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Diane Turnshek (Alpha Director and Founder) is an astronomer and a science fiction author whose short fiction has been published in Analog Magazine and elsewhere. She’s the Outreach Coordinator for the Physics Department at Carnegie Mellon University where she teaches astronomy. She also teaches at the University of Pittsburgh (“The Physics of Science Fiction” as well as astronomy). She’s a contributing author of Many Genres/One Craft, a 2011 award-winning book on writing. She has taught college writing classes, helped organize science fiction conferences, workshops and critiquing groups, and ran the 2007 SFWA Nebula Awards in NYC. Diane has four stellar sons and an out-of-this-world boyfriend. |
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David Barr Kirtley has been profiled as part of “Speculative Fiction: The Next Generation” by Novel & Short Story Writer’s Market. His short fiction appears in magazines such as Realms of Fantasy and Weird Tales, and in anthologies such as New Voices in Science Fiction and Fantasy: The Best of the Year. He has a Master’s degree in screenwriting and fiction from the University of Southern California, and lives in New York. |
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Thomas Seay’s fiction has appeared in Realms of Fantasy, Boys’ Life, Fantastic Stories, and various other publications. He received an MFA in creative writing from the University of Kansas, where also he served as volunteer coordinator for the Center for the Study of Science Fiction and built the AboutSF.com website. He lives in Washington, D.C. and works as a press secretary for a Congressional committee. |
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Amy Treadwell likes to write what she likes to read: characters that sound like real people. Her work has been published in the 2008 Triangulation anthology, Flash Fiction Online, and has won first and second prize in the 2008 PARSEC contest. She has taught writing classes for the University of Oklahoma, the Oklahoma Writing Project, and Moore High School. In her spare time, she enjoys kayaking, traveling, and reading fantasy. She is a reviewer for Broad Universe and is currently at work on her third novel. |
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Julie Holderman is a YA writer based in upstate New York. She’s currently working on a companion book to the bestselling Tortall series by Tamora Pierce, due to be published by Random House in 2012. Julie started as an Alpha attendee herself, participating during the second and third years of the program’s existence first as a student then as student staff. One of her particular favorite activities is genrebending and mystery writing with fantastic or dark horror elements. She maintains a small, sporadically updated blog with author interviews, book musings and notes-to-self from her own experiences. |
