Stanley Dankoski

Stanley Dankoski has fiction published at Literary Orphans and forthcoming at The Great Smokies Review. A New England native, he now writes from the mountains near Asheville, North Carolina. He is married to a beautiful, amazing woman and is father to a threenager. He came to Gateless for the tea and dark chocolate, but learning the Gateless approach has given him so much more, namely two short stories that have become his first published works.

Becky Karush

I came up in newspapers and magazines. Before that I was a teacher and a farmhand. And a waitress for three weeks and a camp counselor for many, many summers. In the course of my career I've written for or about (among many others) a sawyer, a circus aerialist, a car parts salesman, a blind massage therapist, a pizza maker, the last resident of an all-Swedish immigrant neighborhood in southern Vermont, the Center for the Study of Social Policy, Reader's Digest, the Help Me Grow National Center, a marathon race director, an Ironman champion, and the owners of a 144-year-old brick behemoth after it nearly burned to the ground.
I discovered Gateless through a Google search in 2012ish, wrote to Suzanne, and attended a Tuesday night salon a few weeks later. I've been to several retreats since and am still finding my way into this novel that I can't quit. (I definitely tried).
I live in New Hampshire now, having crossed Vermont, Connecticut, and Massachusetts off my list. My son is Gus. My husband is Bob. Our eldest dog is Annie and our new puppy is Corny. My mom, Wendy, lives with us, too, and does a shit-ton of dishes, praise be.

Claire Coghlan

Claire Coghlan is a writer, editor, ghostwriter and soon-to-be author. In between assignments, she’s working on the third iteration of her first book, which started as a memoir, morphed into an epistolary novel (following the discovery of centuries old family letters) and shape-shifted into a novel (inspired by the research demanded by the letters). The book has taught her many things, not the least of which is that patience yields unimaginable rewards. She grew up in Ireland at the height of The Troubles; nurtured her writing/editing/survival skills in New York; and moved to California to research her book. Clairecoghlan.com

Emily Pereira

Emily Pereira, creator of the Be The Beginner Movement, is on a mission to show every woman the way out of the thankless prison of perfection and back to her playful, creative, passionate self!
As a part of her own spiritual evolution, Emily awakened her once dormant creativity by writing a book, learning to play guitar, writing and singing original songs, painting large canvasses, and dancing in the Le Vie Noir burlesque troupe – all after 32 years of believing she didn’t have a creative bone in her body! Becoming her own irresistible muse sparked a wildfire that tore through her life, burning up everything that wasn’t aligned with guiltless freedom, radical personal realization, and unabashed passion.
A Spirit Nature Certified Spiritual Advocate and Gateless-trained writing teacher, Emily is dedicated to helping women discover a wildly adventurous creative existence that becomes the foundation of permission where self worth, joy, and purpose can’t help but flourish.
Learn more about Emily and her workshops, writing/surfing/yoga retreats, and Beginner Dinners: Emilypereira.com, Instagram, Facebook.

Daintry Jensen

Daintry Jensen has a background in dramatic writing from Skidmore College and UCLA’s Professional Screenwriting Program. Before that, she was acting professionally in Los Angeles and NYC. Her debut middle grade novel, The Hidden Forest, set on Nantucket Island, sold out it’s first printing within the first few months of publication and is now in it’s third printing. Daintry is currently working on her second novel and a screenwriting project. She has a teaching certificate from Gateless Writers, is certified in Reiki level II, and is a level II graduate of the Rhys Thomas Institute of Energy Medicine and Life Mastery. She feels very strongly that words and story heal and transform lives. www.daintryjensen.com

Sarah Byrden

Sarah Byrden is a MogaDao Sacred Daoist Sexuality teacher, experiential educator, wilderness guide, bodyworker and public speaker. Her background ranges from wilderness therapy to international development education and bod-based healing. She is currently on a mission to bring a new voice in Sexuality to college campuses and to continue and finally write the words that consume her flesh day after day. Sarah lives on the Oregon Coast.

Kate Gray

Tentatively titled, Any More, Black Shoe, Kate Gray’s novel-in-progress smashes Sylvia Plath against Maureen Buckley, younger sister of William F. Buckley, Jr., in 1953. Kate’s first novel, Carry the Sky, stares at bullying without blinking. She is the author of three poetry collections. Her passion comes as a teacher, writing coach and a volunteer with women inmates and women Veterans. She and her partner live in a purple house in Portland, Oregon with their sidekicks, Rafi and Wasco, two very patient dogs.

Courtney Zenner Campbell

Courtney holds a B.A. in Asian and Middle Eastern Cultures from Barnard College of Columbia University, where she served as a Writing Fellow for three years. She was a Bowie Fellow in Nonfiction at the Lighthouse Writers Workshop in Denver, Colorado from 2012-2013. She is working on a memoir about the legacy of mental illness in her family and the role that mindfulness practice has played in her own treatment and recovery from bipolar disorder. From 2014-2015, Courtney and her husband lived in the small village of Thénac, France, just down the road from the monastery of Zen master Thich Nhat Hanh. She makes a living as a grant writer and is constantly on the lookout for new adventures. Her current adventure is third-trimester pregnancy.

Karen Kenney

I grew up in Lawrence, MA – a tough little city located 30 miles north of Boston along the Merrimack River. I’ve been in love with books for as long as I can remember (thanks Ma!) and started writing when I was around 13 - when my older sister kind of kidnapped me - and I ended up being on the lam for 8 days. It was my beat up Mead notebook, a cheap plastic, blue Bic pen and my copy of Cujo that saved me. I'm an animal lover, yoga teacher, writer and speaker - but mostly think of myself simply as a 'storyteller'. I tend to write personal essays and right now, I'm trying to get the first draft of my memoir done.

Bren McClain

Bren makes her living as a communications consultant, teaching folks how to give speeches and talk to reporters and such. But she makes her life as a writer, now working on her fourth novel, TOOK, set in her home state of South Carolina. Her third novel, ONE GOOD MAMA BONE, will be published Valentine's Day 2017 by Pat Conroy's new imprint, Story River Books. Novels one and two???? The drawer, baby, the drawer.    brenmcclain.com

Kim Griffin

When I was young, I wanted to be a writer/drifter person when I grew up, this was not an aspiration that went over well. Now, at 52 I still want the same thing (so much!), frequently, (this is a secret) I hop in the car, no destination in mind (that would spoil the fun) and “drift” into an unfamiliar town, into perhaps a remote café or bus stop, eavesdrop and watch people. My vision is to drift on horseback from town to town across the US talking to people about their horses, out west there’s a group of women who are saving the wild herds, they are fearless, determined and tireless and I want to write their story. My own story involves many years of importing Andalusians from Spain, breeding and training them to promote the breed in the US so these magnificent horses can continue. Supporting and promoting natural horsemanship methods is a mission for me, studying herds and individual horses in any situation from sale barn to show ring is a passion. I also work with CASA to represent children in the court system so they may have a compassionate voice to speak for them.

Sheena Cook

Sheena has a law degree from Edinburgh University and an MFA in creative writing and the literary arts from Bennington College. She's working on a novel set in Scotland and Greece and a crime novel set among Edinburgh lawyers, as well as shorter pieces about growing up on a farm in the north of Scotland. Here’s a link to some pieces: sheenacook.com

Daisy Florin

Daisy graduated from Dartmouth College and has degrees from Columbia and Bank Street College. She's a teacher, editor and writer, who writes while her three kids are at school. She's working on a novel and has published personal essays, links to pieces can be found at daisyflorin.com