Month: May 2021

Marian Leah Knapp is a writer and community activist. Her previously published books include Aging in Places: Reflective Preparation for the Future, A Steadfast Spirit: The Essence of Caregiving, and, with Vivien Goldman, The Outermost Cape: Encountering Time. For more than ten years, she has written a regular column for the Newton TAB. When Marian was sixty-four years old, she went back to school to obtain a PhD. She passed her dissertation defense right before her seventieth birthday. Marian lives in Chestnut Hill, MA.

Jessica Barksdale Inclán is the author of fifteen novels, including the award-winning The Burning Hour as well as Her Daughter’s Eyes, The Matter of Grace, and When You Believe. Her debut poetry collection, When We Almost Drowned, was published in March 2019; her second poetry book, Grim Honey, was published in April 2021. A Pushcart Prize, Million Writers Award, and Best-of-the-Net nominee, Barksdale Inclán was an English professor at Diablo Valley College in Pleasant Hill, California, for thirty-one years, and continues to teach novel writing for UCLA Extension and the MFA program for Southern New Hampshire University. She holds an MA in English Literature from San Francisco State University and an MFA from the Rainier Writers Workshop at Pacific Lutheran University. A San Francisco Bay Area native, she now lives in the Pacific Northwest with her husband.

Elizabeth Marcus grew up in Manhattan, the only child of a dentist and a Macy’s dress buyer, the Zeus and Hera of Apartment 2B. After escaping to Boston, she ran a small architectural office for 20 years, when she wasn’t traveling to far-flung places with her psychiatrist husband and rambunctious children. Eventually, she decided to concentrate on writing, which allows her to pursue the many, quirky questions that fascinate her: Why are butterflies called ‘butterflies’? Why can’t she recall the taste of wines? Why are first-love memories so potent? Her essays have appeared in The New York Times and Boston Globe, on online sites like Cognoscenti, and in essay anthologies like Travelers’ Tales. “Don’t Say A Word!”: A Daughter’s Two Cents, in 90,571 Words is her first book. She lives in Boston.

Loren Stephens is a widely published essayist and fiction and nonfiction storyteller. Her work has appeared in the Los Angeles Times, the Chicago Tribune, MacGuffin, The Jewish Women’s Literary Annual, Forge, Crack the Spine, Amuse Bouche, The Writer’s Launch, the Summerset Review, the Montreal Literary Review, and Tablet Travel Magazine to name a few. She is a two-time nominee of the Pushcart Prize and the book Paris Nights: My Year at the Moulin Review, by Cliff Simon with Loren Stephens was named one of the best titles from an independent press by Kirkus. She is president and founder of the ghostwriting companies, Write Wisdom and Bright Star Memoirs. Prior to establishing her company Loren was a documentary filmmaker.

Keith McWalter is the author of When We Were All Still Alive (on sale 5/4/21, SparkPress), writes the essay blog Mortal Coil, and his narrative nonfiction and opinion pieces have appeared in The New York Times, The New York Times Magazine, and the San Francisco Chronicle. A collection of his essays, No One Else Will Tell You: Letters from a Bi-Coastal Father, won the Writer’s Digest Award for Nonfiction, and his family memoir, Befriending Ending, was anthologized in the online literary magazine Feathered Flounder. McWalter grew up in Mexico and Pennsylvania, is a graduate of Denison University and Columbia Law School, and spent much of his first career in the legal and investment banking worlds of New York and San Francisco. He and his wife live in Granville, Ohio, and Sanibel, Florida.

Matthew Kerns is a historian, author, and digital archivist from Chattanooga, Tennessee. He grew up traveling in the western United States while listening to Steely Dan, pastimes that over the years have turned into writing about western history and following Steely Dan on their 2000 tour. His most recent public project is the Walter Becker Media Project, as reported in Rolling Stone. He has won no prestigious awards but was twice the recipient of Media Play #8171’s Employee of the Month (May 1998 and August 2001). He manages the popular western podcast Dime Library and the Texas Jack Facebook page. He has had multiple articles about Texas Jack published in The Texas Jack Scout, the triannual publication of the Texas Jack Association. His forthcoming book Texas Jack: America’s First Cowboy Star will be available May 1, 2021, from Two Dot Books.

Judith Ruskay Rabinor, PhD, is a clinician, author, writing coach, speaker, and workshop leader. In addition to her New York City private psychotherapy practice, she offers remote consultations for writers, clinicians and families. She has published dozens of articles for both the public and professionals and has authored three books, The Girl in the Red Boots: Making Peace with My Mother (She Writes Press, 2021),  A Starving Madness: Tales of Hunger, Hope and Healing in Psychotherapy (Gurze Books, 2002) and Befriending Your Ex After Divorce: Making Life Better for You, Your Kids and Yes, Your Ex (New Harbinger Publications, 2012). A sought-after speaker and workshop leader, Judy speaks at national and international mental health conferences and runs workshops at spas, colleges and universities and retreat centers.