Spotlight on Biennial Keynote Speakers

Letters Luncheon: Lori B. Duff

Lori B. Duff is a two-time winner of the Georgia Independent Author of the Year award, a two-time winner of the Georgia Bar Association’s Annual Fiction Competition, and the winner of the Foreword Indies Gold Medal for humor.

A practicing attorney since 1994, Duff is a part-time municipal court judge and a past president of the Georgia Council of Municipal Court Judges. Also a past president of the National Society of Newspaper Columnists, she is currently the registrar for the Southeastern Writers Association. A proud Pen Woman, Duff is the treasurer for the Atlanta Branch.
The author of eight books, she writes the Fischer at Law series, which is published by She Writes Press and distributed by Simon and Schuster.

Duff will bring both her sharp wit and extraordinary business acumen to help Pen Women navigate tax laws, copyright information, and a number of other legal matters involved in promoting and selling their written work.

Art and Music Luncheon: Lyn Loewi

Lyn Loewi, the new NLAPW music chair, will present on the topic of “Where Does Creativity Come From?” Loewi serves as the director of music at Christ Church Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. She has been an organist and choir director for over 40 years.

Loewi said she feels at home in the church, with all its beauty and imperfections. She is particularly drawn to the work of expanding the canon of choral and organ music to include the marginalized. She aspires to see the sacred in every human being.

She has served as associate organist at St. John’s Church-Lafayette Square, interim director of music at St. John’s Cathedral in Denver, organist at St. Mary’s Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception and Minister of Music at First Presbyterian Church in Portland, Oregon, and organist at Webster Groves Presbyterian in St. Louis, Missouri.

Loewi previously taught at Lewis and Clark College, Portland State University, and the University of Minnesota. She performed recitals at Notre Dame in Paris, Japan, Sweden, and Germany. She has a bachelor’s degree in music from the University of Michigan, a master’s and doctoral degrees from Stanford University, and a Premier Prix à l’unanimité du jury from the French National Conservatory. Her doctoral dissertation was on women composers for the organ. She is president of the Women’s Sacred Music Project and serves on the IDEA Committee (Inclusivity, Diversity, Equity, and Accessibility) of the American Guild of Organists.