Bio:Diane Turnshek

Diane Turnshek is an astronomer (MS from U of AZ) and a science fiction author whose short fiction has been published in Analog Magazine and elsewhere. She has done K-12 astronomy outreach through the University of Pittsburgh, taught astronomy at Carlow College and Chatham College and worked as a planetarium operator at the Carnegie Science Center's Buhl Planetarium. She hosts a monthly, public lecture series on astronomy at Allegheny Observatory. Currently, she's teaching astronomy at St. Vincent College, the University of Pittsburgh, the Community College of Allegheny County and Carnegie Mellon University.

Since 2002, Diane has been mentoring science fiction, fantasy and horror graduate students in the Master’s Degree Program in Writing Popular Fiction at Seton Hill University. She founded the largest genre writing group in Pittsburgh (Write or Die) and Alpha, the SF/F/H Workshop for Young Writers (a twelve-day residency workshop). Diane started a local, yearly series of SF anthologies and edited the first book (Triangulation 2003). From 2004 to July 2007, she served as Eastern Regional Director for the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA), a professional organization of ~1500 writers. She’s helped organize science fiction conferences on local and international levels including running the 2007 SFWA weekend business meeting and Nebula awards ceremony in NYC. She is an active member of MENSA and has four amazing sons.