Fiction Artist Styles

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Elmaz Abinader

Literary Arts: Playwright, Poet, Writer

To be born a writer and an Arab-American in this lifetime creates an imperative for my work and despite an education that led me away from politically charged writing, my life, my family’s country and the political climate demanded I give voice that nuanced characters and moments that have no complication in the media. My work has been inspired by the dislocation of my parents from Lebanon to the US, and has radiated outward to dislocations, occupations, and disenfranchisement of other people in the Arab World and Diaspora. My first book, a memoir, The Children of the Roojme: A Family’s Journey from Lebanon was the story of three generations of Lebanese and their various challenges in finding a home away from their country. Based on diaries, interviews and letters, the book covers two centuries, ending in 1947. My second publication, a poetry collection, In the Country of My Dreams…. Provides a collection of very specific dislocations—not only the family immigration but my own transition from New York to the Midwest and the shock of the open terrain of Nebraska and the intimate relationships with natural elements. In addition to these publications, I have written and performed several one-women plays: Country of Origin, Ramadan Moon, 32 Mohammeds, Voices from the Siege and The Torture Quartet. Each uncovers a personal perspective on the lives of Arabs in the middle of political trauma. For instance, 32 Mohammeds is an intersection with the death of Mohammed al-Durra, a boy killed in Palestine before the second Intifada; Ramadan Moon explores the mythology associated with women who are veiled and the different reasons and responses to the veil. My new poetry collection, This House, My Bones draws parallels between the changes of the earth through natural means to the changes in our bodies during unnatural traumas and how that trauma moves through generations. This collection is being published by Willow Press in October 2014 My current project is a novel, When Silence is Frightening (Working title)

Peter Nathaniel Malae

Literary Arts: Writer

Peter Nathaniel Malae is the author of the novels, Our Frail Blood (2013), an epic about the dissolution of an American family in three generations; What We Are (2010), a New York Times Editor’s Choice, winner of the San Francisco Foundation’s Joseph Henry Jackson Award and a finalist for the Pacific Northwest Book Award; and the story collection, Teach the Free Man (2007), a finalist for the New York Public Library’s Young Lions Fiction Award, the Glasgow Prize and a notable book selection by the Story Prize. He is a former John Steinbeck, Arts Council Silicon Valley and MacDowell Colony Fellow.

Elizabeth McKenzie

Literary Arts: Writer

Elizabeth McKenzie is the author of The Portable Veblen, forthcoming from Penguin in 2016. Her collection, Stop That Girl, was short-listed for The Story Prize, and her novel MacGregor Tells the World was a Chicago Tribune, San Francisco Chronicle and Library Journal Best Book of the year. Her work has appeared in The New Yorker, The Atlantic Monthly, Best American Nonrequired Reading, and the Pushcart Prize Anthology, and recorded for NPR’s Selected Shorts.

Michael J. Vaughn

Literary Arts: Poet, Writer; Novelist

Michael J. Vaughn is the author of seventeen books, most recently Mascot, a literary novel set in a minor league baseball park. He is a competitions judge for Writer’s Digest, a thirty-year opera critic, and drummer for the San Francisco rock band Exit Wonderland. Vaughn is also an active poet, with more than 100 poems published in journals both off- and on-line. He graduated from San Jose State with a journalism degree and a classical voice minor. He was born in Brunswick, Maine, and spent much of his childhood shuttling around the country, courtesy of his father Harold’s career as a pilot with the US Navy.

Kirby Wright

Literary Arts: Poet, Writer; Visual Artist

I was born and raised in Honolulu, Hawaii. I am a graduate of Punahou School in Honolulu and the University of California at San Diego. I received my MFA in Creative Writing from San Francisco State University. I have been nominated for five Pushcart Prizes and three Best of the Nets. I am a past recipient of the Honolulu Weekly Nonfiction Prize, the Jodi Stutz Memorial Prize in Poetry, the Ann Fields Poetry Prize, the Academy of American Poets Award, two Browning Society Awards for Dramatic Monologue, and Arts Council Silicon Valley Fellowships in Poetry and The Novel. BEFORE THE CITY, my first book of poetry, took First Place at the 2003 San Diego Book Awards.I am also the author of the companion novels PUNAHOU BLUES and MOLOKA’I NUI AHINA, both set in Hawaii. I was a Visiting Fellow at the 2009 International Writers Conference in Hong Kong, where I represented the Pacific Rim region of Hawaii and lectured with Pulitzer Prize winner Gary Snyder. I was also a Visiting Writer at the 2010 Martha’s Vineyard Writers Residency in Edgartown, MA, the 2011 Artist in Residence at Milkwood International, Czech Republic, and the 2014 Resident Scholar at the Earthskin Artist Colony in Auckland, New Zealand.

Diane Yohn

Literary Arts: Playwright, Writer

Writer for stage, television, film, novella, & poetry. Visual artist in photography & computer art with showings at San Jose Institute of Contemporary Art, Triton Museum of Art in Santa Clara, CA, Santa Barbara Arts Pavilion; cover art for numerous books (“The Secret Power of Naming”, “Love in the Fast Lane”, “I Was Indian” Volume II) CURRENTLY: Advisory Board Member for Wild Blackhorse Press ~ Where Indigenous Writing Thrives: www.wildblackhorsepress.com Currently accepting and perusing submissions for an anthology of indigenous erotica. Retired from the following: Founder & Artistic Director of Ableza & Facyt – Native American Arts Association & its youth theatre counterpart, First Americans Conservatory Youth Theatre. Endowed Chair for Radio, T.V., & Film – San Jose State University Intersession programs in Oral Tradition at Stanford University. Guest lectures include: Stanford University University of Washington – Seattle University of California – Santa Barbara, Riverside, Hayward Humboldt State University University of Georgia – Athens. Keystone Speaker & Presenter for the American Alliance of Theatre & Education – Salt Lake City, UT. Feature Presenter of original works: American Literary Association National Conference in Long Beach, CA: “Full Circle” – a one-woman multimedia play. Native American Literature Symposium: In Puerto Vallarta, Mexico: “EverySkin’s Day In Court” In Mystic Lake, MN: “Raw Pearl” Presenter: International Alternative Theatre Conference: Alternative Space – University of San Francisco California Arts Council Conferences – Lake Pomo, CA & Asilomar Awards: Arts Council of Silicon Valley Fellowship in Playwriting for “Tiospe” Frank Silvera’s Writers Workshop Award (NYC) for “Tiospe” American Theatre Association National Award for “The Aftermath” National as well as International Women’s Conference Arts Awards for “Pros & Cons” Recent Publications: Volumes I & II of “I Was Indian” Native American Literature Anthologies of 2010 & 2012 SableLit Magazine 2010 – Indigenous Writers Issue Yellow Medicine Review 2008 Alleged co-conspirator in Kolawin-gate & The Lodgepole Bar; cover-art and poetry contributor for Native American erotic literature collection entitled “Moon of the Popping Cherries”; and even wilder controversies.

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