Writing Workshops
Saturday, October 21
9 - 10 a.m. Room 202 |
Nora Shalaway Carpenter
Connecting Students to Writing by Reframing - Write What You Know Nora will take attendees on her journey from loving writing as a kid to hating it as a teen to loving it again as an adult. Most importantly, she'll explain why her passion waned in her teen years and how that can be avoided with aspiring writers. She'll introduce a new interpretation to an old adage and show how attendees can use it to find joy in their own (and their students') writing process.
About Nora
Nora Shalaway Carpenter is contributing editor of the critically acclaimed short story anthology Rural Voices: 15 Authors Challenge Assumptions About Small-Town America, which was named an NPR Best Book of the Year, a YALSA Best Fiction YA selection, a TAYSHAS list selection, and a Bank Street Best Book of the Year, among numerous other honors. Her debut novel The Edge of Anything was named a Bank Street Best Book, a Kirkus Reviews Best book, and A Mighty Girl Best Book of the Year. Of her forthcoming novel, Fault Lines, set in her home state of West Virginia, WV Poet Laureate Marc Harshman praises: "I was happily reminded throughout of the masterful storytelling found in an earlier generation of Appalachian authors like George Ella Lyon and Cynthia Rylant...Highly recommended." Carpenter holds an MFA from Vermont College of Fine Arts and currently serves on faculty for the Highlights Foundation's Whole Novel Retreat. Connect with her at noracarpenterwrites.com. |
Saturday, October 21
11 a. m. - 12 p.m. Room 202 |
Ashley Belote
From Concept to Publication: An Inside Look at Children's Publishing My name is Ashley Belote, and I'm a native West Virginian from Preston County. I was fortunate enough to be able to present at the 2022 WV Book Festival. During that presentation, I received several questions about the actual process of taking a children’s book from concept all the way to publication, so this session will focus on creating book ideas that sell, how to sell them, and how to market them once the books are released.
About Ashley
Ashley Belote is the illustrator of FRANKENSLIME (Feiwel & Friends, 2021) and VALENSLIME (Feiwel & Friends, 2021). She is the author-illustrator of THE ME TREE and A PARTRIDGE IN THE WE TREE (Penguin Workshop, 2021), and LISTEN UP, LOUELLA (Feiwel & Friends, 2022). Her forthcoming titles include WITCH & WOMBAT (7/4/23 Random House Children's Books) and DON'T WASH WINSTON (3/26/24 Feiwel & Friends). She studied traditional animation under the direction of Don Bluth. Ashley is a West Virginia native, and earned her BA from Alderson Broaddus University. She earned her MA in Arts Administration from the University of Kentucky. Her graduate study included a children’s literature and illustration course, The Whole Book Approach, through Simmons College at the Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art. She also serves as the Illustrator Coordinator for the Carolinas chapter of SCBWI. Ashley is represented by Moe Ferrara of BookEnds Literary Agency. To learn more, please visit AshleyBelote.com. |
Saturday, October 21
2 - 3 p.m. Room 202 |
Carter Taylor Seaton
Writing Outside Your Comfort Zone While the conventional wisdom for budding writers is "write what you know," I propose that stepping outside that comfort zone makes us better writers. Imagine if Shakespeare only wrote characters like himself. Using his imagination is what makes his work timeless. In this workshop we will discuss the pros and cons of writing outside our own selves.
About Carter
Carter Taylor Seaton is the author of three novels: Father’s Troubles; amo, amas, amat…an unconventional love story; and The Other Morgans, as well as numerous magazine articles, and several essays and short stories. Her non-fiction works include Hippie Homesteaders, The Rebel in the Red Jeep, Me and Mary Ann, and We Were Legends In Our Own Minds. She holds a Tamarack Foundation Fellowship Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Arts and the West Virginia Library Association honored her with the 2014 WVLA Literary Merit Award. In 2015, Marshall University’s College of Liberal Arts honored her with an Alumni Award of Distinction. In 2016 she received the Governor’s Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Arts. She graduated from Marshall University in 1982 with a Regent’s degree in English and Business, and worked as a marketing professional in West Virginia and Georgia for over thirty years. Now, also a practicing ceramic sculptor, she lives in Huntington, West Virginia with her husband Richard Cobb. |
Saturday, October 21
4 - 5 p. m. Room 202 |
Eric Eyre
10 Lessons I've Learned Writing My First Book As a first-time author, I'd like to share some of the publishing secrets that made Death In Mud Lick a National Bestseller. Finding an agent; writing a book proposal; landing the right publisher; optioning the book to a film studio; working with an editor; narrative arc/structure; revising; copy editing/legal review; choosing a title; and marketing and publicity.
About Eric
Eric Eyre is a longtime West Virginia-based journalist. In 2017, Eyre’s investigation into massive shipments of opioids to West Virginia’s southern coalfields was awarded a Pulitzer Prize for Investigative Reporting. He is the author of the National Bestseller Death in Mud Lick: A Coal Country Fight Against the Drug Companies That Delivered the Opioid Epidemic (published by Scribner), which was named a New York Times Critics’ Top Ten Book of the Year, and won the Edgar Allan Poe Award for Best True Crime book. For 22 years, Eyre was a reporter at the Charleston Gazette-Mail, where he covered education, health, business and state government corruption. He lives in Charleston with his wife, Lori, and two cats, BlackieBella and Abby. |
Presentations
Saturday, October 21
9 - 10 a.m. Room 204-5 |
Alica Fruhwaldova
The Intergenerational Tragedy of the Holocaust: A Personal Story of Survival & Loss Alica Fruhwaldova will tell the story of her parents, who, as a young Jewish couple in Slovakia, survived the Holocaust by living, during the WWII years, in a cave in the mountains outside of Banská Bystrica. Alica, born immediately after the war, will share her own story of growing up in her homeland without ever knowing any of her extended family, all of whom had been murdered by the Nazis in the years before her birth.
About Alica
Alica Fruhwaldova was born in 1947 in Banská Bystrica, Slovakia. She is married, has three grown children and seven grandchildren. The Loves I Have Lost is her first book. She holds graduate and postgraduate degrees in Education, from Comenius University is Bratislava, and has done postgraduate study in England. She taught English at elementary and high schools in Banská Bystrica, and spent most of her career working as the manager of the English Teaching Resource Center of The British Consulate in Banská Bystrica. She is a member of the European Club in Banská Bystrica. |
Saturday, October 21
2 - 3 p.m. Room 204-5 |
Michelle Mickle Foster
Maximizing Impact: Success Strategies for Dynamic Nonprofits The program will include a presentation of highlights from the strategies presented in Foster's book. Foster will also engage attendees in activities to get them moving on the road towards maximizing the impact of community-based, non-profit initiatives. Additionally, attendees will receive a discount coupon towards the purchase of Foster's book.
About Michelle
Michelle Mickle Foster is an engineer, nonprofit leader, philanthropy executive and public speaker. Born in Guyana, South America, Michelle immigrated at 17 years old to Brooklyn, New York, to pursue the American dream. After completing her chemical engineering degree at the City College of New York, she moved to Cleveland, Ohio, to start her career. Her career took her from Ohio to Charleston, West Virginia, where she discovered her purpose and passion while volunteering at a local church. This discovery led to Michelle leaving Corporate America for the nonprofit sector, developing a faith-motivated nonprofit organization in the church's basement. Michelle used her systems thinking, problem-solving and analytical abilities and other engineering skills to transform the organization into one of the most impactful and enterprising community-based initiatives in West Virginia. She was even recognized as a Champion of Change by President Barack Obama for her efforts. A lifelong learner, Michelle completed master's and doctorate degrees in community economic development from Southern New Hampshire University while running the nonprofit full-time. The positive impact she was making through the nonprofit got Michelle on the radar of the largest community foundation in Central Appalachia when they were searching for a new President and CEO. Michelle is still positively impacting communities in this role, albeit from a different vantage point. Her nonprofit experience allows the strategies implemented by the Foundation to strengthen grantee partners and provide them with financial support. In addition, her life and career experiences make her a sought-after speaker on leadership, nonprofit operations, diversity, equity and inclusion. Michelle enjoys attending musical and theatrical productions, candle making and soul line dancing in her spare time. In addition, Michelle places a premium on spending quality time with her extended family. You can find her podcast, Fostering Solutions, wherever you get your podcasts. Michelle published her first book, Maximizing Impact: Success Strategies for Dynamic Nonprofits, in February 2023. |