Speakers
Join keynote speakers Lady Brion, Kristen Arnett, Temim Fruchter, and Roseanne A. Brown this year in Ocean City, Maryland as we celebrate and learn together.
Keynote Speakers
Lady Brion
Poet
Lady Brion is an international spoken word artist, activist, organizer and educator who has captivated audiences with her powerful performances. She became the Women of the World Poetry Slam Champion and International Poetry Slam Champion (team slam) in April 2021. In 2024 she was appointed as the Poet Laureate of Maryland, making her the youngest and only spoken word artist to hold this position.
Kristen Arnett
Author
Kristen Arnett is the queer Floridian author of With Teeth: A Novel (Riverhead Books, 2021) which was a finalist for the Lambda Literary Award in fiction and the New York Times bestselling debut novel Mostly Dead Things (Tin House, 2019) which was also a finalist for the Lambda Literary Award in fiction and was shortlisted for the VCU Cabell First Novelist Award.
Temim Fruchter
Author
Temim Fruchter is a queer nonbinary anti-Zionist Jewish writer who lives in Brooklyn, NY. She holds an MFA in fiction from the University of Maryland, and is the recipient of fellowships from the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities, Vermont Studio Center, and a 2020 Rona Jaffe Foundation Writer's Award. She is co-host of Pete’s Reading Series in Brooklyn. Her debut novel, CITY OF LAUGHTER, a New York Times Editors’ Pick, is out now on Grove Atlantic.
Roseanne A. Brown
Maryland Author Award Winner
Roseanne A. Brown is an immigrant from the West African nation of Ghana and a graduate of the University of Maryland, where she completed the Jimenez-Porter Writers’ House program. Her debut novel A Song of Wraiths and Ruin was an instant New York Times Bestseller, an Indie Bestseller, and received six starred reviews. She has worked with Marvel, Star Wars, and Disney among other publishers.