Heather Demetrios is a critically acclaimed author, writing coach, and certified meditation teacher based in Saint Paul, Minnesota. Her publishers include Simon & Schuster, Macmillan, and HarperCollins.

She has an MFA in Writing from Vermont College of Fine Arts and is a recipient of the PEN America Discovery Award for her debut novel, Something Real. Her novels include Little Universes, I’ll Meet You There, Bad Romance, as well as the Dark Caravan fantasy series: Exquisite Captive, Blood Passage, and Freedom’s Slave. Her non-fiction includes the Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection Code Name Badass: The True Story of Virginia Hall, and she is the editor of Dear Heartbreak: YA Authors and Teens on the Dark Side of Love.

Her honors include books that have been named Bank Street Best Children’s Books, YALSA Best Fiction For Young Adults selections, a Goodreads Choice Nominee, a Kirkus Best Book, and a Barnes and Noble Best Book. Her work has appeared in LA Review of Books, Bustle, School Library Journal, and other fine outlets.

Heather works with writers on integrating mindfulness into their writing practice, process, and life. In addition to being a meditation teacher and Zen Buddhist in the Soto tradition, she holds certificates in Trauma Sensitive Mindfulness and Integrative Somatic Parts (IFS) Work.

Find out more about Heather and her books at heatherdemetrios.com.

Heather is on faculty and will be available for 1:1 sessions with writers. She will also be facilitating our mindfulness and meditation sessions.

Jane Houng is a long-term resident of Hong Kong and China. She received an MFA in WYCA at Vermont College of Fine Arts in the US in 2014. Since then, she has published seven children’s books for The Commercial Press Hong Kong and Sing Tao Publishing Ltd, including the YA novel Bloodswell (2012), the middle grade books Pun Choi: a Hotchpotch of Chinese Folk and Fairy Tales (2016); Cat Soup and Other Short Stories (2016); Hong Kong Movers and Shakers (2017); Hong Kong History Girl (2018), and the picture book Asian Elephant Art (2022). She has also published with Oxford University Press, Pearson Publishing and The Asian Review of Books.

Tragically, late 2017, Jane lost her 30-year old daughter, Rebecca Dykes to rape and murder. Since then, she has established a charity in Greece called Becky’s Bathhouse for refugees (www.beckysbathhouse.org), launched a free panic button for very vulnerable women around the world called Becky’s Button, and set up a community for kidlit writers theming extreme violence (www.rebeccadykeswriters.org). The Rebecca Dykes Memorial Workshop is the first of what Jane hopes will become an annual event. Her memoir Beirut is More Beautiful by Bike will be published in Arabic in Lebanon by Dal El Machreq in 2023.

Jane will be giving a talk about the intersection of writing and the death of her daughter and will also be available for 1:1 work with writers.

Alexandra Villasante has always loved telling stories–though not always with words. She has a BFA in Painting and an MA in Combined Media (that’s art school speak for making work out of anything). Born in New Jersey to immigrant parents, Alex has the privilegio of dreaming in both English and Spanish.

When she’s not writing or painting, Alexandra plans conferences and fundraisers for non-profits. She lives with her family in the semi-wilds of Pennsylvania. Her debut Young Adult novel, The Grief Keeper, was an Indies Next, Indies Introduce and Fall 2019 Junior Library Guild Selection. The Grief Keeper is on ALA’s Rainbow Book List 2020 and is the winner of the 2020 Lambda Literary Award for LGBTQ Children’s Literature/Young Adult Fiction. You can find Alexandra on Twitter and Instagram at @magpiewrites.

Isaac Fitzsimons (Fitz-EYE-mons) writes so that every reader can see themselves reflected in literature. His debut novel, The Passing Playbook, received numerous accolades including being named a Junior Library Guild Gold Standard selection, a Summer/Fall 2021 Indies Introduce title, a Kirkus Best Young Adult Book of 2021, and a 2022 Lambda Literary Award Finalist.

A lifetime dabbler in the arts, Isaac has performed sketch comedy and can play three songs on the banjo. His dream vacation would be traveling around Europe via sleeper train to watch every top-tier soccer team play a home game. He currently lives outside Washington, DC.

Sera Rivers (she/her) is a Senior Literary Manager at Martin Literary & Media Management and is currently accepting queries for middle grade and young adult fiction and graphic novels, as well as the occasional picture book.

Sera started reading at age four and has been obsessed with books ever since—if she could live in creative worlds, she would. Some of her all-time favorite childhood books are The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats, Peppermints in the Parlor by Barbara Brooks Wallace, Behind the Attic Wall by Silvia Cassedy; and Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll.

Sera worked in educational publishing for seven years and launched Avenue A Books, a children’s graphic novel imprint at Center for Responsive Schools. As Avenue A’s acquiring and managing editor, she worked with new and established children’s book writers and illustrators to create picture books and middle grade graphic novels. She loved helping writers and illustrators hone their craft to produce their best work. Now, as an agent, Sera provides editorial feedback to help clients get their manuscripts submission ready.

In 2007, Sera joined SCBWI when her best friend insisted that Sera belonged in the kid lit world. She’s volunteered for the New England chapter since 2012, co-directing NESCBWI’s 2017 and 2018 annual spring conferences. Sera earned her bachelor of arts degree in Creative Writing and Journalism Studies from the University of Massachusetts and her master of fine arts degree in Writing for Children, with a concentration in young adult novels, from Simmons University. Her young adult memoir The Wicked Ones won the 2016 PEN New England Susan P. Bloom Children’s Book Discovery Award.

Sera lives in Western Massachusetts with her partner Mike and her son Indigo (when he’s on break from college). When she’s not reading, writing, or story slamming, she can be found running all over New England training for her next ultramarathon. To find out more about Sera and what she’s looking for, check out her wish list. She tweets at @writeloudly.