Ozarks Writers’ League Spring Conference, May 2, 2026
Branson Room, Branson West Best Western
8514 State Highway 76, Branson, Missouri
9:00 a.m. Registration and book table set up.
9:25 a.m. Welcome and announcements.
9:30 a.m. Children’s Book Workshop. David Harrison, author of over 100 books for children, will present a two-hour workshop on how to find a publisher for your children’s book.
11:30 a.m. Break for lunch. There might also be a short break during David’s presentation, but we’ll play that by ear.
1:00 p.m. OWL’s 2026 Adult Writing Contest. Contest chair Linda Runnebaum will announce this year’s contest and tell us about the categories.
1:10 p.m. Tips for Entering Writing Contests. Margarite Stever and Bonnie Tesh, longtime sponsors and judges of one of OWL’s contest categories, will provide tips on how to improve your odds of winning or placing in writing contests.
2:00 p.m. Ten-minute break.
2:10 p.m. A Path to Publication. Greg Stout, author of 29 traditionally published books, will describe how he went about finding his publishers (four different ones).
3:05 p.m. Five-minute break.
3:10 p.m. You Have a Manuscript. Now What? Lia Wu, publisher and editor of Ozark Hollow Press, will provide tips for editing manuscripts and for reading publishing contracts.
Conference Speakers:
David Harrison
David Harrison’s first book for children (The Boy with a Drum) was released in 1969 and sold over two million copies. The first of his long list of awards came in 1972 when he received the Christopher Award for The Book of Giant Stories. Since then, David has published over 100 original titles that have sold millions of copies. David and his wife, Sandy, live in Springfield, where an elementary school is named after him.
Bonnie Tesh
Author of suspense novel Monarch Moon, Bonnie K. Tesh was raised in the heart of the Missouri Ozarks. She is coauthor of the inspirational book, I’ll Push, You Steer; the Definitive Guide to Stumbling Through Life with Blinders On. Her work has appeared in anthologies, regional magazines and newspapers. She has won numerous awards for her short stories, poems and essays.
Margarite Stever
Margarite Stever grew up in Asbury, a tiny Missouri town of just over 200 people. She currently lives in a bigger city, but Asbury will always be her hometown. She has a Bachelor of Arts Degree in English from Missouri Southern State University. She writes stories and essays that touch a person’s heart. She is a member of Joplin Writers’ Guild, Missouri Writers Guild, Sleuths’ Ink Mystery Writers, Ozarks Writers League, and Ozarks Romance Authors.
Moonbeams and Ashes is her first book, though she’s been published many times. Her work has recently appeared in Chicken Soup for the Soul: It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas; Joplin Writers’ Guild Anthology, Seasons of the Four States; Anthology 2019 Sleuths’ Ink Mystery Writers; Missouri’s Emerging Writers; Legends: Passion Pages; 50-Word Stories website; the 2021, 2019, 2018, 2017, and 2016 issues of The Crowder Quill; the Fall 2015 issue of The Maine Review; Mamalode Magazine’s 2015 Better Together; and Writer’s Digest 2014 Show Us Your Shorts Collection. Her seeds of wisdom and joy can be read at ozarksmaven.com, which has been read in over 80 countries.
Greg Stout
Greg’s background includes 27 years as an executive in the automotive industry and twelve years as a teacher of American history, language arts, reading, drama, film criticism and Latin in the public school system in suburban Chicago. He holds a BA in economics from the University of Kansas and a Master of Arts in education from Aurora University.
Greg has published 22 books on the history of American railroads, a logical outcome of having grown up in a family of professional railroaders. His first title, Route of the Eagles, a history of the Missouri Pacific Railroad, was released in 1995. He has also published two YA novels and five Jackson Gamble PI mysteries. His first work of fiction, a YA novel entitled Gideon’s Ghost, was drawn from actual experiences that took place during an extended visit with relatives in a small town in Missouri during the mid-1960s. Greg’s mystery novel, Lost Little Girl recently won the prestigious Private Eye Writers Shamus Award. Keeping company with Mickey Spillane!
Retired from the day-to-day work force, Greg still writes for at least two hours every day, and his advice to aspiring writers is, “Keep reading, keep writing, and if your dream is to one day see your name in print, never, ever give up.”
Greg resides with his wife and two cats in Cape Girardeau, Missouri.
Lia Wu
Lia Wu describes herself as half-Chinese, wholly ADHD, and hopelessly nerdy. She taught middle and high school English for three years, then was called crazy when she told her students she missed writing essays and was going back to graduate school to get her doctorate degree. Born in Kansas and raised in Missouri, Lia earned her M.A. in publishing under New York Times bestselling author Kevin J. Anderson at Western Colorado University, and she is currently a PhD candidate in English at the University of Arkansas with a focus on rhetoric and composition. Her stories “Tail-End” and “The Ties That Bind” have appeared in the anthologies Feisty Felines and Other Fantastical Familiars and Chaotic Cupids: When Love Goes Awry. Editor and publisher with Ozark Hollow Press, Lia has had the honor of working with many wonderful authors, including the Ozarks Writers League’s own Rochelle Wisoff-Fields, Stephen L. Brayton, B.L. Thoma, Nancy Hartney, and Linda Laughlin (and more forthcoming).