Island Writers Network Authors

Island Writers' Network

Meet the Authors

James Edward Alexander, Esq., a native of Valdosta, Georgia, shares memories of his happy childhood in his book, Half Way Home
from Kinderlou. His latest publication is If I Should Die Before I Wake . . . What Happens to My Stuff? Although he still maintains
a law office in California, he lives in Bluffton, South Carolina, where he continues to write about the exciting and varied
experiences during twenty years of active duty in the Air Force.

Will Anderson earned a Doctor's degree from MIT, served as an army Captain, and spent twenty-nine years with NASA as an
engineer and senior executive. He has written two techno-thriller novels: The Backdoor and The Anomaly. (Preview on w ww.
w illandersonauthor.com). He drew on his knowledge of aerospace systems, piloting, and related experiences, relationships and
travels to write these exciting, believable novels.

A native of Roanoke, Alabama, Fred Bassett is an award-winning poet and Biblical scholar who holds four academic degrees,
including a Ph.D. in Biblical Literature from Emory University. His poems have been published in more than fifty journals and
anthologies. Paraclete Press has published two books of “found” poetry that he created from Biblical lyrics—Love: The Song of
Songs and Awake My Heart: Psalms for Life.

Raymond P. Berberian is an attorney living in Beaufort County, South Carolina. He is a graduate of New York University with a B.S.
degree in economics and a graduate of St. John’s University Law School with J.D. degree. Originally from New Jersey, he
practiced law in New Jersey and New York for over thirty-five years before relocating to Hilton Head Island.

James Borton is a veteran journalist who has reported for The Washington Times and Asia Times and is a regular commentary
contributor for Radio Singapore International. The author of Venture Japan, he presently teaches in the English Department at
USC Sumter. When not traveling to the Mekong River in Southeast Asia, he can be seen sailing his vintage Lightning sailboat out
of Palmetto Bay Marina in Hilton Head.

Len Camarda earned his B.S. and M.B.A. degrees from St. John’s University in New York. He spent a forty-year career in the
pharmaceutical industry, much of that time working internationally and living overseas in Panama, Holland, and Spain. His passion
for art and creative writing moved to a higher level with his retirement in 2003. He exhibits his oil paintings regularly at the Art
League Gallery in Pineland Station and has completed a novel, The Seventh Treasure, which he plans to publish.

Art Cornell, an acclaimed photographer, poet and painter of abstract art, has been creating images and poetry for nearly forty
years. His poetry books In the Wind, Heart Rhythms and Riding on a Rainbow incorporate his black and white photographs. His
paintings and photographs can be viewed at the Hilton Head Art League, Calhoun Street Art Gallery, Pink House Art Gallery, and
at www.artbyartcornell.com. His art resides in private and corporate collections throughout the United States.

A native of Whitinsville, Massachusetts, Tom Crawford graduated from Westminster College in New Wilmington, Pennsylvania, and
studied at the University of Munich. He began his career as a reporter with The Worcester Telegram; worked in the Springfield
(Massachusetts), Boston, London, and Belgrade bureaus of United Press International; and returned to Springfield as copy and
news editor of The Springfield Union and Sunday Republican. He has published Foibles, a collection of vignettes; and he is
readying a completed memoir, Resurrections . . . of an Obituary Writer, and a novel, Goli Otok (Naked Island), for publication.

Originally from North Wales, Sheila Gale immigrated to Canada and worked as a college professor for twenty-eight years, teaching
English grammar and creative writing. Since retiring seven years ago, she and her husband Ted spend winters on Hilton Head
enjoying cycling around the island, walking on the beach, and socializing with the many friends they have made here, both
Canadian and American. Now pursuing a writing career, she is working on her third novel.

Anne S. Grace is known as a Christian Communicator. Through Gift of Grace Ministries, she publishes articles at www.giftofgrace.
injesus.com. She has authored two books: a devotional, The ABC's of Grace, and her journey of faith, Grace Upon Grace. Anne is
a graduate of Radford University, Writer's Digest School, Christian Leaders and Speakers Seminars, and MITT: Mastery in
Transformational Training. Anne is actively involved locally with Aglow International, Island Writers' Network, and attends
Christian Renewal Church. She and her husband reside in Bluffton, South Carolina.

Bobbi Hahn’s poetry has been published in several anthologies; her essays have appeared online and in various newsletters. Her
“day jobs” have included: travel agent, community theater general manager, commercial insurance agent, and art gallery director.
Bobbi, her husband, and two lazy cats began visiting Hilton Head to escape Ohio winters. During the fourth such visit, they
decided to stay. Forever. They have lived here since 2004. She is working on a novel.

Bob Hamel is retired and has been living on Hilton Head for ten years. He is a graduate of Pace University, Lubin School of
Business, New York City, with a BBA and three years of graduate studies. Literature is his real love with published poetry books,
Reflections of Time and Night is Falling. He volunteers weekly teaching Creative Writing to fifth grade students and reading
poetry to seniors at retirement homes.

With degrees from the University of South Carolina, Georgia Institute of Technology, and Georgia State University, Jane Hill has
published numerous technical works in the United States, Canada, and Europe. A native South Carolinian, she is now writing
about the Lowcountry, where she spent many happy childhood vacations. Her recent works include two young adult novels,
Clarendon Island and Only a Ghost of a Chance, published by Salt Marsh Cottage Books, www.smc-books.com.

Rick Hoel practiced international law in Chicago and Hong Kong before moving to the Lowcountry in 2003. Now a real estate
broker with Seashore Real Estate and a freelance writer, Rick is working on a book about his father's experiences as a prisoner of
war in Germany in Stalag Luft III, the site of The Great Escape. Rick's interest in this time period was the genesis of his story set
on Hilton Head during World War II.

Having grown up in Indiana, Max Judge is Professor Emeritus of Animal Sciences from Purdue University. He has published books
entitled Chronicles of Life in the Midwest, a depiction of rural life during the decade of the 1940s; and The Bronco Girl, an
account of his daughter’s horse-related career including riding Thunder, the Denver Broncos mascot. Both books are published by
Salt Marsh Cottage Books (www.smc-books.com). His writing is an extension and revision of his professional career as author or
coauthor of scientific publications, research abstracts, and textbooks.

David F. Kelly is professor emeritus of health care ethics at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh. He earned three graduate degrees
in Louvain, Belgium, and a Ph.D. in Toronto, Canada. He has written four books which are still in print, all on bioethics. The
most recent is Medical Treatment at the End of Life. He is highly regarded as a speaker on medical ethical issues. Recently
retired, he lives in Palmetto Dunes on Hilton Head Island.

Andrea Koenig was born in Washington, D. C., and she grew up in Illinois. In her mid-twenties she moved to suburban New York
City. Andrea has a bachelor’s degree from Illinois College and masters’ degrees from both Roosevelt University and New York
University. She has taught secondary school in Illinois, New York, New Jersey, and South Carolina and college in New York. She
has published newspaper articles. She moved to Bluffton in 2004.

Norm Levy retired as Director, Advertising Development, of Procter & Gamble and moved to Hilton Head Island in 2004. He is a
published song writer (Blues and Country & Western)—sorry, no hits. He writes mostly topical light verse, but the Lowcountry's
natural beauty has inspired a more lyrical exploration. Norm has a book nearing publication: Rhymes For Our Times (Skews on the
News).

Marilyn Lorenz has been writing since she was in third grade, when her teacher encouraged her to read her stories for "show and
tell." A Creative Writing Graduate of Northwestern University, she has previously published poetry, short stories, lyrics, and
music. Marilyn's children's picture book, Great Blue Gert, published through a Grant from the National Endowment for the Arts and
the Arts Council of Beaufort County, sold out in 2008.

Margaret Lorine (aka Lorine M. Getz, Ph.D.) is moderator of the Island Writers' Network. She is also a member of the Queen's
Writers Group and the N.C. Writers' Workshop, and for many years a university professor of Art, Literature and Religion. She has
authored numerous works of fiction and non-fiction. Best known for her volumes on Flannery O'Connor, she co-edited The
Kissing Bough with Judith Simpson. Her short story, "Bardo Winter," has been published in Tales for a Long Winter's Night.

Charlie McOuat is a retired dentist from Cape Cod. He has published articles for United Planet about his volunteer experiences in
Africa. He has also published articles in Hilton Head Monthly about his tutoring English at Literacy Volunteers of the Lowcountry.
He continues his quest for youth by rowing with the Palmetto Rowing Club and by drinking moderate amounts of red wine with
his wife and friends.

Sansing McPherson, an Alabama native, graduated from Auburn University, holds an MEd from Kean University of New Jersey, and
taught English and writing from elementary through college level. After twenty-five years in New Jersey she and her husband
returned to the South to retire on Hilton Head Island. She has been a staff writer for 101 Things to Do on Hilton Head, is a free-
lance editor, and writes short stories and novels.

Dee Merian, a native of Santa Monica, California, holds a Master’s degree from New York University. She has lived on Hilton Head
Island with her husband John for ten years. A former airline hostess, nurse, dietician, college professor, and award-winning story
teller, she has published four books: American Mosaic, Counterfeit Horserace, Flying High, and Southern California Stories.

Shanti North is a parent, traveler, teacher, and veteran of life’s experience. From this perspective she hopes to express some of
the deep-seated lessons, concepts, and valuable insights into the ongoing mystery of life. With a keen interest in the natural
world and a wish to illuminate the fullness of its inherent value, her writing is laced with elements of the philosophical, the
sensory, and the mystical. She has been published in magazines and collected works.

A native of southern Ohio, Sharon Rice has studied abroad through the generous funding of the Grawemeyer Foundation, sung in
opera choruses, played Dorothy in Miller’s After the Fall, and published works in several religious journals. Jim Wayne Miller
awarded her poem “Solitude” third place in his national contest, and “The Coffee Shop on Fourth Street” appeared in the
anthology of contemporary Louisville women poets, The Dark Woods I Cross (1992).

Originally from the Buffalo, New York, area, Greg Smorol is a retired efficiency consultant who operated a business throughout the
South for many years. He received his Baccalaureate Degree from St. Lawrence University in Canton, New York, and a Masters
Degree in Communications from SUNY at Buffalo. He enjoys writing poems and short stories as well as novels. He and his wife
Donna currently reside on Hilton Head Island.

Kenneth Stuart (aka Kenneth Getz) is a native of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He is a graduate of Bunker Hill Community College and
the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. He currently lives on Hilton Head Island and writes short stories set in the coastal
areas of the Atlantic seaboard, from Maine to Florida.

Charlie Thorn served in Army Intelligence before enrolling at NYU. After a year he transferred to Northwestern’s Medill School of
Journalism. He began his publishing career at the Daily News, moving on to Newsweek, and then Forbes in New York and Atlanta.
Semi-retired, Charlie conducts historical tours of enigmatic Daufuskie Island and recently completed his first novel. Originally from
New York State, he has lived on Hilton Head Island with his wife, Carole, since 1986.

Norma Van Amberg, editor of Coastal Sport & Wellness, a regional magazine, is an award-winning journalist who wrote for various
papers in her native New Jersey as well as for the Hilton Head Island Packet. She is a graduate of Douglass College, Rutgers
University. She has lived in the Hilton Head area since 1984 and is an avid sports and outdoors enthusiast.

Jim Van Cleave retired as Vice President, Media and Programming, from Procter & Gamble. He is active in Lifelong Learning of
Hilton Head Island where he teaches courses and writes the organization's ads and catalogs. He amuses himself, family, and
friends writing short stories, most of which are pure fiction . . . but some are not.

Barbara Vernasco, by Emily Hammond, age eight: “My Grandma said she had two careers. Number one was being a wife and
mother, and number two was working as Manager of the Microfilm Department for the city of Fort Wayne, Indiana. She enjoyed
doing both jobs, but being a good mom and wife was the hardest job. She wrote a book called Pass the Blessings Along for her
grandchildren.” Serendipity – making a fortunate discovery by accident.

Vicki Barnhill Winters grew up in Newton, Massachusetts, graduated from Smith College, and earned an MA from the University of
Houston. After living twenty-two years in Houston, Texas, she became a syndicated columnist for the seven-newspaper Acorn
Press in Wilton, Connecticut; owned a restaurant and art gallery in San Juan, Puerto Rico; and spent a year on a forty-foot
sailboat in the Caribbean. She now splits her time between Hilton Head and Lenox, Massachusetts.

P. O. Box 5039
Hilton Head Island, SC 29938
E-Mail: admin@iwn-hhi.org

Island Writers' Network