Steering Committee
President - Steven Antalics Steven Antalics has a degree in English literature from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. As a student, he placed in a succession of poetry competitions, won a prize for technical communication, and served as the Business Director, interim Project Manager, and Media Relations Lead for the U-M Solar Car Team. His career includes a stint moonlighting as a freelance journalist for The Holland Times, where he also published chapters in two flash-fiction novellas. His private-sector career has been in commodities trading and shipping, and he now works in IT in the same sector. He’s resided in France and worked in Geneva since 2013, and he is currently working on a nonfiction book about the shipping industry as well as a novel. |
Treasurer - Caroline Thonger Caroline Thonger’s The Banker’s Daughter was published in the UK in 2007, the year before she emigrated to Switzerland. She worked as Chief Ed of Hello Switzerland for over 3 years, contributing many articles on Swiss life; and was also Chief Ed for the GWG’s Offshoots 13 as well as managing editor for Offshoots 15. A freelance translator and editor, she is currently negotiating the publication of the memoir-in-flash co-written with her sister (living in New Zealand), and finds writing inspiration on long hikes on vineyard and mountain trails in the Haut Valais. |
Executive Secretary - Sarah Tinsley Sarah
is a writer and writing coach from the UK who enjoys food, getting out
in nature and music. She mostly writes short stories, with her themes
often including feminist themes and marginalized voices and issues. Her
first book, The Shadows We Cast came
out in January 2022 and is a dark contemporary novel about consent and
control. She's writing a memoir about traveling with her daughter when
she was a baby and provides workshops, resources, mentoring, and
coaching to a range of writers and creatives. |
Christine Breede-Schechter Christine is a fiction writer and graduate from Columbia University in Speech-Language Pathology, who divides her time between Geneva, Berlin, and New York City. Writing keeps her rooted. Her work has earned her third prize in Glimmer Train’s 2014 Fiction Open contest and numerous honorable mentions. She is currently working on her first novel. She is an active member of the Geneva Writers Group and the International Women’s Writers Guild. |
Ximena Escobar de Nogales Ximena's career spans over 25 years across the public, private and non-profit sectors. She initially trained as an economist in Colombia and at Georgetown University in Washington DC. Later she completed a masters in international trade and an MBA, both in Geneva. She co-authored Impact Investment: A Practical Guide to Investment Process and Social Impact Analysis. More recently she has discovered a passion for creative writing. Ximena has three adult children and in her free time volunteers as a language teacher in prison and for a restaurant with a social cause. |
Quade Hermann Quade was a radio journalist with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation when she took a year's leave of absence to run a radio station for the United Nations' peacekeeping operation in Sudan. Twelve years, four countries, and three jobs later, she's now head of communications for a Swiss foundation in Geneva. She has an MFA in Creative Non-Fiction Writing from the University of British Columbia, and a Shepherd-Collie cross named Misha who lies beneath her desk while she is at work on her first novel. |
Aja Lynne Aja was born in New Zealand, living in Australia, Austria, and Romania before moving to Geneva in 2012. She is a former opera singer (specializing in early music) and now teaches music and drama at the International School of Geneva. She has a masters in baroque stagecraft and is a prolific song-writer, mostly in the genre of folk-pop. Aja also writes poetry, science fiction and fantasy. Her science-fiction story for children, The Extinct Hunter, was published in Frostfire Worlds in 2015. Currently Aja’s main focus is on writing plays and musicals, primarily aimed at adolescents, which she does in collaboration with Viennese composer Alexander Wagendristel. |
Rosalind Yarde Rosalind is a former journalist and broadcaster, she wrote for local and national newspapers in London, including the Guardian and the Times Higher Education Supplement. She was a scriptwriter, producer and broadcaster at the BBC World Service for 16 years, then headed a BBC humanitarian radio project in Darfur, Sudan, from 2006-2008. Rosalind lived in Tanzania from 2008-2011, where she set up a media consultancy business. She moved to Geneva in 2011, where she is Chief of News and Media at the International Labour Organization. She writes fiction and completed her first novel last year. |