This page will be updated as more faculty members are
confirmed for the 2026 Pittsburgh Writing Workshop.
Chuck Sambuchino (@chucksambuchino) is a freelance editor, bestselling book author, and former longtime staffer for Writer’s Digest Books. For many years he edited the GUIDE TO LITERARY AGENTS and the CHILDREN’S WRITER’S & ILLUSTRATOR’S MARKET. His Guide to Literary Agents Blog was one of the largest blogs in publishing, and he wrote the platform guidebook CREATE YOUR WRITER PLATFORM.
He is the lead director of Writing Day Workshops writers conferences, and he has taught at more than 200 writers conferences throughout his career. He is the co-coordinator of the Pittsburgh Writing Workshop.
His humor book, HOW TO SURVIVE A GARDEN GNOME ATTACK, was optioned by Sony Pictures. Chuck’s books have been mentioned in Reader’s Digest, USA Today, the New York Times, The Huffington Post, Variety, New York Magazine, Buzzfeed, Mental Floss,New York magazine, and many more media outlets. All his latest books are about pickleball, including ULTIMATE PICKLEBALL, a 2026 tear-off desk calendar due out in August 2025 (Sellers Publishing). His picture book, GOODNIGHT, PICKLEBALL, released from Hachette in August 2025, was carried in Target, and hit the USA Today bestseller list.
He is a successful freelance editor of queries, synopses, and manuscripts—seeing dozens of clients get agents or book deals following his consultations/edits. He loves meeting new writers.
Jon Michael Darga is a literary agent with Aevitas Creative Management. At the event, Jon is teaching, and also meeting attendees for one-on-one in-person meetings.
Jon represents titles across a diverse range of genres, including memoir (most recently, the New York Times bestselling Vagabond by Tim Curry), pop culture (New York Times bestsellers How to Save a Life by Lynette Rice and Your Favorite Scary Movie by Ashley Cullins), platform-driven (New York Times bestseller How to Piss Off Men by Kyle Prue), and cookbook (Family Thai by Arnold Myint, named a Best Cookbook of 2025 by the New York Times, the Washington Post, and the Los Angeles Times), as well as select commercial fiction primarily in the romance, mystery/thriller, and horror spaces.
Darga graduated from the University of Michigan with Honors with a BA in English and Creative Writing, and later attended the Columbia University publishing program. Before coming to Aevitas, he was an editor at Crown, a division within Penguin Random House, where he worked on several bestsellers and award winners. He is the Co-Head of Aevitas Collaboration and was a Publishers Weekly Star Watch Honoree in 2025.
Brian A. Klems (@BrianKlems) is the former online editor of WritersDigest.com. He is the current co-director of Writing Day Workshops.
His blog during his tenure there, The Writer’s Dig—which covered everything writing and publishing—was one of the largest blogs in the writing community.
He is the co-coordinator of the 2026 Pittsburgh Writing Workshop.
Brian’s first book, Oh Boy, You’re Having a Girl: A Dad’s Guide to Raising Daughters (Adams Media) was released in 2013. It received high-level buzz and praise from some of the funniest writers alive, including Dave Barry and Bruce Cameron. Brian is also a proud graduate of the Ohio University E.W. Scripps School of Journalism, a husband, softball infielder, perennial fantasy sports underachiever, and father of three lovely girls.