Participants

Betty Hales has been doing theater since 1989, doing acting, stage managing, directing, dresser and costume designer. She has been involved with productions all over the state. She has been active with the Virginia Playwrights Retreat for many years.

Earl Hamner's latest book is Generous Women: An Appreciation. His novels Spencer's Mountain and The Homecoming became the basis for the television series "The Waltons." The producer and creator of "Falcon Crest," his honors include an Emmy, the Peabody Award, and six Christopher Awards.

Adam Harmon, author of Lonely Soldier: The Memoir of an American in the Israeli Army, has conducted operations against Hizbollah in Lebanon and carried out counter-terror operations in the West Bank and Gaza since 1990.

Jean Haskell, co-editor of the Encyclopedia of Appalachia, retired as director and professor in the Center for Appalachian Studies and Services at East Tennessee State University. She was the John D. Whisman Scholar with the Appalachian Regional Commission.

James Heffernan, author of Cultivating Picturacy, is an Emeritus Professor of English at Dartmouth, author of books and many articles on literature and visual art. He also organizes and acts in staged readings of contemporary plays.

Andrew Helfer (Malcolm X: A Graphic Biography) is a founding partner of Serious Comics. At his Paradox Press, he published groundbreaking graphic novels like Road To Perdition and the non-fiction "Big Book" series. He was at DC Comics for 23 years.

Carol M. Highsmith, author of Etched in Stone, has been the photographer for more than two dozen books featuring American structures. The American Institute of Architects selected her work for an exhibit that traveled across the United States.

Patrick Hite, co-author of Mad About U: Four Decades of Basketball at University Hall, is an award-winning sportswriter living in Shenandoah Valley. With almost two decades of experience in radio, print and TV, he is co-host and producer of "ACC Nation."

Hilary Holladay is the author of the poetry collection The Dreams of Mary Rowlandson and the critical analysis Wild Blessings: The Poetry of Lucille Clifton. She is a professor of English and American Studies at the University of Massachuesetts Lowell.

James Horn's A Land As God Made It was a finalist in Virginia's 9th Annual Literary Awards. He is Vice President of Research and O'Neill Director of the John D. Rockefeller Jr. Library at The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation.

Sam Horn, author of POP! Stand Out in Any Crowd, was Executive Director of the Maui Writers Conference. A creativity consultant and 2003-04 Outstanding Capital Speaker, she has been interviewed on every major TV network and reviewed in every major newspaper.

M. Thomas Inge, author of William Faulkner: Overlook Illustrated Lives (a concise biography), is Blackwell Professor of Humanities at Randolph-Macon College. Among his areas of expertise are comic art, popular culture, Southern literature, and the works of Faulkner.

Joe Jackson, the author of A World On Fire: A Heretic, An Aristocrat, and The Race to Discover Oxygen, is a five-time Pulitzer nominee and a finalist for the 2005 Library of Virginia Literary Award in Fiction for How I Left the Great State of Tennessee and Went on to Better Things.

Tom Jackson, an associate professor of history at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, is the author of From Civil Rights to Human Rights: Martin Luther King Jr. and the Struggle for Economic Justice.

Sid Jacobson, co-author of The 9/11 Report: A Graphic Adaptation, was the managing editor and editor-in-chief for Harvey Comics, where he created Richie Rich, and executive editor at Marvel Comics. He has published two novels and a sports biography.