Participants

Leslie Walker Williams, author of The Prudent Mariner, was awarded the Peter Taylor Prize and the Hackney Prize. Her stories have appeared in such publications as The Iowa Review, Harvard Review, and American Fiction. She currently lives in Vancouver, BC.

Tony Williams, author of Hurricane of Independence, was a teacher of history and literature for ten years. He is currently a full-time author who lives with his family in Williamsburg, Virginia.

Helen Williamson was born in N. Ireland and attended Trinity College in Dublin. She now lives in Charlottesville, Virginia. She is the author of Tales from Balladhoon, original Irish fairy tales for children.

Bob Withers, author of The President Travels by Train: Politics and Pullmans, is both a reporter for a daily newspaper and a Baptist pastor. He has written a number of articles and books about railroad transportation.

Sam Witt is the author of two poetry collections, Everlasting Quail (winner of the Katherine Nason Bakeless Prize) and Sunflower Brother. His new manuscript is Occupation: Dreamland. He is a freelance writer, living in Charlottesville.

Kenneth R. Wright has been a book editor and publisher for more than 20 years and is currently a literary agent at Writers House in New York. He focuses on commerical narrative nonfiction for adults and young readers (bios, memoirs, pop science, pop culture, history), and some fiction.

Tara Yellen, author of After House at the Almost Home, completed the M.F.A. program at UVa, where she was awarded the Henry Hoyns Fellowship. She has served as a mentor for middle school age girls, an experience that informed the writing of her novel.

Michael S. Zbailey, author of Time Remembered, Grief Forgotten, is a two time winner of the Virginia Writer's Club nonfiction award. His writing has been published in the Washington Post, the Providence Sunday Journal magazine, the Blue Ridge Anthology and other publications.