Writer’s Bios
Hallie Cantor is an English major at Brown University and is waitressing in San Francisco for this summer only! She doesn’t have any friends here, so you should probably come to this event and hang out with her.

Graham Gremore decided it was time to leave San Francisco when he looked out his living room window and saw a drunk girl defecating in the middle of the street. He now lives in the quaint, seaside town of Tiburon and spends the majority of his time driving back into the city. He is currently earning his MFA in Creative Writing from San Francisco State University and he works at a literary agency.

Jennifer Lou

Nancy Levine is the author of the bestselling book series, The Tao of Pug. A finalist in the HBO New Writers Project, her commentaries have been broadcast in the Bay Area on NPR affiliates, and her writing has appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle and the Los Angeles Times.

Grace Murphy, born and raised in San Francisco, is finishing her BFA degree in Acting at Cal State Fullerton. She is in the process of writing a collection of short stories. Look out.

Richard Stockton

Austin Vanderbilt recently moved from Florida to the Bay Area to marry the love of his life, who was disappointed upon his arrival to learn that he was no longer gainfully employed. Born on a Kansas cattle ranch, Austin most recently made a career of appearing deeply engaged in hospital finance meetings, staring intently and nodding frequently while internally planning his next vacation.

Writer’s Bios

Pamela Weymouth Bass maintains her sanity by transforming her life’s disasters into stories. Her writing is published in: Best Women’s Travel Writing 2009, Hot Flashes: Sexy Little Stories & Poems, and I Should Have Gone Home.

Graham Gremore is a playwright and essayist born and raised in St. Paul, Minnesota. Most recently, his story “The Runaways” was published in Litter Box Magazine, an online literary journal. He lives in San Francisco and he hates his neighbors.

Jennifer Lou

Kazz Regelman has traveled through 38 countries but has had food poisoning in only four of them. She was a journalist in Japan (where she once dated a sumo wrestler) and a scuba teacher in the Philippines before moving to San Francisco and becoming the mother to two adorable girls who won’t let her write in peace.

Mike Shur was born in Leningrad, U.S.S.R. and was nearly killed in Rome, Italy. He began writing at the age of 4 with incomprehensible scribbles in Russian and today he writes marketing emails in English.

Matt B. Simon is a freelance writer based in San Francisco’s achingly boring Inner Richmond district. In his free time, he likes to leave San Francisco’s achingly boring Inner Richmond district.

Timothy Wiggins was formerly a stand-up comedian, and nearly won the 1991 SF Comedy Competition. Currently, he is a reclusive neurotic Buddhist, and is working on his second screenplay.

Photographer’s Bios

Elizabeth Cotton lives heart-first, and considers her photographs to be her visual love letters to the Universe. Her images convey the spiritual within the material, and are both moving and medicinal.

Greg Koch is a local writer/photographer whose work has appeared around the world in dozens of publications…including a few you might even recognize! He spends his admittedly-limited free time with his wife and young son, sharing stories and singing songs.

Jennifer Lou. A picture is worth 1,000 words. In light of those economies, click on my name to see my work instead of reading here.

Martin Taylor grew up in the industrial north of England in the 80’s and accidentally emigrated to San Francisco in the mid-90’s. His eye is drawn to Americana that still feels exotic and has had countless conversations regarding why he wants to take a picture of that old, rusty pickup.

Erick Tseng, an Asian tourist through and through, has taken his camera to the far reaches of the world: from Mount Everest to the Red Sea, from the Serengeti to the Galapagos Islands.

Writer’s Bios
Genevieve Falk is a lapsed lawyer who has found that the skills she developed working in a large law firm transferred seamlessly to her new field of psychotherapy. She lives in the East Bay with her husband and two young children, works as a therapist by day and writes in her spare time (between 10:57 and 11:09 each evening).

Michael Frisbie who lives and works–often simultaneously–in San Francisco, is too complex and enigmatic to be summed up in a couple of sentences. Three would probably do it, though.

Hugh Hunter spends his days working for “The Man,” and his evenings fighting crime. By fighting crime he means, playing Xbox and producing hellacast, a podcast that takes a look at the lighter side of living in the bay area.

Caroline Koch lives in the Bay Area with her husband, her nineteen-month-old son, and his BFF, Winnie the Pooh. Writing and cycling are two of her outlets. She tries not to swear at home, but sometimes it’s a tall order. Dark chocolate seems to help.

Christin Rice lives and loves in San Francisco, where she can be found staring out café windows while finishing a novel. She can also be found at the RedRoom.

Mike Shur was born in Leningrad, U.S.S.R. and was nearly killed in Rome, Italy. He began writing at the age of 4 with incomprehensible scribbles in Russian and today he writes marketing emails in English.

Photographers
Jason Croatto is a San Francisco based, somewhat recently transplanted from LA designer, originally from New York. When Jason is not designing interfaces or marketing materials for a Silicon Valley technology company he can usually be found designing on his own, or wandering around outside with a camera in hand.

PJ Taylor embarked upon a journey in 2006 to take and post a new picture online everyday. The accumulation of entries became a loose visual diary. PJ has an insatiable appetite to shoot anything from macros to nature to street photography.

Tara Spalty has been officially fighting the Forces of Evil since 2006 (and winning). Her preferred medium of expression is the scented candle, although she works with film for the sake of convenience. Tara’s favorite article of clothing is her New Year’s Eve 2010 Dress, which she has worn ever day so far this year.

DJ
Grant Patterson enjoys playing all sorts of music that makes people move. He is particularly interested in underground electro house and breaks, for which there is a bountiful scene in San Francisco. Grant grew up in New Jersey and hopes you won’t hold it against him. He works as a web engineer for Virgance, a company in SoMa that aims to make money while producing social good.

Some photos, courtesy of Erick Tseng, are below.

Join us at a humor reading by local Bay Area writers. In addition to the reading, there will also be photography on display related to the “Hello My Name is…” theme. This promises to be a great night of entertainment that will leave you in stitches.

Curious to know whose work will be showcased? Read our writers’, photographers’ and dj’s bios below!

Writers’ Bios

Brittny Botorff
A recovering attorney, Brittny lives and laughs in San Francisco. She avoids revising the draft of her first novel by playing Legos with her son and organizing completely unprofitable enterprises like a series of humor readings in the Bay Area.

Laurie Frater
Laurie was born in Scotland – but came here as soon as he could! His well-meaning parents thought that naming their son “Laurie” was a good idea – which has led him to secretly harbor the notion that he may just have been the inspiration for a well-known Johnny Cash song…

Eleanor Hicks
Eleanor Hicks has been practicing law for four years, but has been practicing writing since age 8 when she had her first dispute with an editor over substantive cuts to her seminal work, “There’s a Ghost in my Closet!”. Her other hobbies include flailing around in water near a surfboard and running very slowly for long periods of time.

Ann Hillesland
Ann’s fiction has been published in literary journals including Bellowing Ark, The MacGuffin, North Dakota Quarterly, Open City, and Red Wheelbarrow. She is a graduate of the MFA program at Queen’s University of Charlotte.

Jennifer Lou
Jen chucked cubicle life and now stays in her pjs until the p.m. She has authored several thousand instant messages and emails. When she’s not reading or writing, she plays with otters and explores the world by traveling and foraging. Update: Jen and cubicle life have reconciled and are now working towards a part-time solution.

Mike Shur
Mike was born in Leningrad, U.S.S.R. and was nearly killed in Rome, Italy.  He began writing at the age of 4 with incomprehensible scribbles in Russian and today he writes marketing emails in English.  Only God will be his judge.  He’s happy to be doing the reading tonight, because that means he doesn’t have to mow.

Mike Thomas
Mike Thomas is a freelance editor and writer whose work has appeared in Mid-American Review, Homestead Review, Porter Gulch Review, and other journals. His short comedy “Neighborhood Watch” was selected for the “Eight Tens@8” Play Festival in Santa Cruz earlier this year. He edits Foolish Times and invites submissions.

Photographers’ Bios

PJ Taylor
Three years ago, PJ picked up a digital camera and embarked upon a journey to take and post a new picture online everyday. The accumulation of entries became a loose visual diary. A self-described omnivore when it comes to subject matter, PJ has an insatiable appetite to shoot anything from macros to nature to street photography. As her passion for photography has grown, she’s been inspired by a voyeuristic impulse to capture people in the midst of their day to day lives. Her project “About Face” is a collection of images of individuals taken from behind or from the side and in the power of these images to tell stories even though the subject’s face is hidden or partially obscured. See PJ’s web site.

Erick Tseng
An Asian tourist through and through, Erick has taken his camera to the far reaches of the world: from Mount Everest, to the Red Sea, to the Serengeti, to New Zealand, to Hoboken, New Jersey. His exhibit tonight, entitled “Taiwanese American Homecoming,” chronicles a recent trip back to the Motherland as seen through the eyes of an American-born Taiwanese. www.visiglow.com

Geno Valle

Jennifer Yee
Jennifer has been shooting freelance photography for the past three years in both New York City and San Francisco. This exhibit showcases the portraits of some of tonight’s readers and photographers whom Jenny asked, “What’s your favorite part about you?”  See Jennifer’s web site.

DJ’s Bio

DJ Grant Patterson
Grant enjoys playing all sorts of music that makes people move. He is particularly interested in underground electro house and breaks, for which there is a bountiful scene in San Francisco. Grant grew up in New Jersey and hopes you won’t hold it against him. He works as a web engineer for Virgance, a company in SoMa that aims to make money while producing social good.

Videographer’s Bio

Chris Whitmore
Chris is a filmmaker and photographer who can often be found prowling the Bay Area’s country hills and urban alleys in search of moonlight, vista, and just the right frame. Chris is currently a student in Media Arts and Narrative Film at California College of the Arts, and works as a commercial freelancer. Contact him at chrisplus [at] gmail.com

Special thanks to Space Gallery for hosting the event!