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 is madly in love with school. Nine years spent in brown and yellow plaid only fed the fire. Her parents were curious why she wasn’t on this list. And rightly so — she is a tutor and primary caregiver for Karl one day a week. Amie continues to haunt the educational system as teacher, aide, tutor, and substitute. She is currently in first grade learning about the dawn of numbers and the early roots of the postal system. Her parents are right. This is important information.    

Jessica Partch loves dogs. She loves big dogs, small dogs, and in-between dogs. She also likes ice cream cones a lot, too. She prefers the big ones. When she’s not petting neighborhood dogs or eating delicious ice cream cones, Jessica edits video and writes web content and reports for WestEd, an educational research and service agency — which she likes, but not as much as the dogs or ice cream.

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 tutor at the 826 Valencia Writing Lab. She’s also the author of Girls on the Verge. Vendela had so much fun teaching creative writing at Marin Academy a few summers ago that she continues to look forward to every single one of her short-story writing and reading workshops.

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 an illustrator/designer/writer who prefers making stuff to sleeping. He is the author and publisher of two graphic novels, Truth Serum (which has been nominated for two Eisner Awards, and translated by Italian publisher Alta-Fedelta) and Truth Serum: The Lonely Parade (which has yet to be nominated for anything). His stories have been published by Slave Labor Graphics and Dark Horse Comics, among others including a Star Wars story in which a desperately sad Darth Vader, alone on his birthday, falls asleep and wets himself. Jon hopes one day to be an astronaut and/or President.

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 witness 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 four novels including Happy Baby and A Life Without Consequences, as well as a memoir of the 2004 presidential campaign Looking Forward To It: Or How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love The American Electoral Process. He is the founder of the Progressive Reading Series and teaches creative writing at Stanford University.

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 San Francisco after ten chilly years in Cambridge, Massachusetts. By day, she puts her anthropology degree to use bringing zest to the world's social studies textbooks. The rest of the time, she works with young writers and editorial-board-izes at 826, tutors a student at KIPP Bayview Academy, and co-organizes the Early College Awareness Program. She also enjoys reading, writing, taking photographs, people-watching, and exploring.

Yosh Han created a line of pirate perfumes for 826 Valencia when she was working as the Purveyor of Pirate Supplies (2002-2004). The #1 seller at the time was a toss-up between Buccaneer and Swashbuckler. In her free time she dances Kahiko (ancient hula), preferably on the Big Island of Hawaii. Her favorite food is coconut ice cream, though she often stops at Bombay Ice Creamery for their special cardamom rose flavor. Most times, she'll just go for it with a double scoop. Does she still help pirates and other stinky people smell better? Yes, that is her main gig now, aside from getting people to donate useful things like money to 826 Valencia.

June Jackson grew up in Connecticut and came to the Bay Area 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, one grandchild and another on the way. She also works as a massage therapist and a hospice social worker in Marin County. 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.

Tom Kealey is originally from North Carolina and has been a volunteer at 826 Valencia since 2002. He teaches Creative Writing at Stanford University and authored The Creative Writing MFA Handbook: A Guide for Prospective Graduate Students. He hosts the Volunteer Reading Series at 826 Valencia and plays a mean game of both basketball and Euchre. Everybody knows Tom Kealey. Tom Kealey will always lend you a hand.

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.

Ashwin Seshagiri is a Bay Area native. After being born in the East Bay and receiving a B.A. with Honors in Rhetoric at UC Berkeley, Ashwin is currently an Associate Producer at a media start-up in San Francisco focused on the Green movement. Aside from biking, surfing, and reading while commuting, Ashwin relishes his time at 826--the oft highlight of his week--where he has since re-learned the proper way to smile.

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 came to San Francisco four years ago with just a suitcase, stuffed, much like a magical bag, full of wrinkle-free clothes and dry goods. He was devastated to leave behind his pet turtle, Emerson, who is now somewhere between seventeen- to twenty-years-old. Felix depends on public transit to get around, and also rides around the city on his bicycle, visiting random spots and neighborhoods for their eateries and sunny parks. Felix graduated with a B.A. in English from the University of Utah and is working on his M.A. in Adult Education and Educational Administration at San Francisco State University. What fascinates Felix about drop-in tutoring and keeps him coming back are the various kids who are like miniature adults. Loaded with wit and casual banter, they convincingly win arguments, leaving the tutors wondering, "WHO REALLY IS INSIDE THAT BODY?"

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 where the winters are oh so much nicer. She worked for 13 years as a tax lawyer and is presently looking into what color her new parachute will be. She enjoys working with children and tries to make a positive difference in their lives. Growing up in a multi-cultural household (her father is from Spain, her mother is from Germany), Cristina especially enjoys working with children of immigrants.

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 cafes, 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. He currently lives with his wife in 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, and received her B.A. from UC Berkeley so long ago she forgets what it was in. She has a Master’s degree in counseling, which she managed to get while raising two small children and producing a third. She now finds herself 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 working on an anthology about when kids leave home. She has participated in the admission process at Cal, reading many wonderful college essays. Her youngest child will be graduating from college next year, which makes her happy and sad at the same time.

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.