose greatest strength is that he has actually done and participated in things about which most other CPAs only talk, consult and advise. In 2005, after selling a large 1,300 client firm which he started in 1990 with five clients, he formed a new firm – Custer Robinson, LLC – that specializes in providing tax preparation and business strategy services to individuals engaged in media and the performing arts. He also accepts periodic employment contracts to be Chief Financial Officer of emerging and evolving entities. In fall 2009, he completed his 21-month position as Acting Chief Financial Officer of Richmond CenterStage, where his principal duties involved the final investor negotiations of the Federal and Virginia Historic and New Market tax credit portions of the $73.5 million dollar renovation of the Carpenter Theater and vacant Thalhimer’s Department Store into a new performing arts venue. While at Richmond CenterStage, he was also held responsible for financial statement preparation, external audit management, accounting and information systems design, tax preparation and pledge and cash flow forecasting.

Kirk Schroder is a partner in the Richmond-based law firm of Schroder Fidlow, PLC. A nationally recognized lawyer in the field of entertainment and art law, he is a lecturer in Entertainment Law at the University of Virginia School of Law and is the Chair-Elect of the American Bar Association Entertainment and Sports Law section. Kirk was named to the 2008 edition of The Best Lawyers in America® in the field of entertainment law. His clients in the entertainment field come from all over the United States and the world.

Ron Smith is Writer-in-Residence at St. Christopher's School and teaches in the Master of Liberal Arts Program at the University of Richmond. He is the author of two books of poems, Running Again in Hollywood Cemetery (University Presses of Florida) and Moon Road (LSU Press). A winner of the $10,000 Carole Weinstein Prize in Poetry, he is now one of the Curators for that prize. His essays and poems have appeared most recently in The Georgia Review, Shenandoah, Blackbird, Poetry Daily, and Aethlon: The Journal of Sport Literature.

In lieu of a law degree, Jason Tesauro pursued wine school and his affection for Viognier. By day, he serves as marketing director for Barboursville Vineyards. By night, Tesauro is coauthor of The MODERN GENTLEMAN: A Guide to Essential Manners, Savvy & Vice (Ten Speed Press, 2002) and The MODERN LOVER: A Playbook for Suitors, Spouses & Ringless Carousers (Ten Speed Press, 2004). He pens a wine & spirits column for The Sunday Paper (Atlanta, GA) and Richmond magazine, as well as manners/dating/sex/relationships columns for Maxim, Men's Health, Cosmopolitan, and Match.com. As a media spokesman, Tesauro has partnered with Johnnie Walker Blue, Orient-Express, and The Ritz-Carlton, where he currently leads The Modern Gentleman seminar series in Tysons Corner, VA. With his wife and two tots astride, Tesauro is presently scribbling his first novel ... with chubby crayons.

Sandra Treadway is director of the Library of Virginia. Prior to her appointment as Librarian of Virginia in July 2007, she served as deputy director of the Library and also as head of the Library's publications program. She is a graduate of Manhattanville College and holds a doctoral degree in American History from the University of Virginia and a master's degree in Library and Information Science from the University of Tennessee. She is the author of Women of Mark: A History of the Woman's Club of Richmond, 1894-1994 and has edited several other volumes on southern and Virginia history. She is a frequent speaker on Virginia and women's history topics.

Adriana Trigiani is beloved by millions of readers around the world for her hilarious and heartwarming novels. Adriana was raised in a small coal mining town in southwest Virginia in a big Italian family. She chose her hometown for the setting and title of her debut novel, the critically acclaimed and bestselling Big Stone Gap, followed by the sequels Big Cherry Holler and Milk Glass Moon. Since 2000, Adriana has delivered a novel a year to her devoted fans. Lucia, Lucia, The Queen of the Big Time, and Rococo were all instant New York Times bestsellers.