William Bernhardt, bestselling author of legal thrillers, will present the Keynote Address, as well as a workshop and an additional 40-minute talk.

William Bernhardt is the author of many novels, including Primary Justice, Criminal Intent, Death Row, Haste Crime, Dark Eye, Capitol Murder, Capitol Threat and Capitol Conspiracy, which led Library Journal to dub the author master of the courtroom drama, Silent Justice, and Murder One. He has twice won the Oklahoma Book Award for Best Fiction and in 2000 he was presented the H. Louise Cobb Distinguished Author Award "in recognition of an outstanding body of work in which we understand ourselves and American society at large." A former trial attorney, Bernhardt has received several awards for his public service. He lives in Tulsa with his wife, Marcia, and their children, Harry, Alice, and Ralph. Click here for an interview conducted by Keith Raffel with William Bernhardt at the International Thriller Writers site.

Donald Maass heads the Donald Maass Literary Agency in New York City, which represents more than 150 novelists and sells more than 150 novels every year to publishers in New York and overseas. He is a past president of the Association of Authors Representatives, Inc., and is the author of several books of interest to fiction writers: THE CAREER NOVELIST (now available as a free download from his agency’s website), WRITING THE BREAKOUT NOVEL, and WRITING THE BREAKOUT NOVEL WORKBOOK. In May 2009, Writers Digest Press will publish his next book, THE FIRE IN FICTION: Passion, Purpose and Techniques to Make Your Novel Great.

Lisa Rector, is an award-winning writer and independent editor in New York City. A late stage story specialist, she focuses on what is often the final and most elusive 10% required of authors pre-publication - what works in a manuscript, what doesn’t and why. Lisa works with thrillers, suspense, mystery, historical, fantasy, YA, mainstream and literary fiction. At 17, she became the youngest writer at BC Woman magazine in Vancouver, Canada. Lisa has since been a journalist, publicist, bookseller, agent and editor. She has served on the Surrey International Writers’ Conference board and is a staff editor at Donald Maass’s Breakout Novel Workshops. She teaches advanced fiction and editing techniques at conferences worldwide, is the founder of the Lisa Rector Young Writer’s Scholarship and author of the upcoming book The Third Draft.

Aryn Kyle grew up in Grand Junction, Colorado, and received her MFA in fiction from the University of Montana. Her writing has appeared in The Atlantic Monthly, Ploughshares, The Georgia Review, Best New American Voices 2005, Best American Short Stories 2007, and elsewhere. Aryn is the recipient of a Rona Jaffe Award and a National Magazine Award in fiction. She lives in Missoula, Montana.

Tina Ann Forkner grew up in Oklahoma and graduated with honors from CSU Sacramento before settling in Wyoming. She lives in Cheyenne with her husband, their three bright children, and their dog Sassy. Tina serves on the Laramie County Library Foundation Board of Directors and is the author of Ruby Among Us, her debut novel, and Rose House, which releases from Waterbrook Press/Random House in May.

Rudy Wright is the author of “Tehran Mission” a novel based on the failed Iran hostage rescue mission. His career spans 50 years. On graduation from the University of Iowa with a degree in journalism and film studies, he served five years as an Army infantry officer. He is a highly decorated veteran of the Korean war and later served in Special Forces where he gained the knowledge of covert operations demonstrated in his novel. Following his military career, Wright held positions as a film and television director and producer creating various documentaries and pioneering multi-image productions for corporate events. He is a member of Directors Guild and recipient of several awards for his creativity. He later formed a conference management company and was often in demand as a speaker. Wright taught the subject at Cornell and Colorado Universities and authored three related business books, the most recent being “Global Meetings and Exhibitions.” published by Wiley and Sons. A second novel, based in today’s turbulent Middle East, is in the works.

Colleen's first job in publishing was in Northern California as a mass merchandise sales assistant for Ballantine Books. For five years she served as Director of Publicity for Del Rey Books where she specialized in the creative publicity and marketing of science fiction, fantasy, pop culture, YA fantasy, graphic novels, manga and third-party licensed media. She has also worked as a freelance publicist, copywriter, and online marketer for several major trade publishers and as a book reviewer for the San Francisco Chronicle. Colleen also spent twelve years working as floor manager, backlist buyer and events manager at several San Francisco Bay Area independent bookstores.

Colleen is primarily interested in all kinds of fiction: She likes quirky, edgy or offbeat fiction, both literary and commercial; women's fiction; historical fiction; high-concept thrillers, mysteries and crime novels; queer fiction; and graphic novels. Colleen also has a particular expertise in fantasy, science fiction urban fantasy, paranormal romance and other speculative sub-genres and always welcomes a well-written SF/F novel. Additionally, Colleen is looking for YA, particularly multicultural YA, YA that tackles social taboos and other issues, and YA fantasy.

In non-fiction, she's looking for strong narrative non-fiction, works of LGBT interest, pop culture and books dealing with Web 2.0 and non-traditional marketing.

Read an interview with Ms. Lindsay.