Kristin Bair
Keynote Speaker
Kristin writes fiercely (and humorously) about women—those navigating the demands of family, ambition, and identity while confronting the patriarchal structures that hold them back. Her fourth novel, Clementine Crane Prefers Not To, follows a woman radicalized by her very first hot flash of perimenopause. She is also the author of Agatha Arch Is Afraid of Everything (a People magazine Best New Book), The Art of Floating, and Thirsty, along with essays on topics ranging from China and bears to expats gone rogue.
Kristin teaches in the MA in Writing Program at Johns Hopkins University and at the Yale Writers’ Workshop, and is a fiction editor at Pangyrus. She earned her MFA in fiction writing from Columbia College Chicago. A native Pittsburgher, she now lives north of Boston with her husband and two kids.
Learn more at kristinbair.com and sign up for her newsletter. Follow her on Instagram, TikTok, and Threads: @kbairokeeffe.
Christina Chiu
Christina is the Grand Prize Winner of the James Alan McPherson Award and the Kirkus Best Book Award for her novel Beauty. Her first book, Troublemaker and Other Saints, won the Asian American Writers’ Award and was nominated for the Stephen Crane First Fiction Award. Her stories appear in journals and anthologies including the premier issue of Tin House, The New Guard, Washington Square, The MacGuffin, Charlie Chan is Dead 2, The Asian Pacific American Journal, Not the Only One, and Grandmothers: Granddaughters Remember. She has won literary prizes for her stories from Playboy, New Stone Circle, and El Dorado Writer’s Guild. Her story Waves was nominated for the Pushcart. Her essays appear in Electric Literature, NexTribe, and Publisher’s Weekly.
For more information, visit her at: www.christinachiu.com.
Donna Galanti
Donna is the author of nine books including the popular middle-grade Unicorn Island series, Joshua and the Lightning Road series, Loon Cove Summer, and The Secret Winners Club (3/3/26). She’s also the author of the paranormal suspense Element Trilogy for adults. She has lived in fun locations including England, her family-owned campground in New Hampshire, and in Hawaii where she served as a U.S. Navy photographer. Donna is an avid outdoor adventurer and nature lover and volunteers for the Old-Growth Forest Network and the National Audubon Society.
For more information, visit her at: www.donnagalanti.com.
Amy Giuffrida
After Amy earned her BA at the University of Kutztown and a M.Ed. from Lock Haven University, she incorporated her love of reading and books with being a middle school teacher. Amy’s biggest joy was to put the perfect book in the hands of a teen and change their minds about reading. Amy turned this love into a career by reading romance slush for a publishing company, then interned for various literary agencies, until she became an associate literary agent in 2020. In her spare time, you can find Amy either listening to, reading, or talking about books. She also loves binge-watching teen and reality TV shows—all while snuggling with one or more of her three rescue dogs.
For more information, visit her at: www.amygiuffrida.com.
Lawrence Knorr
Lawrence has been involved with publishing since 2000. He holds a Ph.D. in History from Liberty University, an MBA from Penn State University, a BA in Business and Economics from Wilson College (minor in History), and is a Project Management Professional (PMP), and Certified Scrum Master (CSM). Lawrence’s 40+-year career in IT as a programmer, analyst, project manager, CEO and CIO, has prepared him for the “Age of Content” – the era of eBooks, data integration, eCommerce, networks, and artificial intelligence. Lawrence has taught business and economics courses for over fifteen years at local colleges and is the author or co-author over forty books. He is also an award-winning digital artist. Lawrence often speaks or is a panelist at writers' conferences and book fairs. He also frequently presents history topics at historical societies and venues.
Visit Sunbury Press at www.sunburypress.com.
Rae Pagliarulo
Rae (she/her) is the Associate Editor of Hippocampus Magazine and has published poems, articles, and essays with Short Reads, Cleaver Magazine, the Brevity Blog, and more. She is the co-editor of Getting to the Truth: The Craft and Practice of Creative Nonfiction (2021), and by day, she runs her own consulting practice, Ellipsis Strategies, helping Philadelphia nonprofits to achieve their missions through strategy and fundraising. She is currently working on a memoir about her 100-year old house in Philadelphia.
Back to Write Stuff Page
