This page will be updated as more faculty members are confirmed
for the 2024 Writing Conference of Los Angeles.
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Natalie Obando is a literary agent with Ladderbird Literary.
At the 2024 WCLA, Natalie is teaching a speech. She is also meeting with attendees for one-on-one meetings.
Natalie is a graduate from California State University, Long Beach with a BA in journalism emphasizing public relations and a minor in creative writing. Since then, she’s worked in the world of books as a book publicist. Natalie is the founder of Do Good Public Relations Group and the grassroots organization, Women of Color Writers Podcast and Programming. She is the current national president of the 105 years old non-profit, the Women’s National Book Association (WNBA), overseeing all eleven chapters across the nation. As the first Latina president of the WNBA, her goal has been promoting diversity in publishing via grassroots efforts.
Because of her dedication to promoting diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging in the book world, she is the founder and chair of Authentic Voices—a four-month long program that immerses people from marginalized communities in a master class of writing, editing, marketing, and publishing. Natalie has since been a panelist and speaker at some of the most well-regarded literary conferences in the industry including the San Francisco Writer’s Conference, The West Coast Writer’s Conference, the Central Coast Writer’s Conference, Publisher’s Group West Conference, as well as conferences that focus on diversity in publishing such as Centering on the Margins.
When she’s not championing for folx in the book world, she can be found in the gym powerlifting, in her bed cuddling her dogs, and (if she’s not procrastinating) writing novels and screenplays rooted in Latinx folklore and magic.
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Brittany J. Thurman writes award-winning books for kids. At the 2024 LA event, she is offering add-on virtual manuscript critiques for attendees.
She is the author of Fly, (Golden Kite Award for Picture Book Text) and Fearless: Boulevard of Dreams. Her upcoming works include Forever and Always, illustrated by Shamar Knight Justice (2024), Fearless: The Takeover (2024), The First Library: The True Story of the First Library by and For Black America, illustrated by Cozbi Cabrera (2025) and Come Catch a Dream, illustrated by Islenia Mil (2025). (Find all her books here.)
She holds an MFA in Dramatic Writing from Carnegie Mellon University, and a Bachelor of Art in Theater from Kingston University, London, England. Her plays have been produced in Aspen, Colorado, and in New York City. Brittany is a former children’s early literacy specialist. She lives in her hometown of Louisville, Kentucky, where she holds tight to her elders, roots, and her childhood home.
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USA Today bestselling author and Agatha, Anthony, Barry, and Macavity-award finalist Kristi Belcamino writes dark mysteries about fierce women seeking justice. At the 2024 WCLA, she is offering add-on virtual manuscript critiques for attendees.
She is a crime fiction writer, cops beat reporter, and Italian mama who also bakes a tasty biscotti. In her former life, as an award-winning crime reporter at newspapers in California, she flew over Big Sur in an FA-18 jet with the Blue Angels, raced a Dodge Viper at Laguna Seca, and attended barbecues at the morgue.
Her nonfiction writing has appeared in several publications, including the New York Times, Salon, Writer’s Digest, Miami Herald, Chicago Tribune, and the San Jose Mercury News. Kristi now works part-time as a police reporter at the St. Paul Pioneer Press.
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Rufi Thorpe is the author of four novels, most recently Margo’s Got Money Troubles which is currently being adapted for television by A24 and Apple TV.
At the 2024 event, she is teaching a class.
Her third novel, The Knockout Queen, is being adapted for film and was a finalist for the PEN/Faulkner award.
Her first novel, The Girls from Corona Del Mar, was long listed for the Dylan Thomas Prize and the Flaherty-Dunnan First Novel Prize.
Her essays have appeared in The New York Times, Poets & Writers, and MORE Magazine among others. She lives in Los Angeles with her husband and two sons.
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Danny Manus is a former development executive, a screenwriter, and currently the CEO of No BullScript Consulting (www.nobullscript.net) and author of No B.S. for Screenwriters: Advice from the Executive Perspective.
At the 2024 WCLA, Danny teaching a class. He is also offering add-on screenplay critiques.
His clients and mentees have been produced, sold, signed, optioned, staffed, made the annual prestigious The Black List, and include finalists and winners of prestigious contests including the ABC/Disney Fellowship, Austin Film Festival, PAGE Awards, Script Pipeline, Screencraft Fellowship, etc.
He has consulted on produced projects including Strangerlands starring Nicole Kidman, King of Killers starring Frank Grillo, I, Frankenstein starring Aaron Eckhart, Satanic Panic starring Rebecca Romijn, You Don’t Belong Here starring Shane West, and In- Lawfully Yours starring Marilu Henner.
Danny was the Consulting Producer on the TV Pilot “Millennial Rules” starring Olivia D’Abo and was previously the Director of Development for Clifford Werber Productions and Sandstorm Films, which combined had four #1 films at the Box Office, including The Covenant. He was a production exec on Just Add Water starring Jonah Hill and Danny Devito as well as Sydney White starring Amanda Bynes, and was also a Development Consultant for Eclectic Pictures.
Danny has taken thousands of pitches, appeared on numerous podcasts, BBC radio, was a columnist for ScriptMag, and has been a speaker at dozens of events and venues including Austin Film Festival, the PGA, Atlanta Film Festival, The Screencraft Summit, Kansas City Film Fest, Willamette Writers Conference, Las Vegas Writers Conference, Writer’s Digest Conference, NYFA, Great American Pitchfest, etc. You can follow him on Twitter/X and all social media @DannyManus.
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Amanda Orozco is a literary agent with Transatlantic Agency.
At the 2024 WCLA, Amanda is teaching a class. (She is not taking pitches.)
Before joining the Transatlantic Agency in the fall of 2020, Amanda Orozco gained a breadth of experience in academic publishing, publicity, subsidiary rights, and agenting. She graduated from UCLA with a degree in Physiological Science and an English minor and worked as a fine art instructor and freelance editor for several years before moving to New York to complete the NYU Masters of Science in Publishing: Digital and Print Media.
While at NYU, she worked at the National Book Foundation, Shreve Williams Public Relations, and The Gernert Company; she was also selected to attend the Frankfurt Book Fair and the Beijing International Book Fair. Upon graduating from NYU in 2019, she worked in Subsidiary Rights at Little, Brown, where she helped sell rights for authors such as Michael Connelly, Elin Hilderbrand, and Sarah Knight, until discovering agenting was her true calling. She worked at Park & Fine Literary and Media before moving back to Los Angeles, where she is working with authors such as Vanessa Angélica Villarreal, Vickie Vertiz, Dr. Anthony Christian Ocampo, Nick Medina, Tania De Rozario, María Alejandra Barrios, and Vanessa Friedman.
Amanda is a member of the Association of American Literary Agents (AALA); her aim is to elevate and amplify marginalized voices always.
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Lorin Oberweger is a highly sought-after independent book editor and ghostwriter with almost thirty years experience in publishing. Her company, Free Expressions, offers intensive, deep craft workshops nationwide. She’s also known for her one-on-one story mastermind session for writers of all genres of fiction and creative nonfiction.
At the 2024 in-person LA event, she is offering add-on virtual manuscript critiques for attendees.
Lorin’s students and clients have been published by HarperCollins, Penguin Random House, Scholastic, Simon and Schuster, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Disney, and many other presses. They have also gained representation with some of the industry’s leading literary agents and several have had work optioned for film and television.
An award-winning author, Lorin has co-written and ghostwritten eight books, several for New York Times bestselling authors of fiction and nonfiction. Her work, commissioned by major publishers, has received glowing notices from the New York Times, Kirkus Reviews, NPR, and others. Her latest co-author credit is THANK YOU FOR COMING TO MY TED TALK, written with Chris Anderson, director of TED Conferences.
With bestselling author Veronica Rossi, Lorin is the author of the New Adult books, BOOMERANG, REBOUND, and BOUNCE, published by Harper/William Morrow under the pen name Noelle August. The novels were praised by Publishers Weekly and Library Journal, among others, and BOOMERANG was chosen as a “new and notable” selection for Target Stores across the US. She is represented by Tracey Adams at Adams Literary.
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Zan Romanoff was born and raised in Los Angeles, fifteen miles (at least an hour in traffic) from the ocean.
She received a B.A. in Literature from Yale, then returned to LA, where she lives in an apartment that never has quite enough shelves for all of her books.
Her work has appeared in publications ranging from The Paris Review Daily to The Toast. She blogs at zanopticon.tumblr.com, and you can learn more about her at zanromanoff.com. (Find all her books here.)
At the 2024 WCLA, Zan is teaching a class on revision.
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Michelle McGill Vargas is an author. At the 2024 WCLA, she is offering add-on virtual manuscript critiques for attendees.
“I am writer of speculative historical fiction, flash fiction, and short fiction. I’ve published in The Lutheran Witness, Splickety Magazine, The Copperfield Review, and Typehouse Literary Magazine. I’ve also contributed at Short Fiction Break and Noir Expressions.
“I’m currently represented by the amazing Melissa Danaczko of Stuart Krichevsky Literacy Agency, Inc. I pay the bills as a teacher of deaf and hard of hearing. I’m a member of Highland Writers Group, Valparaiso Writers Group, served as vice-president of the Indiana Writer’s Consortium and chair of its 2016 Steel Pen Conference, and am currently on the board of Midwest Writers.”
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Chuck Sambuchino (@chucksambuchino) is a freelance editor, bestselling book author, and former longtime staffer for Writer’s Digest Books. For many years he edited the GUIDE TO LITERARY AGENTS and the CHILDREN’S WRITER’S & ILLUSTRATOR’S MARKET. His Guide to Literary Agents Blog was one of the largest blogs in publishing, and he wrote the platform guidebook CREATE YOUR WRITER PLATFORM.
He is the co-director of Writing Day Workshops writers conferences, and he has taught at more than 175 writers conferences throughout his career. At the 2024 WCLA, Chuck is teaching, and offering add-on query critiques for attendees.
His humor book, HOW TO SURVIVE A GARDEN GNOME ATTACK, was optioned by Sony Pictures. Chuck’s books have been mentioned in Reader’s Digest, USA Today, the New York Times, The Huffington Post, Variety, New York Magazine, Buzzfeed, Mental Floss, New York magazine, and many more media outlets.
He is a successful freelance editor of queries, synopses, and manuscripts—seeing dozens of clients get agents or book deals following his consultations/edits. He loves meeting new writers.