2020

Kate Barton is a screenwriter and stand-up comedian from St. Louis, Missouri. She wrote and directed her first feature film "Bottle Fed" (about two women who form a stand-up comedy mom band) in the summer of 2015. Since then she has written a collection of feature film scripts and short screenplays, and has transitioned into the world of stand-up comedy. You can see her perform at The Improv Shop, Heavy Anchor, and Helium Comedy Club.

Mabel Suen is a freelance food writer and photographer, contributing regularly to local publications including Riverfront Times, Feast Magazine and Ladue News. She serves as the St. Louis contributing editor for Feast, reporting on new restaurants in the St. Louis area.

Ann Leckie is the author of the Hugo, Nebula, and Arthur C. Clarke Award winning novel Ancillary Justice. She has also published short stories inSubterranean Magazine, Strange Horizons, and Realms of Fantasy. Her story “Hesperia and Glory” was reprinted in Science Fiction: The Best of the Year, 2007 Edition edited by Rich Horton.

Ann has worked as a waitress, a receptionist, a rodman on a land-surveying crew, and a recording engineer. She lives in St. Louis, Missouri.

Eileen G’Sell received an MA from the University of Rochester and an MFA in creative writing from Washington University in St. Louis. In 2012 she co-cofounded The Hinge, an award-winning art gallery and creative project space. Her cultural criticism, essays, and poetry can be found in Salon, VICE, Boston Review, DAME, DIAGRAM, Conduit, Ninth Letter, Secret Behavior, and the Denver Quarterly, among others; and she was awarded the 2013 American Literary Review prize for poetry. Her chapbooks are available from Dancing Girl and BOAAT Press, and she is a features editor for The Rumpus. She currently teaches rhetoric and poetry at Washington University, and creative writing for the Prison Education Project at Missouri Eastern Correctional Center. She lives in St. Louis and New York.

Adrienne Draper is an author, educator and poet from St. Louis, MO. For more than fifteen years, she has served at-risk children throughout the country. She received her bachelor’s degree in Public Communication from Missouri Baptist University, her Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing at Lindenwood University and her Teaching Artist Certificate from the Teaching Artist Institute, Regional Arts Commission. Adrienne is the author of three published books, "Missy's Mouthing Off," "Dirty Dishes: Every Woman Has Them," and "Living Legends: Sheroes of the Millennium."

Rob Connoley is a 2014 James Beard semi-finalist for Best Chef - Southwest. Arguably the most remote chef ever to receive that honor, Connoley forages, hunts and farms the vast wilderness in search of amazing ingredients, and present them is modern ways to the delight of his guests. Born and raised in St. Louis, Connoley has traveled and dined the world and shares that knowledge in his writings both online and in his book.

Sharon Cameron is the #1 NYT best-selling author of The Dark Unwinding (2012), A Spark Unseen (2013), Rook (2015), The Forgetting (2016), and The Knowing (2017), all from Scholastic Press. Her books have won the Parents’ Choice Gold Award, the Westchester Fiction Award, earned starred reviews from Booklist, SLJ, and Kirkus, and have been chosen for numerous lists, including Indie Next Top Ten, YALSA’s Best Fiction for Young Adults, Audible Best Books, and numerous state award nominations. Her newest book is The Light in Hidden Places, coming in 2020. When not writing, Sharon can be found shooting her longbow, thumbing dusty tomes, pondering the past, or continuing her lifelong search for secret passages. She lives with her family in Nashville, TN.

Fred Venturini has eleven scars from eleven separate incidents, the most interesting of which is the time he was set on fire.

For the others, just ask. His short fiction has been featured in the Booked. Anthology and Chuck Palahniuk's Burnt Tongues anthology. He is the acclaimed author of The Heart Does Not Grow Back and The Escape of Light.

On the basketball court, he is a three-point specialist and a defensive liability.

He lives in Southern Illinois with his wife and daughter.

James “Jay Luvve” Watford II began writing in 2008, performing in 2011, and competing in slam poetry in 2012. He placed 6th in the nation at the 2014 National Poetry Slam in Ybor City, FL, and is recognized as the 2012 and 2018 Slam Champion in St. Louis, MO. Currently, Jay is a coach and a member of the 2020 Saint Louis Poetry Slam team, hosted by the Urban Artist Alliance (UrbArts) in Old North Saint Louis, MO.

Corey Black is a poet, spoken word artist and host of Poetic Justice Open Mic [2017 St. Louis Post-Dispatch GO! Magazine’s favorite open mic night]. He is a military veteran, having served in the United States Marine Corps during Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom. He formed his own clothing line, Black Supply Co. in 2013. His anthology, Shoot The Messenger was self-published in 2014.

Always one to collaborate, he has recorded his poetry with artists such as Tef Poe, L-Vis 1990, Black Spade, and Nick Hook. He has opened up for Talib Kweli, Common, Lupe Fiasco, Malcolm London, Nappy Roots and many more.

He has won slams at The Nuyorican Poets Cafe in New York City as well as The San Antonio Slam. He’s graced the stage at some of the country’s premier open mics such as Da Poetry Lounge in Los Angeles, The Seattle Poetry Slam, The Boston Poetry Slam and Smoken Words Open Mic in Tampa, FL. In 2017, Black performed at Harvard University’s Ed Portal. His charismatic personality and alluring stage presence gives him the ability to engage with any audience.

As a veteran, Black uses poetry to combat his post-traumatic stress disorder. In his hometown, he uses his poetry as a vehicle to help mentor under privileged middle and high school students and conducts Spoken Wordshops with Freedom Arts & Education Center.

An advocate for mental health, Black also provides motivational speeches for schools, businesses, and non-profit organizations.

"Hello to the hard times, goodbye good times...

I'll see you 'round" is a line from the title track of Nick Gusman's debut Folk/Americana record, "Dear Hard Times". Though desperation is heard on top of the songs blunt and honest lyrics, underneath there is a wave of confidence. Taking note of inspirational artists like Dylan and Prine, Nick's songs are chock-full of imagery, and storytelling. Dear Hard Times will be released November 9, 2018. Nick Gusman is a South Saint Louis native with roots in Southern MO as well.

Abbigail Rosewood was born in Vietnam, where she lived until the age of twelve. She holds an MFA in creative writing from Columbia University and lives in New York.

Her debut novel, IF I HAD TWO LIVES, has been hailed as “a tale of staggering artistry” by the Los Angeles Review of Books and “a lyrical, exquisitely written novel” by the New York Journal of Books. The New Yorker said “the novel poignantly conjures the difficulties of reconciling the present with an ‘ungraspable history.’”

An excerpt from IF I HAD TWO LIVES won first place in the Writers Workshop of Asheville Literary Fiction Contest

Ashley August loves a good list! She is an afro-latina actress, author, playwright, activist, teaching artist, touring spoken word artist, 3rd ranked woman poet in the world, hip-hop junkie, ASTEP at Juilliard fellow, NYC's 2013 Youth Poet Laureate and recently named one of The New York Times 30 Under 30 Most Influential people.

Along with multiple stage and screen appearances, her credits include Sundance, Cannes Film Festival, Netflix, Aljazaera America, The GAP, BET, and HBO. She's also written and performed on the behalf of Adidas, Refinery 29, Under Armour, Nike, MTV and more. August is the author of three self-exploratory books, “Love Handles”, “Licorice” and "Say I Won't". She is the former curator and Slam Master of the Legendary Bowery Poetry Club. With Belize and Brooklyn embedded into her (he)art, August is motivated to speak the unsaid truth and push the boundaries of spoken word and performance to realms they've yet to live in.

Her work is forthcoming in the Breakbeat Poetry Collection "LatiNext" and Poetry Magazine. You can catch her in a new Nickelodeon show (she loves the kids) as well as acclaimed Netflix and HBO series’. She currently resides in LA and is trying to figure it all out.

Louis Conphliction isn't an entertainer, he is Entertainment!

Whether ravaging sixteen bars, serenading love interests or igniting our inner most passions with poetry, you are bound to request Louis

Conphliction's presence inside of your hearts, minds and homes.

Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Tony Messenger is the St. Louis Post-Dispatch's metro columnist, a position he's held since Sept. 2015. He was previously the editorial page editor at the Post-Dispatch and was hired at the paper in 2008 in the state capital bureau.

He began his career at a small weekly newspaper in Colorado, where he was born and raised. He has worked in Colorado, Arizona, Nebraska, South Dakota and Missouri at weeklies, dailies and magazines.

In 2019, Messenger won the Pulitzer Prize for commentary for his series of columns on debtors' prisons in Missouri. In 2016, Messenger was awarded a Missouri Honor Medal, the highest award bestowed by the University of Missouri's School of Journalism. That same year he won a National Headliner for editorial writing. In 2015, Messenger was a Pulitzer finalist for his series of editorials on Ferguson, and won the Sigma Delta Chi award for best editorials of the year, given by the Society of Professional Journalists.

Messenger lives in Wildwood with his wife and two children. He has four grown children and eight grandchildren.

I have a B. S. in Education and M. S. in Business Management. My career began as a high school history teacher and coach at McCluer High School and Hazelwood West High School. From there, I transitioned to a business career at McDonnell Douglas (now Boeing) in their Astronautics Division on the Harpoon and Cruise Missile programs. Thankfully and fortunately, the bulk of my business career was at one of the world's greatest companies, Anheuser-Busch. I served as Senior Director of Procurement where I managed a large group with responsibility for a $1 billion cost center that included our worldwide beer operations, theme park operations around the country and our international procurement group in London. My specialty was contract negotiations. Since retiring from business, I have devoted the bulk of my time to my first love, writing. Additionally, I coached football for five years at Lutheran High School North and worked as an independent consultant teaching negotiation skills to business professionals. My other favorite pastime is hanging with my eight grandkids, five of whom are Parkwood students and the inspiration for the Curious Cousins Club series.

Mike Bizelli grew up with photography. His parents operated Bizelli Studio in St. Charles for almost 45 years.

Mike graduated from the University of Missouri School of Journalism majoring in photojournalism. His 48-year photography career has included an 18-year stint as a staff photographer at the Ralston Purina Company (now Nestle Purina).

In 1995 Mike started his own business, Bizelli Photography, Inc., where his client list included Fortune 500 companies, small businesses and non-profits.

He started documenting animal rescues for the Humane Society of Missouri in the fall of 1999 and the ASPCA (American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals) in the spring of 2009. To date Mike has documented 106 companion animal rescues. Ten of those rescues have been for victims of dog fighting. He followed many of these rescued fight dogs into rehabilitation and on to forever homes. This inspired him to publish Last Day on a Chain, Stories of Compassion, Salvation and Misperceptions.

Established in 2008, WU-SLam is the premier and only slam poetry team at Washington University in St. Louis. Their performance crew hosts weekly writing workshops and monthly poetry slams for the WashU community in order to give students a chance to share their stories through poetry and performance. In 2017, WU-SLam ranked 10th in the nation at the College Union Poetry Slam Invitational (CUPSI). WU-SLam also makes an effort to reach outside of the "WashU Bubble" and bring poetry to the Greater St. Louis area, telling their stories and inspiring others to do the same.

With his breakout roles on Nickelodeon’s hit comedy series, Game Shakers, and Showtime’s critically acclaimed drama, Shameless, actor Sheldon Bailey has become one of Hollywood’s most versatile emerging talents.

The 6-foot 6-inch Bailey is parlaying his TV success into film roles, working with the likes of Christian Paperniak, best known as the director of NBA2K, one of the biggest video game franchises of all time.

Offscreen, Sheldon commands the courts in real life as a four-time champion of Red Bull’s King of the Rock and winner of the Brand Jordan League. He has also played professional basketball for the American Basketball Association and the Chinese Basketball Association.

Given Sheldon’s longtime status as one of Hollywood’s most successful body doubles, and his championship-winning basketball skills, he was recently cast as LeBron James’ body double in Space Jam 2.

Space Jam is currently in production and will premiere in 2021. Sheldon has served as LeBron’s body double for over seven years and portrayed other professional athletes including Kobe Bryant, Dwyane Wade, Shaquille O’Neal and Dwight Howard.

Sheldon was born in a U.S. Army hospital in Germany and traveled the world as a young Army brat with his Jamaican-American parents. After settling down in Fayetteville, North Carolina, he quickly became an all-star basketball player and was ranked in the top 30 nationwide by age 16. He attended the prestigious Mt. Zion Christian Academy and won a NCAA scholarship to Winthrop University. Two torn ACL injuries would derail his NBA dreams, but Sheldon eventually transferred to Florida International University and graduated with a degree in Political Science.

He became a serious Spoken Word poet in college, winning poetry slams, talent shows and opening for the likes of Maya Angelou and the Prince of Ethiopia. Soon after, Sheldon began his career as a hugely successful commercial actor, starring in over 50 national and international commercials for the world’s most venerable brands.

Sheldon is a multi-faced artist who has also spent years honing his craft as a musician. He released two independent albums, Golden Eagle and Crazy Joey.

Sheldon’s heart is as big as his stature. He actively supports charitable causes including the Salvation Army, SOS Children’s Villages, St. Anne’s, Project Experience Gratitude, and the Kids’ Venice Basketball League.

He is a devoted single dad to his two children and currently resides in the Los Angeles area.