Biographies of Workshop Leaders

N. Taylor Collins is a professional artist, published writer, national speaker, and shares tips about the creative process in her blog. Her countless journals serve as a basis for much of her creative writing, and give witness to her belief that each person should “leave a trace of his or her life through journaling.” Taylor works from The Annex at her Dover home, which she shares, with her cats and grandson. She currently serves on the board of the Greater Dover Arts Council.
 
Gordon DelGiorno has worked as a film/video producer and event producer for 12 years. With his brother, Greg, he runs the annual Film Brothers Festival of Shorts (under the umbrella of Fringe Wilmington); produces online video commercials for small businesses; and is busy expanding his newest venture, the Film Brothers Movie Co-op.--a combination gallery, lounge, office, and screening room--where Art meets Business and Business meets Art.

Maribeth Fischer’s literary essays have appeared in The Iowa Review and The Yale Review, and have twice been cited as notable in Robert Atwan's Best American Essays. She received a Pushcart Prize for her essay Stillborn, as well as a Smart Family Prize for her essay Lottery.
Her first novel, The Language of Goodbye, was awarded Virginia Commonwealth University's First Novel Award for 2002. Her second novel, The Life You Longed For, which was cited by The Library Journal as “a perfect book-group selection has already sold in five foreign countries. In addition to founding the Rehoboth Beach Writers’ Guild, she teaches workshops in writing and is busy at work on her third novel.
 
 Lisa Graff’s essays have appeared in The Washington Post, Gaithersburg Gazette, Montgomery Village News, Woman’s World, and Kudos, among others. Her personal essay, “No Teacher can Compensate for Neglect Many Kids Suffer at Home” was published in The Washington Post, 1991, and won that year’s AAUW Mass Communications’ Award. She recently wrote a children’s book, Sassy the School Bus Kitten and is working on a novel. As a teacher, she taught high school English, communications and theater, was a leader in the field of English as a second language, K-5; facilitated workshops for new teachers, and wrote and implemented curriculum. An active member of the Rehoboth Beach Writers Guild, she lives in Lewes, Delaware.

Victor Greto is assistant professor of Media Arts at Wesley College in Dover. He has been a journalist for 20 years, most recently as a feature reporter and profile writer for The News Journal. He has covered council meetings to presidential races, written personal columns, extended profiles and pieces about social and cultural trends.  He has won awards for his work at the Colorado Springs Gazette, the South Florida Sun Sentinel, and The News Journal. Since becoming an educator, he has freelanced for The News Journal, Brandywine Signature Magazine, Delaware Today, Laugh! and Delaware Beach Life.

Gerry LaFemina is the author of five books of poetry, including the Bordighera Prize winning The Parakeets of Brooklyn; two books of prose poems, and the short story collection Wish List. His other books include Shattered Hours: Poems 1988 – 1994,  Zarathustraa in Love (prose poems) and Graffiti Heart (winner of the 2001 Anthony Piccione/MAMMOTH Books Prize in Poetry). He is co-translator with Sinan Toprak of Turkish poet Ali Yuce’s Voice Lock Puppet, co-editor of Poetry 30, and co-editor of Evensong: Contemporary American Poets on Spirituality. He co-edits Review Revue, a journal of reviews, interviews and prosody essays. His poetry, fiction, and essays have appeared in Colorado Review, Nimrod, Quarterly West, Connecticut Review, and in the anthologies American Poetry: The Next Generation and New Poems from the Third Coast: Contemporary Michigan Poetry. He also appeared on National Public Radio’s “All Things considered.” A new book of poems, The Vanishing Horizon, will be released in early 2010.  He directs the Frostburg Center for Creative Writing at Frostburg State University where he teaches in the department of English.

James O’Neill Miller, an experienced workshop leader and editor, has read his poetry and held writing workshops throughout the Delaware region. A 2008 graduate of New York University with a MFA in poetry, he is currently an English instructor at the Community College of Philadelphia. His most recent poems have appeared in Simba, Avocet, and the Broadkill Review.

Annie Norman, State Librarian of Delaware 2002 to Present, is a contributing author to The Measure of Library Excellence:Linking the Malcolm Baldrige Criteria and Balanced Scorecard Methods to Assess Service Quality, by D. Wilson & T. DelTufo. She is a recipient of the 2006 Governor’s Team Excellence Award for public libraries’ participation in the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control Energy Answers program, and a charter member of the Delaware Library Book Cart Drill Team, the 2007 Bronze World Champions. As an avid believer in the transformative power libraries have in helping individuals and communities achieve their full potential, she and her staff received the Delaware Quality Award of Merit and the Delaware Library Association Institutional Award in 2005 in recognition of performance excellence principles and practices. 

Billie Travalini’s poetry and fiction has recently appeared in “Another Chicago Magazine,” “The Delaware Poetry Review, “ “Review Revue,” Writers on Writing: Short Story Writers and Their Art, and On the Mason-Dixon Line: An Anthology of Contemporary Delaware Writers, which she co-edited with poet Fleda Brown. She is a fiction editor for The Journal of Caribbean Literatures; edited Teaching Troubled Youth: A Practical Pedagogical Approach and No Place Like Here: an Anthology of Southern Delaware Poetry and Prose. Her memoir, Bloodsisters, was a finalist for the Bakeless Publication Prize, the James Jones Prize and won the Lewis and Clark Discovery Prize. Her work is forthcoming in Gargoyle, Crossing Borders, and Delmarva Review.

Lara M. Zeises is the author of six books for teenagers, including Contents Under Pressure and The Sweet Life of Stella Madison. She has also published two novels under the pseudonym Lola Douglas: True Confessions of a Hollywood Starlet, which was adapted into a Lifetime movie starring multi-platinum recording artist Joanna "JoJo" Levesque and Golden Globe winner Valerie Bertinelli, and its sequel, More Confessions of a Hollywood Starlet. In addition to writing, Lara works for the International Reading Association and teaches creative writing at the University of Delaware. In her spare time (what's that?), Lara enjoys playing Iron Chef in her own kitchen, especially when the secret ingredient is bacon.

Kristin Pleasanton has held the position of Art and Artist Services Coordinator with the Delaware Division of the Arts since 1999.  She is responsible for the individual artist grants and services, visual arts grants and initiatives, public art projects, cultural tourism, overseeing Mezzanine Gallery operations, and managing the biennial Arts Summit. Ms. Pleasanton grew up in Northern Virginia and received a Bachelor of Arts in Art History from the University of Virginia.   She earned a Master’s degree in Art History and Museum Studies from Virginia Commonwealth University.  Her past employment has been as a supervisor with the Delaware State Museums and tourism manager with the Delaware State Chamber of Commerce. She also teaches art history as an adjunct professor at Delaware State University. Her artistic skills include painting and photography.