Midge Raymond has more than fifteen years of experience teaching writing, including journalism, creative writing, and English as a Second Language. She has a bachelor's degree in English and psychology as well as a master's in communication, and she has been writing professionally for more than twenty years.

Midge's short-story collection, Forgetting English, received the Spokane Prize for Short Fiction and is forthcoming from Eastern Washington University Press in the fall of 2008. Her fiction and nonfiction has appeared in a variety of newspapers and magazines, including the Los Angeles Times, Bellevue Literary Review, Ontario Review, Indiana Review, North American Review, and others.

Midge's career in publishing includes working as an editor and copywriter for such publishing houses as Penguin Putnam, Bantam Doubleday Dell, and Houghton Mifflin. She taught communication writing at Boston University for six years and also teaches at San Diego Writers, Ink, where she serves on the board of directors.

For more information, visit www.midgeraymond.com.

John Yunker's work has appeared in various newspapers and journals throughout the country, from technical trade publications to literary magazines. His sitcom pilot Fast Ice was chosen as a finalist for the Bravo television network production Situation: Comedy. Most recently, his short story "The Tourist Trail" won Phoebe's 2008 Winter Fiction Contest, judged by Peter Orner, and appears in the fall 2008 issue.

His book Beyond Borders: Web Globalization Strategies is a bestseller in the field. He is also editor of Global By Design.

John has a bachelor's degree in journalism from the University of Missouri at Columbia and a master's in film and broadcasting from Boston University.

Garrett Chaffin-Quiray received his bachelor's and master's degrees from the University of Southern California's School of Cinema-Television, and he was a Graduate Fellow in Cinema Studies at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts. He has worked in public relations and media promotion in Hollywood, where he was also a production assistant for Largo Entertainment.

Garrett's extensive publications on film and television have been published in such books as 1,001 Movies You Must See Before You Die, The Silver Catwalk, and 501 Movie Stars. He has also published essays and reviews in the San Francisco Chronicle, Film Quarterly, and Writers' Journal. He has taught film and television at the University of Southern California's School of Cinema-Television in Los Angeles and currently teaches in the Radio-Television and Cinema Programs at Palomar College.

Amy E. Dean is the author of more than a dozen books, including her memoir Letters to My Birthmother: An Adoptee's Diary of Her Search for Her Identity (Pharos Books). Her nonfiction books also include Night Light: A Book of Nighttime Meditations (Hazelden/Harper & Row); First Light: Morning Meditations for Awakening to the Living Planet (Berkley); Proud to Be: Daily Meditations for Lesbians and Gay Men (Bantam); Natural Act: Reconnecting with Nature to Recover Community, Spirit & Self (M. Evans); Caring for the Family Soul (Berkley); and Growing Older, Growing Better (Hay House). She is also the author of several novels, including Between Girlfriends and The Perils of Sisterhood, both published by Kensington.

Amy has worked as a writer, editor, and marketing/communications executive at the National Fire Protection Association, Worcester Polytechnic Institute, and Boston University, where she has been a guest lecturer in the Writing Program. Amy is based in Grafton, Massachusetts.

By email: writing@metrowriting.com
By phone: 760.208.1913

Metropolitan Writing Works
302 Washington Street #806
San Diego, CA 92103