2026 Panelists
Davis Bunn (’74) has written novels that have sold more than eight million copies in twenty-four languages. Most recently his titles have won Book of the Year awards from Library Journal and Suspense Magazine. Currently he is published by Kensington NY (contemporary drama) and Canongate UK (speculative fiction). He is Novelist-in-Residence at Regent’s College, Oxford, UK.
Hilary Burns (’14) covers higher education for the Boston Globe. She has authored a national newsletter focused on the business of colleges and universities for The Business Journals. Her work covering the impact of Yale University’s nonprofit status on the local community won a national SABEW award for explanatory journalism in 2021. She also has reported on the banking industry for American Banker and the Charlotte Business Journal.
Catherine Burroughs (’80) is Professor Emerita of English at Wells College and Courtesy Professor of Performing Arts and Media Studies at Cornell University. She is also a member of Actors’ Equity Association. Her five academic works include “The Routledge Anthology of Women Theatre Theorists and Dramatic Criticism” (co-ed. with Ellen Gainor), which was awarded the prize for work in the field that best advances the art of performance. Her latest novel is Ibo’s Landing.
Jamie Chambliss (’94) has been a literary agent with Folio Literary Management for ten years. She represents literary and upmarket fiction and narrative nonfiction. Among the fiction projects she has worked on are Lara Prescott’s The Secrets We Kept, Rowan Beaird’s The Divorcees and Ciera Horton McElroy’s Atomic Family. Prior to joining Folio, Jamie was at Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, working on both fiction and nonfiction and in editorial and marketing. She also writes a book-recommendation newsletter on Substack called The Anti-Anxiety Book Club.
Mankaprr Conteh (’17) is a cultural journalist whose work covers a broad spectrum of Black creativity, including hip-hop, R&B, Afropop, dancehall, reggae, comedy, and activism. Currently a staff writer at Rolling Stone, Mankaprr has written intimate cover stories on Megan Thee Stallion, Janelle Monáe, SZA, 21 Savage, Cardi B, and Rema. In August 2024, she became the founding columnist of Rolling Stone’s Made in Africa, a monthly exploration of the lives and output of cultural workers across the African diaspora, starting with the continent. She also leads radio, video, and podcasts – on the mic, on camera, and behind the scenes. She previously worked at Vogue and Pitchfork.
L. M. Elliott (’79) was a magazine journalist for twenty years before becoming a New York Times bestselling author of historical and biographical novels. She was a three-time finalist for the National Magazine Award and winner of multiple Dateline Awards. Her fourteen novels cover a variety of era––the Cold War, WWII, the Great Depression, the American Revolution, and the Italian Renaissance––for readers aged middle grade to adult. Her works have been honored with the Scott O’Dell, VLA Cardinal Cup, and Grateful American prizes for historical fiction; been named NCSS/CBC Notables, Bank Street College of Education Bests, Kirkus Bests, Capitol Choices, NYPL Book for the Teen Age, Junior Library Guild Gold Selections, and to the TXLA Tayshas HS Reading Lists; as well as been named finalists for numerous state awards.
Robert Gipe (’85) won the 2015 Weatherford Award for outstanding Appalachian novel for his first novel, Trampoline. Weedeater (2018) and Pop (2021) completed a trilogy that won the Judy Gaines Young Book Award. He also illustrates much of his work. For ten years he directed the Southeast Kentucky Community & Technical College Appalachian Program in Harlan, KY. Gipe is founding producer of the Higher Ground community performance series, and served as a script consultant for the Hulu series Dopesick and as a producer on the feature film The Evening Hour.
Maria Henson (‘82), a Nieman Fellow, is an American journalist and editor who worked for several newspapers, earning both individual and staff Pulitzer Prizes for her work at the Sacramento Bee. This spring she retired as Associate Vice President and Editor of the Wake Forest Magazine. She continues to lecture in journalism at Wake Forest. She is a member of the Wake Forest Writers Hall of Fame.
Mike Riley (’81), a Nieman Fellow, is president and editor in chief of The Chronicle of Higher Education. His prior work – as reporter, correspondent, editor, or publisher – included stints at TIME magazine, allpolitics.com, The Roanoke Times, Congressional Quarterly, and Bloomberg Government. He is a member of the Wake Forest Writers Hall of Fame.
Ed Southern (’94) is the author of Fight Songs: A Story of Love and Sports in a Complicated South, and editor of the anthology The Devil’s Done Come Back: New Ghost Tales from North Carolina. His work has appeared in The Bitter Southerner, the North Carolina Literary Review, Salvation South, the Asheville Poetry Review, storySouth, PineStraw, South Writ Large, The Dirty Spoon, Wake Forest Magazine, and elsewhere. A North Carolina native, since 2008 he has been the executive director of the North Carolina Writers’ Network. In 2015 he won the Fortner Award for service to the literary arts in North Carolina.
Nancy Joie Wilkie (’78) worked for over twenty years at a biotechnology firm outside of Washington, DC. During that time, she completed a Master Degree in Biochemistry from Georgetown University. She later spent seven years working with Anthony Fauci at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases to develop alternative smallpox vaccines. Since 2010 she has released three collections of stories: Seven Sides of Self, Faraway and Forever, and The River Keeper and Other Tales. She has also written and recorded numerous CDs of original music.