Maria Linn & Rhonda Roumani*

Maria Linn is a Pitch Wars alum, has a B.A. in English and an M.A. in liberal arts, and has taught writing at the college level. Her first writing teacher was her grandmother M.J. Amft, who authored 45 published short stories, three of which were included in BEST AMERICAN SHORT STORIES anthologies in the 1970s. Born in Chicago but raised in and around Myrtle Beach, Maria currently lives in South Carolina with her husband and a trio of spookily adorable black cats and works as a research specialist for a school district. She is represented by Melissa Nasson at Rubin Pfeffer Content.

Rhonda Roumani is a Syrian-American journalist who lived and reported on Syria for U.S. newspapers. She has also written about Islam, the Arab world and Muslim-American issues for more than two decades. Currently, she is a Contributing Fellow at the Center for Religion and Civic Culture at USC, and a Journalism Fellow for their Spiritual Exemplar Project. She was a Pitch Wars 2019 mentee and is represented by Brent Taylor of Triada US.

Age Category: Middle Grade

Expertise: Querying, rewriting, line editing, rah-rah words of encouragement for the disheartened

Also Submission Package Reviewers!