Andre Dubus III is the son of Andre Dubus, a widely recognized master of short fiction who died in February 1999. He teaches in Emerson College's MFA Writing program, and at Tufts University. He lives in Newburyport, Massachusetts, with his wife, dancer/choreographer Fontaine Dollas, and their three children.

Dubus' work has been awarded a Pushcart Prize and the 1985 National Magazine Award for Fiction. It has also been cited in The One Hundred Most Distinguished Stories of 1993 and The Best American Short Stories of 1994. He was one of three finalists for the 1994 Prix de Rome, House of Sand and Fog was a finalist for the 1999 National Book Award for Fiction.

Before finding his calling as a writer, Andre Dubus III worked for brief stints as a bounty hunter, private investigator, carpenter, bartender, actor, and teacher. His first book, The Cage Keeper and Other Stories, was published in 1989, followed by 1993 by his first novel, Bluesman. For the next few years, he taught and did odd jobs as a carpenter while working on House of Sand and Fog, most of which was written in his car.

Donna Foote is a freelance journalist who has spent most of her career at Newsweek Magazine where she covered a range of issues and personalities both here and abroad. While based in London she reported on the war in Afghanistan, Pakistan’s Benazir Bhutto, tensions in the Middle East, the troubles in Northern Ireland, Princess Diana and the British Royal Family, and UK politics and culture. While Deputy Bureau Chief in Los Angeles, she covered the Rodney King riots and both the criminal and civil trials of OJ Simpson. She also wrote extensively on education, health, and justice issues. She lives in Manhattan Beach, California with her husband Jim Shalvoy and their fourteen-year-old son James.

Paul Cummins was the primary Founder and Headmaster of the Crossroads School, Founder of New Visions Foundation and PS Arts. He is currently the Executive Director of the New Visions Foundation.

In addition to being the primary Founder of New Roads School, a co-founder of Camino Nuevo Charter Academy, the creator of CEO (Center for Educational Opportunity) which places foster children in independent schools, and the Founder of FHF (Families Helping Families), which redirects low income families into life-changing new directions.

He is the author of many books, including a biography on Herbert Zipper, Dachau Song: The Twentieth-Century Odyssey of Herbert Zipper. His latest book, Two Americas, Two Educations: Funding Quality Schools for All Students, was published in January 2007 by Red Hen Press.

Evan Kleiman, renowned owner and executive chef of one of LA's favorite restaurants, Angeli Caffe, and best-selling author of numerous cookbooks, including Cucina Fresca and Pasta Fresca, has been the host of Good Food on KCRW since 1998. Kleiman brings to Good Food a rich and varied background -- as scholar of Italian cooking and culture, entrepreneur and trend-setter for the popular trattoria concept, avid gardener, and admired teacher and chef -- which has won her the esteem of her culinary colleagues both here and abroad.

In addition to her restaurant and writing pursuits, Kleiman also serves on the Board of Directors of the Hollywood Farmers' Market and on the Board of Overseers of The Chef's Collaborative 2000 -- organizations which are devoted to educating the public on issues of sustainability.

A journalist since 1983, Paul Roberts writes and lectures frequently on the complex interplay of economics, technology, and the natural world. He is the author of The End of Oil and most recently The End of Food. Roberts has also written for the Los Angeles Times, the Washington Post, and the (UK) Guardian and has appeared in Slate, USA Today, the New Republic, Newsweek, the Christian Science Monitor, Rolling Stone, and Outside magazine. In June, 2008, he will publish a piece on peak oil for National Geographic. Roberts was a finalist for the National Magazine Award (1999) and for the New York Public Library Helen Bernstein Book Award for Excellence in Journalism in 2005.

A long-time observer of energy issues and politics, Roberts appears regularly on national and international television and radio news shows, including CNN's Lou Dobbs, the BBC, PBS NewsHour, MSNBC, CBS Evening News, and on NPR's Morning Edition, On Point, Weekend Edition, and Fresh Air.

A New York Times Notable Book author, EMMY nominated TV reporter and screenwriter, Alex Abella was born in Cuba and grew up in New York City.  At age 16, Alex won a Pulitzer Scholarship to Columbia University, one of only two such scholarships awarded nationwide every year. Alex later joined The San Francisco Chronicle as a general assignment reporter then switched to electronic media and joined KTVU-TV, Channel 2 News. There he became producer, writer and reporter and was nominated for an EMMY for Best Breaking News Story.

Alex moved to Los Angeles in the late 1980s to pursue a writing career. While in Los Angeles he worked as assistant to a private investigator and as a Los Angeles Superior Court Interpreter. His experiences in the world of law and law enforcement inspired him to write a legal thriller, The Killing of the Saints, featuring a Cuban-American hero, Charlie Morell, who is a lawyer and private investigator. Alex's second novel, The Great American, was published by Simon & Schuster in 1997 and recounts the true adventures of William Morgan, a U.S. Marine who fought in the mountains of Cuba with Fidel Castro.

Robert Scheer is the editor-in-chief of the political blog www.truthdig.com and the author of seven books, including Thinking Tuna Fish, Talking Death: Essays on the Pornography of Power; With Enough Shovels: Reagan, Bush and Nuclear War and America After Nixon: The Age of Multinationals; with his son Christopher and Lakshmi Chaudhry, The Five Biggest Lies Bush Told Us about Iraq. Most recently, he wrote Playing President: My Close Encounters with Nixon, Carter, Bush I and Clinton--and How They Did Not Prepare Me for George W. Bush. Between 1964 and 1969 he was Vietnam correspondent, managing editor and editor in chief of Ramparts magazine. From 1976 to 1993 he served as a national correspondent for the Los Angeles Times. Scheer can be heard on the political radio program Left, Right and Center on KCRW, the National Public Radio affiliate in Santa Monica, Calif. Scheer was raised in the Bronx, where he attended public schools and graduated from City College of New York. He studied as a Maxwell fellow at Syracuse University and was a fellow at the Center for Chinese Studies at UC Berkeley, where he did graduate work in economics. Scheer is a contributing editor for The Nation as well as a Nation Fellow. He has also been a Poynter fellow at Yale, and was a fellow in arms control at Stanford

John Dean was legal counsel to U.S. president Richard Nixon during the Watergate scandal of the early 1970s, and his testimony before Senate investigators convinced many Americans that Nixon was closely involved in the criminal activities that eventually led to his resignation from the presidency. Dean started his legal career in Washington in the late 1960s, as the chief minority counsel for the House Judiciary Committee. He then served as an associate deputy in the Attorney General's office before being appointed as White House counsel.

Dean went on to write books about his experiences in the Nixon White House, including Blind Ambition (1976), which became a made-for-TV movie. Since then he has worked as an investment banker in California and written columns, essays and books on subjects as varied as president William G. Harding and Supreme Court justice William Rehnquist. In 2004 he emerged as an outspoken critic of the administration of George W. Bush with his book Worse Than Watergate: The Secret Presidency of George W. Bush.

Sandra and Matthew Blakeslee, mother and son, are the third and fourth generation of science writers in the Blakeslee family. Sandra's grandfather Howard worked for the Associated Press starting in the 1920s and was one of the pioneers of American science writing. Howard's son Alton – Sandra's father, Matthew's grandfather – took over as AP science editor until retiring in 1985.

Sandra is a veteran science writer who contributes regularly to the New York Times. Her specialty is neuroscience. She lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico, where she continues to work for the Times and write books. With Dr. Judith Wallerstein she co-authored Second Chances, The Good Marriage, The Unexpected Legacy of Divorce, and What About the Kids. She co-authored Phantoms of the Brain with Dr. V.S. Ramachandran and wrote On Intelligence with Jeff Hawkins.

Visit Sandra Blakeslee's website

Matthew Blakeslee trained in cognitive science but in the end decided not to become a neuroscientist. In 1999 he switched tracks and took up science writing, almost by accident. He lives in Topanga Canyon in Los Angeles, California, and divides his time between freelance and book writing. This is his first credited book.

Margaret Wertheim is a science writer and the author of books on the cultural history of physics, including Pythagoras' Trousers, a history of the relationship between physics and religion in Western culture, and The Pearly Gates of Cyberspace: A History of Space from Dante to the Internet. From 2001-2005 Wertheim wrote the Quark Soup column for the LA Weekly and is currently a contributor to the New York Times and Los Angeles Times, as well as a contributing editor to Cabinet magazine, and Cosmos, the Australian-based literary science magazine. In 2006 her writing was awarded the print journalism prize from the American Institute of Biological Sciences and in 2004 she was the national Science Foundation visiting journalist to Antarctica. In 2003, she and her twin sister Christine Wertheim founded the Institute for Figuring, an organization based in Los Angeles that promotes the public understanding of the poetic and aesthetic dimensions of science and mathematics.

The Institute for Figuring

By her own definition, Debra Winger is first, a mother, second, an ambassador for Sight Savers International, an organization working to eradicate blindness in the world’s poorest countries, and third, an actor. As an actor, her credits include more than 20 films and three Academy Award nominations (An Officer and a Gentleman, Terms of Endearment, and Shadowlands. As a teenager she immigrated to Israel, where she worked for two years on a collective farm and served in the Army. Upon returning to the United States, she was involved in a serious accident that left her in a coma. During her recovery, Winger decided that, upon recuperating, she would become an actress. With this deliberate action, Winger travelled from commercials to the television series, “Wonder Woman,” to an acclaimed career in film, (Urban Cowboy, The Sheltering Sky, Legal Eagles, Black Widow, and more). In 1995 Winger left acting and did not look back, explaining to the UK’s Guardian newspaper that "Nothing quite compares with the sense of liberation I felt.” Married now to director Arliss Howard, and in the midst of raising three sons, she has recently returned to the screen.

Maia Danziger has been teaching Relax & Write and guided meditation workshops for more than ten years. She runs weekly private classes in Los Angeles and also teaches workshops for a variety of organizations, including hospitals, wellness communities, universities, spas and corporations. A Certified Life Coach, Danziger specializes in working with writers and artists on developing creativity and fulfilling their careers. An Emmy Award winning actress, Danziger has appeared extensively on and off-Broadway, on television, and in film. She is also the founder and former Artistic Director of the Actor's Company Theatre in New York. Diagnosed in 1994 with breast cancer, Danziger developed Relax & Write as a part of her healing process.

'Relax and Write' website

Loretta Livingston is an award winning choreographer and dancer. She is the Artistic Director of Loretta Livingston & Dancers, a contemporary dance performance ensemble. She produces and directs works ranging from large scale dance/theater evenings to improvisational events with live music and video art presented in gallery-sized spaces. In addition to creating projects for her company she takes choreographic commissions, creating work for dancers as far away as New Zealand and Turkey. A fifth-generation Californian, Ms. Livingston began her career with another native westerner---the legendary Bella Lewitzky. She danced for ten years in the Lewitzky Dance Company, performing throughout the United States, Europe and Canada.

Ms. Livingston has received numerous awards and honors, including the 2003 Artist Award from the California Dance Educator's Association, the 2002 California DanceMaker Grant from the James Irvine Foundation, and the 2002 City of Los Angeles C.O.L.A. Individual Artist Fellowship. In addition to her individual awards, her company and artistic collaborators have received many Lester Horton Dance Awards in Los Angeles for the performance, choreography, music and design of her projects.

www.livingstondance.com

Loretta Livingston is an award winning choreographer and dancer. She is the Artistic Director of Loretta Livingston & Dancers, a contemporary dance performance ensemble. She produces and directs works ranging from large scale dance/theater evenings to improvisational events with live music and video art presented in gallery-sized spaces. In addition to creating projects for her company she takes choreographic commissions, creating work for dancers as far away as New Zealand and Turkey. A fifth-generation Californian, Ms. Livingston began her career with another native westerner---the legendary Bella Lewitzky. She danced for ten years in the Lewitzky Dance Company, performing throughout the United States, Europe and Canada.

Ms. Livingston has received numerous awards and honors, including the 2003 Artist Award from the California Dance Educator's Association, the 2002 California DanceMaker Grant from the James Irvine Foundation, and the 2002 City of Los Angeles C.O.L.A. Individual Artist Fellowship. In addition to her individual awards, her company and artistic collaborators have received many Lester Horton Dance Awards in Los Angeles for the performance, choreography, music and design of her projects.

www.livingstondance.com

Deanne Stillman is the author of the critically acclaimed bestseller, Twentynine Palms: A True Story of Murder, Marines, and the Mojave as well as the book Joshua Tree - Desolation Tango, with photographs by Galen Hunt. Her work has been published in the LA Times, Slate, LA Weekly, the New York Times, Los Angeles Magazine, the Boston Globe, the Huffington Post, the New York Observer, Tin House, the Village Voice, Buzz Magazine and elsewhere. Her plays have won prizes in theatre festivals around the country.

Visit Deanne Stillman's website

Samantha Dunn is the author of Failing Paris, a finalist for the PEN West Fiction Award in 2000, and the memoirs Not By Accident: Reconstructing a Careless Life, a BookSense 76 pick, and Faith in Carlos Gomez: A Memoir of Salsa, Sex and Salvation. Her work is anthologized in a number of places, including the short story anthology, Women on the Edge: Writing from Los Angeles (Toby Press), which Dunn co-edited. A widely published journalist, Dunn's work has appeared in the Los Angeles Times, O Magazine, Ms., and Shape. Dunn teaches in the UCLA Writers' Program.

Visit Samantha Dunn's website

J. Mark Beaver has studied poetry with Steve Kowit and Sandra Alcosser at San DiegoState University, Mary D'Alleva at San Francisco State University, and has been a member of Laurel Ann Bogen's poetry group since 2002. Performances of his poems have been staged by Oakland's Augustino Dance Theater. His poetry has been published in the college text, Active Voices IV, San Francisco's Tea Party magazine and in L.A. Poetry Festival/Tebot Bach's on-line quarterly, Speechless.

Rahel Kann, an LA Weekly Award and James Kirkwood Award in Fiction winner, performs on stages as diverse as Disney Concert Hall, The San Francisco Palace of Fine Arts, and the Vans Warped Tour. Her poetry appears in various anthologies including Word Warriors.

Pushcart nominee Mindy Nettifee was born in Des Moines, Iowa to a minister and a trouble-maker and was raised by the Southern California poetry scene. She became the Long Beach/Orange County Poetry Slam Grand Slam Champion and subsequently compeated on and coached teams at five National Poetry Slam Competitions. She is the author of five chapbooks, and the full-length collection, Sleepyhead Assassins. Her work has appeared in ISM Magazine and the California Poetry Anthology. She has toured poetry shows and festivals both nationally and internationally, headlining on stages from Hawaii to Munich.

Cece Peri is a clinical research consultant and holds a doctorate in psychology. Her poetry has appeared in literary journals and anthologies including Speechless the Magazine, San Gabriel Valley Poetry Quarterly, Untangled: Stories & Poetry from the Women and Girls of WriteGirl, and is forthcoming in Master Class in Poetry from Duende Books. She was the recipient of the first Anne Silver Poetry Award.

Bryan Sanders started writing poetry at the age of 14. He got his start at the World Stage Anansi Writers Workshop. Since then he has been on KJLH, performed in the African market place, the African Cultural Center, featured at the world stage, and received a writing scholarship to UCLA where he studied under Suzanne Lummis.

Brooke Sprowl has attended the World Stage Anansi Writer's Workshop for the past 5 years and credits the World Stage as her major poetic influence. She has been featured at the Beyond Baroque Literary Arts Center and her work has appeared in the Voices from Leimert Park Poetry Anthology as well as Pearl Magazine. Brooke is currently pursuing a Masters degree in Social Welfare at UCLA.

William Cleveland is the founder and Director of the Center for the Study of Art and Community. Mr. Cleveland's 25 year history, producing arts programs in cultural, educational and community also includes his leadership of the Walker ArtCenter's Education and Community Programs Department, California's Arts-In-Corrections Program and the California State Summer School for the Arts. His book Art in Other Places chronicles 22 model programs developed by artists and community development service providers in 17 American communities.

Mr. Cleveland serves on the boards of Partners for Arts Schools and Students, Sarah Elgart Dance Company, Geese Theater Company, Art In the Public Interest, and as a panelist and consultant for the National Endowment for the Arts. Mr. Cleveland is an advisor for Partners for Livable Communities' the British American Art Association's International Arts and Education Initiative and the Urban Arts Institute. He is also a member of the UCLA Artsreach Advisory Committee, and works as an associate of the Arts Extension Service at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.

www.artandcommunity.com

Susan Hill served for two decades as California's Director of Artsreach, which partnered with California's statewide creative fine arts program, Arts In Corrections. At Artsreach, she initiated, designed and sustained arts programming in the California Youth Authority facilities in southern California collaborated in the design and implementation of continual multi-disciplinary programming in 17 adult state prisons. The nine-member improvisational theatre company she founded, especially trained for Youth Authority constituencies, was recognized as "Best Practice" by the Rand Corporation, and nationally acknowledged as one of the top national violence prevention programs for violent youth. Artsreach actively participated in community arts initiatives with high risk communities within Los Angeles after the 1992 Uprising, creating a variety of programs publicly accessible for youth under the name Peace Road, and Ceremony of Thunder. Currently she is working more creatively than administratively, in classrooms with college art students, with young children in inner-city Los Angeles, and in illustrated correspondence with pen pal children in Malawi, Africa.