Publishing Panel - OCWW welcomes editors from the Birmingham Poetry Review, Kensington Publishing, Northwestern University Press, She Writes Press, and Spark Press to offer their insights and answer your questions on the pathways to publication.
Adam Vines is Professor of English and Director of Creative Writing at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. He is the author of five collections—the latest, Lures (LSU Press, 2022), and his poems have appeared in The Southern Review, Kenyon Review, and Poetry, among others. He is the Editor of Birmingham Poetry Review, which celebrates its 50th issue this year. BPR received AWP’s 2020 Small Press Publisher Award, and poems from BPR are reprinted regularly on Poetry Daily and Verse Daily and appeared in the Best American Poetry anthology in 2014, 2016, 2018, and 2023 and in the Pushcart anthology in 2020.
Megan Stielstra is the author of three collections: Everyone Remain Calm, Once I Was Cool, and The Wrong Way to Save Your Life. Her work appears in Best American Essays, New York Times, The Believer, Tin House, and on National Public Radio. She teaches creative nonfiction at Northwestern University and is an editor-at-large at Northwestern University Press.
James Abbate is an Associate Editor at New York-based Kensington Publishing, the largest independent and family-owned publisher in the U.S. nation, based in New York. A graduate of SUNY Binghamton and Pace University, he has been working at Kensington for over a decade in both the editorial and sales departments. He actively acquires books in most genres, including the historical fiction, nonfiction (biography, memoir, pop science, music, culture, true crime), suspense, and thriller markets, with a particular emphasis on WWII fiction and nonfiction.
Brooke Warner is publisher of She Writes Press and SparkPress, president of Warner Coaching Inc., and author of Write On, Sisters!, Green-light Your Book, What's Your Book?, and three books on memoir. Brooke is a TEDx speaker, weekly podcaster (of Write-minded with co-host Grant Faulkner of NaNoWriMo), and the former Executive Editor of Seal Press. She writes a regular column for Publishers Weekly.
