The Writer's Center

White River Junction, Vermont

The Writer's Center Instructors

Writer's Center co-founder Sarah Stewart Taylor has written four mystery novels, all published by St. Martin's Press, as well as other works of fiction. Her journalism has been published in the Washington Post, The Boston Globe and many other magazines and newspapers. Sarah studied writing and literature at Middlebury College and Trinity College, Dublin. She has taught fiction writing and literature for ten years and currently teaches at the Center for Cartoon Studies. Visit her on the web at www.SarahStewartTaylor.com.

Writer's Center co-founder Joni B. Cole is the author of Toxic Feedback: Helping Writers Survive and Thrive, which is "strongly recommended" by Library Journal for students, teachers, and workshops. Joni is also the founding creator of the acclaimed "This Day" book series, including Water Cooler Diaries: Women across America Share Their Day at Work ("both fascinating and eye-opening," according to Publisher's Weekly). Joni's essays appear in her monthly newspaper column, "Life as I Know It," and she is a frequent educator and speaker at writing conferences around the country. For more information, visit www.toxicfeedback.com or www.thisdayinthelife.com. You can also find Joni on Facebook.

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Sarah Aronson holds an MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults from Vermont College of Fine Arts.  Her first novel, Head Case, was published in 2007 by Roaring Brook Press and was a 2008 YALSA Quick Pick for Reluctant Readers. Sarah is a regular presenter at NE-SCBWI events.  She reviews young adult novels for Jewish Book World, and is a regular contributor to the VCFA:MFA blog, Through the Booth, community.livejournal.com/thru_the_booth. For more info: www.saraharonson.com.

Meg Brazill is a writer and editor. She's served on literature panels for the Maine Arts Commission, the Vermont Arts Council, and the Council of Literary Magazines and Presses. She was Executive Director of the Literary Program at the Lannan Foundation in Los Angeles, and created its "Readings & Conversations" series. She is a 2009 recipient of a grant from the Vermont Arts Council and a Fellowship from the Vermont Studio Center.

Katharine Fisher Britton lives in Norwich, Vermont and teaches at Colby Sawyer College. She has written three screenplays, one of which is a 2009 Moondance Film Festival winner. She has a Master's degree in Creative Writing from Dartmouth College and has written freelance for Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center, Dartmouth Medical School, Tuck School of Business, Thayer School of Engineering, many local publications, as well as Scribner's Biographical Encyclopedias. She recently sold her first novel to a major publisher, and is in the process of revising her second book. She is also an author coach.

KJ Dell'Antonia has written for Parenting, Parents, American Baby, the Time Out New York Eating and Drinking Guide and other publications. She is a co-author of Reading With Babies, Toddlers and Twos: Choosing, Loving and Reading Books Together, a regular contributor to Commonsense Media and a member of the American Society of Journalists and Authors.

Kim J. Gifford holds a Master's in Creative Writing and Religion from Vermont College at Norwich University. She also studied writing while earning her Bachelor's in Religion at Middlebury College, taking classes with novelist Julia Alvarez. She now works as a freelance writer. Her work appears in a number of regional publications including Upper Valley Life, Kearsarge Magazine, Valley Business Journal, Rutland Magazine and many more. For the last six years, she has worked as a memoir writing instructor, offering classes in a variety of settings including the Thompson Senior Center in Woodstock, VT and Harvest Hill in Lebanon, NH. She presently teaches memoir writing at Lebanon College and offers private workshops on a variety of genres. 

Bridget Hardy has taught fiction at the University of Arizona and Oberlin College. She has an MFA from the University of Arizona, where she was a reader for the Sonora Review and won a Humanities Fellowship. She received a Fellowship for the Vermont Studio Center and has had fiction published inIndiana Review and Blood Orange Review. She's been a freelance writer for over a decade and is currently at work on a novel. She can be reached at bridgetmhardy@hotmail.com.

Giavanna Munafo holds an MFA from the University of Iowa (poetry) and also studied writing while pursuing her BA and PhD at the University of Virginia. She has taught writing since 1985 at various colleges and universities, including the University of Iowa, the University of Virginia, Geroge Washington University, and Dartmouth College. She currently teaches in the Women's and Gender Studies program at Dartmouth. Giavanna recently returned from a residency at the Vermont Studio Center where she revised a poetry manuscript and worked on two new projects, a memoir and a collection of short stories. She can be reached at 802-356-2492 or gmunafo@mac.com.

Deb McKew is a freelance journalist for several New Hampshire publications including Kearsarge Magazine, Upper Valley Life and edible White Mountains. She is also a contributor to the international magazine Italianicious: the Essence of Italy. She holds a master's degree in science journalism from Boston University's College of Communication. She earned her bachelor's degree in biology and English literature from Mount Holyoke College. She is also a certified teacher of secondary English. Because she believes writing should be fun, she founded Words in Play Writing Workshops. As a writer and a writing instructor, Deb understands that imagination and creativity need to be fed by inspiration and she is dedicated to providing her students a variety of opportunities for inspiration to occur. To that end, she also offers weekend writing retreats on Lake Sunapee and hosts workshop groups in Italy.

Peter Money has been publishing his own writing for twenty-five years. He has published several books in the small press movement, was a student of the late Beat writer Allen Ginsberg, and his work has been heard on Garrison Keillor's "The Writer's Almanac." He has edited several magazines and writes poetry and prose. He is on the faculty at The Center For Cartoon Studies, teaches creative writing at Lebanon College, and has been a guest artist on panels and writing programs. His writing has appeared in journals published in Austria, Japan, England, the States, and in a recent anthology by City Lights books. Peter has directed Harbor Mountain Press and its nearly fourteen books since 2006. Peter's degrees are from Oberlin College, Brooklyn College (MFA), and San Jose State University (MLS). To learn more about Peter, visit: http://www.cervenabarvapress.com/PeterMoneyinterview.htm.

April Ossmann is a publishing, editing and writing consultant and  author of Anxious Music (Four Way Books, 2007) and former Executive Director of Alice James Books, editing poets as various as Donald Revell, Cole Swensen, Kazim Ali, Mary Szybist, Catherine Barnett and Frank X. Gaspar. Her poetry has been published widely in anthologies and journals, including Harvard Review, Colorado Review, and The Spoon River Poetry Review. She won the Prairie Schooner Readers' Choice Award for ten poems published in the summer 2000 issue, and has taught creative writing and literature courses at Lebanon College and at the University of Maine at Farmington. For information about April's book, visit www.fourwaybooks.com/books/ossmann/ossmann_reviews.php.  Also see her webiste:  www.aprilossmann.com.

Dianalee Velie (dianaleevelie.com) lives and writes in Newbury, New Hampshire. She is a graduate of Sarah Lawrence College, and has a Master of Arts in Writing from Manhattanville College, where she has served as faculty advisor of Inkwell: A Literary Magazine. She has taught poetry, memoir, and short story at universities and colleges in New York, Connecticut and New Hampshire and in private workshops throughout the Northeast. Her award-winning poetry and short stories have been published in hundreds of literary journals throughout the USA and Canada. She enjoys traveling to rural school systems in Vermont and New Hampshire teaching poetry for the Children's Literacy Foundation. Her play, Mama Says, was directed by Daniel Quinn in a staged reading in New York City. She is the author of three books of poetry, Glass House, First Edition, and The Many Roads to Paradise published by Rock Village Publishing in Middleborough, Massachusetts. She is seeking a publisher for her fourth collection of poetry, The Alchemy of Desire. She is a long time member of the National League of American Pen Women.

Dr. Rob Williams (www.robwilliamsmedia.com) is a Vermont-based musician, historian, consultant, journalist, and media educator/maker who teaches F2F and online history and media studies courses at Champlain College; runs a media education/video production organization called MemeFILMS (www.memefilms.org); edits Vermont Commons: Voices Of Independence newspaper (www.vtcommons.org); and serves as board co-president of the Action Coalition for Media Education (www.acmecoalition.org). When he is not playing with his two children and his yak herd (www.vermontyak.com), he roams the countryside with his guitar and laptop, singing and delivering presentations on a wide variety of media-related topics.

Joanna Tebbs Young has been writing a personal journal for over 20 years and designed and taught her own journal workshop before becoming a certified instructor through the Center for Journal Therapy. Using valuable journaling techniques, she now teaches customized workshops through organizations such as Women's Network & Shelter, Vermont Women's Business Center and Rutland Regional Medical Center. As a freelance writer, Joanna has been published in Mama Says and The Rutland Herald. She blogs and provides journal writing tips at wisdomwithinink.com.