Speakers

Tim Bete is the director of the Erma

Bombeck Writers' Workshop. He is a former newspaper columnist and has been published in more than a dozen

parenting magazines. Tim's first book,

In The Beginning...There Were No

Diapers (Sorin Books, 2005) was a CatholicMom.com Book Club selection. His second book, Cap'n Billy "The Butcher" MacDougall's Guide to Pirate Parenting, was featured in the New York Daily News.

His Web site (www.TimBete.com) was picked by Writer's Digest magazine as the best writer's Web site of 2005.

Garrison Keillor is the author of

more than a dozen books, including

Lake Wobegon Days, The Book of

Guys, Love Me and Homegrown

Democrat. He is also the creator,

host and writer of the shows A

Prairie Home Companion and The

Writer's Almanac, both heard on

public radio stations across the

country. He won a Grammy Award

in 1987 for Best Spoken Word for

the audiobook: Lake Wobegon Days,

'where the women are strong, the

men are good-looking, and all the

children are above average.' In 2006 the film, A Prairie Home Companion was released, and he also opened an independent bookstore in St. Paul, Common Good Books. His columns appear weekly on Salon.com and are distributed by Tribune Media Services to newspapers across the country. In April 2007, a collection of Lake Wobegon monologues was released called "Never Better." September 11, 2007 saw the publication of his new novel, Pontoon by Penguin Books.

Mike Peters is recognized as one

of our nation's most prominent

cartoon artists for his outstanding

work as both a political and comic

strip cartoonist. In 1981 Mike was

awarded a Pulitzer Prize for

Journalism and in 1984 the award-

winning "Mother Goose & Grimm"

comic strip was born. His work is

syndicated in newspapers worldwide

and frequently appears in national

publications and on national television. He has become familiar to thousands through his many appearances on shows such as Good Morning America, The Joan Rivers Show, The Today Show, Equal Time, MSNBC, CNNFN and C-SPAN. Mike is particularly proud of his animated editorial cartoons, "Peters Postscripts" which aired on NBC's Nightly News in 1981. It was the first time animated editorial cartoons appeared regularly on a prime-time network news program. He also has done a 14-part interview series, The World of Cartooning with Mike Peters, for PBS.

Martha Bolton is an Emmy-nominated

writer and author of more than 50 books of

humor, including Maybe Life's Just Not That

Into You, Cooking With Hot Flashes, I Think,

Therefore I Have a Headache! and Didn't My

Skin Used to Fit. She was a staff writer for

Bob Hope for more than 15 years and also

wrote for Phyllis Diller, John Davidson, Ann

Jillian, Jim Stafford, Mark Lowry and many

others. Martha is also author of "The

Cafeteria Lady" column for Focus on the

Family's BRIO magazine. Martha began her

comedy writing career as a church

secretary. "I saw a lot of comedy in the

church," she says with a laugh. "I used to perform a Friar's Club-type roast on the pastor, deacon, or any other church staff member who was celebrating a special occasion. I had to change churches a lot." And thus began Martha's writing career. She's been going strong ever since.

Linda Formichelli is co-author of the Renegade Writer series, which includes, The Renegade Writer: A Totally Unconventional Guide to Freelance Writing Success and The Renegade Writer’s Query Letters That Rock. She has written for more than 120 magazines, including USA Weekend, Health, Redbook and Family Circle.

Eric Martin has written for Games, Woman's Day, Oxygen and Psychology Today, among other magazines. He is also co-author of the books, Tools of Timekeeping: A Kids' Guide to the History and Science of Telling Time and The Complete Idiot's Guide to Starting and Running a Coffee Bar.

Ray Lesser is publisher and

editor of the monthly magazine,

The Funny Times, which has more

than 75,000 subscribers from

around the world. For 20 years,

The Funny Times has featured

"The Best of the Best," including

columnists and cartoonists such

as Dave Barry, Susan Efros,

Matt Groening, Leigh Anne

Jasheway and Garrison Keillor.

Shannon Olson is the author of

the novels Welcome to My Planet:

Where English Is Sometimes

Spoken and Children of God Go

Bowling. She has written articles

and reviews for The Guardian (London),

InStyle, Good Housekeeping, the

Minneapolis StarTribune, Minnesota

Monthly and Minnesota’s alternative

monthly, The Rake. Shannon has a

Master of Fine Arts degree from the

University of Minnesota, where she

has also taught fiction and nonfiction

writing, and co-taught a humor writing

course with Garrison Keillor. She

regularly teaches workshops at the Loft Literary Center in Minneapolis and at the Iowa Summer Writing Festival. She is currently Assistant Professor of English at St. Cloud State University.

Sheila Bender publishes Writing

It Real, an online magazine for

those who write from personal

experience. Among her many

books on shaping personal

experience for the page, her

newest is Writing and Publishing

Personal Experience from Silver

Threads. She is a past poetry and

personal essay columnist for

Writer's Digest Books. Presently,

she teaches online through

WritingItReal.com, Writers.com,

and Absolutewrite.com.

Dr. Mark Shatz Dr. Mark Shatz is the

co-author of the top-selling humor writing

book, Comedy Writing Secrets (2nd). He

also teaches a nationally recognized

humor writing course with its infamous

final exam – a stand-up comedy

performance before a live audience. His

research interests include pedagogical

humor, and he has written articles on

how humor can enhance instruction in

traditional and online educational settings.

Mark Levine is author of The

Fine Print of Self-Publishing, which

explains how to read and negotiate

a contract with a self-publishing

company. The book also analyzes

and ranks the contracts and

services of 48 self-publishing

companies. Eight major

self-publishing companies agreed

to make their contracts more

author-friendly in order to receive

a higher ranking in the book. Mark

is also founder of Click Industries,

Ltd. (an e-commerce company), a graduate of Georgetown University Law Center, and author of two novels.

Leigh Anne Jasheway-Bryant

has published 13 humor books and

been included in more than 20

anthologies, including The Chicken

Soup for the Soul series and Marlo

Thomas’ best-selling The Right Words

at the Right Time 2. Her many awards

include the 2003 Erma Bombeck

Humor Award, the 2004 Humor in

Food Writing Competition, second

place in the 2005 Mona Schreiber

Humorous Fiction Contest, and a

2007 Association for Applied and

Therapeutic Humor (AATH) Book

Award. For eight years, she was a regular humor columnist for Family Circle. In a previous life, she may have left the iron on. Leigh Anne has been teaching comedy writing for fourteen years, although it only seems like 13-3/4."

Sophfronia Scott spent 15 years as an

award-winning writer and editor at Time,

People and Teen People magazines. When

she published her first novel, All I Need to

Get By (St. Martins Press, 2004), she was

hailed by Professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr. as

potentially "one of the best writers of her

generation." Sophronia has also contributed

to Chicken Soup for the African American

Woman's Soul and Forty Things to Do When

You Turn Forty. As a personal life coach,

she founded Creative Coaching Plans in 2003 to guide dozens of clients to satisfying career and personal decisions, as well as help speakers and small business owners write and publish their first books under her brand, "The Book Sistah." She's currently working on her next novel, The Fairchild Sisters Sing Songs of Blue.

Tony Lupia is a published author and former literary agent. After writing two books in the mid- to late'70s, he became a literary agent specializing in technical publications. He then expanded to other genres and practiced as an agent for 25 years. He now serves as a consultant to some of the largest publishing houses.

John Kremer is author of 1001

Ways to Market Your Books: For

Authors and Publishers (6th Edition),

The Complete Direct Marketing

Sourcebook, High Impact Marketing

on a Low Impact Budget, and

Celebrate Today. He created the

Do-It-Yourself Book Publicity Kit,

Book Publishing Reports on

CD-ROM, and Book Marketing

Mini-Book series. John is also the

owner of Open Horizons, a publishing

company in Taos, New Mexico, and editor of the Book Marketing Tip of the Week newsletter

Carolyn Howard-Johnson is an

instructor for UCLA Extension’s

world-renowned Writers’ Program. Her

book The Frugal Book Promoter:

How to Do What Your Publisher Won’t

was named USA Book News’ “Best

Professional Book 2004." Her second

book in the How To Do It Frugally

series is The Frugal Editor: Put Your

Best Book Forward to Avoid

Humiliation and Ensure Success.

Carolyn’s first novel, This Is the Place,

won eight awards. Her book of creative

nonfiction, Harkening: A Collection of

Stories Remembered, won three.

Laura Pulfer is an award-

winning former columnist for the

Cincinnati Enquirer. Laura is

also a commentator for National

Public Radio's "Morning Edition"

and a contributing editor for

Rosie Magazine. In May 1999,

she was inducted into the

Cincinnati Journalism Hall of

Fame by the Society of

Professional Journalists.

Dave Jackson launched the School

of Podcasting in 2005 and has created

more than 300 resources and hours of

audio and video tutorials on the subject.

He has used podcasting to promote his

books, including Get your band out of

the basement (and keep them out of

the asylum). Dave also has a humorous

podcast called “Building a Better Dave,”

which looks at relationships, marriage,

divorce, love, sex, life, dating advice,

and the weird thoughts that pop into

his head when he is sleep-deprived.

Steve O'Keefe is executive director

of Patron Saint Productions, a book

publishing consultancy specializing in

online marketing strategy, campaigns,

and training. He has launched online

campaigns for over 1000 books and has

helped many major book publishers

develop in-house online publicity

operations. Steve is also president of

the high-tech start-up, AuthorViews, a

producer of online video for the book

publishing industry, and is the author four

books himself, including Publicity on the Internet (Wiley). Steve is vice president of the International Association of Online Communicators and teaches Internet Public Relations at Tulane University.

Mary McCarty's three-times-a-week

column for the Dayton Daily News

appears regularly on the national

editorial wire and is widely syndicated

through the Cox News Service. In

addition to column writing, she is a

member of the Dayton Daily News

enterprise team, producing special

projects and in-depth features. Before

coming to the Dayton Daily News in

1993, she was a staff writer and senior

editor for Cincinnati Magazine. Mary

has received many state and national

awards for her writing, including the H.L. Mencken Award as well as being named Writer of the Year for Cox Newspapers and Best Columnist in Ohio by the Ohio Soc. of Professional Journalists.

Joni B. Cole is the author of

Toxic Feedback: Helping Writers

Survive and Thrive (University

Press of New England, 2006), a

book “strongly recommended” by

Library Journal for students,

teachers, and workshops. She is

also the creator and editor of the

book series, This Day in the Life:

Diaries from Women across

America (Three Rivers Press,

2005). In a starred review,

Publishers Weekly wrote about This Day in the Life, “There is not one piece in this compilation that is not captivating.”

Craig Wilson has been a feature writer

with USA Today since 1984, writing his

popular Wednesday column for more

than 10 years now. He's a graduate of

the Newhouse School of Public

Communication at Syracuse University

and author of It's the Little Things: An

Appreciation of Life's Simple Pleasures,

from Random House. He lives in

Washington, D.C.

Matt Schneider began his career

as a freelance humor writer. In 1987, he

accepted a position as a

writer/illustrator with American

Greetings in Cleveland, Ohio.

Throughout his career, Matt has written

and concepted thousands of cards

and was consistently one of the top-

performing writers. Presently, he holds

the position of Freelance Development

Director where he oversees the ongoing

recruitment of freelance contributors. In

2006, Matt conducted sessions at

UCLA, Second City Chicago and the

Will Rogers Writers' Workshop

in Oklahoma City.

Tom Ellsworth has over 20 years

of greeting card writing experience.

Prior to joining American Greetings,

Tom graduated from the University of

Wisconsin-Madison with a degree in

English. Tom has the unique talent

of being able to write both

conventional and humorous copy.

Over the years he has contributed to

thousands of successful greeting

cards. In his position as Humor Writing

Manager at American Greetings, he

directs the humorous writing staff

and manages the editorial content

of the humor card product lines.

Gordon Kirkland is an author,

syndicated columnist and

entertainer. Three of his five books

have received Canada's Stephen

Leacock Award of Merit for Humour.

His column, "Gordon Kirkland At

large" has been appearing in

Canadian and American

newspapers since 1994.

He teaches writing and book

marketing at a number of

conferences and educational

institutions in both the US and

Canada.

Connie Schultz won the Pulitzer

Prize for commentary in 2005 as a

columnist for The Plain Dealer in

Cleveland. Pulitzer judges praised

her for writing "pungent columns that

provided a voice for the underdog and

underprivileged." It is a common

theme in her work, which is fueled by

her working-class roots. In 2003, she

was a Pulitzer finalist and won the

Robert F. Kennedy Award for social

justice reporting for her series, "The Burden of Innocence," which chronicled the ordeal of Michael Green, who served 13 years in prison for a rape he did not commit. After her series ran, the real rapist turned himself in. Connie is also author of two books, Life Happens: And Other Unavoidable Truths and ... and His Lovely Wife: A Memoir from the Woman Beside the Man, a journal of her experiences on the campaign trail.

Matt Sloan and Aaron Yonda have been collaborating as Blame Society Productions since 2002. They have been featured in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post and TV Week magazine, as well as on "Good Morning America" and VH1’s “40 Greatest Internet Superstars” special. Matt and Aaron are best known for their video series Chad Vader, a viral Internet sensation that has received more than 13 million downloads and won more than a dozen film festival awards, including the "George Lucas Selects" award from the 2007 Star Wars Fan Movie Challenge. Their work has been screened over a dozen times at the highly competitive Los Angeles-based Channel 101, with three of their shorts achieving prime time status. They’ve had two comedy pilots screened at the New York Television Festival. Matt and Aaron write, direct, edit and act in all their material.