Click on each heading to expand or contract each section. Session descriptions will display under their designated time.

Please take a moment to read the short bios provided by the presenters. You will see that our presenters come from a variety of universities and healthcare practices, but they share one thing in common.  They all believe in the efficacy of writing to maintain one’s health and to aid in recovering from a serious illness, whether it is mental, physical or spiritual.

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Franklin Abbott, LCSW has been writing a lot more as a consequence of being part of the Ninth Muse Writing Group. In the past, he has published three anthologies on men’s issues, the most recent being a second edition of Boyhood: Growing Up Male, 1998, University of Wisconsin Press. He is a poet and his book of poetry, published by RFD Press in 1999 is titled Mortal Love. He has given readings and workshops through the U.S. and abroad. He coordinates the community poetry reading series at Atlanta’s Outwrite Books and is Chairperson of the Atlanta Queer Literary Festival. He has been in private practice as a clinical social worker for almost thirty years. He believes that psychotherapy when it is good is good poetry and good poetry is psychotherapy.

Sara Baker, MA, is a published fiction writer and poet, Sara Baker studied English Literature from Boston College, and has taught at The Georgia Institute of Technology, The University of Georgia and Piedmont College. She has been an Artist-in-Residence for the State of Georgia. She created the Healing Writing Workshop at the Loran Smith Center for Cancer Support at Athens Regional Medical Center in Athens, Georgia. She has poems forthcoming in The Journal of Poetry Therapy, and has been published in the Healing Muse, the Yale Journal for Humanities in Medicine, and in ARS MEDICA, as well as other venues.

LaDonna Benedict, LPC is a Licensed Professional Counselor, currently retired and formerly in the private sector as a Certified Catastrophic Rehabilitation Counselor in the Workers’ Compensation area. In another time and place she taught high school English. Her degrees are in education and counseling. Writing has been her favorite muse; and, in fact, her first semester of college was paid for with a Rotary Club monetary award for an essay contest. As a graduate student award, one of her essays on workers’ compensation was published in the journal Rehabilitation Counseling. LaDonna has written an as of yet unpublished novel Love’s Blind Aim. She is very humbled and grateful to be part of the Ninth Muse Writing Group, even though, or maybe especially because of, her tendency to drag her feet (or in this case her pen) when it comes to actually writing.

Susan Borkin, MA, is a passionate believer in the transformative power of journaling. She is also a psychotherapist and writing coach, specializing in the use of writing for personal and professional growth. Her focus is on helping people overcome creative blocks and achieve deep personal transformation through the use of writing. She has been teaching workshops on journal writing since 1978 and is the author of When Your Heart Speaks, Take Good Notes: The Healing Power of Writing and Writing From the Inside Out: Using a Journal for Personal Growth & Transformation. Visit Susan on line at SusanBorkin.com or write to her at susan@susanborkin.com

Grey Brown, MA, is the director of the Literary Arts Program for Health Arts Network at Duke Medical Center, DUMC. As director she facilitates the weekly literary arts discussions and readings of the Osler Literary Roundtable, offers journaling workshops to adult psychiatric patients and works with women on bed rest facing high-risk pregnancies encouraging them to write to reduce stress and depression. She is the editor of seven issues of They Wrote Us a Poem, anthologies of poems by patients, staff and visitors of Duke Medical Center and the curator of the Poetry in the Halls exhibit featuring poems by Galway Kinnell, Nikki Giovanni, Lucille Clifton, Li Young Lee, Langston Hughes and others. Her interest in offering writing to patients and staff of a medical center began when she first volunteered and later served as a teaching assistant to Sharon Olds in the creative writing program for patients of Goldwater Memorial Hospital of New York. She served on the planning committee and was a presenter at the Poetry and Medicine Conference at Duke in 2004.

Austin Bunn, MFA, is the Axton Fellow in Fiction writing at the University of Louisville, and a 2007 graduate of the Iowa Writers' Workshop (in both fiction and playwriting). In the fall, Bunn will begin a tenure-track assistant professorship at Grand Valley State University, part of the Michigan State system. He is the creator of the Patient Voice Project, and have written for variety of major magazines, including The New York Times Magazine, Wired, The Village Voice, The Advocate and otherwise.

Angela Buttimer, MS, LPC, is a licensed psychotherapist in private practice in Atlanta. She also works with cancer patients and survivors at Cancer Wellness at Piedmont Hospital, facilitating groups including Writing for Recovery, Mindfulness, and Gynecological Support Groups. Her focus with clients emphasizes the mind, body, spirit connection. She also enjoys facilitating personal growth and healing workshops and retreats to the public. She has worked in various settings including corporate, universities, employee assistance programs, hospitals, non-profits, and private practice.

Rosemary Daniell, MA, is the founder and leader of Zona Rosa, a series of writing groups she leads all over the country and in Europe; over 60 participants have become published authors; she is known as one of the best writing coaches in the country. Rosemary's recent book,Secrets of Zona Rosa: How Writing (and Sisterhood) Can Change Women's Lives, was published by Henry Holt and Company in May, 2006. Its prequel, The Woman who Spilled Words All over Herself: Writing and Living the Zona Rosa Way, was published by Faber and Faber in 1997. Rosemary is the author of the award-winning Southern memoir, Fatal Flowers: On Sin, Sex and Suicide in the Deep South, written just after her mother's suicide, her alcoholic father's death;, as well as the ground-breaking memoir, Sleeping with Soldiers, and four other books of poetry and prose. She recently received a Governor's Award in the Humanities for service to the state of Georgia. See www.myzonarosa.com.

Julie Davey, MA, combined her background as a full-time college writing and journalism professor with her two-time breast-cancer survival to create a unique and successful Writing for Wellness program at City of Hope National Cancer Center in California. Julie teaches patients, medical staff, caregivers and family members how to write effectively to relieve stress and frustrations. Her book, Writing for Wellness: A Prescription for Healing is being used in several wellness centers and medical facilities.

Panel:

Cathy Davison, PhD, Associate Professor & Mentor, Empire State College, SUNY

Richard Gotti, Professor and Mentor, Empire State College, SUNY

Elaine Handley, Professor and Mentor, Empire State College, SUNY

Claudia Hough, Lecturer and Mentor, Empire State College, SUNY

Fran Dorf, MS, MSW(2009). Fran Dorf's acclaimed, internationally published novels include A Reasonable Madness (Birch Lane, Signet, 1990/91), Flight (Dutton/Signet, 1992/93), and Saving Elijah (Putnam, 2000), which was inspired by the tragic death of Fran's son, Michael, and which a starred Publisher's Weekly review called, "a stunning tale that crackles with suspense, dark humor, and provocative questions." Fran holds a BS in journalism from Boston University, and an MA in psychology from New York University, where she is currently finishing her MSW. Fran writes poetry, essays and articles; and conducts "Write-to-heal" workshops to help people cope with grief, illness, and loss. Fran is also an active philanthropist, and blogs on grief, life and everything in between at www.bruisedmuse.com.

Laurie Edwards, MFA, is a lifelong patient with multiple chronic illnesses and a writer whose work has appeared in the Boston Globe Magazine, Glamour, and many other outlets, including her award-winning literary health blog, A Chronic Dose (www.achronicdose.com). She is also the author of Life Disrupted: Getting Real About Chronic Illness in Your Twenties and Thirties (Walker, 2008). She teaches advanced writing for the health professions at Northeastern University.

Molly Fisk, MBA, teaches The Healing Power of Writing to cancer patients and their caregivers, child abuse & other trauma survivors, and hospital and hospice staff. She has given CEU workshops on the topic to therapists and social workers in California since 2001-most recently at the 2008 California Governor's Office of Emergency Services Partnering to End Domestic Violence Conference-and works regularly with the Sierra Nevada Cancer Center in Grass Valley, CA and the Center for Hope in Darien, CT. Molly is the award-winning author of Listening to Winter, Terrain, and Salt Water Poems and is a National Endowment for the Arts Fellow. She does commentary for NPR, and has been nominated for Poet Laureate of California.

Roxanne Ivey is a poet, performing artist, inspirational speaker and aspiring screenwriter. A winner in the 1999 Artists Embassy International Dancing Poetry Contest, she was also commissioned by Atlanta's High Museum of Art to compose and perform poetry inspired by the paintings of Impressionist John Twachtman. Featured in Unity Magazine and on the web site of best-selling author James Redfield, Roxanne's poetry has been published internationally. Her most recent works include A Kindred Wind, her second compilation of poetry, and Beyond My Mortal Sky: A Memoir of Faith.

Jennifer Johnson, MS, MFA, LPC is a writer, photographer and psychotherapist in private practice in Asheville, NC. She teaches writing at Asheville-Buncombe Technical Community College and Mars Hill College. Jennifer offers private creative writing workshops and individual consultation on literary craft, writing as reflective practice for healthcare providers and nonprofessional caregivers, and writing healing personal narrative. She provides psychotherapy for persons dealing with grief, loss, illness, catastrophic injury, and transition. Jennifer utilizes creative writing and therapeutic photography (PhotoTherapy) with clients in her psychotherapy practice. She is available to provide onsite workshops and training. www.jenniferjohnsoncreative.com.

Leatha Kendrick, MA, English; MFA Creative Writing; Teaching experience at college level since 1971; Currently teach memoir and poetry writing, plus writing to heal at The Carnegie Center for Literacy and Learning in Lexington, KY; have taught creative writing at the University of KY and in Morehead State University's graduate program as well as at regional writing conferences; have been a presenter at the Associated Writers and Writing Programs' national meetings, 1999, 2006.

Jill Knueppel, LMT is a Licensed Massage Therapist practicing independently as well as in partnership with a chiropractor in the Atlanta metro area. She holds a Master of Divinity degree and in her prior profession, served as a Lutheran pastor in parishes in Colorado and Texas. Moving from parish ministry, where weekly expression through the media of preaching, teaching and music was the norm, to the solitude of the therapy room, Jill has found the need to rediscover her creative voice. She is grateful to be a part of the Ninth Muse writing group, where she has found encouragement, inspiration and companionship in her quest.

Richard Krawiec is the author of two novels, a story collection, three volumes of poetry, and a poetry chapbook.

Luciano L’Abate, PhD, is Professor Emeritus in the Psychology Department at GSU in Atlanta, Diplomate and former Examiner of the American Board of Professional Psychology, Approved Supervisor of the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy, published (authored, co-authored, edited, and co-edited 41 books with two additional ones in press, published over 300 papers, chapters, and book reviews in scientific and professional books and journals. His books have been translated in Argentina, China, Finland, Italy, Japan, Korea, Germany, & Poland.

David Lane, PhD, is an Associate Professor and Counseling Program Coordinator at Mercer University in Atlanta. He serves as Editor for the Georgia Journal of Professional Counseling. He is a Licensed Professional Counselor, a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist, and has practiced counseling for over thirty years.

Donna Lane, PhD, is a Licensed Christian Counselor and Therapist in private practice, and an adjunct professor of counseling at Mercer University and Liberty University. She is co-author of the book, Restored Christianity, with her son, Hayden J. Lane. David and Donna have been married for 29 years.

Noreen Lape, PhD, is Associate Professor of English and Director of the Writing Center at Columbus State University where she teaches writing, composition pedagogy, writing tutor training, and literature. She has published two academic books and several articles in scholarly journals; she also keeps a journal and writes poetry as a means to her own personal growth. Her recent interests have moved her to explore ways to bring the writing and wellness/healing connection into the academic learning community. This fall she will be collaborating with a psychotherapist to offer a writing workshop for returning Iraq War veterans.

Jeanette Leardi, MA, is a freelance writer, editor, and teacher in Charlotte, N.C. She holds a master's degree (with honors) in English Literature from Rutgers University. A lifelong journaler and a Reiki II practitioner with additional certification in guided imagery, Leardi has combined her writing skills with her interest in integrative medicine to create popular workshops and courses in journaling, spiritual writing, and personal mythmaking as therapeutic tools for healing, wellness, and growth. For more than a decade she has taught these to the general public as well as to counselors, the bereaved, adult continuing education students, and senior citizens at such places as Queens University of Charlotte, Carolinas Medical Center, Hospice and Palliative Care - Charlotte Region, and the Public Library of Charlotte & Mecklenburg County.

Barbara Locascio, LCSW is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker, Certified Hypnotherapist, Reiki Master and Polarity Practitioner with private practices in Grayson and Athens, Georgia. Barbara earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Journalism in 1979 and a Masters Degree in Social Work in 1987. She has been writing in one form or another for over 40 years. Her professional writing includes newspaper articles, newsletters, TV and radio announcements, news releases, journal articles, brochures, educational materials and a magazine article. Barbara is grateful to be part of the safe and loving Ninth Muse writing family, where she feels free to be erratic, occasionally irreverent and very real in her written expressions of life and imagination.

Debbie McCulliss, RN, CAPF, a nurse for 30 years, became passionate about writing ten years ago when she began to take journal writing classes. A lifelong learner, she earned a certificate in Creative Writing and is a Certified Journal Instructor and Certified Applied Poetry Facilitator. She is passionate about inspiring others to write and facilitates women's writing/poetry groups and retreats.

Debra Moffitt was a successful international business executive based in Antibes, France before making a leap of faith into the writing world by parachuting out of a plane at 12,000 feet above St. Tropez. She decided if she had enough courage to face her fear of falling, then she could face the perils of leaving the steady income of a high-paying business career to become a full time writer. The leap of faith landed her in her secret garden and has paid off in a rewarding career in writing and speaking to others about making life changes that connect with the sacred. Her fiction was broadcast globally by BBC World Services Radio and stories from her collection Riviera Stories: Just Below the Surface, appear in The French Literary Review and in Cha: Asian Literary Journal. As an active member of the International Women Writers Guild (IWWG), Debra promotes her work through workshops like the daylong IWWG workshop in Chapel Hill, NC and the Low Country Romance Writers' Association retreat. Visit her website at www.debramoffitt.com. Debra's online journal titled, "Journey into the Writer's Secret Garden" can be viewed at www.debramoffitt.spaces.live.com .

Lara Naughton, MPW, has published poetry, fiction and non-fiction, and her stage plays have been produced in Los Angeles theatres. She was formerly Director of Creative Arts at a K-12 public charter school in South Central Los Angeles and is currently Chair of the Creative Writing Department at New Orleans Center for Creative Arts. She has taught creative writing and multi-disciplinary workshops to all ages, and has led documentary programs with groups including international torture victims, children affected by HIV, southern African writers, and Louisiana death row exonerees.

The Ninth Muse is a group of writers and health care workers who include two LCSWs (Franklin Abbott and Barbara Locascio), two LPCs (LaDonna Benedict and Pat "Wren" Wells), a LMT and former pastor (Jill Knueppel), and a psychologist (Emily Simerly). We are, after seven years, a close-knit group that has survived sturm and drang and lived to write about it. We are currently co-writing (yes, six authors) a novel called Duermavela, about a town turned upside down by a tornado, ghosts, a mystical artesian spring, and a little thing called magical realism. Please see their individual bios as well.

Jaime Nolan, MA, in American Studies and is the Associate Dean of Diversity at Colgate University. Ms. Nolan has been working in the areas of diversity and intercultural advancement for 20 years.

Andrea Peck, MA, writer, coach, workshop leader and Assistant Professor of Communications has been engaging audiences for almost 20 years on the topics of writing, speaking, and interpersonal communication skills. Author of Discovering Ourselves Through Acts of Creation: The Healing Tools of Journaling (2003), Peck has her masters degree in Communications, completed a postgraduate program at the Gestalt Institute in Cleveland, and is completing her coaching certification through the College of Executive Coaching.

David Plumb, MA, Books include Man in a Suitcase, and A Slight Change in the Weather, Short Stories. Other work appeared in 100 Poets Against the War, Salt Press, The Miami Herald, The Orlando-Sentinel, The Washington Post, Homeless, Not Helpless, Canterbury Press, Mondo James Dean, St. Martin's Press. An Adjunct Professor, he worked as a paramedic, and magazine editor. He is one of 48 scholars to present at the First International Conference on Literature and Addiction, University of Sheffield, UK. He taught workshops for Senior Citizens, Poets in the Schools, California, Florida Center for the Book and University of California, Berkeley

Melissa Pritchard, PhD, is a English Professor in Arizona State University's Creative Writing MFA Program. She has been developing an international outreach poetry program with marginalized youth in Calcutta, India and a creative writing outreach program with the Phoenix Children's Hospital. She is the nationally acclaimed, award-winning author of three novels, three short story collections and a forthcoming biography of American philanthropist Virginia Galvin Piper. She is often asked to speak on panels and give presentations on Writing and Social Activism, Writing and Social Justice, Creativity and Service. For additional information, including her vitae, her website is www.melissapritchard.com.

Diana Raab, BS, RN, MFA, is a two-time cancer survivor, memoirist, poet and essayist whose award-winning work has appeared in national publications. Her memoir, Regina's Closet: Finding My Grandmother's Secret Journal won the 2008 National Indie Excellence Award for Memoir, the proceeds of which she donates to the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention. She teaches in the UCLA Writers' Program and the Santa Barbara Writers' Conference. She's editor of Writers and Their Notebooks(foreword by Phillip Lopate) forthcoming by the University of South Carolina Press (Summer 2009). Her book, Getting Pregnant and Staying Pregnant won the Benjamin Franklin Book Award for Best Health and Wellness Book in 1992, and she is currently working on its update, due out in 2009. She has two poetry collections, My Muse Undresses Me and Dear Anaïs: My Life in Poems for You. Diana has been keeping a notebook since the age of ten, which has been her lifeline during difficult times and has also nurtured her passion for writing. www.dianaraab.com.

Gail Radley, MA, is the author twenty-one books for young people as well as articles and short stories for adults. An English instructor at Stetson University, her courses have included expository and creative writing and literature on themes of spiritual quest and the ordinary hero. She has lead workshops in both creative and memoir writing. Disciplined and schooled by fibromyalgia for nearly 35 years (and, more recently, degenerative disk disease), she has discovered firsthand the benefits of journaling and writing poetry. Monthly poetry readings in her home for offer a venue for participants to share their writing.

Sonia Rappaport, MD, MFA, is a family physician and is board certified in Holistic Medicine. A graduate of the University of Virginia School of Medicine, St. Margaret Memorial Hospital Family Medicine Residency, and Spalding University's MFA in Creative Writing Program, she lives and writes in Chapel Hill, NC, where she has a solo family practice. She holds an MA in Anthropology from American University, and is an Usui Method Reiki Master. She has been published in Tar River Poetry and Prism Quarterly, and is currently working on a poetry collection.

Terry Ratner, RN, MFA, is a registered nurse, freelance writer, and educator in Phoenix, Arizona. Writing has always served a purpose in her life, but it wasn't until her son died in a motorcycle accident, in 1999, that she began to publish her work. What's unique about Ratner is the way she balances the life of a nurse with the life of a writer. She teaches creative writing in a variety of settings, from community colleges to a school for the homeless, to wellness communities. Her classes focus on writing about loss without sentimentality and the relationship between writing and wellness. She has published numerous personal essays, cover stories, interviews, and book reviews for both national and local publications. Ratner was recently named "honorary editor" for an anthology, Reflections on Doctors: Nurses' Stories about Physicians and Surgeons (a Kaplan publication) which is due out in the fall of 2008. Her current work in progress, a series of fifteen essays introduced with black and white photos, deals with issues of family and identity. www.terryratner.com

Belinda Shoemaker, MFA, in Creative Writing, Fiction and Creative Nonfiction, from Antioch University Los Angeles. She also has an MSc. Degree in Human Communication from The City University, London. Currently Belinda is an assistant teacher in the Creative Writing Program at San Francisco State University, and also in the MFA program at Antioch University, Los Angeles. Prior to her writing career, Belinda was a speech and language pathologist with an additional specialization in counseling families of mentally and physically handicapped children, and adult patients with Cancer of the larynx. Belinda lives in Big Sur and in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Emily Simerly, PhD, is a licensed clinical psychologist who is Clinical Director of a 550-bed mental health unit in the Georgia Department of Corrections. She also maintains a small private practice office. She has written essays for Voices: The Art and Science of Psychotherapy that include comparing borderline personality to desert flora and fauna, why working in the prison system is a privilege, and why she became a psychotherapist, among others. In addition, she has published articles in Creative Loafing and Sex Roles, as well as a book chapter in Psychotherapy and the Poverty Patient. She also co-authored a book entitled Mental Health Medications for Children. Even before she knew what she was doing, she was using writing to express her life and gain healing. Her Ninth Muse family both keeps her aloft and makes sure she stays on that road called Writing Lane.

Andrea Steffens, PhD,, is a writer, performance artist, and author of Pompeii's Children, Tough Women and Mama’s Coming Home. She is co-founder and director of Ashlar Writing Programs for peace and healing. In addition to producing radio programs and commentaries for public radio, she has received grants and commissions for her work. For 25 years Steffens has taught writing at national and international venues, in colleges, living rooms, hospitals, communities of all sorts and shapes. In addition to the workshop format, she offers lectures on Memoir, Myth Making, Dream-work and The Poetic Mind. She is Jungian trained psychotherapist, has held certifications as an Expressive Therapist, Trauma Specialist, Marriage and Family therapist among others. She was an affiliated scholar at The Center of Advanced Feminist Studies at the University of Minnesota

Anne Webster, RN, author of A History of Nursing, a collection of poems forthcoming from Kennesaw State University Press, had a twenty-five year career as a hospital nurse in positions ranging from ICU to Administration. Her poems have appeared in Southern Poetry Review, The New York Quarterly, Mediphors, and others. Recent poems and essays have been published in Intensive Care: More Poetry and Prose by Nurses, The Poetry of Nursing: Commentaries and Poems of Leading Nurse Poets, Stories of Illness and Healing: Women Write Their Bodies, and Rattle, in its tribute to nurses. Webster has a memoir, Gutshot: A Nurse Betrayed, ready for publication and a second memoir about becoming a nurse in progress.

Pat (“Wren”) Wells, LPC is a Licensed Professional Counselor and Advanced Clinical Hypnotherapist in private practice in Atlanta and Athens, GA. She publishes as Wren Wells and writes both fiction and non-fiction. Her novel, Making A Killing, launches the Madison Mystery Series. She has published a teen guide for job readiness, a personal essay in the Petrigru Review literary journal, and several articles in professional journals and newsletters. She is collaborating on a children’s book with a colleague and on a novel in magical realism with her writing group, whom she loves for the encouragement, creative stimulation, companionship, and accountability. In addition to the Ninth Muse Writing Group, she participates in Sisters in Crime (an international women mystery writers organization), and studies with Harriette Austin at UGA.