How did your debut novel arrive on the windswept plains of northwestern China in 1910? Despite the foreign terrain, in what ways were you writing what you know?

My father was born and raised in China as the son of Congregational missionaries in the early twentieth century. I grew up in a household decorated in part with Chinese objects and old, brown-tinged photographs of my grandparents. I have never been to China, but I have an impressionistic sense of the place. Also, I read my grandfather’s journals which document the eerie beauty of that region and some of the customs of the people there. I did some research, but I also relied a lot on my imagination. Apparently, I had a stored up sense of what China felt like at that earlier time.

For years, you approached your writing with great discipline and now you have six manuscripts and many stories and poems to show for it. How did you sustain such motivation over the years and largely on your own? What’s your daily writing routine? How does your short fiction experience inform your novel writing?

I have wanted to write books since I was ten. I scribbled in journals for years and then in high school wrote poetry and short stories. I had no idea what I was doing. In college I was privileged to study with Annie Dillard and I began to understand what is truly involved in writing books.

I think there’s a big difference between writing for oneself and learning to write for an audience. I say “learning to write” because I don’t always think it comes naturally. A person can be a great stylist or have significant ideas, but that doesn’t make them a storyteller who conveys meaning through character, setting and plot.

But back to the question of motivation: early on, I got it into my head that I wanted to write books and the more I persisted at doing that, the less I was able to turn back. After you write two novels, you might as well write three. Three, then four, etc. It takes a lot of practice—at least it has for me—but I did get better at it over time.

Also, as you become more serious as a writer as you learn that not all rejections are the same. In addition to the novels, I was always writing short stories and sending them out to literary magazines. I tended to aim high with those publications and was turned down a lot. But the rejection letters became more and more personal with time. I started to send stories to particular editors at the journals and that helped.

It also helps to go to conferences where you meet people in publishing. You have a face to go with the name. They’re just people—granted, very smart and hard-working people—but basically good, book nerds, just like the writers they turn down or accept.

I find writing short fiction incredibly difficult. To write a perfect, or even not-nearly-perfect, short story is every bit as miraculous as writing a novel of decent caliber. It takes a huge amount of discipline. Carrying any piece of writing to a finished, edited, carefully-wrought level informs every other piece of writing a person will do. It’s all about persistence, diligence, reading well and learning from past mistakes.

Your debut novel will be released May 14. What surprised you most about the path to publication after your book was picked up? What’s your best advice to aspiring authors about navigating the publishing process?

I’m so excited that River of Dust has been chosen as an Indie Next Pick for May! I’m thrilled. I worked with my editor at Unbridled Books on several drafts after he accepted the manuscript. Since then, I’ve been learning by the minute from wonderful professionals about book marketing and publicity. There’s a lot to learn, but luckily, in my case, I am being taught be terrific people.

My main advice to other writers both before and after publication is to remain grateful. Writing a book is a gift. Getting it published is a gift. Getting to share it with readers is an enormous gift. And I’m grateful to the incredibly knowledgeable and wise people who help make that happen.

You served as chair of JRW for several years. What do you value most about this particular community of writers? What significant role did the group–or individual members of it–play in your journey to authorship?

JRW is a terrific writers’ organization. I served as chair or co-chair for three years, was on the board for seven, and am still on the advisory board. I’m very proud of those years of service. I love how JRW holds up aloft a big umbrella for many types of writers to come under. We’re renowned in publishing circles for being super friendly and hospitable.

Thanks to the many JRW programs that have featured literary agents, editors, publicists and book doctors, we’re pretty savvy about publishing. We’ve learned to navigate social media—or, at least, have had opportunities to learn how to do that. And, as we’ve learned, we’ve had each other for good company. We understand what it means when one of us gets asked for pages from an agent. And we’re uniformly excited for one another when good news finally arrives. I’ve hardly ever known a more generous, encouraging and supportive group. I think we’re very lucky here in Richmond.

Is there anything I haven’t asked that you would like to share with readers?

I’d like to encourage fellow aspiring writers (because some part of me will always align myself with that camp) to persist, but not to do so with blinders on. It’s good to have your own vision for your work. Good to have a strong sense of your own purpose. But at a crucial point, you need to be willing to take advice and follow it. I tore up a manuscript that I’d worked on for five years to create River of Dust. I received brilliant help to do that. And I’m grateful that I did. Had I remained stubbornly stuck in my previous vision of the work, I might not have a published book now. So listen to your own voice, but when the time is right, do what a good editor tells you to do. They know what they’re talking about.

Maya Payne Smart is a professional writer who has contributed hundreds of articles to newspapers, magazines and websites, including Black Enterprise and CNNMoney.com. She also helps writers master the business side of the craft through coaching and local courses. 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. Maya has served on the board of the Society of American Business Editors and was the 2012 chair of James River Writers.

The Writing Show

Thursday, May 30, 2013
6:30-8:30pm
Children’s Museum of Richmond
2626 W Broad St, ample lot parking

Description

Have you reached the point when you can’t look at your manuscript a moment longer? It may be time for a fresh pair of eyes—and not just anyone’s. But what does working with a professional editor entail, and how will you feel about the result?

The latest in James River Writer’s Writing Show series delves deep into the editing process that resulted in the publication of Virginia Pye’s debut novel. River of Dust, selected as an Indie Next Pick and to be released on May 14, has been hailed by Annie Dillard as “terrific, tremendous, wonderful…a strong, beautiful, deep book.”

Pye, local to Richmond, and her editor, visiting award-winning author Nancy Zafris, a manuscript consultant and series editor for the Flannery O’Connor award for short fiction, will share the details of their successful collaboration. Patty Smith, a short fiction and nonfiction writer and teacher, will moderate the discussion about what had to change and Pye’s 20-year writing journey.

Panelists

Virginia Pye has an MFA from Sarah Lawrence College and has taught writing at the University of Pennsylvania and New York University. A three-term chair of James River Writers and member of the Advisory Board, she writes award-winning short stories that have appeared in numerous literary magazines including The North American Review, Failbetter, The Baltimore Review and Tampa Review. She has been awarded fellowships to the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts and the Acadia Summer Arts Program, and has attended the Tin House’s Writer’s Conference. Her debut novel, River of Dust, will be published in May 2013 by Unbridled Books and is an Indie Next Pick for May 2013.

Nancy Zafris is an award-winning author, series editor for the Flannery O’Connor award for short fiction, and manuscript consultant. Her first collection of short stories, The People I Know, won the Flannery O’Connor award as well as the Ohioiana Library Association award. Her two novels are the The Metal Shredders, a New York Times notable book, and Lucky Strike, a BookSense notable. She is the recipient of two National Endowment for the Arts grants and has taught at many universities, including Masaryk University in Brno, Czech Republic as a Fulbright Fellow. Each June she teaches at the Kenyon Review summer writer’s workshop, where she is also associate director. Her new collection of short stories, The Home Jar, was published in April 2013.

Moderator

Patty Smith is a writer and teacher of American literature and creative writing at the Appomattox Regional Governor’s School in Petersburg, VA.  A Massachusetts native, she received her MFA in fiction from VCU in 2001.  Her short fiction has been published in various literary magazines and her nonfiction has appeared in various anthologies including Something to Declare: Good Lesbian Travel Writing, University of Wisconsin Press, 2009 and Tied in Knots: Funny Stories from the Wedding Day, Seal Press, 2006.

Published authors Valley Haggard, Eliezer Sobel and Louise Hawes—with award-winning writer Gigi Amateau serving as moderator—discussed such maddening moments at JRW’s Writing Show on Thursday, April 25 at the Children’s Museum of Richmond. While each of these writers tackles stumbling blocks in a different manner, they all advocate clearing the mind to make way for creativity. The brain is like a rusty faucet, Sobel told the audience. You have to let the brown water run a while before clear liquid can emerge.

There is no single formula for cleaning clutter from the mind. Sobel led the audience in an exercise using closed eyes, a strumming guitar and a wordless melody to remove thoughts of “I . . .I. . . I.” Haggard starts each workshop she teaches by instructing her students to spend time completing an unfinished statement she gives them. Hawes relies on meditation and free writing to find clarity.

Haggard, Sobel and Hawes commented on feelings of inadequacy and writer’s block. Sobel is a self-described “binge writer” who writes only when he feels he has something to say. At those times, the words come so rapidly he can work uninterrupted for twelve or fifteen hours at a time. While Hawes believes it can be difficult, if not impossible, for writers to pen their thoughts immediately after tragedies such as 9/11 and the Boston Marathon bombing, she has no patience for people who say, “I can’t write today.” She believes writing requires discipline and feels she accomplished more as a single mother working full-time than she does now that she has the freedom of an empty nest. Haggard says that ten minutes a day can add up and told the tale of a woman who drafted a book by spending her lunch hours writing in a toilet stall at work.

The panel discussed some of the challenges of writing in a fast-paced, changing world. The Internet is a wonderful tool for research, but without discipline, a writer can waste time. “Do not expect your book to change your life,” Sobel warned. Getting published used to be the end of a journey; now it is the start of an adventure. A publishing industry in flux affects the writer’s role in marketing his or her work. The burden to publicize a book now falls on the author, not the publisher.

Writing requires discipline, but Sobel offered some humorous advice to anyone disheartened by the demands of the creative life. He saw the following message posted outside a Thai monastery: “Cut yourself some slack. In a hundred years, all new people.”

By Kathleen Sams Flippen, Writer/Owner of Spaces by KSF

Coming Up at the Next Writing Show

Thursday, May 30, 2013
6:30–8:30pm
Children’s Museum of Richmond

At our May Writing Show, “The Gritty Truth About Editing,” debut author Virginia Pye and manuscript consultant and author Nancy Zafris will discuss the editing process that resulted in the publication of Pye’s novel, River of Dust. Learn what had to change and about Pye’s 20-year writing journey. Moderated by Patti Smith. Registration coming soon.

Friday, May 31
9:00 a.m.–4:00 p.m.
2nd floor lobby of The Children’s Theatre of Virginia
1601 Willow Lawn Dr, Richmond, VA
Registration deadline: Friday, May 24

Nancy’s first collection of short stories, The People I Know, won the Flannery O’Connor award as well as the Ohioiana Library Association award. Her two novels are the The Metal Shredders, a New York Times notable book, and Lucky Strike, a BookSense notable. She is the recipient of two National Endowment for the Arts grants and has taught at many universities, including Masaryk University in Brno, Czech Republic as a Fulbright Fellow. Each June she teaches at the Kenyon Review summer writer’s workshop, where she is also associate director. Her new collection of short stories, The Home Jar, was published in April 2013.

Cost:

$150/JRW members:

$180/non-members:

Best-selling and award-winning author, professor of creative writing, and co-founder of James River Writers and The Podium Foundation, David L. Robbins will conduct a series of eight short fiction workshops weekly for advanced adult writers. The focus will be on craft, self-editing, and the structural components of good storytelling.

Wednesday evenings, June 19–August 7
6:30 p.m.—9:00 p.m.
VCU’s Honors College Building
703 E. Grace St., Richmond, VA
Registration deadline: Wednesday, June 5 

Cost: $500/JRW members
$550/non-members
10 person minimum/12 person maximum.

David is generously donating 100% of the proceeds to James River Writers and The Podium Foundation. 50% deposit, refundable if the class minimum is not met, is required at registration. The remainder is due by Wednesday, June 5. Refunds are available prior to June 5 with a $25.00 administrative fee.

$250 Deposit:

$250 Remainder for JRW members:

$300 Remainder for non-members:

Wednesday, May 1, 2013
11:00-12:00 p.m.
Free admission, please register
The University of Richmond Downtown

James River Writers is proud to partner with The Junior League of Richmond to present debut novelist Rhonda Riley to discuss her work, The Enchanted Life of Adam Hope: A Novel, to be published by Harper Collins on April 23, 2013. Author and JRW Chair Bill Blume will moderate a discussion about how Riley sold the novel, the process of finding an agent, and her work with her editor.

The Richmond Times-Dispatch calls The Enchanted Life of Adam Hope an “unforgettable novel… filled with memorable characters and passages of startling beauty” (see review).

During WWII, teenager Evelyn Roe is sent to manage the family farm in rural North Carolina, where she finds what she takes to be a badly burned soldier on their property. She rescues him, and it quickly becomes clear he is not a man…and not one of us. The rescued body recovers at an unnatural speed, and just as fast, Evelyn and Adam fall deeply in love. In The Enchanted Life of Adam Hope, Rhonda Riley reveals the exhilarating, terrifying mystery inherent in all relationships: No matter how deeply we love someone, and no matter how much we will sacrifice for them, we can only know them so well…

Rhonda Riley is a graduate of the creative writing program at the University of Florida. She lives in Gainesville, Florida, and is visiting Richmond for the 68th Annual Junior League Book and Author Dinner.

Please register for this free event.

The authors shared varied thoughts about audience. Bill responded that in his genre of young adult fiction, he avoids graphic details to ensure appropriateness for his son and daughter. Howard said his stories climax with an inevitable violent collision, although he avoids sensationalizing it, and not all of his characters are brutal. Hermine shared her approach: a commitment to being a witness and not thinking of her audience until she tells the story she needs to tell. Mary spoke about her switch from non-violent historical novels to suspense thrillers, in which the audience is comfortable with and expects violence. She shared that she experiments with different levels of violence, often finding the impact just as effective when she leaves as much as possible up to the reader’s imagination.

Doug then explored the topic of research and realism. The panelists underscored the importance of not losing a reader because of inaccuracies. Bill referred to his years as a 911 dispatcher as excellent fodder, although the work is necessarily desensitizing. “You pick up much more doing than reading,” Mary said, describing her participation in the Police Academy for Writers in Greensboro, the Henrico County Citizen Academy, and the FBI Citizen’s Academy. Howard said, “The writer is like a referee; you don’t know he or she is there. You want the reader to forget you.” He once asked a Richmond Times-Dispatch journalist who had witnessed many executions what it looked like, smelled like, and felt like. For Richmond Noir, Hermine visited Jackson Ward and chanced upon the old slave burial grounds that were at the time covered in a parking lot. The location became a turning point in her story.

The panelists discussed ways violence can be felt without describing the violent act, and the difference between “terror, horror, and the gross out.” They explored definitions of conflict and violence, and pondered why we are so fascinated by sociopaths. The panelists highlighted the importance of tension and establishing what the characters fear most, whether rats or dirt or blood. The reader must care about the victim. They suggested avoiding “torture porn,” when a writer adds to the body count without reason, because the reader becomes numb to it.

Audience members asked questions ranging from the role of comedy in violence to whether the panelists were worried about sociopaths mirroring their characters’ horrendous acts. One participant sought advice on how to improve her writing, and the panelists’ suggestions included writing numerous drafts, paying attention to how other authors choreograph violence, and walking slowly in the character’s shoes.

Last words: Different levels of violence work for different genres, audiences, and stories, and good writing requires research, revision, and purpose.

Coming Up Next

• The Writer Whisperer:
  Therapeutic Advice for All Manner of Writerly Woes

An astronaut lost in space, his pregnant wife who has been bald since birth, their autistic son and a street of seemingly perfect neighbors.

Author Lydia Netzer has peopled her debut novel – Shine Shine Shine – with a cast of offbeat characters whose differences illuminate the universal need to connect with others while remaining true to one’s self. Netzer uses math creatively to explain relationships and she sets part of her story in space, but Shine Shine Shine is not science fiction. It is a tale of love, motherhood and what it means to be human.

Shine Shine Shine was a New York Times Notable Book for 2012 and an Amazon Spotlight Book of the Month. It was shortlisted for the LA Times Book Prize in Fiction. Netzer will participate in JRW’s Writers Conference in October 2013 and was interviewed in April 2013 by Kathleen Sams Flippen, a design blogger who can be found at A Flippen Life.

QUESTION 1. You have stated in other interviews that you conceived the idea for Shine Shine Shine when you were pregnant with your first child and worried that you were too “weird” to be a mother. You wanted to explore the idea of transitioning from woman to wife and wife to mother and the need many people feel to hide their oddities and present themselves as “normal.” Was there any specific incident that made you realize none of us is perfect and it’s okay to stop pretending and “rip your wig off”, as your character Sunny does?

I definitely survived many moments of trying to cram the wig on my head although it didn’t properly fit! The casseroles I tried to make from scratch because that’s what the “good” wife does; the lunch party I tried to host using all my mother’s china for the other moms on the block who showed up in capris and t-shirts wondering why they were drinking soda out of crystal; the many outfits I have tried to put together where my shoes and my sweater have a working relationship; the quilts I tried to make. It was a little scary there for a while.

Honestly my kids were the reason I stopped pretending. Children don’t care about pretense, they don’t understand social pressures and expectations, and they love you even if your pants aren’t cut right. While they’re little, they behave in a completely unexamined and authentic manner, if it means pooping behind a bush at the park or trying to bite some kid at gymnastics or throwing a fit because they can’t climb the front of the post office — they’ll behave exactly how they are. And since it’s almost impossible for a mother of a toddler to maintain her facade of dignity throughout the experience, I decided to just shed mine gleefully.

QUESTION 2. You wrote a popular blog post entitled “15 Ways to Stay Married for 15 Years.” You also have written and published a book while homeschooling two children. Many mothers are conflicted by the need to find a creative outlet while nurturing their children. When Maxon of Shine Shine Shine tells his wife Sunny that “it’s all about priorities”, she becomes furious and claims he doesn’t understand that she is a mother 24/7. Do you have any words of wisdom for mothers who write and/or the spouses who love them?

That conversation between Sunny and Maxon was directly lifted from a conversation I had with my husband years ago. I vividly remember how mad I was and how self-righteous I felt in thinking “It is all about priorities, and the children are my priority!” It literally took years (and putting it in a book) for me to revisit that statement and understand it.

The truth is that if you want to be a writer, you must take time for your work. No one will give you that time because nobody really cares except you. They may care in an abstract way, but no one cares in their arteries and veins, in their breath, in their nerves, like you care. So you have to stand up for it, if you want it.

In terms of advice I would say two things. First, some people need to wait until their kids are a little older before they can undertake the amount of compartmentalizing that is needed to truly immerse in a novel. You must be able to separate yourself from your children and carve out a space in your brain where you can think dark thoughts, consider that the world might not be a place of sweetness and safety, and write bad things. If you need to wait until your kids are a bit older, then just wait. You’ll get there.

Secondly, I recommend getting away from the children twice a year, possibly even to another state, for at least three days at a time. Prepare for the fact that it might take you 24 hours to detach enough to write, and give yourself that time on top of the time it takes you to write a chunk of novel. Find childcare, lean on your spouse, your friends. It won’t be comfortable, and inevitably little junior will barf on the neighbor just as you’re pulling out of the driveway, or someone will have to rearrange something in a way that’s not ideal for them, and that is OKAY. You’ve been rearranging your life in a way that’s not ideal for you for a long time. You can take the time you need to make your work a priority for a limited time, and then go back to being a mom 24/7 with a refreshed mind and a big piece of novel in your laptop.

QUESTION 3.  Maxon and Sunny have an autistic son named Bubber, and Asperger’s and autism affect the families of Maxon’s NASA colleagues. Maxon, who uses mathematical formulas to guide his social behavior, proposes the idea that math-brained humans are evolving for a different type of society–one that relies more on technology, such as a moon colony populated by robots. Do you believe that the increasing rate of autism in children may be an evolutionary change rather than some medical “fluke” or “problem” caused by older parents, chemicals in our environment, or any of the other suspects being debated at this time?

I do believe it is an evolutionary change. However, I could be wrong. I don’t think anyone knows, and we might not know for 500 years. All we can do is help our kids get through this life with as much joy as possible, retaining as much of themselves as it’s possible for them to retain and still participate in the world.

QUESTION 4. I thought it was interesting that the robots Maxon has created to populate the moon are called Heras since Hera was the Greek goddess of women and marriage. Also, one of Hera’s symbols was the poppy, and you have said that the sight of poppies growing randomly in fields of grain in France helped explain the relationship between Sunny and Maxon. Do you spend a lot of time conducting research for your writing, or do ideas tend to come to you more serendipitously?

I named Hera on purpose. And there used to be rather a large section in the book where Maxon identifies with Hephaestus, the first robot-maker. That part got cut at some point, probably justly so–it was a little tenuous.

The poppy thing came about so miraculously. I was driving with my husband and kids through the Loire Valley. Our rented cottage was in a rural village and everywhere we drove we were passing these fields of grain, and they were shot through with rogue poppies. Everyone knows what this looks like–even if you haven’t traveled in France, you’ve seen it in art and maybe watching the Tour de France on TV. It’s iconic. I was trying to finish my novel at the time, just trying to get through my draft. And I looked out at those poppies growing all crazy through the very regimented, ordered rows of wheat, and I was almost knocked breathless with the understanding that this is how Maxon sees himself and Sunny–as poppies in the wheat. And I imagined him cycling through France and writing this poem to Sunny– this completely ridiculous “poem” that is just a simple declarative sentence: “We are poppies in the wheat.”

Don’t think I’m woo-woo crazy, but I made my husband pull over, and I took about 500 pictures of these poppies, and I actually cried, right there on the side of the road, because it was suddenly so easy to understand.

That was serendipity. However, there were things that research turned up–like the lava pipe that Maxon finds on the moon that reverberates with the well his brothers sent him down and the birth canal and the rocket’s shape. It’s the most fun thing about writing–when sparks start flying between different sections of your work, and you begin to see connections you didn’t intend.

QUESTION 5.  You spent ten years writing Shine Shine Shine because you are a self-described “binge writer” and you are homeschooling two children. Despite the length of time it took to write your first book, you were able to find an agent and editor rather quickly through your network of writer friends and without facing the rejection that many first-time writers encounter. I know that you have written a blog post stressing the importance of networking with other writers, but I think your advice would be invaluable to members of James River Writers and any aspiring writer. Would you mind sharing your thoughts about networking here?

The most important thing is to remember that success does not strike like lightning. Instead, it happens in clusters. It is very damaging to look around you at other writers and think, “Of all these people, I hope I get picked! Oh, gods of literature, choose me!” That’s just not how it works. Helping other writers, making genuine connections with people you admire, and nurturing lasting friendships with other writers–these efforts pay you back one hundredfold.

What you learn after publication is that, while championing your own book feels awkward and pushy, championing other people’s books is fun. It’s a wonderful feeling to find a book you love and shout about it from the rooftops. You miss out on a lot when you look at other writers as competition instead of comrades. We’re all in this together, and there is room for many books on the bookshelf!

The Writing Show

Thursday, April 25, 2013

Recap

 by Kathleen Sams Flippen

Description

Are you exhausted by your own mind? Struggling with writer’s block? Dejected by rejection? Do you need encouragement and solutions? Learn from writers who have been there and come out the other side. Join us for this month’s Writing Show for a healthy dose of inspiration on how to cope, from storming through that first draft to facing the publication process.

Award-winning young adult author Gigi Amateau will lead this month’s panel discussion on ways to overcome common pitfalls. Whether you struggle with establishing a routine, need a fresh approach, or simply want to feel less alone in the battle, come armed with questions and walk away recharged and ready to write.

Featuring Valley Haggard, Eliezer Sobel, and Louise Hawes.

Panelists

Valley Haggard is a freelance writer and creative writing teacher in the Richmond area. She teaches writing-from-life and creative nonfiction classes, workshops and retreats for adults at the Visual Arts Center of Richmond, Black Swan Books, Chop Suey Books and retreat centers around Virginia. She also teaches year-round for Richmond Young Writers, which she founded at Chop Suey Books in 2009 with the intention of introducing young people to the joy and craft of creative writing. She served as Style Weekly’s Book Editor from 2004-2011 and has taught creative writing classes for ART 180, the Virginia Museum, the Children’s Museum of Richmond, and the UVA Young Writer’s Workshop. Haggard has a BA in Creative Writing from Sarah Lawrence College and has served on the board of James River Writers.

Eliezer Sobel is a writer, musician and teacher who lives in Richmond. His books include The 99th Monkey: A Spiritual Journalist’s Misadventures with Gurus, Messiahs, Sex, Psychedelics and Other Consciousness Raising Experiments (2009), as well as Minyan: Ten Jewish Men in a World That is Heartbroken (2004), which won the Peter Taylor Prize for the Novel, and Wild Heart Dancing: A Personal One-Day Quest to Liberate the Artist and Lover Within. (1994). Spending time with his 86-year-old mother in the advanced stages of Alzheimer’s disease inspired Blue Sky White Clouds: A Book for Memory-Challenged Adults (2012). He was also the Publisher and Editor of the Wild Heart Journal, the New Sun magazine, and writes online for Psychology Today, Reality Sandwich, and the Huffington Post. Eliezer has led creativity and meditation retreats around the U.S. and is a certified teacher of The 5 Rhythms™ movement practice developed by Gabrielle Roth.

Louise Hawes is the author of two short fiction collections and over a dozen novels. Her work, for readers of all ages, has won awards from Banks Street College, the NJ Council on the Arts, the New York City Public Library, the Children’s Book Council, the Independent Booksellers Association, the International Reading Association, and the American Association of University Women, among others. Anteaters Don’t Dream, a collection of her stories, earned her a visit to Ole Miss as a John Grisham Visiting Author. Most recently, she collaborated with four other authors to produce A Flight of Angels, named one of the Ten Great Graphic Novels of 2013 by the American Library Association. Louise helped found and teaches at the Vermont College of Fine Arts MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults program, and has guest lectured throughout the United States. Louise and her three sisters, a painter, a filmmaker, and a musician, are currently offering Four Sisters Playshops around the world to give participants the chance to explore images, words, and song, and then to make an animated film about their experience.

Moderator

Gigi Amateau is the author of Claiming Georgia Tate, selected as a New York Public Library Book for the Teen Age and hailed by author Judy Blume: “It’s rare and exciting to discover a talented new writer like Gigi Amateau.” She is also the author of A Certain Strain of Peculiar, a Bank Street College Best Children’s Book of the Year, and Chancey of the Maury River, A William Allen White Masters list title for grades 3-5. Come August, Come Freedom, her first work of historical fiction, was selected by the Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance as a Fall 2012 Okra Pick and chosen by Bank Street College as a Best Children’s Book of the Year. In 2012, Gigi received a Theresa Pollak Prize for Excellence in the Arts from Richmond magazine. She earned a Bachelor of Science degree in urban studies and planning from Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU), and has worked in the health and human services sector for more than twenty years. Born in northeastern Mississippi in 1964, she was raised in Mechanicsville, Virginia, and lives in the city of Richmond. She serves on the James River Writers Advisory Board.