Our writers craft stories across a wide range of genres—from fantasy epics and historical fiction to thrillers and mysteries. Explore our bios to learn more about our work, inspirations, and latest projects, and support Austin’s local literary scene.
Darrell Bryant
Darrel Bryant, a fifth generation Texan, brings to his writing a decade of military service in both the U.S. Navy and U.S. Army (airborne), to include Special Forces training. An early taste for adventure led to treks across the Yukon and Alaska, hikes into the Grand Canyon, up the Appalachian Trail, and along Hadrian’s Wall in the north of England. With a half-dozen novels in finished form tucked away in a file, he lives alone in a house he built with his own hands, from mostly recycled lumber, on the outskirts of his hometown, Austin. Geronimo’s Bones is his first published novel.
Daniel Dirigible
Daniel Dirigible writes code, with as much clarity as he can manage, for his day job. Contrariwise, he is writing an absurdist metafiction mystery novel about seeking the truth and asserting control in a world that defies comprehension.
Biographically, he lived half his life in east Texas, half his life in Austin, more than half his life on the internet, and before all that, considerably longer not yet being born. Now he’s in Virginia with his wife and frankly too many pets.
Idee Kwak
Idee Kwak, pianist/composer/teacher, has musical careers on both sides of the footlights, her performances, humorous concert lectures, and fundraising talks garnering accolades from Nobel prize winners, Pulitzer prize winners, and celebrities. These include Hans Mark, Yo Yo Ma, James Michener—and let’s not forget Mr. Rogers. Yet despite her decades of experience in speech preparation, Idee has found novel writing a challenge and feels enormously grateful to the members of NIP for their advice and inspiration. She now strives to balance beauty and line with structure, historical research with adventure and emotion.
Tosh McIntosh
Tosh McIntosh is a self-taught Austin-based Indie writer who has published three novels, two short non-fiction books, and assisted more than 25 other writers with designing covers and interiors for e-Books, paperbacks, and hardcover editions. He has participated in the Novel-In-Progress of Austin Critique Group since 1993 and served as moderator since 2012. Known for in-depth knowledge of novel structure, his critiques have helped fellow writers better understand the critical importance of using scene and sequel and the goal-motivation-stakes triad to emphasize plot, while ensuring that characters face conflict and tension that draw readers into the fictive dream and never lets them go.
Annilee Newton
Annilee Newton is a writer and writing teacher at Austin Community College. She earned her MFA in Creative Writing from Lesley University, and her creative nonfiction has appeared in the anthology Family Stories from the Attic, the Sierra Nevada Review, The Dirty Spoon, and PenDust Radio podcast. Lately, she’s been working on Thessalonika, a historical fiction novel about a young college student who masquerades as her male friend so that she can participate in an archeological dig in 1953 Greece.
Sharon Scarborough
Sharon Scarborough worked for the Texas Senate for 23 years. Before that she wrote for newspapers, freelanced for magazines, and wrote “true” confessions. She won two Pikes Peak awards for outstanding short stories. She worries about clean drinking water for the planet and admires Texas Rangers, which led to the book, A Promise of Water. After living over 20 years in Texas, Sharon moved to Kentucky. She loves to hear from readers.
Robbie Shapard
Robert Shapard’s collection, Bare Ana and Other Stories (2025) won the W.S. Porter Prize. Amazon has the full Chicago Review of Books as well as clips of other reviews. His fiction has appeared in journals such as New England Review, Necessary Fiction, Kenyon Review, and New World Writing. As an editor he created, with James Thomas, many of W.W. Norton’s “Sudden” and “Flash” anthologies. His novel-in-progress, “Marina,” is in its second draft. More about Robbie at robertshapard.com.
Patsy Shepherd
Patsy Shepherd was born with a red pencil in her hand and has been editing ever since. She taught community college composition/literature for half a lifetime, then moved on to writing and editing for environmental engineering companies. Along the way, she wrote a book on dream interpretation and is currently hard at work (at glacial speed) on a couple of novels. Recently, and with amazingly little effort, she has become a great-grandmother.
Lolly Walter
Lolly Walter wrote the Dry Run climate sci-fi trilogy. The final book is due this year. She grew up in the rural Midwest, where she learned to work hard and daydream big. Her claims to fame are a semi-starring role in her sixth-grade operetta, besting her twin in the school spelling bee, and being so competitive her own kids won’t play Monopoly with her. Her interests are always changing, but right now she’s over-thinking gardening, anime, baseball, pandas, dance, and—always and forever—books. She lives outside ATX with her husband, some kids, some dogs, and two aging divas (cats).
Curious about NIP’s roots? Explore our archival website, where you’ll find decades of craft-focused blog posts and see how our group has evolved over the years.
