Past StudioSTL Workshop Leaders
community
Spring 2012 Workshop Leaders
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Katya Apekina teaches fiction
writing at Washington University. Her stories have recently been
published in The Iowa Review, among other
places. Her poetry translations have appeared in Night Wraps the Sky: Writings by and about Mayakovsky,
which was short-listed for the Best Translated Book Award. She also
co-wrote the screenplay for New Orleans, Mon
Amour, which starred Elisabeth Moss and Christopher
Eccleston. She lives in South City with her boyfriend and their
dog.
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Alexa Beattie has an MA in
Creative Writing from Johns Hopkins and writes both fiction and
nonfiction. A past editor and food writer for The
Washington Post, she is a regular contributor to St. Louis
Magazine's At Home. Alexa grew up in London
and loves to paint and take photographs. She and her husband have
three children, three dogs, two cats, two hamsters and one fish.
- StudioSTL is happy to have Cheree
Berry back, leading her popular "Tea with Cheree"
workshop. Cheree designs custom stationery on behalf of her company,
Cheree Berry Paper. Prior to moving back to St. Louis, she worked as
the artistic director for Kate Spade in New York and designed custom
wedding stationery and personalized stationery lines.
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Chris Brennan is an Elementary
School teacher at Mary Institute Country Day School (MICDS) and
English editor of the Berlin-based Papua-Solar Brandenburg
Initiative Project. An avid traveler, he has observed and taught
elementary education in the Philippines, Thailand, Singapore,
Germany, and Australia. He enjoys writing nonfiction short stories,
reading Pablo Neruda, laughing often, and using the Oxford comma as
often as possible.
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Anton DiSclafani received her BA
from Emory University and her Master of Fine Arts from Washington
University in St. Louis. She teaches fiction, historical fiction,
sudden fiction, and nonfiction at Washington University, where she
also directs the Summer Writers Institute. Anton likes reading,
walking her dog, and cooking. She lives in University City with her
husband, the aforementioned dog, and two cats.
- Writer Deborah Gregory knows a lot about showing
her spots. Born in Brooklyn, she became homeless at age three and was
raised in the foster care system in New York City. Led by her
imagination and desire to rise from her circumstances, she earned her
associates degree from the Fashion Institute of Technology and her
bachelor's degree in English literature and writing from Empire State
University. She began her writing career at Redbook magazine and has written for Essence and Entertainment Weekly.
She lives with her beloved pooch, Cappuccino, in New York City.
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Emma Hand spent her childhood on a
Missouri farm, her teen years in St. Louis, and her early adulthood
in Boston and California. Intrigued by patterns in nature, Emma
studied biology in college, yet always nurtured her passion for
handwriting, wordplay, and design. She is the author and
illustrator of Snap Stories, a new breed of
photo storybooks. She believes a photo really IS worth a thousand
words, and the emotion a simple photo can evoke is beyond words.
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Bill
Keaggy is the author of two books, Milk
Eggs Vodka: Grocery Lists Lost and Found and 50 Sad Chairs. His projects have appeared in
The New York Times, The
L.A. Times, The Chicago Tribune,
The Washington Post, St.
Louis Post-Dispatch, The Wall Street
Journal, USA Today, Bon Appetit and more, including NPR, CBC, and the Jimmy Kimmel Show as well as many books, lots of blogs
and at least one documentary film.
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Katherine Mitchell has taught
the Alexander Technique professionally for over twenty years. She
works with a broad range of individuals from musicians and teachers
to lawyers and sign-language interpreters. She is currently
pursuing an MFA in creative writing at University of Missouri Saint
Louis. Katherine has a background in dance and teaches Argentine
Tango at Washington University.
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Ben Moeller-Gaa led the
StudioSTL's Fall 2011 Dinotopia playwriting workshop. He received
his degree in Creative Writing from Knox College and works for
Sigma-Aldrich Corp. A poet and contributing editor for River Styx literary magazine, Ben is a founding member
of the Tin Ceiling Theater Company and served as the
playwright-in-residence at the Ravissant Winery. He lives in St.
Louis with his wife, Jessica, and cats Otto and Flitwick.
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Michelle Parrinello-Cason is an
academic coordinator for the McNair Scholars Program and adjunct
English instructor at Saint Louis University who is working toward
her PhD in rhetoric and composition. She lives in South City with
her husband, one-year-old daughter, two cats, and two dogs. In her
free time, she loves to write creative non-fiction and read
everything she can get her hands on.
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Erin Quick is a mother and poet, and has been a bookworm all her life. She holds a BA in English-Creative Writing from Webster University, and spent many years managing at Left Bank Books. She currently volunteers as Librarian at The Soulard School, where she teachers poetry to the 4th-5th graders. She enjoys traveling, gardening, and of course, bedtime stories.
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Jennifer Raymond, the president
of the board of directors at StudioSTL, is an attorney and partner
at Stolar Partnership. She has also taught English composition at
Washington University. Jennifer, her husband, and 8-year-old son
share their South City home with two rescued pets, a schnoodle
named Harry and a tuxedo cat named Baby Tracy. They like baking,
karate, reading, basketball, and MythBusters.
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Jeff
Weigel is a book illustrator, designer, and comic book
genius with years of experience leading workshops at StudioSTL.
Among his many works, he has written and illustrated Thunder From The Sea, Atomic Ace (He's
Just My Dad), Atomic Ace and the Robot
Rampage, and has illustrated the forthcoming book
The Monster Alphabet.
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Aimee Dunne Zander works as
Community Outreach Coordinator for the Center for Entrepreneurial
Studies at Washington University. A transplant to the region, Aimee
is proud to be a part of the exciting things happening here, being
involved with organizations like StudioSTL, YWCA, St. Patrick
Center and Innovate Venture Mentoring Service and speaking often on
topics including how to make effective presentations, networking
for ventures, social enterprise and business planning.
Pentimento Video Storytelling
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Dan Parris is the owner of Speak
Up Productions LLC and is the award winning director of
Give A Damn? and Hit Man
to Hero. Dan graduated magna cum laude from Biola University
with a B.A. in Film Production, and is currently pursuing the dream
he has had for nearly a decade, to make feature films that will
have ground-breaking impact in the world.
StudioSTL Staff
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Beth Ketcher is the founder and
Executive Director of StudioSTL, a literary arts center dedicated
to helping youth, ages 6 to 18, discover, develop, and celebrate
their voices through writing. Following her graduation from Saint
Louis University School of Law in 1990, Beth practiced civil
litigation with the St. Louis law firm of Greensfelder, Hemker
& Gale, P.C. In 1993, she became the first attorney to serve as
Communications Counsel for the Missouri Supreme Court. Beth now
"advocates" full-time for children through the development of
StudioSTL, which has provided over 1200 youth with free,
one-of-a-kind writing programs and publishing opportunities.
