2017 WBTV Retreats
Tinhorn Creek Vineyards – February
Elyse Hauser is a Seattle-based writer and editor with a Master's in Writing Studies from Saint Joseph's University in Philadelphia. She loves writing for small or alternative publications that feature voices and issues often overlooked by other media, but she is glad to write anywhere there’s a story that needs to be told. A passion for working to resolve inequality informs her work on all levels.
Moshin Vineyards – February
Nan Kavanaugh is the editor-at-large of First Coast Media Group, a subsidiary of Times Union Media in Jacksonville, Florida. She is a graduate of the University of North Carolina in Asheville with a BA degree in English/Concentration in Creative Writing and the University of North Florida with an MA in English/Composition and Rhetoric. A freelance writer with over a decade of experience, the scope of her published articles stretch over a wide range topics ranging from the prison industry to tomato pie. In spring of 2015 her creative non-fiction work "Woman Oaxaca" was published in Bridge Eight Literary Magazine. In 2016, she was a participating writer in the Jax by Jax Literary Arts Festival. As a seventh-generation Floridian who has lived on both coasts of the state, Nan has a deep appreciation for the eccentricities of the Sunshine State.
Tara Bella Vineyards – March
Elissa Bassist is an essayist, humor writer, and editor of the Funny Women column on TheRumpus.net. Her writing has appeared in The New York Times, Marie Claire, Marie Claire Australia & UK, Creative Nonfiction Men’s Health, NewYorker.com, NYMag.com, The Paris Review Daily The Hairpin, Vela, Medium, The Los Angeles Review of Books, Slate, The Daily Beast, Fast Company, Salon, Yen Magazine, and The Rumpus. Currently, she is a writers’ assistant for the Emmy-nominated series In Performance at the White House and The Mark Twain Prize for American Humor (past honorees include Will Ferrell, Ellen DeGeneres, Carol Burnett, Eddie Murphy, and Bill Murray), filmed annually at the Kennedy Center and airing on PBS. She teaches “That’s What She Said: A Humor Writing Workshop” at The New School, The New School Summer Writers Colony, and Catapult.
Moshin Vineyards – March
Aaron Rabinowitz lives in Vancouver, B.C and has been writing independently for five years, primarily focusing on creating young adult literature. He has written two young adult novels, Junior Slump and Below Daylight, that are currently being pitched to major publishing houses. He is currently working on Parallel Post a novel about a young man who discovers his daredevil best friend has disappeared. His mom is subjecting him to an all-vegan diet. He’s inadvertently slipped through a one-way portal to a parallel world. And it’s only Monday.
Moshin Vineyards – April
Grace Hwang Lynch Is a journalist and essayist, she write about issues involving race, culture, parenting, food -- and often the intersection of all of the above. She’s been a contributor to PBS, PRI, Library Journal, and Mom.me, and served as the news editor for BlogHer.com. She also runs the award-winning blog HapaMama, which focuses on experiences of mixed race Asian American families. Whether through journalism or creative writing, her goal is to create narratives that illuminate the life in our increasingly diverse society.