Presenters and Panelists
shirlette ammons
A Black queer southern storyteller from Beaufort County, NC, shirlette ammons is an Emmy and Peabody award-winning TV producer, published poet, and musician. Her production credits include the acclaimed documentary May the Lord Watch: The Little Brother Story and the Emmy and Peabody Award-winning PBS series A Chef's Life and Somewhere South.
T. Rafael Cimino
Rafael Cimino is a Founding Partner at Akula Literary Partners, an incubator for film and television projects. His industry credits include HBO's Big Little Lies, Hulu's Nine Perfect Strangers, and the political roundtable Real Time with Bill Maher. He also serves as a jurist for the Television Academy's Emmy Awards.
David Dickson
Born in 1963 at Perrin Field in Grayson County, Texas, to a fighter pilot father and musically gifted mother, David Dickson is a product of the North Carolina public education system who spent 27 years as a secondary school teacher. He now divides his time between Texas and North Carolina. His short story collection, Down to the Root, is published by Redhawk Publications.
Lauren Harr
Lauren Harr co-founded Gold Leaf Literary Services, an Asheville-based company offering marketing, publicity, consultation, and education services to authors and publishers. With over twenty years in the book industry, she holds an MFA from Spalding University's Naslund-Mann Graduate School of Writing and lives in Western North Carolina with her husband and daughter.
Andrew Mack
Andrew Mack founded and manages Loblolly Press, an Asheville-based independent publisher that amplifies queer, BIPOC, rural, and other underrepresented voices from the American South. A poet and author of Weekend Revival, What the River Was, Beasts of Chase, and the forthcoming Fury (2026), he lives in Asheville, NC.
Laura Hart McKinny
Laura Hart McKinny is a full professor, writer, and producer who has taught screenwriting for more than 20 years at the School of Filmmaking at the UNC School of the Arts. Along with her son, she runs Stone’s Throw Films, Inc., producing projects such as the Ashetree: Pig Helmet’s Return webseries, and the film Susie’s Hope. McKinny has also written and co-produced the documentaries In Broad Daylight and Remembering Frederic: Life of a Genius, as well as a film stage adaptation of John Ehle’s novel The Land Breakers. Her book, Men Against Women, was published in 2015.
Dawn Reshen-Doty
Dawn Reshen-Doty is publisher and managing partner of For Beginners®, a graphic nonfiction series that makes complex ideas accessible to general readers. Each book presents the works of great thinkers and diverse subjects in a clear, approachable format. The series covers topics from philosophy to politics and art, featuring a humorous comic book style.
Tony Robles
Hendersonville-based writer Tony Robles co-hosts Listen & Be Heard Radio for Readers and Writers. In 2020, he was named Carl Sandburg Writer in Residence by the Friends of Carl Sandburg at Connemara and was shortlisted for Poet Laureate of San Francisco in 2017. After earning his MFA in creative writing from Vermont College of Fine Arts in 2023, he now teaches aspiring writers at Lenoir-Rhyne University's graduate program.
Jaynie Royal
Jaynie Royal founded Regal House Publishing (RHP) in 2014 and has guided its expansion to include imprints Fitzroy Books, Pact Press, and House of Kel, plus nonprofit arm Regal House Initiative. Named Independent Publisher of the Year in 2021 by Foreword Reviews, RHP is distributed by IPG and publishes approximately 46 new titles annually. Royal holds degrees in history and archaeology and lives in North Carolina.
Etaf Rum
Palestinian-American author Etaf Rum achieved New York Times bestseller status with her debut novel, A Woman Is No Man, which was selected as a Today Show Read with Jenna book club pick. Her latest novel, Evil Eye, was recognized as an NPR Best Book of the Year, establishing her as a prominent voice in literary fiction that spans continents and histories.
Patty Thompson
Patty Thompson serves as acquisition editor at Redhawk Publications, a creative initiative of Catawba Valley Community College in Hickory, NC. She evaluates manuscripts, negotiates contracts, shepherds accepted titles through the publishing process, and develops marketing strategies for book launches. Thompson earned her Master's degree in Education from George Washington University and her Bachelor's degree in English Literature from Georgetown University.
Kevin Morgan Watson
As publisher and editor in chief at Press 53 in Winston-Salem, Kevin Morgan Watson focuses on poetry and short fiction collections. Prime Number Magazine publishes distinctive poetry, short fiction, and flash nonfiction, including winners of their popular monthly 53-Word Story Contest, which has gained traction with educators worldwide.
Rhonda Browning White
Hickory, NC resident Rhonda Browning White published her debut novel Filling the Big Empty in November 2024 through Redhawk Publications. She serves as project editor for The Appalachian Grit Lit Anthology, forthcoming with Redhawk Publications in 2025. White received the 2019 Press 53 Award for Short Fiction for her collection The Lightness of Water and Other Stories and holds an MFA in Creative Writing from Converse University in Spartanburg, SC.