& PENUSA has asked Carolyn Howard-Johnson to teach a class for the Emerging Voices Program they sponsor for writers in underserved Los Angeles area communities in May. If you are interested in joining PEN or contributing in some way to this program, contact Carolyn at HoJoNews.aol.com for a referral or go to www.penusa.com
Carolyn Howard-Johnson's first novel, This is the Place, and Harkening: A Collection of Stories Remembered are both award-winners. Her fiction, nonfiction and poems have appeared in national magazines, anthologies and review journals. She speaks on culture, tolerance, writing and promotion and has appeared on TV and hundreds of radio stations nationwide. She is an instructor for UCLA Extension's Writers' Program and has shared her expertise at venues like San Diego State's world renowned Writers' Conference and Call to Arts! EXPO. She was recently awarded Woman of the Year in Arts and Entertainment by the California Legislature; her home town's Character and Ethics Commission honored for her work on promoting tolerance and the Pasadena Weekly named her to their list of "San Gabriel Valley women who make life happen" for literary activism. Her nitty gritty how-to book, THE FRUGAL BOOK PROMOTER won USA Book News' Best Professional Book 2004 and her chapbook of poetry, TRACINGS, was named to The Compulsive Readers Top 10 Best Reads for 2004. It is now available from http://www.FinishingLinePress.com and Amazon.com.
Howard-Johnson loves to travel and has studied writing at Cambridge University in the United Kingdom, UK: Herzen University in St. Petersburg, RU; and Charles University in Prague.
Carolyn is the founder of Authors' Coalition ( http://authorscoalitionandredenginepress.com ) and editor of the newsletter for that organization as well as a blog
( http://redenginepress.com/chjohnson ) that helps authors turn a dull book fair booth into a sizzling success. Her website is: http://carolynhowardjohnson.com .