Genre:
Memoir/Creative Nonfiction
Renee Gilmore
Renee Gilmore is the author of Wayfinding: A Memoir. She is a neurodivergent multi-genre writer, essayist, and poet, and she fearlessly explores the illusion of happiness. Through her writing and lived experience, Gilmore proves that resilience can be practiced both by accident and intention. She holds degrees from the University of New Mexico and Hamline…
Linda Knebel Pruden
Linda Knebel Pruden is an author and national speaker residing in Saint Paul, Minnesota. She received her master’s degree in speech/language pathology from Purdue University and went on to write five books for teachers. In 1987, she was the first speech/language pathologist to be named among Texas’s teachers of the year. Pruden’s writing has also…
Obasesam Okoi
Dr. Obasesam Okoi is Associate Professor of Justice and Peace Studies, co-editor of the African Security Journal, and founding director of the Artificial Intelligence and Society Innovation Lab (ASIL). His research explores how global adversity, including war, terrorism, climate change, and technological disruption, reshapes everyday life, particularly for displaced populations living under chronic insecurity. He…
Charissa Bates
Charissa Bates is an award-winning children’s author, children’s mental health therapist, and speaker who is passionate about helping families find joy through storytelling. She is the author of Cancer Messed with the Wrong Family and the beloved Traveling Book series, which celebrates community, kindness, and connection through Little Free Libraries. With years of experience working…
Peg Guilfoyle
Writer and speaker Peg Guilfoyle’s latest book is An Eye for Joy: Noticing the Good World Everywhere. She is the originator and writer of the wide-ranging Motley Peg small essay series. Her book The Guthrie Theater: Images, History, and Inside Stories won the Midwest Book Award and the Independent Publisher’s Award. She is also the…
Kristi Belcamino
Kristi Belcamino is a USA Today bestselling crime writer, chess fanatic, and newspaper crime reporter. Her gritty, glamorous thrillers—like the Gia Santella and Queen of Spades series—feature kick-butt women, deadly secrets, and high-stakes revenge. Think Jackie Collins meets Patricia Cornwell. As a reporter, she has flown in an FA/18 jet with the Blue Angels, interviewed…
Anne-Marie Erickson
Anne-Marie Erickson was born in the western Minnesota prairie town of Benson. Her journalism, poetry, essays, and book reviews have appeared in regional publications. Her first book, In the Evening, We’ll Dance, is a memoir in essays based on the 17 years of her husband’s dementia. Erickson attended Augsburg University in Minneapolis (B.A., American Studies).…
Dralandra Larkins
Dralandra Larkins is a multi-genre writer, three-time award-winning spoken word poet, and the author of Before I Lie. She is a teaching artist at COMPAS and has performed for the NAACP, Button Poetry, Mill City Museum, Minnesota State Capitol, Minnesota Black Business Ball, and the Minnesota Black Authors Expo. Larkins co-edits Cracked Walnut’s Rewilding Hope…
Ann Schreiber
Ann Schreiber is a freelance copywriter, blogger, and lifelong book lover who turned her passion for words into a thriving business and a growing collection of published work. She’s the founder of Copywriting For You and the author of three books: Perseverance. Reinvention., a raw and honest memoir; The Top 10 Mistakes I Made My…
