Plenary and Workshop Presenters - 2010 QUIP Writers Conference
J. Brent Bill is a writer, photographer, retreat leader, and Quaker minister. Brent’s the author and co-author of many books including Sacred Compass: The Way of Spiritual Discernment and Holy Silence: The Gift of Quaker Spirituality, in addition to more than 100 short stories and non-fiction articles. He also is the author of the popular blog HolyOrdinary (holyordinary.blogspot.com). He’s been called “a substantial spiritual guide, but never in a flashy way. Think of – oh, perhaps something like Mister Rogers meets the Dalai Lama.” He can be reached through his website www.brentbill.com.
Becky Birtha grew up in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She holds an M.F.A. in creative writing from Vermont College and a B.S. in children’s studies from SUNY at Buffalo. Her honors include a Pennsylvania Council on the Arts Individual Fellowship and a National Endowment for the Arts Creative Writing Fellowship. She has published three books of poetry, including the 1991 collection The Forbidden Poems, and Grandmama's Pride, her first children’s book. Her work is included in several anthologies. Becky writes, “I always liked to write. I wrote stories and poems. When I was in 5th grade, my school had a poetry contest and I won first prize with a poem about my teacher. The prize was a silver dollar. I still have it.” She has done many things to support herself including teaching pre-school and writing, and working in libraries and book stores.
Paul Buckley is known among Friends for his books, The Quaker Bible Reader, Twenty-First Century Penn, Owning the Lord’s Prayer, and The Journal of Elias Hicks, and for many articles on the history, faith, and practice of the Religious Society of Friends. He gives short courses, workshops, and retreats for groups across the Quaker spectrum and occasionally teaches at the Earlham School of Religion.
Paul has three incredible children and three even more amazing grandchildren. He lives in Indianapolis with his beloved wife, Peggy.
Mary Crauderueff is a graduate of Earlham College ('07) and the University of Maryland's iSchool ('09) with her Masters in Library Science with a specialization in Archives, Records, and Information Management. Mary is currently the project Archivist for the Pan Smithsonian Cryo Initiative Project. She is currently revising two papers. One is on Quaker children's books, exploring them over time, asking the question of where the modern fiction books with Quaker protagonists for younger readers (14 and younger) are. The second is on the challenges of preserving Quaker invovlement in Web 2.0 technologies, focusing on relating blogs to what paper journals and pamphlets were in the past - "if George Fox had a blog and Twittered, what would he say, and would we know to preserve it?" She is hoping to publish and/or present both of these papers in the near future. She is also interested in reviving a research topic she started to research in her udergraduate career, which is the role of equality in the Quaker marriage process and how that leads to equality within a Quaker marriage (or if it doesn't...). Mary loves to talk about Quaker involvement in Web 2.0 - blogs, Twitter, Facebook, etc., and how these technologies have changed the ways we communicate and relate to each other. She loves talking about any or all of her research topics, please feel free to contact her! Mary enjoys journaling and doing other reflective writing. She looks forward to her workshop on using Archives in a Web 2.0 world.
Cheryl Gibbs is a visiting assistant professor of journalism at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, where she teaches a variety of journalism courses. She is the co-author of Getting the Whole Story: Reporting and Writing the News, published by The Guilford Press in New York in 2002 and translated into Mandarin Chinese for publication in 2004 by Xinhua Publishing House in the Republic of China. Before she joined the Miami faculty in 2004, she was the director of the journalism program at Earlham College and advisor to the student newspaper, The Earlham Word, for 11 years. In addition, she worked with the Project on Public Life and the Press during the 1990s and with the Charles F. Kettering Foundation of Dayton, Ohio. She has collaborated with journalists and journalism educators in Colombia, South America, and has been a guest lecturer in post-graduate courses and seminars for journalists at universities in Bogotá and Medellín. She has 12 years of full-time experience as a daily newspaper reporter and editor, serving as a cops-and-courts reporter, arts writer, features editor, regional editor, city editor and weekend news editor at two small daily newspapers. She also worked on several projects with the Dayton (Ohio) Daily News, spent a summer in a Radio and Television News Directors Foundation fellowship at WBNS-TV in Columbus, Ohio, and has done freelance writing for The Associated Press, The Los Angeles Times and numerous other publications. She still writes theater and music reviews for her local paper, the Palladium-Item in Richmond, Ind. She earned her master’s degree in journalism from Ball State University in Muncie, Ind., in 1995, and her bachelor’s degree in theater arts from the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, in 1984.
Tom Hamm is a native of New Castle, Indiana, and now lives ten minutes away from his birthplace in Spiceland, Indiana. He did his undergraduate work at Butler University, and received his Ph.D. in U.S. history from Indiana University in 1985. Since 1987 he has been on the faculty at Earlham College, where he is college archivist, curator of the Friends Collection, and Professor of History, specializing in the history of Quakerism. He has written extensively on Indiana and Quaker history, including three books published by Indiana University Press: The Transformation of American Quakerism: Orthodox Friends, 1800-1907 (1988); God's Government Begun: The Society for Universal Inquiry and Reform, 1842-1846 (1995); and Earlham College: A History, 1847-1997. His most recent book is The Quakers in America, published by Columbia University Press in 2003. His current project is a book on Hicksite Friends between 1827 and 1900 and a collection of Quaker texts from 1650 to 1920 that will be published by Penguin Books. He is a member of First Friends Meeting in New Castle, Indiana, and has served Indiana Yearly Meeting in several capacities, including recording clerk from 2002 to 2008. He has served as president of the Indiana Library and Historical Board since 1999, and as a member of the Pendle Hill General Board since 2004.
Vanessa Julye was raised in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and lives there now with her husband, Barry Scott. She graduated Westtown School and obtained a Bachelors Degree from Temple University. She is an active member of the Religious Society of Friends, serving on numerous committees in her local meeting (Central Philadelphia Monthly Meeting) and Philadelphia Yearly Meeting, as well as on the boards of Quaker organizations. Presently she serves Friends General Conference as Coordinator for the Committee for Ministry on Racism. Vanessa has a calling to ministry with a concern for helping the Religious Society of Friends become a whole blessed community. She has written several articles about her experience as a Friend of Color in the Religious Society of Friends and leads workshops about racism, focusing on its eradication and the healing of racism's wounds. Recently, Vanessa co-authored a book that explores the relationship between African Americans and Quakers from the 17th Century to the present day. Fit for Freedom, Not for Friendship: Quakers, African Americans and the Myth of Racial Justice (Quaker Press of FGC, 2009).
Callid Keefe-Perry is an Educator, Artist, and Community Builder. By training and certification he has been a public school teacher, focusing on English Language Arts and Social Studies. More recently he has been studying theology and theatre. By inclination he is a creator, always making something new. He has been involved in public storytelling and music since he was 11, theatre since 14, writing poetry since 19, and public ministry since 23. Callid likes to think of himself as a pragmatic idealist, so while he dreams big, he is also someone to focus on the nitty-gritty. He loves the profound and poetic but is not happy speaking only in the abstract: faith is to be lived. While he has a diverse background and a variety of skills, Callid's Membership in the Religious Society of Friends is of particular importance for him. He and his wife Kristina carry New York Yearly Meeting endorsed Minutes of Travel for Ministry within, and beyond, Quaker Meetings, and much of this work focuses on deepening faithfulness and the role that language plays in shaping dreams and hopes for the future. Go to his website at http://callidkeefeperry.com/ for more information.
Donna L. McDaniel is the author, with Vanessa Julye, of Fit for Freedom, Not for Friendship: Quakers, African Americans and the Myth of Racial Justice (Quaker Press of FGC, 2009). She has a B.A. in history from Tufts University and an M.Ed. from Boston University. She was a social studies teacher and school counselor in Japan and Germany and taught human development at Indiana University and Emmanuel College. Changing careers, she became a daily newspaper reporter and went on to freelance writing and editing for newsletters on urban affairs and conflict resolution at MIT and Harvard Law School. She has extensive experience in local and state government and writes a biweekly column for a local newspaper. Donna has volunteered with an at-risk youth program in Boston, served as a member of the Massachusetts Council of Churches Ecumenical Task Force on Racism, and is on New England Yearly Meeting’s Working Party on Racism. She sings with Sharing A New Song (SANS), a Boston-area chorus that travels abroad sharing music to bring people together, and with the Boston Community Choir, a racially mixed Gospel group that performs all over greater Boston. A member of Framingham (Mass.) Friends Meeting, in 2001-2002 she was the Henry J. Cadbury Scholar at Pendle Hill to begin work on Fit for Freedom.
Zachary Moon is a life-long Quaker and member of Strawberry Creek Friends Meeting, Pacific Yearly Meeting. Zachary regularly travels in the ministry, serving on various committees, and teaching on a range of topics including Bible, Quaker theology and practice, and transformative community organizing. He is currently completing a Master of Divinity program at Chicago Theological Seminary.
Gil Skidmore is a British writer, publisher and convinced Friend who has spent many years researching the lives and writings of Quakers. She has a special interest in spiritual autobiography and was awarded a Joseph Rowntree fellowship in 1994 to take a workshop on the subject around the UK, work that she continued for the next 10 years. Her publications include Turning Inside Out: An Exploration of Spiritual Autobiography (1996), Dear Friends and Sisters: 25 Short Biographies of Quaker Women (1998), Dear Friends and Brethren: 25 Short Biographies of Quaker Men (2000), Strength in Weakness: writings by eighteenth century Quaker women (2003) and Elizabeth Fry: A Quaker Life (2005). She is clerk of Friends Historical Society and co-clerk of QUIP (Quakers Uniting in Publications) and is currently working on a biography of Catherine Payton Phillips (1727-1794).
Susan Yanos is the director of the Mullen Ministry of Writing Program at Earlham School of Religion. Besides teaching writing and literature classes, she has conducted writing workshops for COAL in Central America, made presentations on Scripture and spirituality, and directed women’s retreats. She is the author of Woman, You Are Free (St. Anthony Messenger Press, 2001), a winner in the Catholic Press Association’s first time author category, as well as several short stories and essays. She holds degrees in biology, literature, and pastoral theology.
The Youth Book Editorial Board is composed of ten young people from around the Quaker world, all of whom hope to attend the conference. They recently finished collecting and editing 210 pieces of writing and visual art by over 150 teenage and young adult Friends from 16 countries, including Australia, Bolivia, Burundi, Canada, Cuba, Guatemala, El Salvador, Italy, Kenya, Korea, New Zealand, Nepal, Norway, Sweden, the United Kingdom and the United States for Spirit Rising: Young Quakers Speak. The forthcoming Quaker youth book includes the work of young people from all major contemporary theological branches of the Religious Society of Friends. The book is truly an unprecedented accomplishment among Friends and a profound gift of the Spirit. Spirit Rising: Young Quakers Speak will be released at the Writers' Conference and some members of the editorial board will present a workshop. For more about the book go to Quaker Youth Book Project of QUIP