University of Southern Maine

Peter Behrens, Novel
Peter’s first novel, The Law of Dreams, won the prestigious Governor General’s Literary  Award and has been nominated for the International Impac Literature Prize. Peter is a former Wallace Stegner Fellow at Stanford. Night Driving, a collection of stories, was published in 1987.
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Dianne Benedict, Short Fiction
Author of Shiny Objects, winner of the Iowa Short Fiction Award, Dianne is a professor at the University of Southern Maine. She has received fellowships  from the National Endowment For the Arts and the Maine Arts Commission. Her stories have appeared in The Atlantic Monthly and Best American Short Stories.

Abigail Thomas , Memoir
Abigail Thomas has written three works of fiction, Getting Over Tom, Herb's Pajamas, and An Actual Life. She has also written the memoirs Safekeeping and A Three Dog Life, which was chosen one of the best books of 2006 by the Los Angeles Times and the Washington Post, and has been translated into nine languages. She has taught in the MFA Program at The New School, at the Tin House Summer Workshop, The Omega Institute and the Writers at Work program in Utah. Her most recent book is Thinking About Memoir, a guide to writing about one's life. She has four children and twelve grandchildren. She is at work on a new non-fiction book about a lifelong friendship. For more information, visit her website.

Ravi Shankar, Poetry
Ravi Shankar is poet-in-residence at Central Connecticut State University and the founding editor of the online journal of the arts, Drunken Boat. His first book Instrumentality, was published by Word Press in May 2004. He co-edited the anthology Language for a New Century: Contemporary Poetry from the Middle East, Asia, and BeyondHis work has previously appeared or is forthcoming in such places as The Paris Review, Poets & Writers, Time Out New York, and Gulf Coast, among other publications. An interview with Ravi can be found at: Jacket Magazine. He does not play the sitar.

Justin Tussing, Director
Justin is the author of the novel The Best People in the World. A member of the faculty at the University of Southern Maine, Justin is a graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. Previously he has held administrative positions at the Iowa Summer Writing Festival, The Iowa Young Writers Studio, and the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown. He is currently at work on his second novel.