NONFiction / CRAFT

Nonfiction

9:00AM – 9:50AM
Better Listeners Make Better Storytellers:  Interviews, Oral Histories, And Firsthand Accounts
Brent Lewis

A powerful, but often overlooked tool in the writer's kit, interviewing as part of the creative process offers a broad range of literary applications and adds insight and authenticity to every project. Through writing exercises, helpful handouts, and constructive conversation with practical tips, this session's goal is to share with attendees the challenges and rewards of interviewing as a research technique and to explore how developing one's skills as an interviewer can contribute to more success as an author. From inspiration to polish, the interview process, by applying a writer's curiosity and desire to communicate, provides a real-life opportunity to get the story right. Tailored for nonfiction writers, fiction writers may also benefit from the techniques discussed.

BRENT LEWIS is the author of the recently published Stardust by the Bushel: Hollywood on the Chesapeake Bay's Eastern Shore, which spotlights filmmaking on Delmarva, as well as two nonfiction books about Kent Island and the indie novel, Bloody Point1976. A fan of history and pop culture, Brent is a native Eastern Shoreman with deep regional roots. An oral historian, documentarian, and playwright, he has written for magazines, newspapers, and newsletters. His long established blog, easternshorebrent.com, is a popular storehouse for readers interested in Chesapeake Bay storytelling, history, and memoir.

10:00AM – 10:50AM
Inspired by Pain
Faith Addair

There is a story inside you that only you can share. The story that you personally lived, felt, heard, and lived through is trying to get out! But it feels too painful.  Going through traumatic circumstances can really make you feel like hiding yourself away to guard against more pain.  Faith Addair lived through the terrifying journey of her son's heroin addiction and recovery and for years felt like she couldn't talk about it. In the end, she knew that she had to share her story and share her victory.  Writing her memoir became an outlet for peace and inspiration for others and she looks forward to helping others tell their story of trauma to triumph!

FAITH ADDAIR is the author of two books, Amazon's Top 100—Raising An Addict, A Memoir and a children's book He's Just My Brother.  A Mental Health Coach and Inspirational Speaker, Faith writes about troubling situations in life and how to get past the "poor me" attitude to see the positive and learn from traumatic situations.

11:00AM – 11:50AM
Designing a Smart Research Plan for Your Nonfiction Book or Memoir
Amy L. Bernstein

Researching a creative nonfiction book is a daunting but essential part of any author's process. It's also loaded with pitfalls ranging from scope creep to burn-out. This session offers authors strategies to develop a roadmap for handling research so that it deepens their book without overwhelming the whole project. We will discuss critical questions around ensuring that your research supports your thesis, how to balance writing with research, and more. We will also touch on AI as a research tool. Authors will gain a clear understanding of how to design a research plan to enrich their book. We'll examine commercial nonfiction and researched memoir.

AMY L. BERNSTEIN runs Wordfirst Book Coaching Services, which supports aspiring and experienced nonfiction authors as they develop long-form projects from the raw-idea stage to polished, market-ready book proposals, and points in between. Amy's client base includes an eclectic group of authors, including a microbiologist, a middle-school educator, and a TV journalist. She also works selectively on memoir projects that blend the personal and professional. Amy is an award-winning author, former print and radio journalist, and executive speechwriter, with decades of experience in government and nonprofit communications. Her forthcoming book is Wrangling the Doubt Monster: Fighting Fears, Finding Inspiration.

1:30PM – 2:20PM
Red String and Push Pins: So You Want to be a True Crime Writer?
Stephanie L. Fowler

True crime is an immensely popular genre today. Just look at the sheer number of podcasts, documentaries, YouTube videos, articles, and books; it's massive and rakes in millions and millions of dollars. But this genre is not without its pitfalls, rabbit holes, and bad takes. In this session, Stephanie will briefly discuss the history and ethics of the true crime genre as well as offering tips on research and organization. As a true crime writer, Stephanie will give a candid look at her own experiences in this field. Included will be a Q&A session and suggested reading lists.

STEPHANIE L. FOWLER, a graduate of Washington College in Chestertown, Maryland, was the 2001 winner of the Sophie Kerr Prize, the largest undergraduate literary award in the country. That collection of short stories became her first book, Crossings, published in May 2008. Her second award-winning book, Chasing Alice: How the Life, Murder, and Legacy of an English Teacher Changed a Delmarva Community, was published in September 2020. Her next book will detail a double homicide in Salisbury, Maryland in December 1968. A born and bred Marylander, Stephanie now lives in southern coastal Delaware with her wife, Patty, and their dog, Lima.

2:30PM – 3:30PM
Writing Business Nonfiction
Paul Comfort

How to write effective nonfiction for business purposes including books, articles, blog and social media posts and more will be explored. Paul will present how to effectively promote your business and industry, grow your social media followership, and use thought leadership to engage the C suite of customers through practical explanation, demonstration and hands on writing activities for participants.  Plus he'll show how to successfully create compilation works (books and articles) with multiple contributors and transition to podcasting, paid speaking and sponsored book giveaways and signing events.

PAUL COMFORT is a long time Eastern Shore resident, attorney and former County Commissioner, who has transitioned from a career in government and transportation to communications. Now Paul has become an industry influencer and successful author, podcast and YouTube producer and host in this field. From his role as SVP and Chief Customer Officer of one of the world's largest software companies, Paul creates C suite influence through thought leadership. Paul has written six best selling books In six years, is a popular conference speaker and produces and hosts the industry leading podcast and YouTube TV show Transit Unplugged with millions of views and  downloads.

Craft

9:00AM – 9:50AM
Watch Out, It's a Trope!: Writing Disabled Characters
James Irwin

Writers want to populate their books with more diverse characters, to better reflect reality as readers know it, and to create a richer, deeper world in their stories. Increasingly, they include characters that are disabled in some way, which is appropriate since—depending on definitions—at least 14% of the US population has a disability. Unfortunately, writers often unwittingly fall back on cliches, stereotypes, and tropes. This session discusses how to approach writing about disability, and the best ways to avoid the pitfalls that have ensnared others.

JAMES IRWIN is a writer in New Jersey. His work has appeared in Brevity, Bay to Ocean Journal, Big Windows Review, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Bay Guardian, and Spiral; he co-founded the film journal Cinematograph and is associate editor of the Atlantic Journal of Communication. Awards include the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Natl. Endowment for the Humanities, Gotham Writers Workshop, and Rockefeller Foundation. He has taught at San Francisco State Univ., UC Berkeley, and currently lectures on disability representation at Wm. Paterson University. He used to teach tennis for walking-around money. Find him via linktr.ee/jimirwin

10:00AM – 10:50AM
This is My Teddy Bear: Walking the Line between Show and Tell
Jesse Waters

We've all had Show and Tell, the first moments of our creative lives in which we brought our treasures to 1st grade for all to see. But what if the teddy bear we've brought simply sits on the table in front of the class? Or what if we forget Teddy at home, and--when called forward—must rely on only explication to express our great love for that spit-soaked, dog-bitten artifact who got us through so much trauma, joy, and life? Join me as I take us through an experience in which we see the crucial relationships between showing AND telling, and discover why these two elements of our essay work must be offered in tandem.

JESSE WATERS A winner of the River Styx International Poetry Contest, runner-up for the Iowa Review Fiction Prize and Finalist in The Starcherone Prize, the DIAGRAM Innovative Fiction Prize and the Paul Bowles Fiction Award, Jesse Waters is currently Director of the Bowers Writers House at Elizabethtown College. Jesse's fiction, poetry and non-fiction work has been nominated for multiple Pushcart Prizes, and has appeared nationally and internationally in a bunch of journals you've heard of and some no one has. His first collection of poems, Human Resources, was published by Inkbrush Press in 2011; his first collection of short fiction, So Let Me Get This Straight, was released by Paycock Press in Feb. of 2018; his last book, The Edited and Translated Selected/Collected Poems of Taslima Nasrin was released by Penguin Books in Sept. of 2023.

11:00AM – 11:50AM
Summoning Spells: Channeling the Voices of History
Jane Satterfield & Ned Balbo

In this workshop, we'll explore the rewards and challenges of writing dramatic monologue that reflects historical realities or that moves toward thoughtful reinvention. How do we know we've found a subject whose life has dramatic stature or audience appeal? How can we shape the messy reality of a subject's life into a shapely narrative arc? What ethical questions do we face when adopt another's voice? We'll look at a diverse collection of poems that address these questions and offer strategies we can use in our own practice. Finally, we'll  summon some voices of our own using the techniques we've discovered to generate new poetry or flash prose. Participants will leave the session with a new draft, and a set of prompts for future writing.

JANE SATTERFIELD has published five poetry books, including The Badass Bronts, a winner of the Diode Editions Poetry Prize, Apocalypse Mix (Autumn House Poetry Prize), Her Familiars, and Assignation at Vanishing Point (Elixir Press Poetry Award). She is the recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts poetry fellowship, the 49th Parallel Award for Poetry from Bellingham Review, the Ledbury Poetry Festival Prize, and more). She has received fellowships from the Arvon Foundation (U.K.), VCCA, and Sewanee. Born in Corby, England, to a British mother also born in Corby, she is a professor of writing at Loyola University Maryland.

NED BALBO's six books include The Cylburn Touch-Me-Nots (New Criterion Poetry Prize) and 3 Nights of the Perseids (Richard Wilbur Award), both published in 2019. The Trials of Edgar Poe and Other Poems received the Poets Prize and the Donald Justice Prize. His poem "The Wolves of Chernobyl" was second-prize co-winner in the 2022 Keats-Shelley competition sponsored by the UK's Keats-Shelley Memorial Association. Awarded a 2022 Maryland State Arts Council Independent Artist Award in poetry, Balbo has taught in Iowa State University's MFA program in creative writing and environment, the West Chester University Poetry Conference, and elsewhere.

1:30PM – 2:20PM
Experimental Writing Workshop
Richard Peabody

Be prepared to write to some prompts that depart the linear track, stretch your imagination, and spark new pathways. If you're a fan of literary folks like Kelly Link, George Singleton, Sarah Gailey, Flann O'Brien, Joyelle McSweeney, Jasper Fforde, Lidia Yuknavitch, Lance Olsen, Carole Maso, Jeanette Winterson, or old-school Donald Barthelme, John Barth, Kurt Vonnegut, et al., you've come to the right place!

RICHARD PEABODY has spent the majority of his life in the DMV. He wears many literary hats--poet, author, literary editor, publisher, teacher, mentor. The author of a novella and three short story collections, he taught graduate fiction writing at Johns Hopkins University for 15 years. His Gargoyle Magazine/Paycock Press were founded in 1976.  His most recent poetry volume, Guinness on the Quay, was published in Ireland (Salmon Poetry, 2019).  The Richard Peabody Reader, a career-encompassing collection, was released in 2015 by Alan Squire Publishing, as the first book in their ASP Legacy Series.

2:30PM – 3:30PM
Overcoming Imposter Syndrome for Writers
Dr. Evelyn Johnson-Taylor

Do you feel like an imposter in your writing journey, worried that others might not like the real you? This workshop will help you tackle imposter syndrome and its impact on your creativity. We'll explore techniques to embrace your unique voice and style, moving beyond comparisons that hinder your self-esteem. Discover practical steps to connect with your true self and present your authentic self to readers with confidence. Understand that your individuality is a gift, and gain strategies to build self-assurance. Join us to transform intimidation into empowerment and celebrate the unique identity only you bring to your writing.

DR. EVELYN JOHNSON-TAYLOR as been a ministry leader for over thirty years, helping people navigate many of the seasons of their lives. Her vision is to encourage, empower, and equip people to win in every season of life. Evelyn is an ordained elder, Christian author, speaker, coach, and mentor. She is a theology professor at Grace & Truth Christian University in Tampa, Florida.  She has earned an AD in nursing, a BA in Women's Studies, and a Master's and Ph.D. in Ministry.

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