Shannon Holmes: Mr. Holmes is the most anticipated author in the industry; his freshman novel B-More Careful was an immediate cult classic, selling over 100,000 copies in its first six months of publication and continues to sell today as though it was just released. Shannon's second novel, Badgirlz, was published under the Atria imprint of Simon and Schuster, making him one of the first Street Lit authors to land a deal with a major publisher. On the back end of it all, Shannon has also dealt with two of the most successful and influential women in the Urban Fiction market. He was the first author to be published by Teri Woods--igniting the fire for B-More Careful in 2001--and he aided Vickie Stringer in the launch of Triple Crown Publications. Erick S Gray- Some of the greatest things invented happened so by accident and so was Erick Gray's writing career. An avid reader and closet writer for years, Gray got his start in this genre when he handed his first manuscript to Carl Weber, a book store owner at the time. Carl passed his work on and soon after Erick became a published author. That was a decade ago and Erick Gray continues to hold his place as a writer to be contended with in the urban fiction genre. With the release of his first novel, Booty Call, Erick showed what a well-crafted story, developed characters and good editing was all about. Since then Erick has released six other novels including a sequel to his critically acclaimed Booty Call. Mark Anthony: During the late 90's--at a time when there were only two (2) other publicly known gritty urban tales available on the market--when the traditional and major publishers were ignoring this budding genre of Street Fiction, Trendsettaz Entertainment was formed and Mark hit the streets with his self-published book entitled, Urban Massacre, which would later be changed to Paper Chasers. Though the production of these books was not quality and they were falling apart, he managed to successfully sell it to the public. Having survived the growing pains of the publishing industry, he would go on to build QBoro Books, which now manages over 30 authors and is one of the top publishers of urban fiction today. Later he would merge with Urban Books--who has major distribution through Kensington, a deal that separates him from all other urban book publishing companies--as well as ink deals with G-Unit Books. And to add to his long resume of success in this industry he is looking to produce films in the near future. Anthony Whyte: Anthony Whyte is an Essence best selling author and founder of Augustus Publishing and Street Literature Review Magazine the voice of Hip Hop literature. Mr. Whyte is a highly respected and renowned author in the Hip Hop fiction genre. His list of published works includes: Ghetto Girls, Ghetto Girls Too, Ghetto Girls 3: Soo Hood, the Streets of New York series and Blackout based on the BET and Paramount Pictures film. Mr. Whyte's titles combined have sold more than 175,000 copies nationwide. He currently is working on his next novel, Street Chic. He's a former military officer and spent over ten years in the US army. He was a social worker for the Department of Social Services for New York City's Child Protective services. Whyte graduated from Lehman College in the Bronx and is an outstanding member of the Tuesday Night Writers' Workshop, conducted by Susan Shapiro and NYU School of Continuing Education.