Patty Enrado was born in Los Angeles and raised in Terra Bella, California. She has a bachelor’s degree in English from the University of California at Davis and a master’s degree from Syracuse University’s Creative Writing Program. Her debut historical novel, A Village in the Fields, was shortlisted for the Seventh William Saroyan International Prize for Writing in Fiction 2016 by Stanford University Libraries and the William Saroyan Foundation. She writes about healthcare information technology and lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with her husband and two children. For more about Patty, visit: www.patyenrado.com
LPC Literary Arts Festival
Meet the Authors
Reyna Grande (Keynote Speaker: Writing to Transform and Memoir Panel)
Reyna Grande is an award-winning and best-selling novelist and memoirist. Her critically acclaimed memoir, The Distance Between Us, was a National Book Critics Circle Awards finalist. In that book, Reyna writes about her life before and after coming to the U.S as an undocumented child immigrant. Her latest memoir, A Dream Called Home, is available now. For more about Reyna, visit: https://reynagrande.com/
Paul Guay (The Art and Craft and Business of Screenwriting Talk and Screenplay Outline Workshop)
Paul Guay’s movies have grossed over half a billion dollars. He conceived and co-wrote LIAR, LIAR, at the time of its release the sixth-highest-grossing comedy in history. He co-wrote THE LITTLE RASCALS and HEARTBREAKERS, polished THE NEVERENDING STORY, and co-polished MOUSE HUNT. He teaches “Screenwriting: What’s the Story?” at ArtCenter College of Design, where he is the 2019 recipient of the Great Teacher Award. For more about Paul, visit: http://screenmasterbooks.com/analysis/PaulGuay.html
Handouots and Outlines for the Screenplay Outline Workshop
Regina Louise (Memoir Panel)
Regina Louise is the author of the memoir Somebody’s Someone. Her story has been featured on The BBC World Service, Narrative.ly Literary Magazine , Epoch Times; NPR’s All Things Considered, The CBS Early Show, PBS’s Tavis Smiley Show and NBC11. In April 2019, Lifetime Network premiered a biopic of Regina’s memoir called I am Somebody’s Child: The Regina Louise Story. For more about Regina, visit: https://www.iamreginalouise.com/
Ariel Gore (Self-Publishing Panel)
Ariel Gore makes books, zines, coloring books, and tarot cards. She is the founding editor & publisher of the Alternative Press Award-winning magazine Hip Mama and the author of ten books of fiction and nonfiction. Her latest, Hexing the Patriarchy, is out from from Seal Press. Her shameless novel/memoir, We Were Witches, was published by The Feminist Press. Her memoir, The End of Eve, has been called “Terms of Endearment meets Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? She teaches writing online a Ariel’s Gore’s School for Wayward Writers at the Literary Kitchen. Find her coloring books & tarot at Ariel Gore Studio on Etsy.
Patty Enrado (The Evolution of Filipino-American Literature)
Michelle Cruz Gonzales (Memoir Panel)
Shawn Taylor (Memoir Panel)
Shawn Taylor is a writer and university lecturer. He strives to engage in critical pop cartography. This has taken the form of his hosting art installations exploring ideas of media representation, to being a founding author of www.thenerdsofcolor.org. He is also one of the founders of the Black Comix Arts Festival, a festival that highlights and promotes artists on the margins of the mainstream comic book industry. Recently, he has been acting as a creative consultant to several media companies.
L.S. Johnson (Fantasy/Speculative Fiction Writing Workshop)
L.S. Johnson writes speculative fiction, with work appearing in Year’s Best Weird Fiction, Strange Horizons, Interzone, and other venues. Her first collection, Vacui Magia: Stories, won the 2nd Annual North Street Book Prize and was a finalist for the World Fantasy Award. For more about L.S. Johnson, visit: https://traversingz.com/
Jim Ott (Poet Laureates Panel)
Dr. Jim Ott is a professor of English at Las Positas College. He served as Pleasanton's poet-laureate from 2002 to 2003. His poetry has been published in small press publications. For nearly 15 years, Jim wrote a human interest column for Bay Area Newsgroup newspapers, and he was the co-host of a television program called "In A Word" for 10 years about books and authors on local television TV30. Prior to being hired full time at the college, Jim was a banker for 30 years, teaching English in the evenings 17 years. It is also noteworthy that Jim served as a trustee for the Pleasanton Unified School District from 2005 to 2010.
Deborah Grossman (Poet Laureates Panel)
Debora is a sought after San Francisco Bay Area journalist who specializes in stories about food, drink and travel. She was Pleasanton California's Poet Laurette from 2009-2001. She writes for publications such as: Wine Enthusiast, iSanté, San Francisco Chronicle, Napa Valley Life, The National Culinary Review, Decanter, Wines and Vines, Flavor & the Menu, and more. Her recent wine and culinary travels include: Germany, Croatia, France, Spain, Chile, Australia, Italy, Mexico, Singapore, and Israel. Deborh hails from Wilmington, Delaware. She worked for the DuPont Co. in Delaware, New Jersey, Mississippi, and Santa Clara, California. She began her journalism career by writing about food and drink in California and has broadened to a global gastronomic scope. For more about Deborah Grossman, visit: https://deborahgrossman.com/about-deborah/
Connie Post (Poet Laurates Panel)
Connie Post is a San Franciso Bay Area Poet who has been writing poetry for over twenty years. She is dedicated also to the cause of autism and furthering education & understanding on the experience of raising a child with autism . For more about Connie Post, visit: https://poetrypost.com/
Cynthia Patton (Poet Laurettes Panel)
Cynthia Patton was appointed as the City of Livermore’s fourth Poet Laureate. For more about Cynthia Patton, visit: http://cynthiajpatton.com/tag/poet-laureate/#.XjsXTWhKiUk
Mary-Rose Hayes ( Novel Writing Workshop)
British born Mary-Rose Hayes is the author of nine novels, most recently WHAT SHE HAD TO DO, including the TIME/LIFE bestseller AMETHYST and two political thrillers co-authored with Senator Barbara Boxer. Her books have been translated into sixteen languages and have regularly been chosen as Doubleday Book of the Month and Literary Guild main selections. She has published short stories and articles in England and the United States, and written and optioned several screenplays including a project for screen legend Lana Turner. She has worked as a script editor for Thames Television, London, Associate Editor for Pacific News Service, San Francisco, and as a free-lance book editor. Mary-Rose has taught creative writing at the University of California, Berkeley, Extension; Arizona State University; and at numerous writers’ conferences in the United States and internationally including twelve years with the Squaw Valley Community of Writers, California; the San Miguel Writers’ Conference in San Miguel de Allende, Guanajuato, Mexico; and the Peralta Writers’ Workshop, Tuscany, Italy, for which she was co-director for five years. For more about Mary-Rose Hayes, visit: http://www.mary-rosehayes.com/home.html
Bri and Tri ( Poetry Slam Workshop)
Bri Blue is an Author, Orator, Poet, Spoken Word Artist, Women's Rights Advocate, and Motivational Speaker hailing from Berkeley, CA. A UC Berkeley graduate, Blue's unique, high-energy, tailored performances connect emotion, entertainment, and inspiration to the goals, vision, and experiences of her audience.
Natriece ( Tri) Spicer is an author, educator & owner of The Inspired Life, a wellness consulting company. She wears a hat rack of titles easily compiled into her preferred term as the people’s person. Her latest project is the release of “The Inspired Life Podcast hosted by Natriece” available on ApplePodcast, Spotify and everywhere things are being streamed! She often dreams of working from the coast of Africa someday. For now, she likes anything outdoors and lives in sunny California.
Karin Spirn ( Self-Publishing Panel )
Karin Spirn published The Divine Sharpness in the Heart of God in 2014. She teaches English at Las Positas College. For more about Karin Spirn, visit: https://karinspirn.com/the-divine-sharpness/ To read her stand alone stories, visit: https://www.ledalevine.com/about.
Stuart McElderry (Self-Publishing Panel )
Stuart McElderry is Dean of Academic Services at Las Positas College where he previously taught history for nearly twenty years. The Barcelona File, his first novel, was inspired by his historical research in graduate school where he experienced the numerous surprises scholars find when they go digging in dusty old archives. McElderry is the father of five children and the grandfather of one. He lives in Brentwood with his wife Elizabeth.
For more about his book, visit: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/16244077-the-barcelona-file