Bill Campbell
Bill Campbell is the author of Sunshine Patriots, My Booty Novel, and Pop Culture: Politics, Puns, "Poohbutt" from a Liberal Stay-at-Home Dad and Koontown Killing Kaper. Along with Edward Austin Hall, he co-edited the groundbreaking anthology, Mothership: Tales from Afrofuturism and Beyond. Campbell lives in Washington, DC, where he spends his time with his family, helps produce audio books for the blind, and helms Rosarium Publishing.

Carmen Maria Machado
Carmen Maria Machado is a fiction writer and essayist whose work has appeared or is forthcoming in AGNI, The American Reader, Tin House's Open Bar, Five Chapters, Best Women's Erotica 2012, VICE,The Paris Review Daily, The Hairpin, The Rumpus, Los Angeles Review of Books, and many other publications. She has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize and was the winner of the 2011 Richard Yates Short Story Prize. She is a graduate of the Iowa Writers' Workshop and the Clarion Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers’ Workshop.

Ran Walker
Ran Walker is the author of four novels (The Keys of My Soul, B-Sides and Remixes, 30 Love, and Mojo's Guitar), two novellas (Afro Nerd in Love and Beat Bop), and two short story collections (Secrets & Cures and 16 Bars). His short stories and poetry have appeared in a variety of anthologies. He is the recipient of both a 2005 Mississippi Arts Commission/NEA artist grant and a 2006 artist mini-grant, and he has also served as an Artist-in-Residence with the Commission. Ran is a past participant in the Hurston-Wright Writers Week Workshop and is the recipient of a fellowship from the Callaloo Writers Workshop. He lives in Virginia with his wife and much better half, Lauren, and his awesome daughter, Zoë. He can be reached via his website, www.ranwalker.com.

C. Renee Stephens
C. Renee Stephens is an African historian and assistant professor of history at Bard High School Early College–Newark. She holds a first degree black belt in Uechi-Ryu Karate-do, a martial art originating from Okinawa. C. Renee’s science fiction is inspired by spiritual writings from across Africa and Asia, the historical encounters between Europeans and Africans, as well as technological advance and its impact on human society. “Culling the Herd” is her first published science fiction short story, appearing first in the 2013 edition of Metropolarity. She is currently working on a science fiction trilogy entitled The Amentetan Renaissance. She and her partner have two amazing daughters and live in Philadelphia.

      Special Guests:

            Alice McDermott
            Time: 12:30-12:45
Alice McDermott was born in Brooklyn, New York, and raised in the suburban community of Elmont, Long Island, New York. Her first novel was 1983's A Bigamist's Daughter, followed by 1987's That Night, which was a finalist for the National Book Award, the PEN Faulkner Award and the Pulitzer Prize. 1992's At Weddings and Wakes was also a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize as well as her first novel to be a New York Times bestseller. That was followed by 1998's Charming Billy, which won the National Book Award for fiction. After This (2006) was also a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. Her most recent work, Someone, was a finalist for the National Book Award and the National Book Critics Circle Award. Ms. McDermott has written for The New York Times, The New Yorker, and The Washington Post. Her articles range from personal essays to book reviews. She is now the Richard A. Macksey Professor of Humanities at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, and in the past she has taught at University of California San Diego, American University, Lynchburg (VA) College and Hollins College in Virginia. She has three children and lives in the Washington, DC area with her husband.

            Terence Winch
            Time: 11:30-11:45
Terence Winch, originally from New York, has lived in the Washington, DC, area for many years. The son of Irish immigrants, he has long been part of Irish-American cultural life, both as musician and writer. Some of his poetry and other writing takes its subject matter from his upbringing in a Bronx immigrant neighborhood.
His seventh book of poems, This Way Out (2014), includes work of the last few years. In 2013, Salmon Poetry, based in county Clare, Ireland, published Lit from Below, a collection of 10-line poems. Falling Out of Bed in a Room with No Floor (2011), includes recent work along with some of Winch's best-known poems from earlier chapbooks, while the work in Boy Drinkers (2007) centers around religion and Winch's New York brand of Irish-Catholicism. That Special Place: New World Irish Stories is a collection of non-fiction stories that come out of his experiences playing traditional Irish music with Celtic Thunder, a band he started with his brother Jesse in 1977. Many of the songs he wrote for Celtic Thunder recount the story of New York's Irish community, with "When New York Was Irish" the best-known of them. Winch’s collection Irish Musicians/American Friends (1986) won an American Book Award. He is also the recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship in poetry and other awards. In 1992, Winch was one of Irish America magazine’s "Top 100 Irish Americans."

            John Aloysius Farrell
            Time: 12:15-12:30
John Aloysius Farrell (www.jafarrell.com) was born and raised in Huntington, New York and suburban Washington, D.C. He graduated from the University of Virginia and embarked on a prize-winning career as a newspaperman, most notably for The Denver Post and The Boston Globe. He has covered every presidential campaign since 1976, two wars and the troubles in Northern Ireland. He moved to Washington for the Globe and served as White House correspondent and Washington editor, among other assignments. He has also driven an ice cream truck, shined shoes, waited tables, cared for the animals in a medical laboratory, worked as a construction worker, labored on an Israeli kibbutz and served as a gallery guard at the Masters golf tournament. In 2001 he published "Tip O'Neill and the Democratic Century," a biography of the late Speaker of the House which won the Hardeman prize for the best book on Congress. An excerpt was included in "Pols: Great Writers on American Politicians," a 2004 anthology edited by Jack Beatty. Farrell's biography of the great American defense lawyer, "Clarence Darrow: Attorney For The Damned," won the 2012 Los Angeles Times book award for the best biography of the year. He is currently working on a biography of Richard Nixon.

Featuring Music by
Michael Winch, Patrick Armstrong, Jesse Winch, and Kieran Whelan
Times: 11:15-11:30, 11:45-12:00

Jesse Winch, like his younger brother Terence, was born and raised in the Bronx of Irish immigrant parents. He is the former cathaoirleach (chairman; pronounced "cahir-lock") of the Washington Branch of Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann, the international organization of traditional Irish musicians. Jesse, a founding member of Celtic Thunder, the Bog Wanderers Ceili Band, and the Irish Inn Mates, plays bodhrán (Irish drum; pronounced "bow-ron"), guitar, bouzouki, and harmonica, and has recorded widely with many notable musicians. In May of 2012, Jesse was inducted into the CCE Hall of Fame.

Michael Winch - Terry’s son and Jesse's nephew - is a recent graduate of UMBC, where he majored in music and audio engineering. He has studied fiddle with some of the best players in Irish music, including Brendan Mulvihill, Liz and Yvonne Kane, Tony DeMarco, Brian Conway, Patrick Ourceau, and Mitch Fanning. Michael also plays bodhran and bouzouki. He is a former member of Bog Band and has performed as a guest of Narrowbacks and other bands.

Patrick Armstrong - novelist Alice McDermott’s son - is a notable young player of the uillean (pronounced "ill-in") pipes and the flute. Currently an undergraduate at Fordham University’s Manhattan campus, Patrick has become a respected player in Irish music circles in New York and the Washington/Baltimore area. For the past several years, Michael and Patrick have played together as the “house band” at the Sewanee Writers Conference in Tennessee.

Kieran Whelan

And a performance by
www.culkinschool.com
Time: 12:00-12:15

The Limerick Pub is a cozy Irish pub nestled in the heart of Wheaton’s arts and entertainment district. The friendly staff serves up delicious traditional Irish fare and mouthwatering food specials as well as your favorite libations. There is live Irish music every Friday and Saturday, a trad session every Wednesday, and occasional “house concerts” on Sunday evenings. Every month, a local artist’s work is exhibited on the walls, and the pub also hosts Literary Nights, featuring local authors and poets, some of whom have received national awards. The pub celebrates Bloomsday every June 16th with readings from Ulysses. For the full calendar of events, please visit www.thelimerickpub.net.