Novello Festival Press Biographies:

NFP founder and publisher Amy Rogers is an award-winning writer and editor. Books she has written include Hungry for Home: Stories of Food from Across the Carolinas, and Red Pepper Fudge and Blue Ribbon Biscuits.

Rogers is a frequent food and culture commentator for National Public Radio station WFAE. Her work was included in Cornbread Nation 1: The Best of Southern Food Writing and The North Carolina Century: Tar Heels Who Made a Difference, 1900-2000.

She is a past winner of the SELA President’s Award, given by the Southeast Library Association in recognition of the person outside the library profession who has done the most for libraries.
She is a past vice-president of the Publishers’ Association of the South.

Rogers has been a program presenter at the Southern Festival of Books in Nashville; the N.C. Literary Festival, the S.C. Book Festival, the Southern Voices Symposium, the Novello Festival of Reading, and the Central Piedmont Community College Literary Festival.

She has presented numerous educational and outreach programs in schools, colleges, arts centers, local and regional libraries, and the Mecklenburg County Jail. A native of Detroit, Michigan, she studied writing at Queens College and now makes her home in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Betsy Thorpe spent ten years in the New York publishing world, working as an editor at HarperCollins, Macmillan, Broadway/Doubleday, and John Wiley & Sons. Since starting her freelance career, Betsy has co-written two health books, published articles, and worked as a literary agent. Now a happy resident of Charlotte, she enjoys learning about the history and culture of the Carolinas, assisting authors with their work world-wide, and promoting the great work of Novello Festival Press and the writers of the South. Betsy graduated with a BA in English from Mount Holyoke College in Massachusetts, and a MA in Middle English Literature from King’s College London, England.

Courtney Devores is a regular freelance music writer for the Charlotte Observer, and has been published in NOn-Sports Update, Charlotte, and No Depression among others. She lives in Charlotte with her husband, two dogs, and three cats.