Visiting Writers & Artists – 2015

ELMAZ ABINADER
Elmaz Abinader is a poet, memoirist, playwright and novelist. Her first memoir, Children of the Roojme, a Family’s Journey from Lebanon, chronicles three generations of immigrants battling dislocation and tradition. The poetry collection, In the Country of My Dreams… won the 2000 PEN Oakland Josephine Miles Poetry award. She was also awarded a Goldies Award for Literature, as well as two Drammies (Oregon’s Drama award) for her three-act one-woman show, Country of Origin. Elmaz most recently performed Country of Origin at the Kennedy Center and has toured several countries with this play and two others: Ramadan Moon and 32 Mohammeds. Elmaz’s work has been widely anthologized, most recently in The New Anthology of American Poetry, Vol. 3 and The Colors of Nature. Elmaz has been a Fulbright Senior Fellow to Egypt, taught for the Palestine Writing Workshop and a resident at the El Gouna Writing Residency on the Red Sea. Elmaz is one of the founders of the Voices of Our Nations Arts Foundation, (VONA/Voices), now in its 15th year providing workshops for writers of color. Presented in partnership with VONA Voices.

FAITH ADIELE
Faith Adiele is author of The Nigerian-Nordic Girl’s Guide To Lady Problems and Meeting Faith, which won the PEN Beyond Margins Award for memoir; writer/narrator/subject of My Journey Home, a PBS documentary about her mixed family; and editor of Coming of Age Around the World: A Multicultural Anthology. She teaches at VONA: Summer Workshops for Writers of Color, California College of the Arts (CCA) and The San Francisco Writers’ Grotto. She is completing TWINS, an epic family memoir. Visit her at http://adiele.com. Presented in partnership with VONA Voices.

X ALFONSO
X (pronounced Equis) Alfonso is a Cuban hip hop and afro-rock musician who founded the Fábrica de Arte Cubano (Cuban Art Factory—FAC). Part Miami Art Basel, part Williamsburg warehouse party, the FAC hosts viewings, performances and exhibitions of cinema, theatre, dance, music, literature, fashion, architecture, graphic design, photography, and the visual arts.

MELANIE ALMEDER
Melanie Almeder teaches creative writing and contemporary literature at Roanoke College. Her work appears widely. Presented in partnership with O, Miami Poetry Festival.

HERNAN VERA ALVAREZ
Hernán Vera Álvarez, a veces simplemente Vera (Buenos Aires, 1977), es escritor y dibujante. Ha publicado el libro de cuentos Una extraña felicidad (llamada América) y el de comics ¡La gente no puede vivir sin problemas! Muchos de sus trabajos han aparecido en revistas y diarios de Estados Unidos y América Latina, entre ellos, El Nuevo Herald, Meansheets, Loft Magazine, El Sentinel, Nagari, Sea Latino, TintaFrescaUS, La Nación y Clarín. Vivió ocho años como un ilegal en los Estados Unidos donde trabajó en un astillero, en la cocina de un cabaret, en algunas discotecas, en la construcción. Presented in partnership with Escribe Aqui 2015.

ANDREA ASSAF
Andrea creates original performances – from page to stage, language to embodiment, political consciousness to poetic sensibility. Art2Action supports new work by women, artists of color, and GLBTQ-identified artists and allies, from devised theater, to interdisciplinary performances, to community-based arts and performative acts. Current projects include Eleven Reflections on September, a poetry and multi-media performance on Arab American experience, wars on/of terror, and the "constant, quiet rain of death amidst beauty" that each autumn brings in a post-9/11 world. Also touring in 2012-13, Outside the Circle, a new play about sexuality and (dis)ability that she is co-creating with playwright-performer Samuel Valdez, directed by Dora Arreo. Presented in partnership with Tigertail SpeakOut.

JENNIFER BENKA
Jennifer Benka is the Executive Director for The Academy of American Poets, and is a published poet herself. In addition to her two collections of poetry—Pinko (Hanging Loose Press) and A Box of Longing With Fifty Drawers (Soft Skull Press)—Ms. Benka has had poems and essays featured in numerous publications and collections. She holds a BA in Journalism from Marquette University and an MFA in Creative Writing-Poetry from the New School University. (poets.org)

BRIAN BLANCHFIELD
Brian Blanchfield is the author of two books of poetry, Not Even Then (University of California Press, 2004) and A Several World (Nightboat Books, 2014), which received the 2014 James Laughlin Award and was named a longlist finalist for the National Book Award in Poetry. His collection of literary essays--autobiography and cultural close readings--is forthcoming from Nightboat early in 2015. An editor of Fence and the host of Speedway and Swan, a biweekly poetry and music program co-produced with the University of Arizona Poetry Center, he lives in Tucson.

NICK VAN BLOSS
Nick van Bloss is an English classical pianist and author who studied at the Royal College of Music in London. In 1994, aged 26, van Bloss played a televised recital at the Chopin Festival, which - due to having Tourette Syndrome, proved to be his last public appearance before he retired from playing completely for 15 years. During these years van Bloss rarely touched a piano, but he did write his autobiographical memoir ‘Busy Body’, which was published, to much acclaim, in 2006. The following year he was the subject of a BBC ‘Horizon’ documentary, inspired by his book, exploring his creativity. Presented in partnership with Miami Beach Jazz Festival.

NANCY BOUTILIER
Nancy Boutilier is the author of two poetry collections: According to Her Contours (Black Sparrow Press, 1992) and On the Eighth Day Adam Slept Alone (Black Sparrow Press 2000). While teaching high school English and coaching basketball, Nancy was a freelance writer for a variety of pioneering LGBTQ literary magazines in the San Francisco Bay Area, where her column “Dykeotomy” appeared regularly in the Bay Area Reporter. More recently, she completed her MFA at The Rainier Writing Workshop of Pacific Lutheran University and currently teaches writing at Oberlin College.

KYLAR BROADUS
Kylar Broadus has enjoyed a prolific career as an activist, writer, lawyer, professor, lobbyist and public speaker - and as the first openly transgender person to testify before Congress. As an attorney, Broadus practiced with a focus on LGBT law, particularly transgender rights. He currently serves as faculty at Lincoln University in Missouri. Presented in partnership with TransCon Conference at Barry University.

A. PAPATYA BUCAK
A. Papatya Bucak has published stories, poems, and essays in a variety of literary magazines, including The Kenyon Review, Glimmer Train, Prairie Schooner, Pank and The Fairy Tale Review. Her short story, “The History of Girls,” originally published in Witness, was selected for the 2013 PEN/O.Henry Prize Stories; and her short story, “Iconography,” originally published in The Iowa Review , was selected for the 2014 Pushcart Prize. She was the recipient of a 2005 Individual Artist’s Fellowship from the State of Florida, and has been a writer-in-residence at Hedgebrook Farm. She was born in Istanbul, Turkey.

ALEXIS CAPUTO
Bahamian-American, Alexis Caputo is an award winning Multidisciplinary Artist, (Poet, Writer, Dancer, Arts & Cultural Journalist, Visual Artist, Professor and Activist).   She is known for her Poetry & Spoken Word, Dance and Solo Performances based on cultural, human rights, social issues and poetic expressions, which have translated into various collaborative projects.  She is the author of the umbrella project AFRO DIARIES, a multidisciplinary, multicultural, inter-generational and international project.  Having produced work across genres, she is a commissioned Literary, Performance & Visual Artist.  Published journalism portfolios are on Arts & Culture for International Caribbean based news-houses the Guardian and Tribune, of Nassau, Bahamas, The Jamaica Gleaner and the U.S. based news-houses, The Miami Herald, South Florida Times, Miami New Times, The Miami Times, FlaVour Magazine and Black Art in America, where she served as a contributing writer with her own feature column Diaries of Black Art in America.

ANDRES CARDENES
Andrés Cárdenes is a Cuban-born violinist, violist, teacher, conductor, and concertmaster. He has performed and taught in a number of prominent positions, including his current professorship in violin at Carnegie Mellon University School of Music where he holds the Dorothy Richard Starling & Alexander Speyer Jr. Endowed Chair.(Wikipedia). Presented in partnership with Miami Summer Music Festival 2015.

E.E. CHARLTON-TRUJILLO
Charlton-Trujillo garnered the Delacorte Dell Yearling Award in 2004 for Prizefighter En Mi Casa. What followed was: the Parents’ Choice Silver Honor, a Flamingnet Top Choice Award, a National Council for the Social Studies Notable Book and made the NYC Public Library Teenage List. Her third novel, Fat Angie, released through Candlewick in March 2013, won the American Library Association’s coveted Stonewall Award in 2014. Fat Angie was also the foundation for a unique book tour to empower at-risk youth via writing and discussion and the catalyst for the feature documentary At-Risk Summer. From that experience was launched a non-profit to bridge the gap between at-risk youth and artists called Never Counted Out.

FRANKLIN COHEN
Principal Clarinet of The Cleveland Orchestra since 1976, Franklin Cohen has distinguished himself as one of the outstanding clarinetists of his generation. His playing has been described as “hypnotic, impeccable, brilliant… with a vocal quality that would be the envy of any singer.” He first gained international recognition and acclaim when, at the age of 22, he became the first clarinetist awarded First Prize at the International Munich Competition (the other first prize that year went to soprano Jessye Norman). Since then, Mr. Cohen has enjoyed an illustrious career as soloist, recitalist, recording and chamber artist, pedagogue and orchestral principal. Presented in partnership with Miami Summer Music Festival 2015.

WILLIAM CORBETT
Corbett has edited the letters of James Schuyler and published two memoirs: Philip Guston’s Late Work: A Memoir (1994) and Furthering My Education (1997). He writes frequently on art, and in 1999 published a book on the sculptor John Raimondi. Corbett has served as a teacher in the Expository Writing program at Harvard University and as Writer-in-Residence in the Program of Writing and Humanistic Studies at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). He edits for the small publisher Pressed Wafer, which specializes in poetry broadsides, chapbooks and books.

FRANCESCA CRUZ
Born and raised in South Florida of Cuban parents, Francesca Cruz began her entertainment career at the age of 12, studying theater, dance and later becoming a successful model. Her television work includes Telemundo’s celebrity game show, La Feria de la Alegria and music video program Onda Max, and was the youngest entertainment reporter on Telemundo’s highly acclaimed and Emmy award winning news show Occurio Asi. After working on television, she transferred her writing and production skills to print media where she was part of the creation and development of two national bi-monthly magazines, simultaneously published in English and Spanish. She received her Bachelors of Science Degree in Journalism and English Literature from Florida International University and her Masters degree in Anthropology under the respected program of el Museo Nacional de Antropología (ongoing). Her work has been published in Home & Design, Florida InsideOut, Nueva, Ventitantos, The Miami Herald, Coral Gables Living, Ocean Drive. She is currently the Senior Editor of Brickell magazine and Key Biscayne magazine. Presented as part of The Betsy Writer’s Room Escribe Aquí / Write Here Program.

NATHAN DEUEL
Nathan Deuel is the author of Friday Was the Bomb: Five Years in the Middle East, an Amazon Best Book of the Month. He has written essays, reviews, and short fiction for The New York Times Magazine, Harper's, GQ, The Paris Review, and many others. He lives in Los Angeles, and teaches writing at UCLA Writing Programs and at the MFA in Creative Writing at Mount Saint Mary's University. Presented in partnership with O, Miami Poetry Festival.

JOHNNY DIAZ
Johnny Diaz is an American novelist and a journalist for the Sun Sentinel, where he writes local feature stories about South Florida. Diaz is the author of several  novels: Boston Boys Club, Miami Manhunt, Beantown Cubans, and Take the Lead. The television and film rights to Diaz' first three novels have been optioned by Open Road Integrated Media. Presented in partnership with Unity Coalition / Celebrating Orgullo 2015.

ADELE DINERSTEIN
Adele Dinerstein has run the music program at the independent, progressive Park School in Baltimore for more than 20 years. Her groups have performed extensively in the Baltimore/D.C. area and participate in national festivals and competitions. Adele refers to her pedagogical method as “The Performing Brain” and it is informed by the relationship of music and neuroscience. She holds a Master of Science in Education from Johns Hopkins University (M.S.Ed. 2012) with a certificate in Mind, Brain, and Teaching. She was a presenter in an educational neuroscience session for Independent Maryland Schools (AIMS) sharing her research on Music and Memory. A native New Yorker and trained pianist, Adele has a Bachelors of Music from Brooklyn College in Music Performance (Piano). Adele has conducted the Baltimore Chamber Orchestra and occasionally freelances as an arranger and pianist.

TIFFANY DOWD
Since 2009, President and Founder, Tiffany Dowd has exclusively managed luxury travel and lifestyle brands' social media marketing and online strategy. She is widely recognized as a social media influencer for luxury travel and luxury hotel expert on Twitter as @LuxeTiffany. Tiffany is also a travel writer for USA Today and various other luxury travel publications. She has been a global hotel expert for a Conde Nast publication for the past 11 years. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in Broadcast Journalism from the University of Southern California and a Master of Science in Business & Economics Journalism from Boston University.

JAKE EHRENREICH
Jake Ehrenreich is the playwright for A Jew Grows in Brooklyn, an autobiographical one-man show that tells the stories of Ehrenreich’s family’s past and his understanding of his own cultural identity. The son of two survivors of the Holocaust, Ehrenreich grew up in Brooklyn, embarrassed by his heritage and wishing to be considered an average American.

JENNIFER CODY EPSTEIN
Jennifer Cody Epstein is the author of The Gods of Heavenly Punishment, winner of the 2014 APALA (Asian Pacific American Librarians Association) Honor Award, and the international bestseller The Painter from Shanghai, which has been translated into 16 languages. She has degrees from Amherst College, the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies and Columbia University, where she earned her MFA in fiction and is currently an Adjunct Associate Professor of Creative Writing. She has also worked in Hong Kong, Tokyo, Bangkok and New York, and written for The Wall Street Journal, The Asian Wall Street Journal, Self, Vogue, Mademoiselle and the NBC News networks.

CARLA FORTE
Carla Forte is a performer, writer and director. She has directed award-winning Video-Art works like Staring at the Ceiling, Interrupta, Assassins for One Night. Her cinematographic work includes the documentary The Holders Official Selection 32th Miami International Film Festival; Short films Imaginarium and Reset, selected for Cannes Film Festival's Court Metrage - Short Film Corner in 2012 and 2013, respectively; as well as the feature Urban Stories, Winner of Best Screenplay and Lucerne International Film Festival, Switzerland (2012), among many others.

DAISY FRIED
Fried earned her undergraduate degree from Swarthmore College. Her writing career began with journalism positions with a few Philadelphia papers. She’d written poetry here and there for personal enjoyment over the years, but it was her experience writing under deadlines that encouraged her to produce  poetry on a consistent and professional level. Fried has written three collections of poetry: She Didn’t Mean to Do It (2000), My Brother Is Getting Arrested Again (2006), and Women's Poetry: Poems and Advice (2013). Her journalistic and poetry endeavors have won her numerous respected awards, including the Agnes Lynch Starrett Poetry Prize (1999), the National Book Critics Circle Award (2007), and the Poetry Editor’s Award (2009). She currently teaches in the Warren Wilson College Low-Residency MFA program and lives in Philadelphia with her husband and daughter. Presented in partnership with O, Miami Poetry Festival.

MARTIN GANDA
Martin Ganda is a Zimbabwean author, as well as an authority on African Growth, Strategy and Investment. As President & Co-Founder of Seeds Of Africa Fund, Ganda heads a non-profit organization that financially supports intelligent, economically disadvantaged primary and secondary school students in Zimbabwe to achieve their academic dreams.

MARY GANNON
Mary Gannon is the Associate Director/Director of Content at the Academy of American Poets. Previously, she was the editorial director of Poets & Writers, Inc., where se oversaw the publication of Poets & Writers Magazine and production of pw.org, among other editorial projects. (poetry.org). Gannon was a founding member of the Brooklyn Literary council, and has served on its poetry programming committee.

GIACOMO GATES
Heavily committed to education, Giacomo teaches regularly at Wesleyan University, Southern Connecticut State University, Sacred Heart University and New Haven's Neighborhood Music School and has conducted workshops and residencies at numerous educational institutions all over the U.S. Known for his interaction with audiences, every performance becomes a fun lesson in jazz history. Presented in partnership with Miami Beach Jazz Festival.

ANNABEL GUEREDRAT
Choreographer, dancer, and performer of Martinique, Guérédrat studied at the Sorbonne, and is a Somatic Educator of the Movement in Body Mind Centering. She has also studied Sphota improvised music and has danced with the Orisha Company (Afro-Brazilian dance), as well as Pilates, yoga Iyengar & Ashtanga. Combined, these various techniques are integrated into her dance, creating movements and gestures that feel very personal and sensitive. Presented in partnership with Diaspora Vibe Cultural Arts Incubator.

MICHAEL HEASTON
Mr. Heaston is a collaborative pianist, vocal coach, and artistic administrator who principally divides his time between New York and Dallas. Maintaining active associations with The Dallas Opera, The Glimmerglass Festival, and The Metropolitan Opera, he has quickly established himself as one of the most versatile artists of his generation. He is the Director of the Young Artists Program and Head of Music Staff at The Glimmerglass Festival. Now in his fifth year of appointment, Mr. Heaston remains one of the youngest people to assume the directorship of any major training program to date. Presented in partnership with Miami Summer Music Festival 2015.

ARIA HENDRICKS
Aria Hendricks is a New York City based singer who specializes in the jazz styles of Swing and Be-bop. Her debut performance was at the age of 7, when her mother pushed her out onto the stage to perform with her father, Jon Hendricks, at Ronnie Scott’s iconic jazz club in London. Aria has appeared all over the world in all the major jazz clubs and festivals including venues such as Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center and the Kennedy Center. She regularly performed in the famed Blue Note Jazz clubs in the United States and Asia, and some ot the Jazz Festivals, she performed in include Paris Jazz Festival, France, North Sea Festival, Holland, Umbria Jazz Festival, Italy, Montreux Festival, Switzerland, and Mt. Fuji Jazz Festival in Japan. Presented in partnership with Miami Beach Jazz Festival.

ALICE HO
One of the most acclaimed composers writing in Canada today, Hong Kong-born Alice Ping Yee Ho has written in many musical genres and received numerous national and international awards, including the du Maurier Arts Ltd. Canadian Composers Competition, MACRO International Composition Competition, Boston Metro Opera International Competition, Martin Hunter’s Music Award, Luxembourg International Composition Prize and International League of Women Composers Competition. Her opera “Lesson of Da Ji” commissioned by Toronto Masques Theatre with librettist Marjorie Chan, won the 2013 Dora Mavor Moore Awards for "Outstanding Original Opera." Presented in partnership with Composers' Forum 2015.

PAUL HOLDENGRÄBER
Paul Holdengräber is the founder and director of LIVE from The New York Public Library which is celebrating in 2015 its 10th year with over 630 events so far. Over the past decade Holdengräber has spoken with everyone from Patti Smith to Zadie Smith, Ricky Jay to Jay-Z, Errol Morris to Jan Morris, Brian Eno to Jessye Norman, Anish Kapoor to Gilberto Gil, William Kentridge to Pete Townshend, Edwidge Danticat to Wes Anderson, Ed Ruscha to Matthew Barney, Javier Marias to Pico Iyer, Christopher Hitchens to Van Cliburn, Alexei Ratmansky to Ben Lerner, Thomas Struth to Rebecca Mead, Spike Lee to Elizabeth Gilbert, Werner Herzog to Mike Tyson. Presented in partnership with Fashion Project.

JAY HOPLER
Jay Hopler’s poetry, essays, and translations have appeared in numerous magazines and journals including The Literary Review, The New Republic, and The New Yorker. Green Squall, his first book of poetry, won the 2005 Yale Series of Younger Poets Award. His most recent book is Before the Door of God: An Anthology of Devotional Poetry (edited with Kimberly Johnson, Yale University Press, 2013). McSweeney’s will publish his second book of poetry, The Abridged History of Rainfall, in 2016. Also in 2016, Poetry International will publish as a portfolio his chapbook of translations, The Museum of Small Dark Things: 25 Poems of Georg Trakl. The recipient of numerous honors including fellowships and awards from the Great Lakes Colleges Association, the Lannan Foundation, the Mrs. Giles Whiting Foundation, and the American Academy of Arts & Letters/the American Academy in Rome, he is Associate Professor of English at the University of South Florida.

JOE IPPOLITO
Ippolito, a 45-year-old man of transgender experience, is an educator, clinician, filmmaker, activist, and writer. Born and raised in South Florida, he has a Masters Degree in Social Work from Fordham University and a Doctorate in Psychology (PsyD) from Chestnut Hill College. In 2010, Ippolito founded Gender Reel, the country’s only coast-to-coast film & performance art festival and production program dedicated to enhancing the visibility of trans and gender nonconforming people. His interest in film, and passion for trying new things, launched what he now considers a “second career.” Alongside 99 other amazing transgender activists, organizers and advocates, Joe was nominated into the 2015 Trans 100 list for his work in the community. Presented in partnership with TransArt Festival.

MARC IRWIN
Pianist, composer, arranger, and recording artist, Dr. Marc Irwin uses his diverse talents as a musician within the fields of contemporary, jazz, classical, theater, and world musics. Currently residing in the Baltimore/Washington, DC area. Marc Irwin is a native New Yorker who has played for and with a variety of top performers. The Betsy's 2nd Annual Jazz Festival

TANWI NANDINI ISLAM
TANWI NANDINI ISLAM is a writer, multimedia artist, and founder of Hi Wildflower Botanica, a handcrafted natural perfume and skincare line. Her writing has appeared on Elle.com, Fashionista.com, and Billboard.com, and in the Feminist Wire, Open City, and Hyphen magazine. A graduate of Vassar College and Brooklyn College’s MFA program, she lives in Brooklyn. You can visit her website at www.tanwinandini.com.

MAJOR JACKSON
Major Jackson is an American poet, professor and the author of three collections of poetry: HOLDING COMPANY (W.W. Norton, 2010) and HOOPS (W.W. Norton, 2006), both finalists for an NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literature-Poetry and LEAVING SATURN (University of Georgia, 2002), winner of the 2001 Cave Canem Poetry Prize and finalist for a National Book Critics Award Circle. He is also a recipient of a Whiting Writers' Award and has been honored by the Pew Fellowship in the Arts and the Witter Bynner Foundation in conjunction with the Library of Congress. Jackson is the Richard Dennis Green and Gold Professor at University of Vermont and a core faculty member of the Bennington Writing Seminars. He served as a creative arts fellow at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University, as the Jack Kerouac Writer-in-Residence at University of Massachusetts-Lowell and currently serves as the Poetry Editor of the Harvard Review. Presented in partnership with O, Miami Poetry Festival.

KIMBERLY JOHNSON
Kimberly Johnson is the author of three poetry collections, most recently Uncommon Prayer, and of translations of ancient poetry including Virgil’s Georgics. With her spouse, the poet Jay Hopler, she edited Before the Door of God: An Anthology of Devotional Poetry. Her scholarly study of the poetic developments of post-Reformation poetry was published in 2014. Her poetry, translations, and scholarly essays have appeared widely in publications including The New Yorker, Slate, Ploughshares, and Modern Philology. Recipient of grants and fellowships from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Utah Arts Council, and the Mellon Foundation, Johnson lives in Salt Lake City, Utah.

A.S. KING
A.S. King is the award-winning author of highly-acclaimed young adult novels including Glory O'Brien's History of the Future, Reality Boy, the 2012 Los Angeles Times Book Prize winner Ask the Passengers, Everybody Sees the Ants, 2011 Michael L. Printz Honor Book Please Ignore Vera Dietz and the upcoming I Crawl Through It. King’s short fiction for adults has been widely published and nominated for Best New American Voices. After fifteen years living self-sufficiently and teaching literacy to adults in Ireland, she now lives in Pennsylvania. Find more at www.as-king.com.

BROOKE KING
Brooke King served in the United States Army, deploying to Iraq in 2006 as a wheel vehicle mechanic, machine gunner, and recovery specialist. Her combat experience has led her to focus on the involvement of female soldiers, giving perspective and insight about how women have fought in combat and war. Her work has been published in the Sandhill Review and Press 53’s fiction war anthology Home of the Brave: Somewhere in the Sand with a forthcoming nonfiction publication with University Nebraska Press. Currently, Brooke is attending Sierra Nevada College’s Master of Fine Arts program and is working on her first novel.

CHERYL KLEIN
Cheryl Klein is the executive editor at Arthur A. Levine Books, an imprint of Scholastic Inc., where she edits a wide range of books for children and young adults. The many award-winning titles she has edited include The Nazi Hunters by Neal Bascomb; A Curse Dark as Gold by Elizabeth C. Bunce; Marcelo in the Real World by Francisco X. Stork; Shadowshaperby Daniel José Older; and The Princess and the Pony by Kate Beaton. While at the Betsy, she will be revising her own nonfiction book for publication in the fall of 2016, under the title The Magic Words: Writing Great Books for Children and Young Adults. Please visit her website at www.cherylklein.com or follow her at @chavelaque.

CHRISTINA BAKER KLINE
Christina Baker Kline is a novelist, nonfiction writer and editor. In addition to her NY Times best selling novel, Orphan Train, her novels include Bird in Hand, The Way Life Should Be, Desire Lines and Sweet Water. She served as Writer-in-Residence at Fordham University from 2007 to 2011 and was the on-staff editor and writing coach at the social networking site SheWrites.com. She lives in Montclair, New Jersey with her family.

MIA LEONIN
Mia Leonin is the author of two poetry collections, Braid and Unraveling the Bed (Anhinga Press), and a memoir Havana and Other Missing Fathers (University of Arizona Press). Her poetry has been published inNew Letters, Prairie Schooner, Alaska Quarterly Review, Indiana Review, and others. She teaches creative writing at the University of Miami.

HOLLI LEVITSKY
Holli Levitsky is the founder and Director of the Jewish Studies Program at Bellarmine Collage of Liberal Arts. She sits on the Executive Board of the Western Jewish Studies Association, the Jewish American and Holocaust Literature Association, and the California State University, Long Beach Jewish Studies Program. In 2001-2002, Dr. Levitsky held the Fulbright Distinguished Chair in American Literature in Poland, teaching “American Culture and the Holocaust” and “Literature of Jews in Poland” at the University of Warsaw and lecturing on her research at universities across Eastern Europe. In 2007, Poland’s Institute for National Remembrance invited her to testify on behalf of her research on Polish Jews during the Communist era. Levitsky has published in major peer-reviewed journals on these topics, and others, including POLIN: A Journal of Polish Jewish Studies and Women’s Studies: An Interdisciplinary Journal. Her work on Polish and American Jewish writers appears in book chapters and other publications including reviews for Holocaust and Genocide Studies, American Jewish History, and Polish Journal for American Studies. Dr. Levitsky regularly offers lectures and conducts workshops on Holocaust pedagogy to secondary school and college educators. Presented in partnership with Jewish and American Holocaust Literature Symposium.

BRENDA LOZANO
Brenda Lozano was born in Mexico in 1981. A narrator and essayist, she contributes to Letras Libres and Día Siete, among other publications. She studied Latin American Literature at the Universidad Iberoamericana. She has been Fellow of the Young Artists Program of the National Fund for Culture and the Arts. She has been anthologized on several occasions. Presented as part of The Betsy Writer’s Room Escribe Aquí / Write Here Program.

ANDREW LUSTIG
Lustig is a poet, performer and sometimes filmmaker. His Youtube Video, "I Am Jewish" brought a good deal of attention to the young writer.

ANNE-MARIE MACARI
Winner of Five Points’ James Dickey Prize for Poetry, Macari has published widely in journals, including The American Poetry Review, GulfCoast, Bloomsbury Review, and Shenendoah. A graduate of Oberlin College, she holds an MFA in creative writing from Sarah Lawrence. Macari is on the core faculty at New England College Low residency MFA Program and the Prague Summer Workshops. She lives in New Jersey. Presented in partnership with O, Miami Poetry Festival.

TIFFANY "HANAN" MADERA
Tiffany “hanan” Madera is an interdisciplinary artist at the intersection of film, dance theatre and ethnographic scholarly writing in concert with her Contemporary Egyptian dance practice and intercultural and humanitarian arts entrepreneurship. She is renowned internationally for her emotive performances that embody the transformative and esoteric inter-dimensionality of spiritual movement arts rooted in feminist and postcolonial theory. Her work is activist, confronting and provocative. She holds a Master’s Degree in Latin American and Caribbean Studies from Florida International University and a Master’s Degree in Performance Studies from NYU Tisch School of the Arts. She directs the hanan arts cooperative, Mideastern Dance Exchange, 501c3 and produces, performs and teaches globally. Hanan's work centers on issues of Identity, embodiment, transformation, gender, trauma and healing. Hanan will be reading from her new memoir and dance project “Dancing My Mother’s Body” as well as sharing aspects of her film Havana Habibi, which documents a 13 year bellydance movement she co-created in Havana, Cuba.

NORMAN MANEA
Norman Manea is a Romanian writer, living in New York City. His writing comprises novels, essays, short prose and his topic is, mainly, the individual destiny in extreme situations (holocaust, communist dictatorship, exile). In 2014, the Romanian Writers Union proposed his name as a Nobel candidate, as did – in previous years – the Romanian and Swedish PEN and several scholars in Romanian literature. Presented in partnership with FIU / Betsy Exiled Writers.

JAAMAL MAY
Jamaal May was born in 1982 in Detroit, MI where he taught poetry in public schools and worked as a freelance audio engineer. His first book, Hum (Alice James Books), received the American Library Association’s Notable Book Award, Foreword Review’s Book of the Year Silver Medal, an NAACP Image Award nomination, and was named one The Boston Globe’s Best Books of 2013. In 2014 Jamaal received several honors including the Spirit of Detroit Award, The J. Howard and Barbara M. J. Wood Prize from Poetry, as well as fellowships from Rose O’Neil Literary House, Lannan Foundation, and the Civitella Ranieri Foundation in Italy. Recent work appears from NYTimes.com, The New Republic, Poetry Daily, and Ploughshares. Poems have also been anthologized in Please Excuse this Poem: 100 Poems for the Next Generation (Penguin), 2015 Pushcart Prize Anthology (Pushcart Press), Best American Poetry 2014 (Scribner), and elsewhere. Jamaal is currently a Kenyon Review Fellow and co-directs Organic Weapon Arts with Tarfia Faizullah. Presented in partnership with O, Miami Poetry Festival.

WENDY MCLEOD
WENDY MACLEOD’S play The House of Yes became an award-winning Miramax film starring Parker Posey. Her other plays include Sin (The Goodman, Second Stage), Schoolgirl Figure (The Goodman Theatre) The Water Children and Juvenilia (Playwrights Horizons), and Things Being What They Are (Seattle Repertory Theatre, Steppenwolf Theatre). Her new play Find and Sign recently premiered at the Pioneer Theater in Salt Lake City. She was the first playwright chosen for The Writers’ Room at The Arden Theatre in Philadelphia, where she wrote and produced Women in Jeopardy! Her prose and humor pieces have appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, Salon, McSweeney’s Internet Tendency, The Rumpus, POETRY magazine and on All Things Considered. She wrote a screenplay adaptation for HBO, a pilot for CBS, and was a staff writer on the WB’s Popular. A graduate of the Yale School of Drama, she is the James E. Michael Playwright-in-Residence and a Professor of Drama at Kenyon College.

ELENA MEDEL
Elena Medel (b. 1985) is one of the most talented and promising young writers in Spain today. She has published four books and a chapbook to date, two of which have won prestigious literary awards. At only 16 years old she won the ‘Andalucía Joven’ prize, awarded by the Junta of Andalusia, for her book Mi primer bikini / My First Bikini (DVD, 2002), and last year she won the XXVI Loewe International Poetry Prize, Spain’s most prestigious awards of its kind, for Chatterton, her most recent collection. Presented as part of The Betsy Writer’s Room Escribe Aquí / Write Here Program.

BEN MEZRICH
Born in Boston, Mass, Mezrich attended Princeton Day School and graduated magna-cum-laude with a degree in Social Studies from Harvard University. Mezrich has authored sixteen books, with a combined printing of over four million copies, including the wildly successful Bringing Down the House: The Inside Story of Six M.I.T. Students Who Took Vegas for Millions, and The Accidental Billionaires: The Founding of Facebook, a Tale of Sex, Money, Genius and Betrayal - which was adapted into the movie The Social Network.

DAVID MILLS
David Mills is a writer and actor who has worked professionally in the dramatic and literary communities for more than a decade. For three years, he lived in Langston Hughes’ landmark home where he was inspired to create a one-person dramatic rendition of Hughes’ poems and short stories. He has two collections of poetry: The Dream Detective, a small-press bestseller, and The Sudden Country, a finalist for the Main Street Rag Prize. His work has appeared in Ploughshares, Fence, Jubilat, Callaloo, and elsewhere. Mills was commissioned to write a play for Julliard, the narration for Deborah Willis’ exhibition, “Reflections in Black: A History of Black Photographers” and for I Giullari Di Piazza’s folkdance piece, “Tarantella.

SHERRILL MILNES
Sherrill Milnes is universally acclaimed as the foremost operatic baritone of his generation. With his powerful voice, commanding stage presence, and rugged handsomeness, he received the kind of adulation that is usually reserved for tenors. He sang over 650 performances at the Met, where he was honored with sixteen new productions, seven opening nights, and ten national telecasts. As a leading artist in all of the world’s great opera houses, Mr. Milnes performed and recorded with the likes of Domingo, Pavarotti, Caballé, Sutherland, Sills, Horne, Price, and Tebaldi. He is the winner of three Grammy Awards, and the most recorded American singer of his time. In 2008 he received the Opera News Award for Distinguished Achievement. Miami Summer Music Festival 2015.

DEBORAH DASH MOORE
A central voice in the emergence of the field of American Jewish History, Deborah Dash Moore is currently the director of the Frankel Center for Judaic Studies. A graduate of Brandeis and Columbia Universities, she has been in recent years teaching and studying documentary photography and has been involved in the Chene Street Project, a public history project in Detroit. Presented as part of the Miami Beach Centennial Event at FIU MBUS.

ANSLEY MOON
Ansley Moon was born in India and raised in the Southern state of Georgia. She is the author of the poetry collection How to Bury the Dead (Black Coffee Press). Her poems have appeared in J Journal, PANK, Southern Women's Review and elsewhere. She holds an M.F.A from The New School and is the recipient of a Kundiman fellowship. She lives in Brooklyn, New York and works as a Teacher.

CARIDAD MORO
Caridad Moro’s poetry has appeared in numerous journals and anthologies including The Comstock Review, The Crab Orchard Review, MiPoesias, The Seattle Review, Slipstream, Spillway, CALYX, The Pedestal, Fifth Wednesday Review, The Lavender Review, As/Us: Women of the World Journal, This Assignment Is So Gay: LGBTIQ Poets on the Art of Teaching and others. She is the recipient of a Florida Individual Artist Fellowship in poetry, and twice nominated for a Pushcart prize. Her award winning chapbook Visionware is available from Finishing Line Press (WWW.Finishinglinepress.com). She resides in Miami, FL. (Stonecoastreview.com)

ALEX MYERS
Alex Myers is a writer, teacher, and speaker. Born and raised in Paris, Maine, Alex was raised as a girl (Alice) and left Maine to attend boarding school at Phillips Exeter Academy. At Exeter, Alex came out as transgender, returning his senior year as a man after attending for three years as a woman, and was the first transgender student in that Academy’s history. After Exeter, Alex earned his bachelor’s at Harvard University, studying Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations, and living in the Dudley Co-op. Alex was also the first openly transgender student at Harvard and worked to change the University’s nondiscrimination clause to include gender identity. Subsequent to earning a master’s degree in religion at Brown, Alex has pursued a career in teaching English at secondary schools. He completed his Master’s of Fine Arts in fiction writing at Vermont College of Fine Arts, where he began his work on Revolutionary. He currently lives in Washington, DC with his wife and two cats. Presented in partnership with TransArt Festival.

IDRA NOVEY
Idra Novey is the author most recently of Clarice: The Visitor, a collection of poems and images in collaboration with the artist Erica Baum. Her debut novel Ways to Disappear is forthcoming from Little, Brown in 2016. Earlier poetry collections include Exit, Civilian, selected by Patricia Smith for the 2011 National Poetry Series, and The Next Country, a finalist for the 2008 Foreword Book of the Year Award in poetry. Her work has been featured on NPR’s All Things Considered, the Leonard Lopate Show, in Slate, The Paris Review, A Public Space and Poetry. She’s received awards from the Poetry Foundation, the Poetry Society of America, the National Endowment for the Arts, Poets & Writers Magazine, and the PEN Translation Fund. Her most recent translation is Clarice Lispector’s novel The Passion According to G.H. She teaches in the Creative Writing Program at Princeton University.

FERNANDO OLSZANSKI
Fernando Olszanski was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina. He is the author of the novel Rezos de marihuana (Marihuana Prayers); the book of short stories El orden natural de las cosas (The Natural Order of Things) which was awarded with the second place in the International Latino Book Award for Best Popular Fiction in 2011; the poetry collection Parte del polvo (Part of the Dust); and is also co-editor of the anthology América Nuestra, Anthology of Narrative in Spanish in the United States. As a visual artist, he has participated in exhibitions in the US, Japan, and Argentina. He is also chief editor of the Revista Consenso, of the Northeastern Illinois University. He holds a master's in education from Dominican University. He has lived in Scotland, Ecuador, Japan, and currently lives in Chicago.. Presented as part of The Betsy Writer’s Room Escribe Aquí. / Write Here Program.

MICHAEL ONDAATJE
Bestselling & Award-winning Author of The English Patient, Running in the Family & The Cat’s Table - Michael Ondaatje is one of the world’s foremost writers – his artistry and aesthetic have influenced an entire generation of writers and readers. Although he is best known as a novelist, Ondaatje’s work also encompasses poetry, memoir, and film, and reveals a passion for defying conventional form. His transcendent novel The English Patient, explores the stories of people history fails to reveal by intersecting four diverse lives at the end of World War II. This bestselling novel was later made into an Academy Award-winning film. (Barclay Agency).

LISA PAPADEMETRIOU
Lisa Papademetriou is the author of numerous books for young readers, including Sixth-Grade Glommers,Norks, and Me; How to Be a Girly Girl in Just Ten Days; the Accidentally Fabulous series; and, most recently, the Confectionately Yours series. Her books have been named among the Best of the Year by Family Fun Magazine, the New York Public Library, and Bank Street College, and have appeared on several state award lists, including the Texas Lone Star List. Lisa has worked in an editorial capacity for Scholastic, Alloy, HarperCollins, and Disney Press, and is currently enrolled in the MFA program at Vermont College of Fine Arts.

DANIT PELEG
Danit Peleg is a Fashion Designer based in Tel Aviv, Israel. For her graduate collection at Shenkar College of Engineering and Design, Danit successfully 3D printed the world's first fashion collection printed entirely using home printers. Her groundbreaking collection has captivated the attention of millions around the world. Danit is a long-time Maker and is also the founder of an after-school fashion course for girls aged 7-13 where she teaches arts, crafts, the basics for fashion design, and recently also 3D printing. Danit is always exploring new ways to create innovative textiles and to design fashion with new technologies.

MAYA PEREZ
Perez is a screenwriter, a co-editor of the book On Story—Screenwriters and their Craft (University of Texas Press, October 2013), a consulting producer for the television series On Story: Presented by Austin Film Festival, and a board member of the Austin Film Festival, where she also served as Conference Director for seven years. She holds a B.A. from Vassar College and is a Michener Fellow in Screenwriting at the University of Texas at Austin.

MARINA PEREZAGUA
Marina Perezagua is a young Spanish short story writer and university teacher at New York University. She earned a degree in Art History from the University of Seville. After graduation she moved to the United States on a PhD scholarship in Philology, and for 5 years she taught language, literature and history classes at the State University of New York at Stony Brook. Her first book of short stories Criaturas abisales (2011) was received with critical acclaim, receiving the Prize Príncipe de Asturias 2013, an award given to individuals who made notable achievements in humanities and sciences. Presented as part of The Betsy Writer’s Room Escribe Aquí / Write Here Festival.

CARLOS PINTADO
Carlos Pintado (born 1974 in Cuba) is a Cuban–American writer, playwright and award-winning poet who immigrated to the United States in the early 90s. He received the prestigious 2014 Paz Prize for Poetry for his book "Nueve Monedas" awarded by the National Poetry Series and will be published in a bilingual edition by Akashic Press in New York. His book Autorretrato en azul received the Sant Jordi's International Prize for Poetry and his El azar y los tesoros was one of the finalists for Adonais Prize in 2008. He also contributed to The exile Experience: a journey to freedom, coordinated by Cuban American music producer Emilio Estefan. Presented in partnership with O, Miami Poetry Festival.

STEVE POWERS
Stephen J. Powers is a New York City artist who at one time wrote graffiti in Philadelphia and New York under the name ESPO ("Exterior Surface Painting Outreach." In 2000 Powers gave up graffiti to become a full-time studio artist. His work has been shown at the prestigious Venice and Liverpool Biennials, as well as numerous shows at New York City's Deitch Gallery and the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. His work has graced the cover of the art magazine Juxtapoz. Power’s most recent project is a mural project in Philadelphia about the complexities and rewards of relationships, titled A Love Letter for You, sponsored by a $260,000 grant from the Pew Center for Arts and Heritage through the Philadelphia Exhibitions Initiative, and produced by the Philadelphia Mural Arts Program, with positive reviews from both the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal. Presented in partnership with O, Miami Poetry Festival.

SALVADOR LUIS RAGGIO
SALVADOR LUIS es editor, narrador y crítico cultural. Tiene una doble licenciatura en dirección de cine y literatura hispánica y un doctorado en Romance Studies (University of Miami). Ha sido profesor en Oberlin College (Ohio) y en la actualidad imparte clases de cine y literatura en University of Minnesota-Twin Cities (Minneapolis). Desde 2001 hasta 2011 dirigió la revista de creación Los noveles (www.losnoveles.net) y actualmente es director deSpecimens (www.specimens-mag.com), publicación dedicada a la más reciente narrativa en castellano. Ha sido también editor de Revista Kitsch, redactor de Miradas de cine (Madrid) y tuvo a su cargo la columna “Situaciones incómodas” en el portal español Koult, donde entrevistó con tono irónico y espíritu jovial a reconocidos autores iberoamericanos. Presented as part of The Betsy Writer’s Room Escribe Aquí / Write Here Festival.

BERNARD RANDS
Through a catalog of more than a hundred published works and many recordings, Bernard Rands is established as a major figure in contemporary music. His work Canti del Sole, premiered by Paul Sperry, Zubin Mehta, and the New York Philharmonic, won the 1984 Pulitzer Prize in Music. His large orchestral suites Le Tambourin, won the 1986 Kennedy Center Friedheim Award. His work Canti d'Amor, recorded by Chanticleer, won a Grammy award in 2000. Presented in partnership with Miami Summer Music Festival 2015.

GIOVANNA RIVERO
Giovanna Rivero (Bolivia, 1972). Ha publicado los libros de cuentos: Contraluna (2005), Sangre Dulce/ Sweet Blood (Edición bilingüe inglés-español, La Hoguera 2006), el libro de cuentos para niños La dueña de nuestros sueños (2002, 2014), y Niñas y detectives (Bartleby 2009), y las novelas Las camaleonas (2001), Tukzon, historias colaterales (2008) y 98 segundos sin sombra (Caballo de Troya 2014). Obtuvo el Premio Nacional de Cuento otorgado por Presencia Literaria en 1993, el Premio Nacional de Literatura de Santa Cruz por su colección de relatos “Las bestias” (1996), y el Premio Nacional de Cuento Franz Tamayo el año 2006. Participó del International Writing Program ofrecido por Iowa University en el otoño de 2004. Se doctoró en literatura hispanoamericana en University of Florida, USA, en 2014. El año 2011 fue seleccionada por la Feria Internacional del Libro de Guadalajara como uno de “Los 25 Secretos Mejor Guardados de América Latina”. También es cronista. Presented as part of The Betsy Writer’s Room Escribe Aquí / Write Here Festival.

THANE ROSENBAUM
Thane Rosenbaum is an essayist, law professor, and author of the novels, How Sweet It Is!, The Stranger Within Sarah Stein, The Golems of Gotham, Second Hand Smoke, and Elijah Visible. His articles, reviews and essays appear frequently in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Haaretz,Huffington Post and Daily Beast, among other national publications.

NINA RUNSDORF
Taking the traditional starting point of every jeweler - diamonds, rubies, emeralds - Nina thinks outside the box and creates precious and organic pieces that are stunning and enchanting. Nina's penchant for hidden luxuries, such as sliced gemstones, has catapulted her onto the forefront as a pioneer in fine jewelry design. NSR has been featured in many fashion and luxury publications including Women's Wear Daily, Town & Country and TK.

KAY RYAN
Kay Ryan grew up in the small towns of the San Joaquin Valley and the Mojave Desert. She received both a bachelor’s and master’s degree from UCLA. Ryan has published several collections of poetry, including The Best of It: New and Selected Poems (Grove Press, 2010), for which she won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 2011; The Niagara River (2005); Say Uncle (2000); Elephant Rocks (1996); Flamingo Watching (1994), which was a finalist for both the Lamont Poetry Selection and the Lenore Marshall Prize; Strangely Marked Metal (1985); and Dragon Acts to Dragon Ends (1983). Presented in partnership with O, Miami Poetry Festival.

SEAN SEXTON
Sean Sexton is a Florida native who divides his time between taking care of a 600-acre cow-calf and seedstock operation and painting and writing. He is married to artist Sharon Sexton, and they live on the ranch with their two children in a house they built with their hands. He has kept journal-sketch books drawn from his life since 1973 and was awarded an Individual Artist’s Fellowship from the State of Florida in 2000-2001. He is the author of Waldo’s Mountain, Brief History of a Small Elevation (Waterview Press, 2001) about his grandfather, Waldo Sexton. Presented in partnership with O, Miami Poetry Festival.

GERALD STERN
Gerald Stern has been called an “American original,” “a sometimes comic, sometimes tragic visionary,” and, by his friend Stanley Kunitz, “the wilderness in American poetry.” Over dozens of books, and decades of teaching and activism, Stern has emerged as one of America’s most celebrated and irascible poets. Presented in partnership with Jewish and American Holocaust Literature Symposium.

EDMUNDO PAZ SOLDAN
Edmundo Paz Soldan is the acclaimed international author of the books: Río fugitivo (1998), La materia del deseo (2001), El delirio de Turing (2003), Los vivos y los muertos (2009) e Iris (2014), He has co-edited the anthologies Se habla español (2000) and Bolaño salvaje (2008). His plays have been translated into nine languages and is contributing editor for El País, La Tercera y El Deber, and the magazine Etiqueta Negra, Qué pasa y Letras Libres. Edmundo is presented as part of Escribe Aqui in a breakfast salon to introduce The Betsy’s newest program in partnership with SubUrbano Ediciones and Books and Books that highlights the cultural rich Iberoamerican literary community in Miami. Presented as part of The Betsy Writer’s Room Escribe Aqui / Write Here Program in partnership with SubUrbano Ediciones.

PATRICK TENNANT
Tennant is a Theatrical Lighting Designer. Hosted in partnership with SoBe Arts Institute, as they present,"Intelligent Systems - An Apocalyptic Sci-Fi Musical Ride through the Evolution of the Universe." Details and tickets at www.sobearts.org

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 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. Presented in partnership with Jewish and American Holocaust Literature Symposium.

IAN THORNTON
Ian Thornton read Business Studies and German at Sheffield University. He has lived in a number of places including California, Costa Rica, Australia, Mexico, London, and his native and beloved Yorkshire before moving to Toronto in 2009. His debut novel, The Great and Calamitous Tale of Johan Thoms (How One Man Scorched the Twentieth Century, but Didn’t Mean to) was published by Simon & Schuster in September 2013. Harper Collins will publish worldwide on June 28th this year to coincide with the centenary of the assassination of Franz Ferdinand, the pivot of the novel. Translation deals have already been signed for Turkey and Poland and submissions have been made for twelve other languages. Negotiations with Hollywood for the film rights are on-going. The novel has been nominated for the Man Booker Prize of 2014.

NEIL TOBIN
Neil Tobin is a writer, actor, and magical performer based in Chicago. He is honored to be performing "Peter and the Werewolf," his original narration for Prokofiev's "Peter and the Wolf," with Orchestra Miami this season under the baton of Elaine Rinaldi. An award-winning member of the Society of American Magicians and the Psychic Entertainers Association, he served as Magic Consultant for acclaimed productions of "The Addams Family" and "Barnum" at Chicago's Mercury Theater. His original solo theatre pieces include "Supernatural Chicago," which he presented every week in a (reputedly haunted) landmark building for a record-breaking 10-year run; and "Palace of the Occult," which will be making its world premiere on November 13—details at palaceoftheoccult.com. Presented in partnership with NSR Trunk Show.

MADS TOLLING
Mads Tolling, internationally renowned violinist and composer, is a two-time Grammy Award-Winner. As a former nine year member of both Turtle Island Quartet and bassist Stanley Clarke’s band, Mads has spent most his professional life touring internationally. Since 2007 Mads has lead his own group, Mads Tolling Quartet. “The Playmaker”released in the fall of 2009, features Stanley Clarke and jazz greats Russell Ferrante & Stefon Harris. A brand new MTQ album: “Celebrating Jean-Luc Ponty – Live at Yoshi’s” was released in May, 2012. Mads has been featured on NPR’s Morning Edition, and his recordings have received rave reviews in Downbeat Magazine, Strings Magazine, Washington Post & San Francisco Chronicle. He has performed with Chick Corea, Ramsey Lewis, Kenny Barron & Paquito D’Rivera.

CHINARY UNG
Chinary Ung was the first American composer to win the highly coveted and international Grawemeyer Award (1989), sometimes called the Nobel prize for music composition. Among other honors, Ung has received awards from The Kennedy Center (Friedheim award), The American Academy of Arts and Letters, Asia Foundation, Asian Cultural Council, Rockefeller Foundation, Ford Foundation, Guggenheim Foundation, Joyce Foundation, and The National Endowment for the Arts. Presented in partnership with Miami Summer Music Festival 2015.

JOSE IGNACIO VALENZUELA
José Ignacio Valenzuela ha desarrollado una vasta carrera como escritor y guionista de cine y televisión en Chile, México, Puerto Rico y Estados Unidos. Entre sus numerosos libros destacan El filo de tu piel, La Trilogía del Malamor, Salida de Emergencia, ¿De qué color es tu sombra?, La Mujer Infinita y la serie policial para jóvenes llamada Cuatro Ojos. El 2012 fue seleccionado por la revista About.com (del New York Times) como uno de los 10 mejores escritores latinoamericanos menores de 40 años. Para la televisión ha escrito más de dieciocho telenovelas, entre las cuales se cuentan La casa de al lado, Dama y obrero y Santa Diabla, que cosecharon altísimos niveles de audiencia y una gran variedad de premios internacionales. La serie de televisión Amores (2004), que creó y desarrolló, recibió una nominación de los Emmy 2005 por “Mejor guión”. La película Miente (2008), cuyo guión escribió, fue la representante de Puerto Rico en los premios Oscar 2009 en la categoría de Mejor película extranjera. En la actualidad divide su tiempo entre sus labores de escritor, la docencia, y las numerosas conferencias y seminarios que imparte en diferentes países de Latinoamérica. Presented as part of The Betsy Writer’s Room Escribe Aquí / Write Here Program.

GASTON VIRKEL
Gastón Virkel (Argentina, 1972) es escritor y guionista de cine y televisión. Ha obtenido numeroso premios a la creatividad en TV donde se ha desempañado en canales como MTV, Nickelodeon, Telemundo o Boomerang. “Cara a cara”, el cuento que integró la antología Viaje One Way fue incluido en una escena de “De rodillas”, su primera película. Actualmente escribe una novela de ficción basada en sus experiencias en TV. Tiene un hijo de 10 años con el que está desarrollando “Squirrel vs. Monster” un proyecto para niños.

DAN WAKEFIELD
Dan Wakefield is a novelist, journalist and screenwriter whose best-selling novels "Going All The Way" and "Starting Over" were produced as feature films, and he created the NBC prime time TV series "James at 15." A documentary film has been produced of his memoir "New York in the Fifties." His non-fiction books on spirituality include "Returning: A Spiritual Journey;" "Creating from The Spirit."

ROSIE GORDON WALLACE
Rosie Gordon-Wallace is Founder, Curator, and Director of Diaspora Vibe Gallery and Diaspora Vibe Cultural Arts Incubator. Since 1996, Gordon-Wallace has initiated and produced transnational creative programs that redefine concepts of “diaspora” including the International Cultural Exchange program, the Caribbean Crossroads Series, the Artist-In-Residence program, an ongoing contemporary exhibitions program, and numerous community-based outreach projects. One might never have guessed that this licensed Medical Microbiologist and former Senior Consultant for Searle Pharmaceuticals from 1981 -1999 is now the founder and senior curator of Diaspora Vibe, one of the most talked about Caribbean art incubators in Miami and on the east coast. Presented in partnership with Miami Int'l Book Fair.

TOM WILLIAMS
Williams is the author of two books of fiction: The Mimic’s Own Voice, and Don’t Start Me Talkin’. His short fiction, reviews, essays and interviews have appeared in such publications as Barrelhouse, Boulevard, The Collagist, Florida Review and many others. The Chair of English at Morehead State University, he lives in Kentucky with his wife and children. Presented in partnership with Writers on the Bay Series at FIU.

GEORGE YAMAZAWA
Born and raised in Durham, NC with a Buddhist background, G is a National Poetry Slam Champion, two-time Individual WorldPoetry Slam Finalist, and three-time Southern Fried Champion. He has toured in over 40 American cities and 5 European countries, and has been a featured performer at the Sundance Film Festival, TV One's Verses and Flow, the Pentagon, and the White House Initiative for AAPI. Presented in partnership with Tigertail Wordspeak.

EUGENIA ZUKERMAN
Hailed by the press as “one of the finest flutists of our time,” Eugenia Zukerman is an internationally renowned recitalist and soloist, who also continues with a dramatic schedule as a writer, artistic director, television journalist, educator and internet entrepreneur. She studied English at Barnard College and received a B.M. from The Juilliard School where she studied with the renowned flutist Julius Baker. An Emmy nominated arts correspondent for more than 350 profiles of artists, musicians, theatre and dance on CBS TV NEWS' SUNDAY MORNING, Ms. Zukerman has appeared on a variety of other television programs, including PBS's Charlie Rose Show, CBS Morning Show, and NBC’s Today Show. Ms. Zukerman’s list of writing credits includes two novels, two non-fiction books, screenplays, and articles and book reviews in such prominent periodicals as The New York Times, The Washington Post, Esquire and Vogue.