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David R. Collins 2010 Writers’ Conference
June 23, 24, & 25  
St. Ambrose University, 518 W. Locust St., Davenport, Iowa
     
Conference Faculty  

Cecil Murphey
Award-winning writer Cecil (Cec) Murphey has authored or co-authored more than 100 books, including the New York Times bestseller 90 Minutes in Heaven (with Don Piper), and Gifted Hands: The Ben Carson Story (with Dr. Ben Carson). He is also the author of When Someone You Love Has Cancer, When God Turned off the Lights, and Christmas Miracles, all 2009 releases. As he enters 2010, he has nine additional books contracted or finished. His books have sold millions of copies and have brought hope and encouragement to countless people around the world. In addition to his books, Murphey has written hundreds of articles that have appeared in a variety of publications. He stays busy as a professional writer and travels extensively to speak on many topics such as writing, recovery, spiritual growth, care giving, significant living, male sexual abuse, and more. For more information, visit www.cecilmurphey.com. For writing tips, visit his newly launched blog: www.cecmurpheyswritertowriter.blogspot.com.
 

Dr. Roald Tweet
Dr. Tweet is Professor Emeritus of English at Augustana College in Rock Island, where he served as the Conrad Bergendoff Professor in the Humanities, and has written and lectured extensively about the Upper Mississippi and its past. His publications include A History of the Rock Island District Corps of Engineers, 1866-1893 and The Quad Cities: An American Mosaic. His first published work on the river went to print in 1975 and resulted from research conducted while camping along the Mississippi with his family. As part of his ongoing radio series “Rock Island Lines,” he has created more than 1,000 three-minute vignettes inspired by the region's lore.
 
Emma Rainey

Emma Rainey earned an M.F.A. at the University of Iowa’s Nonfiction Writing Program and, for the time being, prefers writing about Iowa. Currently she researches, writes, and edits for the Teaching Company, and holds an adjunct position at Iowa Wesleyan College and Kirkwood Community College. Past undertakings involve serving as artistic director for several dance companies, working with homeless teens, teaching yoga, and volunteering as faculty advisor for ONE, an organization that fights extreme poverty and global diseases in Africa. In January Ms. Rainey organized the first free writing workshop for veterans in Iowa City. Her essays can be found in The Iowa Review, Two Hawks Quarterly, and The Southeast Review among other publications.

 

Eric Butterman
Eric Butterman is a freelance writer and teacher who has written for more than 50 publications, including Glamour and ESPN.com. His articles have allowed him to do everything from chat with Venus Williams about her killer serve to finding out Action Film Director John Woo would actually love to direct a musical. His students have credited his courses with helping them sell an article for as much as $4,000 and make four-figure deals before the course was even over. Butterman concentrates on using actual pitches that sold as examples and taking you through an understanding of every step that goes into succeeding in writing--including negotiating deals and how to turn one assignment into many. He has been a freelance instructor for the Editorial Freelancers Association, JournalismJobs.com and Ed2010.com. In addition, he's lectured at NYU and Harvard.
 
Dr. Stephen Frech
Dr. Stephen Frech has earned degrees from Northwestern University, Washington University in St. Louis, and the University of Cincinnati. He has published three volumes of poetry: Toward Evening and the Day Far Spent (1996), If Not For These Wrinkles of Darkness (2001), and The Dark Villages of Childhood (2009). He is founder and editor of Oneiros Press, publisher of award-winning letterpress poetry broadsides.
 

 

Steve Semken
Steve Semken began Ice Cube Books in 1993 and now bases his press in North Liberty, Iowa. He was one of Radish Magazines award winners for 2009. A publisher of well over 50 books he has focused primarily on place-based writing as a way to better understand how to best live where we do, whether through fiction, nonfiction, poetry, visual arts, or memoir. He is also the author of six books, including The Great Blues (Woodley Press) on great blue herons, which won the Kansas Book Award and Pick Up Stick City (Rivers Bend Press) a novella which Publishers Weekly claimed was “funny, poignant and more than a bit whimsical, this allegorical tale of small town and environmental care is suffused with wonder.” He was also a writer-in-residence at the Island Institute in Sitka, Alaska.
 
Twila Belk
Twila Belk, also known as the Gotta Tell Somebody Gal, is a popular speaker, writer, publicist, and director of two writers conferences—the Quad-Cities Christian Writers Conference and the Presbyterian Writers Conference to be held in Nashville. In addition, she works closely with bestselling author Cecil Murphey as his manager, publicist, and personal assistant. In her full-time work with Cecil Murphey, she has the opportunity to coach and counsel many writers and to work together with industry professionals. For more info, visit www.gottatellsomebody.com.

 

 
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