Local Writers Extras

Amy Leigh Harden is a self-described “type A” person who thrives on staying busy. In addition to writing and spending time with her family, she runs a traffic engineering firm and serves as President of the Kansas City-Midwest Romance Writers group. A KC native, Amy loves classic pin-up girl art, loves to cook, and her family loves to take train trips together. Want a cool story? Ask her about the time she and her grandmother took part in a police chase following car thieves.

Ever the over-achiever, Amy describes her first drafts as quite detailed: “I'm an over-writer so my first drafts are monstrous with fifteen subplots and enough characters to make Charles Dickens blush.” She has a special interest in historical fiction and romantic suspense and has published four novels. Her favorite quote about writing is from Thomas Edison: “Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.”

Amy will join our Writers Conference for two sessions this year: she will lead a class on crafting a compelling first draft (“Applying Structure Before, During, or After a First Draft”) and serve as a panelist on the topic of rejection and critique.

If you’d like to keep up with Amy, you can visit her on her website or follow her on Twitter or Instagram (where she has a cool mood board for her current work in progress!).

-- written by Jesseca Bear, adult services information specialist

Meet Sheri Hall! For Sheri, poetry and purpose go hand in hand. Empowering low-income areas through the power of the written word is close to her heart. Not only is she an esteemed author, she also is a motivational speaker, consultant, radio personality, facilitator and peer support specialist, to name just a few of her titles. Community connections are important to her, and we are so thrilled that she will be connecting with Writers Conference attendees this year.

A lot of Sheri’s work focuses on the healing and regenerative process of writing. She has written four books, ranging from a collection of poetry and essays (Black Girl Shattered), two poetry chapbooks (“Mélange du Femme Noir” and “Chosen for Both”), as well as a workbook for writers (“Writing Wrongs: Writing to Heal”).

In addition to having four published works of poetry, Sheri Hall has a lengthy list of awards and accolades to her name, including receiving the 2019 Charlotte Street Generative Performing Artist Award, as well as being a 2019 Art in the Loop grant recipient and 2019 and 2017 Arts KC Inspiration Grant recipient. She won the Poet and Activist award at the Music and More Foundation Poetry Awards two years in a row and was nominated for best spoken-word artist in the KC People's Choice awards, Pitch Best KC and the National Spoken Word Awards

Founder of the community writing organization Arsyn Spit Fire, East of Red ArtHouse, and PenFire Publishing, she is also the interim CEO for Poetry for Personal Power, which works to fight the stigma of mental health treatment and empower those experiencing mental health issues through art and education. She also works as a consultant for many other non-profit, community-based, and arts organizations.

Sheri will join us for both days of the Writers Conference this year for several sessions. She is offering a creative writing workshop (“Renaming This One Universe”); a class on creating your elevator pitch (“Building Your Author One Sheet”), and a class on writing your author bio. She will also be a panelist on the topic of revision. We are ecstatic that she will be sharing her expertise with us, and we look forward to you meeting her.

If you’d like to keep up with Sheri, you can find her at spokenpurpose.com or under the name spokenpurpose on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.

-- written by Jesseca Bear, adult services information specialist

Susana Bruhn is the founder of GUILDit, an organization that helps artists grow their businesses and work to expand the arts. She is also a visual artist, poet, and owner of FluidUI Web Services.

Susana is firmly rooted in the Kansas City arts scene, having shown in Kansas City galleries and worked at the Kansas City Art Institute as well as Hallmark. In addition, she founded a local design group, held board positions, and curated art shows.

She knows what it takes to be a successful and dynamic creative entrepreneur. She values community and connection when creating, sharing, and making a living from art. We are thrilled she is joining us for the Writers Conference this year, providing two sessions on networking.

Fun fact: Her work was chosen to appear on the show ABC’s Extreme Home Makeover.

View a 2-minute video of GUILDit celebrating 7 years of growing KC Art/Biz.

-- written by Jesseca Bear, adult services information specialist

I first met Brendan Kiely on Twitter. I knew of his work, notably the New York Times Bestselling All American Boys, which he co-wrote with Jason Reynolds. But when I saw him getting out of an elevator in in Rochester, New York (I was there moving my oldest into a dorm room), I was too shy to say hello. So I did what shy writers do: I tweeted him.

And he was gracious and kind and told me that the next time we crossed paths, I should say hello. Little did I know how soon that next time would happen: I met him for real at the Solstice Low Residency MFA Program, where I was an MFA candidate and he was a new faculty member, teaching Writing for Young Adults.

In the short time I’ve known Brendan, I’ve been consistently awed by his enthusiasm for words, for writers and for people. He’s excited to talk about writing and books, he’s eager to encourage writers to work on their projects, and he’s willing to have conversations about subjects silly and serious. He’ll be leading two sessions at our Writers Conference: Writing for Young Adults and Writing Place, both on Friday, Nov. 18. 

Brendan has been quoted as saying, "...for me, writing fiction is an act of social engagement. I want my work to participate in relevant cultural conversations." That commitment is evident in his most recent book, The Other Talk: Reckoning with Our White Privilege. In addition to being on the faculty of our Writers Conference, Brendan will be in conversation with local student Tahraji Milsap on Thursday, Nov. 17. We invite both students and parents to attend.

More about Brendan, via his official bio:

Brendan Kiely is The New York Times bestselling author of All American Boys (with Jason Reynolds), Tradition, The Last True Love Story, and The Gospel of Winter. His most recent book is The Other Talk: Reckoning with Our White Privilege. His work has been published in over a dozen languages, and has received the Coretta Scott King Author Honor Award, the Walter Dean Meyers Award, and ALA’s Top Ten Best Fiction for Young Adults. A former high school teacher, he is now on the faculty of the Solstice MFA Program. He watches too much basketball and reads too many books at the same time, but most importantly, he lives for and loves his wife and son.

Learn more about Brendan on his website or follow him on Twitter.

-- written by Lisa Allen, adult services information specialist

The mystery genre has been around for approximately 181 years, with Edgar Allen Poe's The Murders In The Rue Morgue commonly attributed with creating the first literary detective. Whether there's a body found in the library, a gritty crime scene marked off by caution tape or a prized artifact found stashed away, mystery stories of all shapes and sizes are here to stay.

Steven J. Kolbe is no stranger to a mystery — after all, he writes mystery novels, reads and reviews mystery novels, and teaches folks how to write a good mystery. His most recent novel, How Everything Turns Away, features a suspended FBI agent who stumbles upon a grisly murder and seeks to find the victim justice before the killer strikes again.

Steven studied at NOCCA and LSU in Louisiana before moving to Kansas to attend Kansas State University, where he earned his undergraduate and graduate degrees in English.  Before calling himself a writer, he was a student worker for the prestigious literary journal The Southern Review. According to Steven, if you received a formal rejection letter in the mid-2000s, he probably sealed the envelope.

When he's not writing, Steven spends time with his wife and three children in their home in Southwest Kansas. An avid library supporter and fan of mystery novels, Steven also enjoys blogging about his traveling adventures as well as sharing writing tips.

Steven will be sharing his expertise at this year's Writers Conference. He will present a session titled "Abnormal Psychology in Fiction,” lead a workshop on how to add tension to a scene and sit on a panel about rejection and critique.        

Learn more about Steven at his website.

-- written by Jesseca Bear, adult services information specialist

I first met Ethan Zolotor during the summer of 2009 in one of the more unlikely places: summer school. Well, summer gym to be more precise. Summer gym was an eclectic mix of incoming freshmen who wanted to get their physical education credit out of the way and upper classmen who neglected to take P.E. classes until the very last minute. We were incoming freshmen who lucked out and were in a class whose instructor just wanted to be called “Coach,” play dodgeball and all its variations, and most of all ignore the syllabus. It was great to have Ethan as a familiar face in the hallways of a large, 6A high school.

Ethan went on to become an engineer who made formula-e cars, laser systems and hybrid-electric boats. If that is not impressive enough, Ethan did all this in addition to staying up late to work on his own stories. Ethan grew up surrounded by books from his family’s library and always carried around handwritten stories on stacks of loose paper. He was constantly writing and drawing, taking inspiration from fantasy literature, manga and western comics. All of this brought the world of Hyperborea to life; the first book Severed Legacy, published in 2019, and the sequel Traitor’s Path which was released this year!

The Conference Planning Committee is thrilled to have Ethan Zolotor join the faculty for the 2022 Writers Conference, giving presentations on world building, finding and working with an illustrator, and sitting on the revision panel.

You can find his books on Amazon:

• Severed Legacy
• Traitor's Path

Also check out @hyperboreabooks on Instagram!

-- written by Kathryn “Katt” Cooper, adult services information specialist