2026 Faculty: G through L
Ronald Gerber / Agent
Ronald Gerber is President at Lowenstein Associates, where he has been a literary agent since 2019. His clients include: Daniel Kenitz, whose debut thriller THE PERFECT HOME was published by Scribner in 2025; Sonja Thomas, author of the acclaimed children’s books SIR FIG NEWTON & THE SCIENCE OF PERSISTENCE and OLIVE BLACKWOOD TAKES ACTION! with Aladdin/Simon & Schuster; and Lorissa Rinehart, author of feminist biographies FIRST TO THE FRONT and WINNING THE EARTHQUAKE with St. Martin’s Press. Ronald is focused on cinematic stories with strong hooks and relatable characters, and is always looking for projects from queer, BIPOC, and other underrepresented authors. He is a proud graduate of Bard College at Simon’s Rock and Clark University. He resides in Queens, New York with his wife and too many books to count.
G.P. Gottlieb
G.P. Gottlieb is the author of the Charred: A Whipped & Sipped Mystery (Anamcara Press, May 29, 2026), the third in a culinary cozy mystery series. She is on the board of Sisters in Crime Chicagoland and a member of SinC Colorado, MWA, and Blackbird Writers. As host for New Books in Literature, a podcast channel on the New Books Network, she has interviewed nearly 280 authors. If you enjoy culinary cozy mysteries set in Chicago, the Whipped & Sipped Mysteries invite you into a world of friendship, coffee, pastries, and crime-solving without the nightmares.
Bradley Harper
Bradley Harper is a retired US Army pathologist who began writing after retirement in 2012, after 37 years of active duty. During his time serving in Colombia with US Special Forces, the FARC placed a $1.5 million bounty for his capture. (Offer no longer valid.)
Dr. Harper’s debut novel, A Knife in the Fog, was a 2019 Edgar Award finalist for Best First Novel by an American. The book won Killer Nashville’s Silver Falchion award as Best Mystery, and the audiobook won Audiofile Magazine’s Earphone award in the Mystery category. The book has been translated into Japanese and German and is a Recommended Read by the Arthur Conan Doyle estate.
The sequel, Queen’s Gambit, won the 2020 Silver Falchion as Best Suspense and Book of the Year. His recently produced short animation, Dark Tryst, has won multiple awards across Europe. His poetry and essays have been published in various magazines. He recently co-wrote a memoir by Leslie Lautenslager, My Time with Colin Powell, about her twenty-five years as GEN Powell’s personal assistant, and his detective story, Reflections in a Dragon’s Eye, was a 2024 Finalist for the Silver Falchion Award.
In October 2022, Doctor Harper received his master’s degree in creative writing from Napier University in Edinburgh. He graduated With Distinction from his Screenwriting Workshop. One professor noted he was ready to work in a writers’ room for any crime series in production. While residing in the UK, he was voted a Fellow of the Royal Scottish Society of Arts after his presentation, “Sherlock Holmes as Science Fiction,” detailing how Doyle’s character inspired the world’s first crime lab.
In July 2024, he produced a short film based on a single scene from A Knife in the Fog, shot in a 19th-century morgue. The film will be used as part of a pitch to TV producers in hopes of selling the rights for a mini-series. He wrote the screenplay, and the film is currently on the film festival circuit.
You can follow him on Facebook at Bradley Harper-Author, and on Instagram as @HarknessAdventures
His website is https://www.bharperauthor.com
Steven James
Steven James is the critically acclaimed, bestselling author of more than fifty books. With a master's degree in storytelling, he has taught writing and storytelling around the world, appearing more than 2000 times on five continents. His award-winning, groundbreaking book Story Trumps Structure has equipped thousands of authors to write organically. For the last fifteen years he has taught novel writing intensives around the country. Publishers Weekly has called him a "master storyteller at the peak of his game."
Dean Krystek / Agent
Dean is holds a BA in English from the University of South Carolina. A Pittsburgh native, he retired from the US Army as a Sergeant Major after a long career that began in the sizzling heat of Vietnam and ended inside the cool interior of Cheyenne Mountain in Colorado. After stepping away from the military, Dean held numerous positions in state government and the private sector, including for a number of years as a DoD contracted trainer in support of Operation Enduring Freedom. When he finally turned his attention from wars to words, he brought WordLink, an agency that had begun in New Zealand by a college friend, to Pennsylvania. WordLink is a small town agency with worldwide reach. Its agents reside in Colorado, Tennessee, Pennsylvania, and New York. Visit the www.wordlink.us for the agency’s wish list and current client list.
Dean is looking for authors with distinctive voices whose narratives invoke a strong sense of time and place and whose stories create a memorable reading experience. He’d like to see mysteries (whodunit, cozy); psychological suspense; thrillers (looking for small town America setting vs international in scale); military fiction (character-driven pieces). In YA he would like to see mysteries, paranormal, sci-fi, coming of age, and suspense with writing that stirs the imagination and caters to the young reader’s sense of wonder and adventure.
Kimberly Lander
Kimberly Lander’s interest with true crime deepened after her family moved to San Antonio, Texas in 1990—a move marked by the tragic kidnapping and murder of the eleven-year-old sister of a friend. Motivated by this formative experience, Kimberly began a twenty-year career as a Forensic DNA Analyst with the Bexar County Criminal Investigation Laboratory, analyzing biological evidence from sexual assaults, homicides, and other violent crimes. She served for sixteen years as a local CODIS administrator aiding law enforcement navigating the complexities of DNA database matches and evidence interpretation.
Since retiring in 2023, Kimberly now provides attorneys and detectives forensic DNA training, providing expert case reviews in preparation for court and help in cold-case investigations. In her new-found spare time, she began to consider writing crime fiction based on her experiences and discovered a new opportunity, sharing her knowledge of forensics with other aspiring and seasoned writers.
Avram Lavinsky
Avram Lavinsky’s writing has appeared in Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine and several best-of compilations. In a starred review, ALA Booklist called his story “Playing God” a “particular standout” in The Best Mystery Stories of the Year 2023. In 2025, he received the Al Blanchard Award for best New England crime story.
DP Lyle
DP Lyle is the Amazon #1 Bestselling; Macavity and Benjamin Franklin Award-winning; and Edgar(2), Agatha, Anthony, Shamus, Scribe, Silver Falchion, and USA Today Best Book(2) Award-nominated author of 26 books, both non-fiction and fiction (the Samantha Cody, Dub Walker, Jake Longly, and Cain/Harper thriller series and the Royal Pains media tie-in series). He hosts the Crime Fiction Writer’s Blog, the Criminal Mischief: The Art and Science of Crime Fiction YouTube/podcast series, and is co-creator of the Outliers Writing University. He has served as story consultant to many novelists and the screenwriters of shows such as Law & Order, CSI: Miami, Diagnosis Murder, Monk, Judging Amy, Peacemakers, Cold Case, House, Medium, Women’s Murder Club, 1-800-Missing, The Glades, and Pretty Little Liars.
Website: https://www.dplylemd.com
Outliers Writing University: https://www.outlierswritinguniversity.com