Board of Directors

Tara A. Elliott
Executive Director
Bay to Ocean Writers Conference Advisor
Host of Thursdays with ESWA 
BTO Co-Chair & Chair (2018-2025)
Past President (2020-2022)

Tara A. Elliott’s poems have appeared in 32 Poems, Ninth Letter, Cumberland River Review, Cimarron Review, One Art, Gulfstream, and Birmingham Poetry Review, among others. An award-winning poet and public school educator, she’s been bestowed numerous honors and grants including the Christine D. Sarbanes Award from MD Humanities, the Calcott Award for Excellence from the Community Foundation of the Eastern Shore, The Light of Literacy Award from Wicomico County Public Libraries (Educator Luminary 2016, and Adult Luminary 2020), and a Maryland State Arts Council’s Independent Artist Award. Website: www.taraaelliott.com

EXECUTIVE BOARD

Emily Rich
ESWA President (2025-2026)
Editor-in-Chief: Bay to Ocean Journal

Emily Rich’s work has been published in The Pinch, Hippocampus, Cutbank, and Briar Cliff Review, among others. Her essays have been listed three times as a notable works in Best American Essays. You can hear her interview local authors on her “Shore Writers,” program, Monday evenings on WHCP radio.

David Healey
Treasurer

Chesapeake City resident David Healey has written more than 20 novels and nonfiction books. He spent 21 years as a journalist and now teaches full-time for an online university. He is a contributing editor for The Big Thrill, monthly magazine for the International Thriller Writers. He enjoys Delmarva history and looks forward to connecting with other regional writers at Bay to Ocean and other ESWA events. Visit him online at https://davidhealeyauthor.com

Faith Addair
Secretary
Bay to Ocean Writers Conference Co-Chair

Faith Addair has worn many hats but wife, mother, nana, and author are her favorites. Going through the journey she and her family experienced during her son’s heroin addiction, Faith no longer had a desire to write but an absolute need that would not be quenched until she got her story—heartwarming and heartbreaking—on the pages within Raising An Addict, A Memoir in hopes to help others. Her second book, He’s Just My Brother, a children’s book about autism, shares the story of two of her grandsons, one who is autistic. Faith tells stories about life’s struggles, difficulties and victories to share that we are not alone in this journey called life.


MEMBERS-AT-LARGE

Nina Craig

Nina Craig is Ojibwe/Odawa, enrolled in the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians. Her family has deep roots in the Upper Peninsula and northwestern lower Michigan. Since 2016, Nina has been taking classes at The Writers Center in Bethesda, MD and at the Kalamazoo Institute of Arts. She resides in Kalamazoo to be near her children and grandchildren and writes poetry, short stories and is working on her memoir.

Gene Garone
Host of Get Lit

Gene Garone earned an Ed.D. in Arts Education from Columbia University. His background includes thirty years as an owner of an advertising agency and publishing company. He is an accomplished book designer with multiple written publications in academia, creative storytelling, and poetry. He has been teaching communication classes, graphic design, and writing courses at the college level for over four decades. Growing up in New Jersey, he now resides in Delaware with two very energetic dogs.

Christopher T. George

Christopher T. George was born in Liverpool, England, in 1948. He emigrated to the US in 1955 but returned home to experience the “Swinging Sixties.” He re-emigrated to the US in 1968 and studied poetry with Sister Maura Eichner and Elliott Coleman. He has been published in such journals as Poet Lore, Smoke, Bogg, Electric Acorn, Anti-Heroin Chic, and Triplopia. A former editor at Loch Raven Review, Chris has a poetry site at http://chrisgeorge.netpublish.net/. After residing in Maryland for some five decades, he currently lives with his wife Donna and sister-in-law Lisa in Newark, Delaware. In addition to his creative writing, Chris is an artist, song lyricist, and a published historian of the War of 1812 and Jack the Ripper.  He served as treasurer and president of the Maryland State Poetry Society in the 1970’s.

Kenton Kilgore
Past President (2018-2020)
Past Treasurer (2020-2025)
BTO Co-Chair (2018-2022)

Kenton Kilgore is the author of Hand-Selling Books: Making Money and Winning Fans, a how-to guide to help authors sell books in person. He has published four young adult sci-fi/fantasy novels--This Wasted Land, Lost Dogs, Stray Cats, and Dragontamer's Daughters-- as well as the children's picture books Our Wild Place, Pimmi Makes a Friend, and How the Kangal Got Her Mask. Kenton and his family live on Kent Island, Maryland.  Website: www.kentonkilgore.com

David Kozinski

David P. Kozinski  received an Established Professional Poetry Fellowship from the Delaware Division of the Arts. His full-length book of poems, Tripping Over Memorial Day, was published by Kelsay Books. He received the Dogfish Head Poetry Prize, which included publication of his chapbook, Loopholes (Broadkill Press). Kozinski was named 2018 Mentor of the Year by Expressive Path, a nonprofit that facilitates youth participation in the arts. He serves on the board of the Manayunk-Roxborough Art Center and the editorial board of Philadelphia Stories. He is art editor of the Schuylkill Valley Journal and Rockwood Park & Museum's resident poet. Recently published in North of Oxford, Broadkill Review, One Art.

Jackie Oldham

Jackie Oldham (she/her) is a poet/ essayist/blogger/photographer/musician from Baltimore, MD. Her poems have appeared in Oddball Magazine, Rigorous Magazine, Spillwords Press, and the book A Lovely Place, A Fighting Place, A Charmer: The Baltimore Anthology. She is a contributing writer for the Baltimore Jazz Alliance Newsletter. Her favorite poets include Edgar Allan Poe, whose works she reads annually at the New Year's Eve Poe remembrance at Westminster Burial Ground, and Lucille Clifton, whose works she has studied in ESWA's online poetry forums. She has also served as a Room Host for the Bay to Ocean Writers Conference. For more information about Jackie, visit https://baltimoreblackwoman.com.

Dylan Roche
Past President (2022-2024)

Dylan Roche is a novelist, playwright, journalist, copywriter, blogger, editor, and creative writing coach with years of professional experience in a breadth of writing-related endeavors. Whether he’s writing magazine features about fitness and nutrition, farcical sitcoms for the stage, or ad copy for small businesses, he loves connecting with and resonating with readers. His first novel, The Purple Bird, a YA fantasy adventure, debuted in 2019. He lives in Annapolis with his dog, Tyrion the corgi, and when he’s not writing, he can usually be found going on long-distance runs. Visit him online at www.dylanrochewriter.com

Michael Salcman

Michael Salcman: poet, physician and art historian, born in Pilsen Czechoslovakia. Former chairman of neurosurgery, University of Maryland, president of The Contemporary Museum and City Lit Festival. Poems in Arts & Letters, Barrow Street, Hopkins Review, Hudson Review, New Letters, Notre Dame Review, Raritan and Smartish Pace. Books include The Clock Made of Confetti (nominated for The Poets' Prize), The Enemy of Good is Better, Poetry in Medicine, classic and contemporary poems on medicine, A Prague Spring (Sinclair Poetry Prize winner), Shades & Graces (winner Daniel Hoffman Legacy Book Prize), Necessary Speech: New & Selected Poems (2022) and Crossing the Tape (2024).

Ron Sauder
BTO Conference Co-Chair
Past President (2017)

Ron Sauder is the owner of Secant Publishing in Salisbury. He has published about  fifty fiction, nonfiction, YA, and middle grade books in (variously) print, digital, and audiobook formats since Secant’s founding in 2014. Secant titles have been recognized by the Independent Book Publishers Association, the National Indie Excellence Awards, the Independent Publisher Book Awards, and the Foreword INDIES awards, among others. Prior to moving to the Eastern Shore in 2013, Ron spent his career in newspaper journalism (Richmond Times-Dispatch) and both university and healthcare communications (Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore and Emory University in Atlanta). From 2016-2018, he served ESWA as president-elect, president, and past president, respectively, rejoining the board in 2024.

Willie Schatz

Willie Schatz graduated from the same high school as Louise Gluck, though she is slightly more recognizable. He received his J.D. from Georgetown Law School and practiced for three years before moving to Miami to be a sportswriter.  He's been a business writer forThe Washington Post and a freelancer for The New York Daily News.  He taught English for two decades at the University of Maryland. A published poet, he also is the Writers Artist-in-Residence at Street Sense, D.C.’s paper for and about the homeless. He and his spouse Molly split their time between D.C. and Lewes.