SPEAKERS

Valerie Luesse

 

Valerie Fraser Luesse is the author of five novels set in the South: Christy Award winner Missing Isaac (2018), Almost Home (2019), The Key to Everything (2020), Under the Bayou Moon (2021) which the Alabama Library Association’s award for Best Adult Fiction by an Alabama author in 2023, and Letters from My Sister (August 2023), all published by Revell Books. An award-winning magazine writer, Luesse is perhaps best known for her feature stories and essays in Southern Living, where she wrote major pieces on the Mississippi Delta, Acadian Louisiana, and the Outer Banks of North Carolina. She earned her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in English from Auburn University and Baylor University, respectively. She is a native of Harpersville, Alabama, and lives in Birmingham, where she creates Southern fiction from a tiny writing studio she calls the Story Shack.

Kristin Luna

 

Tennessee-based journalist Kristin Luna is a magazine veteran with 20 years of industry experience under her belt. She has authored more than a dozen guidebooks and contributed to countless publications like Travel + Leisure, Conde Nast Traveler, Afar, Newsweek, Food + Wine, Southern Living and Garden & Gun. As a byproduct of her love for traveling and storytelling, Kristin launched Camels & Chocolate, a collection of travel narratives, in 2007; a media production company, Odinn Media, in 2012; and a public art nonprofit, DMA-events, in 2018. She and her husband Scott create marketing assets for tourism and hospitality entities across the United States with a strong focus on helping rural towns and counties break through the noise. 

Matt Maxey

Matthew Maxey is the Senior Director of Public Relations at Visit Franklin, where he manages

traditional media relations, influencer relations and content creation. A frequent fixture at

tourism conferences across North America, Maxey serves on the national executive committee

for the Public Relations Society of America’s Travel & Tourism section and Destination

International’s Public Relations and Communications Committee.

Before his tenure at Visit Franklin, Maxey worked in college athletics and government. While

still in college, he successfully managed multiple campaigns for state and local offices and held

field staff roles for gubernatorial and congressional campaigns in Tennessee. He began his

professional career with the American Junior Golf Association before spending six years as a

sports information director at the University of Tennessee at Martin, his alma mater.

Following his time at UT Martin, Maxey became a freelance writer and photographer for Sports

& Entertainment Magazine in Nashville. He operated a public relations consulting business,

assisting non-profits, small businesses and political candidates seeking offices ranging from

local to Governor. In his spare time today, Maxey continues to freelance as a contributing

photographer for ICON Sportswire, covering college and professional sports events across the

Southeast.

Shan Stout