Brooke is the publisher of She Writes Press and SparkPress, president of Warner Coaching Inc., and author of Write On, Sisters!, Green-light Your Book, What’s Your Book?, and three books on memoir. Brooke is a TEDx speaker and the former Executive Editor of Seal Press. She currently sits on the boards of the Book Industry Study Group, the Bay Area Book Festival, and the National Association of Memoir Writers. She writes a monthly column for Publishers Weekly.

Topic: Reality of Writing Memoir: Concept into Practice

Alexa Bigwarfe is a USA Today best-selling author, publisher, founder and CEO of Write|Publish|Sell, and host of The Women in Publishing Summit. Alexa owns three hybrid publishing houses, Kat Biggie Press, Chrysalis Press, and Purple Butterfly Press. She enjoys educating authors and publishing industry professionals, building community and networks for success. Connect with her everywhere @womeninpublishingsummit.

Topic: The Business of Writing of How to Keep Your Sanity

Paulette Perhach is an author and writing coach with work in the New York Times, Elle, Vice, Marie Claire, Yoga Journal, and McSweeney’s Internet Tendency. Her book is Welcome to the Writer’s Life, which was selected as one of Poets & Writers’ Best Books for Writers. She continues to write about writing craft, business skills, personal finance and joy at WelcomeToTheWritersLife.com.

Topic: How to Get Your Work Out into the World

Leah Lax was raised in a Jewish family in Dallas, Texas, close to her immigrant grandparents, so that, growing up, she learned both to crochet and ride a horse. Then she joined the hasidim and spent thirty years among them trying to reclaim the roots her family had left behind. Now on the other side of all that and grateful for second chances, she has published award-winning fiction, nonfiction and prose poetry. Her work for stage includes major productions with both the Houston Grand Opera and the Houston Symphony.

Topic: Writing Tenacity

In her more than thirty years as a storyteller and visual designer, Amanda “Mandy” Hughes has written and designed over a dozen works of literary, Southern Gothic, and women’s fiction under pen names A. Lee Hughes and Mandy Lee.Mandy is the founder of Haint Blue Creative, a space for readers and storytellers to explore, learn, and create. She holds a Bachelor and Master of Science in Psychology, and she has worked as an instructional designer for nearly twenty years.

When she’s not writing, Mandy enjoys the movies, theater, music, traveling, nature walks, birdwatching, and binging The Office. She is a tarot enthusiast who uses the cards to enhance creativity and foster wellness. She lives in Georgia with her husband and four sons, two of whom are furrier than the others (but not by much). 

Topic: Using Tarot to Tell Your Story

Lewis Jorstad is a developmental editor and writing craft author who teaches up-and-coming writers the skills they need to write their dream novels. His goal with The Novel Smithy is to help authors build a robust writing toolkit, full of everything they need to create stellar casts, powerful plots, and amazing story worlds.

Topic: How Plot Structure Links to Character Development

Susan Greisen was raised on a remote farm in Nebraska, attended a one-room grade school and graduated top of her high school class of sixteen. At nineteen she joined the Peace Corps in Africa and never looked back. Her work as a nurse and adventure travels have taken her to fifty countries on six continents. Susan won first place in 2020 by Chanticleer Books International Awards (CBIA) and Best Peace Corps Memoir of the Year 2020-21 for her book: In Search of Pink Flamingos. Susan was also chief editor and contributing author to the anthology, Never the Same Again: Life, Service and Friendship in Liberia. This publication of 63 stories and poems by 50 authors won the National Peace Corps Association (NPCA) award in 2023 for “Outstanding Community Service.” The goal of this book is to inform others about being a global citizen, promoting peace, and the importance of providing community service to those at home and abroad.

Topic: Writing about the Peace Corps and Other Philanthropic Pursuits

Dr. Linda Eckert is a board-certified obstetrician and gynecologist and an internationally recognized expert in immunizations and cervical cancer prevention. She has worked as a consultant with the World Health Organization on global cancer prevention for the last fifteen years, facilitating policy development for the HPV vaccine and cervical cancer screening. She is a professor of obstetrics and gynecology with an Infectious Disease Fellowship at University of Washington’s Departments of Obstetrics and Gynecology and Global Health. 

Dr. Eckert has recently been in the national spotlight for her expertise regarding HPV vaccination and COVID-19 vaccines in pregnancy, including being interviewed on NPR’s Here & Now, a syndicated radio news show with five million listeners. She also has a new book out called Enough: Because We Can Stop Cervical Cancer.

Topic: Visions of Changing the World

Grant Faulkner is the Executive Director of National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) and the co-founder of 100 Word Story. He has published two books on writing, Pep Talks for Writers: 52 Insights and Actions to Boost Your Creative Mojo, and Brave the Page, a teen writing guide. He’s also published All the Comfort Sin Can Provide, a collection of short stories, Fissures, a collection of 100-word stories, and Nothing Short of 100: Selected Tales from 100 Word Story. His stories have appeared in dozens of literary magazines, including Tin House, The Southwest Review, and The Gettysburg Review, and he has been  anthologized in collections such as Norton’s New Micro: Exceptionally Short Fiction and Best Small Fictions. His essays on creativity have been published in The New York Times, Poets & Writers, Lit Hub, Writer’s Digest, and The Writer. He serves on the National Writing Project’s Writer’s Council, Lit Camp’s Advisory Council, and Aspen Words’ Creative Council. He’s also the co-host of the podcast Write-minded.

Topic – The Art of Brevity

C. Hope Clark wears a lot of hats as a writer. She’s known for her award-winning mysteries consisting of 16 books in three series, but then, again, in other circles she’s known for her website FundsforWriters.com and the newsletter that reaches 24,000 writers/readers. Writer’s Digest selected FundsforWriters for its 101 Best Websites for Writers recognition for the past 20+ years, and she often writes for the Writer’s Digest family in terms of blog, articles, and presentations. She lives in South Carolina on the banks of Lake Murray, with her best selling series being the Edisto Island Mysteries, published by Bell Bridge Books, set on one of the state’s most secluded beaches. She speaks often to conferences, book clubs, service organizations, and writers groups.

Topic – Writing as careeer: pitfalls and pinnacles

Jennie Nash is the founder and CEO of Author Accelerator, a company that trains, certifies, and supports book coaches so they can help writers do their best work. They’ve certified more than 130 coaches in fiction and nonfiction and are on a mission to lead the emerging book coaching industry. Jennie’s own coaching clients have landed top New York agents and six-figure book deals with traditional publishing houses such as Penguin, Scribner, Simon & Schuster, and Hachette, and won dozens of national indie book awards. Client KJ Dell’Antonia’s novel, The Chicken Sisters, was an instant New York Times bestseller and Reese Witherspoon Book Club pick. Client Jenn Lim’s business book, Beyond Happiness: How Authentic Leaders Prioritize Purpose and People for Growth and Impact, was a Wall Street Journal bestseller. Jennie is the author of 11 books in 3 genres, including Blueprint for a Nonfiction Book: Plan and Pitch Your Idea and Blueprint for a Book: Build Your Novel from the Inside Out. 

Topic – Writing Coaches: Why to Hire One, How to Choose One, and How to Become One

Cami Ostman is the founder of The Narrative Project, a nine-month program that helps writers get their books done. She is also author of the book Second Wind: One Woman’s Midlife Quest to Run Seven Marathons on Seven Continents, and the editor of several anthologies. Cami believes that words are powerful that we CREATE our identities with words—we tell our truths with words.

She holds a B.Ed. in English from Western Washington University and an M. S. in Marriage and Family Therapy from Seattle Pacific University. She has been profiled in Fitness Magazine and her books have been reviewed in O Magazine, The Atlantic, and Washington Post.

Topic: The Psychology of Writing

Lisa Dailey is the publisher at Sidekick Press, website designer at Silent Sidekick, and author of Square Up: 50,000 Miles in Search of a Way Home. Her mission is to guide authors through their publishing journey. With more than twenty years of writing and publishing experience in the technology arena, Lisa brings a wealth of knowledge to help her clients promote their big idea with everything from formatting manuscripts to full book production, website maintenance to new website design and automation.

Topic: How Travel Can Ignite Your Writing Life