WW 24
Monday, March 4th
Lydia Kang
Lydia Kang is an author of young adult fiction, adult fiction and non-fiction, and poetry. She graduated from Columbia University and New York University School of Medicine, completing her residency and chief residency at Bellevue Hospital in New York City. She is a practicing physician and associate professor of Internal Medicine who has gained a reputation for helping fellow writers achieve medical accuracy in fiction. Her poetry and non-fiction have been published in JAMA, The Annals of Internal Medicine, Canadian Medical Association Journal, Journal of General Internal Medicine, and Great Weather for Media. She believes in science and knocking on wood, and currently lives in Omaha with her husband and three children.
María T. Balogh
María T. Balogh is a multilingual, bicultural poet, fiction writer, performing Caribbean folkloric dancer, and educator. She has a book of poetry in Spanish by Ediciones Torremozas, a Spanish publisher, and a collection of poetry and fiction in English by Cool Way Press. Her fiction and poetry have been published in several different journals from the USA and South America. She has been all over and done just about everything, including building rural aqueducts while in the Peace Corps. She now teaches Spanish, specializing in Latin American literature and culture, and creative writing at the University of Missouri St Louis. She is interested in research in the later trends related to gendered language becoming inclusive and other linguistic changes.
Tuesday, March 5th
Patrick (Pat) Brown brings a wealth of experience from both a practical and research-based background in education. He currently serves as the executive director of STEAM for one of the largest school districts in Missouri. He coordinates the district curriculum and instruction for all STEAM and Career and Technical Education Programs. He has also taught science lessons across the K-16 continuum. Pat’s most recent full-time classroom position was in a middle school setting teaching physical science. In addition, he has taught a variety of STEM and Science Methods courses for undergraduate and graduate elementary, middle, and high school teachers. Over the years, he has won various awards for my science methods course teaching.
Bethany Cutkomp is a writer from St. Louis, Missouri. She earned a BFA degree in creative writing from Truman State University, and now works as a library associate for St. Louis County Library. Since March of 2023, Bethany has had over thirty pieces of writing (fiction/poetry/essays) accepted for publication in international literary magazines both online and in print. Although she's drawn to adventure beyond her home state, the familiar pull of the Midwest and its quirks calls her home. Within each piece she writes, Bethany weaves in hints of truth within the surreal. One day, she aims to write YA novels and befriend the wild opossums living under her porch.
Michelle Collins Anderson was born in St. Louis, Missouri, and grew up on a farm in the Missouri Ozarks — a place and a way of life that has shaped her writing. She graduated summa cum laude from the University of Missouri with a Bachelor of Journalism degree and spent the next fifteen years as a copywriter in advertising and public relations agencies in St. Louis, Palo Alto, Denver and Houston before pursuing a freelance career and teaching at the University of Missouri and Stephens College in Columbia, Missouri. In 2013, she graduated with an MFA in Fiction from Warren Wilson College in Asheville, North Carolina. Michelle and her husband, Clay, have three adult children and live in a 1907 brick row house in St. Louis, Missouri, with two cats and a border collie. THE FLOWER SISTERS is her first novel.
Tyler B. Ruff is an artist and author primarily focused on creating independent comics. His most widely-known work is the ongoing dystopian science fiction series The Unforgiven (2012- present). He currently lives and works in the St. Louis metro area, doing his best to fight the good fight and stave off the oppressive greed and unrelenting soul crush of late-stage capitalism.
Sample Works:
Wednesday, March 6th
Denise Kuse is a retired elementary school teacher of 31 years. She earned her Bachelor’s Degree in Elementary Education from Northwest Missouri State University May 1988. She continued her education completing graduate courses from University Missouri St. Louis and Lindenwood University. In her 31 years of teaching she has taught every grade level 1-5 for Robert Drummond Elementary school in St. Ann, Missouri.
She has experienced the behavior of all her students, relating to their learning habits and helping each of her students reach their set goals. The imagination of each child means so much and has played a huge role in her teaching style. Writing has always been a passion of Denise’s.
Her dream of writing and creating a children’s series of books began 3 years ago. One morning she awoke very tired after being up all night listening to her husband, Dan, snoring. She immediately called him a “tyronnasnoraus rex”, with that she instantly wrote down this “new word” and told her husband this will be her children’s book series. The writing process began for her back in March of 2019. COVID had hit and with everything around her shut down, she knew this was her time to begin writing. That is when the T-Rex Triplets (Rey, Trey and Lyle) came to life in her 8 book series.
After publishing her 8 book series, Denise has enjoyed the many virtual author visits she has been able to do, sharing her stories and books with elementary children. Introducing each child to these wonderfully-funny triplet dinosaur brothers.
Ellen Hopkins is a poet, freelance writer, and the award-winning author of twenty nonfiction titles, three novels for adults, and thirteen NY Times Bestselling novels-in-verse. She has published hundreds of articles on subjects ranging from aviation to child abuse to winegrowing. Ellen is a regular speaker at schools, book festivals and writers conferences across the US, and now throughout the world.
Steenz is a St. Louis based cartoonist, editor, and professor. They're the cartoonist on the syndicated comic strip ‘Heart Of The City’, the co-creator of Dwayne McDuffie Award winning Graphic Novel 'Archival Quality', and is the co-creator of the Standard Comic Script. Steenz currently teaches at Webster University and SVA while editing titles from independent publishers and creators. They're currently working on their latest graphic novel Side Quest: A Visual History of TTRPGs. They’re also Board President of SLICE (The St. Louis Independent Comics Expo).
They live with their husband and two cats (Marko and Ripley).
Catherine Bakewell writes fairytales for anyone with big feelings. She currently lives in St. Louis, but she misses her time in Spain and in France, where she romped through gardens, ate pastries, and worked on her novels.
She is represented by Jordan Hamessley at JABberwocky Literary Agency.
Her debut Middle Grade novel WE ARE THE SONG and her debut YA Fantasy FLOWERHEART, are available now!
Thursday. March 7th
Samantha Markum was born and raised in St. Louis, Missouri, where she got her great literary start writing Newsies fan fiction in middle school.
She went to high school and college in Florida, where she mostly just collected sunburns, and eventually moved to Los Angeles so she could complain about how much she missed In-N-Out once she left.
She currently lives in her hometown of St. Louis. When she’s not writing, she can be found playing cozy video games, attempting to revive her half-dead house plants, and getting in bed before sunset. When she is writing, you can find her staring at the wall in search of inspiration.
She is the author of This May End Badly and You Wouldn’t Dare.
Corey Black is a poet, spoken word artist and host of Poetic Justice Open Mic [2017 St. Louis Post-Dispatch GO! Magazine’s favorite open mic night]. He is a military veteran, having served in the United States Marine Corps during Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom. He formed his own clothing line, Black Supply Co. in 2013. His anthology, Shoot The Messenger was self-published in 2014.
Always one to collaborate, he has recorded his poetry with artists such as Tef Poe, L-Vis 1990, Black Spade, and Nick Hook. He has opened up for Talib Kweli, Common, Lupe Fiasco, Malcolm London, Nappy Roots and many more.
He has won slams at The Nuyorican Poets Cafe in New York City as well as The San Antonio Slam. He’s graced the stage at some of the country’s premier open mics such as Da Poetry Lounge in Los Angeles, The Seattle Poetry Slam, The Boston Poetry Slam and Smoken Words Open Mic in Tampa, FL. In 2017, Black performed at Harvard University’s Ed Portal. His charismatic personality and alluring stage presence gives him the ability to engage with any audience.
As a veteran, Black uses poetry to combat his post-traumatic stress disorder. In his hometown, he uses his poetry as a vehicle to help mentor under privileged middle and high school students and conducts Spoken Wordshops with Freedom Arts & Education Center.
An advocate for mental health, Black also provides motivational speeches for schools, businesses, and non-profit organizations.
After cutting their teeth on a steady diet of fanfiction in the South-West of England, Esme Symes-Smith wandered north to Wales for their degree in Literature and Creative Writing then promptly migrated to Missouri after meeting their wife on Tumblr.
Esme has been a ghostwriter, an editor, a frozen-yogurt seller, a caffeine dealer, and now wrangles preschoolers for a living.
They have a severe tea problem.