2010 Chattahoochee Valley Writers' Conference Workshop Leaders

Sarah C. Campbell,
Photos + Stories = Winning Nonfiction & Earn $$ Before Getting Published

Sarah C. Campbell is an award-winning author and photo-illustrator. Her critically-acclaimed first book, Wolfsnail: A Backyard Predator (Boyds Mills Press), was named a 2009 Theodor Seuss Geisel Honor Book and won the Maryland Blue Crab Young Readers Award for Beginning Nonfiction. Her new book, Growing Patterns: Fibonacci Numbers in Nature, was published on March 1 and went into a second printing six weeks later. Campbell's writing and photographs have appeared in numerous publications, including The New York Times, Highlights for Children, and Highlights' High Five.

J. Anderson ("Andy") Harp , Resources to Add Ring of Authenticity to Your Thriller

Andy Harp was born on the banks of the Mississippi River in the town of Helena, Arkansas. As a youth, his parents moved the family to rural Southern New Jersey, where he graduated from Vineland High School in 1969. While at VHS, he became a high school track star, which led to an athletic scholarship to American University in Washington, D.C., and his participation in, among many other things, running at Madison Square Garden in the U.S. Olympic Invitational. He graduated from American in 1973. He graduated from Mercer University's Walter F. George School of Law in 1980.

After American and before law school, he signed up with the United States Marine Corps. As a young officer, he served with both the artillery and small mountain warfare, arctic instructor survival group. He was a Regimental Battery Commander with the 11th Marines, and became Instructor in Charge of the Instructor Group at the Mountain Warfare Training Center in Bridgeport, California. He also trained in the Arctic Circle and at Fort Greely, Alaska, where a typical day was 44 below zero. While in the Arctic and at Bridgeport, he lived in ice caves, rappelled off cliffs and out of helicopters, taught military cross country skiing, and taught both mountain and cold weather survival.

Upon graduation from law school, Harp began his legal career as a District Attorney in Cordele, Georgia, where he prosecuted felonies. At the same time, he continued his Marine Corps career in the Reserves. He rose through the ranks to become a colonel. He served in many billets and locations around the world. As a logistics officer, he served in South Korea and once briefed the Commandant of the Republic of Korea's Marine Corps. He also served in Central America, the Persian Gulf, and Europe, and at the Pentagon. While at the Pentagon, he served in the Secretary of Defense's Executive Support Center and with Reserve Affairs. In his final billet before retiring, he served as the Officer in Charge of the Crisis Action Team for Marine Forces Central Command and Marine Forces Pacific. Harp was mobilized for Operation Enduring Freedom. In 1997, he was elected National President of the Marine Corps Reserve Officer's Association. His decorations include the Defense Meritorious Service Medal, Meritorious Service Medal, and Navy Commendation Medal

A civil trial attorney after leaving the District Attorney's Office, he has participated in cases in more than eight states, from Texas to Florida, in a practice built around the representation of injured railroad workers.

Much published in the legal field, Harp has also been a regular attendee of the Iowa Writers Workshop's Summer Festival. Andy was recently inducted into the International Thriller Writers Association.

Rick Campbell, First the Poem, Then the Book

Rick Campbell's newest book of poems is Dixmont, from Autumn House Press. His other books are The Traveler's Companion (Black Bay Books, 2004); and Setting The World In Order (Texas Tech 2001) which won the Walt McDonald Prize and A Day's Work (State Street Press 2000);. He's won a Pushcart Prize, an NEA Fellowship in Poetry, and two poetry fellowships from the Florida Arts Council. He's published poems and essays in many journals including The Georgia Review, The Florida Review, Prairie Schooner and many others. He is the director of Anhinga Press and the Anhinga Prize for Poetry, and he teaches English at Florida A&M University in Tallahassee, Florida. He was born on the Ohio River 20 miles downriver from Pittsburgh and lives in Gadsden County, Florida.

Jessica Handler , Writing Through Grief

Jessica Handler's first book, Invisible Sisters: A Memoir (Public Affairs, 2009) has been named by the Georgia Center for the Book as one of the "Twenty Five Books All Georgians Should Read," and is one of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution's "Eight Great Southern Books in 2009." The book is also Atlanta Magazine's "Best Memoir of 2009." Her nonfiction has appeared in Tin House, The Writer, Brevity.com, More Magazine, and Southern Arts Journal, and been heard on NPR. She received the 2009 Peter Taylor Nonfiction Fellowship for the Kenyon Review Writers' Workshop, and a special mention for a 2008 Pushcart Prize. Handler teaches creative writing in Atlanta, Georgia.

John P. Travis , Publishing in Today's World

John P. Travis, Editor and Publisher of Portals Press in New Orleans, teaches American Literature and Creative Writing at Our Lady of Holy Cross College. He has written for several publications and is a graduate of West Georgia College and Northeastern University (in Boston). His novel, Pitching in the Dark, won the Hackney Literary Award. In his workshop he will discuss a wide range of aspects about publishing, share his knowledge about small, independent and regional presses, and present important information regarding the revolution in publishing, marketing and distribution that is now underway. He will also provide handouts with data of relevance to today's authors.

Carey Scott Wilkerson, Poetry About Poetry: How Language Looks at Itself

Carey Scott Wilkerson is a member of the English department at Columbus State University where he teaches composition, literature, and creative writing. His work has appeared in many publications including e-ratio, zafusy, Word/for Word, X-stream, and Amaryllis. He is a recipient of a 2009 residency fellowship from the Lillian E. Smith Center for Creative Arts and has been a visiting writer at Clayton State University. He is co-founder of Dead Academics Press, an independent publisher of avant-garde poetry and fiction. He holds an MFA in Creative Writing from Queens University of Charlotte. His book of poems Threading Stone is published by New Plains Press, which will also publish his new collection in Spring 2011.

Elsie Austin, How to Write a Novel in 30 Days

Elsie Austin is a veteran of the 30-Day Novel genre and has completed the annual online event for the past 5 years. She conducted a "30-Day Novel" 6-week workshop at Columbus State University, Continuing Education, in November and has just completed another 6-week course, "Awaken the Writer within You" there, as well. Elsie has written two screenplays that earned her a coveted invitation to Ken Rotcop's semi-annual "Art of the Pitch" workshop in Hollywood in 2007. Her screenplay mentor, Esther Luttrell, worked at MGM for many years and Elsie has attended her workshops from Burt Reynolds' Ranch to Providence, Rhode Island, as well as Boston and Concord, MA and Miami, FL. She is a member of Georgia Poetry Society and has had her poetry published in its annual "Reach of Song," and is treasurer of Chattahoochee Valley Writers. She has also been a contributor to Columbus' "Playgrounds Magazine" for several years.