Women authors in conversation about writing their truth, sharing their stories, and exposing their down and dirty. What happens when women tell their truth? What happens when women write their lives? What happens when women are bold and audacious on the page? These panelists are full of passion, compassion, determination, humor, and authenticity. This panel is for any woman, every woman, even men who have a story to tell and a truth they need to get out of their body and onto the page. These women are fearless, and we all know fearless is contagious!
Amy Ferris is an author, a writer, a screenwriter, an editor, and a playwright. Her memoir, Marrying George Clooney, Confessions From a Midlife Crisis (Seal Press), was adapted into an Off-Broadway play in 2012 and 2026. Amy has written for both the small screen (TV) and the big screen (Feature Films). As a screenwriter, she co-wrote Mr. Wonderful (Director, Anthony Minghella) and was nominated for a Best Screenplay Award (BET, Black Reel Award) for her adaptation of the film, Funny Valentines (Director, Julie Dash). As an editor, she curated Shades of Blue, Writers on Depression, Suicide and Feeling Blue (Seal Press), and co-edited the anthology, Dancing at the Shame Prom (Seal Press). She co-authored Old School Love (HarperCollins, 2020) with Rev Run of RUN DMC fame. Amy serves on a variety of advisory boards supporting women and the Arts. She co-founded The Milford Readers & Writers Festival, and is on faculty at The Kauai Writers Conference. In 2019, she was named one of Women's eNews 21 LEADERS FOR THE 21st CENTURY; in 2021, she was a recipient of NextTribe's The 12 Women Who Changed the World; and in 2022, Amy was awarded and honored by the Thoughtful Book Festival as Inspirational Woman in Media. Her memoir, Mighty Gorgeous - A Little Book About Messy Love, was published in Fall 2023 (SheWritesPress). Her new book, Amy In Retrograde, was published in April 2026 by Glitterati Publishers.
Lisa Levart: Goddess on Earth is artist/photographer Lisa Levart's lifelong personal assignment to celebrate contemporary women while drawing upon ancient stories to elevate their life journeys. Created through a lens of love, this archetypal imagery is made to inspire women to be their most powerful selves. Lisa Levart is an artist/activist based in the Lower Hudson Valley. She revels in re-imagining and re-remembering archetypal stories that have long been buried.
Jill Sherer Murray is a TEDx speaker, author, influencer, blogger, coach, and so much more. She founded Let Go For It℠ to help women let go of what’s holding them back - so they can have the big wild life that’s waiting for them out there. She’s also an award-winning journalist and communications leader who can trace practically every success in her career, love life, and more to “letting go”.
Claire Moed’s book IT WAS HER NEW YORK asks questions both familiar and touching: What the $%@! happened to my city, and, what the $%@! happened to my mom?! — MY PRIVATE CONEY, her 10-year blog (2006-2016) about New York City, family, love, death, and the meaning of home has been featured in Jeremiah’s Vanishing New York, and excerpted in various online magazines and websites. She lives with fellow writer Ted Krever and a cat. They are all Mets fans…
B.K. Jackson, a writer and editor based in Milford, PA, is founder of Severance, an online magazine and community for individuals separated from biological family. She is the author of Relative Strangers: Inheritance, Identity, and the Meaning of Kinship
What’s it like when a complete unknown is actually close family? In Relative Strangers: Inheritance, Identity, and the Meaning of Kinship—a provocative anthology curated by B.K. Jackson, with a foreword by Libby Copeland, 28 acclaimed and emerging writers explore the transformative experience of encountering unknown close relatives. These are intimate stories by those who’ve spent years longing and searching for their unknown biological families and by others shocked to discover they have parents or siblings they never dreamed of—blindsiding revelations that demand both a radical recalibration of identity and a redefinition of family. Each addresses the myriad emotions that arise in the wake of these discoveries and encounters, demonstrating that what we don’t know can hurt us, that secrets are toxic, and that truth can bring healing, redemption, and, sometimes, estrangement. Woven through is a universal question: What does it mean to be family?
*** For more than 30 years, I’ve worked with words in various sectors of the publishing industry. As a freelance writer, I’ve created countless pages of content for a variety of editors. As an editor, I’ve worked with scores of freelance writers. To be a little more specific, I’ve done a great deal of work pertaining to health, wellness, social issues, food, and travel. I’ve created publications and magazines for consumers and various healthcare professionals, authored a book, and have helped others write theirs. I’ve been an executive editor, a managing editor, and even a copyeditor (the latter of which I discovered isn’t my thing.) Bottom line is I know what it’s like to be sitting on all sides of the writing and publishing process. My experience has afforded me the ability to understand the unique challenges of everyone involved. Lately, I’m increasingly drawn to personal stories and lean toward creative nonfiction—a shift driven in part by my own discovery of unknown family secrets. As a result, I created Severance, an online magazine and community for people with similarly complex family circumstances—adoptees, donor-conceived people, and others who’ve been shocked to discover they’ve fallen out of the family tree.
In my mind, bylines aren’t exactly qualifications. But sometimes they’re good to know about. My work has appeared in publications such as The Los Angeles Times, the New York Times, HuffPost, The Sun Magazine, WIRED, and Everyday Health, to name a few. I’m a graduate of UCLA, where I earned a bachelor’s degree in art history as well as a master of arts in critical studies at the School of Film and Television. As a firm believer in lifetime learning, as often as possible I attend webinars and workshops led by authors like Cheryl Strayed, Elissa Altman, Dani Shapiro, and Nick Flynn, as well as classes in the business and practice of publishing by industry professionals such as Jane Friedman and Allison K. Williams.
Recently, I’ve completed courses offered by the Editorial Freelancers Association (EFA) and have become an Author Accelerator-certified book coach. My philosophy is the more I learn, the more I can customize a solid plan for each client and offer them the unique tools I believe will serve them best. Your project, your writing style, your challenges, and your needs are unlike any other’s. So you deserve a strategy that will serve you alone.
I live with my husband near Milford, Pennsylvania, on the eastern edge of the Pocono Mountains, a quick train ride away from NYC.
