Central Chapter Zoom - August 12, 2026 "Looking For the Other Side of Everything"
Dan Baldwin is an author/ghostwriter/co-author, multi-genre novelist, and published paranormal investigator. His writing honors include multiple winner/finalist designations in Best Book Awards, National Indie Excellence Awards, Book Excellence Awards, Society of Southwestern Authors competition, and the New-Mexico-Arizona Book Awards competitions.
Central Chapter meeting- July 8- Beyond the Book
Zarinah El-Amin is an award-winning cultural anthropologist, TEDx speaker, publisher, and founder of Legacy Storykeepers and Book Power Publishing. For more than 15 years, she has helped entrepreneurs, educators, institutions, and families preserve stories, share knowledge, and create meaningful cultural impact through books and storytelling. Having led more than 85 book projects, Zarinah is recognized for blending professional publishing expertise with deep cultural insight. Her work has been featured by NPR, the Knight Foundation, the University of Michigan, and the Sharjah International Book Fair. Today, her mission is to preserve the wisdom, stories, and lived experiences of elders before they are lost to future generations.
Central Chapter meeting June 10 with Sara Fujimura
Sara Fujimura (Foo-gee-moo-rah) is the American half of her bicultural Japanese-American family and spends about a month each year in Japan. She started as a journalist, so it is no surprise that Sara’s young adult books contain a lot of facts to go along with the fiction. Whether you want to know about Japan (TANABATA WISH), the Spanish Flu pandemic of 1918 (BREATHE), what it’s like to be an Olympic-caliber skater (EVERY REASON WE SHOULDN’T), or how unscripted television works (FAKING REALITY), Sara takes readers on swoony journeys to unusual places. She is a creative writing teacher and literacy advocate who is excited to support the next generation of authors. If you go to anime cons (PHX Nov, 2026), you may also see Sara as her alter ego, The Obento Lady. She is an active member of SCBWI and the Chicago-North Romance Writers.
Central Chapter Zoom meeting May 13 with Roger Naylor
Roger Naylor is an award-winning Arizona author and a resident of Cottonwood for the past 30 years. He has been the freelance travel writer for the Arizona Republic since 2007. He was inducted into the Arizona Tourism Hall of Fame in 2018 and is the narrator of the Verde Canyon Railroad. Naylor’s work has also appeared in the USA Today, The Guardian, Country Magazine, Arizona Highways, Route 66 Magazine, and dozens more.
Roger Naylor has authored a dozen books including Arizona Boots and Burgers: A Guide for Hungry Hikers, Arizona Route 66 Road Trip, Arizona’s Scenic Roads and Hikes, Arizona National Parks and Monuments, Awesome Arizona: 200 Amazing Facts about the Grand Canyon State, Arizona State Parks, The Amazing Kolb Brothers of Grand Canyon, Arizona Kicks on Route 66, and Crazy for the Heat: Arizona Tales of Ghosts, Gumshoes, and Bigfoot.
APW Central Chapter Meeting 4-8-26 with AnnElise Makin
AnnElise Makin will chat with us about how her fascination with cowboys led her to Texas, and more recently, to her research into early German settlers there, leading her to a story that blew her mind. She will explain how she stitched together research, immersion, and interviews to create the characters who carry the drama forth, pioneers as well as Comanche, in her upcoming book Texas Justice for the Muskrat.BIO: AnnElise Makin, a Munich native, started working in journalism in high school, and went on to become a US-German correspondent from her time at the University of Texas at Austin where she received two M.A. degrees. She has published so far three novels and three anthologies, and is working on a nonfiction book as well as a novel based on the German pioneers in the Texas Hill Country.AnnElise also helps clients with publishing needs, having learned her bookmaking craft at Harcourt Brace College Publishers. She continues to contribute to German lifestyle magazines.