Dirk Cussler, an MBA from Berkeley, Dirk worked for many years in the financial arena and now devotes himself full-time to writing. He is the coauthor with Clive Cussler of Odessa Sea, Havana Storm, Poseidon’s Arrow, Crescent Dawn, Artic Drift, Black Wind , Treasure of Khan and several other books. For the past several years, he has been an active participant and partner in his father’s NUMA expeditions and served as president of the NUMA advisory board of trustees. Dirk is the Adventure Writers Competition (AWC) Finalist judge.
Robert Fraser Devin‘s Jesuit training sought in vain to improve his Latin and English. Despite that, twenty years in the Navy and Fleet Marines did improve the quality and quantity of what he read from their traveling libraries. Eventually, the ‘Jesies’ lessons began to sprout attempts to write the stories that each writer is driven to write. With fame or without fame, with riches or without riches, the stories, still told. According to Robert, “I’ve yet to finish wallpapering my writing room with rejection letters.” A huge Cussler fan, Robert is also a Clive Cussler Collector’s Society member, screenwriter, and fan of all things adventurous! He has been a judge for the AWC for over a decade!
Eve Simpson is the 2018 AWC Grandmaster Award Finalist for The Emerald Tablet (now available on Amazon!). A long time Adventure Writers Competition judge, Eve is also the AWC Director of Submissions, managing all the entries, tracking of manuscripts, compiling scores and communicating with entrants! So be nice! And be thankful! Eve is an avid skier who travels the globe to find the best powder and après-ski conditions. A Canadian, she makes our judges panel international!
John Thomas Everett is a native Baltimorean, a businessman, a teacher, a family man, and author. He has published three lively historical novels and is working on the last of his turn-of-the-century Charm City Trilogy. Having worked for thirty years in the telecommunications industry, Mr. Everett has also taught business strategy in Loyola University Maryland’s Sellinger School of Business and Management. He is a graduate of Mount Saint Mary’s University and has degrees from both The Johns Hopkins University and Loyola. At present, he owns and operates Strategic Solutions Consulting, a Baltimore area firm specializing in assisting growing businesses. Mr. Everett’s first novel is Plug Ugly Ball, a tale of murder, mayhem and 1890’s baseball that reflects the author’s eyes-wide-open love for his home town and its teams, the Orioles and Ravens. Maseah Mountain is the author’s second work of fiction and moves readers out of the streets and into the wilds of Idaho in 1932. The novel has had the honor of being the 2016 AWC Grandmaster Award Winner. Mr. Everett ‘s third novel, No Slave To Reason, returns to Baltimore in the 1890’s and is a sprawling murder mystery set in the city’s old theater district. While Mr. Everett’s stories unfold in fascinating places, the strength of his writing lies in the ability to create unique, compelling characters who are both literary and lasting. Beyond writing, the author’s loves are his family, travel, golf, horse racing, fishing and Baltimore’s professional sports teams. He lives in Phoenix, Maryland, but is never too far away from the city. (www.baltimoretales.com)
Richard Nix (aka Marion MacKay): An avid street and dirt motorcyclist his entire adult life and highly decorated former law enforcement officer, Richard has lived many of the adventures he brings to the page. He worked as a Medi-Van driver in his hometown of Bakersfield, California before training in Administration of Justice. His work as the Production Security Coordinator for Artist Production Group in Bakersfield opened doors into executive protection and he joined the law enforcement community in 1985. Ambushed on duty in 1987, his control under fire and life saving actions towards the public earned him a Kern County Sheriff’s Office Commendation of Valor and a California Peace Officer Certificate of Valor. He has covered local and professional motorsports for several publications, worked as a Media Coordinator for NASCAR during the 50th Anniversary ramp up and worked as a construction manager on numerous city-block size commercial structures in Seattle, Washington where he makes his home. His first novel,The Treasure Hunted, earned him a Grand Master Finalist in the 2012 AWC competition. His second book in the series is coming soon. He still finds time to write between employment in the construction industry, the numerous group rides and rallies he attends, and has two completed children’s stories as the illustrator.
Ryan Pote: Ryan is a twelve-year veteran Navy helicopter pilot who led a special operations task force throughout Central and South America. He was medically separated after sustaining injuries during an emergency landing. He later worked as an investigator for JAG and the DoD. Before the Navy, Ryan was a scuba diving instructor in Hawai’i and technician for a microbiology lab conducting algae-biofuels research. He holds a master’s degree in history from Ashland University. Ryan still works for the DoD.
Ryan’s debut novel, Blood and Treasure, from his Ethan Cain series, will launch in spring 2026 from Penguin Random House! Congrats, Ryan!
He lives with his family in New England. Ryan was a Grandmaster Finalist in the 2022 Clive Cussler Adventure Writer’s Competition for his book “False Horizon.” We are honored to have him as an AWC judge! Find out more at his website: ryanpote.com
A.W. Baldwin has written several thrillers featuring “Relic,” a moon-shining hermit living deep in the remote canyons of Utah. Raptor Canyon, Wings Over Ghost Creek, and Broken Inn each received the Grand Master Adventure Writers’ Finalist Awards. That is a LOT of success for one person! His 2023 entry, The Antidote won the Grand Master AWC Award (can a botany student, a couple of old-timers, and genetically modified seeds provide the antidote for climate change?). A graduate of Wright State University and the University of Idaho School of Law, Baldwin has practiced law for more than 35 years. He began his career with a poverty law fellowship award on the Wind River Indian Reservation in Wyoming. He has appeared before the U.S. Supreme Court, Ninth and Tenth Circuit Courts of Appeal, and other Federal, Tribal, and State Courts. He won the right of the Northern Arapaho Tribe to operate (and self-regulate) the full gamut of casino-style gaming without state control. He has successfully litigated First Amendment religious liberties, voting rights, Tribal sovereignty, and for environmental justice. He earned his private pilot’s license in 1997 and enjoys flying a Cessna 172. https://awbaldwinauthor.com/the-author/
CE Albanese is a former US Secret Service special agent with over twenty years of law enforcement experience. During assignments in the Newark, NJ, and New York City Field offices, he investigated complex financial crimes and conducted protective advances for some of the world’s most influential leaders. In 2011, he transferred to Washington DC to serve on then Vice President Joe Biden’s protective detail. CE is a board member of the Virginia Writers Club and the co-creator and co-host of The Crew Reviews podcast, where he interviews the world’s greatest storytellers. His novel, Drone Kings, was the 2021 Grandmaster winner of the Clive Cussler Adventure Writers Competition. A graduate of Rutgers University, CE Albanese lives in Northern Virginia with his wife, a special agent for the US Secret Service, and their two children. You can learn more about CE by visiting www.cealbanese.com
Jeff Edwards is a retired U.S. Navy Chief Petty Officer, and an Anti-Submarine Warfare Specialist. His naval career spanned more than two decades and half the globe – from chasing Soviet nuclear attack submarines during the Cold War, to launching cruise missiles in the Persian Gulf. Collectively, his novels have won the Admiral Nimitz Award for Outstanding Naval Fiction, the Reader’s Choice Award, the 2008 AWC Grandmaster Award, the Military Writers Society of America’s Gold Medal for Navy Fiction, and the American Author Medal. He lives in California, where he consults for the Department of Defense. His first novel, Torpedo, (re-released as Sea of Shadows) has been optioned by film producer Paul L. Sandberg (The Bourne Supremacy, and The Bourne Ultimatum). His most recent naval thriller, Sword of Shiva, was recently selected for the Independent Publishers of America Silver Medal for Military/Wartime Fiction. Check out more of Jeff’s work at www.navythriller.com
Domenick Venezia: A nearly lifelong resident of soggy Washington State and a late bloomer, Domenick has led a variegated life. From fast-food service, cherry picking in the orchards of Eastern Washington, residential demolition, ranch hand, book buyer, framing carpentry, and college graduate. More carpentry and more college led to software development and serving over two decades as Vice President Information Technology in the rough and tumble science and politics of the Seattle bio-pharmaceutical industry. Dom is an AWC Master Judge! Along the way he became a fisherman, scuba diver, beekeeper, home brewer, competitive shooter, pilot, plane owner, coffee roaster, and kayak angler. Now writing and consulting, he can often be found piloting his very small plane about the Great Pacific Northwest and beyond, salmon fishing the waters of Puget Sound from a yellow Tupperware kayak, home brewing, and roasting coffee. He enjoys top shelf bourbon, a fine cuppa, fruity IPAs, and an occasional cigar.
James Marshall Smith: Born and raised in the heart of Appalachia -West Virginia – Jim now lives in Sarasota, Florida, with his wife June. Jim, an award- winning author and scientist, has had a professional career that has taken him around the globe, providing source material for intriguing characters and alluring insight to his fiction. He has served on faculty appointments at the University of Utah School of Medicine and Emory University, and for twenty years as a researcher at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. His first novel, Silent Source, is a 2015 AWC Grandmaster Award Finalist and has been published by Stealth Books (an AWC Sponsor). His later novel–Hybrid, another action-adventure thriller—was a short-list finalist in the annual William Faulkner-Wisdom Creative Writing contest and was published by Braveship Books (also an AWC Sponsor). Jim’s fiction writing skills were honed in creative writing workshop at the University of Iowa and Oxford. In addition to writing fiction, he is a consulting physicist who has served in numerous advisory capacities internationally, including the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy and the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna. Check out his website: www.JamesMarshallSmith.com
John Vinson and Debra Harp-Vinson were high school prom dates and then went on to live separate, but remarkably parallel, lives. In 2012 they reconnected and eventually merged their furniture after a simple family wedding officiated by Deb’s brother in 2014. They now live in the “hundred-acre woods” in rural Southeast Ohio. John’s career spanned nearly 40 years in the areas of human resources, compensation, benefits, EHS and training in the manufacturing, sales and marketing sectors, as well as in municipal government. At present, he is mostly retired, keeping his hand in with substitute teaching in the local school system. Deb’s career in public service spanned over 30 years, working with the Florida State Attorney’s Office, Cambridge Prosecuting Attorney, and eventually with the State of Ohio Auditor’s Office, where she developed IED (Incurable Editing Disease) as a result of scanning “millions” of boring audit reports. She is also mostly retired. Deb and John are both active volunteers in local organizations, including the Noble County Food Pantry, the Guernsey County Food Pantry and The Friends of the Guernsey County Library. Both are avid fans of Clive Cussler and his coauthors – Deb is the reader and the editor, while John is the collector – a match made in Heaven. In addition, they are both involved in The Clive Cussler Collectors’ Society. They are honored and humbled to be able to judge in this auspicious competition.
Caleb Benadum is an author, lawyer and Ohioan living in Switzerland with his beautiful wife. He draws inspiration from his expat life—from growing up in Cambodia to living in Botswana, South Africa, Switzerland and The Netherlands—for his novels, archaeological adventures focusing on lesser-known histories around the world. While avoiding art thieves and shoot-outs, he enjoys traveling and adventure, learning other languages, and working on other books that his wife promises she’ll read. His first book, The Koh Ker Conspiracy (previously titled Kidnapped at Koh Ker), was a finalist in The Adventure Writers Competition 2021, and tells the story of three friends caught up in a deadly plot in Cambodia to steal a priceless statue. The book was also a finalist in the action/adventure category for the Killer Nashville Claymore Award in 2022. When not writing, Caleb works in international refugee and human rights law and reads voraciously. For more information on his books, check out his website at https://calebandrew.mystrikingly.com/
Peter Greene is the recipient of the 2012 AWC Grandmaster Award for Warship Poseidon, the first book of The Adventures of Jonathan Moore series. Book 2, Castle of Fire, was a finalist in the Independent Author Network Competition’s Action Adventure category. Warship Poseidon was also a finalist in three categories. Book three, Paladin’s War, won the Goethe Book grand prize award presented by Chanticleer Book Reviews. The Jonathan Moore Series also won the inaugural Dante Rosetti Fiction Series award. His Sci-fi novel. Light of Ganymede has been a finalist in the Chanticleer Cygnus Awards, named an Indie Best Book by Shelf Unbound, and a Book Excellence Award Finalist for Science Fiction. Peter earned a BA in Theatre Education from Illinois State University and was an Illinois Art Council grantee for play writing. He is currently the Adventure Writer’s Competition Director and a Blue Whisky Film Festival Judge. “In 2012 I was honored to be the winner of the Adventure Writer’s Competition and fortunate to meet Clive and Dirk Cussler. When Clive told me he had read my book cover-to-cover, then said “Beautifully written” – I almost fainted.” Now retired from the business world, Peter lives in Arizona with his wife and two children, and an Airedale Terrier. He is the lead singer (if one could call that sound singing) in the rock band Parthenia Apartment. Find out more at www.petergreeneauthor.com