The process of putting on our conference could not be possible without many hands and minds working together. The Broadleaf Writers Conference Committee works tirelessly over a calendar year assembling talent, building the structure of a schedule, selecting panel topics both worthy of discussion and relevant to writers of all style and genre, and so much more. Whether in-person or virtual, it takes an entire team to plan, coordinate, and most importantly run one of the best writing conferences around.
So, take a moment to thank each of our fabulous committee members!
BROADLEAF WRITERS CONFERENCE COMMITTEE
BWC Conference Co-Chair, Terese Lavallee graduated from Georgia State University with an English Degree. Highlights from her professional life include selling other people’s stories in both novel and newspaper form, a short stint as the worst waitress ever, technical writing, and, most recently, event planning and management. She lives in Lawrenceville, GA with her husband, two daughters, and three rescue pups.
BWC Conference Co-Chair, Maryann Lozano majored in English at Florida State University, yet didn’t start writing until later in life. After spending many years noodling around with NaNoWriMo, books about writing, and writing prompts, she decided to get serious and enrolled in the Masters of Professional Writing program at Kennesaw State University. She graduated with honors in December 2019. Maryann is an executive assistant at 22squared, a mid-sized advertising agency in Atlanta, and is also the director of the Handbell Choir at St. Martin in the Fields Episcopal Church. When she’s not assisting her bosses or waving her hands at her ringers, she is simultaneously revising her WIP for the 1,000th time and trying to keep her cat off of the computer keyboard.
BWC Conference Vice Chair, Jessica Nettles is a writer of short fiction, plays, and, most recently, novels. Her short fiction has appeared in Oh, Georgia!, Thirteen Stories til’ Halloween, and The Five Hundred. She has performed her works at venues such as Naked City, A Novel Idea, and the Write Room. Her play, Around the Bend, was one of three plays featured in a staged reading show sponsored by Process Theater. When she’s not writing, she teaches English at Chattahoochee Technical College. In her spare time, she knits, crochets, reads, bakes, enjoys long walks, and has a fascination with B horror movies. Her first novel is Children of Menlo Park.
Justin Barisich is a copywriter and storyteller with over a decade of experience crafting messaging to move minds, mouths, markets, and mountains. His aim, in all he writes, is to create “good stories, well told.” Justin has read and reviewed more than 70 YA novels over the years and got the opportunity to interview numerous award-winning, best-selling authors about their lives and works along the way. He is practiced in crafting copy across various forms and genres of writing — creative, corporate, academic, media, and performance — and is a valuable “wordsmith for hire” for anyone who comes calling or clicking. Read more of Justin’s writing at www.littlewritingman.com.
Benjamin Carr is a storyteller and the author of Impacted. His work has appeared in The Guardian, Loose Change Magazine, The Five Hundred and Pembroke Magazine. He has performed regularly onstage at Atlanta-area literary events, including Write Club Atlanta, Carapace, Naked City, Stories on the Square, Stories on the Edge of Night and Listen to Your Mother. His work has also appeared at the Center for Puppetry Arts. He is a member of WonderRoot, the Southern Order of Storytellers and Working Title Playwrights. He is the co-founder of Gutwrench, available at http://gutwrenchjournal.com.
Daniel Lamb is an Atlanta-based copywriter, author and musician. He earned a B.A. in writing from Georgia State University. His scholarship, creative writing, literary and theatre criticism have been featured in Atlanta Studies, The Mainline, Paste Magazine, The Fanzine, The Five Hundred, Dear Bear Wolf, Write Club Atlanta and Edge Media Network. He is the co-founder of gutwrench. journal and the owner of Holland Creative.
Crystal O’Leary-Davidson is a fiction writer and life-long nerd. She publishes and presents on horror films, graphic novels, and role playing games for storytelling and educational purposes. In 2018, she co-edited Monsters in Film, Fiction, and Fable: The Cultural Links Between the Human and Inhuman. She is an English Professor at Middle Georgia State University, and she still plays Dungeons & Dragons until 2 a.m. She’s married to novelist Andy Davidson, and they have many cats.
Carmen Tanner Slaughter has been a voracious reader since age three. Her love of the written word and its importance led to a career in both the public library and public education systems. She also spent five years working as an event coordinator with independent booksellers, hosting literary festivals as well as moderating book discussion groups, reading series, and conference panels in metro Atlanta. Her passion for words is not limited to those on the page. Carmen has been a raconteur since she was a toddler telling stories to her dolls but in 2009 she achieved professional status and has been a featured storyteller at MothUp Atlanta, Carapace, Stories on the Square, and the Peach State Storytelling Festival series “Stories on the Edge of Night”. She is also an avid cinephile and music lover who spends hours indulging in those forms of creative expression. She channels her passions into serving her community and is a former board member and executive officer of the Cherokee County Arts Center, the Cherokee County Historical Society, and the Cherokee High School advisory board. Carmen is currently a board member of the Broadleaf Writers Association, a trustee of the Sequoyah Regional Library System, and a contributing editor at The Woolfer, a feminist website and social platform for women over forty.
Sarah Stephens is an Atlanta-based attorney and author of both fiction and non-fiction works. Her legal scholarship has appeared in a number of well-respected journals, including the Yale Journal of Law & Feminism, the Brooklyn Law Review, and the Washington and Lee Journal of Civil Rights and Social Justice. Sarah is also a finalist in the 2021 Monroe Walton Center of the Arts New Writers Contest in the Mystery/Suspense category. She is represented by Lori Galvin at Aevitas Creative Management and her first novel is forthcoming.
Likewise, our conference would be nothing without the moderators who lead the conversations. Each year, our moderators excel in drawing the most out of every topic, fielding your questions, and ensuring every speaker has their say. Though it may seem organic, these dedicated folks spend hours prior to the conference working with the speakers, writing up questions, and coordinating a conversation that best benefits our attendees. They deserve high praise for their work and we greatly appreciate all they do!
BROADLEAF WRITERS CONFERENCE MODERATORS
Justin Barisich is a copywriter and storyteller with over a decade of experience crafting messaging to move minds, mouths, markets, and mountains. His aim, in all he writes, is to create “good stories, well told.” Justin has read and reviewed more than 70 YA novels over the years and got the opportunity to interview numerous award-winning, best-selling authors about their lives and works along the way. He is practiced in crafting copy across various forms and genres of writing — creative, corporate, academic, media, and performance — and is a valuable “wordsmith for hire” for anyone who comes calling or clicking. Read more of Justin’s writing at www.littlewritingman.com.
Ben Bowlin has lived in Nashville, Quetzaltenango and Atlanta. He is a Lead Executive Producer at iHeartRadio, where he hosts shows like Stuff They Don’t Want You To Know and Ridiculous History, while developing and producing multiple other podcasts. He fills his free time with any number of unusual and fascinating pursuits, including researching obscure historical events, writing short stories and novels, and conducting various ill-informed experiments.
Ian Campbell is Associate Professor of Arabic and Comparative Literature at Georgia State University in downtown Atlanta. His primary research interest is Arabic-language science fiction: his monograph on the genre’s formative decades will come out in print this September from Palgrave Macmillan. Under the name Julian Cage, he also writes fast-paced, character-driven, trashy mystery-thriller fiction set in Atlanta; his collection of short stories Too Busy to Hate: Tales of Murder from the Streets of Atlanta is available on Amazon.
Mike Jordan is an Atlanta-based writer who covers entertainment, food, travel, music, arts, business and culture. His work has been published at The Wall Street Journal, Rolling Stone, Playboy, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Eater, Atlanta Magazine, Good Beer Hunting, Butter.ATL and Thrillist, where he was the founding Atlanta editor. He is also co-author of former NFL linebacker Takeo Spikes’ book, Behind the Mask, and is the creator of Lit: Books, Booze and Beats, a recurring literary event in Atlanta he hosts with his wife Jacinta, who is the author of 10 new adult fiction novels.
Daniel Lamb is an Atlanta-based copywriter, author and musician. He earned a B.A. in writing from Georgia State University. His scholarship, creative writing, literary and theatre criticism have been featured in Atlanta Studies, The Mainline, Paste Magazine, The Fanzine, The Five Hundred, Dear Bear Wolf, Write Club Atlanta and Edge Media Network. He is the co-founder of gutwrench. journal and the owner of Holland Creative.
Crystal O’Leary-Davidson is a fiction writer and life-long nerd. She publishes and presents on horror films, graphic novels, and role playing games for storytelling and educational purposes. In 2018, she co-edited Monsters in Film, Fiction, and Fable: The Cultural Links Between the Human and Inhuman. She is an English Professor at Middle Georgia State University, and she still plays Dungeons & Dragons until 2 a.m. She’s married to novelist Andy Davidson, and they have many cats.
Carmen Tanner Slaughter has been a voracious reader since age three. Her love of the written word and its importance led to a career in both the public library and public education systems. She also spent five years working as an event coordinator with independent booksellers, hosting literary festivals as well as moderating book discussion groups, reading series, and conference panels in metro Atlanta. Her passion for words is not limited to those on the page. Carmen has been a raconteur since she was a toddler telling stories to her dolls but in 2009 she achieved professional status and has been a featured storyteller at MothUp Atlanta, Carapace, Stories on the Square, and the Peach State Storytelling Festival series “Stories on the Edge of Night”. She is also an avid cinephile and music lover who spends hours indulging in those forms of creative expression. She channels her passions into serving her community and is a former board member and executive officer of the Cherokee County Arts Center, the Cherokee County Historical Society, and the Cherokee High School advisory board. Carmen is currently a board member of the Broadleaf Writers Association, a trustee of the Sequoyah Regional Library System, and a contributing editor at The Woolfer, a feminist website and social platform for women over forty.