Participants

Ellen Jensen Abbott's debut novel is Watersmeet. She writes fantasy novels for young adults. She lives in Pennsylvania and teaches high school English at the Westtown School.

Anna Alter is the author and illustrator of many books for children, including What Can You Do with an Old Red Shoe? and Abigail Spells. A Charlottesville native, Anna now calls Boston home.

Mark Andrews, author of Meet Me At The Mountain, is the founder/executive director of Therapeutic Adventures, a non-profit charitable education organization providing adaptive outdoor programs for persons with differing abilities -- disabilities, chronic medical impairments, and other special health needs

Cris Arbo is an award-winning illustrator whose most recent book, In the Trees, Honeybees, by Lori Mortensen, has just been released. Her other titles All Around Me I See by Laya Steinberg, In A Nutshell and The Dandelion Seed by Joseph Anthony.

Chip Bok, co-author of The Great White House Breakout, was named Editorial Cartoonist of the Year by The Week magazine in March 2007. He has won two National Cartoonist Society awards, was a Pulitzer Prize finalist, and has had cartoons syndicated across the nation in Time, Newsweek, the Washington Post, the New York Times, and elsewhere. Mr. Bok has four children and lives in Akron, Ohio.

Mozelle Booker has been an outstanding principal in Charlottesville schools: Jackson-Via, Burnley Moran, and Walker. Retired, she now assists Fluvanna County Schools as "Family and School Coordinator."

Nancy Cloyd, educator and author, (Teddy Bear's Favorite Pictures) is president of Literacy for Tykes, Inc. She present workshops at VAECE Statewide Conference; her book's "Parent Points" encourages child/family appreciation for literature and arts; and works for C/A VSA Arts.

Jennifer Riesmeyer Elvgren's book, Josias Hold the Book,  received the 2007 Americas Award for Children's and Young Adult Literature. A  former print journalist, her children's fiction has appeared in Highlights for Children, Ladybug, and Spider magazines.

Robert Friedman is the co-author (with Eckhart Tolle) of Milton's Secret: An Adventure of Discovery through Then, When, and The Power of Now. He is a co-founder of Hampton Roads Publishing Company. He lives in Virginia.

Catherine Gourley is the author and editor of more than 25 books for young adults and adults, including the Women's Images and Issues series. She is the director of Letters About Literature, a Library of Congress reading promotion program.

Lisa Greenwald, author of My Life in Pink & Green, works in the library at the Birch Wathen Lenox School on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. She is also a recent graduate of the New School’s MFA program in writing for children.

Noelle Hall is the author of I Dig George, a book about George Washington's Ferry Farm home and the Emily & the Captain books, stories of Newfoundland adventures where Noelle spent many happy summers. She lives in Virginia

Damani Harrison, music educator, journalist, and performer, creates exciting curriculum for Music Resource Center youth programs. Beetnix, his HipHop group, has sold out shows and has released full-length albums, EP's, and music videos.

Edith M. Hemingway, a graduate of Spalding University's MFA program, is the author of the forthcoming Road to Tater Hill. When she's not writing, she's teaching writing workshops at Misty Hill Lodge, her 1930s log cabin home near Frederick, MD.

Stephen Hickman has been illustrating imaginative literature for over 35 years, amounting to some 375 covers for all the major publishers, and has won awards including the Hugo and six Chesley Awards from the Association of SF and Fantasy Artists.