Workshop Leader Biographies

Browne, Susan - Susan Browne’s poetry has appeared in Ploughshares, River City, The Mississippi Review, Gargoyle, Margie and other literary journals and anthologies. Her awards include prizes from the Chester H. Jones Foundation, the National Writer's Union, the Los Angeles Poetry Festival, and the River Styx International Poetry Contest.  Her work was nominated for a Pushcart Award.  Selected as the winner of The Four Way Books Prize, her first book, Buddha’s Dogs, was published in 2004.  Susan teaches at Diablo Valley College, Esalen Institute and offers private workshops at her home in Oakland. Currently, she has completed her second book of poetry, a first novel, and is working on a memoir. See her Web site at www.redroom.com/author/susan-browne.

Burkhardt, Amy  - Amy Burkhardt joined the Reece Halsey North Literary Agency in 2007 and brings experience as a critical reader, an editor, and a writer herself. She enjoys both literary and commercial adult fiction, as well as narrative nonfiction, memoirs, mysteries with a twist, and historical fiction. In any genre, she looks for accomplished writing, quirky and compelling characters, fresh voices, timely themes, and a good dose of wit. She enjoys stories that teach the reader about human nature and the world, as well as narratives that open new perspectives to the reader. Amy is also currently enrolled in the MFA in Writing program at the University of San Francisco and is working on her first novel.
For more information, go to www.reecehalseynorth.com

Chaltas, Thalia  - Thalia Chaltas has been a member of the Society for Children’s Books Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI) for ten years. She has always been a writer, but kept trying to be other things first. Now she’s a writer first.  Her Young Adult novel in verse, Because I Am Furniture, was released in April 2009 with wonderful reviews. Visit her Web site at www.thaliachaltas.com.

Chandler, Stephanie is an author of several business and marketing books, including From Entrepreneur to Infopreneur: Make Money with Books, eBooks and Information Products and The Author's Guide to Building an Online Platform: Leveraging the Internet to Sell More Books. She is the founder and CEO of Authority Publishing, a custom book publisher specializing in business, self-help and non-fiction books. A frequent speaker at business events and on the radio, she has also been featured in Entrepreneur Magazine, BusinessWeek, Inc.com and many other media outlets.
See her Web site at www.stephaniechandler.com.

Coffman, Lisa - Lisa Coffman has received fellowships for her poetry from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Pew Charitable Trusts, and the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts. Her first book Likely won the Stan and Tom Wick Poetry Prize from Kent State University Press; her poems have been published in journals including The Southern Review, River City, and The Beloit Poetry Journal.  A graduate of New York University’s Creative Writing Program, Coffman has been a visiting professor at Deep Springs College and a resident poet at Bucknell University.  She teaches at California Polytechnic University.

Cook, Charlotte - Charlotte Cook, MFA and president of KOMENAR Publishing, has more than 15 years experience as a publisher, story editor and writing teacher. She has developed many writers and six novels for publication that have received awards and excellent reviews. She’s participated in writers' conferences across the nation, including Willamette and South Carolina Writers Workshop. Her book Write Ideas: A Publisher Looks at Publishing Successfully in the Twenty-First Century is with an East Coast agent. See her Web site at www.komenarpublishing.com or http://fictionwriteideas.blogspot.com.

Lehr, Leslie - Leslie Lehr is a prizewinning author, essayist and screenwriter whose six books include Wife Goes On, 66 Laps, and coming soon, The Long Way Home. She has a MFA from Antioch, a BA from USC School of Cinematic Arts, and teaches at the Writers Program at UCLA Extension.  For more information, go to www.leslielehr.com.

Macias, Kathi - Kathi Macias is a multi-award winning author of nearly thirty books including The Train of Thought Writing Method and Beyond Me: Living a You-First Life in a Me-First World. She has taught creative and business writing in venues all over the United States. She recently won the prestigious 2008 Advanced Authors/Speakers Association (AWSA) Member of the Year Award and the grand prize in an international writing contest.
See her Web site at www.kathimacias.com.

McLean, Laurie - Laurie McLean is an agent at Larsen Pomada Literary Agents, the oldest literary agency in Northern California. She handles adult genre fiction (romance, fantasy, mystery, science fiction, westerns, horror, etc.) and middle-grade and young-adult books.  
See her blog at www.agentsavant.com and her Web site at www.larsenpomada.com.

Menger-Anderson, Kirsten - Kirsten Menger-Anderson is the author of Doctor Olaf van Schuler's Brain (2008), a collection of linked short stories following a long line of peculiar physicians. Her short stories have been published in Ploughshares, the Southwest Review, Post Road, the Maryland Review, and elsewhere. Her work has been short listed for the Richard Yates Award, the Glimmer Train Short Story Award for New Writers, the Iowa Review Story Contest, and the Andre Dubus Award.
For more information, please see her Web site at http://www.kirstenmengeranderson.com.

Perret, Gene - Gene Perret has written and produced many of TV’s top-rated shows, winning three Emmies as part of “The Carol Burnett Show” staff.  He wrote for Phyllis Diller and was on Bob Hope’s writing staff for almost 30 years, the last 12 of those as Hope’s head-writer.  Gene has also published humorous articles in Reader’s Digest, McCall’s, Good Housekeeping, and many others. He also wrote a monthly humor column, “Wit Stop,” for Arizona Highways for over nine years.  Gene has published over 40 books, including one of the top selling books on comedy writing, The New Comedy Writing Step by Step. His most recent is his first fiction book called, Breakfasts with Archangel Shecky.

Sands, Katherine - Katherine Sands, a literary agent with the Sarah Jane Freymann Literary Agency, has worked with a varied list of authors who publish a diverse array of books. She is the agent provocateur of Making the Perfect Pitch: How to Catch a Literary Agent's Eye, a collection of pitching wisdom from leading literary agents. Actively building her client list, she likes nonfiction books that have a clear benefit for readers' lives in categories of food, travel, lifestyle, home arts, beauty, wisdom, relationships, parenting, and fresh looks, which might be at issues, life challenges or popular culture. For faction, memoir and femoir, she likes to be transported to a world rarely or newly observed; for fiction, she wants to be compelled and propelled. See the Jane Freymann Web site at www.sarahjanefreymann.com.

Sawyer, Thomas B - Thomas B Sawyer, a novelist, screenwriter, and playwright, was Head Writer/Showrunner of the hit CBS series, Murder, She Wrote, as well as 15 other network TV series. He wrote, directed and produced the cult film comedy, Alice Goodbody, is co-librettist/lyricist of Jack, an opera about JFK that has been performed to acclaim in the US and Europe. He is publisher of Storybase 2.0 writer’s software. Both his book, Fiction Writing Demystified, and Storybase are Writer's Digest Book Club Selections. He’s the author of the bestselling mystery/thriller, The Sixteenth Man, and his new thriller, No Place to Run. Mr. Sawyer has been nominated for an Edgar and an Emmy.
See his Web site at www.ThomasBSawyer.com.

Shahan, Sherry - Sherry Shahan is the author of 30 books for young readers, including adventure novel Death Mountain (Peachtree) and bilingual picture books Spicy Hot Colors/Colores Picantes and FIESTA!  A Celebration of Latino Festivals.  She holds and MFA in Writing For Children and Young Adults and is an instructor with UCLA Extension.  See her Web site at www.SherryShahan.com.  

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