Creative Writing Colloquium Speaker Bios Bios for the 2026 Creative Writing Colloquium SpeakersAlicia Drumgoole is an Associate Professor of English at Hagerstown Community College, where she teaches courses in composition, literature, and creative writing. She began her career as a political writer, producing speeches and other government documents for state and local politicians. Alicia wrote her first novel, Premonition, under the pen name Agnes Jayne in 2015. She is the founder of a local writing group called The Mountain Scribes in Harpers Ferry, West Virginia. She has contributed to two anthologies: Last Writes: Haunting Tales from the Mountain Scribes (2017), and The Appalachian Compilation (2018). She is the Project Director for a National Endowment for the Humanities Grant entitled Bridging the Antietam, a project designed to boost student performance in composition classes and produce curricula to support writing across the disciplines. She holds degrees in English and Political Science from Binghamton University; a Master of Arts in English from the State University of New York in Albany; and is about to begin the thesis for her M.F.A in Creative Writing through Southern New Hampshire University. Alicia has been presenting at this conference since 2017. Dr. Eric Bliman is an assistant teaching professor of English and creative writing at Penn State Harrisburg. His poems have been published in a variety of journals and periodicals including The Birmingham Poetry Review, Pleiades, Quarterly West, The Southern Review, and The Times Literary Supplement. His chapbook Travel & Leisure won the Poetry Society of America's National Chapbook Fellowship. He is now teaching a course on documentary poetry writing, and he serves as the faculty advisor for the student-edited journal Fission. Neil Connelly has published 8 books of fiction and dozens of shorter works. His newest, Slubber Doffers, based on his time serving on a school board during Covid, is due out in 2026. Before returning to his home state of Pennsylvania where he teaches at Shippensburg University, he directed the MFA program at McNeese State University. Heather Hamilton teaches English and creative writing at Penn State Harrisburg. Her chapbook, Here is a Clearing, was published by the Poetry Society of America, and her work has appeared in numerous journals, most recently Action, Spectacle, Bennington Review, Cincinnati Review, Copper Nickel, and Smartish Pace. Laura L. Zimmerman loves doing puzzles, drinking coffee, and practicing yoga, and is a sucker for a solid grumpy/sunshine trope. She is the author of the award-winning YA fantasy Banshee Song Series and two middle-grade mysteries. Nancy E Reyes was born and raised in NYC and has been writing poetry since she was a child. Her poetry is rhymed, lyrical, a bit narrative and heavy on imagery and rhythm. Susan Lower writes fast paced romantic suspense and fantasy adventures where danger, passion, and justice collide. When she’s not building new worlds, she helps fellow creatives strengthen the business side of their art with clarity and confidence. James P. Barkley: I am a visual: poet, artist, and visual arts teacher. I create: to speak, to learn, to teach. Matt McBride's work has recently appeared in Action, Spectacle, The Banyan Review, Conduit, The Cortland Review, Figure 1, Impossible Task, Guernica, The Rupture, Rust+Moth, and Zone 3 among others. He is the author of one full-length poetry collection, City of Incandescent Light, published by Black Lawrence Press in 2018, and four chapbooks. His most recent, Prerecorded Weather, co-written with Noah Falck, won the 2022 James Tate Prize and is available at SuVision Books. Currently, he is a professor of interdisciplinary practice at Wilson College.
