Andrew Hilleman was born in Omaha, Nebraska, where he earned his MA in English from Creighton University with a concentration in creative writing. This summer he will receive his M.F.A. in fiction from Northern Michigan University where he taught creative writing, composition, and narrative and descriptive writing. He has been published in Fiddlehead magazine and was a finalist for Glimmer Train's 2011 short fiction award. Andrew's tastes are wide and varied, with a special interest in historical fiction, crime fiction and literary fiction, as well as anything and everything political. He en...

Beth Jusino is an editor, marketer, writer, and former literary agent who loves words and the people who write them. Beth joined The Editorial Department in 2010 after five years as an agent with Alive Communications in Colorado. There, she supported and represented a diverse and active list of best-selling and up-and-coming authors in a variety of genres. She was nominated as “Agent of the Year” in 2008 by The American Christian Fiction Writers, and for three years she judged the Genesis contest for unpublished novelists. She enjoys teaching the crafts of writing and book marketin...

  Doug Wagner is a longtime journalist who spent nearly 25 years polishing the work of others as a copy editor and serving as a movie critic and feature writer. Since the Rocky Mountain News closed in 2009, he's ghostwritten two nonfiction books and co-written the history of a charitable foundation in Colorado. Oh, and he's finally "finished" his first novel. Doug's writing and editing work has spanned subject matter as diverse as wildlife biology, business, weight loss and the grieving process. He's also put the flesh on bare-bones fiction concepts and developed book proposals ...

Jen Howard was born in Escanaba, Michigan, and pursued a PhD in literature with a focus on literary criticism before shifting gears and setting her sights on a career as a writer, writing teacher, and editor. With an MA in English and an MFA in Fiction Writing, she teaches creative writing (both fiction and nonfiction) at Northern Michigan University. She is the editor-in-chief of Passages North, and her own stories and essays have been published in Crab Orchard Review, Blue Mesa Review, Redivider, Sycamore Review, Smokelong Quarterly, Southeast Review, Quarterly Review, wigleaf, Literary M...

TED's Director of Development John Robert Marlow is an award-winning novelist, screenwriter, and adaptation consultant whose nonfiction articles have appeared in the Novel and Short Story Writer's Market and the Screenwriter's and Playwright's Market (both published by Writer's Digest Books), The Writer, Writers' Journal, Backspace, Women On Writing, Writer's World, Urban Muse, Fellow Script, Parade, and numerous other print and online publications. His first novel, Nano, was immediately recognized as cinematic ("Marlow's debut is a real page-turner"—Kirkus Reviews; "Reads like a big...

Kate Joy Steele joined TED in the spring of 2008.  Kate has been researching, writing, ghostwriting, and teaching in business and professional settings since 1979 and has, in that time, translated innumerable pages of corporate-speak to cogent English and written "how-to" manuals on a number of business and academic subjects. Along with being our go-to consultant on business and academic books of all descriptions, she is also a skilled proofreader and copyeditor who has helped bring a number of TED authors to print readiness. Kate is a native of Oklahoma and now resides in the Pacifi...

Nicci Jordan Hubert has been in publishing in its various forms--newspaper, magazine, book, etc.--since 1999, but it is in the slow and loving process of storytelling she's happiest. Currently a freelance editor in New York, Nicci has worked for several publishing houses, including Random House NY. Specializing in fiction, Nicci prefers to work in genres like contemporary women's, literary, as well as the occasional thriller or mystery. She also works frequently with religious fiction, particularly that geared toward the CBA. Her editorial process relies heavily on dialogue and brainstorm...

Penelope J. Stokes is a published writer, prolific editor, and former college professor with a Ph.D. in Renaissance literature. More than twenty years ago she left the classroom to pursue a career in writing and editing, and since then has worked with dozens of writers on more than 150 novels and nonfiction books. In addition, she is the author of eleven novels, including The Blue Bottle Club, Circle of Grace, and Delta Belles, and has also taught fiction seminars at writing conferences around the country. She is represented by Claudia Cross of Sterling Lord Literistic in New York. Penny ...

Peter Gelfan has been editing and ghostwriting both fiction and nonfiction for the past 17 years. His clients range from beginners to published and bestselling authors and celebrities. He also edits screenplays and has sold two he wrote under his own name, one of which was produced and recently released in France. While experienced in most every genre from crime through mainstream to literary, he specializes in analyzing and strengthening underlying structure—plot, character, and scenes in fiction, and organization and argument in nonfiction. Peter has published a feature-length article...