Board of Directors

Eddie Vincent, President

Eddie Vincent, co-owner of Encircle Publications, has been in the publishing and graphic design field for more than 30 years. His company Encircle Publications specializes in complete book production, and is home to The Aurorean poetry journal. Eddie works with publishers and independent authors, helping them with all their design needs and all facets of bringing a book to life. Eddie and his wife, Cynthia, a poet and editor, live in Maine.

Charlotte R. Pierce, Vice-President

Podcast/Livestream, Regional Groups, Conference Committee

Charlotte has participated as an IPNE member since 2007, serving in most positions on the Board of Directors over the years, including President, Vice-President, Secretary, and Regional Groups manager. She coordinates the Metro Boston regional group for IPNE.

Charlotte runs the independent publishing house Pierce Press and podcast production company Pierce Productions. Charlotte gives a free publishing or podcasting consult to IPNE and IBPA members.

Mike Rochester

Membership Team, Conference Committee, Metro Boston Regional Group

Mike is a freelance ghostwriter, editor, and publisher. He is also the Managing Editor and Anthology Barista at The Fictional Café literary magazine. Mike is an IPNE Membership Chair and serves on the Conference Committee. He's one of the co-hosts of IPNE's Metro Boston Publishers Regional Meetup group. You can find his work on Linktree.

Connelly Akstens

Events Committee

Connelly Akstens, author of Without Shame: Learning to Be Me (2021, Potowomut Press), has been active for years in transgender advocacy as a speaker for SpeakOUT Boston and at many conferences. She teaches Shakespeare and the History of Ideas at SUNY/ Empire State College and has been an award-winning feature writer for Adirondack Life and many other magazines and journals. As a musician, Connelly has released five CDs of original and American roots music. She is a licensed Adirondack guide and an avid gardener.

Scott Chanell

New Board Member

Scott has self-published four nonfiction books on sales and marketing topics to establish thought leadership and demonstrate expertise on sales and marketing topics.

He published his first book in 2004. He enjoys the art and science of positioning and marketing a nonfiction book to sell and generate business for services offered. Scott runs Finding Business LLC, ScottChannell.com, and FindingBusiness.com

Odile Sullivan-Tarazi

New Board Member

Throughout her career, Odile has held many roles built on the twinned perspectives of evaluating skill and seeking to encourage and improve skill. She taught writing and editing classes for many years through UC Santa Cruz Extension. At the San Jose arts and culture publication Content Magazine, as the first editor to be hired, she developed and implemented editorial standards and processes, built a mentoring program, and established an editing department.

Currently, she edits genre flash fiction at Havok Publishing, and short fiction and creative nonfiction at literary-minded VoiceCatcher. She reviews indie, hybrid, and small-press books for several services, including Chanticleer Book Reviews and BlueInk Review. She sits on the judges’ panel for writing contests and book awards. And she works with indie authors as a developmental editor, line editor, and book coach.

Michael DeSanto

New Board Member

Michael DeSanto has owned bookstores in Vermont since 1995 and has published off and on since 1997. In addition to owning or partnering in Phoenix Books Essex, Rutland, Burlington, Yankee Bookshop in Woodstock, and The Bookstore in Brandon, he publishes POD as Onion River Press and with a traditional imprint as Maple Tree Editions. The Press has recently added a partner to carry Onion River Press towards wider distribution and to discover unpublished quality Vermont writers. In recent days he has been busy helping to establish the new Green Mountain Book Festival in Burlington, and to grow the Vermont Authors Project. "I am honored to be offered membership on the Board of Directors for IPNE and I look forward to learning from and sharing with the diverse members of the group."

Isai Gutierrez

New Board Member

Isai’s most proud accomplishment is his family.  Isai is a husband and the father of four sons. While professionally he has spent most of his career as an educator in both the public and private sectors, Isai’s true passion has always been art and creative thinking. 

In March 2020, Isai published his first children's book, Miguel Goes to Eagle School. His writing exemplifies a love of family and teaching life lessons. As part of this journey Isai started his own publishing company, Dancing Duck Publishing, so that he could help others navigate the publishing journey and have full control over this book and future projects.  

Past Board Members & Staff: We are grateful to our past board members for their service: Spencer Smith, Ruby Fink, Jon Meyer,  Jack Rochester, Geoffrey Dutton, David Shiang, Peg Roberts, Bill Cordaro, Michelle Burinskas, Ian Lamont, Jane English; and of course our founding directors, Tordis Isselhardt and Pamela Fenner.

Special thanks to former VP Jon Meyer

Jon served IPNE with skill and insight, heading up our Pandemic Grants program and working to revise our bylaws and organizational structure. Jon's book Love Poems From New England won twelve national and international awards, including Best Poetry winner for 2020/2021, Eric Hoffer Finalist, International Independent Publisher Award (IPPY) Finalist, International Next Generation Indie Award Finalist, Poetry 2021. His new book, Clouds: Love Poems From Above the Fray, is due out soon. More information about Jon Meyer can be found on www.jonmeyerpoetry.com.

ADVISORY MEMBERS

• Michael Boezi is a content-marketing strategist focusing on authors and publishers. He runs Control Mouse Media and was an IPNE conference speaker.
  

• Mariana Llanos publishes award-winning children's books in English and Spanish. A native of Peru, she became a US citizen in 2015. Mariana served on the active board in 2016.