Register for the 2026 Kickass Writers Festival

Mahogany L. Browne is a writer, playwright, organizer, and educator is a Kennedy Center Next 50 Fellow, and the inaugural Distinguished Writer in Residence at Wesleyan University, she is also a MacDowell Arts Advocacy Awardee, NAACP Image Award nominee and a New York Emmy nominee for How to Build a City (All Arts). Browne has received fellowships from Cave Canem, Arts for Justice, Baldwin for the Arts, Hawthorden, Mellon Research, Rauschenberg, UCross, and more.

Her acclaimed books include Vinyl Moon; Chlorine Sky (optioned by Steppenwolf Theatre); Black Girl Magic; and the frequently challenged works Woke: A Young Poet’s Call to Justice and Woke Baby. She is also the founder of the Woke Baby Book Fair, a national celebration of diverse children’s literature.

Robin Michel Caudell was born and raised on Maryland’s Eastern Shore and holds a BS in Journalism, from the University of Maryland at College Park, and an MFA in Creative Writing from Goddard College. An award-winning Staff Writer at the Plattsburgh Press-Republican and a U.S. Air Force Veteran, she is the 2023 Veterans Writing Award Winner for Black Heel Strings: A Choptank Memoir, which will be published by Syracuse University Press in June 2026. Her essay, The Big Three: Black Bears, Wolves and Pumas in the Adirondacks, will appear in Blueline vol. 47. A resident of the Adirondacks, her nonfiction book-in-progress is about John Brown.

Kristina Marie Darling is the author of over thirty books, which include recent releases from Bloomsbury, Dzanc, Persea, and Penguin Canada. A twice-awarded Fulbright Scholar, Dr. Darling is also a 2026 Women’s Federation for World Peace HerStory Award honoree. She has been recognized by Yaddo, where she has held both the Martha Walsh Pulver Residency for a Poet and the Howard Moss Residency in Poetry, the Villa Lena Foundation, the American Academy in Rome, where she has held fifteen juried residencies and has also served as an ambassador for recruitment, Cité Internationale des Arts in Paris, the Andorran Ministry of Culture, the American Academy in Berlin, where she was nominated for the Distinguished Visitor Fellowship, the European Law and Governance School, the Clews Foundation, where she will serve as faculty at their Chateau de la Napoule Retreat Series in the south of France, and many other leading institutions in the U.S. and abroad. Born and raised in the American midwest, Dr. Darling lives in Europe, where she is presently a candidate for honorary citizenship. She consults with universities throughout Croatia, Slovakia, Italy, Slovenia, Cyprus and Montenegro on professional development and empowerment, and works with elite boarding schools as a visiting writer. A permanent faculty member at the Ionion Center of the Arts & Culture, Dr. Darling spends her summers teaching in Greece, on the islands of Andros and Kefalonia respectively, and hosts interdisciplinary arts retreats on the French Riviera. 

Brenna English-Loeb is a Literary Agent at Transatlantic Agency, where she represents authors of adult genre fiction, adult nonfiction, and select YA and crossover titles. She joined Transatlantic in 2019 following several years at Janklow & Nesbit Associates and Writers House, where she worked with New York Times bestselling and award-winning authors across multiple genres.

Victoria Doherty Munro is a junior agent at Writers House representing middle grade, young adult, and adult authors. She started at Writers House as an intern in 2010 and, after graduating from Wellesley College with a degree in English, was hired as the assistant to senior agent Daniel Lazar in 2012. She began building her own list in 2015. 

David Fadden was born to John and Eva Fadden in Lake Placid, NY and grew up in the tiny Adirondack Mountain community of Onchiota. In his youth, he grew up surrounded by the wild beauty of the region, by his grandparents Ray and Christine Fadden’s teachings and stories, and by his parents’ creative example and encouragement. Eva Fadden expressed through wood sculpture and John, a retired art teacher, is a painter and prolific illustrator.

With strong ties to both Akwesasne and Onchiota, David has established a solid reputation as a painter, but he is also recognized as a storyteller, illustrator, writer, and sculptor. An admirer of the Dutch and Renaissance painters David finds inspiration in the old masters’ eloquent and seemingly effortless use of light. His subjects range from traditional Haudenosaunee teachings to intimate and inspired portrayals of community members. Working primarily in acrylics, he often combines fine brushwork with palette knife applications to produce luminous interpretations of Haudenosaunee youth and elders.

Dr. Patricia Ononiwu Kaishian is the author of Forest Euphoria: The Abounding Queerness of Nature, a National Bestseller that blends memoir and nature writing, challenging our expectations of what is normal, beautiful, and possible. She holds a PhD in mycology from SUNY College of Environmental Science & Forestry. Patty works as the Curator of Mycology at the New York State Museum.

Robin Wall Kimmerer is a mother, scientist, decorated professor, and enrolled member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation. She is the author of Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants, which has earned Kimmerer wide acclaim. Her first book, Gathering Moss: A Natural and Cultural History of Mosses, was awarded the John Burroughs Medal for outstanding nature writing, and her other work has appeared in Orion, Whole Terrain, and numerous scientific journals. In 2022, Braiding Sweetgrass was adapted for young adults by Monique Gray Smith. This new edition reinforces how wider ecological understanding stems from listening to the earth’s oldest teachers: the plants around us. Robin’s newest book, The Serviceberry: Abundance and Reciprocity in the Natural World(November 2024), is a bold and inspiring vision for how to orient our lives around gratitude, reciprocity, and community, based on the lessons of the natural world.

Marilyn McCabe‘s collections of poems include Being Many Seeds, Glass Factory, Perpetual Motion and Rugged Means of Grace. Videopoems have appeared in festivals/galleries. She talks about writing at marilynonaroll.wordpress.com and the podcast Whirled Through a Poem’s Eye. Her new book, from The Word Works, is a wry, irreverent writing manual/workbook called Always With the Questions: One Poet’s Writing Manual.

Craig Milewski currently resides in the northern Adirondacks. After twenty years, he retired from Paul Smith’s College where he taught a range of courses in ecology (e.g., wetlands, streams, watersheds, ecological restoration) and the humanities (e.g., creative writing, poetry and nature, the stirring of an ecological conscience, the healing wilderness).  Life prior to NY included ecological work in the fields of conservation and environmental science in Michigan, Utah, Minnesota and South Dakota.  He completed an MFA in Writing from Vermont College of Fine Arts and describes the experience as liberating. His poems have been published in the Blueline and the Midwest Review. Retirement finally affords him the time to fully engage in his creative interests: poetry, writing, and oil painting. 

Wendy Naugle is Executive Editor of Entertainment for the USA TODAY Network, responsible for setting the vision and strategy for entertainment efforts across over 200 local publications and USA TODAY. With over 25 years of editorial experience, Naugle most recently served as the Editor in Chief of PEOPLE. Under her leadership, PEOPLE was recognized as AdWeek’s Hottest in Design/Photography, received a GLAAD’s Media Award and a Webby Award. Prior to joining PEOPLE, Naugle was the Executive Editor at GLAMOUR, leading editorial content and helping transition the legacy print brand to digital. Her stories on subjects ranging from domestic violence to health insurance to reproductive rights won two National Magazine Awards for Personal Service and a National Press Club Consumer Journalism Award. She also served on the board for the NYU Center for Publishing.

Milan Patel is an LA based stand-up comedian who just performed at the 2025 Netflix introducing Stand Up Showcase. He has been featured at the Netflix is a Joke Festival (2024), the Big Sky Comedy Festival (2024), the Treefort Music Festival (2025), Flyover Festival (2025), and Sketchfest (2026). Milan recently booked a role in an upcoming Bandera animated series produced by Greg Daniels and Mike Judge, performed on Adam McKay’s climate change awareness show at Dynasty Typewriter, opened for Chris Fleming at the Largo at the Coronet, and can regularly be seen at The Comedy Store. Last year, Milan sold out Union Hall in Brooklyn, NY, the Here-After in Seattle, WA, and the Laugh Basement in Portland, OR. His Don’t Tell Comedy Special will be released later this year.

Mason Rowlee joined DeFiore & Company in 2023. He previously worked as an assistant literary scout at Jenny La Plante, Inc., where he developed an eye for the type of books that appeal to international publishers and film production companies. He also interned at Farrar, Straus & Giroux, CBS Television Production, McIntosh & Otis Literary Agency and Gotham Writers Workshop. Originally from rural Upstate New York, he is a graduate of Fordham College at Rose Hill.

Mason only represents adult books. He is seeking innovative, boundary-pushing literary fiction, engrossing upmarket and commercial fiction, and nonfiction that amplifies traditionally underrepresented voices in publishing. He is particularly interested in working with queer authors.

Curt Stager is a scientist, educator, and author whose research deals with climate change, human interactions with the natural world, and environmental history.  His work has been published in major periodicals including Science, National Geographic, and The New York Times as well as in award-winning books, most recently “The First Adirondackers: 12,000 Years of Human Presence in the Adirondack Uplands.”  He currently teaches natural sciences and holds an endowed research chair at Paul Smith’s College.  In 2013, the Carnegie-Case Foundation named him Science Professor of the Year for New York State. In his spare time, he has been known to inflict his banjo and guitar-playing on people.

Steve Stern is the author of a number of novels and story collections, including Lazar Malkin Enters Heaven, which won the Edward Lewis Wallant Award for Jewish fiction, and The Wedding Jester, which won the National Jewish Book award.  He’s received a Fulbright Grant and a Guggenheim Fellowship.  He divides his time between Upstate New York and Brooklyn, and lives with the comic artist Sabrina Jones.

Kevin Wilson is the author of seven books, including Nothing to See Here (Ecco, 2019), a New York Times bestseller and a Read with Jenna selection, and Run for the Hills (Ecco, 2025). His short fiction has appeared in One Story, Ploughshares, Southern Review, and two editions of Best American Short Stories. He lives in Sewanee, TN, and teaches creative writing at the University of the South.

Matt Witten is a TV writer, novelist, playwright, and screenwriter who has written for Law & Order, House, Pretty Little Liars, and many other shows. His thriller The Necklace has been published in eight languages and optioned for film by Leonardo DiCaprio. Killer Story won a Foreword Indie award for Best Mystery. Matt wrote four amateur sleuth novels, including the Malice Domestic Award-winning Breakfast at Madeline’s, and has been nominated for two Edgars and an Emmy. His speculative thriller 51% came out in April, and NBC has hired him to write a TV pilot based on the novel. You can read Matt’s piece “Burn, Baby, Burn: Losing Our Home in the Palisades Fire” on mattwittenwriter.com/blog.