WRITERS WEEK 2021

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 10 JULIA SCHEERES

After graduating from the University of Southern with an M.A. in Journalism, Julia worked as a daily reporter for the Times and El Financiero de .

In 2005, she published a memoir called Jesus Land, which was a Times and London Times bestseller. In 2011, she published a narrative history of the Jonestown tragedy called A Thousand Lives: The Untold Story of Jonestown. Between books, she writes features, essays, profiles and book reviews for magazines and newspapers; does content writing for companies; and works with private clients.

In addition to writing, she has taught memoir and narrative writing for over a decade – to beginning writers and MFA students alike. WRITERS WEEK 2021 BILL THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 11 KONIGSBERG

Bill Konigsberg is the award-winning author of six young adult novels. The Porcupine of Truth won the PEN Center USA Literary Award and the Stonewall Book Award in 2016. Openly Straight won the Sid Fleischman Award for Humor, was a finalist for the Lambda Literary Award in 2014 and has been translated into five languages. His debut novel, Out of the Pocket, won the Lambda Literary Award in 2009. The Music of What Happens, released in 2019, received two starred reviews, and has been optioned for a film. His latest novel, The Bridge, was released in the fall of 2020. It has received two starred reviews. In 2018, The National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE)’s Assembly on Literature for Adolescents (ALAN) established the Bill Konigsberg Award for Acts and Activism for Equity and Inclusion through Young Adult Literature.

Bill worked at ESPN and ESPN.com from 1999-2002. There he earned a GLAAD Media Award in 2002 for his column "Sports World Still a Struggle for Gays."