Wednesday, June 12, 4-5 PM

Moderator Trey Dowell is an award-winning author of both short and novel-length fiction. His short stories have been published in Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, Abyss and Apex, MetaStellar, and Mystery Magazine, among many others, and he won the 2022 Derringer Award for Best Crime/Mystery Short Story of the year. An avid competition writer, Dowell has won the NYC Midnight's Flash Fiction, WritersWeekly.com, Bethlehem Writer's Roundtable, and Bardsy's short fiction contests. His debut science-fiction thriller, The Protectors, was published in 2014 by Simon & Schuster.

Margaux Dunbar Hession is a funny, off-beat, award-winning writer of dark humor stories that balance darker subjects with audacious wit and off-the-wall scenarios, many inspired by her own escapades. Her first novel, Soaring to New Lows springs from her life as former wife to Journey Rock & Roll Hall of Fame drummer, Aynsley Dunbar. Her writing has appeared in multiple journals and publications. She resides in Kailua Hawaii, where she paddles on a 6-person co-ed outrigger team.

David Starkey served as Santa Barbara's 2009–2011 Poet Laureate. He is founding director of the Creative Writing Program at Santa Barbara City College, co-editor of the California Review of Books, and the publisher and co-editor of Gunpowder Press. Over the past thirty-five years, he has published 11 full-length collections of poetry with small presses and more than 500 poems in literary journals. His novel Poor Ghost was released March 2024.

Candi Sary graduated from the University of California, Irvine. Her novel, Black Crow White Lie (Casperian Books, 2012), won Reader Views Literary Award, a CIBA, and was first runner-up in the Eric Hoffer Book Award. It was made into a short film by Chase Michael Wilson. Her new novel Magdalena (Regal House Publishing, 2023) also won a CIBA. A mother of two adult children, she lives in Southern California with her husband, a dog, a cat, and several ducks. She can often be found surfing and paddling boarding in the waters of Newport Beach.

James Darnborough was born and educated in London UK before spending nearly 30 years in the media business in South Africa, Australia and the USA. He currently resides in Los Angeles. His historical saga, The Gambler's Game, is set in the twilight of the 19th Century, as the Old West collides with the opulence of the Gilded Age. One man embarks on a journey that redefines redefine his life. His audacious spirit leads him from the dust-chocked plains to the refined ambiance of English garden parties and the allure of Belle Epoque Monte Carlo.

Nancy Klann-Moren, author and artist, is a native Californian raised in North Hollywood. She wrote the novel, The Clock of Life. a thought-provoking, award-winning story of friendship and struggle at a time in our history when American protests changed the status quo. In her short story collection, Like the Flies on The Patio, she brings us fallible and human characters who live on the page and gently break your heart. Her new novel, Love and Protest, begins with the chance discovery of a diary. This is a coming-of-age-story about two young women's paths toward realizing their future as activists.