WriterHouse

Current Board Members:

Christy Strick, President and Founding Member

A closet writer since the age of eight, Christy wrote the renowned (by family at least) Tales of Terror. It was not until she joined a writing group that she had the support and encouragement to begin submitting her work. Her fiction has recently appeared in Pearl Magazine and Delmarva Review. Her story, “Moving,” won first place in the 2008 Hook Short Story Contest and her story, "Like Family," won third place in the 2009 Hook Short Story Contest. She is currently at work on a novel.

Rachel Unkefer, Vice President and Founding Member

In a previous life Rachel was co-founder and CEO of Silicon Valley-based technical bookstore chain Computer Literacy Bookshops. Motivated by fear of her relentlessly demanding writing group, she is currently looking for a literary agent for her first novel and working on the second draft of her second novel. Her story, "Remote Control," won first place in the 2009 Hook Short Story Contest

Catherine Crittenden, Secretary and Founding Member

Music, dreams, and the voices in her head inspire Catherine to write. She's currently at work on a novel that she finds impossible to describe, but involves music, lists, running away, and plenty of bodily fluids. She's a native C-villian and a natural redhead.

Elizabeth McCullough, Treasurer and Founding Member

Elizabeth is a freelance writer whose work has been published at Blogcritics.com, C-Ville Weekly, Home Education Magazine, and Internet Review of Books. Her current projects include Cvillewords.com, a local blog with a literary focus, and BookBalloon.com, a discussion forum for people who love books. She is also a contributor to the Charlottesville Podcasting Network. Her short stories feature unremarkable people doing inexplicable things in lush rural settings; editors tend to find them unsuited to their present needs.

Kristen-Paige Madonia

Kristen-Paige is a literary author and creative writing instructor but has previously worked as a nanny, a bookseller, an assistant jeweler, a receptionist, a Kindergarten teacher, and a manuscript reader for a literary and film agency in Beverly Hills, CA. Her work has been published or is forthcoming in American Fiction Volume Eleven: The Best Unpublished Short Stories by Emerging Writers, Sycamore Review, Inkwell, The South Dakota Review, and Pearl, and she has recently received writing residencies with Hedgebrook, Millay Colony of Arts, and the Studios of Key West. She received her MFA from California State University, Long Beach and is currently at work on her second novel.

Gale Martin

Raised by two journalists, Gale Kinnier Martin has always had an interest in the stories of others. Her passion for understanding others' life stories and helping others during certain chapters of their lives is what has made her devote so many years to volunteer service. In her downtime, reading helps Gale reignite her energy and imagination.

Diana Strickler

Diana is a former investment banker who has been deeply interested in literature since her English major days at Williams College. Her favorite author is Jane Austen. Despite her love of fiction, her writing interests are non-fiction and memoir. She is working on a series of pieces that combine memoir with her passion for genealogy.

Hope Mills Voelkel, Founding Member

A lover of the short story genre, Hope is constantly inspired by the world around her — truth is stranger than fiction, so why not record it and make a great story? Her work has been published in the Comstock Review. She maintains a rejection slip wall to keep her humble.

Board Members Emeriti:

Burnley Hayes, Founding Member

Burnley has enjoyed a lifetime love of words. A scheduling accident in seventh grade ensured that she would never master math, but she was introduced to the joy of creative writing. Years later, she rediscovered her writer’s voice while taking a course in which participants were encouraged to read their work aloud. She writes primarily for the raw pleasure of it; she has had a short story published online in Salome Magazine.

Hilary Jerrill Steinitz, Founding Member

When not writing, Hilary spends a lot of time reading to her daughter, daydreaming with her husband about really expensive furniture, and teaching yoga. She received her MFA in fiction from the University of Virginia. Her stories have appeared in the New England Review, the Southwest Review, and Zoetrope: All-Story. She is currently working on a novel, The Fitting Room.