2024 Saturday 'Visiter' Awards

Mark Dawidziak is the author or editor of 25 books, including three studies of landmark television series: The Columbo Phile: A Casebook, The Night Stalker Companion and Everything I Need to Know I Learned in the The Twilight Zone, his lighthearted 2017 tribute to Rod Serling’s classic anthology series. He also is an internationally recognized Mark Twain scholar, and five of his books are about the iconic American writer. His most recent book is the Edgar-nominated biography A Mystery of Mysteries: The Death and Life of Edgar Allan Poe. He also is the author of the 1994 horror novel Grave Secrets, as well as such non-fiction books as The Barter Theatre Story: Love Made Visible, The Bedside, Bathtub and Armchair Companion to Dracula and The Shawshank Redemption Revealed: How One Story Keeps Hope Alive, a 2019 deep-dive look at the beloved film based on a novella by Stephen King. He is the editor of three volumes of works by celebrated Twilight Zone contributor Richard Matheson, who mentioned Dawidziak in the dedications to two of his books. His work on the spooky side of the street also includes short stories, novellas, and comic book scripts.

Born in New York, Dawidziak spent 43 years as a television, film and theater critic at such newspapers as the Akron Beacon Journal and the Cleveland Plain Dealer. In 2002, Dawidziak and his wife, actress Sara Showman, founded the Largely Literary Theater Company, dedicated to promoting literature, literacy and live theater. Their repertoire includes works by Mark Twain and Edgar Allan Poe. In 2015, he was inducted into the Press Club of Cleveland Journalism Hall of Fame.

Roger McCormack, the education coordinator at The Bronx County Historical Society, is pleased

to be a SVA judge!

The Bronx County Historical Society’s education coordinator is in charge of tours of The

Edgar Allan Poe Cottage in Fordham, the oldest Poe Museum, first opened in 1913. The cottage was built in 1812, and is a New York City and State landmark listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The historic house museum is famous as the final home of the writer. Mr. McCormack is excited to infuse his passion for Poe and the Bronx as an SVA Judge!

Lu Ann Marshall, a life-long fan of all things Edgar Allan Poe since she was introduced to him in the sixth grade, has been giving tours of Westminster Cemetery & Catacombs for over 40 years.  When she is not sharing her love of Poe and Westminster, she has been employed for over 50 years by the University of Maryland School of Law, most recently as Special Events Coordinator for the Events Department.  

A Baltimore native, she is a University of Maryland University College alum. In her spare time, she enjoys reading, playing cards, going to the movies, and spending time with family and friends.

Basil Considine is an award-winning opera director, educator, & composer. As the Artistic Director of Really Spicy Opera since 2005, he has curated more than two dozen world premieres of music-theatre works & a host of award-winning productions. He has also authored a dozen plays, musicals, and operas, as well as hundreds of works in music and theatre criticism. He was named one of Minnesota's premiere theatre critics and a pre-eminent expert in new opera criticism, and is a highly sought-after competition judge. His opera Meow and Forever (2023, co-written with Jodi Goble) was staged by the San Francisco Conservatory of Music in 2024. His play The Abortion Bomb (2012) has been taught at six universities as an exemplar of social commentary and challenging subjects in the performing arts.

Basil serves a founder & co-director of the Aria Institute for Composers and Librettists, a celebrated program for training new opera writers. He has served on the faculties & staff of Azusa Pacific University, Boston University, the University of Antananarivo, The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, and Walden University, and is currently on the faculty of Abilene Christian University. As the 2021-2022 U.S. Fulbright Scholar to Madagascar, he represented the United States as a judge in more than 3 dozen regional & national competitions.

 Aditya Desai is a writer, editor, teacher, and literary programmer. He is currently Literature Programs Officer with Maryland Humanities and has worked with several organizations in the region using art towards racial equity including the CityLit Project, Baltimore Youth Arts, and the Asian Pasifika Arts Collective. He also serves as Associate Editor for the South Asian Avant-Garde, and has served on the mastheads of Guernica, Hyphen Magazine, and Atticus Review. His stories and essays appear in Tropics of Meta, Taco Bell Quarterly, Barrelhouse Magazine, The Rumpus, The Millions, and other publications. You can find more of his writing at adityadesaiwriter.com.