Literary agent helps writers prepare query letters at Guild’s July 12 workshop

Inklings Literary Agent Whitley Abell

Literary agent Whitley Abell will help writers gear up for the Publish Your Dreams contest by explaining the dos and don’ts of writing query letters from 10 a.m. to noon, July 12, at the St. Louis Writers Guild (SLWG) workshop.

Whitley, who joined Inklings Literary Agency in 2013, will also talk about what agents look for in submissions. The workshop will be held at the Kirkwood Community Center, 111 S. Geyer Rd. in Kirkwood. Free to St. Louis Writers Guild members; $5 for nonmembers.

Jennifer Stolzer, SLWG secretary and contest coordinator, will join Whitley to explain the Guild’s submission guidelines for the members-only Publish Your Dreams contest. The winner will be announced Aug. 23 at SLWG’s free conference, Writers in the Park.

Prior to joining Inklings Literary Agency, Whitley completed successful internships with Carol Mann Agency and P.S. Literary Agency. She is based in St. Louis, Mo., where she daylights as a production manager for several medical and S & T journals. She graduated in 2011 BA in English and Creative Writing, and again in 2012 with a MAT in Secondary English Education, which basically means she can tell you anything there is to know about feminist literary theory and the Common Core Standards. Whitley is primarily interested in Young Adult, Middle Grade, and select Upmarket Women's fiction.

The winner of SLWG’s Publish Your Dreams contest and entries from other Missouri Writers’ Guild chapters will be submitted to Walrus Publishing Inc. for possible publication. If the SLWG manuscript is selected, it will be placed on their editorial schedule for publication between Winter 2015 and Summer 2016, said Walrus founder Lisa Miller. If not selected, Walrus will provide a one-page review of the manuscript with recommendations for editorial assistance.

Learn more about the St. Louis Writers Guild at www.stlwritersguild.org

Guild workshop 9/7 focuses on Publishing Perspectives

Writers can explore options for getting published at the Sept. 7 “Publishing Perspectives” workshop sponsored by the St. Louis Writers Guild. Representatives of Walrus Publishing, Blank Slate Press/Treehouse Publishing, Month9Books and a nonfiction and poetry educator/editor will explain their services and answer questions from 10 a.m. to noon at the Kirkwood Community Center, 111 S. Geyer Road in Kirkwood. Free to Guild members, $5 for nonmembers.

Lisa Miller

Lisa Miller founded Walrus Publishing, Inc. in 2008 with the mission to contribute to the Saint Louis Literary Community by publishing talented St. Louis writers. Walrus Publishing has three titles in print thus far and has several more “in the works.” Lisa is a member of the St. Louis Writers Guild, the Missouri Writers Guild, and a founding member of the St. Louis Literary Consortium. This year she is honored to serve as the Conference Committee Chair for the Missouri Writers Guild. Lisa has a B.A. in English from the University of Baltimore and an M.A. in English from the University of Missouri-St. Louis. She has most recently published her debut novel¸ Halfway There.

Kristina Makansi

 Born and raised in Southern Illinois, Kristina Makansi has a B.A. in Government from University of Texas at Austin and a M.A.T. from the College of New Jersey and an opinion on everything. She has worked as a copywriter, marketing coordinator, web and collateral designer, editor, and publisher. In 2010, she co-founded Blank Slate Press, an award-winning small press focusing on debut authors in the greater St. Louis area, and in 2013, she co-founded Treehouse Publishing Group, an author services and assisted-publishing partnership. Her current writing projects include co-writing and self-publishing The Sowing, the first book in The Seeds Trilogy, and she is hard at work revising her historical fiction, Oracles of Delphi, set in ancient Greece.

Catherine Rankovic

Catherine Rankovic’s books include Meet Me: Writers in St. Louis; Island Universe: Essays and Entertainments; Fierce Consent and Other Poems; and Guilty Pleasures: Indulgences, Addictions, and Obsessions. She has published her poems in numerous print and online magazines. She received her M.F.A. from Washington University in St. Louis, where she taught from 1989 to 2010; she now teaches poetry writing and creative nonfiction writing in the online M.F.A. program at Lindenwood University and is a professional editor of poetry and prose manuscripts at BookEval.com.

Mandy Schoen

Mandy Schoen is a senior editor of Month9Books, LLC, and the managing editor of Swoon Romance (a digital romance imprint of Month9Books, LLC) and otherwise keeps plenty busy traveling the world, slaying dragons, falling in love, and whatever else her "To Be Read" pile has in store for her. When she’s not reading, hanging out with her family, or acquiring and editing incredible stories for Swoon Romance, she can usually be found huddling over a cup of flavored coffee. She lives in a suburb of St. Louis, Missouri, with her husband, her boxer, and her Nook, but it’s probably easier to find her on Twitter at @Mandy_Schoen.