Schedule of Events

Manuscript Evaluations

A manuscript evaluation and a one-on-one meeting with an editor or agent are available to registered conference participants for $50 each. The time and location of your manuscript evaluation on Saturday, July 18 will be in your registration packet. Manuscripts submitted for evaluation are eligible for four prizes, the Mark Austin Segura Award for the Best Adult Fiction, The Harriette Austin Award for Non-fiction, The Dixie Lee Connor Award for Exceptional Children's Writing (includes fiction and non-fiction) and The HAWC Award for Poetry. Each carries a monetary value of $500. Prizes will be announced at dinner Saturday night.

Manuscripts must be received by June 1, 2009. Submit two copies of each submission. Your submission may include (but is not required to have) a cover letter, two-page synopsis and the first 15 pages of your manuscript, double-spaced and typed or printed in 12-point font on standard 8 1/2 x 11 inch paper. Secure with a paper clip only, no staples or binders. Please check www.harrietteaustin.org for the submission checklist and attach one checklist to each submission. For poetry evaluations, send two copies each of 5-10 poems, up to 15 pages total.

Evaluators are assigned as manuscripts are received. Specify your first three choices for preferred evaluator. HAWC cannot guarantee your preferred evaluator, but will make every effort to assign your first choice.

Poets will discuss a small portfolio of 5-10 poems, up to 15 pages, with award-winning poet Anne Webster.

All evaluation sessions will be Saturday, July 18. Registered participants may submit multiple manuscripts for evaluation. Submissions received after June 1 or after the maximum number of manuscripts are received will be returned unopened. Announcements regarding submissions will be on www.harrietteaustin.org. Make check for $50 payable to HAWC Manuscript Evaluations for each submission, and mail two copies of the writing sample directly to:

Harriette Austin Writers Conference
Re: Manuscripts
1860 Barnett Shoals Road
Suite 103-426
Athens, GA 30605

Questions? adminhawc2009@gmail.com

Featured Speakers

Keynote Speaker Robert Vaughan's books have sold millions of copies under several pseudonyms including Brandywine's War, The American Chronicles — a decade-by-decade account of the 20th century and the novel Andersonville, which was a television mini-series on TNT. Twenty-three romance novels, writing as Paula Moore, Paula Fairman, and Patricia Matthews, have sold more than fifteen million copies. A decorated veteran, Vaughan was selected as most outstanding military writer six times and has been a national military consultant for FOX NEWS and CNN. His most recent book is Amor of God.

• Saturday Session: Kicking Your Way Through Writers' Block

Dinner Speaker Evelyn Coleman's books for children have received many awards and are part of the Screen Actors Guild's Book Pals national campaigns. Her young adult and juvenile books include Edgar-nominated Shadows on Society Hill (American Girl). Her adult thriller, What a Woman's Gotta Do, garnered rave reviews and was optioned for film.

• Saturday Session: Writing for Children

Agents and Editors

Brandi Bowles joined the Howard Morhaim Literary Agency in October 2007, after three years at Random House. She is the agent for the upcoming Making Money Never Goes Out of Style and The Pocket Book of Burlesque. Brandi is actively seeking clients in the areas of pop-culture, music, memoir, popular science, and humor. On the fiction side, Brandi also represents science fiction, women's fiction, southern fiction, and historical novels set in ancient times.

• Saturday Sessions: How To Build a Better Beginning; Crafting Commercial Memoir

Paul Fedorko has worked at Dell/Delacorte, Bantam, Simon and Schuster and William Morrow, and currently brings his wide array of publishing experience and unique skills, plus a diverse list of clients to Trident Media Group. Following the worldwide success of John Perkins' Confessions of an Economic Hit Man, his latest, The Secret History of the American Empire leads a list of recently published books. He has a growing list of best-selling authors and is currently looking for commercial fiction, thrillers, mysteries, romantic suspense, business, sports, celebrity and popular culture.

• Saturday Session: What Agents Really Want and How to Get One

Jacqueline S. Hackett, founder of Literary Works, was an agent at the Watkins/Loomis Agency. She received her publishing certificate from the Columbia University Publishing Program and her law degree from Duke University. Jacqueline is a member of the Association of Authors' Representatives and her clients include American Book Award Winner J. California Cooper and New York Times best-selling author Omar Tyree.

• Saturday Session: Why You Need (or Don't Need) an Agent and How to Find the Right One for You

John Helfers is a full-time writer and editor working with Martin H. Greenberg of Tekno Books. Currently living in Green Bay, Wisconsin, he has worked on anthology and novel projects with such best-selling authors as Anne Perry, Lawrence Block, Michael Connelly, John Jakes, and many others. He has written and edited both fiction and nonfiction, including Tom Clancy's Net Force Explorers: Cloak and Dagger, The Alpha Bravo Delta Guide to the U.S. Navy, and the forthcoming anthology Survivors.

• Saturday Session: The Difference Between An Agent, Packager, and Publisher

Patrick LoBrutto is an editor for Tor/Forge, Thomas Nelson as well as a book doctor and consultant to publishers and agents. He has been a Senior Editor at Doubleday, Ace, Bantam, Random House, and Kensington. He has worked on thrillers, science fiction, fantasy, historical novels, romance, horror, and nonfiction. Authors he has worked with include Isaac Asimov, Stephen King, and Walter Tevis. In 1986, Patrick received the World Fantasy Award for editing.

• Friday Intensive Session: Developing Character

Chip MacGregor, literary agent, has been in publishing for two decades, starting as a copy editor on a small magazine in Portland, Oregon. A writer for years before becoming senior editor for two different houses and establishing the MacGregor Literary Agency, he has authored or edited dozens of books.

• Saturday Session: Thirty Things You Need to Make a Living as a Writer

Michelle Poploff of Random House Children's Books, is Vice President, Editorial Director for the Yearling and Laurel Leaf paperback publishing program and Executive Editor for the Delacorte Press imprint. Michelle edited the 2007 Newbery Honor Award winner, Hattie Big Sky by Kirby Larson as well as the 2008 Coretta Scott King/John Steptoe New Talent Award winner, Brendan Buckley's Universe and Everything In It by Sundee T. Frazier, and A Thousand Never Evers by Shana Burg, a 2008 Parents Choice Honor Award. All three books were first novels.

• Saturday Session: The Write Place at the Write Time

Maya Rock is a literary agent at Writers House, LLC the agency of famed authors such as Ken Follett, Nora Roberts and Stephen Hawking. Before joining Writers House, she was an assistant at Anderson Grinberg Literary Management, literary agency. She attended Princeton University and is primarily looking for good, transportive fiction, especially historical; and is especially drawn to stories with strong heroines. She is also a fan of literary, young adult novel, romance, memoir, self-help, inspirational, narrative nonfiction, and stories focused on people at the edges of society. Her most recent sale was a young adult novel to Balzer & Bray, The Unidentified.

• Saturday Session: Crafting the Perfect Query Letter

Katie Sulkowski is the Literary Brand Manager for Creative Trust, Inc. She represents fiction and nonfiction by authors such as Mark Brunetz and Carmen Renee Berry, Tony Nolan and Erin Healy. She has six years experience in book publishing working at Thomas Nelson Publishers in Nashville in editorial, and as a freelance agent before joining Creative Trust. She develops book concepts with authors and publishers, negotiates the sale of book proposals, and develops author brands.

• Saturday Session: Make Yourself Appealing to Agents and Editors

Authors and Experts

Suzanne Adair is the nom de plume for Suzanne Williams, her book Paper Woman, was the 2007 recipient of the Patrick D. Smith Literature Award from the Florida Historical Society. The Blacksmith's Daughter and Camp Follower continue her fictional ventures into the Southern theater of the Revolutionary War. She is a member of Mystery Writers of America, Sisters in Crime, the Historical Novel Society, and the North Carolina Writers Network.

• Saturday Sessions: Creating Suspense with the Hero's Journal; Creating Archetypes not Stereotypes in Mystery Writing

Alan Black helps people accept, understand, and expand their creative thinking at work and in their personal lives. Since 1996 Alan has been traveling around the world connecting with people committed to creative thinking. His clients the past 30 years have included: corporations, government, educational groups and professional associations. He has authored and co-authored several books on creativity in the US, UK, South Africa, Slovakia, Turkey and Japan and has had over 400 articles published in newspapers, trade journals, magazines, newsletters and ezines on creative thinking, leading, communicating and teaming.

• Friday Intensive Session: Developing Creativity

Susan Dansby has received four Academy of Television Arts and Sciences Emmy Awards and two Writers Guild of America Awards for her continuing work on the CBS daytime drama, As The World Turns. In addition, she is a professional television director. Her credits include Guiding Light, Ghostwriter, Sesame Street and General Hospital. She holds a BFA in Drama from Carnegie-Mellon University.

• Saturday Sessions: Movies, TV, Fiction: Write it Like a Pro!

Lynette Eason has written six books for Harlequin's Love Inspired Steeple Hill Suspense Line and has a three book series for Revell releasing in 2010. She sold her first book in 2007 and subsequently sold eight more in less than two years. She has been teaching for ten years and is very happy to make the transition from teaching school to teaching writing whenever the opportunity presents, enjoying helping new writers break into the competitive publishing market.

• Saturday Sessions: Writing Romance Novels

Judith Geary has a passion for the details of the daily life of the people of the ancient world which is fed by her travels and shows in the veracity of the settings of her fiction and in the activities she generates for students. Geary teaches at Appalachian State University and is a free-lance fiction editor and designer. She helped form High Country Publishers in 2001, and edits for Ingalls Publishing Group. Her background includes an M.A. in Counselor Education from George Peabody College and continued graduate work in writing, editing and literary criticism, as well as involvement in regional writers' organizations.

• Saturday Sessions: Historical Fiction; Guerilla Marketing; Writing for Young Adults

Alex Graves graduated from the U.S. Army Criminal Investigation course and was a Criminal Investigator for the USMC, working as a detective on major cases. He is a published writer, and is currently an instructor at the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center in Glynco, GA. He trains police around the country on domestic violence investigations, sex assault, and stalking.

• Saturday Sessions: The Homicide Crime Scene from the Investigator's Point of View

Judy Iakovou is the author of the Nick and Julia Lambros mystery series in collaboration with her husband, Takis. Their first book, So Dear To Wicked Men debuted with a Kirkus starred review. Recently, writing under the name of Ann Stamos, Judy sold Bitter Tide, the debut novel in a historical mystery series set on Ellis Island at the turn of the century.

• Friday Intensive Workshop: The Basic Elements of Fiction

Milton Kahn has years of experience as one of the entertainment industry's premiere public relations specialists. He is creator of countless ingenious blockbuster campaigns for major Hollywood films, including Fried Green Tomatoes, Watership Down, Ron Howard's directorial debut Grand Theft Auto, and the Oscar winning Fellini's Amarcord. President of Milton Kahn Associates, Inc., he now helps publishing houses and authors achieve greater success with their projects. Milton Kahn was the 1996 recipient of The Southern California Book Publicist Award — Best Publicist of the Year for publicizing and promoting James Halperin's science-fiction best-selling novel The Truth Machine.

• Friday Intensive Sessions: How To Prepare to Promote Your Books; Understanding How Publicity Sells Book
• Saturday Sessions: How To Create Issues That Will Attract the Media; Understanding What Is Going On In The Publishing World; How To Sell Book When Being Interviewed On Radio or TV

Ralph McInerny holds degrees from the St. Paul Seminary, University of Minnesota and Laval University. Now emeritus, he taught at the University of Notre Dame from 1955-2005, and in 1978 was named the Michael P. Grace Professor of Medieval Studies. He has published extensively, both academically and in fiction including, Aquinas and Analogy, The Question of Christian Ethics, Aquinas on Human Action and the Penguin Classic, Thomas Aquinas Selected Writing. He is the author of the Father Dowling mysteries, the most recent of which is Ash Wednesday (2008), the Andrew Broom mysteries, the Sister Mary Teresa mysteries; and a series of mysteries set at the University of Notre Dame, the most recent of which is The Green Revolution (2008). The most recent in a new series of paperbacks in the Rosary Chronicles is The Third Revelation (2009.)

• Saturday Sessions: Writing Short Stories

Bobby Nash is the writer/artist of the comic strip Life In The Faster Lane. Comics written by Bobby include Fuzzy Bunnies From Hell; Bubba The Redneck Werewolf; Demonslayer, Threshold, and Jungle Fantasy; Yin Yang. His prose work includes, Evil Ways and Fantastix. Short story and anthology work includes Lance Star: Sky Ranger, Startling Stories Magazine, Sentinels Widescreen Special Edition, Full Throttle Space Tales Vol. 2: Space Sirens, Sentinels: Alternate Visions, Domino Lady.

• Saturday Session: Graphic Storytelling

David Oates has a master's degree in fiction writing and has published fiction, nonfiction, humor, and poetry. He hosted theAthens SLAM! for six years and has performed solo and with a slam team. His magazine, Monkey, concentrates on humor and slam work. Oates is currently the host and producer of the Great Apes Humor Show on WUGA, Athens, and teaches creative writing.

• Saturday Sessions: SLAM!

Carol O'Dell's fiction and nonfiction work has appeared in numerous publications including Women's Digest, Atlanta Magazine, The Pisgah Review, Blue Moon Review, Southern Revival Anthology, and Water's Edge. She is a Jacksonville University graduate, creative writing teacher and inspirational speaker and has been featured on CNN, Fox and numerous television and radio programs across the country.

• Saturday Sessions: Narrative Non-Fiction; Flash Fiction

Donny Bailey Seagraves studied journalism at the University of Georgia, was a newspaper columnist for seven years, and has published fiction and nonfiction in many regional and national publications including Athens Magazine and the Chicago Tribune. Gone From These Woods, published by Random House under their Delacorte Press imprint, is Donny's debut novel.

• Saturday Sessions: Writing for Middle Grades; Selling Your First Novel

Todd Sentell is the first native Georgian to publish a sports-related novel. His hilarious social satire, Toonamint of Champions was a candidate for the 2008 Thurber Award for American Humor. Todd was also a Georgia Writers Association candidate for 2008 Author of the Year in the First Novel category. He has also published over eighty freelanced golf business and lifestyle essays, bios and comic entertainments in national, regional, state, and local Atlanta magazines. He's a two-time award winner for magazine journalism from the Magazine Association of the Southeast.

• Saturday Sessions: Writing Your First Novel; Writing Humor

Haywood Smith's first historical novel was published by St. Martin's Press in 1996. Since that time, she has published five more critically acclaimed historical novels set in England and Scotland. She has most recently written humorous Southern women's fiction — Queen Bee of Mimosa Branch, The Red Hat Club, The Red Hat Club Rides Again, Wedding Belles, and soon to be released, Ladies of the Lake, making the New York Times Best seller list and USA Today's Top 50. Belle Books currently offers her fun non-fiction handbook titled The 12 Sacred Traditions of Magnificent Mothers-in-Law.

• Saturday Sessions: Career Planning: How to Manage a Literary Career; Show Me the Money: What Every Writer Needs to Know About Compensation

Kelly L. Stone started a successful writing career while working a full-time job. She is the author of three books, including a novel, Grave Secret and two books for writers — Time to Write: More Than 100 Professional Writers Reveal How to Fit Writing Into Your Busy Life and the upcoming Thinking Write: The Secret to Freeing Your Creative Mind, which demonstrates how to apply the power of your subconscious mind to your writing and other creative aspirations.

• Saturday Session: Writing Essays; Writing for Magazines

Charles "Mike" Swanson has coauthored five books, including Criminal Investigation (McGraw-Hill, 11th Edition, 2009, recently translated into Chinese) He has been honored by the Governors of three states for his contributions to law enforcement, the Georgia Association of Chiefs of Police recognized his contributions by making him their first honorary chief of police, and the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences bestowed the O.W. Wilson Award for Distinguished Police Scholarship. He is currently working on a police novel set in Tampa.

• Friday Intensive Session: The Nuts and Bolts of Crime Scene Investigation

Beverly Varnado is a 2009 Finalist for the Kairos Prize, an international screenwriting competition. She was also a 2008 Finalist in the Gideon Media Arts Screenplay Competition, and won two awards in the inspirational category of the 2007 Writer's Digest Writing Competition. Her writing credits include the Upper Room and Focus on the Family. She shares a wealth of information gleaned from interaction with many best-selling inspirational authors.

• Saturday Sessions: Navigating the Inspirational Market

Anne Webster has combined a career in nursing and a love of poetry in her work A History of Nursing, published by Kennesaw State University Press in September 2008. Her poems have been widely published in such journals as Rattle: Poetry for the 21st Century: Tribute to Nurses, The Southern Poetry Review, The New York Quarterly, Georgia State Literary Review. Her work appears in the following anthologies: The Ethnic American Woman: Problems, Protests, Lifestyles, O! Georgia: A Collection of Georgia's Most Promising Writers. She has been awarded multiple residencies at The Hambidge Center for the Arts and The Communications Arts Institute's Writer's Colony at Dairy Hollow. While a resident at the Writers' Colony, she has led various writing workshops, including "Writing Your Life," which was televised for public TV.

• Saturday Sessions: Poetry

Philip Lee Williams, journalist, poet, novelist and film writer, is the author of 13 published books, including nine novels and three works of non-fiction, and a volume of poetry. His latest book, a collection of poetry called Elegies for the Water came out on March 1 and a new novel, The Campfire Boys, is due Sept. 1. In 2007, he received the Governor's Award in the Humanities from the State of Georgia and was for the second time named Georgia Author of the Year. In addition, he has produced prize-winning film documentaries. He is assistant dean for public information in the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences at UGA and is an adjunct professor of creative writing in the department of English and a member of the graduate faculty.

• Saturday Sessions: Making History: Turning Facts into Fiction; Literary Fiction

Registration