HANIF ABDURRAQIB
Hanif Willis-Abdurraqib is a poet, essayist, and cultural critic from Columbus, Ohio. His poetry has been published in Muzzle, Vinyl, PEN American, and various other journals. His essays and music criticism has been published in The FADER, Pitchfork, and The New York Times. He has been nominated for the pushcart prize, and his poem "Hestia" won the 2014 Capital University poetry prize. His first full length collection, The Crown Ain't Worth Much, is forthcoming in 2016 from Button Poetry / Exploding Pinecone Press. He is a Callaloo Creative Writing Fellow, an interviewer at Union Station Magazine, and a poetry editor at Muzzle Magazine. He is a member of the poetry collective Echo Hotel with poet/essayist Eve Ewing. Additionally, he is a columnist at MTV News, where he writes about music, and fights to get Room Raiders back on the air. He thinks poems can change the world, but really wants to talk to you about music, sports, and sneakers. Presented in partnership with O, Miami and National Poetry Month.

IBRAHIM AHMED
Born to Egyptian parents living in Kuwait in 1984, Ibrahim Ahmed spent his childhood between Bahrain and Egypt before moving to the US at the age of thirteen. He now lives and works in Cairo. Working with both traditional and non-traditional media, he has developed a personal aesthetic that represents his journey as artist and migrant. His multidisciplinary works challenge the political lines that define borders and the so-called authenticity of “national identity.” Ahmed has shown his work internationally, including the Volta Art Fair in New York, Townhouse Gallery in Cairo, the Sharjah Art Museum, and the ArtRio Art Fair. In 2014, he was an artist-in-residence at artellewa Art Space in Giza, Egypt, before setting up his working studio in the Ard El Lewa neighborhood of Cairo.

SHAMS AHMED
Shams Ahmed is a masterful arranger, music director, and educator from Cherry Hill, NJ. He is a graduate of Northeastern University in Boston, where he directed SoJamX and 2013 ICCA Champions, The Nor'easters and founded Pitch, Please, while double majoring in Finance and Mandarin. During his tenure, the group picked up several compilation placements and CARA awards, and Shams earned more arranging awards than any other collegiate arranger. Additionally, Shams delved into the world of musical theater, music directing community productions of RENT, A Tale of Two Cities, and Spring Awakening. He is currently living in Boston, arranging music for The Vocal Company and coaching local a cappella groups. Presented in partnership with The Betsy's A Cappella Festival 2017.

SUSANNE PAOLA ANTONETTA
Susanne Paola Antonetta’s Make Me a Mother, ranked a Top Ten Book of the Year by Image Journal, was published by W.W. Norton. A digital book, Curious Atoms: A History with Physics, was published by Essay Press in May of 2016. She is also author of Body Toxic, A Mind Apart, the novella Stolen Moments, and four books of poetry. She is a frequent blogger with the Huffington Post. Awards for her poetry and prose include a New York Times Notable Book, an American Book Award, a Library Journal Best Science book of the year, a Lenore Marshall Award finalist, an Oprah Bookshelf pick, a Pushcart prize, and others. Her essays and poems have appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, Orion, The New Republic and many anthologies. She lives in Bellingham, Washington. Presented in partnership with FIU Writers on the Bay Series 2017-18.

KATHI APPELT
Kathi Appelt is the New York Times best-selling author of more than forty books for children and young adults. Her first novel, THE UNDERNEATH, was named a National Book Award Finalist, a Newbery Honor Book, and the PEN USA Literature for Children Award. That was followed by KEEPER, which was named an NCTE Notable Children’s Book and a School Library Journal Best Book of the Year. Her memoir, MY FATHER’S SUMMERS, won the Paterson Prize for Young Adult Poetry. Ms. Appelt was presented with the A.C. Greene Award by the Friends of Abilene Public Library, which named her a “Texas Distinguished Author.” Her novel, THE TRUE BLUE SCOUTS OF SUGAR MAN SWAMP, was named a National Book Award Finalist and won the Green Earth Award, the Texas Institute of Letters Award, and the Judy Lopez Memorial Award. Her most recent picture book, COUNTING CROWS (illustrated by Rob Dunlavey), was a finalist for the Writers League of Texas Award, and her newest novel, MAYBE A FOX (co-written with Alison McGhee) won the Jean Flynn Award given by the Texas Institute of Letters, and has also been named to the Texas Bluebonnet Master List. She and her husband Ken live in College Station, TX with five adorable cats, Django, Peach, Mingus, Chica and Jazz. For more information, check her website: www.kathiappelt.com. Presented in partnership with The Betsy's WYR Program and National Poetry Month.

JESSIE ASKINAZI
Jessie Askinazi is an interdisciplinary creative and communications manager. She has worked in photography, performance art, journalism, poetry, film, design and the contemporary art world. Jessie studied at the Atlantic Theater Company's performing arts conservatory in New York City. She is most notably affiliated with Purple Fashion Magazine, where she has documented cultural events for several years. Jessie also dedicates her life to social justice and activism, currently working with the East Los Angeles Women's Center; a crisis center for women who have experienced sexual or domestic violence. Most recently, she collaborated with Pussy Riot to make a video about threats to the Violence Against Women Act. Her upcoming poetry chapbook "Ear Tagging" will be published through Shirt Pocket Press, along with a short film she made about the collection.

ANDREA ASSAF
Assaf is currently Artist-in-Residence and guest faculty at the School of Theatre & Dance, University of South Florida (Tampa). Her organization, Art2Action, Inc., recently received a $189,200 grant for THIS Bridge, a project she will produce in partnership with USF. The grant is one of only six awarded nationwide by the Association of Performing Arts Presenters (APAP) "Building Bridges: Campus Community Engagement Grant Program," a component of the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and the Doris Duke Foundation for Islamic Art. Other awards include a National Performance Network Creation Fund Commission, 2010 Princess Grace Award in Theater, 2007 Hedgebrook residency and a 2004 Cultural Contact grant. She is a Board member of Consortium of Asian American Theaters & Artists and Alternate ROOTS, and a member of Radius of Arab American Writers). Presented as part of Tigertail Speak Out 2017.

CHRIS BARKER
Barker is an Atlanta native and art director who began his career as founding art director for Fenuxe Magazine and is a member of the artistic project 50 Shades of Black, which combine art with personal stories to explore the complex relationship between sexuality and skin tone in the formation of black identity. Presented in partnership with O, Miami and National Poetry Month.

LENNA BAUERLY
Lenna Bauerly has written songs for a considerable numbers of others, and made her debut in 2007 as an artist herself, reaching #29 on the Billboard Club Play Chart with a remix of her pop song “Evenly.” Lenna went onto chart three subsequent times on Billboard as an artist. Lenna was one of the most played artists on the CBS hit show Guiding Light, which was the longest running drama ever, entertaining fans for over 70 years. In 2009 she received an Emmy nomination for her self- penned song “The Leaver.” Lenna has had songs on the charts in The Netherlands, France and Mexico to name a few. She also sings and writes in French. She has performed in places like The Staples Center, Los Angeles , bars in Viet Nam, and the streets of Paris. Lenna songs have been played on numerous TV shows such as Walker Texas Ranger, Laguna Beach, Oprah, Dr. Oz, Drake and Josh, and Wheel Of Fortune, to name a few. Lenna is currently in pre-production for a one hour animated Christmas special which she created titled “Joe The Suntanned Reindeer.” Lenna penned the screenplay. She has collaborated with many award winning songwriters and artists to create the soundtrack album which accompanies the movie. For additional information please visit latourmusic.com

JENSEN BEACH
Jensen Beach is the author of two story collections, most recently SWALLOWED BY THE COLD (Graywolf). He holds an MFA in fiction from the Program for Poets and Writers at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, as well as an MA and BA in English from Stockholm University. He teaches in the BFA program at Johnson State College, where he is the fiction editor at Green Mountains Review. He’s also a faculty member in the MFA Program in Writing & Publishing at Vermont College of Fine Arts. His writing has appeared recently in A Public Space, the Paris Review, and The New Yorker. He’s a former web editor at Hobart. He lives in Vermont.

EMANUELEE BEAN
Emanuelee "Outspoken Bean" is a performance poet, compassionate mentor and dedicated educator. Bean travels the country performing his original works and inspiring young creative minds. He is a Texas Poet Laureate nominee, ranked 9th in the Individual World Poetry Slam 2013, ranked 2nd in collaborative poetry at Group Piece Finals 2013 and, is ranked 11th at National Poetry Slam 2014 (both with Houston VIP). He started performing spoken-word in 2005. In his senior year at Prairie View A&M, Bean founded and coached the University’s first poetry slam team. In their first year, they won the title in their region and grabbed the 8th place ranking in the country at College Union Poetry Slam Invitational (CUPSI '08). Bean has also worked with the Harris County Department of Education, Houston’s Young Audiences: Arts for Learning and Texas Commission for the Arts, and Houston Grand Opera. He serves as the Project Coordinator, Lead Coach and mentor for Meta-Four Houston, a project under Writers in the Schools' WITS Performance program.

BRUCE BEASLEY
Bruce Beasley is a professor of English at Western Washington University and the author of eight collections of poems, including most recently All Soul Parts Returned (2017) and Theophobia (2012), both from BOA Editions. He has won the Colorado Prize for Poetry (selected by Charles Wright) for Summer Mystagogia; the Ohio State University Press/Journal Award for The Creation; and the University of Georgia Press Contemporary Poetry Series Award for Lord Brain, as well as fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Artist Trust. He has won three Pushcart prizes for poetry and his recent poems appear in Yale Review, Kenyon Review, New England Review, Field, Southern Review, and other journals. Presented in partnership with the FIU Writers on the Bay Series.

LAUREN BELFER
Lauren Belfer has an M.F.A. from Columbia University. Her debut novel, City of Light, was a New York Times bestseller, as well as a New York Times Notable Book, a Library Journal Best Book, and a Main Selection of the Book of the Month Club. City of Light was a bestseller in Great Britain and has been translated into six languages. Her novel, A Fierce Radiance, was named a Washington Post Best Novel of 2010 and an NPR Best Mystery of 2010. Her third novel, And After the Fire, received a 2016 National Jewish Book Award. Belfer’s fiction has also been published in the Michigan Quarterly Review, Shenandoah, and Henfield Prize Stories. Her nonfiction has appeared in the New York Times Book Review, the Washington Post Book World, the Christian Science Monitor, and elsewhere.

TAI BEAUCHAMP
An internationally recognized style influencer, public speaker, media personality, and entrepreneur, Tai Beauchamp inspires women around the world to celebrate their inner and outer beauty. A publishing industry veteran, Tai has expertise in media, fashion, and beauty that has been solidified through her experience as a beauty and fashion editor at top publications, including Harper’s Bazaar, Good Housekeeping, O, The Oprah Magazine, VIBE Vixen, and Seventeen —where she made history as the magazine's youngest and first African-American Beauty and Fitness Director. Tai frequently presents on topics ranging from entrepreneurship and girl power to stylish living and 21st century philanthropy. In 2006, she launched her game-changing media company, Tai Life Media, to holistically connect style and empowerment.

KEITH BLANEY
Born and raised in Miami, Florida, storyteller Keith Blaney received his degree in theatre from Florida State University and went on to a post-graduate acting internship at the Alliance Theatre in Atlanta. He has been acting on stage, screen, and television for 20 years, as well as developing, writing and performing a wide range of projects and solo performances.

BEN BRAM
Ben Bram is a two-time Grammy award-winning arranger, vocal producer, engineer, and music director from Los Angeles. A graduate of the USC Thornton School of Music, Ben sang with, arranged for, and directed four-time ICCA champions the SoCal VoCals during his time at USC. He is co-founder, collaborator, and a longtime friend of Pentatonix and has served in many different capacities, most notably as arranger, engineer, and producer. Ben also has an extensive resume in film, TV, and commercials, which includes work for Pitch Perfect 1 and 2, The Sing-Off, Glee, CoverGirl, Lifetime, and MTV. In addition to film, TV, and recording work, Ben enjoys staying involved in the greater a cappella community. Along with Avi Kaplan and Rob Dietz, he co-founded A Cappella Academy, a teen summer intensive designed to train and mentor up-and-coming vocal talents. He is a frequent guest clinician at various a cappella festivals and continues to arrange for scholastic and professional groups alike. He recently created Snowfall, a pop/jazz caroling company based in Los Angeles. Presented as part of The Betsy A Cappella Festival 2017.

DYLAN BRENNAN
Originally from Dublin and currently based in Mexico, Dylan Brennan writes poetry and prose. His debut poetry collection, Blood Oranges, for which he received the runner-up prize in the Patrick Kavanagh Award, is available from The Dreadful Press. Atoll, an e-chapbook is available for free from Smithereens Press. In 2016, he co-edited Rethinking Juan Rulfo’s Creative World: Prose, Photography, Film for Legenda Books. His most recent publication is GUADALUPE & other hallucinations, a digital collection of prose featuring prints by Jonathan Brennan. Presented in partnership with O, Miami and National Poetry Month.

KAREN BROOKS-HOPKINS
Karen Brooks Hopkins is a senior fellow at The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. Ms. Hopkins is the former president of the Brooklyn Academy of Music, where she worked since 1979. As president, she oversaw the Academy's 233 full-time employees and its facilities, including the 2,100-seat Howard Gilman Opera House and 834-seat BAM Harvey Theater, the four-theater BAM Rose Cinemas, the BAMcafé, and the BAM Fisher building, which houses the 250-seat flexible Fishman Space. Most recent honors include being designated a "Woman of Achievement" by the professional association Women in Development in 2013 and named one of the "50 Most Powerful Women in New York" by Crain's. In 2014, she received the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce Award and was one of 10 esteemed business leaders appointed to the inaugural Crain's Hall of Fame. Ms. Hopkins was awarded honorary doctorate degrees in 2015 from Brooklyn's Pratt Institute and Long Island University. Among the many honors she received during her BAM tenure are her appointment as Chevalier de L'Ordre des arts et des Lettres by the Republic of France for her work supporting the French arts in the United States, as well as Commander of the Royal Order of the Polar Star in recognition of her role in solidifying ties between the performing arts communities of Sweden and the United States. Presented in partnership with The Arsht Center for Performing Arts.

JENNY BROWNE
Jenny Browne is the author of three collections of poems Dear Stranger, The Second Reason, and At Once, all from the University of Tampa Press. Her poems and essays have appeared widely, including American Poetry Review, Gulf Coast, Pleiades, The New York Times, Tin House, and Threepenny Review. A former James Michener Fellow at the University of Texas in Austin, she has received grants from the San Antonio Artist Foundation, the Texas Writers League, and the National Endowment for the Arts. Currently she is an Associate Professor of English at Trinity University and lives with her husband and daughters Lyda and Harriet in downtown San Antonio.

GERARD CALISTE
Gerard Caliste was born and raised in New Orleans, Louisiana. In 1994, he became involved with Young Aspirations/Young Artists (YA/YA), through which Caliste produced art for a long list of private collectors, and for companies, organizations and celebrities, including MTV, Swatch Watch, The New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, and Oprah Winfrey. In 1994, Caliste was one of 700 artists commissioned by the United Nations to design seat covers for the General Assembly Room in honor of the United Nations’ 50th anniversary in 1995. Caliste attended the Savannah College of Art and Design on a portfolio scholarship and Presidential scholarship. His series, Waterlines- more than two dozen paintings, poems and sculptures - was previewed at Le Mieux Gallery in New Orleans, Louisiana. Caliste is a teacher in Houston, Texas and continues to make work in his approach, a figurative style which he calls New American Abstract Modern Expressionism. Caliste has been selected as the Diaspora Vibe Cultural Arts Incubator Caribbean Crossings Artist in Residence for 2016 and 2017. Presented in partnership with Diaspora Vibe Cultural Arts Incubator.

LAUREN CAMP
Lauren Camp is the author of three books, most recently One Hundred Hungers (Tupelo Press, 2016), winner of the Dorset Prize. Her poems have appeared in New England Review, Poetry International, World Literature Today, The Missing Slate, Beloit Poetry Journal and as a Poem-a-Day for Poets.org. Other literary honors include the Margaret Randall Poetry Prize, the Sheila Margaret Motton Book Prize, the Anna Davidson Rosenberg Award, and a Black Earth Institute Fellowship. www.laurencamp.com

ANDRES CARDENES
Andres Cardenes- The Cuban-born violinist Andrés Cárdenes has won international acclaim from critics and audiences alike for his solo violin, conducting, viola, chamber music, concertmaster and recorded performances. Since taking Second Prize in the 1982 Tchaikovsky International Violin Competition in Moscow, he has appeared as soloist with over one hundred orchestras on four continents, including those of Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Los Angeles, St Louis, Moscow, Bavarian Radio, Helsinki, Shanghai, Caracas and Barcelona. He has collaborated with many of today’s greatest conductors, including Lorin Maazel, Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos, Mariss Jansons, Charles Dutoit, Christoph Eschenbach, Sir André Previn, Leonard Slatkin, Sir Andrew Davis,Gerard Schwarz, David Zinman and Manfred Honeck.Andrés Cárdenes holds the title of Distinguished Professor of Violin Studies and the Dorothy Richard Starling/Alexander Speyer Jr Endowed Chair at Carnegie Mellon University’s School of Music. Andrés Cárdenes was appointed Concertmaster of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra by Lorin Maazel in 1989 and holds the Rachel Mellon Walton Endowed Concertmaster Chair, leaving at the end of the 2009–2010 season to concentrate on his conducting, solo and chamber music careers. Presented as part of Miami Music Festival 2017.

J.C. CARLESON
I never intended to be an author. Although I was always a proficient writer of term papers, reports, and other necessary but mundane documents, I didn't consider myself cut out for the creative life. Nearly a decade as an officer in the CIA's clandestine service changed that. Inspired by years of intrigue, scandal, and exotic locales, I was finally ready to give writing a shot. My fiction and non-fiction works all tap into my unique experiences, drawing readers into the highly charged, real world of espionage. Presented as part of The Betsy's Writers for Young Readers Series.

INDIA CARNEY
India Carney is a singer, songwriter, vocal arranger, and actress whose talents embrace a wide range of musical genres from opera to musical theater to pop. A native of Brooklyn, NY, Carney is best known for her television appearances as the Top 5 featured artist on NBC "The Voice" Season 8. Carney sang alongside Grammy-award winner Christina Aguilera, American pop artist Jason Derulo, opened for The Roots at the 26th Annual JazzReggae Festival in Los Angeles, CA, and was a featured artist at The Apollo Theater (NY), John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts (DC), The Rose Bowl (Pasadena, CA), Madison Square Garden (NYC) and Yankee Stadium for the New York Yankees. Carney serves as an adjudicator on the inaugural selection committee for A Cappella Education Association (AEA) "Come Together" compilation. Carney served as music director (2015) and instructor/counselor (2014) at the A Cappella Academy (co-founder Avi Kaplan, Pentatonix). As a former member of the award-winning UCLA ScatterTones A Cappella Group, Carney was music director for two years and earned Outstanding Soloist and Arrangement awards at multiple ICCA competitions. A graduate of UCLA, Carney earned her B.A. in Music with a Music Industry Minor. Carney is a U.S. Presidential Scholar in the Arts and YoungArts Winner in Voice & Theater. Presented as part of The Betsy A Cappella Festival 2017.

ROB CASPER
Robert Casper is the Head of the Poetry and Literature Center at the Library of Congress. On July 25, 2017, O, Miami and The Betsy Writer's Room present an evening with Rob Casper and Matthea Harvey. O, Miami director P. Scott Cunningham leads a discussion with Casper, the current head of the Poetry and Literature Center at the Library of Congress, about the state of poetry in America, the process for selecting the Poet Laureate of the United States, and the role of publishing in contemporary culture. The talk is followed by a reading by award-winning poet Matthea Harvey

JOHN CASQUARELLI
John Casquarelli is the author of two full-length collections: On Equilibrium of Song (Overpass Books, 2011) and Lavender (Authorspress, 2014). He is the chairperson of the Santa Fe chapter (Santa Fe Poetry Trails) of the New Mexico State Poetry Society (NMSPS). He received his MFA in Creative Writing at Long Island University—Brooklyn. John was awarded the 2010 Esther Hyneman Award for Poetry and the 2016 Kafka Residency Prize in Hostka, Czech Republic. His poems have appeared in numerous journals and anthologies, and can be read in a dozen countries.

TEO CASTELLANOS
Teo Castellanos is an actor/writer/director, who works in theater, film and television. His award winning solo NE 2nd Avenue toured extensively for a decade and won the Fringe First Award at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, Scotland 2003. His most recent solo Third Trinity, was directed by Oscar winner and Mac Arthur Genius, Tarell Alvin McCraney. He founded the Dance/Theater Company Teo Castellanos D-Projects in 2003. He is the recipient of several awards and grants including NEA, NEFA, MAP, NPN, Knight Arts Challenge, Knight Foundation People’s Choice Award, Miami-Dade County Cultural Affairs and also won the State of Florida Individual Artist Fellowship 2005 and 2013. He’s a Sundance Institute Screenwriters Intensive Fellow 2015. Teo is a member of SAG/AFTRA, and Society of Stage Directors and Choreographers and holds a BFA in Theater.

ROD COFFEE
As a career journalist in both print and broadcast media, Rod Coffee has covered news, sports and entertainment around the country and even freelanced at the 2012 London Olympic Games in a never-ending quest to inform, and hopefully entertain, the masses via a variety of communicative outlets. A native Detroiter, Coffee grew up in a hotbed of artistic talent and views creative expression as a natural way of communicating. His journalistic journey has taken him from Motown to Miami and several cities in-between, including the nation’s capital where he currently resides.

SOPHIE COLLINS
Sophie Collins is cofounder of tender, an online quarterly promoting work by female-identified writers and artists. She is carrying out research on poetry and translation at Queen’s University Belfast.Presented in partnership with O, Miami Poetry Festival and National Poetry Month.

BEATRIZ COLOMINA
Beatriz Colomina is an internationally renowned architectural historian and theorist who has written extensively on questions of architecture and media. Ms. Colomina has taught at Princeton University since 1988, and is the Founding Director of the Program in Media and Modernity at Princeton, Her books include Privacy and Publicity: Modern Architecture as Mass Media (Cambridge: The MIT Press, 1994), which was awarded the 1995 International Book Award by the American Institute of Architects, which has been translated into many languages. In addition, Ms. Colomina has published has published Sexuality and Space (New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 1992), which was awarded the 1993 International Book Award by the American Institute of Architects; and Architecture production (New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 1988). She presented “Women in Architecture,” a keynote lecture at the conference Female Forces, 100-year anniversary, at the Royal Academy Copenhagen. In addition to being the Editor of the Multimedia Section of the JSAH (Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians), she has written numerous other publications and presented lectures throughout the world. Presented with Centro Cultural España.

DONALD DAEDALUS
Donald Daedalus grew up in the shadow of the country’s largest public observatory, an area so remote and sparsely populated it served as the first plutonium-processing plant for the Manhattan Project. These two experiences impressed an urge for thinking of the sky as both a near and distant body that is a recent fading history and the earth a place where humans hide. His art practice is motivated by uncovering the recovered. He makes books, videos, sculptures and public artworks. Through Triangle’s support from the National Endowment for the Arts, Daedalus is in residence at Triangle from December–February 2016–17.

NEIL DE LA FLOR
Neil de la Flor earned an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Miami. His first book, Almost Dorothy, won the 2009 Marsh Hawk Press Poetry Prize and will be published in January 2010. In addition, his literary work has been published in Hayden’s Ferry Review, Barrow Street, Sentence, 42opus, Scene360, Court Green and other literary journals on the web and in print. In 2006, Facial Geometry (Neo Pepper Press), a collaborative chapbook of triads co-authored with Maureen Seaton and Kirstine Snodgrass, was published. Neil is the Founder and Director of Reading Queer, a Miami Knight Arts Challenge Award Recipient.

LENNY DELLAROCCA
Lenny DellaRocca has had poems in numerous literary magazines including: Poet Lore, Fairy Tale Review, Seattle Review, POEM, Sun Dog, Gulf Stream Magazine, Wisconsin Review, Long Island Quarterly, Apalachee Review, The Prose-Poem Project, Poetrybay, Chiron Review, 2River View and Nimrod. DellaRocca is a former president of the Hannah Kahn Poetry Foundation. He is a Pushcart Prize nominee and his chapbook, The Sleep Talker, is available at Night Ballet Press. His latest collection, is Blood and Gypsies. DellaRocca is founder and co-publisher of South Florida Poetry Journal, SoFloPoJo, and Interview With a Poet both at southfloridapoetryjournal.com.

DENISE DESPEYROUX
Escritora y guionista uruguaya, Denise Despeyroux también ha destacado como dramaturga, actriz y directora teatral. Residente en España desde hace varios años, Despeyroux ha participado en varias obras con gran éxito. Además, ha trabajado como traductora y ha publicado varios libros dedicados a un público infantil, como son ¡Atrévete a pensar! o El gran libro de las hadas. En cuanto a la poesía, Despeyroux publicó en 2003 la antología Palabras de amor de Shakespeare. Presented in partnership with Centro Cultural España Miami.

ROBERT DIETZ
Rob Dietz is a multiple CARA winning producer who has been arranging, performing, and teaching contemporary a cappella music for over fifteen years. Based in Los Angeles, Rob is best known for his work as an arranger and group coach for NBC’s The Sing-Off. Through his work on the show, Rob has had the pleasure of collaborating with some of the top talent in the vocal music world, including Pentatonix, Streetcorner Symphony, The Exchange, Traces, and many more. As a performer, he is an award winning vocal percussionist, recognized for his work with Jazz/Pop super group, Level, and Pop/Soul quintet, The Funx. Rob has a deep passion for a cappella education, and is a founding co-director (along with Ben Bram and Avi Kaplan) of A Cappella Academy. In addition to his work with the Academy, Rob is also the director of Legacy: an auditioned, community youth a cappella group based in Los Angeles. In 2017, the group’s inaugural year, Legacy won first place in both the Los Angeles A Cappella Festival’s Scholastic Competition, and the Southwest semifinal round of the Varsity Vocals A Cappella Open. Presented in partnership with The Betsy A Cappella Festival 2017.

PAUL DI PIERRO
Paul DiPierro is a video designer and 3D animator based in the San Francisco Bay Area. He has been creating video content for the Opera world since 2010. In addition to his theatrical work, DiPierro frequently collaborates with National Geographic and the Ford Foundation. Presented in partnership with The SoBe Arts production of "Tesla".

GREGORY DONOVAN
Gregory Donovan is the author of the poetry collections Torn from the Sun (Red Hen Press, 2015), and Calling His Children Home, (U. of Missouri Press), winner of the Devins Award, as well as poetry, essays, and fiction published in The Kenyon Review, New England Review, Chautauqua, storySouth, TriQuarterly, diode, The Southern Quarterly, Copper Nickel, Crazyhorse, and elsewhere. Donovan is Senior Editor of the online journal Blackbird and he teaches in the graduate creative writing program at Virginia Commonwealth University. Presented in partnership with O, Miami and National Poetry Month.

JULIE FARKAS
Julie Farkas is an educator and writer working on a project that has taken her 10 years to complete. Because she primarily identifies as a poet, she always works on prose and poetry, simultaneously, and she says the work and language always feed off of and into each other. Her work has been published in literary magazines such as Hanging Loose, Painted Bride Quarterly, and forthcoming, in Forklift, Ohio. She received her Master of Arts in Education/Teaching at Teachers College Columbia University, her Master of Fine Arts in Poetry at Vermont College of Fine Arts, and is a Children's Literature Fellow with Stony Brook University.

BORIS FISHMAN
Boris Fishman is the author of A Replacement Life and Don’t Let My Baby Do Rodeo (HarperCollins), both New York Times Notable Books of the Year. He has won the Sophie Brody Medal from the American Library Association and the VCU Cabell First Novelist Award. His journalism, essays, and criticism have appeared in The New Yorker, The New York Times Magazine and Book Review, The Guardian, Travel & Leisure, New York Magazine, among other publications. His next book is a work of creative nonfiction about food and memory. He lives in New York City and teaches creative writing at Princeton University.

MARTHA FRANKEL
Martha Frankel is a writer, storyteller, knitter, and reformed busy-body. She is the host of Woodstock Booktalk, a weekly podcast, where she interviews writers, including many who have been at The Writer’s Room at The Betsy. She is the executive director of Woodstock Bookfest, a yearly gathering of readers and writers in Woodstock, NY. Her memoir, Hats & Eyeglasses: A Family Love Affair with Gambling, tells of her foray into online poker and its disastrous results.

ANNETTE FROMM
Annette B. Fromm is a museum specialist and folklorist. At the present she serves as Coordinator/Assistant Professor of Museum Studies at Florida International University. She is the Past President of the International Committee of Museums of Ethnography (ICME), an international committee of the International Council of Museums, and Chair of the Florida Folklife Council. She is a graduate of Indiana University (Ph.D., Folkore, minors in art history & anthropology) and Kent State University (B.A., African Studies and textiles). Fromm’s book, We Are Few, Folklore and Ethnic Identity of the Jewish Community of Ioannina, Greece, written for Indiana University, was published in 2008 by Lexington Books. She has published articles on immigrant-ethnic groups in America, Jews in Greece, Greek folklore, Native Americans in museums, multicultural museums, and folk art. Another area of research is food history and traditions. She has taught many workshops on folklore and folklife, American ethnicity, oral history and museum issues. Fromm has conducted extensive field research in ethnic communities across the United States and in Greece.

JOHN GUARE
John Guare, is an American playwright known for his innovative and often absurdist dramas. Guare was educated at Georgetown University, Washington, D.C. (B.A., 1960), and at Yale University (M.F.A., 1963). He then began staging short plays, primarily in New York City, where he helped to found the Eugene O’Neill Memorial Theatre Playwrights’ Conference. His best known works include House of Blue Leaves (which won both an Obie and the New York Drama Critics Circle Award for the Best American Play of 1970-71 and received four Tony Awards during its 1986 revival), Four Baboons Adoring the Sun (which was produced at the Lincoln Center Theater in 1992 and was nominated for four Tony Awards), and Six Degrees of Separation (which received the New York Drama Critics Circle Award in 1990 and an Olivier Best Play Award in 1993.)

AMINA GAUTIER
Amina Gautier, Ph.D. is the author of three award-winning short story collections: The Loss of All Lost Things, which won the Elixir Press Award in Fiction and received the Chicago Public Library’s 21st Century Award, Now We Will Be Happy, which won the Prairie Schooner Book Prize, the USA Best Book Award in African American Fiction, the International Book Award, a Silver IPPY Award in Multicultural Fiction, a Florida Authors and Publishers Association Award Gold Medal in Short Fiction, and was Long-listed for The Chautauqua Prize in Fiction, and At-Risk, which won the Flannery O’Connor Award for Short Fiction, and received an Eric Hoffer Legacy Award and a First Horizon Award. Gautier has published a record number of short stories. More than eighty-five of her short stories have been published and her fiction appears in African American Review, African Voices, Agni, Antioch Review, B&A: New Fiction, Cicada, Chattahoochee Review, Colorado Review, Crab Orchard Review, Crazyhorse, Glimmer Train, Iconoclast, Iowa Review, Kenyon Review, Nimrod, North American Review, Notre Dame Review, Opium.com, Pindeldyboz, Pleiades, Prairie Schooner, Quarter After Eight, Red Rock Review, River Styx, Salt Hill, Shenandoah, Southeast Review, Southern Review, Southwest Review, Storyquarterly, Studio Magazine, Sycamore Review, Timber Creek Review, Today’s Black Woman, Torch, and Yemassee among other places.

ERIC GENSLER
Erik Gensler is the President of Capacity Interactive Inc. a digital marketing consulting firm for the arts whose clients include some of the country's leading performing arts institutions including Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Pacific Northwest Ballet, The Kennedy Center, and Roundabout Theatre Company. Erik founded Digital Marketing Boot Camp for the Arts, an annual two-day conference in October in NYC. Erik has presented sessions on digital marketing at the Opera America Conference, The Arts & Business Council of New York, The New York Foundation for the Arts, the LORT Conference, and the Tessitura Conference. He has guest lectured at Columbia, NYU, and Yale and has been featured on the Carnegie Mellon Arts & Technology podcast series and webinars. Presented in partnership with the Arts & Business Council's MAMP 2017.

ANITA GLESTA
Anita Glesta is an artist who specializes in creating large-scale, international public art projects with a focus on the creation of place connected to specific historic events. Glesta was born in New York and has lived in Bilbao, Spain and Sydney, Australia Glesta’s work has been shown in galleries and museums, worldwide. Her multi-channel, two-phased, project Gernika/Guernica; Desde el Cielo Hasta el Fondo was exhibited in New York in 2007 at White Box (Chelsea) and at Chase Manhattan Plaza, sponsored by the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council. It has subsequently been exhibited internationally. Glesta has been the recipient of many grants and awards including a Pollock-Krasner Grant, a 2002 New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship in the category of Architecture and Environmental Structures, a New York State Council of the Arts Grant (NYSCA) for new media technologies and an Australian Council Grant. Glesta teaches a summer residency program at the School of Visual Arts (SVA) in New York. She has lectured about her work and taught at Harvard’s Graduate School of Design (GSD), the school of the Bellas Artes in Barcelona, Spain, the Sydney College of the Arts (Australia) and the University of New South Wales/Built Environment (Australia).

BELEN GOPEGUI
Belén Ruiz de Gopegui is a Spanish writer. She studied law at the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, and she worked for several newspapers including El sol. Presented in partnership with Centro Cultural España Miami.

ALEX GREEN
Alex Green is a recording engineer, producer, and arranger from New York City. He is a graduate of Tufts University with a dual degree in Music and Archaeology, where he sang with and directed the Tufts Amalgamates and with whom he recorded 2011′s Contemporary A Cappella Recording Award (CARA)-winning Hands Off The Mannequin. He is a co-owner and producer at Plaid Productions, a full-service a cappella production company with dual home bases in Brooklyn, NY and Somerville, MA. Alex shares two RIAA-certified Platinum and Billboard-charting albums with Ed Boyer, Ben Bram, and Bill Hare for his work with Pentatonix, while other clients of Plaid Productions have had songs featured on SING, BOCA, Voices Only, and have garnered over 150 CARA nominations. Since graduating in 2010, he has regularly served as a masterclass leader and instructor at a cappella festivals nationwide, as well as singing with Overboard (Boston, MA) and writing for the Recorded A Cappella Review Board (RARB). Presented as part of The Betsy A Cappella Festival 2017.

HENRY GREENSPAN
Henry Greenspan is a psychologist and playwright at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor who has been writing and teaching about the Holocaust for almost three decades. He is the author of On Listening to Holocaust Survivors: Recounting and Life History and, with Agi Rubin, Reflections: Auschwitz, Memory, and a Life Recreated as well as the acclaimed play, REMNANTS, described below. He received his B.A. and M.Ed. from Harvard University and his Ph.D. from Brandeis University. In 2000, he was the annual Weinmann Lecturer at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington. Presented in partnership with Jewish and American Holocaust Literature Symposium.

LAUREN GRODSTEIN
Lauren Grodstein is an American novelist and educator at Rutgers University of Camden in New Jersey, known for her use of male viewpoint characters. Her novel Girls Dinner Club made the New York Public Library “Book for the Teen Age” list in 2006. Presented in partnership with FIU Writers on the Bay Series.

JENNIFER GROTZ
Jennifer Grotz is the author of three books of poetry, most recently Window Left Open. Also a translator from the French and Polish, her most recent translation is Rochester Knockings, a novel by Tunisian-born writer Hubert Haddad. Her poems, reviews, and translations have appeared in The New Yorker, Poetry, The Nation, The New Republic, New York Review of Books, Ploughshares, New England Review, and in four volumes of the Best American Poetry anthology. Director of the Bread Loaf Translators’ Conference and assistant director of the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, she teaches at the University of Rochester.

GABRIELA GUIMAREY
Gabriela Guimarey was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina. She was a radio and television host in her country until she moved to the US in 2001. She switched sides on the camera, and became a Content Producer and scriptwriter for Promofilm US, Plural Entertainment, Zodiak Latino, Endemol, Telemundo, Cinemat y Univision. Gabriela, or Gaby as most of her friends call her, paints canvases, river rocks and the walls of her house, and is also a Reiki Master and tea sommelier. She has been writing poetry and short stories since her adolescence. Guimarey has two kids she adores, two cats, one mango tree, another one with avocados, she enjoys playing the guitar and awaits to one day take piano lessons. Milán Kundera, Arturo Perez Reverte, José Saramago, Raymond Carver, Rosa Montero, Claudia Piñeiro, Marcela Serrano are some of the authors that take up the most space in her book collection. She collects vinyls from Carole King, Miles Davis, Crosby Still Nash and Young, Carpenters, Joni Mitchell, The Who and Kendrick Lamar. Currently, she is working on her first novel.

EDUARDO HALFON
Eduardo Halfon was born in Guatemala City. He moved to the United States with his family at the age of ten, went to school in South Florida, studied industrial engineering at North Carolina State University, and then returned to Guatemala to teach literature at Universidad Francisco Marroquín for eight years. Named one of the best young Latin American writers by the Hay Festival of Bogotá, he is also the recipient of the prestigious José María de Pereda Prize for the Short Novel. Although bilingual, Halfon chooses to write in Spanish and has published nine books of fiction. In 2011 he received a Guggenheim Fellowship to work on continuing the story of The Polish Boxer, which was the first of his books to be published in English, in 2012, by Bellevue Literary Press. Halfon now lives in Nebraska. Presented in partnership with Jewish and American Holocaust Literature Symposium.

NIKKI HARITATOS
Delight finder, delight designer, creativity consultant, speaker, MC/host, idea generator and brainstormer, theme and event designer, event and party stylist, set dresser, playlist creator, music explorer, choreographer, dancer and dance instructor, burlesque performer, bombshell trainer, calligrapher, word art creator, traveler, cabaret life drawing event host, entrepreneur, collaborator, curator and collector. Director of a bit o’ Burlesque, past Director of Dr. Sketchy’s Anti-Art School San Diego, Founder & Designer at Boom Pow Creative Studio (launching soon).

ELIZABETH HARPER NEELD
"When someone asks me how I decide on the subject of my next book, I say, “I write about what I most need to know.” That’s because when any of us writes, we discover things we would never have thought about if we had not been writing. If I’m in grief, I write books like Seven Choices: Finding Daylight After Loss Shatters Your World and Tough Transitions. If I need more balance between my inner and outer life, I write A Sacred Primer: The Essential Guide to Quiet Time and Prayer. If I want to be inspired by others, I write a biography like Sister Bernadette: Cowboy Nun From Texas or edit my father’s spiritual autobiography, From The Plow to the Pulpit." Elizabeth Neeld. Presented as part of The Betsy's WYR Program and National Poetry Month.

MATTHEA HARVEY
Matthea Harvey is the author of five books of poetry—If the Tabloids are True What Are You?, Of Lamb (an illustrated erasure with images by Amy Jean Porter), Modern Life (a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award and a New York Times Notable Book), Sad Little Breathing Machine and Pity the Bathtub Its Forced Embrace of the Human Form. She has also published two children’s books, Cecil the Pet Glacier, illustrated by Giselle Potter, and The Little General and the Giant Snowflake, illustrated by Elizabeth Zechel. She teaches poetry at Sarah Lawrence and lives in Brooklyn. Presented in partnership with O, Miami Poetry Festival.

ARLO HASKELL
Arlo Haskell is a historian, poet, literary organizer, and publisher. Much of his work focuses on the literary and social histories of Key West, Florida. His forthcoming book is The Jews of Key West: Smugglers, Cigar Makers, and Revolutionaries (1823-1969) (November, 2017). He is also the author of the poetry collections Fool Proof (2003) and Joker (2009). As an editor, Haskell has worked on critically acclaimed editions of poetry and literature in translation, including The Last Books of Héctor Viel Temperley (translated by Stuart Krimko and named a BOMB magazine “Editor’s Choice” for 2011) and Harry Mathews’s poetry collection, The New Tourism (selected as a Times Literary Supplement “Book of the Year” in 2010). He is also the editor of Mathews’s posthumous Collected Poems: 1956-2016 (forthcoming, 2018). He lives with his family in Key West, where he is executive director of the Key West Literary Seminar. Presented as part of the Art of Bookmaking: Publishers Perspectives.

LOLA HASKINS
Lola Haskins is a poet and writer. The author of fourteen books, her most recent poetry collection is How Small, Confronting Morning (Jacar, 2016). Her last two books — The Grace to Leave (Anhinga, 2012) and Still, the Mountain (Paper Kite, 2010) — won Florida Book Awards. Her in-print books of poems are Desire Lines, New and Selected Poems (BOA Editions, 2004), Extranjera (Story Line, 1998), and The Rim Benders (Anhinga, 2001). Ms. Haskins’ prose writings include Fifteen Florida Cemeteries, Strange Tales Unearthed (University Press of Florida, 2011) and an advice book for people interested in poetry, Not Feathers Yet: A Beginner’s Guide to the Poetic Life (Backwaters, 2007). A two-time NEA Fellowship recipient, a four-time Florida State Individual Artist Fellowship recipient and winner of the Elizabeth Dickinson prize from the Poetry Society of America, Haskins is currently serving a four-year term as Honorary Chancellor of the Florida State Poets Association. Presented in partnership with SWWIM.

MARC IRWIN
Marc Irwin,  Baltimore-based Jazz Pianist returns to Miami for The Betsy Hotel's Overture to Overtown, a Jazz Festival, which pays homage to Miami's rich history of jazz music, 'back in the day'. Overtown, like downtown Baltimore, was a vibrant scene for such jazz stalwarts as Billie Holiday, Louis Armstrong, and Cab Calloway, among many others. Presented as part of The Betsy Hotel Overture to Overtown Jazz Festival.

SHACHAR ISRAEL

Cited by the New York Times as "a gifted young trombonist,” Shachar Israel joined The Cleveland Orchestra in 2009 as assistant principal trombone. Born in Nahariya, Israel, he received his bachelor of music degree from Philadelphia's Curtis Institute of Music, where he studied with Nitzan Haroz, principal trombone of the Philadelphia Orchestra. His primary teachers have included Joseph Alessi, Mark Lawrence, Mitchell Ross, Micha Davis and Joseph Nashkes. Mr. Israel started his musical journey at the Kiryat-Yam Wind Band, and he is a graduate of the Thelma Yellin High School in Givatyim, Israel. His studies while in Israel were made possible by the generosity of the America-Israel Cultural Foundation through its scholarship program, the Keren Sharet Competitions. Mr. Israel performs on an Edwards T350E Trombone.

KEVIN JENNINGS
Kevin Jennings is a lauded social entrepreneur with over three decades starting and leading organizations promoting progressive change in America. A First-Generation college graduate, Jennings received his B.A. magna cum laude in History from Harvard in 1985 and then became a high school history teacher. In 1988 he helped students at Concord Academy to create the nation’s first Gay-Straight Alliance, leading him two years later to found the Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network (GLSEN). Jennings is the author of seven books, and was perhaps best known for his role as the President’s “anti-bullying czar,” leading a national campaign to reduce bullying that culminated in the 2011 White House Conference on Bullying Prevention.

ASHLEY M. JONES
Ashley M. Jones received an MFA in Poetry from Florida International University (FIU), where she was a John S. and James L. Knight Foundation Fellow. She served as Official Poet for the City of Sunrise, Florida's Little Free Libraries Initiative from 2013-2015, and her work was recognized in the 2014 Poets and Writers Maureen Egen Writer's Exchange Contest and the 2015 Academy of American Poets Contest at FIU. She was also a finalist in the 2015 Hub City Press New Southern Voices Contest, the Crab Orchard Series in Poetry First Book Award Contest, and the National Poetry Series. Her poems appear or are forthcoming in the Academy of American Poets, Prelude, Steel Toe Review, Night Owl, The Harvard Journal of African American Public Policy, pluck!, Valley Voices: New York School Edition, Fjords Review: Black American Edition, PMSPoemMemoirStory, Kinfolks Quarterly, and Lucid Moose Press' Like a Girl: Perspectives on Femininity Anthology. She received a 2015 Rona Jaffe Foundation Writer's Award and a 2015 B-Metro Magazine Fusion Award. Her debut poetry collection, Magic City Gospel, is forthcoming from Hub City Press in January 2017. She serves as an editor of PANK Magazine, and she currently lives in Birmingham, Alabama, where she is a faculty member in the Creative Writing Department of the Alabama School of Fine Arts.

ALLISON JOSEPH
Allison Joseph is Associate Professor of English at Southern Illinois University Carbondale. Joseph is the author of What Keeps Us Here (Ampersand, 1992), Soul Train (Carnegie Mellon, 1997), In Every Seam (Pittsburgh, 1997), Imitation of Life (Carnegie Mellon, 2003) and Worldly Pleasures (Word Press, 2004). Her honors include the John C. Zacharis First Book Prize, fellowships from the Bread Loaf and Sewanee Writers Conferences, and an Illinois Arts Council Fellowship in Poetry. She is editor and poetry editor of Crab Orchard Review and director of the Young Writers Workshop, an annual summer residential creative writing workshop for high school writers. She holds the Judge Williams Holmes Cook Endowed Professorship. Presented in partnership with Supporting Women Writers in Miami (SWWIM).

VIVEK KAMATH
Violist Vivek Kamath joined the New York Philharmonic in January 1998. Mr. Kamath earned his bachelor's degree at the Cleveland Institute of Music, studying with Donald Weilerstein. He has appeared as soloist with the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra and the Metamorphosen Chamber Orchestra. An avid chamber musician, he has performed at the Marlboro, Ravinia, Sarasota, Blossom, and Bowdoin festivals. In 1997 Mr. Kamath was a prize-winner in the Washington International String Competition and in the Irving Klein International String Competition. In his spare time he enjoys playing tennis, studying wildlife, and dining out.

AMIR KATZ
Amir Katz, born 1973 in Ramat Gan, Israel, is a pianist who lives in Germany. He began piano lessons at the age of 11 and won his first national competitions in Israel four years later. He received scholarships to study in Europe, including at the International Piano Foundation at Lake Como, where he had lessons with Leon Fleisher, Karl Ulrich Schnabel and Murray Perahia. These led him to Munich, Germany, where he finished his studies with Elisso Wirssaladse and Michael Schäfer.Amir Katz has played all over the world, including at Alice Tully Hall New York, at the Théâtre du Châtelet Paris, at the Tonhalle Zurich, and in concert in Japan and China. Among the orchestras he has worked with are the Munich Philharmonic and the Israel Philharmonic, conducted by Zubin Mehta. Presented as part of Great Artist Encounters.

JESSE LEE KERCHEVAL
Jesse Lee Kercheval is the author of several books, including Cinema Muto (Southern Illinois University Press, 2009), winner of the Crab Orchard Open Selection Award; Dog Angel (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2004); and World as Dictionary (Carnegie-Mellon University Press, 1999). She is the Zona Gale Professor of English at University of Wisconsin–Madison. Presented as part of Int'l Women's Month at The Betsy.

HOLLI KITCHING
An alumna of James Madison University's School of Theatre and Dance, Holli Kitching was a member of the BluesTones for five years, serving as music director and president. After graduation, Holli moved to New York City, where she taught middle school theatre and worked for a variety of children's theatre companies. While living in New York, Holli became one of the original members of the all-female CAL group Empire, serving as music director from 2011-12. In 2012, she moved to Washington, DC, where she currently resides and works at an independent school coordinating after-school programming and teaching theatre and voice. In 2012, Holli formed the all-female group The District and has been serving as music director ever since. Holli is currently a member of VXN, a professional all-female vocal group. In addition to her performance resume, Holli has been active in the a cappella community through festivals and event production for the past five years. Since 2010, Holli has also been an ICCA Producer for Varsity Vocals, serving both the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic regions, and a workshop and masterclass clinician at various festivals across the country. Presented as part of The Betsy A Cappella Festival 2017.

DAN KRAINES
Dan Kraines has published poems in The Journal, Phantom, Salamander, and was anthologized in The Traveler's Vade Mecum. He is a Phd candidate at the University of Rochester and he holds an MFA from Boston University as well as an MA in social thought and modernism from New York University. He has received scholarships from the New York State Summer Writers Institute and taught at Skidmore College.

RENA KRAUT
Rena Kraut is the Founder and Director of Cuban American Youth Orchestra. Ms. Kraut is an active freelance performer whose recent work includes concerts with IRIS Orchestra, Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, and the Chamber Music Society of Minnesota. She plays frequently with the Minnesota Orchestra, including on their historic tour to Cuba. Dr. Kraut is principal clarinetist of the Mill City Summer Opera Orchestra and has held positions with the Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra and the Sarasota and Des Moines Metro Opera Orchestras. Dr. Kraut received her D.M.A. from the University of Minnesota, where she studied with Burt Hara, and she holds degrees from Rice and Northwestern Universities. A devoted educator, Dr. Kraut has taught musicians young and old for over 20 years, including beginners, college students, and retirees. She directs the summer music camps at the Saint Paul Conservatory of Music, is an active clinician, and coaches award-winning chamber ensembles in the Twin Cities. As an admirer of Latin American culture, she has happily co-led teenage student exchanges to Costa Rica and Argentina in addition to travels in Spain and Cuba.

EDUARDO LAGO
Eduardo Lago (born 31 January 1954) is a Spanish novelist, translator, and literary critic, born in Madrid and currently living in Manhattan, New York, United States. In 2002, he was the recipient of the Bartolomé March Award for Excellence in Literary Criticism for his critical comparison of three Spanish translations of James Joyce’s novel, Ulysses. In 2006, he won the Premio Nadal, Spain's oldest and most prestigious literary award, for his first novel, Llámame Brooklyn (Call Me Brooklyn). For many years, he interviewed North American writers for the literary supplement Babelia in the Spanish newspaper El País. He returned to teaching Spanish, Spanish literature, and European Literature at Sarah Lawrence College in Yonkers in 2011, after leaving in 2005 for the position of Director of the Cervantes Institute in New York. Presented in partnership with Centro Cultural Español Miami

CHRISTINA LANE
Christina Lane is Chair and Associate Professor in the Department of Cinema and Interactive Media at the University of Miami, and Director of the Norton Herrick Center for Motion Picture Studies. She is the author of the books Feminist Hollywood: From Born in Flames to Point Break (2000) and Magnolia (2011), the first full-length critical evaluation of Paul Thomas Anderson. With a specialization in Hollywood directors and stars, she has published widely on such figures as Kathryn Bigelow, Sofia Coppola, Jodie Foster, and Sally Field. She is considered an expert on the subject of Alfred Hitchcock’s women writers, having published "Alma Reville: Adaptation, Continuity, Writing" (in Hitchcock and Adaptation 2014) and “Stepping Out from Behind the Grand Silhouette: Joan Harrison’s Films of the Forties” (in Film and Authorship 2003). She is currently writing Hitchcock’s Phantom Lady: The Life and Career of Joan Harrison, which chronicles the untold story of Hollywood’s most powerful female writer-producer of the 1940s. Harrison went from being the worst secretary Alfred Hitchcock ever had to one of his most influential collaborators, critically shaping his brand as the “Master of Suspense."

STEVEN LECKART
Steven Leckart has been a journalist for 14 years and earned his master's from the Graduate School of Journalism at UC Berkeley. Since 2010, his work has appeared in The New York Times, Wired Magazine, Men's Health, Popular Science, Maxim, and Esquire,among others. Leckart has written two feature documentaries -- "All Things Must Pass" (2015) and "Silicon Cowboys" (2016). He is also the author of Cabin Porn, a New York Times bestseller about hand-built architecture, which was published by Little, Brown, & Company in 2015.

MIA LEONIN
Mia Leonin is the author of three poetry collections, most recently, Chance Born (Anhinga Press) and a memoir, Havana and Other Missing Fathers (University of Arizona Press). A book-length poem, Fable of the Paddle Sack Child will be published by BkMk Press this fall. Leonin has been awarded fellowships from the State of Florida Department of Cultural Affairs, two Money for Women grants by the Barbara Deming Fund, and she has been a fellow at the National Endowment for the Arts/Annenberg Institute on Theater and Musical Theater. Leonin has written extensively about theater and culture for the Miami Herald, New Times, and other publications. She teaches creative writing at the University of Miami. Leonin will be reading excerpts from essays and poems she has written in response to Madera’s curatorial projects, the Havana Habibi film, and her work with women in Miami and Cuba.

LUISITA LOPEZ TORREGROSA
Professor Torregrosa, an award-winning writer and journalist based in New York City, is a former New York Times editor and columnist for The International Herald Tribune. Torregrosa’s work has appeared in The New York Times, Vanity Fair, Conde Nast Traveler, Vogue, The Washington Post Magazine, Washingtonian magazine, Yahoo News, and Women in the World/NYTimes.com She writes on women’s issues, foreign policy, international politics and pop culture. She has reported from Havana, Manila, Tokyo, Rio, Madrid, Kuala Lumpur, Seoul, Jakarta, Singapore, New York, Washington, Los Angeles, San Juan, and Antigua. She has also worked out of Hong Kong, Bangkok, New Delhi, Sao Paolo and Brasilia. Torregrosa has published two books of nonfiction: Before the Rain: A Memoir of Love & Revolution, (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2012), and The Noise of Infinite Longing (HarperCollins, 2004). She is a Distinguished Adjunct Professor at Fordham University’s Latin American and Latino Studies Institute and in the Department of Communication and Media.

NICK MAKOHA
Nicholas Makoha is a dynamic writer born in Uganda and has lived in Kenya, Saudi Arabia and currently resides in London. He is one of ten contemporary poets in the UK to have been selected for Spread the Word’s Complete Works development programme. During the programme he has been mentored by eminent poet George Szirtes, both writers in exile. As a resident artist of Spoke-Lab he developed a 1-man- show “My Father & Other Superheroes”. One man’s honest revelation of how pop culture raised him in the absence of his father. It was showcased at Stratford Theatre East and toured to Olso with the British Council. Presented in partnership with O, Miami and Nat'l Poetry Month.

JESSIE LOUISE MARK
Jessie Louise Mark graduated from Duke University in 2011 where she majored in History and minored in Music. She is currently pursuing an MBA at the University of Michigan's Ross School of Business. During her four years as a member and director of Duke’s award-winning all-female a cappella group Lady Blue, Jessie developed a love for music theory and a cappella education. She has taught beginner music theory for vocal arranging for several years at a cappella festivals around the country and now serves the Scholastic Festival Producer of The Betsy's A Cappella Festival and Education Coordinator for the Los Angeles A Cappella Festival. Jessie sings and beatboxes with VXN, a bicoastal all-female vocal quintet, and Ross’s house rock band, Risky Business. Presented as part of The Betsy A Cappella Festival 2017.

ANDREA C. MARTIN
Winner of CuentoManía 2016 - "My favorite pastime when I was a child was a blank piece of paper and a pencil. Poems will just flow. At some points, I stapled them together in a notebook, put a cover, a title and my first book was born. I was not even ten. Later, I decided to put aside writing to experience the world. Nobody knew back then that I will live in eight different countries and will visit many others. Miami was never in my map. Destiny brought me here four years ago, and, to my greatest surprise, I found something real in this place. The dynamics of this city is captivating and a great source of inspiration. I write about everyday life. There is a bit of the persons I met along the way in my stories. People like you and me, ordinary people, are the ones that have the most extraordinary stories to tell.

LYDIA MARTIN
Lydia Martín is an award-winning journalist and author who spent three decades covering Miami’s growth and cultural evolution for The Miami Herald. Her work has appeared in books such as Presenting Celia Cruz (Clarkson Potter) and Louis Vuitton City Guide, Miami; in literary journals such as Ploughshares, Fifth Wednesday Journal and Origins Literary Journal; and in magazines such as Billboard, Esquire, InStyle, Oprah, Latina (for which she also served as contributing editor), Hispanic and Out. She has B.A. in English and journalism from the University of Miami and an M.F.A. in creative writing from Bennington College. She was part of the Miami Herald staff that won a Pulitzer Prize for coverage of 1992’s Hurricane Andrew; was twice a finalist for the Livingston Award, the largest all-media, general reporting prize in American journalism; and won a GLAAD Media Award for Spanish-language magazine writing, among other journalism awards. Her short story “The Adjustment Act” won the Ploughshares 2016 Emerging Writer’s contest; the short story “La Guagua”, published in Fifth Wednesday Journal, won the 2016 Editor’s Prize for Fiction and has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize.

JENNIFER MATTSON
Jennifer Mattson is a writer, editor and journalist. She writes The Wellness List column for Psychology Today and teaches writing at New York University, as well as, around the country. She was awarded the Spring 2016 Writer-in-Residence at The Lemon Tree House Residency for Writers in Tuscany, Italy and is the recipient of the prestigious scholarship for non-fiction writers at the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown. Presented in celebration of International Women's Month.

PATRICIA McCORMICK
Patricia McCormick, a two-time National Book Award finalist, is the author of five critically acclaimed novels – Never Fall Down, a novel based on the true story of an 11-year-old boy who survived the Killing Fields of Cambodia by playing music; Purple Heart, a suspenseful psychological novel that explores the killing of a 10-year-old boy in Iraq; Sold, a deeply moving account of sexual trafficking; My Brother’s Keeper, a realistic view of teenage substance abuse; and Cut, an intimate portrait of one girl’s struggle with self-injury. Never Fall Down was a finalist for the National Book Award in 2012 and was named a New York Times Notable Book for 2012. It was also named a Best Book of the Year by iTunes, The Huffington Post, School Library Journal and the Chicago Public Library. McCormick was named a New York Foundation on the Arts fellow in 2004 and a MacDowell fellow in 2009. She is also the winner of the 2009 German Peace Prize for Youth Literature. McCormick currently lives in Manhattan.

PEDRO MEDINA LEÓN
Pedro Medina Leon is the author of the books Streets of Miami (The Write Deal, USA) and Tomorrow I will not see you in Miami (Ediciones Oblicuas, Spain). Pedro is based in the United States and is the founder of the literary magazine Suburbano.

ERIKA MEITNER
Erika Meitner is the author of Inventory at the All-Night Drugstore (Anhinga Press, 2003), Makeshift Instructions for Vigilant Girls (Anhinga Press, 2011), and Ideal Cities (Harper Perennial, 2010), which was a 2009 National Poetry series winner. Her fourth book of poems, Copia, was published by BOA Editions in 2014. Meitner’s poems have been anthologized widely, and have appeared in Ploughshares, Virginia Quarterly Review, The New York Times Magazine, The New Republic, Tin House, and elsewhere. She has received fellowships from the Wisconsin Institute for Creative Writing, the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, Blue Mountain Center, and The MacDowell Colony, and she was a 2014-15 US-UK Fulbright Scholar in Creative Writing at the Seamus Heaney Centre for Poetry at Queen’s University Belfast. Meitner is currently an associate professor of English at Virginia Tech, where she directs the MFA program in Creative Writing. Presented in partnership with Jewish and American Holocaust Literature Symposium.

ETHAN MERMELSTEIN
Ethan Mermelstein is a New York-based screenwriter. He worked as script coordinator for the writers rooms on HBO’s “Girls" and Showtime’s “Nurse Jackie.” Much of his work stems from a deep desire to really know people — his friends, his family, his characters and himself. His work as host on “Emotionally Reckless,” a podcast featuring “raw and intimate conversations between friends, lovers, professionals, relatives, and strangers," reflects this obsessive need. His feature screenplay “The Zuckermans,” a dark comedy/drama about a Modern-Orthodox Jewish family from New York, forced to dig the podiatrist father out from a reckless insurance fraud scheme, was most recently selected as a finalist for the Nantucket Screenwriters Colony.

JENNY MOLBERG
Jenny Molberg won the 2014 Berkshire Prize for her debut collection of poems, Marvels of the Invisible (forthcoming, Tupelo Press). Her poems have appeared in North American Review, Missouri Review, Copper Nickel, Third Coast, The New Guard, Mississippi Review and other journals. She has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize, is the winner of the 2013 Third Coast Poetry Prize, and was featured in Best New Poets 2014. Originally from Dallas, Jenny holds a BA from Louisiana State University, an MFA from American University, and a PhD from the University of North Texas. Presented in partnership with SWWIM.

JAVIER MONTILLA
Javier Montilla is a Spanish journalist with a long history in the press, radio and television. His most recent novel, "Last Days with Sara Montiel" has been received with great success. In 2011, Montilla was awarded the FEDAN journalism award. Presented in partnership with Unity Coalition / Coalicion Unida's Celebrate Orgullo.

STEPHAN MORAVSKI

Stephan Moravski is a set, production and graphic designer based in downtown Manhattan who is an alumnus of Tisch School of the Arts, NYU, graduating with a Master of Set Design for Stage and Film. He completed his Master of Architecture at the University of Melbourne, giving him the opportunity to travel to India to study modernist architects and to paint his way across the South Australian Outback, before completing his thesis in Indigenous Australian architecture and moving to New York. Presented in partnership with SoBe Arts Production of "Tesla".

MARY MORRIS
Mary Morris is an American author and a professor at Sarah Lawrence College. Morris published her first book, a collection of short stories, entitled Vanishing Animals & Other Stories, in 1979 at the age of thirty-two and was awarded the Rome Prize in Literature by the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters. She has gone on to publish numerous collections of short stories, novels, and travel memoirs. She has also edited with her husband, the author Larry O'Connor, an anthology of women's travel literature, entitled Maiden Voyages, subsequently published as The Virago Book of Women Travellers. Her most recent novel, THE JAZZ PALACE, has received the 2016 Anisfield-Wolf Award for fiction. Presented for International Women’s Month.

MOIRA MULDOON
Moira Muldoon writes about technology, education, bars, and healthcare. Her work has been published in Wired.com, Salon, the Austin American-Statesman, American Way, D Magazine, the Austin Chronicle, SFWeekly, Gamespot/ZDNet, and literary journals. She has an MA from the University of Texas at Austin and an MFA from Texas State University. She taught writing at Texas State and at Johns Hopkins University’s CTYOnline before moving from adjuncting into corporate and nonprofit writing.

GREG NERI
Greg Neri is an African American author who has the pen name G. Neri, and is known for his work in young-adult fiction. He has written in free-verse (Chess Rumble, Hello I'm Johnny Cash), novelistic prose (Tru & Nelle, Ghetto Cowboy, Knockout Games,Surf Mules), and for graphic novels (Yummy). Presented as part of The Betsy FIU Writers for Young Readers Series.

KATHRYN NUERENBERGER
Kathryn Nuernberger was born in St. Louis, Missouri, on August 1, 1980. She earned a BA from the University of Missouri, an MFA from Eastern Washington University, and a PhD from Ohio University. Nuernberger is the author of The End of Pink (BOA Editions, 2016), which received the 2015 James Laughlin Award from the Academy of American Poets, given to recognize a superior second book of poetry by an American poet. She is also the author of Rag & Bone, which won the Antivenom Prize from Elixir Press and was published in 2011.

BARBRA NIGHTINGALE
Barbra Nightingale is the author of the poetry collection Singing in the Key of L, winner of the 1999 Stevens Poetry Manuscript Award, and Greatest Hits, a chapbook of twelve poems spanning twenty years. Her book Two Voices, One Past (2010), a collection of poems in her mother’s voice and her own, was a runner-up in the Yellow Jacket Press annual chapbook contest, and she was also a finalist in Narrative’s First Annual Poetry Contest. Nightingale is a professor of English, literature, and poetry at Broward College, Florida. Presented as part of the School's Out Poetry Reading.

MAGGE J. NIGRO
Magge Nigro has been selected as the 2017 Trinity College Hyam Plutzik Poetry Residency Recipient. Magge is originally from Reading, MA. She entered Trinity College in the Fall of 2013, and became an English major with a concentration in creative writing (poetry) during her sophomore year. She has studied under professors Ciaran Berry, Ethan Rutherford, Daniel Mrozowski, Clare Rossini, Chloe Wheatley, Christopher Hager, and Milla Riggio. During her senior fall semester she was selected as one of the Connecticut Poetry Circuit Student Poets, and toured colleges in Connecticut with four other poets during her senior spring semester—reading her work at Trinity, Connecticut College, the University of Hartford, the University of Connecticut (Storrs and Waterbury), Central Connecticut State University, Manchester Community College, and Yale University.

SHELLY ORIA
Shelly Oria is the author of New York 1, Tel Aviv 0 (FSG & Random House Canada, 2014), which earned nominations for a Lambda Literary Award and the Edmund White Award for Debut Fiction, among other honors. Her fiction has appeared in The Paris Review among numerous other places and has won a number of awards, including the Indiana Review Fiction Prize. Most recently, Shelly has co-authored a digital novella, CLEAN, commissioned by WeTransfer and McSweeney's. She lives in Brooklyn, where so co-directs the Writer's Forum at the Pratt Institute and has a private practice as a life & creativity coach. www.shellyoria.com

ANTONIO DIAZ OLIVA
Antonio Díaz Oliva (Temuco, Chile, 1985) has published the non-fiction book Piedra Roja: El mito del Woodstock chileno (Red Stone: The myth of Chilean Woodstock, 2010) and the novel La soga de los muertos (The rope of the dead, Alfaguara, 2011; Sudaquia NY, 2016). He has been awarded fellowships from the Council for Culture and the Arts in Chile, the Gabriel García Márquez Foundation for New Journalism and Fulbright. He is studying the MFA in Creative Writing in Spanish at New York University. Currently, he coordinates “20/40“, an Ebook collection of Latin American writers living in the United States. www.antoniodiazoliva.com

ALEJANDRO PALOMAS
Author, translator and Spanish philologist , Alejandro Palomas studied English Philology at the University of Barcelona, ​​specializing later in Poetry at New College in San Francisco, United States. After completing these studies he has worked as a translator in important publishing houses and as a collaborator of several media, an activity that has been able to alternate with his work as a writer. Among the work of Palomas would be to emphasize titles like The time of the heart , The soul of the world , finalist of the Spring , or The secret of the Hoffman , finalist of the City of Torrevieja , without leaving aside its last trilogy with which it has Won the favor of the readers, who started with A mother , followed with A son and who has recently finished with A dog. Presented in partnership with Centro Cultural España.

DAVID PATTERSON
David Patterson joined the University of Texas at Dallas in 2010. With degrees in philosophy (B.A., Oregon, 1972) and in comparative literature (M.A., Ph.D., Oregon, 1976, 1978), he has taught at the University of Memphis, where he held the Bornblum Chair in Judaic Studies, as well as at Oklahoma State University and the University of Oregon. Patterson has served as the visiting Sutton Chair in the Humanities at the University of Oklahoma and as a guest professor at Pepperdine University. Presented in partnership with Jewish and American Holocaust Literature Symposium 2017.

JOE PERA
Joe Pera is a stand-up comedian living in New York. Presented as part of O, Miami Poetry Festival and National Poetry Month.

ROBYN PERLMAN
Robyn – a founding principal of CoreStrategies for Nonprofits, Inc. – has held many positions in her more than 30 years in the business. She has served as senior in-house public relations director, senior corporate public relations liaison and independent consultant for companies such as Lucent Technologies, Saks Fifth Avenue, Kenny Rogers Roasters Corporation and Holland & Knight. Robyn also serves as a mentor and chair of the scholarship committee for the Women of Tomorrow Mentoring and Scholarship Program, which has given out more than 4 million dollars in scholarships to senior high school girls in Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach Counties. She also is part of their national expansion team funded in part by a 13 million dollar grant from The Knight Foundation. Her hard work on behalf of these young women was recognized when she was selected as Mentor of the Year, 2009.

HEATHER PIERSON
Heather Christie Pierson is a composer, songwriter, pianist, instrumentalist and vocalist. She is the owner of record label Vessel Recordings, which has released eight of Pierson's CDs to date. Currently, Pierson is the pianist for the White Mountain Hotel in North Conway, New Hampshire. She is also the music director for the First Universalist Church of Norway, Maine. Presented in celebration of International Women's Month.

NADINE PINEDE
Nadine Pinede is the daughter of Haitian immigrants. She was born in Paris, where her parents were scholarship students, and she grew up in Canada and the US. Nadine graduated magna cum laude with highest honors from Harvard University and was awarded Harvard University's Captain Jonathan Fay Prize for outstanding imaginative work for her creative nonfiction thesis. She was the first Rhodes Scholar of Haitian descent and earned a Masters in English and French literature from St. John's College at Oxford University. Nadine received her PhD from Indiana University and an MFA in Fiction from the Whidbey Writers Workshop/Northwest Institute of Literary Arts. She is the author of a poetry chapbook, An Invisible Geography. Her fiction has appeared in Haiti Noir, edited by Edwidge Danticat, and her nonfiction was published in Becoming: What Makes a Woman, edited by Jill McCabe Johnson. She was a contributor to American Decades: Primary Sources (1930s and 1940s) and translated a chapter on the Haitian Revolution from French for the Encyclopedia of African American Culture and History: The Black Experience in the Americas. Nadine's chapter on Walter Dean Myers was published in Literary Newsmakers. Her journalism has appeared in The New York Times, San Francisco Chronicle, Radcliffe Quarterly, International Herald Tribune, and other publications.

JOHANNA POETHIG
Johanna Poethig is a visual, public and performance artist who has exhibited internationally and has been actively creating public art works, murals, paintings, sculpture and multimedia installations for over 25 years. Poethig’s public art works intervene in the urban landscape, in neighborhoods, on freeways, in parks, hospitals, schools, homeless shelters, cultural centers, advertising venues and public buildings. She has received numerous commissions and awards for this work. Her paintings, sculpture and installations reflect her interest in satire, symbol, human nature, society and our consumerist culture. She has produced and participated in performance events that mix feminism, global politics, costume, props, cabaret, experimental music and video. Poethig is on the faculty of the Visual and Public Art (VPA) department at California State University, Monterey Bay (CSUMB). Presented as part of A Song for Women Living with War.

MICHELE POULOS
Michele Poulos's first feature-length documentary film, A Late Style of Fire: Larry Levis, American Poet, made its world premiere at the 2016 Mill Valley Film Festival in October. The film is an official selection at four other film festivals including the 2017 Palm Beach Int'l Film Festival and the 2017 Richmond Film Festival. She is an award-winning poet, screenwriter, and filmmaker. She holds a BFA in filmmaking from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts, an MFA degree in poetry from Arizona State University, and an MFA in fiction from Virginia Commonwealth University. Her first full-length collection of poems, Black Laurel, was published by Iris Press in March 2016. Her screenplay, Mule Bone Blues, won the 2010 Virginia Screenwriting Competition, and it made it to the second round of the 2017 and 2015 Sundance Screenwriters Lab, and the second round in the 2010 Austin Screenplay Contest. She just completed co-writing a feature-length comedy with a stand-up comic about a stand-up comic. She is currently writing two screenplays: an animated Disney film and a drama about a young photographer. Presented in partnership with O, Miami and National Poetry Month.

SHEENA POWELL SZURI
Sheena Powell Szuri is a Miami native who comes to the Writer’s Room at the Betsy to complete her first collection of poems “Polyhymnia”, a passion of truth, beauty and love drawn from nature, personal relationships and art with music as muse. As part of a thriving South Florida poetry community, Sheena is proudly affiliated with the Miami Poets, Florida State Poets Association and Famous Last Fridays at Books & Books. She has presented original works in live reads at the O, Miami Poetry Festival, the USpeak Open Verse and Story Performance Series, and Odd Blue Roses. As a member of the South Florida Writers’ Association she has served as poetry and prose judge for the Junior Orange Bowl Creative Writing contest and the Miami VA Creative Arts Festival. Sheena is a Yoga teacher with a day job as a Scientist. As an amateur poet she is still looking for the answers and still dreaming through poetry in her own lyrical voice over the scaffolding of free verse.

BARBARA RAS
Barbara Ras is the author of three poetry collections: Bite Every Sorrow, which won the Walt Whitman Award and was also awarded the Kate Tufts Discovery Award; One Hidden Stuff; and The Last Skin, winner of the Award for Poetry from the Texas Institute of Letters. Ras has received fellowships from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation and the Rockefeller Foundation, among others. Her poems have appeared in the New Yorker, Tin House, Granta, Five Points, American Scholar, Massachusetts Review, and Orion, as well as in many other magazines and anthologies. She is the editor of a collection of short fiction in translation, Costa Rica: A Traveler’s Literary Companion. Ras lives in San Antonio, where she directs Trinity University Press.

SAM RIVIERE
Sam Riviere received an Eric Gregory Award in 2009. His most recent book is 81 Austerities (Faber and Faber, 2012), which won the Felix Dennis Prize for Best First Collection. He lives in Belfast. Presented in partnership with O, Miami and National Poetry Month.

ROGER ROBINSON
Roger Robinson is an award-winning writer, musician and performer who lives between England and Trinidad. He describes himself as "a British resident with a Trini sensibility". He was chosen by arts organization Decibel as one of 50 writers who have influenced black-British writing over the past 50 years. He was a spoken-word performer in London in the early 1990s, before branching out to start performing poetry with bands he would meet, including Techno Animal, Flytronix, The Bugz, Attica Blues and Speeka. Robinson is the lead vocalist for musical crossover project King Midas Sound, whose critically acclaimed debut album Waiting for You was released on Hyperdub Records, becoming number 10 in the top 50 releases Wire Magazine. Presented in partnership with Dranoff 2 Piano and PIANO SLAM 9.

CECILIA RODRÍGUEZ MILANÉS
Cecilia Rodríguez Milanés was born in New Jersey to Cuban parents. Her works appear in numerous journals and anthologies, including Literary Mama, The Bilingual Review, Kweli Journal, Guernica, and The Norton Anthology of Latino Literature. Her short story collections, Oye What I’m Gonna Tell You (2015) and Marielitos, Balseros, and Other Exiles (2009), were #4 and #5 on the Guardian’s list of 10 of the best books to help understand Cuba. Everyday Chica, winner of the 2010 Longleaf Press Poetry Prize was followed by Everyday Chica, Music and More, a poetry CD. She teaches at the University of Central Florida in Orlando. Presented in partnership with Escribe Aquí / Write Here.

ANTHONY MORDECHAI TZVI RUSSELL
Eight years after making his professional operatic debut in a Philip Glass world premiere, Anthony Russell is now a vocalist, composer and arranger specializing in Yiddish art and folk song, chazones and Chasidic nigunim. Inspired by the phenomena of diaspora culture, his work in traditional Ashkenazi musical forms has led to an exploration of his own roots through the research, arrangement and performance of a hundred years of African American traditional music. The result of this work is his ongoing project with klezmer consort Veretski Pass, Convergence (2014 New Jewish Culture Network Music Commission Finalist), combining Ashkenazi and African American traditional musical forms to create singular narratives. The first recording phase of this project is set to be released in 2017. Anthony's work in Jewish music has brought him to stages in Toronto, Montreal, Berkeley, Boston, Miami, New York and Tel Aviv, the JCC in Manhattan and San Francisco, Symphony Space and, recently, to the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC. He lives in Oakland, CA with his husband, Rabbi Michael Rothbaum.

THADDEUS RUTKOWSKI
Thaddeus Rutkowski grew up in central Pennsylvania and is a graduate of Cornell University and the Johns Hopkins University. He is the author of the fiction collection Violent Outbursts (Spuyten Duyvil) and the novels Haywire (Starcherone/Dzanc), Tetched (Behler Publications) and Roughhouse (Kaya Press). All three novels were finalists for an Asian American Literary Award, and Haywire won the Members' Choice Award, given by members of the Asian American Writers Workshop in New York. Haywire reached No. 1 on Small Press Distribution's fiction best-seller list. Tetched was chosen as one of the best books reviewed in 2006 by Chronogram magazine. He is a one-time winner of the Nuyorican Poets Café Friday slam, the Poetry Versus Comedy slam at the Bowery Poetry Club, and the Syracuse poetry slam. He was selected to read in the former home of East German President Erich Honecker in Berlin. He has been a featured reader in Budapest, Dublin, Hong Kong, London, Paris and Singapore, as well as in a number of U.S. cities.

BORIS SANDLER
Boris Sandler (b. 1950) is a prolific and award-winning figure in the contemporary Yiddish arts world, working across genres as a prose writer, poet, journalist, playwright, musician, and filmmaker. Born in Balti, USSR (Moldova today), he lived in Israel before settling in New York. He is perhaps best known as the editor-in-chief of the New York-based Yiddish newspaper Forverts, a position he held for eighteen years before stepping down in 2016. A recipient of the prestigious Fichman Prize (2002), his most recent novel Keinemsdorf (Nomansland, AZ) was published by Forward Association Press in 2012. Presented in partnership with Jewish and American Holocaust Literature Symposium.

HEATHER SELLERS
Heather Sellers’ award-winning memoir, You Don’t Look Like Anyone I Know, has been featured by O, the Oprah Magazine, where it was a book of the month pick, Good Morning America, Rachel Ray, NPR, The New York Times, Dick Gordon’s The Story, Good Housekeeping, More, Elle, and many others. Heather Sellers was born and raised in Orlando, Florida. Her PhD in English/Creative Writing is from Florida State University. A professor of English at the University of South Florida in the creative writing program, she’s teaches poetry, nonfiction, and writing for children. Awarded an NEA Fellowship for fiction, she published a short story collection, Georgia Under Water, a Barnes and Noble Discover Great New Writers selection. She’s published a children’s book, Spike and Cubby’s Ice Cream Island Adventure, three volumes of poetry, and three books on the craft of writing. Her popular textbook for writers in any genre, The Practice of Creative Writing, is out in its second edition from Bedford/St. Martins . She’s taught at the University of Texas—San Antonio and St. Lawrence University, and, for 18 years, at Hope College in Holland, Michigan. She’s currently at work on a novel for young readers, essays, and a new memoir.

CHARLIE SEPULVEDA
Charlie Sepúlveda is known as the trumpet player of his generation. He studied at the Escuela Libre de Música de Puerto Rico; also at City College of New York with Ron Carter and William Fielder. In 1987 he was the musical director of his cousin, Eddie Palmieri, with who he collaborated in the nineties sessions and recorded “Sueño” (1989). He worked with the Talking Heads and Rei Momo and in the “Aventura Latina” of David Byrne (1989). He is the trumpeter of Hilton Ruiz in “Manhattan Mambo” (1992), “Heroes”(1993) and “Hands of Percussion” (1995). He also participated with Tito Puente in “Out of this World” (1990) and “Mambo of the Times” (1991); also with Golden Latin Jazz All Stars “In Session” (1993). Dizzy Gillespie, Steve Turre, Dave Valentín and Free leaded other sessions on file. In 1991 he had a solo debut with “The New Arrival” as head of his group, under the name of Charlie Sepulveda & The Turnaround. It highlighted the tenor David Sánchez and Adam Cruz on drums. The pianist Danilo Pérez was one of the guests. Sepulveda pays tribute to three of his heroes: Rafael Cortijo, Kenny Dorham and Art Blakey. Presented in partnership with the St. Martha Concert Series / Barry University.

JOSE SEREBRIER
GRAMMY-winner conductor and composer José Serebrier is one of most recorded classical artists in history, with forty-five GRAMMY nominations. Serebrier has made international tours with the Russian National Orchestra, Juilliard Orchestra, Pittsburgh Symphony, Philharmonia Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Toulouse Chamber Orchestra, National Youth Orchestra of Spain and many others. As composer, Serebrier has won most of the important awards in the United States, including two Guggenheims (as the youngest in that Foundation's history, at age 19), Rockefeller Foundation grants, commissions from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Harvard Musical Association, the B.M.I. Award, Koussevitzky Foundation Award, etc. Born in Uruguay of Russian and Polish parents, Serebrier has composed more than 100 works, published by Peer Music, Universal Edition Vienna, Kalmus, Warner Music, and Peters Corp. His First Symphony was premiered by Leopold Stokowski (who premiered several of his works) when Serebrier was 17, as a last-minute replacement for then then still unplayable Ives 4th Symphony. Presented in partnership with Barry University St. Martha's Concert Series.

FREDRIK SIXTEN
Sven Fredrik Johannes Sixten (born 21 October 1962) is a Swedish composer, cathedral organist and conductor. He earned his Bachelor of Arts (1986) at the Royal College of Music, Stockholm. He studied composition with Professor Sven-David Sandström and is now recognized as one of Sweden's best-known composers of church music. He is published at all major publishing houses in Sweden. He was the conductor of Gothenburg's boys choir between 1997 and 2001. Today he is the cathedral organist of Härnösand's Cathedral. His music is represented on several CD recordings and as a conductor one of his five CDs went gold.Among his other compositions are Prelude et Fugue (1986), Triptyk (2004), Messa Misteriosa (2002) for solo organ, String Quartet(1985), Sonatas for violin and piano, and cello and piano (1985), Cantata for the St. Lucia for choir, soprano solo and string orchestra (1984 and Three sacred Dances for choir (SSAA), string quartet and piano (2007). "Requiem" for string orchestra, 2 horns and timpani, choir and two soloists (soprano and bass) is also published in an English version. Presented in partnership with Dranoff 2 Piano Foundation.

JANE SMILEY
Jane Smiley is the author of numerous novels, including A Thousand Acres, which was awarded the Pulitzer Prize, as well as four works of nonfiction. In 2001 she was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Letters. She received the PEN USA Lifetime Achievement Award for Literature in 2006. She lives in Northern California. Presented in celebration of International Women's Month.

JOEL SMIRNOFF
Joel Smirnoff, conductor and violinist, is President of the Cleveland Institute of Music. He is a native of New York City and former chair of the violin department at The Juilliard School. He has been a member of the Juilliard String Quartet since 1986, and the ensemble's leader since 1997. Mr. Smirnoff has participated in the world premiere of numerous contemporary works, many of which were composed for him. Mr. Smirnoff is a Sony recording artist and has solo recordings on GM, CRI and Northeastern Records. Mr. Smirnoff has served as Chair of the Violin Department at The Juilliard School since 1993 and served as Head of String Studies at the Tanglewood Music Center during the late 1990s. Mr. Smirnoff has been on the faculty of Tanglewood since 1983. Mr. Smirnoff also plays jazz, performing frequently as improvising soloist with Tony Bennett. His solos were featured on the GRAMMY Award-winning CD Tony Bennett Sings Ellington Hot and Cool. He has also been guest soloist with Gunther Schuller and the American Jazz Orchestra, as well as the Billy Taylor Trio. Mr. Smirnoff was born into an eminent New York musical family. His mother sang with the Jack Teagarden Band under the stage name of Judy Marshall and his father, Zelly Smirnoff, played in the NBC Symphony under Toscanini and was second violinist of the Stuyvesant String Quartet. Mr. Smirnoff has been president of CIM since 2008.

NYUGEN SMITH
Drawing heavily on his West Indian heritage, Nyugen is committed to raising the consciousness of past and present political struggles through his practice which consists of sculpture, installation, video and performance. He is influenced by the conflation of African cultural practices and the remnants of European colonial rule in the region. Responding to the legacy of this particular environment, Nyugen’s work considers imperialist practices of oppression, violence and ideological misnomers. While exposing audiences to concealed narratives, he aims to destabilize constructed frameworks from which this conversation is often held. Presented in partnership with Prizm Art Fair.

EMILIO SOSA
While his training is rooted in theater, Emilio's experience runs the creative gamut. He has served as vice president and creative director for Grace Costumes, a 40-year staple within the costume design industry catering to television, film, theater, ballet, and opera. Prior to his recent 2012 TONY Award nomination for Best Costumes for his work on Broadway's, "The Gershwin's Porgy and Bess", and his 2012 Lucille Lortel Award win for "By the Way, meet Vera Stark", Emilio was recognized for his extensive collaborations with high profile dance companies such as Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Ballet Hispanico, and the New York City Ballet. He has found widespread recognition while featured as a finalist on Project Runway Season 7.

DAVID HENRY STERRY
David Henry Sterry is the author of 16 books, a performer, muckraker, educator, activist, and book doctor. His first was a memoir called Chicken, about when he was 17, and being taught existentialism by bunch of nuns at Immaculate Heart College, while being sucked into the illegal underground sex business in Hollywood. His second memoir was called Master of Ceremonies, about when he was the master ceremonies at a nightclub called Chippendale’s in the mid-80s, when it was the hottest show in the world. It’s about being the ugliest man at the center of a world filled with the most beautiful men in the world. While falling madly in love with the woman he married, he also wrote several novels, books of nonfiction and poetry. He in fact started as a poet, and poetry has always been in his blood. “(Poetry) absolutely informs all of my writing,” says David. As a poet he has been published everywhere from Santa Monica Review to Madison Review to Coe Review. David is also an activist, who writes regularly for the Huffington Post.

SUSAN STRAIGHT

Susan Straight was born in Riverside and still lives there with her family. (She can actually see the hospital from her kitchen window, which her daughters find kind of pathetic; most days, she walks the dog past the classroom where she wrote her first short story at 16, at Riverside City College, which they find even more sad.) She has published seven novels and one middle-grade reader. Highwire Moon was a finalist for the National Book Award in 2001; A Million Nightingales was a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize in 2006. Her short stories have appeared in Zoetrope, The Ontario Review, The Oxford American, The Sun, Black Clock, and other magazines. “The Golden Gopher,” from Los Angelas Noir, won the Edgar Award in 2007; “El Ojo de Agua,” from Zoetrope, won an O. Henry Award in 2007. Her essays have appeared in the New York Times, Reader’s Digest, Family Circle, Salon, The Los Angeles Times, Harpers, The Nation, and other magazines. She was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship to work on Highwire Moon, and a Lannan Prize was an immense help when working on Take One Candle Light a Room. Presented in partnership with FIU Writers on the Bay Series.

MILANA STREZEVA
Praised by the critics for her “technically fluid, dramatically convincing, and sonically full-bodied supportive collaborations” (Boston Globe) - Milana Strezeva is a Moldovan-American pianist. At the age of 11 she began playing chamber music with her clarinetist father and her mother, a renowned soprano. Milana's love for family collaboration eventually grew into a passionate advocacy of vocal and instrumental chamber music. Presented as part of The Betsy Int'l Music Day Concert.

NATHANIEL "TOBY" THOMPKINS
Nathaniel "Toby" Thompkins is Founder and CEO, The Center For Beautiful Leadership, LLC. Mr. Thompkins is a speaker, blogger, author, social justice activist and executive coach. In his blog, How I See It… , Toby shares his thought about leadership, culture, social justice, innovation, creativity, managing change and the future. He has over 30 years’ of experience working across corporate, for-profit, nonprofit, government and international development sectors as a senior level executive and organizational development consultant. While living and working in Ghana he led a USAID public private partnership to empower local mining families and communities to effectively respond to the consequences of surfacing gold mining in impacted villages. He also moonlighted as the Africa correspondent for Ebony/Jet magazines where he covered President Obama’s historic visit to Ghana. Toby possesses an M.P.A. and undergraduate degree in psychology and political science and lives in Manhattan, New York. Presented in partnership with DVCAI

BRIAN THORNTON
Cellist, conductor and educator, Brian Thornton has performed in hundreds of venues from the White House in Washington, D.C., to the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, China. As a soloist he has performed over 100 new works for solo cello and is a champion of modern composers. He has touched the lives of thousands of children through his musical outreach programs in Head Start schools. He is the founder of the Lev Aronson Legacy Festival at Smu in Dallas, Texas, where Mr. Aronson taught for many years, an ongoing yearly festival that is dedicated to Mr. Aronson's teaching and philosophy of cello playing. Mr. Thornton teaches at the Cleveland Institute of Music and performs with the Cleveland Orchestra. His solo CD: Kol Nidrei and Beyond, Lev's Story, is centered on the vocal qualities of the cello, and is dedicated to the memory of his teacher, Lev Aronson.

SCOTT TURNER SCHOFIELD
Scott Turner Schofield aced his BA in Theatre at Emory University, but his gender expression at the time prevented him from being cast in traditional plays. So he wrote his own one man shows, and began a national tour to critical acclaim before he even graduated. He has gone on to sell out some of the biggest theatre venues in the world. As an acclaimed diversity educator on transgender issues, Schofield, has significantly changed the nondiscrimination policies of colleges and corporations across the United States. Schofield's brilliance lies in his ability to talk about intersectionality - the way that the topics of biological sex, gender, and sexuality are influenced by factors like race, socioeconomic status, geographical location, disability, etc. Presented in partnership with MDC Live Arts.

JACK UNDERWOOD
Jack Underwood’s debut collection, Happiness, was published by Faber & Faber in 2015. He lives in South East London. Presented in partnership with O, Miami Poetry Festival and National Poetry Month.

KATHERINE VAZ
Katherine Vaz, a Briggs-Copeland Fellow in Fiction at Harvard, Fellow of the Radcliffe Institute, and a National Endowment for the Arts recipient, has published two novels, SAUDADE and MARIANA, which appeared in six languages and was selected by the Library of Congress as one of the Top Thirty International Books of 1998. Her collection FADO & OTHER STORIES won the Drue Heinz Literature Prize and OUR LADY OF THE ARTICHOKES won the Prairie Schooner Book Prize. THE LOVE LIFE OF AN ASSISTANT ANIMATOR & OTHER STORIES is forthcoming in 2017. She has published many short stories, including some in anthologies for children, and lives in New York City with her husband, the editor, writer, and TV producer Christopher Cerf. Presented to celebrate International Women's Month.

MAY COLLINS WOOLLCOTT
May Collins P. Woollcott ’16 is this year’s awardee of the South Beach Writing Residency, offered by the family of Hyam Plutzik ’32. Originally from Atlanta, GA, May is an English major with a focus on creative writing. This semester she is completing a poetry thesis under Professor Clare Rossini, poet and Artist-in-Residence at Trinity College. Upon graduation, May will be moving to Boston to work in publishing. She hopes to attend an MFA program in the coming years. The family of Hyam Plutzik (Trinity ’32) provides an annual residency (for five years) in South Beach in the Betsy Writer’s Room to a graduating senior with outstanding talent in the literary arts. The award is bestowed as part of the graduation program (Honors Day).

OCTAVIA YEARWOOD
Octavia Yearwood is an arts educator, motivational speaker, author, and an overall entrepreneur from New York City. She relocated to Miami in 2012 to expand her arts services company, Team Ohhh. Through Team Ohhh she provides dance and visual art enrichment programing in public schools, private schools and dance studio’s around the world. She has been an educator for the last 15 years, using the arts to bridge the gap between community and academia. She recently became Program Director for South Florida Cares Mentoring Movement where she has been able to work with, foster and build relationships with notable arts, education and community organizations like the Perez Art Museum, ICA Miami, URGENT Inc, University of Miami, Rush Philanthropic and local artist to bring transformational experience to the youth of Miami-Dade and Broward County. From curating exhibitions that commission local artist to bring fine arts to the city of Miami Gardens or collaborating with those artist to bring free arts programing to the children of Overtown, Octavia moves forward in using the arts to fortify our youth. Within those years she has also taken her craft and program to Barbados, Haiti, India, Nepal and most recently France where she worked on a photography series to support her book, “How The Hell Did You Do That?” that will serve as a guide book to foster youth and other youth suffering from a traumatic childhood.

IBI ZOBOI
Ibi Zoboi (Fall 2017) was born in Port-au-Prince, Haiti and immigrated to the U.S. when she was four years old. She holds an MFA in Writing for Children & Young Adults from Vermont College of Fine Arts, where she was a recipient of the Norma Fox Mazer Award. Her award-winning and Pushcart-nominated writing has been published in Haiti Noir, the Caribbean Writer, The New York Times Book Review, the Horn Book Magazine, and The Rumpus, among others. She lives in Brooklyn with her husband and three children. AMERICAN STREET is her first novel. Visit Ibi at www.ibizoboi.net. Presented in partnership with Miami-Dade County Public Libraries and Betsy Writer for Young Readers Series.