Author, Film Producer, Podcaster
Amy Lea is a Canadian bureaucrat by day and contemporary romance author by night (and weekends). She writes laugh out loud romantic comedies featuring strong heroines, witty banter, mid-2000s pop culture references, and happily ever afters.
When Amy is not writing, she can be found fan-girling over other romance books on Instagram, eating potato chips with reckless abandon, and snuggling with her husband and goldendoodle.
Sophia R. Tyler hopes to reintroduce the timeless message of the Golden Rule to young children. Currently a senior at Hope College, she will begin the Master of Social Work program at University of Denver in Fall 2023. Sophia also interns for Ready for Life, a nonprofit organization which fosters an inclusive community and provides creative and engaging opportunities for college students with disabilities. Her children’s picture book, The Friendly Mouse, launched March 21.
Leslie Johansen Nack’s debut, Fourteen, received five indie awards, including the 2016 Finalist in Memoir at the Next Generation Indie Book Awards. Before she started writing, she raised two children, ran a mechanical engineering business with her husband, took care of her aging mother, and dreamed of retirement when she could write full-time. She did everything late in life, including getting her degree in English Literature from UCLA at age thirty-one, only two years after she married for the second time. She lives in sunny San Diego and enjoys sailing, hiking and reading.
SARA RAUCH is the author of WHAT SHINES FROM IT: STORIES and the autobiographical essay XO (forthcoming). Her fiction and essays have appeared in Paper Darts, Hobart, Split Lip, So to Speak, Qu, Lunch Ticket, and other literary magazines, as well as in the anthologies Dear John, I Love Jane; Best Lesbian Romance 2014; and She’s Lost Control. She has covered books for Bustle, BitchMedia, Curve Magazine, Lambda Literary, The Rumpus, and more. In 2012, she founded the literary magazine Cactus Heart, which ran through 2016. She holds an MFA from Pacific University. Sara teaches writing at Pioneer Valley Writers’ Workshop and Grub Street and also works as an independent editor and manuscript consultant. She lives with her family in Holyoke, Massachusetts.
Jeneva Rose is the bestselling author of The Perfect Marriage, which has been published in nearly a dozen languages and optioned for film. Originally from Wisconsin, she currently lives in Chicago with her husband and stubborn English bulldog. One of Us Is Dead is her third novel.
Linda Dahl began her career as a travel journalist and college teacher before turning to writing full time. An award-winning author, she has written groundbreaking books about women in jazz and women’s needs in recovery from addiction, as well as five works of fiction. She is currently at work on a screenplay and a new novel. She has two children, a cat, and too many plants. She lives in Riverdale in New York City.
Julie Winkle Giulioni is a champion for workplace growth and development. She believes that everyone deserves the opportunity to reach their potential. And she supports organizations and leaders who want to make that happen with keynote speeches, consulting, and training.
Jody Hadlock: I’ve always loved history. When I was in junior high school in north Texas, I was a member of the Junior Historians of Texas, and history was always one of my favorite subjects. So, of course, my first novel is historical. I also always wanted to be a writer. After getting a degree in journalism at Texas A&M University, I worked as a television news reporter and anchor, and then as a public relations professional before I started writing fiction. I also write screenplays and won the 2020 Dallas International Film Festival’s screenplay contest. My co-writer and I had interest from a Hollywood producer and almost had our award-winning script optioned, but it didn’t work out. Still, it was a great learning process. No regrets.
Madhushree Ghosh is the author of food memoir Khabaar: An Immigrant Journey of Food, Memory and Family. She is the daughter of refugees, an immigrant, a woman of color in oncology diagnostics and an activist. Her nonfiction been published in The New York Times, Washington Post, Longreads, Bomb Magazine, Catapult, Guernica, The Kitchn, Serious Eats, The Rumpus and others. Her work has been awarded a Notable Mention (Best American Essays in Food Writing), Pushcart-nominated, an Oakley Hall scholarship and a Sirenland Positano residency (2020-21). Editorial roles have been in gastronomy (Panorama Journal) and international fiction (Del Sol Review). She actively mentors women leaders in science and hosts food and discourse events at her home in San Diego. Ghosh has a PhD in biochemistry and a postdoctoral fellowship in molecular biology from Johns Hopkins University. She is also certified in Diversity, Equity and Inclusion from Cornell University as well as in Conflict Management and Global Negotiations from Thunderbird University, AZ.
Rod Tanchanco writes medically-themed nonfiction focused on historical events and their human narratives. FIRST PATIENTS: The incredible true stories of pioneer patients launched in March 2022, His articles have appeared in numerous publications. He is an internist and has worked as a primary care physician, hospitalist, research doctor, and medical director for a global clinical research organization. He is also a champion archer, avid photographer, backyard bird-watcher, husband to a saint, father to two grown children, and loyal butler to a ridiculously cute cavapoo.
