creativevista.com

                                        SCHEDULE

FRIDAY, AUGUST 24, 2007

  8:00 a.m.               REGISTRATION CHECK-IN BEGINS

  8:00 - 8:45              CONTINENTAL BREAKFAST

          8:45               WELCOME  ANGELA PALAZZOLO, conference director

9:00 - 10:00 Six Breakout Sessions (see Presenters and Topics page)

10:15 - 11:15 Six Breakout Sessions (see Presenters and Topics page)

10:00 - 11:30            WRITER'S LOUNGE (FACILITATED WRITING EXERCISES) MICHAEL WILSON
                                     (Stop by for five minutes, or stay awhile. Writers' Lounge segments are
                            scheduled for 10 -11:30 a.m., 1:00 - 2:00 p.m., and 4:00 - 5:00 p.m. on
                      on Friday and Saturday.)

11:30 - 1:30 p.m.    LUNCH followed by PANEL OF EDITORS

HELEN ATSMA               Henry Holt and Company (previously with Little, Brown
                                                   and Company)
STACEY BARNEY          G. P. Putnam's Sons
KATIE GILLIGAN         Thomas Dunne Books/St. Martin's Press
JACK HEFFRON             Clerisy Press
SALLY KIM                        Shaye Areheart Books/
                                                    The Crown Publishing Company
PETER LYNCH                 Sourcebooks, Inc.
Moderator    GRETCHEN HIRSCH     Midwest Book Doctors

1:00 - 2:00 WRITER'S LOUNGE (FACILITATED WRITING EXERCISES) MICHAEL WILSON
(Stop by for five minutes, or stay awhile.)

1:45 - 2:45 Six Breakout Sessions (see Presenters and Topics page)

3:00 - 4:00 Six Breakout Sessions (see Presenters and Topics page)

   4:00 - 4:15           REFRESHMENTS

   4:00 - 5:00             WRITER'S LOUNGE (FACILITATED WRITING EXERCISES) MICHAEL WILSON
                                     (Stop by for five minutes, or stay awhile.)

   4:15 - 5:00           Three Breakout Sessions (see Presenters and Topics page)

             5:05          PART TWO, FRIDAY Begins and Includes
                                       Agent/Editor Informal Chat Sessions, Dinner and Program, and Evening Program
                              (Open to Full-Conference registrants and also to Friday-Only and Saturday-Only
                                        registrants who have pre-registered for Part Two, Friday.)

5:10 - 5:55 AGENT/EDITOR INFORMAL CHAT SESSIONS
Each of the following pairs will be in individual classrooms.

REGINA BROOKS and STACEY BARNEY
SHEREE BYKOFSKY and HELEN ATSMA
PAUL FEDORKO and KATIE GILLIGAN
PAUL S. LEVINE and PETER LYNCH
RITA ROSENKRANZ and JACK HEFFRON
PAIGE WHEELER and SALLY KIM

   5:55 - 6:10           DINNER CHECK-IN

                6:15              DINNER followed by Program

                                                      THE POSSIBLE DREAM: VETERAN ADVICE FROM THE TRENCHES

                                                      Speaker:    KAREN HARPER, author/novelist

8:30 - 9:30 EVENING PROGRAM

SEVEN SECRETS OF HIGHLY EFFECTIVE WRITERS, PAUL RAYMOND MARTIN

                                  OPEN MIKE FICTION, NONFICTION, CHILDREN'S/YA, POETRY
                         (In informal setting, participants read up to three minutes of their work.)

    8:30 - 9:30

SATURDAY, AUGUST 25, 2007

  8:00 a.m.           REGISTRATION CHECK-IN BEGINS

  8:00 - 8:45           CONTINENTAL BREAKFAST

          8:45             WELCOME  (ANGELA PALAZZOLO, conference director)

9:00 - 10:00 Six Breakout Sessions (see Presenters and Topics page)

10:15 - 11:15 Six Breakout Sessions (see Presenters and Topics page)

10:00 - 11:30           WRITER'S LOUNGE (FACILITATED WRITING EXERCISES) MICHAEL WILSON
                                    (Stop by for five minutes, or stay awhile. Writers' Lounge segments are
                          scheduled for 10 -11:30 a.m., 1:00 - 2:00 p.m., and 4:00 - 5:00 p.m. on
                     on Friday and Saturday.)

11:30 - 1:30 p.m. LUNCH followed by PANEL OF AGENTS

                                   REGINA BROOKS                   Serendipity Literary Agency
                                 SHEREE BYKOFSKY            Sheree Bykofsky Associates, Inc.
                                   PAUL FEDORKO                      Trident Media Group
                                  PAUL S. LEVINE                    Paul S. Levine Literary Agency
                                   RITA ROSENKRANZ              Rita Rosenkranz Literary Agency
                                   PAIGE WHEELER                   FOLIO Literary Management
                                  Moderator   GRETCHEN HIRSCH     Midwest Book Doctors


  1:00 - 2:00             WRITER'S LOUNGE (FACILITATED WRITING EXERCISES) MICHAEL WILSON
                                   (Stop by for five minutes, or stay awhile.)

1:45 - 2:45          Six Breakout Sessions (see Presenters and Topics page)

   2:40 - 3:15       REFRESHMENTS ~~ SPONSORED BY THE WRITERS AND EDITORS OF AMERICAN GREETINGS

   3:00 - 4:00            Six Breakout Sessions (see Presenters and Topics page)

   4:00 - 5:00             WRITER'S LOUNGE (FACILITATED WRITING EXERCISES) MICHAEL WILSON
                                    (Stop by for five minutes, or stay awhile.)

  4:10 - 5:10            Two Breakout Sessions (see Presenters and Topics page)

   4:00 - 5:15           REFRESHMENTS and INFORMAL NETWORKING

HELEN ATSMA (previously with Little, Brown and Company) joined Henry Holt and Company as an editor in July of 2007. She is looking for literary and popular fiction, narrative nonfiction, and memoir. Previously, she was at Little, Brown, where her recent and forthcoming publications include Transparency, a collection of stories by Frances Hwang, and four novels: David Bledin's Bank, Rose MacMurray's Afternoons with Emily, Yannick Murphy's Signed, Mata Hari, and Lin Enger's debut, Undiscovered Country.

STACEY BARNEY , an editor at Putnam Books for Young Readers, has held posts in both adult and children's book publishing. She began her career at Lee & Low Books, a multicultural children's book publisher, and later worked at Farrar, Straus and Giroux with such talented new writers as Chris Abani and Lisa Dierbeck. At Amistad, an imprint of Harper Collins, she published Los Angeles Times bes-tselling author Tamara T. Gregory's Passport Diaries, as well as acclaimed author Ronin Ro's Raising Hell: The Reign, Ruin, and Redemption of Run-D.M.C. and Jam Master Jay and Gilbert Tuhabonye's This Voice in My Heart. Before joining Putnam, she worked at Dafina/Kensington where she launched a Young Adult list with such titles as Drama High, So Not the Drama, Boy Shopping, and Perry Skky Jr., the spin-off to bestseller Christian teen series Payton Skky. At Putnam, Stacey is looking for multicultural voices in everything from picture books to young adult, with a particular interest in middle grade and chapter books. Web site: penguingroup.com

REGINA BROOKS is the founder and president of Serendipity Literary Agency LLC, based in Brooklyn. Her agency has represented and established a diverse base of award-winning clients in adult and young adult fiction, nonfiction, and children's literature, including Marilyn Nelson, who is a 2005 Coretta Scott King Honor Books recipient, a 2006 Michael L. Printz Honor Books recipient, and a three-time National Book Award finalist, and Marjorie Greenfield, author of The Working Woman's Pregnancy Book. Brooks has identified new voices and potential authors like Derrick Barnes, whose first novel, The Making of Dr. Truelove, was nominated for an American Library Association Award. Prior to opening her own agency, Regina held senior editorial positions at John Wiley and Sons and McGraw-Hill. She is the author of the children's book Never Finished! Never Done! (Scholastic) and the soon-to-be-published How to Write for Young Adults (Sourcebooks). Brooks is also on the faculty of the Harvard University publishing program. Her recent sales include In the Black: Retirement Planning Guide for African Americans (Harper Collins), Handle Your Entertainment Business (Hachette); Sealed with a Wish: The Manual of Wishcrafting (Atria Books/Beyond Words), Girligami (Watson-Guptil), Ruby and the Booker Boys (Scholastic), and First Semester (Harlequin). She is a regular speaker at writers' conferences and is interested in areas of nonfiction and fiction for adults, young adults, and children, and such subjects as politics, psychology and self-help, pop culture, health, science, women's issues, parenting, cooking, design crafts, alternative spirituality, business, and science/technology. She is always interested in new and emerging writers. Web site: serendipitylit.com

SHEREE BYKOFSKY of Sheree Bykofsky Associates, Inc., is a literary agent and author. As a literary agent, her nonfiction specialties include popular reference, business, health, psychology, poker, spirituality, self-help, humor, cookbooks, pop culture, biography, women's issues, decorating & crafts, music, and much more. Among Sheree's nonfiction clients are Taro Gold, Jane Eldershaw, Bill Walsh, Margo Perin, Albert Ellis, John Carpenter (first millionaire on Who Wants to Be aMillionaire), William Baker (chief executive officer of Educational Broadcasting Corporation (EBC), licensee of Thirteen/WNET and WLIW New York), supermodel Roshumba, and Richard Roeper (of Ebert and Roeper). In the area of fiction, Sheree's clients include Donna Anders and Leslie Rule. Sheree is an Adjunct Assistant Professor of Publishing at New York University and teaches at SEAK's conferences for doctors and lawyers. Sheree is also the author of more than 20 books, including coauthor of The Complete Idiot's Guide to Getting Published, 4th Edition. Web site: Shereebee.com

PAUL FEDORKO, a literary agent with Trident Media Group, built his career on the publishing side of the business, working in both marketing and publishing positions at such houses as Simon & Schuster, New American Library, Bantam Books, and Dell/Delacorte, and as a publisher at William Morrow. He has been agenting for close to five years, representing both fiction and nonfiction authors. Web site: tridentmediagroup.com

KATIE GILLIGAN is an associate editor at Thomas Dunne Books, a division of St. Martin's Press, where she has acquired a wide range of material, particularly women's fiction, both literary and commercial, and nonfiction. She is particularly drawn to curious, genuine narrators who write with a profound and well-crafted voice. The diversity of her imprint enables Katie to also edit within a wide range of genres, including mysteries and thrillers, historical fiction, and political science. Web site: thomasdunnebooks.com

JACK HEFFRON is editorial director at Clerisy Press in Cincinnati. He is the former editorial director for Emmis Books, Writer's Digest Books, Betterway Books, and Story Press. He has worked as a contractor for a number of other publishers, including McGraw-Hill Trade, Lyons Press, and Globe-Pequot Press. He was a founding editor of Story magazine.

GRETCHEN HIRSCH will have published, in the months between November 2006 and September 2007, three books: Talking Your Way to the Top (Prometheus Books), A Love for Learning: Motivation and the Gifted Child with coauthor, Carol Strip Whitney Ph.D. (Great Potential Press), and The Complete Idiot's Guide to Difficult Conversations (Alpha Books). She is president of Midwest Book Doctors and also is employed in the Office of University Communications at Ohio Wesleyan University. All three of her most recent books were agented by Sheree Bykofsky Associates. Web site: midwestbookdocs.com

SALLY KIM is a senior editor at Shaye Areheart Books, the literary fiction imprint of the Crown Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., where her authors include Lee Martin (The Bright Forever, Pulitzer Prize finalist), Lisa Unger (Beautiful Lies, The New York Times Best Seller), Gillian Flynn (Sharp Objects, Edgar® nominee), Justin Evans (A Good and Happy Child), and Leah Stewart (The Myth of You and Me). Previously an editor at St. Martin's Press and HarperCollins, she has worked in book publishing for 12 years. Web site: crownpublishing.com

PAUL S. LEVINE is a lawyer and a literary agent. He has practiced entertainment law for over 26 years, specializing in the representation of writers, producers, actors, directors, composers, musicians, artists, authors, photographers, galleries, publishers, developers, production companies, and theater companies in the fields of motion pictures, television, interactive multimedia, live stage, recorded music concerts, the visual arts, publishing, and advertising. In 1998, Paul opened the Paul S. Levine Literary Agency, specializing in the representation of book authors and the sale of motion picture and television rights in and to books. Since starting his literary agency, Paul has sold more than 80 fiction and nonfiction books to at least 30 different publishers and has had many books developed as feature films or movies for television. Paul tends to represents commercial fiction—thrillers, mysteries, women's fiction, soap opera in the vein of Danielle Steele or Jackie Collins—and literary fiction. The nonfiction he represents also tends to be commercial—self-help, how-to, relationships, memoirs, health, women's issues, pop culture, new age, and business. For both fiction and nonfiction books, his biggest successes have been with authors who originally self-published their books and then wished to have their books republished by a major publishing house. For the film screen, Paul represents a wide range of scripts, from romantic comedies to thrillers to historical epics. In television, he mainly represents writers, producers, and subjects of docudramas, but he also represents writers and writer-producers of network and non-network drama and comedy series, reality shows, game shows, talk shows, and the like. Web site: paulslevine.com

PETER LYNCH, editorial manager of the trade division at Sourcebooks, graduated from the University of Illinois with a B.A. in rhetoric. Along with overseeing the Sourcebooks and Landmark imprints, he acquires high-quality, commercial books across a variety of categories, including business, history, reference, self-help, college guides and study aids, relationships, humor, commercial fiction, and literary fiction with commercial appeal. Web site: sourcebooks.com

PAUL RAYMOND MARTIN has published more than 300 stories, poems, and articles. His stories have been nominated for The Best American Short Stories and The Best American Mystery Stories. He is the author of Writer's Little Instruction Book: Inspiration & Motivation, Writer's Little Instruction Book: Craft & Technique, and Writer's Little Instruction Book: Getting Published, all from Writer's Digest Books. Paul lives on a farm, and when he's not writing, he likes to play in the dirt and raise wormy apples.

RITA ROSENKRANZ , a former editor with major New York publishers, founded Rita Rosenkranz Literary Agency in 1990. She represents health, history, parenting, music, how-to, popular science, business, biography, popular reference, cooking, spirituality, and general-interest titles. Rita works with major publishing houses, as well as regional publishers that handle niche markets. She looks for projects that present familiar subjects freshly or less-known subjects commercially.

PAIGE WHEELER is a founding partner of Folio Literary Management, LLC. Prior to forming Folio Literary Management, Paige founded Creative Media Agency (CMA) in 1997 and served as its president for nine years until she merged the company into her new venture, FOLIO, in 2006. Web site: foliolit.com

Writers Lounge (Facilitated Writing Exercises) (Michael Wilson) Need some time just to get some ink on the page? Bring your pen and notebook or laptop and join Michael Wilson in the Writers' Lounge for ongoing facilitated writing exercises. Use the exercises as inspiration or, if you'd prefer, work on your own project. Every exercise will feature five to 10 minutes of writing followed by participants' sharing, if they wish, their just-completed work. Featured exercises will include random word poetry, given first lines (Michael gives you a first line and you write a story from it), and mind-mapping on oversized butcher block paper. These scheduled writing sessions will run at various times during the conference, some concurrently with other sessions. Feel free to drop in any time and stay for five minutes or as long as you like.

MICHAEL WILSON has been teaching creative writing classes and facilitating writers' groups for more than a decade and has been a featured presenter at many writing conferences. He publishes Grist for the Muse, a monthly writing e-newsletter. His first book, Flash Writing: How to Write, Revise and Publish Stories Less than 1000 Words Long, was published in 2004. Web sites: flashwriting.com and jumpstartjar.com

ANGELA PALAZZOLO, conference producer/director, is a writer, actress, and special events consultant. She produces and directs the annual Columbus Writers Conference, now in its 15th year. In addition, for more than six years, she produced and hosted the award-winning cable TV program Not for Writers Only! Angela has written articles for local, regional, and national publications. Her other writing activities have ranged from producing corporate copy to creating character dialogue and games for a children's recipe-activity book. She also writes short stories and is working on a novel and screenplay. As an actress, she is active in theatre, film, and commercial work. At writers' conferences, she has spoken on a variety of topics, including Enhancing Your Creativity, Using Acting Techniques in Fiction Writing, and Marketing Your Writing.

FRIDAY DINNER PROGRAM

The Possible Dream: Veteran Advice from the Trenches (Karen Harper) Since she was first published in 1982, Karen Harper has written more than 50 novels in four genres. She has worked with three literary agents, eight publishers, and many editors. Both inspirational and informational, her topic will touch on the realities of publishing, practical tips, and the possible dream of becoming and surviving as a published author.

KAREN HARPER, a former Ohio State University and high school English instructor, is the The New York Times and USA TODAY bestselling author of contemporary suspense, historical mystery and historical novels. Published since 1982, she currently has books listed by MIRA Books, Random House, and St. Martin's Press. Her books have appeared in many foreign, large print, audio, and e-book versions, and two of her novels have appeared in Good Housekeeping magazine. She won The Mary Higgins Clark Award in 2006 for Dark Angel, her suspense novel set in Ohio Amish country. "Harper has a fantastic flair for creating and sustaining suspense," says Publisher's Weekly. Her most recent suspense novels are Hurricane and Inferno. Her historical novels The Last Boleyn and The First Princess of Wales have been included in the Borders summer reading program. Since presenting at the Columbus Writers Conference three years ago, Karen has sold a book to an editor she heard speak at that same conference. Web site: karenharperauthor.com Karen Harper interview: click here.