Writers and Speakers

KIMIKO HAHN (Keynote Speaker) has authored seven collections of poetry, including The Unbearable Heart which received an American Book Award and, most recently, The Narrow Road to the Interior (2006). Her most recent film credit, Everywhere at Once, premiered at the 2008 Tribeca Film Festival. Her other awards include a National Endowment for the Arts fellowship and the Shelley Memorial Prize.
CAROLINE AIKEN (Singer-Songwriter) has released seven CDs and received a Grammy nomination for a Contemporary Folk CD in 2006. She’s played thousands of shows in the U.S. and abroad and has recorded and shared stages with artists such as The Indigo Girls, Bonnie Raitt, Taj Mahal, and Dan Fogelberg.
BRANDI BOWLES (Literary Agent) left Random house in 2007 to become an agent for the Howard Morhaim Literary Agency. She represents a wide range of fiction and non-fiction titles including quirky or experimental literary novels, science fiction, women’s and Southern fiction, historical fiction, how-to books, pop culture, and humor.
JOSHILYN JACKSON (Fiction Evaluator) has published three novels, Between, Georgia, Gods in Alabama, and, most recently, The Girl Who Stopped Swimming (2009). Her stories have appeared in anthologies and literary periodicals such as TriQuarterly and Calyx. Her honors include a Georgia Author of the Year award.
ANTHONY KELLMAN (Conference Director and Poetry Evaluator) was born in Barbados and is Professor of Creative Writing at Augusta State University. He’s the author of four poetry books, most recently, Limestone (2008); two novels; and three musical CDs, most recently, Blood Mates (2009). He is a recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts fellowship.
GLENVILLE LOVELLE (Fiction Evaluator) is the author of four novels: Fire in the Canes, Song of Night, Too Beautiful to Die, and Love and Death in Brooklyn. His stories have been featured in anthologies such as Conjunctions, Shades of Black, Wanderlust: 14 Erotic Travel Tales, Hardboiled Brooklyn, Queens Noir; and in Best African American Fiction 2010.
NATHANIEL LACHENMEYER (Children’s Literature Evaluator) has published three children’s books, Broken Beaks, Searching for Sasquatch, and The Origami Master (2008) which is a Junior Library Guild Selection and a Book Links Lasting Connection.
DAVID STARKEY (Poetry and Non-Fiction Evaluator) has authored many poetry collections including Adventures of the Minor Poet and Ways of Being Dead. His poems appear in magazines such as American Scholar, Antioch Review, and Southern Poetry Review. He has also written writing textbooks and is the editor of the creative non-fiction anthology, Living Blue in the Red States (2007).