Abigail Reisinger

BA, English Literature/Communication Studies, Northwestern University

Abigail Reisinger has recently completed her debut nonfiction book, One Weekend in February, an exploration of grief, fathers, and forgiveness. She is a lifelong writer and a communications professional with a decade of experience crafting messaging, coordinating media strategy and narratives and writing speeches and op-eds for leading technology companies, including Apple. She currently runs corporate communications at Color Health, a late-stage health technology leader. In addition to her professional writing work she has completed nonfiction writing courses with Stanford University’s Continuing Studies and The Writing Salon in San Francisco, where she focused on finding new depth in personal narratives and nonfiction writing. She has attended multiple Write Away Europe retreats as a writer and active and encouraging discussion leader and will be joining the 2023 Tuscany retreat as a facilitator. She currently lives, works and writes in Seattle, Washington.

Larry Francis

BA, Central College, Iowa, MA, English, Governors State University, Ph.D. Cand., English, Northern Illinois University

Larry Francis is the author of seven well-received novels and the founder of the Time & Place Prize, the respected international literary award currently in its fifth year. He has worked as a journalist and editor for various publications, most notably Today Publications, and has taught writing in both the United States and Europe. He has also served as a consultant on several television and feature film projects. Francis holds a BA in Psychology and an MA in English. His most recent novel, Pillowstones, was released in 2021 and is available wherever good books are sold. He resides in France with his wife, Maria, and their three children.

Dion Nittis

BA, U. of Michigan, MA, Ph.D. in English, UCLA

Dr. Dion Nittis' prestigious academic career includes extensive international experience, having been a Professor of English Literature at Boston University, Cairo University, a Fellow at Tufts University and a Fulbright Professor at the University of Haiti and the Literature Coordinator of the Fulbright Commission in Egypt, as well as Director of the American Section of the Lycée Marcel Roby in Paris and International Baccalaureate Coordinator for the International School of Prague. Nittis was also a founder of the Hellenic International Studies in the Arts School in Greece. His publications include four books of poetry.

Tony Hawks

Tony Hawks is the international bestselling author of six books as well as a successful comedian. His international bestseller Round Ireland with a Fridge - the story of his absurd quest to hitch round the circumference of Ireland within a month... with a fridge. After being serialised on Radio 4, the book became a top 10 Sunday Times bestseller. It has sold over 900,000 copies worldwide and has been translated into numerous languages.

Tony has written five other books, Playing the Moldovans at Tennis (also serialised on BBC R4 and shortlisted for both the Samuel Johnson Prize (2000) for non-fiction writing and the Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize (2000), One Hit Wonderland, A Piano in the Pyrenees, and The Fridgehiker's Guide To Life. His latest book, Once Upon A Time In The West...Country, tells the story of how he and his partner Fran uproot from London and settle in a small Devonian village, and attempt to integrate themselves, was released in 2015. In addition to his writing, Tony appears frequently on top television and radio programs and has been a three-time host of The British Book Awards, as well as having produced and starred in the film versions of two of his books.