Meet The Team
for our Live Retreat in Heber City, Utah, Oct. 20-24, 2023

Lee Ann Ward is a USA Today bestselling and award-winning author of 11 novels. Her young adult romance, GLIMPSES OF WILDERNESS, is an international bestseller and runner-up for YARWA's Athena Award. Her novel, SEE, was The TBR Pile's  Book of the Year in 2017. She is the former senior editor of Champagne Books and a novel-writing teacher.  She writes young adult and women's fiction, and has taught her plotting through storyboarding techniques at conferences across the country.

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Lee Ann brings her workshop PITCH PERFECT--Writing a winning pitch and query letter to the 2023 Writing Away Refuge retreat.

Joyce Scarbrough is the author of eight novels and numerous short stories featured in multiple anthologies. Joyce is a graduate of the Institute of Children’s Literature, she was the founding senior editor for Champagne Books, and she now works freelance as an editor and book coach. Joyce was president of the Mobile Writers Guild for three years and still serves on its board of directors. She is also a member of the Southern Breeze chapter of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators, but she also writes women’s fiction. She has served on the faculty of the Mobile Literary Festival since its inception in 2016 and has given numerous workshops on characterization and editing for writers’ groups, conferences, libraries, colleges, and high schools throughout the Southeast. Joyce has lived all her life in LA (lower Alabama), she is the mother of three gifted, non-conformist children, and she’s been married for 39 years to a superhero who disguises himself during the day as a high school math teacher and coach.

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Joyce brings her interactive characterization workshop to the 2023 Writing Away Refuge retreat. Joyce is a master at characterization, and this workshop delivers at aiding writers in becoming masters of their characters as well!

Allison Hong Merrill was born and raised in Taiwan and arrived in the U.S. at twenty-two as a university student. That’s when she realized her school English wasn’t much help when asking for directions on the street or opening a bank account. By recording each of the classes she took and reviewing the tape every night for a year, she eventually learned English well enough to earn an MFA from Vermont College of Fine Arts. But please excuse her if she misuses verb tenses or mixes up genders in third-person pronouns when she speaks. It’s no secret––English is hard to learn.

With a reading disorder, Allison writes in both Chinese and English, both fiction and creative nonfiction. Her work appears in The New York Times and has won both national and international literary awards. She is a keynote speaker, an instructor, and a panelist at various writer’s conferences nationwide and in Asia. She also appears on TV, radio, and podcasts; in magazines, newspapers, and journals. She’s available for interviews, teaching, and speaking engagements. Visit her at allisonhongmerrill.com to sign up for her short monthly email.

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Allison brings her workshop How to Structure a Memoir to the 2023 Writing Away Refuge retreat.

Bryan Young (he/they) works across many different media. His work as a writer and producer has been called "filmmaking gold" by The New York Times. He's published comic books with Slave Labor Graphics and Image Comics. He's been a regular contributor for the Huffington Post, StarWars.com, Star Wars Insider magazine, SYFY, /Film, and was the founder and editor in chief of the geek news and review site Big Shiny Robot! In 2014, he wrote the critically acclaimed history book, A Children’s Illustrated History of Presidential Assassination. He co-authored Robotech: The Macross Saga RPG in 2019 and in 2020 he wrote a novel in the BattleTech Universe called Honor's Gauntlet. 2022 will see the release of BattleTech: A Question of Survival and The Big Bang Theory Book of Lists: The Official Guide. He teaches writing for Writer’s Digest, Script Magazine, and at the University of Utah and serves as the President of the League of Utah Writers.

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Bryan brings his workshop Exposition, The Art of Restraint, to the 2023 Writing Away Refuge retreat.

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You can visit Bryan at the social media link below or on  www.swankmotron.com

Katie Reed is a literary agent and developmental editor with Andrea Hurst and Associates. She began her career in publishing with Andrea Hurst while pursuing her Bachelor of Arts in English and has worked in the industry for over a decade. As a literary agent, Katie loves discovering new talent, building lasting connections with her authors, and working diligently to represent books readers will love.

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Katie is working on building her list with compelling, standout, projects to champion. She is especially drawn to books with deep, relatable themes that seep through the pages and make readers think about their own world in a new light. She is open for submissions in the following genres:

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• Commercial Women's Fiction, especially with a strong romantic subplot. 

• Upmarket Fiction that combines a unique, propulsive plot with poignant, introspective writing, like Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt or Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin (my favorite book of 2022!)

• Historical Fiction that adds something new to the genre (think Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus).

• Women’s Suspense/Psychological Thriller with a female protagonist (a la Alice Feeny or Gillian Flynn).

• Retellings, or a modern spin on an old classic, similar to Circe by Madeline Miller or The Stardust Thief by Chelsea Abdullah.

• Voice driven YA Suspense with a fresh hook (loved The Inheritance Games by Jennifer Lynn Barnes and We Were Liars by E. Lockhart).

• YA Fantasy with a high concept, like the Caraval series by Stephanie Garber, Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo, or anything by Sarah J. Maas. (High concept means it has an original, identifiable premise--like The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins--and wide audience appeal.)

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Katie's workshop topic for the 2023 retreat will be announced shortly. Katie will also be listening to pitches.

Amy Collins is an agent with the Talcott Notch Literary Services agency. She has more than 30 years in the publishing industry as a book buyer, Sales Director for a large non-fiction publisher, and the founder and President of New Shelves Books, one of the largest book sales and marketing companies in the US. Collins is a USA TODAY and WALL STREET JOURNAL bestselling author and has spent her career working with Barnes & Noble, Target, Costco, Books-A-Million, Wal-Mart, as well as bookstores and libraries. As well as an agent, Collins is a trusted expert, speaker, and recommended publishing consultant for some of the largest book and library retailers and wholesalers in the publishing industry. In her agent role, Collins focuses on non-fiction/ history, historical fiction, fantasy, and sci-fi. She can be reached at amysadvice.com.

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Amy Collins has taught and spoken at many of the publishing industry’s top festivals and conferences, including Publisher’s Weekly’s BookCon, Keynoting at Scottish Writer’s Conference, Oklahoma Writer’s Conference, Author U, AAPS, Dublin Writers Conference, BAIPA, IBPA’s Publishing University, Dallas Book Con, NY PitchFest, PALA, St. Louis Writer’s Conference, Writers Digest Annual and Novel Conferences, Henderson Writers Conference, DFWCon, Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers Conference, and many others.

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Amy brings her workshop WHAT ARE PUBLISHERS LOOKING FOR to our 2023 retreat. Amy will also be listening to pitches.

Andrea Hurst works as a literary agent with both bestselling and emerging new authors to help polish their book, obtain publication, increase sales, and build their author brand.

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Andrea brings over 25 years experience in the publishing industry, including her work as a literary agent. She is also a developmental book editor for publishers and authors, a bestselling Amazon author, an instructor for the MFA creative writing program at the Northwest Institute of Literary Arts, and a webinar presenter for Writer's Digest. As a literary agent, she selectively represents high profile adult nonfiction and well-crafted genre fiction.

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Andrea's workshop topic for the 2023 retreat will be announced shortly. Andrea will also be listening to pitches.

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Your founder and host, Lee Ann Ward, will be delivering the keynote speech, "Scared Fearless: Why Writer's Should Embrace Courage."

We encourage all of you to get to know our staff and attending agents, but when you choose your actual pitch sessions, please make sure that the agents you pitch represent your genre of writing. It will better your chances of getting read requests. Thank you, and we look forward to meeting you soon!