Sands Hall is the author most recently of the award-winning memoir, Reclaiming My Decade Lost in Scientology (Counterpoint Press). Blackstone Audio produced the audio book, read by the author. Her novel, Catching Heaven (Ballantine), is a Willa Award finalist. Her prize-winning essays and stories have appeared in such journals as Alta Journal, New England Review, Iowa Review, and the Los Angeles Review of Books. Sands co-directs the Nonfiction/Memoir Program at the Community of Writers. [F/NF] sandshall.com
2024 Special Programs
Patricia K. Meyer is a screenwriter/producer who has written eight feature adaptations for the major studios, including Paramount, Fox, Touchstone, Martin Scorsese, and Robert De Niro’s Tribeca Productions. She has written miniseries and movies-of-the-week for CBS and NBC, and created and sold a one-hour drama series at CBS. She also works as a story consultant specializing in the true crime genre and adaptation. She launched her producing career with the Emmy-nominated ABC 4-hour miniseries The Women of Brewster Place which starred Oprah Winfrey, and she went on to produce seven movies for network television. Along with Stacy Spruill, she leads the afternoon Adaptation class during the Writers Workshops.
Will Richardson has been birding and conducting field research in the Sierra Nevada since 1994, including several seasons working for PRBO Conservation Science in the Mono Basin and elsewhere in the Eastern Sierra. Richardson received his PhD in Ecology, Evolution, & Conservation Biology from the University of Nevada, Reno, studying bird communities in Sierra Nevada aspen habitats. He resides in Truckee and now focuses most of his attention on the natural history of the Lake Tahoe region. He is currently authoring a status and distribution guide for the birds of the Lake Tahoe basin, and is co-founder and Co-Executive Director of a fledgling research, education, and outreach organization: the Tahoe Institute for Natural Science.
Stacy Spruill watched an ungodly amount of television as a child and her bad habits actually paid off. She is a screenwriter, director, TV showrunner, and university professor. Stacy has had features optioned by notable Hollywood talent and has written for streaming networks on both multi-camera and single-camera series. Her shorts have screened at over forty film festivals, including Cannes and Toronto. A proud alumna of U.C. Berkeley and The AFI Conservatory, Stacy lives in Los Angeles and is the Assistant Chair of The Screenwriting Department at Loyola Marymount University.