Octavia Butler

Octavia Butler, a resident of Los Angeles, invents new societies to project ideas of women’s and racial situations into the future. Her intriguing grasp has brought the prestigious Nebula award and two Hugo awards. Books include Bloodchild, Patternmaster, Survivor and Clay’s Ark. Soon to appear: Xenogenesis Trilogy.

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Susan Hubbel

Susan Hubbel’s A Country Year reflects her discoveries on a peninsula between the Ozark Mountains. Before becoming a commercial beekeeper, Hubbel managed a bookstore and was a librarian. A burgeoning cult has developed around her book, only published in 1986.

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Susan Kenney

Susan Kenney’s novel, In Another Country, won the 1984 New Voice Literary Award and has been published in four languages. The Colby College, Maine, teacher of English has been published extensively for over a decade in a variety of genres. Her novels include Garden of Malice and Graves of Academe. Kenney’s slide presentation will relate the fact and fiction of place.

Myra Cohn Livingston

Myra Cohn Livingston, award-winning poet, anthologist, teacher and educator, is the author of over 45 books, including Worlds I Know and Other Poems, Celebrations, A Lollygag of Limericks and her most recent, Earth Songs, and Higgledy-Piggledy: Verses and Pictures.

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Nancy Mairs

Nancy Mairs, author of Plaintext, a collection of essays, was born in Long Beach. She now lives in Tucson with her husband and children. A graduate of Wheaton College, she received her Ph.D. from the University of Arizona. She writes of triumph and despair, not only as a victim of crippling illness, but as a vibrant human being.

Evelyn Sharenov

Evelyn Sharenov, who lives in Long Beach, writes poetry ranging from her relationships with her daughter to her European origins via Ellis Island. We are hearing from her as her first “chapbook” of poetry is being published.

Judith Thurman

Judith Thurman’s Isak Dinesen:The Life of a Storyteller is the result of penetrating research into the private world of the author of Out of Africa. This widely travelled New Yorker is a translator and a contributor to Vogue, Ms., Cosmopolitan and the Village Voice, as well as poet, anthologist and and associate producer of Out of Africa starring Meryl Streep.