Participants

Ed Barber was college and trade department director at W.W. Norton & Company for 20 years before becoming a senior editor in 1994. With Norton, he has acquired and edited books by Richard Feynman, Stephen Jay Gould, Jane Brody and Sen. Robert Byrd.

Virginia Barber opened her literary agency in 1974. She represented such authors as Rosellen Brown, Sue Monk Kidd, Peter Mayle, Alice Munro, Anne Rivers Siddons and Anita Shreve. In 2001, she sold her literary agency to the William Morris Agency; she is now an Editor-at-Large for Grove-Atlantic.

Charles Randolph Bruce and his wife Carolyn Hale Bruce are from the mountains of southwestern Virginia. They have written, illustrated, and published three Rebel King novels about Robert the Bruce, King of Scots, and a regional book, Virginiana.

Carolyn Hale Bruce and Charles Randolph Bruce are from the mountains of southwestern Virginia. They have written, illustrated and published three Rebel King novels about Robert the Bruce, King of Scots and a regional book, Virginiana. Carolyn has written two pictorial histories.

Lauren Cerand is an independent public relations representative and consultant in New York. Her clients are a purposefully eclectic mix of creative professionals and organizations, and she specializes in generating initial buzz and building sustained attention for projects and individuals.

Johanna Drucker, author of Sweet Dreams: Contemporary Art and Complicity, has published and lectured extensively on topics related to the history of typography, artists' books, and visual art. She is the Robertson Professor of Media Studies at UVa and advises Artists' Books Online.

Robert Marston Fannéy is the author of Luthiel's Song: Dreams of the Ringed Vale--the first part of an epic fantasy whose protagonist is a 15-year-old girl with a magical gift. He is at work on the second Luthiel's Song book, The War of Mists.

Jim Gable, a former executive at Apple Computer and co-founder of Kerbango, an Internet radio start-up, worked with the Amazon product team that created Kindle, the new electronic book reader. Jim is now a consultant living in northern Virginia.

William Gladstone is the founder of Waterside Productions Inc., a literary agency that has placed thousands of manuscripts and proposals with dozens of major and regional publishers over the last 25 years. His personal successes include the For Dummies…. book series, Oprah book club selection A New Earth, and hundreds of business, technology, and self-help books.

Robert Hatta, Director of Strategic Developement for Findaway World (Playaway), has spent 10 years in digital content, wireless technology, and entertainment marketing. At other companies, he launched iTunes' popular gift cards into Europe, led marketing campaigns for Netflix, and launched products and services for Virgin Mobile USA.

Simon Lipskar is an agent at Writers House, a literary agency in New York. He represents a wide range of writers, including major authors in literary and commercial fiction, narrative nonfiction, and young adult fiction.

Jeb Livingood teaches at UVa where he serves as faculty advisor for the literary magazine Meridian and series editor for Best New Poets, an annual anthology featuring work of 50 emerging poets selected from nominations by writing programs, literary magazines, and an open internet competition.

Catharine Lynch is Vice President, Associate Publisher of G. P. Putnam's Sons and Riverhead Books, which are divisions of Penguin Group (USA) Inc. A veteran of the publishing industry for more than twenty-four years, she began her career at The Johns Hopkins University Press.

Lindsey Mears is a studio artist working in artist's books and book conservation. She has an M.F.A. in Book Arts and Printmaking from the University of the Arts in Philadelphia, and has worked in book conservation at the American Philosophical Society and the Historical Society of Pennsylvania.

Susan O’Doherty is the author of Getting Unstuck without Coming Unglued: A Woman’s Guide to Unblocking Creativity, and of numerous anthologized stories and essays. She contributes a weekly advice column for writers to M.J. Rose’s blog Buzz, Balls & Hype.