Keith Baker
Keith Baker is a Sonoma County native who began his acting career at El Molino High School and is a graduate of the BFA Theater Connservatory at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Favorite roles in Sonoma County include the title role in Cyrano, Charlie in The Scene, the title role in Tartuffe, Athos in The Three Musketeers, and Mr. Lockhart in The Seafarer.

He will be on the screenwriters panel, Writing for Film and Stage.

David Beckman
David studied playwrighting at New York’s Circle in the Square Theater and, as an actor, toured with the National Shakespeare Company. In New York, Merely Players showcased his one-act play, What Goes Around, at the Westbeth Theater Center. Becoming Walt Whitman debuted at the Powerhouse Theater in Santa Monica in 1993 and kicked off the fall season at Santa Rosa’s Sixth Street Playhouse in October 2010. His short plays have appeared at the Beast Festival in New York, and the Pegasus Theater’s Tapas Short Play Festival in Monte Rio. For the past three years he’s taught Pegasus Theater workshops in writing short plays.

He will be on the screenwriters panel, Writing for Film and Stage.

Mollie Boice
Mollie Boice was a founding member of Actors Theatre, performing in over 40 productions, and was involved with the Summer Repertory Theatre for 30 years. She has also appeared in numerous roles at 6th Street and HMT: most recently playing MeeMaw in Tammy Wynette: Stand By Your Man. Mollie is a set designer, playwright, and director. As a playwright, Mollie adapted the book Juicy Tomatoes: Plain Truths, Dumb Lies and Sisterly Advice After 50 by Susan Swartz for the stage.

She will be on the screenwriters panel, Writing for Film and Stage.

Ted Calvert
Ted Calvert has been a resident of Healdsburg since 1980. Ted raised his two boys, Christopher and Paco, in Healdsburg, considered then a farm town, or prune town to native residents, but a great place to grow a family. Ted is currently the president of the Healdsburg Museum and Historical Society board of directors. He is the author of Healdsburg Chronicles and The Legacy of Fitch Mountain. While Ted enjoys world travel, he relishes coming home to the Sonoma County lifestyle, in all its seasons.

He will be on the Writing Local History with Gaye LeBaron panel.

Stacy Carlson
Stacy Carlson is the author of Among the Wonderful (Steerforth Press), which chronicles the rise and fall of a great, doomed museum run by the trickster PT Barnum. Told by two museum employees, a giantess and a taxidermist, the story brims with marvels and deceptions in an era when a culture of glassed-in entertainments gave way to the modern age. Stacy’s writing has appeared or is forthcoming in Tin House, Post Road, and Inkwell, among other magazines. She was awarded a 2010 residency at the Djerassi Resident Artists Program and won the 2003 Dana Portfolio Award, given for three book-length manuscripts. She lives in Oakland with her partner Jason and their six-month-old daughter.

Zoe FitzGerald Carter
Zoe Fitzgerald Carter is the author of the memoir, Imperfect Endings: A Daughter's Story of Love, Loss, and Letting Go. A graduate of Columbia Journalism School, Zoe has written for numerous publications including The New York Times, The San Francisco Chronicle, Salon and Vogue. Imperfect Endings was excerpted in O Magazine, chosen as a finalist for the National MS Society's Books for a Better Life Awards in the "Inspirational Memoir" category, and is a Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers pick.

Carolyn Cooke
Carolyn Cooke’s new novel, Daughters of the Revolution, "evokes the dawn of women's liberation, the righteous struggles for sexual voice," according to the San Francisco Chronicle, with "imagery so fine and excruciating it feels like a dare." Her fiction has appeared in The Paris Review and in two volumes each of Best American Short Stories and Prize Stories: The O. Henry Awards.

Belva Davis
Belva Davis is an award-winning journalist who has covered Bay Area politics for four decades. Her memoir, Never In My Wildest Dreams: A Black Woman’s Life in Journalism, written with journalist Vicki Haddock, recounts her near half century in media. She was the first African-American woman hired to work on television in the western United States and is one of 500 journalists nationally to be profiled in the NEWSEUM, the world's first interactive museum of news. Davis has earned eight local Emmys for her reporting and three honorary Doctorates, including one from Sonoma State University, for her television work and community service. She is the recipient of numerous community service awards for her volunteer work on behalf of a wide variety of causes.

Carol Edgarian
Carol Edgarian is a Bay Area author, editor, and publisher. Her books include the recently released and bestselling novel Three Stages of Amazement, described by The New York Times as a “turbulent, furiously compelling” book. Edgarian is also the author of the best-selling Rise the Euphrates, hailed by the Washington Post as “a book whose generosity of spirit, intelligence, humanity, and finally ambition are what literature ought to be and rarely is today.”

Patrick Fanning
Patrick Fanning co-founded New Harbinger Publications, one of the premiere publishers of self-help psychology and health books, in 1979. For more than 20 years, he wrote and published self-help books. His latest book, published this year, is Mind & Emotions.

He will be on the panel discussing the future of the book business, Books: The rumors of my death are greatly exaggerated.

Michelle Gagnon
Michelle Gagnon’s bestselling novels have been described as “utterly gripping…addictively readable thrillers.” (Chicago Tribune). The Tunnels (June 2007) involves a series of ritualized murders in the abandoned tunnel system beneath a university. Daphne du Maurier Best Suspense Novel nominee Boneyard (July 2008) depicts a cat and mouse game between dueling serial killers. In The Gatekeeper (November 2009), anti-immigration hate groups unleash a domestic terror plot. Kidnap & Ransom (November, 2010) is about the abduction of the world’s foremost hostage negotiator by a Mexican drug cartel. Michelle lives in San Francisco with her family.

She will be moderating the mystery writers panel, Shots Happen.

Vicki Haddock
Vicki Haddock spent three decades as an award-winning Bay Area journalist, working as a reporter and editor for the San Francisco Chronicle and Examiner, after serving as political editor/ writer at the Oakland Tribune. A Sonoma County resident, her freelance work appears in magazines and newspapers throughout the United States, and in Canada, Africa and Europe. At the Book Festival, she’ll join Belva Davis in presenting Never in My Wildest Dreams.

David Hayward
Sonoma County poet David Hayward has won a Pushcart Prize and appeared in Harper’s and other magazines. David says: “Heads You Lose, was co-authored with supposed big deal Lisa Lutz,” and is his first published fiction. He’s now working on a novel of his own, about a family of gamblers.

He will be on the mystery writers panel, Shots Happen.

Steven T. Jones
Native Californian Steven T. Jones is the City Editor of the San Francisco Bay Guardian and a full-time newspaperman of 20 years, previously working for Sacramento News & Review, New Times in San Luis Obispo, Auburn Journal, and other publications. He has won numerous writing awards, including a Maggie. His latest book is The Tribes of Burning Man: How an Experimental City in the Desert is Shaping the New American Counterculture.

He will be on the alternative subjects panel, The Sky is High and So Am I.

Andrew Lam
Andrew Lam is co-founder of New America Media, an association of 2000 ethnic media outlets in the US. He’s the author of East Eats West: Writing in Two Hemispheres and Perfume Dreams: Reflections on the Vietnamese Diasapora. His book of short stories, Birds of Paradise, is due out in 2012.

Don Lattin
Don Lattin is a freelance journalist and the author of four books. His most recent work, The Harvard Psychedelic Club: How Timothy Leary, Andrew Weil, Ram Dass and Huston Smith Killed the Fifties and Ushered in a New Age for America, was a national bestseller in 2010. It’s the story of how a young and jealous Andrew Weil got Tim Leary and Richard “Ram Dass” Alpert kicked out of Harvard in the early 1960s. They, along with religion scholar Huston Smith, go on to lay the foundations for the social and spiritual revolution of the sixties and seventies. Lattin's work has appeared in dozens of U.S. magazines and newspapers, including the New York Times, Wall Street Journal and the San Francisco Chronicle, where Don covered the religion beat for nearly two decades..

He will be on the alternative subjects panel, The Sky is High and So Am I.

John LeBaron
Celebrated photographer John LeBaron has expanded his talents to writing in The Ebabias Chronicles, named for the creek behind his West County family home. LeBaron, who is married to Gaye LeBaron, grew up in Valley Ford and is descended from families that settled in the coastal area as early as the 1850s.

The former chief photographer for the Press Democrat and long time photo instructor at Santa Rosa Junior College where he was also chair of the art department, LeBaron continues to be exhibited as a fine art and documentary photographer.

He will be on the Writing Local History with Gaye LeBaron panel.

Sophie Littlefield
Sophie Littlefield’s first novel, A Bad Day for Sorry, won an Anthony Award and an RT Book Award for Best First Mystery. It was also shortlisted for Edgar, Barry, Crimespree, and Macavity Awards. She writes the post-apocalyptic Aftertime series for Harlequin Luna. She also writes paranormal fiction for young adults. 

She will be on the mystery writers panel, Shots Happen.

Michael David Lukas
Author of The Oracle of Stamboul (HarperCollins, 2011), Michael David Lukas has been a Fulbright Scholar in Turkey, a night-shift proofreader in Tel Aviv, and a waiter at the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference in Vermont. A 2010 National Endowment for the Arts fellow, he lives in Oakland, CA.

Matthew McKay
Matthew McKay received his Ph.D in clinical psychology in 1978 from California School of Professional Psychology. He co-founded, and was clinical director of Haight Ashbury Psychological Services between 1979 and 2004. Currently he is clinical director of the Berkeley CBT clinic. He has taught at many professional schools in the San Francisco Bay Area, including PGSP and CHS. He has been a professor at the Wright Institute since 2003. Matthew McKay has written more than 30 trade and professional books in the psychology field. Titles include Self Esteem, Thoughts & Feelings, Messages, When Anger Hurts, The Relaxation & Stress Reduction Workbook, Mind and Emotions, Overcoming Situational and General Anger, and others. Dr. McKay is also the publisher at New Harbinger Publications in Oakland, a house specializing in psychology, self-help, and professional books.

He will be on the panel discussing the future of the book business, Books: The rumors of my death have been greatly exaggerated.

Linda Morganstein
Linda Morganstein, author of Harpies' Feast calls herself an overeducated writer who also happens to be the product of a Borscht Belt hotel childhood. In the seventies, she dropped out of Vassar and moved to California. Her mystery series takes place in Sonoma County and features Alexis Pope, self-defense instructor and recovering cynic.

She will be on the mystery writers panel, Shots Happen.

Mike Ott
Mike Ott studied under Thom Andersen at Cal Arts where he received his MFA degree in Film and Video. Mike’s second feature film, LiTTLEROCK has won numerous awards, including the Audience Award at the 2010 AFI Fest and a Gotham Award for “Best Film Not Playing in a Theater Near You,” and a 2011 SPIRIT AWARD for “Someone to Watch.” Presently, Mike teaches film directing at the University of Southern California (USC).

He will be on the screenwriters panel, Writing for Film and Stage.

Shawn Pittard
Shawn Pittard has written two screenplays, Blood Atonement and Junk Sick, and is currently studying the art of the pitch. He is also the author of two chapbook collections of poetry, Standing in the River, winner of Tebot Bach’s 2010 Clockwise Chapbook Contest, and These Rivers, from Rattlesnake Press. He lives in Sacramento.

He will be on the screenwriters panel, Writing for Film and Stage.

Jonah Raskin
Jonah Raskin teaches at Sonoma State University and is the author or a dozen books, such as Field Days: A Year of Farming, Eating and Drinking Wine in California, and the editor of The Radical Jack London: Writings on War and Revolution. His newest book is Marijuanaland: Dispatches from an American War.

He will be on the alternative subjects panel, The Sky is High and So Am I.

Katherine Rinehart
Katherine J. Rinehart received her master’s degree in History from Sonoma State University in 1994. For the past 17 years, Ms. Rinehart has worked in various positions within the fields of Cultural Resource Management and Historic Preservation and is currently employed by the Sonoma County Library and works in the Sonoma County History Genealogy Department. She is the author of Petaluma: A History in Architecture, a contributor to the Celebrating Petaluma published by the Petaluma Sesquicentennial Committee and the Petaluma Visitors Program. Ms. Rinehart is a regular contributor to the Argus Courier, has her own business specializing in historic research, writing, exhibit coordination and lecturing; was named Petaluma’s Good Egg in 2007 and is past president of the Petaluma Museum Association.

She will be on the Writing Local History with Gaye LeBaron panel.

Mary Rotman
Mary Rotman is a Publicist at O'Reilly Media. She does a little bit of everything, from writing press releases and entering data to researching potential contacts and managing PR for O'Reilly's publishing partners. In her free time she enjoys reading, crafting, hiking, and biking in gorgeous northern California where she lives with her husband.

She will be on the panel discussing the future of the book business, Books: The rumors of my death have been greatly exaggerated.

John Schubert
John Schubert has been a Russian River historian for 50+ years. Past president, past editor of the Sonoma County Historical Society; vice-president and current editor of the Russian River Historical Society. Author of Guerneville Early Days, history of the Sonoma County Sheriff’s Office, column Stumptown Stories in River Area papers.

He will be on the Writing Local History with Gaye LeBaron panel.

Tracy Seeley
Tracy Seeley, author of My Ruby Slippers: the Road Back to Kansas, teaches 20th-century British Literature and Creative Nonfiction at the University of San Francisco. She has published scholarly work on Virginia Woolf and others, and her literary essays appear in The Florida Review, Prairie Schooner and other journals. She has also been a finalist for the Iowa Review and Brenda Ueland prizes in nonfiction.

Elena Mauli Shapiro
Elena Mauli Shapiro was born in Paris, and moved to the United States at the age of 13.  She amassed Literature and Writing degrees around the Bay Area (Stanford, Mills, UC Davis), where she still lives with her husband. Her novel, 13 rue Thérèse, was published by Little, Brown.

Ellen Skagerberg
A bookseller for Copperfield’s Books for the past 19 years, Ellen Skagerberg writes social media content for Facebook and Twitter and is the Consignment Buyer at two Copperfield’s stores. She also judges poetry for the Sonoma County Fair. Her favorite author is Haruki Murakami.

She will be on the panel discussing the future of the book business, Books: The rumors of my death have been greatly exaggerated.

Tatjana Soli
Tatjana Soli is the author of the bestselling novel, The Lotus Eaters, called by the New York Times, "A haunting debut… tough and lyrical." The Lotus Eaters was named a New York Times Notable Book, LA Times Book Award Finalist, and has won the UK’s James Tait Black Prize.

Mark Tauber
Mark Tauber is Senior Vice President and Publisher of HarperOne, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers. Prior to joining HarperOne, Mark was a co-founder of Everyday Health, an original, founding team member of Beliefnet.com, and on staff at Oxford University Press. He has published over 55 New York Times bestsellers.

Mark has worked closely on many bestselling books by authors including Tim Teebow, Rob Bell, Billy Graham, Johnny Cash, C.S. Lewis, Paulo Coelho, Marcus Borg, Barbara Brown Taylor, Frederick Buechner, Bart Ehrman, Bishop John Shelby Spong, Jim Wallis and Richard Foster.

He will be on the panel discussing the future of the book business, Books: The rumors of my death have been greatly exaggerated.

Julie Thi Underhill
Julie Thi Underhill’s writings have been included in Veterans of War, Veterans of Peace Embodying Asian/American Sexualities, and Hayden's Ferry Review. She is a Chancellor's Fellow at UC Berkeley, where she is earning her doctorate. She holds a BA from The Evergreen State College and a MA from UC Berkeley.

She will be in Conversation with Maxine Hong Kingston discussing Veterans of War, Veterans of Peace.