2008 Presenters by Genre: Nonfiction

Greg Atkinson Director of Culinary Consulting, a menu and recipe development company, Greg Atkinson cooks, writes, and speaks in venues ranging from professional kitchens to university lecture halls. His latest book, West Coast Cooking, explores the personalities and ingredients that shaped America’s most influential regional cuisine. A contributing editor to Food Arts magazine and The Seattle Times, he can be heard weekly on Seattle’s NPR affiliate KUOW, 94.9 FM. Atkinson was awarded The M.F.K. Fisher Distinguished Writing Award from the James Beard Foundation in 2001. He is a Certified Culinary Professional (CCP) with the International Association of Culinary Professionals (IACP), and has served on the board of directors for Chef’s Collaborative and Slow Food Seattle. www.westcoastcooking.com/

Marian Blue Marian Blue began working as a writer in 1972. She has taught writing at various colleges and organizations since 1985; she currently teaches for Skagit Valley College and Writers Online Workshops. Marian is partner with Wayne Ude for Blue & Ude Writers Services, www.blueudewritersservices.com, which has provided editing services to authors since 1990. Marian’s interviews, award winning fiction, poetry and essays have appeared in magazines and books, such as A Hundred White Daffodils, Passing the Three Gates: Interviews with Charles Johnson and Tattoos on Cedars. She has edited, co-edited and copy edited several books, including Whidbey Island Writers Association’s Sea of Voices, Isle of Story and Richard LaLonde, Fused Art Glass and Techniques. Marian lives and writes on Whidbey Island.

Victoria Castle Known for her humor and practicality, Victoria Castle is the author of The Trance of Scarcity which addresses our cultural predisposition to "not enough" and offers embodiment practices that replace struggle with greater ease and effectiveness. Originally self-published, her book was picked up by Berrett-Koehler Publishing within six months.  As a Master Somatic Coach, she has been consulting with Fortune 500 leaders and social entrepreneurs for 2 decades. The element of embodiment is a signature of her work: moving beyond conceptual understanding to effective action. Self-described as a teacher who writes, Victoria speaks internationally at post graduate and professional conferences.   She is co-founder of Hot Women For A Cool Planet, a grassroots initiative to sustain a healthy world at peace. To learn more about Victoria and her work, visit www.tranceofscarcity.com and www.castleenterprising.com.

Stephanie Elizondo Griest Stephanie Elizondo Griest  has mingled with the Russian Mafiya, polished Chinese propaganda, and belly danced with Cuban rumba queens. These adventures inspired her award-winning memoir Around the Bloc: My Life in Moscow, Beijing, and Havana (Villard/Random House, 2004) and guidebook 100 Places Every Woman Should Go. Atria/Simon & Schuster will publish her memoirs from Mexico in 2008. She has also written for the New York Times, Washington Post, Latina Magazine, and numerous Travelers' Tales anthologies. She once spent a year driving 45,000 miles across the United States, documenting its history for a Web site for kids called The Odyssey. A 2005-2006 Hodder Fellow at Princeton University, she lectures and performs extensively. www.aroundthebloc.com.

Erik Larson Most recently, Erik Larson is the author, of Thunderstruck, a nonfiction work about murder and invention; the book became a New York Times and BookSense bestseller. His previous book, The Devil in the White City, became a number one New York Times bestseller in both hardcover and paper, and lingered on the paperback list for over two years. It won an Edgar Award for nonfiction crime writing, and was a finalist for a National Book Award. Paramount has optioned the book for a feature film. Larson also wrote Isaac’s Storm. The book launched as a New York Times bestseller; it also became a seller in Germany. The American Meteorology Society gave the book its prestigious Louis J. Battan Author’s Award. The Washington Post called it the “Jaws of hurricane yarns.” For his latest book, Thunderstruck, Larson conducted research in London, Munich, Rome, Nova Scotia, and Cape Cod. Along the way, to broaden his understanding of Marconi and his roots, he began the study of Italian and, after over two years of study, achieved an elementary grasp of the language and an advanced appreciation for Italian red wines. He graduated summa cum laude from the University of Pennsylvania, where he studied Russian history, language and culture. He received a masters in journalism from Columbia University. After a brief stint at the Bucks County Courier Times, Larson became a staff writer for The Wall Street Journal, and later a staff writer and then contributing writer for Time Magazine. He has written articles for The Atlantic, Harper’s, The New Yorker, and other publications. Larson lives in Seattle with his wife, three daughters, and a golden retriever named Molly. Photo by Mary Cairns

Deborah Madison The founding chef of Greens Restaurant in San Francisco, Deborah is the author of nine cookbooks, among them The Greens Cookbook, Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone, Local Flavors and most recently Vegetable Soups from Deborah Madison’s Kitchen. The Savory Way and Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone were both selected as the IACP Cookbook of the Year and were recipients of James Beard Awards. Several of her other books have also received Beard and other awards. In 2005, Deborah was designated by the James Beard Society as one Who’s Who of Food and Beverage in America. For over twenty-five years, Deborah has cooked professionally, taught cooking throughout the country and written about food and farming. Her articles have appeared in a variety of publications, including Gourmet, Food and Wine, Saveur, Cooking Light, Fine Cooking, Orion and Organic Gardening. She managed and served on the board of her local farmers markets for twelve years, and during the past decade, she has been an active member of Slow Food USA. She serves on the boards of Slow Food International’s Foundation for Biodiversity, Seed Savers Exchange, and the Southwest Grass-Fed Livestock Alliance. Vegetables are her love and have long been at the heart of all of her writings. And while she has experienced the complexities of restaurant cooking, the needs of the home cook are what have driven her recipes, as well as the pleasure of working with local, seasonal ingredients. Her next book, however, will depart from these topics to explore What We Eat When We Eat Alone. In 2005, Deborah spent a month at Hedgebrook, also on Whidbey Island, plus a long cold winter in Ireland, during which she wrote a memoir. Although as yet not destined for publication, she found the process so compelling that she has been conducting writing workshops on food and memory instead of on cooking. Deborah lives in the village of Galisteo, New Mexico, with her artist husband, Patrick McFarlin.

Maureen Murdock Maureen Murdock is a depth psychotherapist in private practice in San Francisco. She is the author of the bestselling book, The Heroine's Journey: Woman's Quest for Wholeness, as well as the newly revised Fathers' Daughters: Breaking the Ties that Bind. Other books include Unreliable Truth: On Memoir and Memory; Spinning Inward: Using Guided Imagery with Children; and The Heroine's Journey Workbook. She edited an anthology entitled Monday Morning Memoirs: Women in the Second Half of Life and her books have been translated into 11 languages. She is currently writing a memoir about madness and addiction in the family and teaches memoir writing at the UCLA Extensions Writers' Program and San Francisco Writing Salon. www.photowords.com/Murdock/index.htm

Jules Older Jules Older is a writer and the editor-in-chief of Ski Press USA and Ski Press Canada, North America’s biggest ski magazines. He’s been a Vermont Public Radio commentator, Vermont Business Magazine columnist, and TWA’s humor columnist. His academic articles have appeared in leading medical and social-science journals in five countries; his topical and travel articles, in U.S., British, and New Zealand newspapers and magazines. Jules has written five adult books and more than 20 children's books. His books and psychological work have won awards here and abroad, including (four times) the Harold Hirsch Award “For Excellence in Snowsports Writing.” At the University of Vermont, he won the 1997 Kroepsch-Maurice Award for Excellence in Teaching for his "Writing for Real" course. www.julesolder.com

Katherine Ramsland, Ph.D. Katherine Ramsland, Ph.D. has published thirty books including The Forensic Science of CSI, The Criminal Mind: A Writer's Guide to Forensic Psychology. She holds graduate degrees in forensic psychology, clinical psychology, and philosophy. Currently she teaches forensic psychology at DeSales University in Pennsylvania. After publishing two books in psychology, she wrote Prism of the Night: A Biography of Anne Rice. She followed that by writing four guidebooks to Rice's fictional worlds. Katherine ventured into journalism with a two-year investigation of the vampire subculture, to write Piercing the Darkness: Undercover with Vampires in America Today. Her background in forensic studies positioned her to assist former FBI profiler John Douglas on his book and to co-write a book with former FBI profiler Gregg McCrary. Numerous works have followed, including publications for The New York Times Book Review, The Writer, The Newark Star Ledger, Publishers Weekly, and The Trenton Times. Katherine writes a column on historical forensic cases and contributes regularly to Court TV’s Crime Library. Her latest books are Beating the Devil's Game and Inside the Minds of Healthcare Serial Killers. Among her works of fiction are The Heat Seekers and The Blood Hunters, and she's working on another novel, as well as a nonfiction book on the most exciting serial killer investigations. www.katherineramsland.com

Eva Shaw, Ph.D. Writers who take Eva Shaw's classes and attend her workshops gather the tools to launch their writing dreams. Eva knows the markets for writing and freely shares the information. Her instructional, highly charged and encouraging style empowers writers to succeed, get published, be more creative and enjoy the process. Eva is a full-time working writer and ghostwriter with more than 70 award-winning books to her credit. Books include: Ghostwriting for Fun & Profit, Writeriffic: Creativity Training for Writers, Write Your Book in 20 Minutes, Shovel It: Nature’s Health Plan, What to Do When a Loved One Dies, The Successful Writer’s Guide to Publishing Magazine Articles, Writing the Nonfiction Book, Insider’s Guide to San Diego, The Sun Never Sets, and more. Eva's work has been featured, reviewed and honored in USA Today, Los Angeles Times, Costco Connection, Publisher’s Weekly, Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, and over 1000 published columns, articles and short stories. Motivational, entertaining and witty, Eva is a frequent keynote speaker at writing conferences and appears on television, radio and in the media. “Shaw knows her onions and peels them well,” Columbia School of Journalism. Washington Post said her work is “illuminating.” From Publisher’s Weekly, “Shaw produces books that are practical and worthy of the self-help genre.” www.evashaw.com

Carol Wissmann Freelance writer, Carol Wissmann, has written for 60 consumer, business, trade, and university publications. She credits 25 years success in sales for the know-how to quickly market and grow your freelance career. She is past president of Seattle Free Lances and is listed in Who's Who of Americans. Her writing profession follows previous successful careers – from twelve years as owner of an advertising business to ten years as an elementary school teacher. Her practical expertise and experience speeds and simplifies the process of progressing from pen to publication.

Susan Zwinger Ph.D. Susan Zwinger's books of nonfiction include The Hanford Reach, The Last Wild Edge, Stalking the Ice Dragon and Still Wild, Always Wild. Her essays and nonfiction regularly appear in magazines and journals around the country. She co-authored Women In Wilderness with her mother, Ann Haymond Zwinger.