Keynote Author
Alka Joshi
Alka Joshi is the internationally bestselling author of the Jaipur Trilogy: The Henna Artist, The Secret Keeper of Jaipur and The Perfumist of Paris. Her debut novel, The Henna Artist, immediately became a New York Times bestseller and a Reese Witherspoon Pick. It has been translated into 29 languages and is currently in development at Netflix as a tv series. Joshi was born in India and came to the U.S. with her family at the age of nine. She has a BA from Stanford University and an MFA from California College of Arts. She is available for speaking engagements and group writing instruction.
with special guest appearance by
Mychal Threets
Meet Mychal Threets, the Instagram and TikTok hero of librarians from Solano County Library in Fairfield! His posts share stories of library friends and reiterate the many ways the library serves the community and welcomes everyone. On behalf of all our library heroes, we want to celebrate the encouraging impact of his videos in the face of the historic rise in book bans across the country.
Adult Fiction Authors
Chris Mancini
Chris Mancini is a writer, comedian, filmmaker, podcaster and parent. He has written on everything from soap operas to parenting books to comics to horror films, which are all more closely related than you think. His published works include Pacify Me: A Handbook for the Freaked Out New Dad from Simon and Schuster, The Comedy Film Nerds Guide to Movies from Morgan James, and the fantasy/comedy graphic novels Long Ago and Far Away and Rise of the Kung Fu Dragon Master.
Colleen Richter Gonzales
My editor, Susan Adamson, and I have been friends since elementary school. We were raised in the San Fernando Valley in Southern California. As adults, we live in separate states. Over the years fortunately our friendship has flourished. We visit Tiburon in the bay area often. We enjoyed putting this "crypto" educational story together. The storyline is mysterious, and it has a democratic point of view, politically. We are both in our "Golden Years" and we realized most Americans in general are not very savvy with Cryptocurrency, thus we came up with this intriguing story, which is also educational.
Connie Chu
Connie Cyndi Chu, a native San Franciscan, is an empowered female, Asian American author with a disability. She has self-published 20 books herself ranging from poetry, women’s empowerment, to science fiction. Connie was an editor of her high school literary magazine, Legacy, during her junior and senior year. She then went onto Skyline College, where she was also was one of the editors of its literary magazine, Talisman for a couple of semesters. In the summer of 2013, she self-published her first two books through CreateSpace. Later on, when Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) bought the rights, she made the switch over. Since high school, she had been writing poetry, but in college, she started writing short stories. Reading Ray Bradbury’s Chronicle of Martians inspired her to write science fiction.
Crissi Langwell
Crissi Langwell is the author of 14 published books, with genres that include romance, young adult, and women’s fiction. Her latest novel is Naked Coffee Guy, the second book in her Sunset Bay romance series. Crissi is the vice president and web editor of the Redwood Writers chapter of the California Writers Club, and she is the Communications Director for Oakmont Village Association. She lives in Petaluma, California with her fellow writerly husband and a spoiled Maine Coon cat.
Erika Mailman
Erika Mailman is a travel writer and freelancer for publications including Wall Street Journal, Condé Nast Traveler, Fodor’s, Washington Post, Smithsonian, Thrillist, Rolling Stone, Atlas Obscura, Lit Hub, and more. She’s a historical novelist (Random House) under her real name and a Y.A. author under pen name Lynn Carthage. She has been a newspaper EIC and has a useless but beloved MFA in poetry.
Frances Rivetti
Frances Rivetti is a British American journalist and award winning author. She has published two non-fiction books and two novels and is working on a third contemporary novel, set along the Sonoma Coast not far from where she lives and works in the San Francisco North Bay. Her debit novel Big Green Country won an IPPY award gold medal in regional fiction in 2019.
James Sweeney
James Sweeney has found the story of the Black Caribs of St. Vincent Island fascinating. He has visited their home island in the Caribbean and spent the last couple of decades researching and writing about this unique ethnic group, part-Carib Indian and part-African, the last indigenous Caribbean islanders to resist imperialism. His debut historical novel, Chatoyer: Freedom's War Chief, recounts the long career of Joseph Chatoyer, leader of the Black Caribs or Garifuna, He used both diplomacy and warfare to try to maintain Carib sovereignty in the face of British efforts to expel them and replace their jungle homeland with sugar plantations worked by African slaves during the last half of the 18th centuries. Jim's novel attempts to closely follow the history of the time and fill in gaps using imagination. This novel was completed as the capstone project for Stanford's Online Writing Certificate. Jim received his MFA in fiction from the University of California, Riverside.
JJ Elliott
JJ ELLIOTT is a professional copywriter with a degree in English from UCLA. She lost her mother to suicide as a teenager, and spent over two years in her 20’s manning the suicide hotlines in LA. One of the reasons she wanted to write this book is because she finds herself increasingly frustrated by the way suicide is treated in print and on-screen, as a mystery to be solved instead of a multi-layered, complex condition that can rarely be boiled down to one specific “reason.”
A native of Northern California, she now lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with her husband and two teenage children. There Are No Rules for This is her first novel.
Jordan Rosenfeld
Jordan Rosenfeld is author of the forthcoming novel Fallout (Running Wild Press), as well as the novels of the novels Women in Red and Forged in Grace and six books on the craft of writing, most recently How to Write a Page-Turner, the bestselling Make a Scene, Writing the Intimate Character, A Writer’s Guide to Persistence, Writing Deep Scenes and Write Free. Her freelance articles and essays have been published in hundreds of publications, including: The Atlantic, The New York Times, Scientific American, Writer’s Digest Magazine, The Washington Post and many more. She is also a freelance manuscript editor, writing coach and teaches online classes. Jordanrosenfeld.net and jordanwritelife@gmail.com
Julia Vee
Julia is a trial lawyer in Silicon Valley. She attended U.C Berkeley and majored in Asian Studies. She often writes with co-author Ken Bebelle. Their novel Ebony Gate, an Asian-inspired urban fantasy, was published by TOR in July 2023. Blood Jade will release in July of 2024. Ebony Gate was a 2023 Golden Poppy Finalist for the Octavia E. Butler award.
June Patrick
June Patrick writes witty, escapist romance set in swoony far away places. While her books definitely sizzle with chemistry and all the feels, she keeps the bedroom doors closed. She is obsessed with all things European and dreams of moving to the Riviera where she can run around all day like Grace Kelly. In the meantime, she currently lives in Colorado with her husband and daughter, where she begrudgingly battles snow. You can find her at junepatrick.com or connect on Instagram and TikTik: @junepatrickauthor.
Leslie Kirk Campbell
Leslie Kirk Campbell’s debut short story collection, The Man with Eight Pairs of Legs (Sarabande) won the 2020 Mary McCarthy Prize for Short Fiction, is a 2022 Women’s National Book Association Great Group Reads Selection, a finalist for American Book Fest's 2022 Best Book Awards for Short Story, and a 2022 Foreword INDIES finalist in short fiction. She is the author of Journey into Motherhood: Writing Your Way to Self-Discovery (Riverhead) and has published feature personal essays in San Francisco Chronicle Magazine. She teaches at Ripe Fruit Writing, a creative writing program she founded in San Francisco in 1991.
Michaila Oberhoffer
Hi there!
My name is Michaila Oberhoffer. I am a Bay Area born and raised author and my debut novel, The Root Of John's Happiness just came out last November! My novel is in the science fiction dystopian genre and takes place in a dystopian depicted San Francisco where questioning has been deemed harmful. With philosophical pulls, humor, and connection to our wonderful city, It is quite an honor to join your list of Authors at your SFWC Wine & Book Tasting. You can find my novel online at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and a varied list of local bookstores which I have listed on my website and will bring with me to support local!
Monica Elizabeth Bauer
Monica Elizabeth Bauer is an award-winning playwright and novelist whose plays have been performed off-Broadway, regionally, and in the UK. Her plays are published by Original Works, Brooklyn, and Heuer. In fiction, she's won first place for a new novel from the Arizona Author's Association, and her short story, "Dead Birds", was nominated for a Pushcart Prize. A graduate of Brown and Yale, she also holds an MA in Creative Writing from Boston University. Publisher's Weekly called her debut novel, "The Book of Brad," "A sharp, funny story of DNA surprises." Reach her at monicabauer.com.
Nancy Econome
Nancy Econome created a fictional world that honors the past but reflects current events in The Classic Grill – A Tale of Greek Gods and Immigrant Heroes. A Greek-American, Nancy worked as Creative Services Director for premium California wineries. She holds a master’s degree in Cinema from San Francisco State and a BA in English from the UC Davis. Nancy worked as a reporter, wrote several screenplays and found time to ride her bike across the continental United States. Living in northern California wine country, Nancy can be found at a local Panera Bread restaurant, writing her next novel.
Samantha Rajaram
Samantha Rajaram is the author of THE COMPANY DAUGHTERS, a finalist for the Bisexual Book Awards and a winner of the 2021 Golden Crown Literary Award for Debut fiction. She lives in the California Bay Area with her three children.
Suhail Rafidi
Suhail Rafidi is a novelist and educator whose works explore the destiny of human values in a technological landscape.
Adult Nonfiction Authors
Anne E. Belden and Paul Gullixson
Anne Belden runs the journalism program at Santa Rosa Junior College. Before teaching, she spent 18 years as an award-winning journalist on the San Francisco Peninsula. Anne holds a bachelor’s degree in mass communication from UCLA and a master’s degree in media studies from Stanford University.
Paul Gullixson has more than 35 years of experience working for West Coast newspapers, including The Press Democrat and the San Francisco Chronicle. As columnist and editorial writer, he played a key role in The Press Democrat’s 2018 Pulitzer Prize for coverage of the October 2017 fires. Paul serves as Communications Manager for the County of Sonoma.
Eric Maisel
Author of 50+ books, among them Redesign Your Mind, Fearless Creating, Coaching the Artist Within, The Van Gogh Blues, and Why Smart People Hurt
Jodi Klein
Jodi Klein knows what it’s like to date longer and later in life. A demanding career and desire to find her “Mr. Yes” led to her becoming an alumna of nearly 400 dates over 26 years. She authored "First Date Stories: Women’s Romantic and Ridiculous Midlife Adventures," (She Writes Press) so that women everywhere could enjoy relatable funny, romantic and cringe-worthy tales that inspire the belief that dating is worth it in middle age and beyond. She is an entrepreneur, a marketing executive and real estate broker. Jodi and her husband live in San Francisco.
Joey Garcia
Joey Garcia answered more than 50,000 questions during her 24 years as the relationship advice columnist for the Sacramento News & Review. She was also the on-air Relationship Expert for KTXL-TV for eight years and has been a featured relationship expert in the media from LA to Stockholm, Sweden. Joey is the author of, When Your Heart Breaks, It's Opening to Love: Healing and finding love after an affair, heartbreak, or divorce. An editor and author coach, Joey offers retreats in her native Belize for writers from all over the world. Connect with her at joeygarcia.com.
Karlee Vincent
Karlee’s passion for empowering nursing moms in the workplace is the inspiration behind her book "Pump or Bust: A New Mama’s Guide to Office Politics, Breast Health, and Pumping on the Road!" Her essays have appeared in Scary Mommy, Tiny Beans and TODAY's Parenting Team. She is a member of the Board of Directors for the California Breastfeeding Coalition. Karlee has also been a featured expert for articles published on WSJ, CNN, Ms. Magazine and has appeared on the Tamron Hall Show. Karlee, her husband, and their two school-aged daughters, live near San Francisco.
Kate Farrell
Kate Farrell founded the Word Weaving Storytelling Project and published numerous educational materials on storytelling. She has contributed to and edited award-winning anthologies of personal narrative. Kate's award winning new book, is a timely, how-to guide on the art of storytelling for adults, Story Power: Secrets to Creating, Crafting, and Telling Memorable Stories. Kate offers workshops on storytelling and the heroine’s journey for groups in-person and online through her new company, Woven: Telling the Heroine’s Journey: https://woventales.net/
Maureen Buick
Maureen Buick is the author of Finding Bomb Boogie: A Daughter’s Search to Rediscover her Father—the World War II Bomber Boy, Prisoner of War & American Veteran.
Maureen Buick became a World War II history buff after she retired from a nursing career and had the opportunity to research her father’s war story. Maureen lives with her husband in San Francisco. They have two grown children and two grandsons, for whom Maureen buys model airplanes—mostly B-17s—every chance she gets. This is her first book. She is working on a second book about World War II prisoners of war.
Paul E. Zeidman
Paul Zeidman is an award-winning screenwriter based in San Francisco. He published the GO AHEAD & ASK series of screenwriting books, co-hosts the Creative Writing Life podcast, and has been running the screenwriting blog Maximum Z since 2009.
Shawn Langwell
Shawn Langwell is the Immediate Past President of The California Writers Club (CWC), Redwood Writers, past president of Toastmasters of Petaluma, an inspirational author, speaker, confidence coach, business consultant, and marketing expert. He is the author of four books: Beyond Recovery, Ten Seconds of Boldness and the eponymous companion workbook, and Today’s the Day. He is also the host of Dare to Be Great, Dare to Be You Podcast.
Shawn's personal mission is to love and inspire to believe in themselves. He walks the talk and, if you ever struggle with self-doubt, is someone you may want to follow.
Learn more at www.shawnlangwell.com.
Memoir Authors
Annette Zoheret
Annette Zoheret is a non fiction and children's author, inspirational speaker, and musician. Her presentations and books are full of humor and heart, leaving her audience and readers with both tears of laughter and emotion. She has a knack of sharing her life's ups and downs with genuine feeling and wit.
D.Z. (Dizzy) Adams is Annette's pen name for fiction, sci-fi, and young adult genres. With a background in computer science, Annette is meticulous in her research and provides readers with a realistic and enjoyable experience. Her books are filled with compelling characters, heart stopping action, emotional roller coasters, and all the elements that make Annette's books into memorable page turners.
Annette lives in Ontario, Canada with her husband Neil and a variety of furry family members.
Carole Bumpus
Carole Bumpus' historical novel, A Cup of Redemption (2014) is based on the life of a French woman who became a refugee in her own country during World War II. Her novel was followed with two culinary memoirs about the people of France, unveiling the strengths of family during wartime. Recipes for Redemption: A Companion Cookbook to A Cup of Redemption (2015). Searching for Family and Traditions at the French Table, Books One (2019) and Two, (2020). A separate jaunt to Italy gives us, A September to Remember: Searching for Culinary Pleasures at the Italian Table (2021).
Christine Warren
Christy Warren is a retired fire captain from the Berkeley Fire Department. She has twenty-five years of service as a professional firefighter/paramedic. After being diagnosed with PTSD in 2014, she had to retire from the fire service; since then, she has become a triathlete, completed the Escape from Alcatraz swim six times, and wrote the book, Flash Point: A Firefighter’s Journey Through PTSD. She is a volunteer Lead Peer at the West Coast Post-trauma Retreat and hosts the podcast, The Firefighter Deconstructed. She lives in Pleasant Hill, CA with her wife, Lisa, and dog, Harriet.
Delicia Niami
Subjected to severe trauma from a very young age, Delicia has always strived to find the light through the darkness. At four-years-old, Delicia along with her seven-year-old brother, were kidnapped and taken to a country far, far from home. This was the first of many challenges Delicia would be faced with in her lifetime.
Born and cultivated in California, Delicia is proud to call California her native home.
Raised by a single, special education teacher in very low-middle class neighborhoods in the San Fernando Valley, Delicia’s struggles as a child amplified. Through it all she still managed to find the light within the darkness.
Delicia shares deeply and vulnerably in this first memoir in her ResilientAF series. Delicia's Motto; We are all ResilientAF and “If I can help one person through my writing, it will make everything I endured throughout my life including the process of writing my first memoir worth it.”
Josh Fernandez
Josh Fernandez is an antiracist organizer, a father, a runner, a fighter, an English professor, a writer, and a journalist, whose stories have appeared in Spin Magazine, the Sacramento Bee, the Hard Times, and several alternative newsweeklies, where he worked as an arts and culture editor for more than a decade. His memoir, The Hands That Crafted the Bomb: The Making of a Lifelong Antifascist, is now out on PM Press. He lives in Sacramento, CA.
Isidra Mencois
Isidra Mencos is the author of Promenade of Desire—A Barcelona Memoir. She holds a PhD in Spanish and Latin American Contemporary Literature from the University of California, Berkeley, where she taught Spanish language, literature, and creative writing. Her essays and articles have been published in Diálogo, WIRED, Chicago Quarterly Review, Front Porch Journal, The Penmen Review, and Stirring Literary Journal, among others. Her essay, “My Books and I,” was listed as Notable in The Best American Essays 2019. Originally from Spain, Isidra lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Janet Silver Ghent
A native New Yorker, Janet Silver Ghent earned two degrees in English—a bachelor’s cum laude from Oberlin and a master’s from the University of Michigan—making her doubly unemployable. Moving to the Bay Area, she finally landed jobs in journalism, as a fashion and features writer, and earned local and national awards. Now semi-retired, she is a columnist for J. The Jewish News of Northern California and the author of the forthcoming "Love Atop a Keyboard: A Memoir of Late-Life Love" (Mascot Books). She and husband Allen Podell sing in three choirs and travel worldwide. A self-described haphazard gourmet, she makes her own bone broth, grows her own herbs, and makes a mean pesto.
Joan Gelfand
Joan’s book for writers, “You Can Be a Winning Writer: The 4 C’s of Author Success,” is an Amazon #1 best seller. Award winning author of three volumes of poetry and a chapbook of short fiction, Joan’s debut novel “Extreme,” set in a Silicon Valley startup, was published by Blue Light Press in 2020 and was a Finalist in the International Book Awards.
Joan’s debut memoir, “Outside Voices: A Memoir of the Berkeley Revolution,” is published by Post Hill Press. Publisher’s Weekly wrote: “This stirring account from the front lines of the feminist movement enchants.”
President Emeritus of the Women’s National Book Association, Joan is a member of the National Book Critics Circle, a juror for the Northern California Book Awards and has taught for California Poets in the Schools, Poetry Out Loud and The Writing Salon.
Kristen Caven
Kristen Caven’s latest book, The Winning Family: Where No One Has to Lose, gives parents who are struggling with bad behavior and low self-esteem a confidence-building framework that builds family bonds of love so strong their great-grandkids will feel it.
Her novella, The Vesuvian Affair (pen name Cosima Zanardi) is an explosive under-the-covers erotic geomancy for mature, well-adjusted adults.
An awarded poet and playwright, Kristen is a leader in the California Writers Club and currently the Writer in Residence at Joaquin Miller Park in Oakland. She is an engaging speaker around creativity, flourishing, green driving, and human rights for kids.
Linda Joy Myers
Linda Joy was deliciously haunted by the power of the past to affect people in the stream of time and combines her passion for history and the understanding of intergenerational trauma into her work as a writer. The power of the truth to educate current generations about the past led her to explore the little-known history of WWII and the fall of France. The author of two memoirs, Don’t Call Me Mother and Song of the Plains, and four books on memoir writing, Linda Joy founded the National Association of Memoir Writers and teaches memoir writing with Brooke Warner. http://lindajoymyersauthor.com.
Lucinda Jackson
Lucinda Jackson, scientist and business executive, spent almost fifty years at three universities and four Fortune 500 companies before moving on to her Next Act. She experienced the unequal treatment of women in the working world that spurred her to write Just a Girl: Growing Up Female and Ambitious. Now, her story continues in Project Escape: Lessons for an Unscripted Life about how to have a remarkable Next Act.
Nori Jabba
Nori Jabba grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area and has had a career spanning over 30 years in corporate real estate and community development. She is also passionate about mentoring women and is a professional speaker on ageism in the workplace. Nori shares her journey and how to combat ageism in her memoir and guide, KEEPING YOUR SEAT AT THE TABLE. She is also the author of HappyNess, the Story of a Rescued Doberman Named Nessa. You can reach Nori at norijabba.com.
Nove Meyers
Nove Meyers is “writing in retirement” and published his first book, Running Away From the Circus in 2021. This a coming-of-age memoir, subtitled Confessions of a Carnie Kid who tried to be a priest, is set in the San Francisco Bay Area during those turbulent times known as the Nineteen Sixties. The memoir was awarded the grand prize in the writing contest at the 2020 San Francisco Writers Conference.
Nove is now completing an historical novel set in the SF Bay Area and the Texas Hill Country during the 1940’s. He is planning a second memoir and has another novel in mind. Nove and his wife Barbara divide their time between Tucson, Arizona and the Oregon Coast but he traces his roots to right here in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Suzanne Maggio
Suzanne Maggio writes about ordinary people who find deep and unexpected connections with others and within themselves. On her podcast, from Sparks to LIGHT, she shares inspiring stories of people who are making a difference. Suzanne’s memoir, Estrellas, is the unflinching story of her walk along El Camino de Santiago de Compostela. The Cardinal Club, also a memoir, is a rollercoaster of joy and heartache as she and her siblings manage their mother’s slide into Alzheimer’s disease. The Cardinal Club was a finalist in the 2021 Next Generation Indie Book Awards and the 2020 Independent Author Network Book of the Year Awards. Estrellas was a finalist in the 2022 Next Generation Indie Book Awards.
Yuliya Patsay
Yuliya Patsay is a Soviet-born, San Francisco-raised, teller of stories- most of which are at least half true.
She loves rolling fog, dim sum and a captive, ahem: receptive audience. She lives in the culinarily diverse neighborhood of ‘Little Russia’ with her husband, two kids, and enough mishpuha close by to keep her wildly entertained!
This is her first book, though hopefully not her last. You can find her at yuliyapatsay.com or anywhere she can grab hold of an unattended microphone.
Teen/Young Adult Authors
B. Lynn Goodwin
B. Lynn Goodwin wrote two award-winning books, a YA called Talent, and a memoir titled Never Too Late: From Wannabe to Wife at 62. Her newest book, Disrupted, came out on January 25th. She’s written over a hundred author interviews, and even more book reviews and articles for WriterAdvice, www.writeradvice.com, and for Story Circle Network, where she also teaches, plus many other sites. She is on the boards of Story Circle Network and the Women’s National Book Association—NorCal and is a writing contest judge. She edits every genre except poetry, and loves helping writers polish their skills.
Jill Jenkins
Jill Jenkins started writing on an ancient Underwood manual typewriter—that she still misses. That machine witnessed the birth of one play, reams of bad poetry, and the false start of at least four novels. Years later, and blissfully upgraded to a MacBook Pro, Jill started working on "The Goddess & The Bee" after she visited Greece in the summer of 2019. A lifelong mythology nerd, Jill loves writing fantasy fiction that allows her to indulge her love of myths, monsters, magic, and mouthy chicks with swords.
Jill lives in Northern California with her family, her dog, and her growing collection of shiny rocks.
Mark R. Clifford
Mark R. Clifford is a proud fourth-generation San Franciscan. He is the second-born in an Irish Catholic family of seven, making him a self-declared expert in the pseudoscience of birth order characteristics. Mark served in the Marine infantry for ten years and as a Police Officer for over a quarter-century. His debut novel, TYPHOON COAST, is a work of his post-traumatic growth.
In the Marines, Mark rose to the rank of Staff Sergeant. He received Special Operations training while in Okinawa and was operating in the Philippines in 1991 during the historic eruption of Mount Pinatubo.
His law enforcement career was equally eclectic. He rose to the sergeant’s rank and served in many assignments to include SWAT and undercover narcotics.
Mark and his wife have been married for almost thirty years and have raised three beautiful children. He has written for the San Jose Mercury, Contra Costa Times, Military Experience & The Arts magazine, and San Leandro Times.
Meg Kramer
Meg Kramer is an expert at writing in odd places. She penned her debut novel, Amoura Awakened, in the lobbies of her daughter’s many after-school activities and in her car outside her local bookshop.
Meg spent ten years working as an elementary educator, inspiring kids to view themselves as writers. One day, she decided to take her own advice and wrote her book. Meg is a mother, an LGBTQIA+ ally, and an indie music enthusiast. When she’s not writing or “momming,” you can find Meg wandering the streets of San Francisco, hunting for magic in the cobwebs of the city’s oldest Victorians.
Melissa Geissinger
Melissa Geissinger is descended from survivors of the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and is herself a wildfire survivor. A neurodivergent optimist, Melissa is predisposed to following her dreams as well as every shiny side quest along the way. She lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with her partner, her six-year-old heart warrior son, and a menagerie of fur kids. She enjoys the outdoors, soaking up knowledge, and connecting with other passionate creators. Nothing Left But Dust is her first novel. You can follow her writing at melissageissinger.com or on Instagram @melissageissinger
Michael J Cooper
Michael Cooper writes historical mysteries set in the Middle East at major turning points of history. Foxes in the Vineyard, set in 1948 Jerusalem, won the 2011 Indie Publishing Contest Grand Prize at the SF Writers Conference. Wages of Empire, set at the start of WW1, won the CIBA 2022 Rossetti Grand Prize for young adult fiction and the Hemingway first prize for wartime historical fiction.
Cooper emigrated to Israel in 1966, lived in Jerusalem during the Six-Day War, and graduated from Tel Aviv University Medical School. A pediatric cardiologist at UCSF, he frequently returns to Israel for medical missions.
Children's Book Authors
Monica Wesolowska
Monica Wesolowska is the author of two children’s picture books, Leo + Lea (winner of an SCBWI Crystal Kite Award) and Elbert in the Air which The New York Times praised as being “effervescent…whimsical and relatable." She’s also written for adults, including the memoir Holding Silvan: A Brief Life which was named a “Best Book of the Year” by The Boston Globe and Library Journal. For over two decades, she’s taught creative writing around the Bay Area and she works one-on-one with clients as an independent editor.
Natasha Yim
Natasha Yim is the author of 11 picture books, including the award winning Goldy Luck and the Three Pandas (Charlesbridge Publishing), Mulan’s Lunar New Year (Disney Press), and Luna’s Yum Yum Dim Sum (Charlesbridge Publishing). Her upcoming book Luna and the Case of the Missing Mooncakes will be released by Charlesbridge Publishing in 2025. She has also written for the children's magazines, Highlights for Children, Appleseeds, Faces, and Muse. Natasha grew up in Malaysia, Singapore, and Hong Kong and loves to write about people and cultures from around the world.
Rod Martinez
Author of middle grade & young adult, Rod Martinez grew up on Marvel Comics and Twilight Zone, the inspiration was inevitable. Challenged by his son to write a story about him and his friends “like the Goonies’ but in Tampa”, his first novel "The Juniors" was published – and the rest is history. Rod was recipient of the 2017 Jerry Spinelli Scholarship, the 2018 Professional Development for Artists Grant in Tampa and several BIPOC scholarship/awards. A self-proclaimed Ambassador of the Literary Arts, he speaks at schools, conferences, comic-cons and libraries promoting the love of the written word.
Poets
Ananya Deol
Ananya is a young, spirited woman who grew up in and around the Northern Hills in India. She is a freelance editor and writer by profession. Writing for her is a meditative experience, and she published her second collection of poetry titled ‘Vague and the Variable’ about a year and a half ago. She is also the founder of a literary magazine which publishes new authors and gives them a fair chance to showcase their writing to the world. Ananya believes in constantly pushing herself and challenging her limits. She considers herself to be a mental health enthusiast, and is currently working with children on the autism spectrum in San Francisco, California.
She has a cheerful disposition, believes in living each moment to the fullest and shows keen interest in the sensitive side of life.
Diane Frank
Diane Frank is author of eight books of poems, two novels, and a photo memoir of her 400 mile trek in the Nepal Himalayas. While Listening to the Enigma Variations: New and Selected Poems won the 2022 Next Generation Indie Book Award for Poetry. She is editor of Fog and Light: San Francisco through the Eyes of the Poets Who Live Here, which was featured on KQED. Diane plays cello in the Golden Gate Symphony and collaborated with Matt Arnerich to create an orchestral suite based on her poem, "Tree of Life." Blackberries in the Dream House, her first novel, won the Chelson Award for Fiction and was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize.
Emilie Lygren
Emilie Lygren is a nonbinary poet and outdoor educator who has published poems in several literary journals and anthologies and developed dozens of publications focused on outdoor science education. Her first collection of poems, What We Were Born For, was selected by the Young People’s Poet Laureate as the Poetry Foundation’s monthly book pick for February 2022. Emilie lives in San Rafael, California, where she wonders about oaks and teaches poetry in local classrooms.
Lalit Kumar
Lalit Kumar lives in San Francisco Bay Area and likes to write both poetry and prose around the themes of adventure and exploration. He currently writes a regular column in 'India Currents magazine' sharing his passion for adventure sports. His book 'Years Spent: Exploring Poetry in Adventure, Life and Love' was among top three Selects in Poetry genre featured in ‘Indie Spotlight’ by BookLife/Publishers Weekly, 25th July 2022 edition. His poems have also featured in various anthologies including Everything Intensely, San Francisco Writers Conference 2022. Find him on Instagram @lalitk06 or www.lalitkumaronline.com
His upcoming book called, 'Yosemite of my Heart: Poems of Adventures in California' is due to release in Feb. 2024.
Lucille Lang Day
Lucille Lang Day is the author of four poetry chapbooks and seven full-length collections, including Birds of San Pancho and Other Poems of Place and Becoming an Ancestor. She has also edited Poetry and Science: Writing Our Way to Discovery, coedited Fire and Rain: Ecopoetry of California and Red Indian Road West: Native American Poetry from California, and authored two children’s books and a memoir, Married at Fourteen: A True Story. Her many honors include the Blue Light Poetry Prize, two PEN Oakland – Josephine Miles Literary Awards, the Joseph Henry Jackson Award, and eleven Pushcart nominations. The publisher of Scarlet Tanager Books, she lives in Oakland, CA.
Mahnaz Badihian
Dr. Mahnaz Badhian is an award-winning bilingual poet writing in English and Farsi. She is honored for having her poems in more than 50 anthologies worldwide. Her poems ber piems been translated into more than ten languages. She holds a DDS, MA, and MFA in poetry. Mahnaz is a member of RBP in San Francisco. Her art is available on Saatchi Art for sale.
Peter J Dudley
Peter Dudley and Antoinette LeCouteur are an East Bay couple creating collaborative art. Peter is a poet, professional coach, and author of several young adult books. Antoinette is a photographer, consultant, and philanthropic advisor. In 2023 they published "together," a book of photography and the original poetry it inspired. Each week in 2022, Antoinette gave Peter a day-in-the-life photo she took that week. Peter then wrote a poem inspired by the picture. What resulted was an inspiring, intriguing, and thought-provoking collection of 52 pairings. They continue the collaborative practice in 2023, and the second book is due out in early 2024. The couple also run Gray Bear Publications, offering hybrid and assisted self-publishing services as well as collaborative non-fiction.
Prartho Sereno
Prartho Sereno’s most recent poetry collection, Starfall in the Temple, is praised by poet Annie Lighthart as "Part journey, part water and stone, part darkness and most definitely light..." Her 4 other collections include Indian Rope Trick, Elephant Raga, Call from Paris, and her illustrated gift book Causing a Stir: The Secret Lives and Loves of Kitchen Utensils, all of which have won national prizes. Poet Laureate of Marin 2015—17, she served as a Poet in the Schools for 22 years and teaches the Poetic Pilgrimage both online and at the College of Marin. www.prarthosereno.com