Dr. Rachel Naomi Remen, a pioneer of Complementary and Alternative Medicine and the Mind-Body Health Movement, is Clinical Professor of Family and Community Medicine at UCSF School of Medicine and Founder/Director of the Institute for the Study of Health and Illness at Commonweal.  She is the author of Kitchen Table Wisdom: Stories That Heal, winner of the 1996 Wilbur Award for best spiritual non-fiction and a One Spirit Book of the Month Club selection, and My Grandfather’s Blessings: Stories of Strength and Refuge and Belonging.

Samina Ali’s novel Madras on Rainy Days was awarded the Prix Premier Roman Etranger Award, was a finalist for the PEN/Hemingway Award in Fiction, the California Book Reviewers Award, and was named by Poets & Writers one of the Top 5 Best Debut Novels of the Year. She has also received the Rona Jaffe Foundation and Barbara Deming Memorial awards for fiction. 

Tess Uriza Holthe is the author of The Five-Forty-Five to Cannes, which Publisher’s Weekly calls “a trove of pleasures that will have fans looking forward to the next.” When the Elephants Dance, called by the New York Times “a formidable first novel,” is a National Bestseller and has been optioned for film.

Carol Lem, a poet and professor of English at East Los Angeles College, has been published most recently in Blue Arc West: An Anthology of California Poets, Open Windows, Rattle, and The Chrysalis Reader. Her books include Shadow of the Plum, Don’t Ask Why, The Hermit, Searchings, Grassroots, Moe, and Remembrance.

Marcy Alancraig, author of The Ghosts Between Us (forthcoming, Rockway Press), teaches English and creative writing at Cabrillo Community College.  Her work appears in Sisters Singing: Sacred Stories by Women, Porter Gulch Review, Common Lives/Lesbian Lives, Korone, and Shirrim.   

Malin Alegria’s novels for young adults are Estrella’s Quinceañera and Sofi Mendoza’s Guide to Getting Lost in Mexico.  Her stories appear in Once Upon a Cuento and 15 Candles: 15 Tales of Taffeta, Hairspray, Drunk Uncles, and other Quinceañera Stories.

Suze Allen’s plays have been staged at Brava! For Women in the Arts, The Marsh, The Phoenix Theatre, Intersection for the Arts, SF Fringe Festival, and many other venues. She is Dramaturge for The Playwrights’ Center of San Francisco. 

Lisa Alpine has owned an import company, published a newspaper, and been a professional writer. Her short stories appear in numerous publications and anthologies. 

Meliza Bañales, author of Say It With Your Whole Mouth, is currently writing 51 Poems About Nothing At All.  In 2002, Meliza was the Oakland Slam Champion, the first Latina on the west coast to win a slam championship. 

Cara Black writes the bestselling and award-nominated Aimée Leduc Investigation Series. Her mysteries are set in the different arrondissements of Paris. She lives in San Francisco with her husband, who is a bookseller, and her son.

Jacqueline Harmon Butler of Wild Writing Women has received many press awards, including Italy’s prestigious Golden Linchetto Prize for best foreign journalist.  Her latest book is the 6th Edition of the Travel Writer’s Handbook. 

Kathleen de Azevedo is a Professor of English at Skyline College. Her work has appeared in many publications including the Los Angeles Times, Boston Review, Greensboro Review,  Michigan Quarterly Review, Gettysburg Review and TriQuarterly. Her novel, Samba Dreamers, won the 2007 Pen Oakland Josephine Miles Award. 

Julie Downing has written and/or illustrated over 30 books for children, among them The Night Before Christmas, Lullaby and Goodnight, and The Firekeeper's Son. Her awards include a Parents Choice Award and New York Public Library Best Books Award.

Olive Hackett-Shaughnessy, a storyteller, writer and teacher, expresses universal themes in a multicultural oral tradition. In Mexico and Sweden, she joined an international conversation on the value of storytelling as a healing art. See www.Olivestoryteller.com

Katharine Harer, Professor of English and Creative Writing at Skyline College and faculty editor of Talisman, the annual magazine of student art and literature, won Slipstream Magazine’s Eighth Annual Poetry Chapbook for her collection hubba hubba

Beverly Vaughn Hock, Ed., teaches children's literature at USF and is Director of Reading the World: A Multicultural Literature Conference for Children and Young Adults.

Carla King of Wild Writing Women is the author of the popular real-time Internet dispatches “American Borders,” “China Road,” and “Indian Sunset.” Her writing has been published in many international publications and anthologies. Her book, American Borders, is the first in a series of misadventures travelogues. http://www.carlaking.com

Suzanne LaFetra of Wild Writing Women is an award-winning writer whose work has appeared in numerous magazines, newspapers, and literary journals. Her essays have been included in fourteen anthologies. 

Adair Lara, for many years a prize-winning columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle, is a writing consultant and the author of many books, including Hold Me Close, Let Me Go and The Granny Diaries.

Ellen Lee, technology reporter for the San Francisco Chronicle, has also written for the Contra Costa Times, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Oregonian, and Washington Post. She is a past president for the Asian American Journalists Association, SF Bay Area Chapter. 

Ali Liebegott’s books include the Lambda Award winning, The Beautifully Worthless, and The IHOP Papers. She tours with Sister Spit and has received a fellowship from the NY Foundation for the Arts. Currently, she’s writing and illustrating The Crumb People.     

Cathleen Miller, of the Wild Writing Women is the internationally bestselling author of Desert Flower and The Birdhouse Chronicles.  Her essays have appeared in numerous publications, from Salon to the Washington Post. Currently she’s at work on a biography of Dr. Nafis Sadik, an advocate for women’s reproductive freedom and the first female director of the United Nations.  Cathy is a professor of English at San José State University. 

Laurel Minter teaches screenwriting and acting, including at Stanford University’s Writer’s Studio.  Her work has been shown at the Garden State Film Festival, Nosotros American Latino Film Festival, and the Laugh Is Hope Comedy Film Festival. She has received the Milton Sperling, Sloan, and Samuel Goldwyn writing awards.

Tristine Rainer, Director of the Center for Autobiographic Studies, teaches in the USC Master’s in Professional Writing program and is a creative editor for memoirists. She is author of Your Life as Story and The New Diary.

Amy Rennert, president of The Amy Rennert Agency, is an award-winning writer and the former editor-in-chief of two national magazines. Her authors include Beth Kephart, Jimmy Buffett, Jacqueline Winspear, Cornelia Read, and Terry Ryan. 

Nancy Shelby directs a consultancy preparing writers and poets for readings and public appearances and is an actor and director with Word for Word Performing Arts Company.

Kathleen von Raesfeld represents Barefoot Books at schools and community events throughout the Bay Area. Invited to the International Stallholder Summit in Toulouse, France, she is well-versed in how the books develop from manuscript into print.

Pat Walsh, author of 78 Reasons Why Your Book May Never Be Published and 14 Reasons Why it Just Might, was the founding editor of MacAdam/Cage, a publisher of fiction and narrative non-fiction.  As editor-in-chief, he oversaw acquisitions, editing, and promotion. 

Jane Wattenberg is the author/illustrator of many photo-collage books for children. The NY Times squawked, “Yowza!” for her hip-hop adaptation of Henny-Penny.  Her Never Cry Woof! is howls of fun.

Questions?  Contact Marijane Datson, WOW! Program Director, 650.726.1411, mjdat@pacbell.net