Paul Briggs learned to read and write when he was two, the same time he was learning to talk. He spent the next twenty years learning that nobody talks the same way they write, or vice versa.  He lives in Easton, Maryland; has a master’s degree in journalism from the University of Maryland, College Park; and is the author of two middle-grade science fiction novels, Locksmith’s Closet and Locksmith’s Journeys. He has also written several short plays, two of which (The Worst Super Power Ever and The Picture of Health) have won awards.

Gilbert Byron (1903-1991) grew up on Maryland’s Eastern Shore, a waterman’s son like his young fictional protagonist, Noah Marlin. A schoolteacher for twenty-eight years, he began writing full time in 1957 and was the author of eleven books. His beloved classic, The Lord’s Oysters, and its poignant sequel, Done Crabbin': Noah Leaves the River, are available in paperback from Johns Hopkins and as e-books from Secant Publishing.

Helen Chappell lives on the Eastern Shore of Maryland, where she tries to keep a low profile and stay out of the line of fire. She was written about the area for forty years. In addition to her fiction and non-fiction, she has also written a produced play and a novel about Oysterback, A Whole World of Trouble. Her Sam and Hollis mystery series garners positive attention. Her journalism and articles have appeared in the Washington Post and the Baltimore Sun, in addition to many magazines. She is currently a columnist for Tidewater Times and at work on a new book.

Born in the cradle between two historic watersheds – the James and New Rivers in Southwest Virginia - Bruce Ingram has spent a lifetime exploring their woods and waterways. He is a devoted float fisherman, birder, hunter, and paddler, sharing his love of the outdoors in five books and more than 2,000 magazine articles. A high school English teacher by day, Ingram lives with his wife Elaine in Troutville, Virginia. They have two children and two grandchildren.
  

Karen Huston Karydes had a twenty-four-year career at the Arlington County, Virginia Department of Libraries, focusing on adult acquisitions and reference. She then ran the library for inmates inside the Arlington County Detention Center for five years. She has master’s degrees in English from New York University and Library Science from the University of Maryland. At sixty, she pursued her interest in literary biography by entering the University of Maryland’s Ph.D. program in English Language and Literature. After receiving her degree in 2010, she returned to full-time public library work as the Acquisitions Librarian for the Talbot County Free Library in Maryland. Her book, Hard-Boiled Anxiety: The Freudian Desires of Dashiell Hammett, Raymond Chandler, Ross Macdonald and Their Detectives, is based on her dissertation.

Hope Irvin Marston is a Pennsylvania farm girl, retired teacher/librarian, and award-winning author of thirty books. Gerald Borland worked as a farmer, carpenter, and canoe builder. He is also an Air Force veteran. The couple met five years ago at the local Farmers Market.  We wrote this account at the request of Dale Fikes. 

Charles McRaven is an expert stonemason, blacksmith, and restorer of historic buildings, with five published books on these heritage crafts. A native of Arkansas, he now lives near Charlottesville, Virginia. Build Me a Tower is his first novel.

Margaret A. “Maggie” Rice enjoyed a long and successful career as a teacher and school administrator in her native England. Born in Wellington, Somerset, to a grocer father and a teacher mother, she worked for two years in London before moving to the U.S. in 1968 with her husband, Ray, to attend graduate school at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, where Ray gained a PhD in food technology.

Maggie taught in three different early-years settings within the University and gained a Master’s degree in Early Childhood Education.

On returning to the UK, Maggie served as the head teacher of a nursery school in Hull; Devon County Advisory teacher for Under Fives; an Under Eights Inspector with Devon Social Services; and a college lecturer and child care center manager.

Today, she and Ray enjoy family gatherings with their daughter Nicola; their son, Andrew, and his wife Maria; and three grandsons, Sebastian, Adam, and Harry. She values friendships, gardening, and music, and is a member of the Devon History Society and the Devon and Cornwall Record Society.

The Henry Bagwell Story is her first book.

Susan Yaruta-Young's roots in Maryland soil are deep. In 1634 her ancestor, Richard Nevitte, sailed into St. Mary's on the Ark and the Dove. The family moved to the Eastern Shore, and Susan's mom, Louise Truitt, grew up on a dairy farm known as Money Make in Trappe. Susan lived on a small farm in Baltimore County until 1996 when she and her husband, Luther Young, moved their family to Downeast Maine. A published poet and short story crafter, Susan was a Maryland State Arts Council Poet in the Schools from 1974-1996, often conducting workshops in Talbot, Dorchester, and Wicomico counties. She is a retired pastor who enjoys writing for all ages in all genres. 

Brent Lewis is a native Eastern Shoreman with deep local roots. A fan of history and pop culture, he has written for magazines, newspapers, and newsletters, and for 10 years oversaw the Kent Island Heritage Society’s oral history program.

He’s published two nonfiction books about Kent Island and one indie novel, Bloody Point 1976. Brent has hosted several Watermen’s Story Swaps, public events featuring up to a dozen career watermen entertaining and informing audiences by sharing their tales of working on the water. He produced a series of shows featuring regional writers and musicians for QACTV, the Queen Anne’s County YouTube and cable television channel.

He is a documentarian and a playwright member of the Dramatists Guild of America. His blog, easternshorebrent.com, is a popular destination for readers interested in Chesapeake Bay storytelling, history, and memoir.