Michelle Latiolais is Professor of English at the University of California at Irvine and Director of the Programs In Writing. She is the author of the novel Even Now which received the Gold Medal for Fiction from the Commonwealth Club of California. Her second novel, A Proper Knowledge, was published in 2008 by Bellevue Literary Press, as was Widow, a collection of stories, Involutions and essays, released in January 2011. She was released in May 2016 by W.W. Norton & Company. Recent work has appeared in ZYZYVVA and the Santa Monica Review.
2017 Writers Workshops Guests
Michael Lavigne is author of three novels, Not Me (Random House), The Wanting (Schocken/Pantheon) and, under the pen name Pepper Harding, The Heart of Henry Quantum (Gallery/Simon and Schuster). His work has been translated into seven languages. He is a Sami Rohr Fellow. Before becoming a novelist, Michael was an advertising writer and creative director at places like Leo Burnett, Ogilvy and Mather, and his own agency. He also directed television commercials. Educated at University of Tennessee, Millersville University, and the University of Chicago, Michael is married, has two grown sons and lives in Glen Ellen, CA. He attended the Community of Writers in 2001. www.michaellavigne.com
Photo Credit: Timothy Archibald
Frances Stroh was born in Detroit and raised in Grosse Pointe, Michigan. She received her B.A. from Duke University and her M.A. from Chelsea College of Art in London as a Fulbright Scholar. She practiced as an installation artist, exhibiting in Los Angeles, San Francisco, and London before turning to writing. She is the award-winning author of Beer Money: A Memoir of Privilege and Loss (HarperCollins), which chronicles her coming of age as an artist in the midst of the Stroh’s Beer family’s decline coupled with the unraveling of Detroit. She has published in The Common, Literary Hub, and the Detroit Metro Times, among others. Frances is a member of the San Francisco Writers’ Grotto and the curator of the Stranger Than Fiction reading series. www.francesstroh.com
Amy Tan’s novels are The Joy Luck Club, The Kitchen God’s Wife, The Hundred Secret Senses, The Bonesetter’s Daughter, Saving Fish from Drowning, and Valley of Amazement. She is the author of two memoirs, The Opposite of Fate and Where the Past Begins; and two children’s books, The Moon Lady and Sagwa, The Chinese Siamese Cat. Tan served as co-producer and co-screenwriter for the film adaptation of The Joy Luck Club and creative consultant for the PBS television series, Sagwa, The Chinese Siamese Cat. She wrote the libretto for the opera The Bonesetter’s Daughter and is the subject of the American Masters documentary Amy Tan: Unintended Memoir. Tan is an instructor of a MasterClass on Fiction, Memory, and Imagination. She is a recipient of the National Humanities Medal and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Her most recent book, The Backyard Bird a Chronicles (Knopf, April 2024) marks her debut as a nature journalist and bird artist. She serves on the Board of Directors of the Community of Writers.