Peter Finch is news director and morning-news anchor at KFOG-FM in San Francisco. He has also worked as a reporter covering three Super Bowls, two national political conventions (one Democrat; one Republican), and was sent to Nicaragua during that country’s civil war. He has a master’s degree in journalism and mass communication from the University of Colorado, and a bachelor’s degree in broadcast communication arts from San Francisco State University. He has taught courses in broadcast journalism at both.

Arne Johnson published a film and culture zine called Ventilator, and has written for many other publications including the Bay Guardian, Contra Costa Times, SF Examiner, Film and Tape World and various websites. In a galaxy very far away and a long time ago, was once the movies editor at Citysearch.com.

Al Madrigal is a native of San Francisco’s Inner Sunset District. He started doing stand-up in 1997 and hasn’t stopped since. He performs regularly at The SF Punchline, Cobb’s, and The Comedy Underground in Seattle. He also does sketch comedy with the popular San Francisco group “The Fresh Robots.” Al’s awards include being a semi-finalist in the 1999 San Francisco Comedy Competition, a semi-finalist in Comedy Central’s Laugh Riots in 2001, a winner of the esteemed 2000 Brainwash Comedy Competition, and others. For more information about Al, visit his website at www.almadrigal.com.

Greta Mittner has been an editor and reporter for The Red Herring and Women.com, for which she covered the presidential national conventions in 2000. She has a BA in English from Oberlin College and is currently working on getting her MFA in creative writing at Goddard College. When she’s not writing short stories and essays, she’s trying to instill her love of reading and writing in her baby girl.

Tom Molanphy is English Coordinator for the Academy of Art College in San Francisco. His fiction has been published by Colorado College Press, and his memoir on his two years in Belize teaching Mayans, Following Mateo, is available at www.followingmateo.com.

Amie E. Nenninger loves reading, writing, and problem solving, and she puts these skills to use daily as an educational and developmental tutor and 826 volunteer. Amie graduated from the University of Illinois, spent a year volunteering in school with AmeriCorps, and studied Australian literature as a Rotary Ambassadorial Scholar. She has been at 826 Valencia since the days when Karl was king, and she enjoys training junior detectives and spreading the good work of 826 to far flung states in the nation.

Jessica Partch has been a volunteer at 826 almost since the beginning. She has been a workshop leader, a drop-in tutoring point person, a classroom tutor, an event planner, a grant writer, and a wall painter. Most recently, Jessica has been focusing her work at 826 on the Development Committee, introducing new friends to this incredible organization. Also a fundraiser in her day job, Jessica works for The Trust for Public Land.

Micah Pilkington grew up in Colorado, where she learned to appreciate cowboy hats. She works professionally in theatre (as an actor and writer), film (as a minion), and in the exciting world of copywriting. Favorite gigs include a stint at Pixar Animation and playing the perky but ill-fated singing telegram girl in Clue: the Play. She is very proud to be a part of 826 Valencia, where she teaches classes on vacation-taking, freeing your inner cartoon character, and secret identities.

Kazz Regelman has two bugs: writing and traveling. After graduating from Princeton University, she was a Fulbright scholar in Taiwan, the Tokyo correspondent for Variety, and then a scuba diving instructor in the Philippines. Since she moved to San Francisco 5 years ago, she’s been a theater and restaurant reviewer for Sidewalk.com and freelanced for the Hollywood Reporter, the Boston Globe, Boys’ Life, and others. She is currently concentrating on fiction and creative non-fiction but is still trying to explore the world. Her current total: 36 countries, 5 continents, 5 languages, 4 food poisoning incidents, 1 overseas hospital visit.

Andrew Strickman has been a critic since age 8, when he documented the quality of bathroom facilities during family trips. His feature writing has been seen in Rolling Stone, ReadyMade, Details and Business 2.0 among other publications. More of his arts criticism can be seen on or in RollingStone.com, Salon.com, SOMA, URB and SF Weekly. He sits on the Development Committee at 826 and co-hosts weekend drop-in tutoring for those who can’t get enough during the week.

Jenny Traig has a doctorate from Brandeis, where she studied literature and lady swashbucklers. She is the author of Devil in the Details (Little, Brown & Co.) as well as Judaikitsch and the Crafty Girl series (Chronicle Books).

Vendela Vida is a workshop teacher at 826 Valencia, in addition to being the president of the 826 Valencia Board. She received her MFA in writing from Columbia University, and she is the author of Girls on the Verge (St. Martin’s Press, 1999), And Now You Can Go (Knopf, 2003), and Let the Northern Lights Erase Your Name (Ecco, 2007). Vendela also founded the award-winning Believer magazine.

Cynthia Wood is a publishing industry veteran with an M.A. in French and an almost-Ph.D. in French Literature from UC Berkeley. While there she focused on early 20th century autobiography and, more specifically, the self-obsessed work of Michel Leiris. Cynthia’s own work has been published as well as performed—in the literary journal Délire, and by the UCSD Feminist Theatre Ensemble respectively. In her dreams she is a successful writer of urban rants. In a previous life she was a knight in the Land of Gaul wherein she suffered a severe injury to her left hip during a jousting incident. She loves music and meandering road trips to vague destinations.

Matt Yeoman worked professionally as an actor, director, and producer in theaters in Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, Indiana, and Texas, before settling in San Francisco. A graduate of the Juilliard School, Matt writes screenplays and works for the last surviving dotcom.

Jon Adams is a freelance illustrator, designer and writer who prefers making stuff to sleeping. He's the creator of Truth Serum – an Eisner-nominated series of graphic novels and a weekly comic which you can read at citycyclops.com. Unless you're blind.

Norman Patrick Doyle grew up in Dublin, Ireland where his family includes an Oscar winner and numerous nuns. His career as a child actor on national radio ended when his voice broke, but not before he finished sixteen weeks as Jim Hawkins in the serialization of Treasure Island (yar). Following a couple of years with the BBC in London, he entered a witless protection program in Silicon Valley from which he recently graduated. Norman has become totally addicted to tutoring with 826, especially with the in-schools programs. He has been lost in more San Francisco high schools than many people have had hot dinners.

Stephen Elliott is the author of six books including Happy Baby, a finalist for the New York Public Library's Young Lion Award as well as a best book of 2004 in Salon.com, Newsday, Chicago New City, The Journal News, and the Village Voice. Elliott's writing has been featured in Esquire, The New York Times, GQ, and Best American Non-Required Reading 2005 and 2007. He is also the founder of the Progressive Reading Series, which helps authors raise money and participate on behalf of progressive candidates across the country.

John Gibler has spent the better part of the past ten years between Latin America and California working as a teacher, musician, research-advocate for human rights organizations, and journalist. He writes for magazines and websites, plays music in hidden venues, and participates gleefully in 826 writing adventures with kids whenever he can.

Heather Cullen grew up in the dusky northwest of Seattle, Washington and likes to dabble in California culture. She is currently aspiring to receive a degree in Social Work, with hopes of getting involved with children in foster care. Children are Heather's heroes and she desires to learn as much as she can from their heroics. She enjoys riding her bike over bridges, reading most anything on paper, and watching birds fly. She currently plays music on the side, among other things. General people are her number one.

Tracy Clark-Flory is proudly the product of two Berkeley hippies. She grew up in the Bay Area and hasn't yet found reason to leave. She is an assistant editor at Salon.com and writes for the magazine's feminist blog, Broadsheet. Her elusive alter ego co-founded a series of charmingly unhinged websites. In her free time, Tracy attempts to salsa dance, watches ‘80s sitcoms, and arranges reader hate mail on her refrigerator. Her life goals include: Selling her soul to a major book publisher, renting an apartment with more than one room, owning a dish-washing machine, and most importantly, arranging a "Full House" cast reunion.

Lara Fox, a native of Atlanta, Georgia, moved to the Bay Area after ten chilly years in Cambridge, Massachusetts. For many years, she's been putting her anthropology degree to use bringing zest to the world's social studies textbooks. Soon, she'll be stepping back into the shoes of a student to study education policy and leadership and start chasing down a dream of building her own educational non-profit. In her free time, she works with young writers and editorial-board-izes at 826, tutors a student at KIPP Bayview Academy, and does a variety of other volunteer activities. She also enjoys reading, writing, cooking, taking photographs, people-watching, and exploring.

Yosh Han is the creator and perfumer of YOSH olfactory sense, an artisanal fragrance company. Artistic commissions include projects for SF Opera, the Bureau of Urban Secrets and 826LA Time Travel Mart. Her work has been featured in Vanity Fair, Vogue and on CBS MarketWatch. Prior to starting her own business, she was the original Purveyor of Pirate Supplies and Events Producer at 826 Valencia. Production & fundraising events included the wildly successful 1st Annual Thumbwrestling Tournament, 1st Annual Icelandic Film Festival and Beard Trimmings. She loves island living: coconuts, snorkeling, reading on the beach & pirates.

June Jackson is from the east coast and first visited San Francisco during the Summer of Love in 1968. She slowly worked her way back to the west, via New York, New Jersey, Puerto Rico, Montana and Chicago and finally moved to the Inner Sunset in 2002. She was one of the first 826 volunteers and now sits on the Development Committee and actually enjoys fundraising for 826 Valencia. She has four children and four grandchildren and works as a hospice social worker in Marin County and also as a massage therapist. Her favorite jobs at 826 are helping high school seniors with their college essays and being able to express her angry alter ego as Mrs. Blue, the mean editor who lives in the attic. Her secret ambition is to be a roadie for a rock band.

Tom Kealey is the author of the MFA Creative Writing Handbook and the co-editor of the Stanford Graphic Novel Project. He teaches creative writing at Stanford University, Google, and of course 826 Valencia!

Adam Lauridsen is a Bay Area native. He has a B.A. and J.D. from Harvard University and a Master’s degree in Philosophy from Cambridge University. When he's not teaching 826 students how to be more argumentative in his debate class, he's working on his own arguments as a lawyer in San Francisco. He loves music, Mexican food, and Golden State Warriors basketball.

Belinda Man is an extra-curricular master overloader, San Francisco native, and enjoys working as 826 Valencia's unpaid staff photographer. A recent high school graduate from Galileo Academy of Science & Technology, she will be attending Evergreen State College in the fall of 2007. She plans on being a distinguished film director in the future. Belinda is well traveled due to her mother, and enjoys skiing, having her wit challenged, and her meticulous taste in everything.

Sally Mao is currently an undergraduate at Carnegie Mellon University majoring in Creative Writing and ??!. She is 826 Valencia's 2005 Young Author Scholar. The recent motifs in her life have been: honey badgers, long train rides, and fried tofu. Her most impossible ambitions have included growing an acacia tree in her backyard and starting a painfully experimental girl band.

Zoe McCann moved to the Bay Area from Santa Cruz where she attended UC Santa Cruz and received a B.A. in “Intensive Spanish Literature with an emphasis in Creative Writing.” (Yes, that is the official title of her degree and it strikes her as lengthy.) Now she works as a freelance production assistant and morning broadcast news writer, and volunteers at 826 Valencia. When she is not working and not volunteering, she frequents public libraries and walks around the Bay Area. Today while she was walking in the Mission District she saw the back of a black pick-up truck loaded to the top with watermelons, and thought it was a nice California summertime thing to see.

Molly Meng grew up in So Cal, but really cut her teeth on the Big Apple. When she and her husband had the opportunity to move to San Francisco a couple of years ago, they ran with it. Molly had one idea in mind: Go back to that little Pirate Store and see what's going on behind the velvet curtain. 826 Valencia was the first place she volunteered and it has led to her current job of teaching drama and writing to K-5th graders in public schools. When she's not designing the front window of the Pirate Store, she's in her studio working on her greeting card line, “8mm ideas”.

Hilary Merrill is a Venice, California native who has dedicated herself to magic and curiosity. After spending two years of college in Boston and one semester in Spain, she came out to UC Berkeley to finish a B.A. in both English Literature and Spanish Literature. She trains horses, runs trails, and climbs rocks when she’s not studying Medieval Literature or plotting how to make her life even more hectic and complicated. Volunteering with amazing kids through tutoring and field trips at 826 Valencia helps Hilary quiet down and experience life in a fantastical way.

Jon Sung was born and mostly raised in Syracuse, NY before heading to Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, where he made off with degrees in Creative and Technical Writing before anyone could stop him. Jon is now the knowledge base editor for Linden Lab. When not rehearsing with his band The Definite Articles or updating the Dogblog, Jon may be found dispensing drinks or general helpfulness at an 826 Valencia event.

Anna Angéle Star Ura was raised in Los Angeles by hippies. She received a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She has since been an art teacher to middle school through high school children, the editorial designer for a newspaper, and a working artist. She enjoys painting, being outside, and spending quality time with Mr. Blue atop the ladder. She is the Director of Events and Retail for 826 Valencia, and truly couldn't be happier about it.

Miranda Yaver is a Bay Area native. She enjoys working on political campaigns, volunteering at 826 Valencia, writing in her dwindling spare time, and has traveled far and wide to see Bruce Springsteen in concert. After spending a year in Maine, she decided to return to Berkeley (Go Bears!) to finish her B.A. degree in Political Science and Public Policy, which she hopes to complete in 2009. She is currently working with the Voice of Witness book series.

Brad Stone joined the New York Times as a Technology Correspondent in December 2006. He covers Internet trends from the newspaper’s San Francisco bureau. From 1998 to November 2006, Stone served as the Silicon Valley Correspondent for Newsweek, writing for the technology and business sections of the magazine and authoring a regular column, “Plain Text,” on our evolving digital lifestyles. He joined the Newsweek writing staff in 1996 as a general assignment reporter and covered a wide range of subjects. He wrote about Mark McGwire's home run chase during the summer of 1998, the jury deliberations in the Timothy McVeigh trial, and profiled authors such as Kurt Vonnegut. He is also a frequent contributor to Wired magazine, and has written for More magazine and the Sunday Telegraph in London. In March of 2003, Simon & Schuster published his book, Gearheads: The Turbulent Rise of Robotic Sports, on the world of robot contests and hobbyists. Brad graduated from Columbia University in 1993 and is originally from Cleveland, Ohio.

Felix Chow met the 826 Valencia gang in 2005 and has been connected to Jory's ethereal hip ever since then. The kids have been wonderful, charming, and make him laugh each time he visits. Some of them have grown taller than him already! Currently, he is finishing up a master's degree in Adult Education, looking to establish an adult learning center in the city very soon, possibly rivaling the 826 pirates. 826 Valencia and its people, who help and work on a daily basis, are great inspirations and have been a spectacular community presence in San Francisco. When not at work, he is an email or telephone call away from volunteering gigs other than drop-in tutoring. Through another non-profit called Refugee Transitions, he also does volunteer ESL lessons for a group of senior citizens in Chinatown. Some of his hobbies include putting on his foodie mask and bib, bicycling, photography, and stop motion animation. Felix admits it has been great to be a part of 826 Valencia, networking and making the acquaintance of many creators of famously mischievous and intra-witty prose and graphic novels based on 826 Valencia monkey business.

Cristina Giner grew up in a suburb of Boston, Massachusetts. After college and law school on the East Coast, she made her way to the Bay Area. She has worked for 14 years as a tax lawyer. She also enjoys working with children and tries to make a positive difference in their lives.

Ellen Goodenow is a writer/editor living in San Francisco. She has authored numerous educational books for children and articles for adults related to science, cultural history, and nutrition. She holds an M.F.A. in nonfiction from Emerson College and begins training this fall as a holistic nutritionist. Ellen's favorite experiences as an 826 volunteer have included participating on the editorial board of Exactly (the anthology of stories by kids for kids), helping to copyedit the 826 Quarterly, and farming faux facial hair as part of 826's first annual Mustache-a-Thon.

Thomas King grew up in St. Louis, Missouri and has since lived all across the country, including the beautiful cities of Hartford, Spokane, and El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora la Reina de los Ángeles de Porciúncula. He holds an M.F.A. from the Inland Northwest Center for Writers and enjoys leading writing workshops and helping students with their homework.

Paul Madonna’s strip, “All Over Coffee,” appears weekly in the San Francisco Chronicle and on SFGate.com. Paul’s drawings and prints are shown several times a year in museums, galleries, restaurants, and cafés, and the first collection of “All Over Coffee” was published in 2007 by City Lights Books. Also in 2007, Paul did a fabulously shaky rendition of 826's storefront, including Chris Ware's mural, for a commemorative limited edition print celebrating 826's 5th year anniversary. Paul's other work can be found on his website, paulmadonna.com, and in various publications including The Believer, Zyzzyva, and the recent book, A Writer’s San Francisco, by author Eric Maisel. In 1994, Paul received a B.F.A. from Carnegie Mellon University, and that same year he was the first (ever!) Art Intern at MAD Magazine, for which he proudly received no money. In fall 2008 he will have an illustrated novella published by the Book Club of California and will also be teaching at the University of San Francisco.

Nicole Pfaff grew up in a wee suburb of Portland, Oregon, which she affectionately calls "Vantucky." She wandered down to San Francisco a few years ago to pursue a teaching credential and master's degree from the University of San Francisco, and is terribly excited about becoming a full time high school English teacher in the fall. On the third day of her living in San Francisco, she marched into the Pirate Store and applied to become a volunteer, starting out as a Pirate Store ambassador and eventually working in the store, as well as volunteering in the after school tutoring program. She is currently writing her master's thesis on the efficacy of the tutoring services of 826 Valencia. You will be her best friend forever if you agree to travel to Serbia and/or Croatia to witness a gypsy music festival with her next summer.

Ben Stefonik was born and raised in “Sconsin” (Wisconsin) before he stuffed the back of his car and made the long I-80 migration to San Francisco in 2005. He loves to read, downhill ski, fly down the hills of San Francisco on his bike, and dabble here and there with writing. He has an M.A. in Social Psychology from San Francisco State University and a geek-like passion for all things pedagogical. He will be teaching Psychology at Cañada College in the fall of 2007 and looks forward to a career of community college teaching in the Bay Area.

Vance Ingalls grew up in the Motor City: Detroit (from the French detroit, "strait", referring to the Detroit River connecting Lake St. Clair and Lake Erie). After sojourns in New York City, Berlin, and Copenhagen, he landed in San Francisco. Vance has advanced degrees in Psychology and Chinese Language and Literature, and works in the psychiatry department at UCSF with a drug research treatment team. He has a son at Cal (Philosophy major), and a daughter at City College of SF (Social Work and Early Childhood Education). He is smitten with the novels of Jane Austen, the films of Eric Rohmer, bicycling (Critical Mass!), and (of course), tutoring at 826 Valencia.

Abigail Jacobs is a Bay Area native and has been co-teaching the "College Essay Writing" and "Writing About Art" workshops at 826 Valencia since the center opened in 2002. In addition, she is on the Development Committee and the Grant Writing Committee, and can also be found at 826 on Sundays during the school year when she is the point-person for drop-in tutoring. During the day, Abigail is a Director of Public Relations for Williams-Sonoma, Inc. In her free time she enjoys traveling, reading, and writing with her writing group. She holds a B.A. in Political Science and Art from Colgate University. Her favorite food is the burrito.

Abner Morales is a half-decade Bay Area resident currently living in Oakland. He was born in Antigua, Guatemala and grew up in Los Angeles, California and Portland, Oregon. He graduated from Portland State University with an English B.A., and is an off-and-on semi-part-time Spanish/English interpreter student/volunteer. He likes running in the local hills when the moon is out. On one occasion he almost got run over by a deer whilst jogging—which wasn’t as scary as the time a wild turkey jumped out at almost the same spot. Or when he thought he saw a coyote. But it wasn’t one, because there are no coyotes around here, right? Only mountain lions…When not volunteering or running, he works at Robert Half International, researching, producing financial reports, and supporting offices in Europe and Asia.

Risa Nye is a Bay Area native. She received her degree from UC Berkeley so long ago she forgets what it was in. Risa has a Master's degree in counseling, which she managed to get while raising two small children and producing a third. She is happily immersed in the field of college counseling, while doing quite a bit of writing about whatever fascinating thing pops in her head. She is the Associate Director of College Counseling at Head-Royce School in Oakland, and is the proud co-editor of "Writin' on Empty: Parents Reveal the Upside, Downside, and Everything in Between When Children Leave the Nest." Check out the website at www.writinonempty.com. Her granddaughter, Madeleine, is the best grandchild ever.

Todd Pound has directed, animated, written, and designed a variety of storytelling experiments, including collaborations with cartoonist Garry Trudeau and painter Mark Ryden. Right this very second, he is making a superhero video game. Every weekend he tries to write and doodle… but his son prefers that his dad chase him around the park instead.

Jason Roberts is a writer of fiction and nonfiction. His most recent book, A Sense of the World, was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award. In a previous century he served as editor-in-chief of Children's Express News Service, as a technology correspondent for the Village Voice, and as the editor of a curious book that was, at least in part, about campfires and shaving. He lives in Sausalito.

Jon Wynacht is a web developer for Lucasfilm but secretly hopes to one day teach English and Computer Science to unruly high school students.

Burt Meyer is an over 30 and more volunteer in the after-school and summer programs. A retired attorney, he also spends time volunteering in archeology and researching Adolph Sutro as well as farming in an Inner Sunset backyard.

Erin Geld loves to move. She grew up in Brazil, went to college in Upstate New York and moved out to California last year, making her the very first Geld to ever set foot in the state. She ended up interning at 826 Valencia, to find out whether she liked teaching or editing more. Teaching won out, and now she's going to be a Teaching Associate at San Francisco Day School. 826 Valencia impressed and inspired her to such an extent she now has dreams of developing something similar back home in Sao Paulo one day.

Michelle Ryan grew up in New Jersey and currently lives in San Francisco. Michelle received her MFA in poetry from Emerson College in Boston and has published poems in Busenhalter, Haight-Ashbury Literary Journal, Mad Poets Review, Spillway, Angelflesh Press, Phoenix Press, and two volumes of the Beacon Street Review. Michelle is an avid supporter of the literary arts in San Francisco; she volunteers at Intersection for the Arts and loves teaching poetry workshops at 826 Valencia.

Mark Follman grew up in St. Louis and has lived in San Francisco since 1994. He has an MFA in writing from the University of San Francisco and is a writer and editor for the online magazine Salon. His writing has also appeared in other publications including Rolling Stone, Arrive, Der Spiegel and the Toronto Star. In 2005, Mark helped launch the Bay-farer, 826 Valencia's student newspaper, and has enjoyed participating in that workshop ever since.

Katherine Kugay interned at 826 Valencia in the summer of 2007 and thus discovered the wonders of grant writing and winning battles of wit with File Maker Pro. She is a major of psychology at Mills College and likes research concerning language, perception, and health. In her spare time she enjoys pretending she's an expert on film, writes music, embarks on daring baking projects, and helps old ladies cross the street. From time to time she pops into the pirate store for a copy of the latest Believer and to help a high school student write his or her magnum opus. One day after Katherine has earned her four PhDs, she hopes to teach adolescents in whatever life has taught her. She would also like to write the next next great American novel.

Kathryn Olney's favorite job, besides writing, teaching, and raising her kids, was the year she taught Alex, the famous African Grey parrot, to "talk". Trained as an anthropologist, Kathryn considers journalism “drive-by anthropology." She has worked for Mother Jones, Health, Wired and San Francisco Magazine and a number of web sites. Her work has also appeared in More, Newsweek, Salon, Fodor’s, Image, Book, The San Francisco Chronicle and elsewhere. In addition to running workshops and tutoring at 826 Valencia, she has taught journalism at San Francisco State, UC Berkeley extension, and The Urban School of San Francisco. Other than wishing she had continued to educate Alex, her only other regret is that she never wrote for Spy during its early funny years. While she is still surrounded by birds, plants and children, when she misses Alex she likes to watch him, late at night, while eating coffee ice cream, on YouTube. Someday, perhaps, she’ll be watching her beloved hominid students on YouTube as well.

Isaac Fitzgerald has volunteered at 826 Valencia since stumbling in its doors by mistake in 2006. He loves playing Mr. Blue, but admits, without regret, that Dan Weiss does the crabby editor much more justice. Isaac has also been a firefighter, worked on a boat, and been given a sword by a king; thereby accomplishing three out of five of his childhood goals by the age of 25. He has written for Mother Jones Magazine, McSweeneys, and AlterNet. He lives in San Francisco.

Leslie Outhier has been privileged to volunteer with 826 in various ways. She is most proud of organizing the bookshelves and trading in bulky donated romance novels and text books for volumes of Harry Potter and for establishing the compost worm farm on the back patio. She wishes she could come more often but last year she moved to Oakland to be an urban farmer.

Susie Kramer writes fiction. Her stories have appeared in The Greensboro Review, New American Writing, and Inkwell. The novel she’s working on takes place in Buenos Aires, Vienna, Chicago, and California, which are all places where her grandmother lived (hint hint). In the past she has won fellowships to go off and write in the Berkshires, in Russia, and in Oysterville, Washington. She’s been a creative writing teacher, a copy editor, a tester of recipes, a picker-upper of dry cleaning, and a food writer for the Oakland Tribune. These days, when Susie is not writing, she’s usually baking. She is a native San Franciscan, now living in Twin Peaks with her husband and their whippet. She has lost count of how many times she’s been fired by Mr. Blue.

Charlotte Petersen taught herself to knit when she was seven and picked up a North Carolina drawl at twenty-three. As an Army brat she’s lived in three countries, ten states, twenty boroughs, and in 1999 finally settled in the Mission. A generalist at heart, she has worked as a racquetball instructor, Washington lobbyist, magazine Editor-in-Chief, and long-haul truck driver. Charlotte wandered into 826’s Pirate Store in 2003, then helped construct the Writer’s Room and the Straight-Up News at Everett Middle School. She relishes filling new volunteers’ heads with way too much information and toiling over third grade math homework.

Karen Wagstaffe is a big fan of 826 Valencia and of all the amazing people who work and volunteer there. Karen is a stay-at-home mom of Michael, Emily, Matthew, and Megan and has a faint recollection of having been a lawyer a couple of decades ago. Karen comes in Mondays to help Leigh and Lauren and other folks in the back office with just about anything. She is probably most famous around 826 for being the mother of Megan Wagstaffe, a Monday after-school tutor extraordinaire. Megan, the youngest, leaves for college this fall. It's going to be quite a change, but Karen is pretty sure that she will be in agreement with Nora Ephron that "the empty nest is underrated."

Mark de la Viña was a part of the tutoring corps that helped create the award-winning Straight-Up News at Everett Middle School in 2003. Mark is an arts, entertainment and style reporter for the San Jose Mercury News. His articles, which have appeared in such publications as the Los Angeles Times, the Chicago Tribune and Latina, have inspired the names of at least two punk rock groups. Mark graduated from the University of Arizona and attended the University of Madrid. He firmly believes that rice in burritos is a sin against nature.

Chad Lent is a 5-year veteran at 826 Valencia, who was hooked the very first day by Mr Blue and his storytelling ways, during a visit to the Pirate Store. When Chad's not wrangling words with the elementary students each week at the writing center, he's acting as a client champion at In Ticketing, supporting various events like Burning Man, Harmony Festival, High Sierra Music Fest, and any other great music and art happening in the Bay Area and beyond. Chad has absolutely no formal teacher training, classroom instruction, or even parenting experience, yet manages to get by with his engineering degree and dot-com ingenuity amongst the highly-qualified literary and educational disciples at 826 Valencia.