We are pleased to welcome two new instructors to our team here at The Author Conservatory! Instructing our students is a privilege and a responsibility we don’t take lightly. That’s why we want to introduce you to our newest fiction Author Conservatory instructors.

Introducing Amanda Dykes, award-winning author

Amanda Dyke’s debut novel, Whose Waves These Are, is the winner of the 2020 Christy Award Book of the Year, a Booklist 2019 Top Ten Romance Debut, and the winner of an INSPY Award. She’s also the author of Christy Award-finalists All the Lost Places, Yours is the Night, and Set the Stars Alight, and the children’s nature exploration devotional, A Pocketful of Wonder. A former English teacher, Amanda is a drinker of tea, dweller of redemption, and spinner of hope-filled tales who spends most days chasing wonder and words with her family. 

Learn more about Amanda on her website.

Amanda hosts one critique call per week for Author Conservatory students, where she provides personalized feedback and coaching on their fiction projects, from an outline to a story premise.

We are thrilled to welcome Amanda to our Author Conservatory instructor team and excited to see how she shapes the next generation of authors! She will also be hosting regular office hours for students to ask live questions and receive even more professional mentorship.

Introducing Kimberley Woodhouse, bestselling author

With well over a million books sold, Kimberley Woodhouse is the bestselling author of more than forty-five books which have earned many accolades including Christian Retailing’s Top Pick, Booklist starred reviews, and multiple Publisher’s Weekly starred reviews. Winner of the Carol Award, the Holt Medallion, the Golden Scroll, the Christian Market Book Award, the Selah, and many others, she has also been honored as the finalist of the prestigious Christy Award.

A popular speaker, teacher, and freelance editor, she has shared with more than two million people at over 2,500 venues and edited for many bestselling authors. A lover of history, research, and the JOY of story, she often gets sucked into the fictional world and then her husband lures her out with chocolate and the promise of eighteen holes on the golf course.

Married to the love of her life for three-plus decades, she lives and writes in Colorado where she’s traded in her hat of “Craziest Mom” for “Nana the Great.”

Learn more about Kimberley on her website.

Kimberley hosts two critique calls per week for Author Conservatory students, where she provides personalized feedback and coaching on their fiction projects, from an outline to a story premise.

We are thrilled to welcome Kimberley to our Author Conservatory instructor team and excited to see how she shapes the next generation of authors! She will also be hosting regular office hours for students to ask live questions and receive even more professional mentorship.

Why Professional Instruction Matters at The Author Conservatory 

We follow a Conservatory-based approach, which means that our students learn by doing. An essential piece of this equation is having professional instruction. That means that our students get hands-on training from professionals who are actually successful in the writing and publishing market. 

Author Conservatory instructors mentor our students in the fundamentals of fiction writing, the professional publishing industry, and the entrepreneurship and career worlds. 

We employ a vast team of Author Conservatory fiction instructors, business coaching instructors, and experts-in-residence, ensuring that each Author Conservatory student receives well-rounded and diverse coaching and mentorship in craft and career.

If you’re interested in learning from the greats in writing and career, fill out an application to speak to our admissions team. We’ll help you find the next best steps for you, whether that is through Author Conservatory instruction or another better fit.