Erma Bombeck Writing Competition: 2016 Judges

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Watch this page for continued updates as the Library invites an esteemed panel of judges including actors, actresses, authors, bloggers, columnists, comedians, editors, producers, professors, and writers to score the Erma Bombeck Writing Competition. We thank them for their time and expertise!

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Nancy Cartwright (Humor Judge)

Award-winning actress Nancy Cartwright is best known to the public as the voice of spiky-headed underachiever Bart Simpson, and also gives voice to Ralph Wiggum, Nelson Muntz, Todd Flanders, Kearney, and Database in Fox-TV's The Simpsons, the longest running scripted television show in history. She is known in the non-profit world as a generous and active philanthropist who gives of her time, energy and resources equally. It is through her work on The Simpsons that she is able to support many non-profit organizations, particularly those that help children. She actively supports Famous Fone Friends and Make-A-Wish Foundation, among others, and in 2007 received the Wish Icon Award, the Foundation's highest honor. But her heart is in the San Fernando Valley, where she hosts seminars teaching families to use communication to improve the dynamic within their households. Nancy remembers her roots, though, and has given generously of her time to the Miami Valley, too. Washington-Centerville Public Library gratefully thanks Nancy for her work as spokesperson for the Dottie Yeck Good Life Award and now a finalist judge for the Erma Bombeck Writing Competition.

Daryn Kagan (Human Interest Judge)

You might remember Daryn Kagan from her more than 12 years as an anchor on CNN. Today, Daryn continues her television career as the host of RLTV's "Bookmark." Daryn is also a syndicated newspaper columnist for Cox Newspapers. Her weekly, "What's Possible!" column inspires readers in newspapers across the country. Eighty of her most popular columns make up her new book, Hope Possible: A Network News Anchor's Thoughts On Losing A Job, Finding Love, A New Career, And My Dog, Always My Dog. She is the creator and host of DarynKagan.com, an inspirational, online website featuring stories that, "Show the World What is Possible." Daryn lives in Atlanta, Georgia with her husband, daughter, and Little Sister from the Big Brothers Big Sisters program. An old dog, a three-legged cat, and eight chickens complete the family.

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Deb Amlen

Deb entertains and challenges crossword puzzle lovers from all over the world in The New York Times' daily Wordplay blog, and she is very proud of the fact that far more of her jokes have made it past the copy desk than have been edited out. Her books, It's Not P.M.S., It's You and Create Your Life Lists can be found where all questionable literature is sold, and her other work has been featured in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times, The Onion/A.V. Club, The Huffington Post, The Establishment and BUST Magazine. Deb was a founding columnist with David Pogue's Yahoo Tech magazine, and she lives in New Jersey with her very patient partner, her kids and her Extremely Spunky Border Terrier™, Jade.

Beth Anspach Langefels

Beth Anspach Langefels has been the communications and marketing director for the American Heart and American Stroke Associations since 2006, covering the Miami Valley and Lexington, Kentucky divisions. She began her 25 year career in communications, public relations and marketing with a position in community relations at the Dayton Metro Library. She has worked for several prominent nonprofits, including Hospice of Dayton, The Girl Scouts of Western Ohio and The Dayton Philharmonic Orchestra. She has also been a freelance writer for the Dayton Daily News since 2004 and today writes regularly for both the Life and Neighbors sections as well as the Dayton B2B digital magazine. Beth holds a BA in Creative Writing from Ohio University and has a passion for supporting the local community. She serves on the board of Agape for Youth, a foster care and reunification agency, and volunteers as a mentor with Montgomery County College Promise program. You can read Beth's Dayton Daily News weekly Life human interest features on Facebook.com/BethAnspach or by following her on Twitter @BethAnspach.

Chase Bartels

For the past 12 years, Chase Bartels has been successfully launching careers in Hollywood. Writers who have been under her professional guidance can currently be found working on over 40 of today's highest rated TV shows including: Scandal, Empire, The Blacklist, Person of Interest, The 100, Scorpion, NCIS: New Orleans, The Vampire Diaries, Shameless and Undatable just to name a few. After working on the Disney Lot in Burbank, CA producing original pilots for ABC Studios under Gross Entertainment, Chase created CHASE-LA.com to help writers discover their personalized paths to success within Hollywood's scripted television and movie industries. Before she started developing for primetime, Chase was a key executive at the Warner Bros. Writers' Workshop for seven years. There she annually identified, developed and mentored the leading fresh writing talent for Warner Bros. Television's producers to draw upon. Prior to joining Warner Bros., Chase worked at the venerable William Morris Agency where she supported top actors, writers, and producers for the agency in their TV and Film departments. Her experience working as both a buyer and a seller in Hollywood has given her a unique perspective on the business of Entertainment.

Matthew Batt

Matthew Batt is the author of the memoir Sugarhouse (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt 2012) and is currently at work on a novel set in Milwaukee. The recipient of grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, the McKnight Foundation, and the Aspen Writers Foundation, his work has been featured in The New York Times, The Boston Globe, The Huffington Post, Outside Magazine, and elsewhere. He lives in Minnesota with his wife and son.

Barb Best

Barb Best is a comedy writer who feels your pain! She turns hassles into humor one laugh at a time on her popular humor blog BarbBest.com. Her blog posts also appear on Alltop Humor along with McSweeneys, The Onion, and The Bloggess. Her comedy material has been performed on stage and TV by Joan Rivers among others. Her essays and light verse have been published in numerous print and digital magazines and newspapers. Barb's books include: 100 Fast & Funny: Ha-Musings, Smiles To Go: Take-Out for the ☺ Hungry, Find Your Funny: The LOL Survival Guide for Teens with Dr. Joanne Jackal, and (in Sept. 2016) How To Be Miserable: The Missing Manual. Barb is an enthusiastic member of AATH - The Association of Applied & Therapeutic Humor and a proud supporter of humor healthcare nonprofits Comedy Cures and RxLaughter. She reminds everybody that she is absolutely thrilled to have been selected The 2010 Erma Bombeck Global Humor Winner! Follow her on Twitter just for the fun of it - she's @HaBarb.

Jennifer Brown

Jennifer Brown is the author of acclaimed young adult novels, Hate List, Bitter End, Perfect Escape, Thousand Words, and Torn Away. Her debut novel, Hate List, received three starred reviews and was selected as an ALA Best Book for Young Adults, a VOYA "Perfect Ten," and a School Library Journal Best Book of the Year. Bitter End received starred reviews from Publishers Weekly and VOYA and is listed on the YALSA 2012 Best Fiction for Young Adults list. Jennifer's first YA mystery/suspense novel, Shade Me, was released January 2016. Jennifer also writes middle grade novels, as well as women's fiction, under the name Jennifer Scott. Visit her at www.JenniferBrownAuthor.com or www.JenniferScottAuthor.com.

Michael Campbell

Michael Campbell is a regular humor columnist for Food & Spirits Magazine, where his "Dumpster" essays close every issue. His first book, Are You Going To Eat That?, is a collection of 60 humor essays released in September 2009. His humor blog, MC, (mcwritingessays.blogspot.com) entertains thousands of readers, and he was recently named Humor Writer of The Month by the Erma Bombeck Writers' Workshop. Campbell is also a book designer (mcwriting.com) and a singer/songwriter (michaelcampbellsongwriter.com). His fourth album, My Turn Now, was released in March 2015. The title song is a hoot.

Molly Campbell

Molly D. Campbell is a two-time Erma Bombeck Award winner. She is also a novelist, whose debut, Keep the Ends Loose, is a top-rated coming of age saga full of quirky characters set in beautiful Ohio. Molly blogs at www.mollydcampbell.com and lives in Oakwood with her accordionist husband and four cats. Visit her blog at www.mollydcampbell.com. Read her debut novel, Keep the Ends Loose.

Jackie Curl

Jackie Curl handles public information for Washington Township, Ohio where the print materials she produces have won frequent awards from the City-County Communications and Marketing Association. Previously, as a reporter for the Springfield News-Sun, she wrote a column that took top honors from the Ohio Associated Press and Ohio Newspaper Women's Association. According to a judge: "She writes about Erma Bombeck-like topics, yet in her own unique style." Jackie has completed stints as adjunct professor at Antioch College for the Writing Well and journalism curriculum and as copy director for a communications firm with clients in the telecommunications industry. When she isn't writing, she is reading modern and classic novels with fellow members of the "Reinterpreting the Classics" book club.

Bob Daley

Bob Daley has been a volunteer with the Erma Bombeck Writers' Workshop since its beginning in 2000. He is a retired Director of Public Affairs and Communications at the Kettering Foundation. He has a bachelor's degree in English from the University of Dayton and masters' degrees in political science and public administration from The Ohio State University. He is a former political reporter and Washington correspondent for the (Dayton) Journal Herald. He later served as media relations coordinator for the National League of Cities and was senior editor of its magazine, Nation's Cities.

Irene Dickey

Irene Dickey is a Lecturer at the University of Dayton's School of Business Administration. She teaches a broad scope of marketing courses at the undergraduate and graduate levels and in numerous executive development and leadership programs. Irene has published in such journals as the Journal of Business and Behavioral Sciences, and has presented at many academic and practitioner conferences and meetings. Irene serves as the Director of the P&G Marketing Competition, and feels especially privileged to be Advisor to the Woman in Business Organization. She has recently been nominated as a Top 25 Women to Watch in 2014 by Women in Business Networking. Irene has also been a frequent judge for the Dottie Yeck Good Life Award Contest at the Library.

Greg Duncan

Greg Duncan is a writer, editor, publisher and digital media professional. Armed with a degree in journalism, he promptly went into advertising, where he created campaigns at J. Walter Thompson for Burger King, Goodyear, Scott Paper and other brands. Having firmly established himself in the New York ad world, he departed for Tokyo, Hong Kong, Singapore and Bangkok, where he went back into journalism and founded a network of free weekly magazines (a first for Asia) focused on lifestyle, entertainment, and feature-writing. These days Greg lives on the tropical island of Phuket, Thailand, an indulgence possible only through the magic of the internet...which works there most of the time and keeps Greg connected to the people, stories, deadlines and realities that keep us humans interesting.

Kelly Epperson

Kelly Epperson has written 30+ books, some for New York Times best selling authors, one that sold 3 million copies. A former IRS agent, now an agent of joy, Kelly is a writer, speaker, and coach. She has been writing her weekly newspaper column since 2001. Kelly delivers keynotes, trainings and retreats on topics of Happiness, Stress Management, Vibrational Energy Medicine/Sound Healing, Joy, and Writing. She works with various clients and offers online courses as well. Kelly is a member of AATH (Association of Applied & Therapeutic Humor), American Happiness Association, and National Society of Newspaper Columnists. She is a frequent guest on radio, television, blogs, and summits. Visit www.KellyEpperson.com.

Kim Faris

Kim Faris is celebrating 38 years on the radio in her hometown – Dayton! Kim grew up in Oakwood and became the first female broadcaster from Dayton to be inducted into the Radio/Television Broadcaster's Hall of Fame of Ohio. She is also a member of the Dayton Area Broadcaster's Hall of Fame. Kim enjoys lending her time and talent to several local non-profit organizations, and is a past recipient of the Molina Healthcare of Ohio Community Champions Award, for her work with the Breast Cancer Task Force of the Greater Miami Valley. She has also been honored for her community support by United Rehabilitation Services, The Ronald McDonald House Charities, and Women in Business Networking, who named her one of the WiBN Top 25 Women to Watch in 2009. In February 2013 she received the Noble Award, presented by the Noble Circle Project ~ "A community of women, thriving beyond cancer." Tune in and listen to Kim each weekday morning from 9-11 a.m. on BIG 106-5 –Classic Hit's from the 70's and 80's and each weekday afternoon from 3-7 p.m. on Dayton's Hot Country B945.

Jenny Gardiner

Jenny Gardiner is an award-winning #1 Kindle bestselling author who has published thirteen novels, a memoir, and a collection of essays. Her work has been found in Ladies Home Journal, The Washington Post, Marie-Claire.com, and on National Public Radio. She is an occasional essayist on regional NPR affiliate WVTF-FM, and wrote a humorous column in Charlottesville's Daily Progress for over a decade. She has worked as a publicist for a United States senator, and as a freelance photographer, photographing such notable public figures as Prince Charles, Elizabeth Taylor, and the President of Uganda. She's been the volunteer coordinator for the Virginia Film Festival for five years. She's really bad at math. Find her at www.jennygardiner.net.

Cappy Hall Rearick

Cappy Hall Rearick is an award-winning short story writer and author of ten published books and five successful columns. Past president of the Southeastern Writers Association, she also served on the Board of the Golden Isles Arts and Humanities. She attended the University of South Carolina, Los Angeles Valley College and Penn State University. Back in the dark ages, she was voted Outstanding Young Women of America and more recently was twice nominated as Georgia Author of the Year. Her latest books are I Do! I Do! I Do!, High Cotton Christmas, Hey God— Let's Talk and 50 Shades of Southern. She is currently writing two novels, Stay Tuned and The Glad Girls Fly Over The Cuckoo's Nest. Rearick is a grandmother of nine who affectionately writes about her Grandkids from Hell. Her columns are syndicated by Senior Wire. Cappy and her husband, Bill, share space with two spoiled rotten cats in Saluda, North Carolina. Read more of Cappy's work at Simplycappy.blogspot.com and www.simplysoutherncappy.com.

Sheila Hassell Hughes

Sheila Hassell Hughes is Dean of the School of Liberal Arts at Saint Mary's College of California. Formerly, she served as Chair of the English Department at the University of Dayton, where she was a member of the faculty for seventeen years. Hughes earned her PhD in women's studies from Emory University and her MA in English from University of Toronto. She has published poems and non-fiction in a variety of literary magazines and journals, including Goblin Fruit, The Mom Egg, Phantom Kangaroo, and Literature and Theology, as well as numerous scholarly articles in peer-reviewed journals. Her research has focused on American Indian and African American women writers, religion, race, and gender and on educational issues for women and girls. She is a past winner and past runner-up of the Erma Bombeck writing contest, in the Human Interest – Local category.

Eric Heyl

Eric Heyl is a Pittsburgh Tribune-Review columnist and editor. He has been the paper's lead metro columnist since 1999 and his columns have won awards from the National Society of Newspaper Columnists, the Association for Women in Communications, the Pennsylvania chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists, the Pennsylvania Newspaper Association, the Pennsylvania Associated Press Managing Editors and the Western Pennsylvania Press Club. He served as National Society of Newspaper Columnists president from 2012-14 and is a current member of the NSNC board of directors. In his spare time, he judges writing contests.

Mindy Hoffbauer

Mindy Hoffbauer is a professional explainer. During the past couple decades, Mindy has worked as a technical writer (just like Erma!), editor, social media manager, online help developer, corporate trainer and English adjunct instructor, among other things. She lives in Bellbrook, Ohio (just like Erma did!), has two grown children, and is married to a University of Dayton grad (just like Guess-Who?). In her spare time, she writes mostly nonfiction, reads mostly fiction and works diligently to deepen her laugh lines.

Jenny Isenman

"Jenny From the Blog" is a pop culture obsessed, card carrying Gen Xer, and the humorist behind the award winning site, The Suburban Jungle. Jenny does on air segments for NBC, FOX, Huff Po Live, and hosted CafeMom's Jenny Isenman Show. She writes for TheStir, HuffPost, YahooShine, South Florida Parenting magazine, and pens A Gen Xers Guide to Lying About Your Age for SBG.com. Jenny has a tween son, J (who will one day leave her for another woman) and a 9 year-old daughter, Ry, whose quick-wit and shockingly logical thinking will probably lead her to world domination. Join the insanity on Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest.

Leigh Anne Jasheway

Leigh Anne Jasheway is the author of 22 humor books, the most recent being Don't Laugh You'll Wake the Dog. She writes a humor column for The Register Guard's Weekend section and NABBW.org, and appears regularly in Funny Times. She won the 2003 Erma Bombeck Humor Writing Award for her true story on how her first mammogram caught on fire. She teaches comedy writing and grammar at the University of Oregon and Lane Community College and is the former host of The Giggle Spot and Women Under the Influece of Laughter. She is also a humorous motivational speaker and stand-up comic. She is the founder and organizer of two long-running comedy shows, The Eugene Laff Off and The NW Women's Comedy Festival. In her spare time she tries to tries to remember where she parked.

Jill Kelley

Jill Kelley has spent her career massaging the written word, serving as a reporter, columnist, editor, publication manager and marketing writer. She has worked for the Dayton Daily News and its affiliated products, the Anchorage Times, hibu magazines and, most recently, Woolpert—a national architecture, engineering and geospatial firm. Jill majored in English and minored in anthropology at Washington University in St. Louis before teaching in the Czech Republic, dispatching cabs in Alaska and managing a bookstore in L.A. The married mother of two now lives in Kettering.

Stephen Lautens

Stephen Lautens is a lawyer, writer, entrepreneur and communications specialist. In his varied career, Stephen had his own law practice, worked as an assistant to a Cabinet Minister, was executive of a software company and Vice President of a successful gold exploration company working in China. Although it never put a lot of food on the table, at the same time Stephen wrote a weekly newspaper column for 20 years, appearing in the Toronto Star and as a regular feature in The National Post, The London Free Press, the Calgary Sun and the Toronto Sun. Recent articles have appeared in everything from Canadian Lawyer Magazine to a number of the hugely popular Chicken Soup for the Soul books. He has appeared on radio and TV as a polticial pundit and has a large Twitter following. His online commentary frequently appears in publications as diverse as the Huffington Post, the CBC, CNN and Al Jazeera. He also currently does a semi-weekly current affairs podcast with Steven Kerzner (aka "Ed the Sock").

Anna Lefler

Anna Lefler is a humorist, comedy writer, and author of the novel Preschooled (Full Fathom Five, 2015). She is also the author of the humor book The Chicktionary: From A-line to Z-snap, the Words Every Woman Should Know, which The Chicago Tribune called "a wry celebration of modern femininity." Anna was a staff writer on the Nickelodeon/NickMom TV show "Parental Discretion with Stefanie Wilder-Taylor," where she also served as a recurring on-camera performer. She is a three-time faculty member of the Erma Bombeck Writers' Workshop and her humorous essays have appeared on Salon.com, McSweeney's Internet Tendency, and The Big Jewel. She has performed standup comedy in clubs around Los Angeles including the Hollywood Improv and the Comedy Store. Anna lives in Los Angeles with her two children, whom she regularly embarrasses.

Jenna McCarthy

Jenna McCarthy is an internationally published writer, speaker, former radio personality and the author of several humorous books for adults and children including Everything's Relative and this summer's Lola Knows a Lot. Her writing has appeared in more than sixty magazines, on dozens of web sites and in several anthologies including the popular Chicken Soup series. When she's not producing and starring in her own book trailers, Jenna can be found entertaining fans on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. She doesn't like to brag, but her TED talk currently has more than three and a half million views. You can read about the time she was escorted out of her office by a cop and see her in the bathtub by visiting www.jennamccarthy.com.

Mary McCarty

Mary McCarty is a longtime Dayton-area columnist and reporter who currently writes a Sunday column for the Dayton Daily News and teaches media writing at The University of Dayton. McCarty's column has appeared regularly on the national editorial wire and was widely syndicated through Cox News Service. She also served as an investigative reporter for the Dayton Daily News, specializing in narrative nonfiction projects. Before joining the Dayton Daily News, she was a staff writer and senior editor for Cincinnati Magazine. Mary has received many state and national awards for her writing, including the H.L. Mencken Award as well as being named Writer of the Year for Cox Newspapers and Best Columnist in Ohio by the Ohio Society of Professional Journalists. Mary has been involved with the Erma Bombeck Writers' Workshop since its inception -- a very meaningful connection because of her mother's college friendship with Erma.

Peter McKay

Peter McKay is a nationally-syndicated newspaper columnist and attorney based in Pittsburgh, PA. For 15 years, Peter's humor column about his old house, big family and decrepit, smelly dog has been homebased at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Peter also appears regularly in the national humor paper Funny Times. For ten years, his column was also syndicated to papers across the country through Creators Syndicate. Peter is also a screenwriter, a pursuit that takes up much of his time these days. He wrote the screenplay for the Hallmark movie Pete's Christmas, which has aired dozens of times over the last three years during the holidays, and his comedy/drama screenplay Ben Avon is one of the highest rated projects on The Black List website. Another project is currently under development. Peter works in a number of genres, from family comedy to indie drama to espionage thrillers.

Martha Moody

Martha Moody graduated from Oberlin College and the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, spending 15 years in private practice. After publishing her first novel, Best Friends, she retired from private practice. Since then she has written three more books, The Office of Desire , Sometimes Mine, and Sharp and Dangerous Virtues. When Moody isn't writing she is active in the Dayton Women's Literary Club and the Jewish Community Relations Council and as a writing teacher in the local public school system. Moody is also involved in a long-term project teaching English to elementary school students in the Arab village of Deir al Assad, Israel. In March, 2011, in acknowledgement of her philanthropy, Moody was honored as a 2011 YWCA Woman of Influence. Visit her website at marthamoody.net

Susan Reinhardt

Susan Reinhardt, award-winning columnist, is author of six books along with many anthologies. Her much acclaimed first novel, Chimes from a Cracked Southern Belle won the bronze medal in the 2014 IPPY's. Susan's bestselling book of humor, Not Tonight Honey, Wait 'Til I'm a Size 6 is now in its 7th printing, and she has also written Don't Sleep with a Bubba, a Book of the Year winner, and Dishing with the Kitchen Virgin, a best-selling collection of hilarious culinary disasters with a dash of PG-13 humor and a smidgeon of sex. In addition to writing, she's a stand-up comedian, public speaker, community volunteer, and taxi driver to her 17-year-old daughter, debit card to her 23-year-old son, and a borderline candidate to appear on "The Hoarders: Buried Alive." To book her for speaking, comedy or book club events, send an email to reinhardtnc@yahoo.com. Her impersonation of Sarah Palin is spot on!

Amelia Robinson

Blogger and reporter Amelia Robinson is a native of Cleveland where she learned all about sarcasm and aircraft repair as a student at the now closed Aviation High School. The graduate of Ohio University's E.W. Scripp School of Journalism joined the Dayton Daily News staff in 2000 after a three-year stint at the Mansfield News Journal. She writes about dining, nightlife, entertainment and lifestyle in the Dayton area. Robinson serves as president of the Greater Dayton Association of Black Journalists, serves on the Dayton Sister City Committee, Boonshoft Museum of Discovery's Associate Board and is a member of the Junior League of Dayton. Robinson writes the wildly popular Smart Mouth column featured in Saturday's Dayton Daily News.

Ron Rollins

Ron Rollins is Senior Editor for Cox Media Group Ohio, where he is in charge of the Ideas & Voices opinion pages for the Dayton Daily News and its three sister papers in southwest Ohio. He's been with Cox since 1986 in a variety of writing and editing positions.

Dorothy Rosby

Dorothy Rosby is a speaker and syndicated humor columnist whose work appears in publications in eleven Western and Midwestern states. Her column has been recognized by the South Dakota Newspaper Association, the South Dakota Federation of Press Women, and the National Federation of Press Women. She was a finalist in the 2015 Robert Benchley Annual Award for Humor Writing and was the 2015 first-place winner in the National Federation of Press Women contest, Humor Column category. She is the author of the humor collection, I Used to Think I Was Not That Bad and Then I Got to Know Me Better and the soon-to-be published I Didn't Know You Could Make Birthday Cake from Scratch.

Maureen Russell-Hodgson

Maureen Russell Hodgson is the Community Resources Coordinator for the City of Centerville, Ohio. She hosts two television programs highlighting community information and serves as editor of the city's newsletter, The Town Crier, which has received national recognition. Born with a funny bone inherited from generations of storytellers, she appreciates life's lighter moments, a skill that is much needed as the mother of four.

Bill Scheft

Bill Scheft, the keynote speaker at the 2010 EBWW, was a 15-time Emmy nominated writer for David Letterman from 1991 to May 20, 2015. He is the author of four novels: The Ringer, Time Won't Let Me (a finalist for the 2006 Thurber Prize for American Humor), Everything Hurts and his most recent, Shrink Thyself. For three years, his weekly sports humor column, "The Show," ran in Sports Illustrated and before that, for two years as "The Monologue" in ESPN Magazine. He has contributed humor essays to The New Yorker, The New York Times, Esquire, Slate, Salon, TV Guide, Golf Digest and a few places that no longer exist, like George and Talk, and his pieces have been featured in the collections Mirth of a Nation, May Contain Nuts, 101 Damnations, Howl and The Final Four of Everything. He has written for the Academy Awards, the Emmys, the Tonys and numerous roasts at all levels of taste. He is a regular contributor to the New York Times Sunday Book Review. His latest work, a serialized novel about the bust-out comedian Tommy Dash, is featured on Nikki Finke's show business fiction website, HollywoodDementia.com. A honors graduate from Harvard, where he majored in Latin because he thought the Church was going to come back, Scheft lives in Manhattan with his wife, comedian Adrianne Tolsch, and the voices in his head.

Joel Schwartzberg

An award-winning essayist, humorist, and screenwriter, Joel Schwartzberg authored the award-winning essay collections The 40-Year-Old Version and Small Things Considered. He was a Head Writer for Nickelodeon in 1998 and later an editorial director for Time Inc. Interactive. Joel's essays on parenting and other spontaneous phenomena have appeared in The New York Times Magazine, Newsweek, The New York Daily News, The New York Post, The Star Ledger, New Jersey Monthly, Babble.com, StepMom Magazine, The Good Men Project, Chicken Soup for the Soul, The Huffington Post, and regional parenting magazines throughout the U.S. and Canada.

Greg Schwem

Greg Schwem is a corporate standup comedian and nationally syndicated humor columnist for Tribune Content Agency. He has appeared on Comedy Central and VH-1, shared the concert stage with the likes of Celine Dion and Keith Urban, and was recently profiled in Parade Magazine. Greg's columns have appeared in the Huffington Post, American Way Magazine and the New York Daily News. He is the author of two books: Text Me If You're Breathing: Observations, Frustrations and Life Lessons From a Low-Tech Dad, and the recently released The Road to Success Goes Through the Salad Bar: A Pile of BS (Business Stories) From a Corporate Comedian. Subscribe to Greg's blog and follow him on Twitter @GregSchwem.

Matt Selman

Matt Selman is a five-time Primetime Emmy award-winning producer and writer known for The Simpsons (1989), The Simpsons Movie (2007) and The Simpsons: Hit & Run (2003). He has been nominated for a Primetime Emmy 15 times, for an Annie twice (won for "Simpsons Bible Stories"), and nominated six times for the Writers Guild of America (won for "The Dad Who Knew Too Little") award. He is currently executive producer of The Simpsons and is writing the screenplay for the film adaptation of Ricky Gervais' Flanimals.

Jen Singer

Jen Singer is the creator of MommaSaid.net, a Forbes Best of the Web community for mothers, and the author of five books, including the Stop Second-Guessing Yourself guides to parenting and You're a Good Mom (and Your Kids Aren't So Bad Either). She has written for numerous media outlets, including American Baby, Good Housekeeping.com, Parenting and Parents. A cancer survivor, she is the founder of ParentingWithCancer.com. She lives in northern New Jersey with her two teen sons who are probably emptying the pantry right now.

Lisa Smith Molinari

Lisa Smith Molinari writes the award-winning blog and weekly print column, "The Meat & Potatoes of Life." Her essays on parenting, marriage and military life have been published in The Washington Post, Huffington Post, multiple newspapers, magazines, websites and anthologies. Her column will soon be a weekly feature in Stars and Stripes newspaper, while continuing to appear in approximately 20 military base newspapers nationwide. Lisa currently serves as Vice President of the National Society of Newspaper Columnists. A 22-year Navy spouse and mother of three, Lisa and her family are currently stationed at the US Naval War College in Newport, RI. Follow Lisa @MolinariWrites and www.TheMeatAndPotatoesofLife.com.

Jack Thomas

Jack Thomas is an executive producer, former attorney, stand-up comedian, and a Primetime Emmy Award-winning writer and producer known for The Fairly OddParents (2001), Regular Show (2010) and The Replacements (2006). He currently works for Dreamworks Animation where he helped launch the "Turbo:FAST" series for Netflix and writes on the series; "Dragons: Race to the Edge." Thomas has had an eclectic writing career - everything from writing introductions for American Movie Classics to writing comedy sketches for the FOX NFL Pregame Show to even polishing up the script for the feature "Carpool" - before landing in animation in 2001 on The Fairly OddParents. He met Nancy Cartwright at Ohio University when they were on the speech team together.

Brian Thompson

For more than 15 years, Brian Thompson has been writing the weekly humor column, Life in a Nutshell, for The St. Augustine Record in Florida. The column has won 7 Florida Press Club awards for commentary, including second place in 2015. You can read "Life in a Nutshell" online at www.nutshellcity.com. Thompson is a former journalist and editor, and has been a freelance writer for Scholastic's Parent and Child Magazine, Folio Weekly, Jacksonville Magazine, Street & Smith's Sports Business Journal, Rosebud, and Delicious Magazine. He has also done radio commentary on Jacksonville's WJCT Public Radio. He works at Flagler College in St. Augustine, Florida, where he edits Flagler Magazine, advises the student newspaper, and teaches opinion writing. He is the founder and past-president of the Florida College Press Association.

Tim Waggoner

Tim Waggoner has published over thirty novels and three short story collections in the fantasy and horror genres. He teaches creative writing at Sinclair Community College and in Seton Hill University's Master of Fine Arts in Writing Popular Fiction program. Visit him on the web at www.timwaggoner.com.

George Waters

Winner of the prestigious Will Rogers Writing Contest, George Waters writes a weekly humor column which appears in newspapers and on his website , The "Wa" Blog. His work is featured in Suzette Martinez Standring's book, The Art of Column Writing, and his humorous parenting essays have appeared in L.A. Parent, Dallas Child, Kansas City Parent, New Jersey Family and numerous others regional parenting publications. Read more from George Waters in The Art of Column Writing: Insider Secrets from Art Buchwald, Dave Barry, Arianna Huffington, Pete Hamill and Other Great Columnists by Suzette Martinez Standring.

Dawn Weber

Dawn Weber is a national-award-winning humor columnist, Huffington Post contributor and author whose work has been published in five books. She blogs at lightenupweber.blogspot.com, and her "Lighten Up" column runs in the Buckeye Lake Beacon, where she's been called the local love child of Dave Barry and Nora Ephron. Dawn resides in Brownsville, Ohio (motto: Indoor Plumbing Optional) with her husband, kids, and freakishly enthusiastic dog, Suzie the Meth Lab.

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