Los Altos High School

 

 

 

Tom Barbash is the author of the award-winning novel, The Last Good Chance, which was awarded the California Book Award, and the short story collection Stay Up With Me, which was a national bestseller and was nominated for the Folio Prize. His nonfiction book, On Top of the World: Cantor Fitzgerald, Howard Lutnick, and 9/11: A Story of Loss and Renewal, was a New York Times bestseller. His stories and articles have been published in Tin House, McSweeney’s, VQR, and other publications, and have been performed on National Public Radio for their Selected Shorts Series. He currently teaches in the MFA program at California College of the Arts. He grew up on the Upper West Side of Manhattan and currently lives in Marin County.

 

Born Windsor, England. | Lives/Works San Francisco Bay Area. | Award-winning Author. Writer. Copywriter. Screenwriter. | Opinion Columnist. Blogger. | Award-winning Ad-Man. Brand Strategist. | Unabashed Beatles Expert | Mystery Writer's Conference Faculty - Marin CA | SF 'Mainly British Film Festival' - Board Member, Curator, Presenter | San Francisco Library 'Literary Laureate' | DO Lectures-DO Contribute UK Columnist | 7DNews London Op-Ed Columnist | International Academy of Media & Diplomacy UK: Special Commentator on US Society, Media, & Politics 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Carol’s third and most recent novel, Vera (2021), was an immediate national bestseller. Set in 1906 San Francisco in the days and weeks after the city’s devastating historic earthquake, Vera tells the story of a fifteen-year-old girl, the daughter of the town’s leading madam, coming of age and centers on themes of displacement, societal upheaval, and reinvention with a cinematic cast of well-known as well as fictional characters. An O Magazine Most Anticipated Read, and an Indiebound Pick of the Month, a Booklist Starred Review cited the novel as “Brilliantly conceived and beautifully realized,” and the Los Angeles Review of Books wrote, “If there’s a book that speaks urgently to a time of grief, resilience, wounding loneliness, and collective hope in one of the deadliest pandemics in history, it is Vera — a work to be cherished for what it uncovers in the pages and, possibly, the heart of the reader.”

 

Born in New Britain, Connecticut, to first-generation American parents, Carol is a graduate of Phillips Andover and Stanford University. She lives with her family in San Francisco.

 

 

Amanda Glaze is the bestselling author of The Second Death of Edie and Violet Bond, a Barnes & Noble Young Adult Book Club pick. She is an alumni of Los Altos High School and spent most of her childhood with her nose in a book or putting on plays with friends. Since then, she’s lived many lives: as a bookseller, a theater director, and an Emmy award-winning film and television producer. When she’s not running off to the mountains, she lives in Los Angeles with her partner and their two cat writing familiars. You can find her online at amandaglaze.com

 

After covering the New York Mets beat for the Newark Star-Ledger and then working as the Angels’ beat reporter for MLB.com, Maria is back in the Bay Area. Instead of covering the hometown team she grew up rooting for, she covers the San Francisco Giants.

 

 

 

Optional further reading: the unpublished, original opening to Loveboat Reunion (please see novel for the final version)

Vanessa Hua is the author of the national bestsellers A River of Stars and Forbidden City, as well as Deceit and Other Possibilities, a New York Times Editors Pick. A National Endowment for the Arts Literature Fellow, she has also received a Rona Jaffe Foundation Writers’ Award, the Asian/Pacific American Award for Literature, and a Steinbeck Fellowship in Creative Writing, as well as awards from the Society of Professional Journalists, the Asian American Journalists Association, among others. A former longtime columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle, her work has appeared in publications including the New York Times, Washington Post, and The Atlantic. She is a Visiting Writer at Saint Mary’s College of California, and has taught at the Warren Wilson MFA Program, Sewanee Writers Conference, and elsewhere. The daughter of Chinese immigrants, she lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with her family.

 

Ann Jacobus is the author of YA novel Romancing the Dark in the City of Light, and The Coldest Winter I Ever Spent, forthcoming in 2023, as well as short stories, essays, and poetry. She earned a B.S. from Dartmouth College, an MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults from Vermont College of Fine Arts, and is a former volunteer crisis line counselor at San Francisco Suicide Prevention. She loves teaching writers of all ages.

 

Nikki Kashani is a first-generation Iranian American writer who was born and raised in Los Altos, California. She received her B.F.A. in film and television production from USC’s School of Cinematic Arts in 2017. During her time at USC, Kashani interned at several entertainment companies such as Funny or Die, Broadway Video, Comedy Central and Disney’s Digital Media Studios, where she was able to absorb the full spectrum of the creative process in real world settings. Upon graduating, Kashani secured a writers’ PA role on HBO’s “Watchmen” and fell in love with the ensemble dynamic of a writers’ room. Following her time on the prestige drama, Kashani became a writers’ assistant for the YouTube Red series “Liza on Demand,” then proceeded to be a showrunner’s assistant on the Amazon thriller “The Terminal List.” Currently, she is an in-house writing assistant at AGBO, reporting directly to the two co-presidents of Story. Throughout her life, Kashani has used comedy as a conduit to explore both the dichotomy and alchemy of her dual identity. Her writing strives to elevate Middle Eastern narratives in TV and film, welcoming audiences to laugh alongside her as she navigates what it means to be first-generation in all its confusing glory.

 

 

 

Read Jane's work here 

Rektok Ross is the pen name of Liani Kotcher, a veteran trial attorney turned screenwriter, producer, and award-winning author. An avid reader since childhood, Liani writes exactly the kind of books she loves to escape into herself: exciting thrillers with strong female leads, swoonworthy love interests, and life-changing moments. Her debut young adult thriller SKI WEEKEND (SparkPress/Blackstone Publishing) has been named a “best book” of 2021 byCosmopolitan, Entertainment Weekly, Parade, BookRiot, Yahoo!Life, Brit + Co., BookTrib, J-14, and more and was a Readers’ Favorite Book Awards Winner, a Readers Views Literary Awards Winner, an Independent Press Awards “Distinguished Favorite,” an American Fiction Awards Finalist, an IAN Book of the Year Awards Finalist, and short-listed for the Chanticleer Dante Rossetti Book Awards. SKI WEEKEND has also been optioned for a major motion picture. Liani graduated from the University of Florida School of Journalism and obtained her juris doctorate at the University of Miami School of Law. Originally from South Florida, she currently splits her time between San Francisco and Los Angeles with her husband, stepkids, and her dogs. You can find her online just about anywhere at @RektokRoss, as well as on her website, www.RektokRoss.com, where she blogs about books and writing. 

 

Raj interviews high profile newsmakers including Vice President Kamala Harris, Governor Gavin Newsom, General Colin Powell, baseball legend Barry Bonds, 49ers owner Jed York and many more.  He also field anchors NBC Bay Area’s breaking news and big event coverage including the 2020 Super Bowl in Miami, 2019 Gilroy mass shooting and 2017 Inauguration of Donald Trump.

He joined KNTV in 1998 as Sports Director and transitioned to primary news anchor in 2011.

He has reported on-location from the Olympics in London, Vancouver, Turin, Athens, Salt Lake City and Tokyo.

Raj is among the handful of people in the world to have run the Olympic Torch three times (1996, 2002 and 2008). He was part of the Giants broadcast team (2008-2012) with Jon Miller and Mike Krukow during NBC Bay Area telecasts of the Giants.

Raj grew up on the Peninsula and attended Los Altos High School. He went on to graduate from San Diego State University with a degree in journalism and political science. Before arriving at NBC Bay Area, he worked for NBC stations in Fresno, San Diego, and Arizona.

In 1995, Raj became the country's first Indian sportscaster. Prior to his career in television, he served as a public relations assistant for the San Diego Chargers for five seasons.

Raj is on the Board of Governors for the San Francisco Symphony and Board of Directors for the Asian Pacific Fund.  He and his family contribute to various Bay Area charities.

Raj is a regular guest instructor at the Stanford Graduate School of Business. Raj was born in Trivandrum, India.

 

THE HONEY BUS (HarperCollins/Park Row Books) reveals the life lessons she learned in her grandfather’s Big Sur bee yard that rescued her from a difficult childhood. The book has been published in eighteen countries and translated into eleven languages. She wrote a children’s picture book version of her life story titled MY HIVE, which will be published by Cameron Kids/Abrams Books in 2024.

Her 2020 memoir, LOVING EDIE: How a Dog Afraid of Everything Taught Me To Be Brave, chronicles how her life was upended and ultimately enriched by her clinically anxious golden retriever puppy, Edith.

In 2017 she wrote I, WHO DID NOT DIE, documenting the true story of an Iranian child soldier who chose mercy over murder and risked his life to save an enemy fighter during the Iran-Iraq War.

During her sixteen-year career at the San Francisco Chronicle, her reporting won the PEN USA Literary Award for Journalism, the Casey Medal for Meritorious Journalism, and first place feature writing awards from the Society of Professional Journalists and the Associated Press. Her series about an Iraqi boy wounded during the second Gulf War was shortlisted for the Pulitzer Prize.

Meredith is a former professor of  journalism and podcasting at Mills College in Oakland, CA. She lives in Carmel Valley where she spends her time writing, beekeeping, and volunteering for the Monterey Bay Aquarium as a scuba diver.

 

 

 

Susanne Pari is a novelist, journalist, essayist, book reviewer, and author interviewer whose writing focuses on stories of displacement and belonging, of identity and assimilation, of trauma and resilience. Born in New Jersey to an Iranian father and an American mother, she grew up both in the United States and Iran until the 1979 Islamic Revolution forced her family into permanent exile. Her first novel, The Fortune Catcher, has been translated into six languages and her non-fiction writing has appeared in The New York Times Sunday Magazine, The Christian Science Monitor, The Boston Globe, and National Public Radio. She divides her time between Northern California and New York. She is the author of the novels IN THE TIME OF OUR HISTORY (just published) and THE FORTUNE CATCHER.

 

Sean Patrick Small is an actor, writer, director, and producer based out of Los Angeles. He is most recently known for his portrayal as Larry Bird on HBO's hit show Winning Time. Sean has won a best actor award at the LA Live Film Festival and was nominated in others for his role in the short film, The Just. Sean has acted, written, produced, and directed various shorts, pilots, and feature films. He is currently shopping multiple scripts, and is looking forward to bringing more creative storytelling to a screen soon.

 

 

Danna Staaf is a marine biologist, author, and artist. She earned a PhD from Stanford University with her studies of Humboldt squid. Her writing has appeared in Science, Atlas Obscura, and Nautilus, and her first book, Squid Empire: The Rise and Fall of the Cephalopods, was named one of the best science books of the year by NPR's Science Friday. Her new book The Lady and the Octopus: How Jeanne Villepreux-Power Invented Aquariums and Revolutionized Marine Biologyhas received multiple starred reviews and made Booklist's Top 10 History Books for Youth. Staaf lives in San Jose, California, with her husband, children, cat, and innumerable plush octopuses.

 

Jenn Alandy Trahan is a first-generation college graduate who received her BA in English from the University of California, Irvine and went on to receive both her MA in English and MFA in Fiction from McNeese State University in Lake Charles, Louisiana. She is grateful for support from Carlisle Family Scholarships at the Community of Writers, the Gullkistan Center for Creativity in Laugarvatn, Iceland, the Writing Downtown residency in Las Vegas, and the Elizabeth George Foundation. Her work has appeared in Permafrost, Blue Mesa Review, Harper's, One Story, and the Best American Short Stories. A 2016-2018 Wallace Stegner Fellow in Fiction, she's currently a Jones Lecturer at Stanford teaching courses in fiction, creative nonfiction, creative expression, Pilipinx fiction and contemporary American short stories.

 

She’s a homegrown San Franciscan. Her work has been published in The Best American Essays, The New York Times, Bon Appetit, Salon, and The Best Women’s Travel Writing. Her family story has been featured on Snap Judgement, Criminal, and NPR’s Fresh Air.

 

 

 

Norman Zelaya has published stories in journals such as ZYZZYVA, Fourteen Hills and NY Tyrant. His work is reflective of his experiences growing up in the Mission during the 80s. He is currently a Special Education teacher.