OPENING REMARKS, Third floor, Grand Ballroom

Joseph Barbato, president of WIW, author, journalist and a contributing editor for Publishers Weekly

PLENARY SPEECH, Third Floor, Grand Ballroom

The plenary speaker is Sara Nelson, editor-in-chief of Publishers Weekly (PW). An author and veteran book reviewer, Nelson joined PW in January 2005. Prior to joining PW, Nelson was best known for her publishing columns in the New York Post and the New York Observer. She also made a name for herself covering the publishing industry for Inside.com, was a senior contributing editor for Glamour, held editorial positions at Self and Book Publishing Report, and was a contributor to other publications including The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal.

MEMOIR AND FICTION: BRIDGING THE DIVIDE

Long before the controversy over James Frey’s memoir A Million Little Pieces, writers struggled with the difference between writing a memoir (taking creative license with their memory) and writing fiction. This panel will discuss the differences and the best approaches to working with autobiographical material.

Moderator: Joseph Barbato, president of WIW, is an author and journalist who writes about books and authors. He is working on a book about Frank Sinatra and the American 1940s.

Marie Arana is the editor of The Washington Post Book World. She is the author of a memoir, American Chica; and a novel, Cellophane, due out this month from The Dial Press. She’s served on the board of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists and the National Book Critics Circle.

Marita Golden is an award-winning novelist, essayist and teacher of writing whose books include the novels Long Distance Life, A Woman’s Place, And Do Remember Me, and The Edge ofHeaven and the memoirs Migrations of the Heart and, most recently, Don’t Play in the Sun: One Woman’s Journey Through the Color Complex. She founded and served as the first president of the African American Writers Guild.

Larry L. King is a novelist, journalist and playwright. He is the only writer to be a finalist for a unique “Triple Crown” of American letters: a National Book Award, a Broadway Tony and a television Emmy. He is the author of The One-Eyed Man, a novel, and many nonfiction titles, including The Old Man and Lesser Mortals and, most recently, In Search of Willie Morris. He is working on a memoir, Safe At Home: Life in World War II America.

THE CARE AND FEEDING OF YOUR EDITOR AND AGENT

Writers are often so focused on finding an agent or publisher that when they do land one, they ignore the important relationship they must cultivate. Writers will learn important and practical tips about maintaining a productive relationship with an agent and editor as well as how to decide when it’s time to end the relationship.

Moderator: Jeff Herman, founder of The Jeff Herman Agency, has represented clients both famous (Jack Canfield and Mark Victor Hansen, authors of Chicken Soup for the Soul) and infamous (Gennifer Flowers, author of Sleeping with the President: My Intimate Years with Bill Clinton). His own books are Write the Perfect Book Proposal and the annual Writer’s Guide to Book Editors, Publishers and Literary Agents. 

Barbara Burkhardt, an assistant professor of English at the University of Illinois at Springfield, is the author of William Maxwell: A Literary Life, a biography of the famous New Yorker editor.

Keith Donohue lives in Maryland, near Washington, D.C. For many years, he was a speechwriter at the National Endowment for the Arts. Nan A. Talese/Doubleday published his first novel The Stolen Child in May 2006.

Katharine Munzer Rogers’ most recent book, First Friend: A History of Dogs and Humans, was published by St. Martin 's Press in August 2005. It traces the long relationship between people and their first animal friend.

Kathleen Gilles Seidel’s 13th novel, A Most Uncommon Degree of Popularity was published in March by St. Martin’s Press. Seidel has a Ph.D. in English literature from Johns Hopkins University, and her previous novels have won every major romance-market award.

WRITERS v. THE GOVERNMENT: ACCESS TO GOVERNMENT
            RECORDS IN 21st CENTURY AMERICA

In the midst of the War on Terror, writers face ever-greater difficulty gaining access to public records. How does the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) work? What will the new government information policy mean to writers? Our experts address strategies for access and key developments, and will try to answer your questions about obtaining information.

Moderator: David O. Stewart is the author of The Summer of 1787: The Men Who Imagined America’s Constitution, forthcoming in early 2007. He hasn’t quite quit his day job, practicing law with Ropes & Gray, LLP.

Andy Alexander is the Washington Bureau Chief for Cox Newspapers. He has reported on events in Washington since 1976, after starting out as a reporter with the Melbourne ( Australia ) Herald, and the Dayton Journal Herald. He recently completed a term as Chair of the Freedom of Information Committee of the American Society of Newspaper Editors and is a recipient of the Washington Press Club’s Raymond Clapper Award.

Rick Blum is the coordinator of the Sunshine in Government Initiative (SGI), a coalition of media groups promoting openness in the federal government. Blum spent the past nine years in Washington, D.C., advocating for the public's right to know. Prior to joining SGI in April 2006, Rick was director of penTheGovernment.org (OTG), a broad-based national campaign to fight government secrecy. While at OTG, he was the principal author of the annual Secrecy Report Card, using measurable indicators to document growing government secrecy.    

Seymour Hersh, perhaps America’s premier investigative writer, won a Pulitzer Prize for breaking the My Lai atrocity story in The New York Times during the Vietnam War. Writing for The New Yorker almost 40 years later, he continues to break new national security stories, this time about the Iraq War. He’s the author of numerous books, including Chain of Command: How We Got From 9/11 to Abu Ghraib and The Dark Side of Camelot.

Daniel J. Metcalfe is the first and only Director of the Office of Information and Privacy, at the U.S. Department of Justice. In his almost 30 years with the government, he’s supervised the defense of more than 500 lawsuits under the Freedom of Information Act. Now serving as a principal advisor to the Department of Homeland Security on post-9/11 information policy, he has primary responsibility for implementation of Executive Order 13392, the first executive order on the FOIA, which takes effect in June.

READING YOUR WRITING IN PUBLIC

Bring one page of writing—yours or someone else's—and practice presenting it in this fun, interactive session. Or, if you prefer not to read aloud to strangers, come listen and learn about public reading techniques and tips. We'll start with demonstrations on how to read aloud—and how not to. (Co-sponsored by the Master of Arts in Writing Program of Johns Hopkins University.)

Moderator: Journalist and teacher David Everett has read in front of scores of groups and taught public reading techniques for more than a decade. His journalism and writing have won many awards, including awards from the National Society of Professional Journalists,  University of Missouri, Associated Press, National Press Club and Overseas Press Club. His reporting, investigative work, feature articles, essays, reviews and humor writing have appeared in many newspapers and magazines, including The New York Times, The Washington Post, Philadelphia Inquirer, Chicago Tribune, Detroit Free Press, Los Angeles Times, Salon.com, Preservation, Car & Driver, Time and Road and Track. He’s taught writing, journalism and editing at the university and professional level since 1986. A contributing author of three nonfiction books, Everett now directs and teaches in the Master of Arts in Writing Program at Johns Hopkins. He also is director and a faculty member of the 2006 Hopkins Conference on Craft in Florence, Italy.

WRITING FOR NONPROFITS AND TRADE ASSOCIATIONS

In addition to politicians, The Washington Nationals, federal workers and Ben’s Chili Bowl, Washington, D.C., is also known for nonprofit and trade associations. Whether it’s a white paper, press release, brochure or newsletter and magazine writing, Washington, D.C. is a large market for freelance writers. In this session you’ll hear from folks who have tapped the market from inside and out.

Moderator: Michael Causey, WIW board member, has done freelance work for telecommunications and educational trade associations and has written various materials for nonprofits.

Nathan Abse is a writer, editor and journalist, currently reporting as Senior Correspondent for Federal Employees News Digest and federaldaily.com. His work has appeared in the Washington Post and the London Independent. He spent years as a staffer at both newspapers before going on to co-found and lead the editorial departments of a political activism website, SpeakOut.com and two popular online publications funded by the DuPont family, Policy.com and IntellectualCapital. He has contributed to numerous books, notably an investigative probe of the tobacco industry, Cornered, as well as a counterpart British ITV documentary. His freelance work has included writing and editing everything from business books to political reporting for numerous publications, including the Carnegie Endowment's Foreign Policy, the business publisher Briefings, and an online daily newswire covering the homeland security field.

Anne Farris is a national freelance journalist based in Washington, D.C. who reports and writes about government and politics. She is currently the Washington Correspondent for the Rockefeller Institute's Roundtable on Religion and Social Policy project. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The St. Louis Post-Dispatch and The Arkansas Gazette. She has contributed to several books, including Blood Sport, and is the author of Test Pilot, a biography of Stanley H. Kaplan. She also reports for BBC Current Affairs and other English-based film documentary companies. She is the author of "The House We All Live In: A Report on Immigrant Civic Integration" and "Democracy's Movement: Moving from Crisis to Positive Change," both published by the Carnegie Corporation of New York.

Julie Phillips-Turner has over a decade of experience with marketing and communications, offering an array of services including public relations, issue awareness campaigns, strategic planning, event planning and promotions, creative management, newsletter and magazine publishing, and Web site management, with specialization in association, nonprofit and healthcare industries. Prior to establishing Phillips Turner Communications, Phillips-Turner worked with The American Association for Homecare as director of communications and the Voluntary Protection Programs Participants’ Association as communications manager, and e-mail marketing agency Fishbowl.com as design director.

Robert Udowitz, former communications executive with the Satellite Broadcasting & Communications Association, has also worked at several large PR agencies in New York and Washington and has been a full-time freelance communications specialist for two years. His former and present clients include several trade associations.

NONFICTION AGENTS ROUNDTABLE

Working on a piece of nonfiction? In a market saturated with biographies, how-to and self-help books, how do you know what’s really selling and what’s not? Find out from four leading literary agents if your book has what it takes.

Moderator: Howard Yoon is the vice president and editorial director of the Gail Ross Literary Agency. He serves as a literary agent and editorial consultant for serious adult fiction and nonfiction. He has 14 years of publishing experience as a writer, ghostwriter, editor and agent, and is the co-author of Begging for Change, with Robert Egger (HarperCollins Business), which won the 2005 McAdams Award for Best Book on the Nonprofit Sector.

Kate Epstein founded the Epstein Literary Agency in October 2005, after four years of acquisitions experience at Adams Media, a medium-sized publisher of nonfiction on a wide variety of topics. Her nearly 80-title acquisition list included The Badass Girl's Guide to Poker, Pregnancy Sucks and The Tao of Horses. Epstein travels periodically to New York City—a quick train ride from her Boston-area location, and is actively building relationships with editors at publishing houses large and small.

Jeremy Katz is a literary agent with Sanford J. Greenburger Associates. He’s been an editor for 15 years, first at St. Martin ’s Press, where he published the New York Times best-selling book The Arthritis Cure. He then joined Putnam, publishing breakout health, fitness, and narrative titles. Katz was recruited by Rodale to lead its nascent Men’s Health and Sports Book Group, publishing more than 30 titles a year and helping to define the modern notion of men’s publishing. While there, he published two New York Times bestsellers: Pete Rose: My Prison Without Bars and million-copy franchise The Abs Diet.

Linda Konner founded The Linda Konner Literary Agency (LKLA) in 1996. She’s been in the publishing business for 29 years as an agent, author, editor, columnist and lecturer. Konner represents approximately 85 authors of adult nonfiction books. LKLA also handles a number of business clients, including the historic City Tavern restaurant in Philadelphia, Conde Nast’s Modern Bride magazine and The Prudential, as well as such celebrities as comedienne Phyllis Diller; musician Al Kooper, formerly of Blood, Sweat and Tears; Maurice Ashley, the first and only African-American international chess grand master; Congresswomen Loretta Sanchez and Linda Sanchez; and Yrma Rico, one of the founders of Univision.

CONTRACTS AND COPYRIGHTS

Contracts and copyright can be hard enough to understand without the gigantic monkey wrench of the Internet. Here is how to understand your print and electronic rights and get the best deal. (Co-sponsored by Washington Area Lawyers for the Arts.)

Moderator: John Lowe is a retired partner of Finnegan, Henderson, Farabow, Garrett & Dunner, L.L.P., where he was a trial lawyer specializing in intellectual property litigation. He took early retirement in order to broaden his professional activity into a general law practice and works in that area as John Lowe, P.C. He argued and won the First Amendment landmark case Bigelow v. Virginia in the United States Supreme Court. He was co-counsel in the 1969 lawsuit that forced the University of Virginia to admit women.

Copyright Issues:  Lisa Dunner is formerly a partner with McDermott, Will & Emery and founded Dunner Law in Washington, D.C., in 2003. She specializes in copyright and trademark law and has extensive experience in enforcement and protection of intellectual property rights both domestically and internationally. Dunner also counsels in the area of e-commerce and develops, drafts and negotiates IP-related agreements and licenses.

Internet Issues: Jeff Cunard is managing partner in the Washington, D.C., office of Debevoise & Plimpton, L.L.P. He practices in the areas of information technology and intellectual property law, including copyright litigation, e-commerce transactions, and U.S. and international media and telecommunications law. He is an internationally recognized practitioner in the field of the Internet and cyber law.

Contract Issues: Savery Gradoville is a partner from the Washington, D.C., office of Steptoe & Johnson, L.L.P. She has more than 35 years of experience in intellectual property contracts, including book deals. Gradoville is experienced in structuring, drafting documentation for and negotiating a wide variety of contractual transactions, including licensing and transfer of copyrights and trademarks. She prepares and negotiates appropriate acquisition, transfer, funding, licensing and other contracts formalizing transactions (e.g., publishing and production contracts), protecting and exploiting clients' respective talent and publicity rights.

THE FINANCES OF WRITING

For most writers, the hardest part is earning a living. Whether you maintain a “day” job or supplement with commercial writing, this panel will share their tips on tax breaks, lucrative markets, writing grants and other tools of the trade for making a living from your writing.

Moderator: Alan Portner is a freelance writer and the president of The Assignment Desk LLC. The Assignment Desk provides editorial and marketing services for clients in the Washington, D.C., area. Before retiring from the newspaper industry, he published daily newspapers in Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Iowa, Illinois, Maryland and Virginia. Portner’s been the chief operating officer and senior vice president of newspaper groups headquartered in Florida and Missouri and part owner of newspapers in Kansas, Iowa and South Carolina. Portner is WIW’s treasurer. His reporting is published nationally, and he participates in writing and photography projects for governmental, corporate, non-profit and agency clientele.

Catherine Franz, a closet-writer for 10 years, made a huge splash to make up for lost time. In 2000, she won her college scholarship on poetry. Previously, she built one of the area’s top CPA firms. After having 6,000-plus articles published, she graduated from radio training and currently produces and hosts the weekly, soon-to-be-nationally-syndicated talk show Let’s Talk Marketing at WEBR Fairfax. A majority of the show’s guests are writers. She not only can see in a flash how the numbers affect a tax return, but also how information sells in any marketplace in the world.

Ellen Hoffman is a writer, author and speaker on personal finance and retirement issues and has been a member of WIW since it was founded. She has written two books on retirement: Bankroll Your Future with Help From Uncle Sam and The Retirement Catch-Up Guide.A veteran Washington, D.C., reporter, Hoffman writes a retirement column for Business Week Online and is a frequent contributor to the “personal business” section of Business Week magazine. Her articles have also been published in numerous magazines including Money, Reader’s Digest, Individual Investor, New Choices for Better Living After 50 and the AARP Bulletin. She’s been a reporter at The Washington Post, and the Washington, D.C., columnist for Retire With MONEY, a newsletter previously published by Money magazine.

Geoffrey Robert Livingston has written more than 200 articles for publications in the technology industry. His work has been published by the Washington Post, he’s the co-author of the McGraw-Hill book GSM Superphones and he published a 90-page CommunicationsNOW white paper and a poem in the Ebbing Tide. For the past 13 years, Geoff has worked as a marketing strategist in the Washington, D.C., region, where he creates and writes branding, marketing and media relations campaigns for organizations including AT&T, the Duke Ellington Jazz Festival, former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the VSA Arts Festival, Hughes Network Systems, Goodwill of Greater Washington and Intelsat.

Peter J. Ognibene has been a member of WIW since its founding, written hundreds of articles for newspapers and magazines, and published a political biography, Scoop: The Life and Politics of Henry M. Jackson, and a novel, The Big Byte. He continues to write fiction, but makes his living as a proposal manager and writer for high-tech companies.

LUNCHEON AND KEYNOTE SPEECH, Third floor, Grand Ballroom

Brian Lamb, a founder and chief executive officer of the C-SPAN television network, is the keynote speaker. Lamb is perhaps best know to writers as the host of the C-SPAN show Booknotes, for which he interviewed more than 600 nonfiction book authors from 1989 to 2004. He’s published several books based on the series. Lamb now hosts a weekly program, Q&A, for which he interviews people from a wide range of backgrounds, such as journalists, teachers, politicians, authors and technology innovators.

Special interest tables to include: General Fiction, General Nonfiction, Commercial Writing, Journalism, Scriptwriting, Science Writers, Children’s Writers, Biography, Travel, Historical Fiction, and Science Fiction/Fantasy, Mystery and Speech Writing

AFTERNOON AGENT PITCH SESSIONS, Check-in Room 310

THE FASCINATING, CHALLENGING WORLD OF SCIENCE WRITING

Science, technology and medicine: Hardly a day goes by without word of a significant advance in one of these technical arenas or a study providing new insight into the state of the world. Scientific concerns help frame political agendas; technology influences cultural expression. Because such developments directly affect the lives of so many, the public is eager for science news and analysis. What does it take to get into this high-profile beat and to cover it the right way? How can you identify important stories and market them successfully? What’s needed to develop enough expertise to write with authority and still hold the reader’s interest? Get answers to these and many other questions from some of the most prominent writers and editors in their fields.

Moderator: Lester Reingold has been a freelance writer and editor for nearly 30 years, concentrating primarily on aviation and space. He’s written for magazines such as Air & Space/Smithsonian, American Heritage and Condé Nast Traveler and newspapers such The Washington Post and USA Today, plus many aerospace trade publications. His first book, a pictorial history of the Wright Brothers’ hometown—Dayton, Ohio—was published last year. Reingold’s a commentator for WAMU and for NPR’s Morning Edition. After the accident that destroyed Space Shuttle Columbia, he served as Lead Editor in the investigation. A former WIW Board member, Reingold won the 2004 Washington Writing Prize for Reported Nonfiction and was runner-up in the 2003 competition.

Beryl Lieff Benderly is a prize-winning freelance health and behavior writer and author or co-author of eight books, most recently Her Works Praise Her: A history of Jewish women in America from colonial times to the present. Her articles have appeared in national publications ranging from Glamour to Oncology News. She’s a contributor to Science magazine and writes a monthly column for its Web site. Benderly serves on the board of the National Association of Science Writers, which presented her its Diane McGurgan Award. She’s been an officer and a board member of WIW, which gave her its Philip M. Stern Award, and has served on the boards of the American Society of Journalists and Authors and the Washington, D.C., Science Writers Association. Benderly’s taught science writing at the University of Maryland School of Journalism and at workshops in Mexico, Chile and Panama.

Patricia Trenner started her editing career at Flying Magazine in 1977, serving on a special staff hired for the magazine’s 50th anniversary issue. As a perk, the magazine sent her to flight school to finish the requirements for a private pilot license. In the mid-1980s, she learned that a former Flying staffer was named editor of a new magazine to be published by the National Air and Space Museum. Over the course of 20 years, she worked her way up to senior editor of Air & Space/Smithsonian. She has edited special projects such as the Smithsonian’s book on the space shuttle’s first 20 years. In 2003, she took a leave of absence from the magazine staff to serve as copy editor for the Columbia Accident Investigation Board.

SMALL GROUPS FOR WRITERS, ENSURING RHYME AND REASON

Whether you’re looking for camaraderie, compassion or constructive feedback, small writers groups can offer you the network you need to turn your ideas into publishable work. Learn what makes some groups thrive while others fail, what you should look for in a writers group and who you should try to bring into your group.

Moderator: Ruth Schimel writes primarily about professional and personal development for the Web site Recipes for Action: Small Steps to the Life You Want and her practice as a career and life management consultant. She’s also a member of WIW’s Creative Non-Fiction Writers Group. As a member and leader of various small groups, she has experienced first hand what makes them fractious as well as worthwhile.

Ken Ackerman, author of three published books (and working on a fourth), has used small critique groups as an essential tool in writing and developing each one. His most recent, Boss Tweed: The Rise and Fall of the Corrupt Pol who Conceived the Soul of Modern New York, was a New York Times notable book for 2005.

Caralee Adams has been a freelance writer for 10 years, covering education, parenting, health and personal finance topics. She works part-time around the schedules of her three children. In 1999, Adams started a small writers group in the  Bethesda  area. What began as four writer-moms chatting over coffee has grown to a group of about 25. Each month, any combination of about eight members meet to swap story ideas, vent about editors and encourage each other’s work.

Kathy Brown Ramsperger has over two decades of journalism and humanitarian affairs experience and has written two novels. Ramsperger’s Small Group meets at The Writers Center weekly to offer each other constructive criticism, support and fun. As a result of being a group member, she’s finished and is now revising her second novel, Incongruent. 

FICTION AGENTS ROUNDTABLE

What’s hot and what’s not? Find out what’s new in the fiction market, and hear from four top literary agents about how to get your material out there and make an impact.

Moderator:Julie Culver started her publishing career as a minion finding and selecting supplementary materials for Glencoe/McGraw-Hill textbooks (translation: photo-copy girl). She went on to manage the production department at Samuel French, Inc, an international publishing company, and then the foreign rights department at Lowenstein-Yost Associates, where she also began her career as an agent. Culver now directs the international rights department at FOLIO Literary Management, where she also balances a select list of clients. Passionate for all things international, she represents authors from all over the world who write commercial and young adult fiction.

Jennifer Cayea of Avenue A Literary LLC is building a select list of emerging authors of fiction and non-fiction. Cayea’s recent projects include Here, There, and Everywhere (Gotham Books), a memoir about the Beatles; Real Life, Real Love (Berkley) by world renown spiritual leader Father Albert Cutie; and The Girl from Charnelle (William Morrow) by Prairie Schooner Prize winner K.L. Cook. Cayea also represents CBS’s Mario Bosquez, Sofia Quintero, Black Artemis, Yasmin Davvids, Rosario Marin and E-Fierce. Prior to starting her own literary agency, she was an agent and the foreign rights director of Nicholas Ellison, Inc., a division of Sanford J. Greenburger Associates.

Sorche Fairbank is the founder of Fairbank Literary Representation, a small selective agency in Harvard Square. Her clients include first-time authors and international bestsellers, prize winning-journalists and professionals at the top of their fields. She has a strong interest in women’s voices, class and race issues, war and its alteration of people and nation, and works addressing the meeting of art and science. She represents best-selling authors such as Robin Moore, Xaviera Hollander, Edgar-winner and Pulitzer Prize nominee John McAleer, AP Journalist of the Year David Yonke, jazz legend Benny Golson, Edgar-winner Rex Burns, and political dynamo and sportswriter Charles Euchner.

Michael Mancilla, literary agent with Greystone Literary Agency, has been nominated for the 2004 Lambda Literary Award for his nonfiction writing. He’s a graduate of New York University 's Publishing Program for Literary Agents where he studied with The Peter Rubie Literary Agency. Greystone Literary primarily represents authors of quality non-fiction books with a strong interest in the fields of psychology, health, self help, social justice, ethnic/gay/lesbian studies, compelling biographies, popular science, spirituality, history, culture, business, sexuality, relationships and parenting.

TAPPING THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT WRITER'S MARKET

It's arguably the biggest market in our market. Despite what each successive U.S. President declares, the federal workforce and its budget keep getting bigger and bigger. That may be bad news for the taxpayer, but for writers in the D.C. area it's a potential goldmine. In this session you'll learn from some real Washington insiders what it is like to crack and write for the federal market. Think of it as a way to get some of your tax dollars back.

Moderator : Michael Causey, WIW Board Member, was basically "born" into the federal government market (see his father Mike below).

Mike Causey, for more than 30 years he was the Cal Ripken of daily journalists. Writing The Federal Diary Column in The Washington Post for seven days a week, and then getting a "break" to just write it for six. He left the Post a few years back and is now Senior Correspondent for WTOP and its FederalNewsRadio and leads the weekly "Ask Mike Causey" program. His writing for feds also appears in The Washington Times and  Federal Employee News Digest, among other places.

Chris Prawdzik, a journalist for more than 16 years, is now Senior Editor at National Guard magazine, published by the National Guard Association of the United States, a nonprofit group for Guard Officers. Also a freelance writer, he writes a bi-weekly fitness column and occasional features for Army Times newspapers, and his work has appeared in dozens of publications nationwide.

Elizabeth Saloom, Managing Editor for Federal Employee News Digest in Reston, Va. In addition to being a print and radio journalist, she's also worked as a real-live government employee at the National Cancer Institute.

BREAKOUT SESSIONS

HAVING YOUR VOICE HEARD THROUGH COMMENTARY AND ESSAY

Writing your opinions and life experiences in your own voice can be rewarding—and a great marketing tool—but can be hard to sell. At the same time, newspapers, Web sites and radio shows often are in need of opinion writers more than you might think.

Moderator: Leslie Pietrzyk is the author of two novels: Pears on a Willow Tree (Avon) and A Year anda Day (William Morrow). Her essays and fiction have appeared in The Sun, The Washingtonian, Gettysburg Review, Iowa Review and many other journals. She teaches in the graduate writing program at Johns Hopkins University and works privately with individuals.

Mike Long is an author, essayist, commentator and speechwriter whose work has appeared—either under his name or ghosted for his many political and business clients—in numerous newspapers, magazines and Web sites including The Weekly Standard, National Review, New York Daily News, Newsweek Interactive, the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times  and USA Today. He’s the creator of the syndicated feature, Too Tough for TV: Rejected Jokes of the Late-Night Comics at www.inopinion.com and has been a contributing editor for culture at the Washington, D.C., Examiner newspaper.

C.M. Mayo is the author of Miraculous Air: Journey of a Thousand Miles through Baja California, the other Mexico ; and Sky Over El Nido, which won the Flannery O'Connor Award for Short Fiction. Her many other awards include three Lowell Thomas Awards for travel journalism and a WIW Award for Best Personal Essay. She is also the editor of an anthology of Mexican fiction and literary prose in translation, Mexico: A Traveler's Literary Companion. Mayo divides her time between Mexico City and Washington, D.C., where she’s on the faculty of the Writers Center.

Bill O’Sullivan is a features editor at The Washingtonian, where he edits both freelancers and staff writers. He’s published his own essays and commentaries in The New York Times, Newsday, the Washington Post, the Washingtonian, National Geographic Traveler, and the North American Review, among others. His work has been cited three times among the notable essays of the year in The Best American Essays. O’Sullivan teaches the personal essay at the Writer’s Center in Bethesda.

WRITERS’ RETREATS: ARE THEY FOR YOU?

They can be the best thing that ever happened to your writing—or not. Our panelists discuss the writers’ retreats they know and offer advice on how to explore the scores of options and find the right place to pursue your work.

Moderator: Adam Meyer is a novelist, screenwriter and television writer. His first novel, The Last Domino, was an ALA Quick Pick for Reluctant Young Adult Readers, and his second novel, When She's Gone, is due out from Putnam in 2007. He's written more than 50 hours of programming for Fox, CBS, Discovery, and others, and his first independent feature film, Two Fireflies, will be making the festival circuit this fall.

Caroline Preston is the author of three novels: Jackie by Josie (a New York Times Notable Book of the Year); Lucy Crocker 2.0; and Gatsby’s Girl, which Houghton Mifflin recently published. She’s been a resident at Ragdale, in Lake Forest, Ill., many times, and has also been to Yaddo, in Saratoga Springs, N.Y. She lives in Charlottesville, Va., with her husband, writer Christopher Tilghman, and their three sons.

Robin Rausch is the author of “The House that Marian Built: the MacDowell Colony of Peterborough, New Hampshire,” published in American Women: A Library of Congress Guide for the Study of Women’s History and Culture in the United States. She’s working on a biography of the colony’s founder, Marian MacDowell, and recently completed a history of the MacDowell Colony, forthcoming in A Place for the Arts: the MacDowell Colony, 1907-2007. Rausch is a senior music specialist at the Library of Congress.

Amy Schapiro is the author of Millicent Fenwick: Her Way, the first biography of the New Jersey Republican best remembered as the pipe-smoking grandmother in Congress and as the model for Garry Trudeau's Doonesbury character Lacey Davenport. Schapiro, a senior social science analyst with the U.S. Department of Justice in Washington, D.C., has done research and writing at the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts in Sweet Briar, Va.

MARKETING YOURSELF

Sadly, unless you are famous, marketing yourself and your book is an essential ingredient to success. Learn how to put together a press kit, build a Web site, ins and outs of using a publicity agent, and dozens of practical tips about making certain your book is noticed when it’s published.

Moderator:James McGrath Morris’s most recent book The Rose Man of Sing Sing: A True Tale of Life, Murder, and Redemption in the Age of Yellow Journalism was selected as one of the best non-fiction books of 2004 by the Washington Post. He’s currently writing a new biography of Joseph Pulitzer for HarperCollins.

Christopher J. Abraham is the blog strategist and technologist for New Media Strategies, Inc. He’s an expert on blogging and the blogosphere.

Bijan C. Bayne is the author of Sky Kings: Black Pioneers of Professional Basketball, which was named to the Suggested Reading List of the Basketball Hall of Fame in 2004. In 2002, he won the Robert Peterson Research Award for his presentation "The Struggle of the Latin American Ballplayer," given at the National Baseball Hall of Fame. Bayne's work appears in the book Baseball in the Carolinas (McFarland 2002) and anthology Basketball in America (Haworth 2005). Bayne's guest lectured on the social significance of the life of Jackie Robinson at The George Washington University. His travel articles have appeared in AAA Horizons, Family Digest and Hotel Executive, and his book reviews have been featured in the Washington Post Book World, the Boston Herald and The Crisis.

Paul Dickson is the author of more than 45 nonfiction books and numerous magazine articles. Although he has written on a variety of subjects from ice cream to kite flying to electronic warfare, he now concentrates on writing about 20th century history, baseball and the American language. His most recent book is The Bonus Army: An American Epic.

HUMOR IN WRITING

Writer and stand-up comic Basil White shows how to add humor to any kind of writing in this entertaining interactive session. Come laugh and learn. (Co-sponsored by the Master of Arts in Writing Program of Johns Hopkins University.)

Moderator: White is a stand-up comedian, published joke writer (Judy Brown's Squeaky Clean Comedy), public speaker and business humor consultant. He helps add funny to presentations, advertising, movie scripts and user manuals. White also writes articles and online courses on creative technology. White has an M.A. in Science Writing from Johns Hopkins University.

MEET THE AUTHORS AND AWARDS RECEPTION, Cash Bar, Grand Ballroom

Beryl Lieff Benderly, chair of the Washington Writing Prize Committee, will announce the 2006 Washington Writing Prize winners.