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Sign up today for our annual Short Story Seminar with Stacy Woodson and Art Taylor

When: Saturday, September 19, 2026 from 10am-4pm

Where: 208 Queen Street, Alexandria, Virginia 22314

About the Seminar: Details are coming soon!

About Stacy Woodson: A US Army combat veteran, Stacy says memories of her time in the military are often a source of inspiration for her stories. She made her crime fiction debut in Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine’s Department of First Stories and won the 2018 Readers Award, the second time in the award’s history a debut took first place.

“Chop Shop,” by Stacy Woodson

Awards: Since then, she has placed over 40 short stories in various publications, three winning the Derringer award for excellence in short mystery fiction. (She is a five-time nominee.) Her short fiction has also been nominated for a Macavity Award, Thriller Award, Anthony Award (anthology, co-editor), selected for The Best Mystery Stories of the Year, named a finalist for ScreenCraft’s Best Cinematic Short Story, and adapted for animation. Stacy also writes screenplays and was recently accepted to the Writers Guild Foundation’s Veterans Writing Project. Her pilot script, “Poppins,” was named a Second Rounder in the Drama Teleplay Pilot category in the 2025 Austin Film Festival Script Competition.

When she’s not writing: Stacy co-edits anthologies with Michael Bracken for Down and Out Books and Level Best Books and teaches at Outliers Writing University. She is also a member of the Screen Actors Guild and works as background talent for movies and television which has deepened her understanding of the filmmaking process and the need for practical scripts. Past projects include Homeland, Jack Ryan, The Walking Dead: World Beyond, Silo, Terminal List: Dark Wolf, Wonder Woman 1984, and A House of Dynamite. Learn more: stacywoodson.com

About Art Taylor:

Author Art Taylor

Art Taylor is the Edgar Award-winning author of two short story collections—The Adventure of the Castle Thief and Other Expeditions and Indiscretions (2023) and The Boy Detective & The Summer of ’74 and Other Tales of Suspense(2020)—and of the novel in stories On the Road with Del & Louise (2015), winner of the Agatha Award for Best First Novel. He has won three additional Agatha Awards, an Anthony Award, four Macavity Awards, and four Derringer Awards for his short fiction, and he was the 2025 recipient of the Short Mystery Fiction Society’s Golden Derringer for Lifetime Achievement. His work has also appeared in Best American Mystery Stories and Best American Mystery and Suspense, and he has edited several mystery anthologies, including Murder Under the Oaks: Bouchercon Anthology 2015, winner of the Anthony Award for Best Anthology or Collection. He is a professor of English at George Mason University.