Mendocino Coast Writers Conference: Conference Faculty

Penny Nelson is an agent at Manus & Associates Literary Agency and is looking for non-fiction titles based on current events, social issues,business and lifestyle trends, self-help, natural sciences, and sports. She is seeking out authors with strong expertise in their area of interest, journalistic or academic backgrounds, and/or a new twist on universal themes.

Penny brings to Manus and Associates and her clients many years of experience in media, talk radio, and publishing. She began her career in public radio at NPR's Fresh Air with Terry Gross. She went on to become an award winning public radio producer and host, and frequent interviewer/moderator for live events. Because of her background, she offers her clients a strong sense of what the current reading public wants, what the media wants, and how to capitalize on what new trend is right around the corner. And, she believes sincerely that any topic can be made fascinating with good writing and a solid strategic approach.

	Back to Faculty List	Charlotte Gullick, Director Charlotte Gullick is a novelist, essayist, poet, editor, and educator who grew up in Mendocino County. In 2000, she received a Colorado Council on the Arts Fellowship for her collection of poetry, The Midwifery of Dreams. Her first novel, By Way of Water (Penguin Putnam), was chosen by Jayne Anne Phillips as the Grand Prize Winner of the Santa Fe's Writer's Project for 2002. Charlotte teaches Memoir, Novel, Short Fiction, Poetry, and Composition, and she has taught in a variety of settings, including College of the Redwoods and the Sebastopol Art Center. She has been the director of the Mendocino Coast Writers Conference since 2005. In November 2007, Charlotte was awarded a Christopher Isherwood Fellowship.
	Visit Her Website Back to Faculty List	Ellen Bass Ellen Bass's most recent book of poetry, The Human Line (Copper Canyon, 2007), was named a Notable Book of 2007 by the San Francisco Chronicle. Mules of Love (BOA, 2002) won the Lambda Literary Award. Journal publication credits include The Atlantic Monthly, The American Poetry Review, Ploughshares, Field, and The Kenyon Review. Among her awards for poetry are a Pushcart Prize, the Elliston Book Award, The Pablo Neruda Prize from Nimrod/Hardman, the Larry Levis Prize from Missouri Review, the New Letters Prize, the Greensboro Award, the Chautaqua Poetry Prize, a Fellowship from the California Arts Council and a Fellowship from the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts. She has also written nonfiction books for gay, lesbian and bisexual youth and women survivors of child sexual abuse She teaches in the MFA writing program at Pacific University.
	Visit Her Website Back to Faculty List	Gennifer Choldenko Gennifer Choldenko's first novel, Notes from a Liar and Her Dog, was a School Library Journal Best Book of the Year and a California Book Award winner. Her second novel, Al Capone Does My Shirts, was a Newbery Honor Book and a School Library Journal, Kirkus, and Publishers Weekly Best Book of the Year. Al Capone Does My Shirts was short-listed for the Carnegie in the United Kingdom and has been on the New York Times, Booksense, and Publishers Weekly bestseller lists. Gennifer's novels have been translated into 11 languages. Her new picture book, Louder, Lili (illustrated by SD Schindler), was just published this September along with a new novel from Harcourt called If a Tree Falls at Lunch Period, which has been named a Booksense Pick of the List.
	Back to Faculty List	Kathy Dawson Kathy Dawson is the Associate Publisher at Dial Books for Young Readers, which is an imprint of Penguin USA. Prior to Dial, Kathy worked for seventeen years at G. P. Putnam's Sons Books for Young Readers, editing such books as Al Capone Does My Shirts by Gennifer Choldenko, Getting Near to Baby by Audrey Couloumbis (Newbery honor award), and Fat Kid Rules the World by K. L. Going (Printz honor book). In 2005 she moved to Harcourt where she edited several novels, including Evil Genius by Catherine Jinks, Dragon's Keep by Janet Lee Carey, and Graceling by Kristin Cashore, in addition to Gennifer Choldenko's If a Tree Falls at Lunch Period. And in January of this year she joined Dial. She acquires middle grade and young adult fiction, and looks for literary fiction with a strong voice she can trust, deep character development, wisdom, humor (deadpan, especially), strong and unique sense of place and time, and clear knowledge of craft on the author's part. She also looks for commercial fiction with thrilling plots such as Life As We Knew It by Susan Beth Pfeffer.
	Back to Faculty List	Robin Ekiss Robin Ekiss's first book of poems, The Mansion of Happiness, is forthcoming from the University of Georgia Press's VQR Poetry Series in November. Ekiss's poems have appeared in The Atlantic Monthly, POETRY, APR, TriQuarterly, Ploughshares, The Kenyon Review, The New England Review, and elsewhere. In 2007, she received a Rona Jaffe Foundation Award for emerging women writers, and has received scholarships and residencies from the Bread Loaf Writers� Conference, Millay Colony for the Arts, and MacDowell Colony. A former Stegner Fellow at Stanford, she is currently an Affiliate Artist at the Headlands Center for the Arts, and lives in San Francisco.
	Back to Faculty List	Stefanie Freele Stefanie Freele's short story colection Feeding Strays will be released by Lost Horse Press in 2009. Recent or forthcoming credits include Glimmer Train (Second Place Family Matters Contest), American Literary Review, South Dakota Review, Talking River Review, Literary Mama, McSweeney�s Internet Tendency, Westview, Frigg, Caf� Irreal, Permafrost, Hobart, and Contrary. Stefanie has a MFA from the Northwest Institute of Literary Arts: Whidbey Writers Workshop. After serving as the 2008 Writer In Residence for SmokeLong Quarterly, she recently has joined their editorial staff.
	Back to Faculty List	Pilar Graham Pilar Graham is a poet, essayist, and memoir writer. She has an MFA in creative writing from California State University, Fresno. Inspiration for her material evolves from the natural world, memory, and the longing to understand the dynamics of love, desire and distance in response to one's emotional and physical landscape. Pilar's poems have appeared in Mutant Mule Review: Anthology of Contemporary American Poetry, In The Grove, and San Joaquin Review. She has served as a literary editor for traditional publications as well as online journals. Her creative nonfiction has been published in Poetry Midwest. She has completed a full-length memoir, Land on Water and is completing a collection of creative nonfiction essays that explore the connection of memory, the concept of home and the self in relationship to landscape. Pilar's blog is at http://metaphorandmemory.blogspot.com/.
	Back to Faculty List	Bonnie Hearn Hill In 2004, Bonnie Hearn Hill left her day job after signing two back-to-back three-book contracts with MIRA Books. In 2006, her short story, Part Light, Part Memory, appeared in Death Do Us Part, a Mystery Writers of America anthology edited by Harlan Coben. After publishing six thrillers with MIRA, she signed with Running Press/Perseus Books for three young adult astrology novels, which are due any day now (and will be published in 2010). A newspaper editor for 22 years, as well as a national conference speaker and columnist/freelancer for a number of magazines, including Publishers Weekly, she has been mentoring writers since 1990. She is especially proud that The Tuesdays, the Fresno, California writing class she began at that time, is now 100 percent published. Her first speaking engagement was at the third Mendocino Coast Writers Conference.
	Back to Faculty List	Micheline Marcom Micheline Aharonian Marcom is the author of Three Apples Fell from Heaven which was a New York Times Notable Book and Runner-Up for the PEN/Hemingway Award. The Daydreaming Boy won the 2005 PEN/USA Award in fiction and was named a best book by the Los Angeles Times and the San Francisco Chronicle. The third book in the trilogy, Draining the Sea, was published in March 2008. Her fourth novel, The Mirror in the Well, was published by Dalkey Archive in September 2008. Marcom received a Lannan Literary Fellowship in 2004, a Whiting Writers' Award in 2006, and Fulbright Senior Specialist Fellowship to go to Beirut, Lebanon in Spring 2009.
	Visit His Website Back to Faculty List	Robert McDowell Robert McDowell is the bestselling author of Poetry As Spiritual Practice: Reading, Writing, and Using Poetry in Your Daily Rituals, Aspirations and Intentions (Free Press/Simon & Schuster, July, 2008). McDowell's poems, stories, essays, and reviews have appeared in hundreds of magazines and anthologies here and abroad, including Best American Poetry, Poetry, The New Criterion, Sewanee Review, and The Hudson Review. He also offers one-on-one mentoring and coaching for businesses and groups interested in improving their spiritual awareness, listening, communication, writing, and presentation skills. He is the author. Co-author, editor, or translator of 9 other books.
	Back to Faculty List	Penny Nelson Penny Nelson is an agent at Manus & Associates Literary Agency and is looking for non-fiction titles based on current events, social issues,business and lifestyle trends, self-help, natural sciences, and sports. She is seeking out authors with strong expertise in their area of interest, journalistic or academic backgrounds, and/or a new twist on universal themes. Penny brings to Manus and Associates and her clients many years of experience in media, talk radio, and publishing. She began her career in public radio at NPR's Fresh Air with Terry Gross. She went on to become an award winning public radio producer and host, and frequent interviewer/moderator for live events. Because of her background, she offers her clients a strong sense of what the current reading public wants, what the media wants, and how to capitalize on what new trend is right around the corner. And, she believes sincerely that any topic can be made fascinating with good writing and a solid strategic approach.
	Visit His Website Back to Faculty List	Benjamin Percy Benjamin Percy was raised in the high desert of Central Oregon. He is the author of a novel, The Wilding (forthcoming from Graywolf Press in late 2009), and two books of short stories, Refresh, Refresh (Graywolf, 2007) and The Language of Elk (Carnegie Mellon, 2006). His fiction and nonfiction have been read on National Public Radio, performed at Symphony Space, and published by Esquire, Men's Journal, the Paris Review, the Chicago Tribune, Glimmer Train, and Best American Short Stories, among other periodicals. His honors include the 2008 Whiting Award, the Plimpton Prize and a Pushcart Prize. He teaches in the MFA program at Iowa State University. To learn more about him, visit his website: www.benjaminpercy.com
	Visit His Website Back to Faculty List	Ray Rhamey Ray is a freelance editor of novels, and has a day job as a writer/editor/video producer at Washington State University. His "litblog," Flogging the Quill (www.floggingthequill.com), deals with writing craft and is internationally known. He is publishing a writing craft book titled Flogging the Quill, Creating a Novel that Sells. Literary agent Dan Conaway, Writers House, says this about his book: "Every writer dreams of finding the perfect editor. Quit dreaming, and learn the critical art of revision-ruthless and rigorous self-editing-from a man who understands the art better than most. If you're ready to do the work, Ray Rhamey's ridiculously-titled book provides the sort of practical, sensible advice that really can help you become a better writer." Ray is also a novelist and screenwriter. He has written 5 novels, and has had literary agent representation. His novels include speculative fiction; fantasy; and mystery. His screenwriting credits include an adaptation of The Little Engine that Could. His experience also includes 25 years as an advertising creative director, a job that demanded directing (editing) creative work to create maximum communication and effect; and mentoring creative employees, teaching as well as directing.
	Visit His Website Back to Faculty List	Luis Rodriguez Luis Rodriguez is convinced that a writer can change the world. Through education and the power of words Rodriguez saw his way out of poverty and despair in the barrio of East LA and successfully broke free from the years of violence and desperation he spent as an active gang member. Achieving success as an award-winning Chicano poet, he was sure the streets would haunt him no more - until his young son joined a gang himself. Rodriguez fought for his child by telling his own story in the bestseller Always Running: La Vida Loca, Gang Days in L.A., a vivid memoir that explores the motivation of gang life and cautions against the death and destruction that inevitably claim its participants. Always Running earned a Carl Sandburg Literary Award and was designated a New York Times Notable Book; it has also been named by the American Library Association as one of the nation's 100 most censored books. Luis Rodriguez's many other honors include a Lila Wallace-Reader's Digest Writers' Award, a Lannan Fellowship for Poetry, a Hispanic Heritage Award for Literature, a California Arts Council fellowship and several Illinois Arts Council fellowships. He was one of 50 leaders worldwide selected as "Unsung Heroes of Compassion," presented by the Dalai Lama. Rodriguez is currently working on a new memoir, entitled It Calls You Back, to be published by Simon & Schuster in fall 2009.
	Visit His website Back to Faculty List	Andy Ross Andy Ross has worked in the book business for 36 years, all of his working life. He was owner and general manager of Cody's Books in Berkeley, California from 1977-2006. Cody's has been recognised as one of America's great independent book stores. During this period, Andy was the primary trade book buyer. This experience has given him a unique understanding of the retail book market, of publishing trends and, most importantly and uniquely, the hand selling of books to book buyers. Andy is past president of the Northern California Booksellers Association, a board member and officer of the American Booksellers Association and a national spokesperson for issues concerning independent businesses. He has had signifcant profiles in the Wall Street Journal, Time Magazine, Publisher's Weekly and the San Francisco Chronicle. Andy opened his agency in February, 2008. He has been working in a wide range of subjects, mostly non-fiction.
	Visit Her Website Back to Faculty List	Sharman Apt Russell Sharman Apt Russell teaches at Western New Mexico University in Silver City, New Mexico and at the low-residency MFA program at Antioch University in Los Angeles, California. Her most recent creative nonfiction book is Standing in the Light: My Life as a Pantheist (Basic Books, 2008), a New Mexico Book Award finalist and one of Booklist's top ten books in religion. Hunger: An Unnatural History (Basic Books, 2005) was written with the help of a Rockefeller Fellowship in Bellagio, Italy and An Obsession with Butterflies: Our Long Love Affair with a Singular Insect (Perseus Books, 2003) was a pick of independent booksellers in their Summer 2003 Book Sense. Anatomy of a Rose: The Secret Life of Flowers (Perseus Books, 2001) has been translated into Chinese, Korean, Russian, Swedish, Spanish, Portuguese, and German. She has twice served as the PEN West judge for best book in children's literature. Her essays have been published in many magazines, journals, and anthologies, among them Face to Face: Women Writers on Faith, Mysticism, and Awakening; Nature Writing; Sisters of the Earth; At Home on the Earth: Two Centuries of U.S. Women's Nature Writing; The Sweet Breathing of Plants; and Writing Home: Award-Winning Literature from the New West. Sharman has also been awarded a Writers at Work Fellowship in Nonfiction, a Henry Joseph Jackson Award in Nonfiction, a Pushcart Prize, and a Mountains and Plains Booksellers Award.
	Visit His website Back to Faculty List	Ian Schoenherr Ian Schoenherr is an illustrator and occasional writer of children's books. Growing up in rural New Jersey, Ian was exposed to the illustration world by his father, Caldecott award-winning artist John Schoenherr. After graduating from The Cooper Union and settling in Woodside, New York, Ian began illustrating picture books, including Newf by Marie Killilea, Marie in Fourth Position by Amy Littlesugar, and Little Raccoon's Big Question by Miriam Schlein. He has also made maps for books by Tamora Pierce and T. A. Barron, spot illustrations for Brian Jacques' Castaways of the Flying Dutchman, and pictures for The New York Times Book Review. In 2007 Ian made his debut as a writer with Pip & Squeak, followed by Cat & Mouse, for which he adapted and rearranged three old nursery rhymes. He recently wrote and illustrated Read It, Don't Eat It! and Don't Spill the Beans! for Greenwillow. Ian's blog can be found at http://ianschoenherr.blogspot.com
	Back to Faculty List	Terena Scott Terena Scott is a publisher and the owner of Medusa's Muse, an independent press located in Ukiah, Ca. She published Traveling Blind; Life Lessons from Unlikely Teachers, by Laura Fogg in 2007 and her own book, What You Need to Know to Be a Pro; The Business Start-Up Guide for Publishers, in 2009. The press has three more titles in development, including a Punk Rock Anthology, scheduled for late 2009.
	Visit Her Website Back to Faculty List	Denise Wakeman Denise Wakeman of The Blog Squad ^TM helps authors, speakers and professionals set up and optimize business blogs. She offers pragmatic, no-nonsense, how-to guidance and is committed to helping you attract, sell and profit by integrating blogs with other online marketing tools such as social networks, e-newsletters and ecommerce systems.
	Visit Her Website Back to Faculty List	Carole Weatherford New York Times best-selling author Carole Boston Weatherford blurs the lines between poetry, biography, nonfiction and historical fiction. She has written 32 books, including Moses: When Harriet Tubman Led Her People to Freedom, winner of an NAACP Image Award, Caldecott Honor Medal and Coretta Scott King Award for Illustration. Coretta Scott King Honors from the American Library Association also went to Becoming Billie Holiday and Before John Was a Jazz Giant: A Song of John Coltrane. Birmingham 1963, won the Jefferson Cup, Lee Bennett Hopkins Poetry Award, and a Jane Addams Children's Literature Honor. Winner of the Carter G. Woodson Award from National Council for the Social Studies and the Ragan-Rubin Award from the North Carolina English Teachers Association, Weatherford teaches at Fayetteville State University. A Baltimore native, she earned advanced degrees from the University of Baltimore and the University of North Carolina-Greensboro. She lives in High Point, North Carolina.

Location Schedule Registration Lodging	Our 2009 faculty to date is listed below. Click on any faculty name to reach a short biography of that person. Director: Charlotte Gullick Workshops: Ellen Bass PoetryWorkshop Description Bonnie Hearn HillFictionWorkshop Description Micheline MarcomFictionWorkshop Description Benjamin PercyShort FictionWorkshop Description Luis RodriguezMemoirWorkshop Description Sharman RussellNonfictionWorkshop Description Carole WeatherfordOpen GenreWorkshop Description Lectures & Panels: Ellen Bass Poetry Gennifer CholdenkoChildren's Author Kathy DawsonEditor Pilar GrahamWriting for Social Change Bonnie Hearn HillFiction Micheline MarcomFiction Robert McDowellPoetry Penny NelsonAgent Benjamin PercyShort Fiction Ray RhameyEditor Sharman RussellNonfiction Ian SchoenherrChildren's Books Carole WeatherfordOpen Genre Editors: Kathy Dawson Ray Rhamey Agents: Penny Nelson Andy Ross Marketing Your Work: Denise Wakeman Paths to Publishing Robin Ekiss Stefanie Freele Terena Scott	Twenty years of connecting writers to community. Our reputation depends on choosing as faculty good writers who are also excellent teachers and comfortable with the friendly atmosphere of the conference. "This conference is all about craft and community. We leave ego at the door." —Charlotte Gullick MCWC director