Agent, Editor, Publisher, & Speaker Biographies
Keynote Speaker
Lauren Blackwood is the New York Times bestselling author of The Queen’s Bodyguard and the Reese’s Book Club Pick Within These Wicked Walls. She’s also a proud Jamaican American who writes romance, gothic horror, and fantasy for most ages. When not writing, she’s an avid musician and powerlifter.
Sessions: TBA
Agents, Editors, & Publishers Accepting One-on-Ones
Matt Belford joined The Rights Factory in 2025, having worked at several literary agencies and Big 5 publishers in nearly every genre and format imaginable. Once upon a time, he received his MFA in Creative Writing from Emerson College, back when he thought he wanted to be a writer. He’s since learned the error of his ways and is thrilled to instead be working with authors to help bring their ideas to life.
Interested in: Science Fiction; Fantasy; Nonfiction projects in various sub-genres including narrative, self-help, politics, pop culture, sports and more, with unique takes and fresh ideas to be explored. He also represents numerous creators in the graphic novel space, any genre. Matt is also looking for under-represented voices.
Not interested in: memoir or literary fiction
Available for one-on-ones.
Sessions: TBA
Please Note: Becky Hilliker, Miranda Faye Dillon, and Greg Fields will be hearing pitches together
Becky Hilliker is vice president and executive editor of Köehler Books. She found inspiration for helping writers polish and refine their work after her own experience with publishing as co-author of 2015’s Sisters of Shiloh with HarperCollins (Mariner). Her writing has appeared in USA Today, Huffington Post, the Houston Chronicle, Military Spouse Magazine, and on Ancestry.com. As an editor, she works with all genres but specializes in historical fiction, memoir, and military. Becky approaches editing with the belief that all stories have an emotional heart, regardless of genre, and she enjoys helping authors build from that guiding light. She holds a degree in history from the University of Texas at Austin and is a member of the Phi Alpha Theta national history honor society and the American Copy Editors Society. After bouncing around the country (including Virginia Beach) for the past few decades, courtesy of the US Navy, she now lives in Louisville, Kentucky, with her husband and four children.
Miranda Faye Dillon is an editor and author. She was born and raised in Virginia Beach, Virginia. She attended Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, New York, with a BFA in creative writing and a minor in cinema studies. She is the award-winning author of The Unshatterables, a collection of short fictional stories about family, relationships, and grief. She loves nutrition, health and wellness, coffee and wine, and traveling the world. She currently resides back home in Virginia Beach.
Greg Fields is the author of The Bright Freight of Memory, published in November 2024, winner of the Chrysalis/BREW Project Book of the Year along with its honor for Literary Fiction, the American Writing Awards honor for Literary Fiction, the North American Writing Award for Literary Fiction, Book of the Year at the Southern California Book Festival, the Readers Choice Award, and three other national recognitions.
His previous work, Through the Waters and the Wild, won wide notice, including the 2022 Independent Press Award for Literary Fiction and the New York Book Award for Literary Fiction. He is currently an editor for his publisher, Koehler Books, and a regular presenter at numerous conferences and workshops including the International Dublin Writers Festival. Greg lives in Prince William County, Virginia, with his wife Lyn.
Interested in: Adventure, Biography, Business, Coming of Age, Family & Relationships, Fantasy, Government, Healthcare & Medicine, History, Historical Fiction, Holidays, Humor, Literary, Memoirs/Legacy, Military, Mystery, New Age, Non-Profit, Psychology, Romance, Science Fiction, Self-Help, Short Stories, Spiritual, Sports, Supernatural, Thriller, Travel, Urban, Women, Young Adult
No more pne-on-ones available
Sessions: TBA
Photo credit: Nancy Adler Photography
Daniele Hunter (she/her) is a queer, chronically ill, disabled junior agent in the children's department at McIntosh & Otis. She started at McIntosh & Otis in 2016 as an intern and has been there ever since.
She has a BA in English with concentrations in Literary Criticism, Poetry, and Creative Writing from Drew University. Before agenting, she held various odd jobs in the publishing industry, from proofreading to teaching and working on literary journals. She's also a member of the American Association of Literary Agents . She’s on the board of Literary Agents of Change, and co-directs their Fellowship program.
In her spare time, she reads way too quickly, sings opera, and puts her ambidexterity to good use as a knitter. She lives in New Jersey with her spouse and their cat.
Interested in: young adult, middle grade, picture books, and adult contemporary romance or rom-com. Her top priority is contemporary, but she’s also open to contemporary fantasy, and sparingly considers genre fantasy/speculative, suspense, romance, and historical. Daniele is looking for lyrical, literary, voice-driven writing. Her top priorities are dark, issue-based books, and diverse authors and stories. For YA and MG, some areas of interest for her are: LGBTQIA+, BIPOC, and disabled and/or chronically ill authors and stories, grief topics, novels-in-verse, relationship-based stories, mental health topics and neurodivergence, ghost stories, and multiple-POV or mixed-media stories. In picture books, she is also interested in these topics from fiction or nonfiction perspectives, and is sparingly open to biography as well.
Not Interested in: any discriminatory topics, chapter books, early readers, lower MG, graphic novels/comics, Christian religious work, or rhyming picture books.
Available for one-on-ones.
Sessions: TBA
Linda Lee Landrigan is the editor-in-chief of Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine. She edited the commemorative anthology Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine Presents Fifty Years of Crime and Suspense (2006), and the e-anthology Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine Presents Thirteen Tales of New American Gothic (2012). In 2019 she received the Ellery Queen Award from the Mystery Writers of America for service to the mystery-publishing industry. She has also been a board member of the New York City Chapter of the Women's National Book Association. She graduated from New College in Sarasota, Florida, and received her masters from Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire.
Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine is a monthly magazine that publishes original mystery and suspense stories. It was started in 1956 and is now one of the oldest magazines of its kind. Over the years it has published such writers, to name a few, as Ed McBain, Lawrence Block, Rhys Bowen, Jane K. Cleland, Jeffrey Deaver, Jan Burke, Martin Limón, Joyce Carol Oates, and Donald Westlake. And it has introduced many new authors and young novelists to a wide audience of mystery and short story readers.
Interested in: AHMM publishes mystery and crime short stories, so every story must involve a crime of some sort, or a threat of a crime. The average length ranges from 3,000 words to 9,000. I like to see stories that come at crime from a different, unexpected angle. Personally, I look for stories where the characters drive the plot--and not the other way around. Clear, well-wrought prose and a strong voice are the aspects that hook me first. Other factors that draw me in: a solid sense of place that evokes the story’s locale and creates a believable fictional world with very specific details.
Available for one-on-ones.
Sessions: TBA
Kiana (Kiki) Nguyen started in publishing in 2015 with an internship with Wunderkind PR, an independent book publishing PR company, working on campaigns with authors such as Ernest Cline. There, she discovered a practical industry for her codependent love of fiction. In 2016, Kiki went on to intern with the Donald Maass Literary Agency where she soon joined the team full-time as an assistant literary agent.
Kiki is now building her client list within young adult and adult fiction with a focus on queer and BIPOC authors.
Interested in: Kiki is seeking high concept commercial stories across Adult and Young Adult fiction. She represents science fiction, fantasy, romance, women’s fiction with a very special interest in horror, and thrillers in these subgeneres: domestic suspense, psychological, and speculative. She is also open to select upmarket speculative novels Her sweet spot is a fast paced plot lead by unforgettable opinionated characters who are forced to confront their demons in order to get themselves out of trouble, but she can’t deny being a sucker for the right emotionally driven introspective journey.
Not interested in: Non-fiction, war stories/military fiction, eco-thrillers, spy thrillers, conspiracy Pharma thrillers, FBI/CIA/Police main characters or procedurals, married suburban couples/cheating husbands/scorned (ex-)wives, dragons, AI villain plots, archetypical alcoholic misandrist anti-heroes, girl bosses, sword and sorcery fantasy, fandom-esque narratives.
Available for one-on-ones.
Sessions: TBA
Steven Salpeter serves as the founding President of Must Read Books Publishing and its Magazine Imprint, Must Read Magazines. He also represents a select list of the authors and illustrators of books at 2 Arms Media, a literary rights management company working at the intersection of publishing, film, and television production. He worked previously as the President of Literary & IP development at a Film/TV production company, and a Literary Agent at one of the oldest agencies in New York.
Interested in: He will review pitches from authors of commercial fiction, speculative literary fiction, romance and its subgenres, fantasy, graphic novels, horror, thrillers, mysteries with unique sleuths or speculative elements, young adult, narrative nonfiction, gift books, history, and popular science. Steven has a particular soft spot for authors who can blend elements of these genres.
Available for one-on-ones.
Sessions: TBA
Authors and Other Speakers
Moni Boyce is a USA Today Bestselling author of contemporary and paranormal romance, a filmmaker, and a poet. After working in the film industry for fifteen years, helping others bring their visions to life, she now creates worlds of her own, full of diverse characters with heat, heart and happily ever afters. She considers herself a bookworm, film buff, foodie, music lover and an avid world traveler who has visited 36 countries and counting. She currently lives in Virginia but considers Los Angeles her hometown.
Sessions: TBA
Hannah Capin is the author of The Dead Queens Club, Foul Is Fair (also published as Golden Boys Beware), and I Am Margaret Moore. Her novels have been included on NPR's "Best Books of the Year" lists in 2019 and 2020, featured as Indie Next picks, and optioned for film and television. In addition to thrillers, she writes for international NGOs in the global health field, striving to help save real lives while committing fictional murders. She divides her time between Tidewater Virginia and Riga, Latvia.
Sessions: TBA
Lisa Cooper was one of the first students at The Muse before returning to college to earn her MFA in Creative Writing and Adult Education, with a concentration in memoir, from Seton Hill University. A trained and certified teacher and expressive arts facilitator in the state of Virginia, she developed the curricula for Writing Through Grief and Trauma and The Mindful Journal—a mindfulness-based stress reduction and arts course now widely used in The Muse’s outreach programs.
Before joining The Muse, Lisa served as an adjunct instructor in the English departments at the College of William & Mary and Paul D. Camp Community College. Her current writing focuses on slice-of-life memoir and poetry, drawing on her experiences as a volunteer EMT and as a single mother of three boys. She is currently pursuing a PhD in Social Work and Expressive Arts Therapy.
Sessions: TBA
Diane Fine has been a professional screenwriter and "script doctor" in Hollywood for over 25 years. Her credits include Storm starring Martin Sheen and Luke Perry, Firetrap starring Dean Cain, Lori Petty and Mel Harris, Art Heist starring Ellen Pompeo and Billy Baldwin, and Purgatory Flats starring Brian Austin Green, Nick Turturro and Gregg Henry. A graduate of USC's famed School of Cinematic Arts, she currently teaches Screenwriting and Film Production at Old Dominion University, and teaches multiple Screenwriting courses as well as serves on the Board of Directors of The Muse Writers Center in Norfolk.
Sessions: TBA
Shawn Girvan holds an MFA in Creative Writing from Goddard College and an MS in Digital Communication Management from Syracuse University's Newhouse School. He loves teaching and is a persistent adjunct professor at universities across the region for the past decade. A multi-genre writer, his work has appeared in The Pitkin Review, Wraparound South, and West Texas Literary Review. For ten years, he has also served as Program Director of Adult Education at The Muse Writers Center in Norfolk, where helps to lead a thriving creative writing community. Beyond the classroom, he's produced a critically acclaimed documentary film, owned a wedding videography business, and studied improvisation at the Second City and IO Theaters in Chicago. Shawn resides in Portsmouth, Virginia with his wife and two dogs.
Sessions: TBA
Lieutenant Michael Lovely (Ret.) served with the Norfolk Police Department for 25 years before retiring in 2024. During his career, he held key leadership roles within the Anti Crime Division, serving as the Officer in Charge of the Special Operations Team and the Bomb Squad. He began his work in crisis negotiations in 2002 after completing FBI hostage negotiator training and went on to support numerous high risk and high profile incidents throughout his tenure.
Lieutenant Lovely is a Virginia Department of Criminal Justice Services Gang Specialist and General Instructor. He has been court certified as both a gang expert and an expert in suspect identification. Earlier in his career, he investigated hundreds of violent crimes, including 42 bank robberies and a multitude of homicide and death investigations. He has received specialized training in crime scene forensics, bloodstain pattern analysis, and interview and interrogation techniques.
A licensed polygraph examiner, Lieutenant Lovely serves as the chairman of the Commonwealth of Virginia’s Polygraph Advisory Board.
Throughout his career, Lieutenant Lovely received numerous commendations, including the Distinguished Service Medal, the Medal of Honor—his department’s highest award—the Commonwealth of Virginia Medal of Valor, the Regional Law Enforcement Golden Gavel Award, the Crime Line Award, and multiple commendation letters from the U.S. Department of Justice. His investigative work has been featured in regional and national media, including Live with Regis and Kelly and The Virginian Pilot.
A native of Norfolk, Virginia, Lieutenant Lovely holds a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice, a Master of Public Administration from Old Dominion University, and a Master of Public Safety from the University of Virginia. He is also a graduate of the FBI National Academy, Session 281.
Sessions: TBA
Carrie Nelson is a writer and editor who believes good writing is good logic, and she loves little more than studying stories to figure out how they work (with the exception of her rescue dog Rudy; she loves him a lot too). Carrie applies what she's learned to the page as well as in the classroom, and she's written screenplays, short stories, and a lot of creative nonfiction, and currently teaches craft-based classes with The Muse.
Sessions: TBA
Lydia Netzer is the author of two novels, Shine Shine Shine and How to Tell Toledo from the Night Sky, both published by St. Martin's Press. Shine Shine Shine was a New York Times Notable Book, a Target Book Club Pick, and a finalist for the LA Times Book Prize. She lives in Norfolk.
Sessions: TBA
Noah Renn has lived as a working writer and educator in Southeastern Virginia for over 15 years. His poetry and nonfiction can be found in various publications both online and in print, and he is the author of Sinking City from Finishing Line Press. He currently leads poetry workshops at the nonprofit literary organization, The Muse Writers Center, in Norfolk, Virginia.
Sessions: TBA
Alison Schoew (say it “Shay”) has been teaching at The Muse Writers Center for ten years or so. She coaxes local, national, and international students (often via Zoom) to celebrate their inner writers. She loves to help engender the prism effect – such different perspectives from the same thing! – that emerges when folks write to the same prompt and then share their work, salon-style, for some positive feedback.
Sessions: TBA
Tim Seibles is the author of several books of poetry including Hurdy-Gurdy and Buffalo Head Solos, published by the Cleveland State University Poetry Center. His fifth collection, Fast Animal, published by Etruscan Press, was a finalist for the 2012 National Book Award and winner of both the Theodore Roethke Memorial Poetry Prize and Pen Oakland Prize for Poetry. One Turn Around The Sun was published by Etruscan in 2017. As the Poet Laureate of Virginia from 2016 to 2018, Seibles traveled the state as an ambassador for poetry. Voodoo Libretto, his new and selected collection, came out in 2022. With No Hat, his latest, has just been released.
Sessions: TBA
Derek Spohn was a member of the board of directors for the Autism Society of Tidewater Virginia from 2021-2023. From 2023-2025, he worked with ASTV as an office assistant. He is on the autism spectrum. He writes science fiction and has had stories published in Alien Dimensions, Everyday Fiction, and 4 Star Stories. He is currently writing a science fiction novel about a war between parallel universes.
Sessions: TBA
Rebecca Tigner, StormyGailArt, is a Virginia based artist best known for her viral Sad Skeleton comics.
Her work centers heavily around mental health and gained popularity during the pandemic. Writing and illustrating short form comics went from a casual hobby to a fulfilling career.
While she still publishes her short comics online her focus has turned to long form graphic novels and teaching.
Sessions: TBA