Presenters
Abdul H. Rashid, MBA, is a native of Flint, Michigan. He lives in Columbus, Ohio with his wife and two boys. Rashid originally got into story-telling art as a young boy, encouraged by his father. Over the years, he decided to put his creative work into business practice and has recently started the foundation of his own creator-original projects in traditional comic art and animation ventures. Rashid is an adjunct professor of business and he encourages the understanding of business practices to all artists to prepare them for business endeavors for their creative works.
Andrew Miller is a published writer, on‐air commentator and blogger whose focus is community-building using online social media and non‐traditional face‐to‐face communication techniques. Andrew consults with government agencies, non‐profits and small businesses to help them discover new ways to grow their outreach and become more effective at their core business.
Ann Palazzo received the University of Notre Dame’s graduate
William Mitchell award for her collection of short stories Fireflies
and has had her fiction and poetry published in The Juggler, Eclipse,
Spring Street, and the Bend. Palazzo is Associate Professor in the
English Department at Columbus State and teaches Creative Writing,
Writing Fiction, and Writing Creative Nonfiction.
Beki has been a singer/songwriter for over thirty years. She is an Associate Professor in Columbus State's English Department and teaches assorted writing courses at the college to enlarge her circle of wisdom.
David Rakoff’s New York Times bestsellers, Fraud and Don’t Get Too Comfortable, have established him as one of today’s funniest, most insightful writers. A two-time recipient of the Lambda Book Award for Humor, David Rakoff is a regular contributor to Public Radio International’s This American Life and The New York Times Magazine. He is also a correspondent for Outside and a Writer-at-Large for GQ.
Diane Mechem Kinser currently has four books in print, the most recent, The Mournng of Amalie, is a ghost murder mystery set in Vinton County, Ohio in the early 20th Century. Kinser is an English and Communications Instructor at CSCC and formerly Franklin University and the University of South Florida.
Eric Butterman is a freelance writer and teacher who has written for more than 50 publications, including Glamour and ESPN.com. His articles have allowed him to do everything from chatting with Venus Williams about her killer serve to finding out that Action Film Director John Woo would actually love to direct a musical. His students have credited his courses with helping them sell an article for as much as $4,000 and make four-figure deals before his course was even over. Butterman concentrates on using actual pitches that sold as examples and taking you through an understanding of every step that goes into succeeding in writing--including negotiating deals and how to turn one assignment into many. He's been a freelance instructor for the Editorial Freelancers Association, JournalismJobs.com and Ed2010.com. In addition, he's lectured at NYU and Harvard.
Eric Williams joined the Writers’ Guild of America when he wrote a two-hour Columbo movie of the week for Universal Studios. Since then, he has developed pilots for American Movie Classics and written more than a dozen original screenplays. His work received the Best New Work award from the WGA in 2000, and garnered the Ohio Arts Council’s Individual Excellence Award in Screenwriting in 2009. He has recently collaborated with director Alfredo DeVilla (Nothing Like the Holidays) and producer Carl Craig (Young Cesar, The Salon), and is currently adapting the anthology Voices From the Heartland into a television series for teenagers. Williams is an Assistant Professor in Screenwriting and Production at Ohio University.
James Barnes grew up in the Ohio River Valley region. He has been teaching and telling stories most of his life and continues to this day. A father and homeschooling dad, James holds a Masters in Ancient and Classical History, is an amateur archaeologist, and teaches outdoor and historical related courses to students of all ages. He now lives in a small town in northeast Ohio, near Lake Erie with his wife and children. He is currently working on his second book of Orenck. He is the author of Thief King. His next novel, Imposter, is forthcoming. He is the author of multiple short fiction stories, including “Vampire Nation: Subject 121,” “DNA Doc,” and “Adventures in Purgatory” (soon to be a graphic novel).
Julie is the author of the memoir Sickened, editors pick in People and Entertainment Weekly and top ten book in their year end issue. Published in over 20 countries, Sickened was named the number one best selling book of the year by The Sunday London Times and sold over 600,000 copies. She has interviewed with The BBC Worldwide, The Today Show, Good Morning America, Stern magazine and in publications around the globe. She’s been lucky enough to be blurbed by Augesten Burroughs and written about by Amy Sedaris in the NY culture magazine, Black Book. Her second title, Father’s Keeper was a top ten book on The London Times book list January, 2009. Julie is agented with William Morris Endeavor Entertainment in New York and is working on her next title.
Louise Robertson has a BA from Oberlin College and an MFA from George Mason University. She has won numerous awards for her poetry including the 1992 Mary Roberts Rinehart, multiple fellowships, and the 2006 (3rd place), 2007 (1st place), and 2009 (1st place) Columbus Arts Festival Poetry competitions. She runs a small press and is regularly featured at poetry readings in Central Ohio and nationally. Recently, she began the Columbus, Ohio series of Page Meets Stage. In addition to participating in poetry slams and open mics, she likes to hang out with her two children, play Scrabble, bike, swim, and roller blade.
Mike Wright is a poet who teaches at Columbus State Community College, Columbus, Ohio
Vivian has a long and varied writing career. She is a former
professional speechwriter, media person and page editor/ monthly
contributor for The Midwest Irish News. For eighteen years, Vivian
ran her own business – Lermond Communications – which featured her
talents as a keynote speaker and creator/facilitator of a broad
range of seminars and workshops for the public and private sector.
Vivian has thirteen produced plays to her credit. Her most recent
work debuted Off-Broadway in 2006. In 2008, Vivian turned to crime
(writing). Since then, she has completed two crime novels in a
series and is ready to start “pitching” to agents. She has been an
adjunct faculty member at Columbus State since 1977 and is a
recipient of the 2006 Distinguished Teacher Award.
Will Hillenbrand is a celebrated author and illustrator whose works include 52 published books for young readers. In addition to his own self-illustrated titles, he has also illustrated the works of writers and retellers, including Verna Aardema, Judy Sierra, Margery Cuyler, Judith St. George, Phyllis Root, Jane Yolen, Karma Wilson and Jane Hillenbrand. Will has lived almost all of his life in Cincinnati, Ohio, where he grew up, the youngest of four boys. Will's childhood routines centered around the neighborhood, his parents' barbershop, the Northern Hills Library, playing ball and drawing.
Willie Karidis worked for 16 years as the Executive Director of the Denali Education Center. While living in Alaska for over 25 years, Karidis homesteaded a remote parcel of land, produced several films and spent as much time as he could exploring the wilderness. Currently Karidis is writing a book about his Denali adventure that traced the path of the 1907-08 Alaskan wilderness journey of Charles Sheldon, a man who would champion the 1917 creation of the Denali National Park. Karidis is currently in production of the documentary film edited from over 50 hours of high definition video he shot while on his journey.