The WLT Staff

Cyndi Hughes
cyndi@writersleague.org

Cyndi Hughes
Executive Director

Cyndi Hughes is the executive director of the Writers' League of Texas. She is also president of Cynthia Hughes Literary Management in Austin, a firm that provides publicity, editorial, and consulting services to authors and publishers. Her most recent projects were producing the 2007 Kansas Book Festival and creating an author programming track for the 2008 Texas Library Association Conference. Hughes was the founding director of the Texas Book Festival, which was founded by First Lady Laura Bush in 1996. Under Hughes's leadership, the Festival acquired a reputation as one of the most prestigious literary events in the United States and raised nearly $1.5 million for more that 470 Texas public libraries. Before joining the Texas Book Festival, Hughes was the owner of In Other Words, an editing and writing service in Austin. Prior to that, she was an editor for more than seven years at Texas Monthly and a copy editor at the Austin American-Statesman. She was a board member of the Writers' League of Texas and is a member of the Texas Library Association's 2008 Conference Programming Committee. She has a bachelor's degree in journalism from the University of Kansas and has lived in Austin since 1981.

Jan Baumer
Publicity & Programming Manager

Jan Baumer recently relocated to Austin from San Francisco with her husband Zach and their high-spirited American Brittany named Cosmo. Despite the obvious change in climate, the transition has been a seamless one, and the Baumers have truly made Austin their home. Most recently, Jan worked as an acquisitions editor at HarperOne, the spiritual and religious imprint of HarperCollins Publishers. Having spent all of her working hours reading everything from Christian theology to self-help, she devours fiction (both literary and perhaps not so literary) at home. Prior to HarperCollins, Jan spent two years in New York City working first in public relations and then as an editorial assistant at Budget Living magazine, which, according to her husband, did very little to boost her money-saving skills. Jan attended Davidson College in North Carolina, earning a Bachelor of Arts degree in English and during her senior year she spent most of her free time feeding and subsequently satiating her obsession with John Irving by reading his entire body of work. Jan is overjoyed to join the Writers' League of Texas team and to bring her skills and enthusiasm to an organization she has always admired.

Bethany Hegedus
bethany@writersleague.org

Bethany Hegedus
Office Manager

Bethany Hegedus, though new to the Austin area, has spent time above and below the Mason-Dixon Line. In 2005, Bethany received her MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults from Vermont College of Fine Arts, where she studied with the likes of Norma Fox Mazer and Tim Wynne-Jones. Bethany is Co-Editor of the Young Adult and Children's section of the literary magazine, Hunger Mountain, and is an active member of the SCBWI. Her second novel, Truth, With a Capital T, is forthcoming with Delacorte in the fall of 2010. Between Us Baxters was her first young adult novel. When not writing, or visiting middle schools, or presenting with the Delacorte Dames & Dude, you can find Bethany reading, hiking, or listening to cheesy '70s music. A longtime resident of New York City, Bethany is thrilled to join the staff at the Writers' League of Texas in her new capacity as office manager. So please give her a shout.

Kate Meehan
kate@writersleague.org

Kate Meehan
Bookkeeper

Kate Meehan has worked with several nonprofit organizations, including The Austin Commedia Society, The Coda Project, La Fenice, and Scenic Austin. She is an avid enthusiast of historical theatrical styles and European folklore, and is a regular consultant on the topics of Commedia dell'Arte, maskwork and physical theater for arts organizations and educational institutions statewide. Additionally, she is an active writer of screenplays focusing on historical figures and folktales, and is working on a non-fiction book on the anthropoligcal origins of Commedia dell'Arte.

Sara Ortiz
sara@writersleague.org

Sara Ortiz
Administrative Assistant

A native Austinite of Salvadoran descent, Sara Ortiz has just received her Bachelors in English with a focus on Creative Writing from St. Edward’s University. Her education has already born fruit in the form of her being published in multiple local publications. When not pursuing her passion for world travel, she enjoys being active in the community and singing in several professional choirs, like the Conspirare Symphonic Choir. She hopes to attend graduate school and teach English abroad in Spain. Meanwhile, she loves being an aunt to the most adorably-dimpled three-year-old boy.