REGISTER FOR 2026 STORYFEST

2026 STORYFEST RETREAT SCHEDULE

Dan Leach
Friday Keynote: The World at Your Window: Art in Times of Crisis

Dan Leach has published fiction and poetry in The Massachusetts Review, The Southern Review and The Sun. Junah at the End of the World, his debut novel, won the South Carolina Novel Prize and received a Kirkus starred review. He lives in the Lowcountry of South Carolina and teaches creative writing at Charleston Southern University.

Caleb Wygal
Saturday Keynote: Session Title: From Brain Surgery to Career Novelist: Rebuilding a Writing Life 

Caleb Wygal is the author of 13 novels, including the award-winning Myrtle Beach Mystery series and the Lucas Caine Adventure series. His books have received national recognition and have been honored with multiple awards and short-listed for others. A member of International Thriller Writers and Mystery Writers of America, Wygal also has taught mystery writing through the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at Coastal Carolina University. After surviving a traumatic brain injury that required him to relearn fundamental skills, he rebuilt his writing life from the ground up. He lives in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, with his wife and son.

Dr. Stacey Hettes
Sunday Keynote

Dr. Stacey Hettes joined the faculty at Wofford College in Spartanburg in 2003, serving as its first associate provost for faculty development from 2014-2020. A native of Pennsylvania, she holds a Ph.D. in neuroscience from the University of California, Riverside. She is the youngest winner to date of the Milliken Award for Excellence in the Teaching of Science. In 2025, she was named Wofford's Southern Conference Faculty Member of the Year. Her classes are difficult because life is difficult. They are also full of wonder, joy and triumph because, like her students, she is a hard-working seeker. Re-emerging from the shadows of her past was only possible once she resolved to carry the story found in Dispatches from the Couch, A Neuroscientist and Her Therapist Conspire to Reboot Her Brain into the light. Dispatches recently was named a finalist for both the Chanticleer Hearten and Journey Awards, awarded to books that are uplifting and focus on overcoming adversity. She resides in Spartanburg with her brother and sister rescue pups, Chili and Pepper.

Amy Trainor Ashby, vice president and editor in chief for Warren Publishing, began her publishing career as the firm's marketing assistant in 2007 and has worn many hats throughout the years. She holds a BA in English from Davidson College, a certificate in publishing from Columbia University and an MFA in creative writing from Queens University of Charlotte. Over the years, Ashby has edited books ranging in genre from children’s books to fiction, memoir, nonfiction, poetry, business books and beyond. She also has an extensive background as a marketing copywriter for advertisements, digital content and more. An avid creative nonfiction writer, she has been published in various local and national publications, and she was named a Publisher’s Weekly Star Watch Honoree in 2024 for being a “rising talent in the publishing and bookselling businesses.”

Andrew Geyer
The Petigru Review Panel: Things That Go Bump in the Night
Masterclass

Andrew Geyer is the author, co-author and editor of 11 books, including the novels Dixie Fish and Meeting the Dead and the short story collection Lesser Mountains, winner of the 2020 Independent Publishers Book Award Silver Medal for Regional/Southern Fiction. His short stories have won numerous accolades, including two Spur Awards for Best Short Story from the Western Writers of America.  A member of the Texas Institute of Letters and the South Carolina Academy of Authors Literary Hall of Fame, Geyer chairs the English Department at the University of South Carolina Aiken and is the fiction editor at the Concho River Review.

Andrew Mack
Publishing Panel: Models, Realities and Strategic Choices

Andrew Mack is the founder and managing editor of Loblolly Press. He oversees editorial direction, acquisitions and author partnerships across the catalog. His work at the press is grounded in a commitment to sustained editorial care, transparency and building space for writers whose work is often sidelined elsewhere. Mack is the author of three poetry collections, Weekend Revival and What the River Was and Beasts of Chase. He lives in Asheville, North Carolina.

Originally from Columbus, Ohio, Dakota McElhinny also spent time growing up in Morganton, North Carolina. Between the two, he gained the “bustling city life” and “rural country life” experience. After receiving his associate of arts degree from Western Piedmont Community College, he obtained his bachelor of science from North Greenville University. In addition, McElhinny holds a certification in old Norse mythology from the University of Colorado, and a certification in magic in the Middle Ages from the University of Barcelona. He has 12 independently published works, including The Realm (2016), The Realm: Rise of the Demon Prince (2017) and The Realm: The Chess Master's Ring (2020), which make up his Middle-Grade Epic Fantasy, The Realm Series. Time Frozen Mirrors (2018), Black October (2019); Dreams of Glass (2020); The Cutting Room Floor (2021); Half a Truth, Half a Lie (2022); and Envoi (2023) are his six poetry compilations. The Art of Time (2020) is his sole short story compilation; and Crumpet Court Chronicles (2021) is his stand-alone book in the magical realism genre. McElhinny can be reached at president@myscwa.org or dakotawrites100@gmail.com.

Michael J. McGandy
Publishing Panel: Models, Realities and Strategic Choices

Michael J. McGandy is director of University of South Carolina Press. Prior to arriving in Columbia in 2022, he was editorial director of the Three Hills, the regional trade imprint of Cornell University Press, and before that he worked in commercial publishing in New York City at Macmillan Library Reference, W. W. Norton, and Rowman & Littlefield.

Alison Mero
Publishing Panel: Models, Realities and Strategic Choices

Alison Mero, director of Clemson University Press, holds a Ph.D. in musicology from Indiana University. Her research interests include 19th-century British music, opera production and the periodical press. Mero oversees the production process on all publications, trains and supervises interns, and acquires books in the Studies in British Musical Cultures series.

Rick Mulkey
Breakout Session: Poetic Design: Organizing Your Poetry Manuscript

Rick Mulkey is the author of eight collections, including All These Hungers, Ravenous: New & Selected Poems, Toward Any Darkness, Before the Age of Reason, Bluefield Breakdown and forthcoming in 2027, Clearing Out the Tillage Rows, and Elegy and Everything After. Individual poems and essays have appeared widely, including Poetry East, Georgia Review, Crab Orchard Review, The Literary Review, Denver Quarterly, Shenandoah, Poetry Daily, Verse Daily and the anthologies American Poetry: the Next Generation and The Southern Poetry Anthology: Volumes I and II, among others. With Denise Duhamel he co-edited the anthology Ice On a Hot Stove: A Decade of Converse MFA Poetry. His awards include the Hawthornden Fellowship, the Charles Angoff Award, and the Gearhart Poetry Prize. Mulkey is founding director of the Converse Low Residency MFA, and current director of the Converse BFA in Creative Writing. 

Lib Ramos
Publishing Panel: Models, Realities and Strategic Choices

Lib Ramos is a designer, publisher and advocate for creative work. With a background in print design and a degree in graphic design, she spent nearly a decade in the agency world before shifting her focus to independent projects. She co-founded Indie Craft Parade in 2010 out of a love for artists and makers, and still serves as the creative director for this organization, a nonprofit whose mission is to empower creative entrepreneurs. In 2018, a freelance book design project became the catalyst for launching Good Printed Things, an independent publishing company focused on small-batch, collaborative books. As both designer and publisher, Ramos is passionate about print as a tangible artifact of creative work. She thrives on collaboration, working with artists and writers to bring meaningful projects to life.

Tayler Simon
Breakout Session: Writing Our Truths: Social Justice Storytelling

Tayler Simon is a writer, book lover turned bookseller, social worker and seeker of liberation for all. She is the owner of Liberation is Lit, a bookstore that aims to spark collective action for liberation and community building among readers and book lovers by promoting stories from intersectional experiences. Simon has been contributing to numerous online publications on anti-oppression since 2019. She has self-published four books: Phases, Writing Our Truths: A Guide to Self-Publishing for BIPOC Writers, Love and Other Forms of Heartbreak, and Black Madonna. Through her books, she has made a commitment to radical vulnerability, curiosity, and connection.

Sara Sobota
The Petigru Review Panel: Things That Go Bump in the Night

As senior lecturer of English, Sara Sobota teaches courses in business communication and professional writing at Coastal Carolina University. She also serves as faculty mentor for a team of undergraduates who write discipline-centered feature stories and maintain departmental social media accounts. As publications editor for the Edwards College, she writes and edits a variety of promotional materials including Tapestry, the alumni magazine; the biannual CCU Cultural Arts Calendar; press releases; and a weekly newsletter. Sobota is an active freelance writer for regional lifestyle and trade publications as well as area nonprofit organizations. Outside of work, Sara enjoys running, kayaking, going to the beach, reading and hanging out with her two rescue dogs, Zippy and Dakota.

Pam Stone
Breakout Session: Thinking Outside the Box

Pam Stone, a native of Marietta, Georgia, is an actress, comedian, writer and talk show host. Stone graduated attended Kennesaw College  in Kennesaw, Georgia, before leaving in her third year to pursue stand-up comedy in Los Angeles. She is one of the few comedians ever invited to perform at The White House, and in her stand-up career has appeared on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno,  Oprah Winfrey and Joan Rivers, as well as multiple appearances on other network and cable comedy specials. In 1992, Stone won the American Comedy Award for Best Female Stand-up. Stone co-starred in the television series Coach  for seven seasons as the character Judy Watkins. She also appeared in the sit-com The Drew Carey Show, the Rob Reiner political documentary But Seriously, Folks, and the George Lucas 1994 film Radioland Murders. She hosted a syndicated daytime talk radio show The Pam Stone Show, for five years, which first aired on weekdays, then Saturdays, on Charlotte, North Carolina-based radio station WLNK.  She received two Gracie Awards for Best Comedy Entertainment Program. Until 2012, Stone continued in radio as a co-host of the Sunday program The Satisfied Life with WLNK afternoon co-host Ramona Holloway. Stone currently writes a syndicated humor column that was awarded Best Humor Column in 2012 by the SC Press Association and is the basis for her 2012 book, I Love Me A Turkey Butt Samwich. She also is the the author of Rats! Rats! Rats! and Only Horsepeople. In 2017, she released her first novel, Girls Like Her, which was nominated for the Southern Book Prize.