Annmarie Kelly is the author of Here Be Dragons, a memoir about the wonderful misery of raising children with someone you love. She also hosts Wild Precious Life, a literary podcast about making the most of the time we have. Annmarie teaches writing at Stanford, Tri-C, and Ashland University where she works with incarcerated students trying to obtain their degree. Her essays have appeared on NPR’s All Things Considered, in Today Parenting, and New York Observer among others, and her work has been staged with the Cleveland Humanities Festival and Listen to Your Mother Pittsburgh. She’s received support from the Ohio Arts Council, Tin House, and the Martha’s Vineyard Institute, and last year, Annmarie was named both an Erma Bombeck and Ernest Hemingway Writer-in-Residence. In her non-writing moments, Annmarie loves kickboxing, karaoke, hound dogs, ping-pong, books that make her laugh, movies that make her cry, and salads other people make her eat. She lives in Cleveland, Ohio, where she is currently writing a memoir with the ghost of her father.
Brandi Larsen is a writer, speaker, and strategist. Her work at Penguin Random House helped create NYT bestsellers and her journalism pieces earned the Simon Rockower Award, known as the Jewish Pulitzer, and Emmy nominations. Her talks about publishing, leadership, and purpose inspire audiences from Zoom to Harvard. She served as President Emeritus for Literary Cleveland and writes books, reviews, and essays. Brandi was the 2024 Writer in Residence at the William N. Skirball Writers’ Center, CCPL and the co-writer of NYT-recommended UNCULTURED: A Memoir, from St. Martin's Press. BrandiLarsen.com
