The Writers’ League of Texas presents “The Business of Poetry: Journals, Contests, Collections, and More,” a panel discussion featuring Cristin O’Keefe Aptowicz, Sunny Leal, Lisa Olstein, and Sam Treviño.

Cristin O’Keefe Aptowicz is a New York Times best-selling nonfiction writer and poet. She is the author of seven books of poetry, most recently The Year of No Mistakes, which was named 2014’s Book of the Year for Poetry by the Writers’ League of Texas, and How to Love the Empty Air, which was released last year. Her second nonfiction book, Dr Mütter’s Marvels: A True Tale of Intrigue and Innovation at the Dawn of Modern Medicine, spent three months on the New York Times Best-Seller list. Recent awards include a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship for Poetry, the ArtsEDGE writer-in-residency at the University of Pennsylvania, and the Amy Clampitt House residency. She lives in Austin, TX.

Sunny Leal is a makeup artist and editor based out of Austin, Texas. She is the Poetry Editor for fields magazine and has previously worked for Feminine Inquiry and ORANGE Magazine. A former featured reader for the local Ice Scream Social Reading series, when she’s not reading the work of others, she is also writing poetry as a form of journaling.

Lisa Olstein is the author of four poetry collections, most recently, Late Empire (Copper Canyon Press, 2017). Pain Studies, a book-length lyric essay, will be published by Bellevue Literary Press in 2020. Recipient of a Hayden Carruth Award, Pushcart Prize, Lannan Writing Residency, and Sustainable Arts Foundation Award, she is a member of the poetry faculty for the University of Texas at Austin’s New Writers Project and Michener Center for Writers MFA programs.

Sam Treviño is a writer, poet and literary organizer from Austin, Texas. He received his BA in Creative Writing from Lesley University in Cambridge, MA. He is the founder and organizer of Fresh Meat Poets Showcase in Austin, a former Editorial Contributor for Paper Darts Magazine, and has been published by Paper Darts, DigBoston, Scout Magazine in Cambridge and Somerville, and Sybil Journal. His debut chapbook, Werewolf Mask, was published in 2016 by Weekly Weird Monthly. He is currently Community Outreach Director of Chicon Street Poets, a literary nonprofit based in East Austin, and oversees the Aural Literature reading series for Austin Public Library, where he spends his days. He currently lives in Austin with his librarian superhero wife, Gina, and their anxious cat, Codex.