Abercrombie, Barbara
Alexander, Ronald
Alumit, Noel
Amdahl, Gary
Ankrum, Barbara
Arnold, Caroline
Arthur, James
Auerbach, Kimberlee
Balis, Chrysanthy
Barlow, Michael
Baszile, Jennifer
Bauman, Beth Ann
Bauman, Bruce
Bauman, Natasha
Belcher, Wendy
Benaron, Naomi
Benedek, Tom
Bensko, Tantra
Bernstein, Jon
Bingeman, Alison Lea
Bitting, Michelle
Block, Francesca Lia
Blomquist , Tom
Blum, Jonathan
Bogen, Laurel Ann
Borofka, Deb Everson
Borofka, David
Boulware, Bill
Boyle, Bill
Brainard, Cecilia Manguerra
Brandeis, Gayle
Bray, Sharon
Bryant, Robert
Buckley, Michael
Burmeister, Charles
Bursky, Rick
Burwick, Kimberly
Byrne, Erica
Cain, Shannon
Callan, Jamie Cat
Caram, Eve La Salle
Carmichael , Claire
Casey, Mary
Chambers, Julie
Chambers, David
Cizmar, Paula
Cohen, Kerry
Connell, Maureen
Contreras, Ernie
Cooper, Stephen
Copeland , Martin
Corbett, David
Corman, Matthew
Craig, Charlie
Crane, Megan
Cron, Lisa
Curnen, Tim
Cushman, Adam Scott
Davis, Deborah Dean
Debenham, Matt
DeFilippis, Nunzio
Dellamonica, Alyx
Dilts, Tyler
Doctor, Lisa Lieberman
Doller, Ben
Doolittle, John
Drake, Diane
Driscoll, Ed
Dunn, Samantha
Dunne, Peter
Edson, Eric
Eisner, Philip
Elliot , Greg
Escandon, Maria Amparo
Eversz, Robert
Farmer , Jerrilyn
Fioravanti, Valerie
Fisher, Antwone
Forster, Rebecca
Friedman, Amy
Gable, Mona
Gebauer , Phyllis
Gee, Alison Singh
Giglio, Keith
Giglio, Juliet Aires
Gilbert, Jill
Glass, Linzi
Glickman, Gary
Golant, Susan
gonzalez, liz
Gray, Beverly
Grazioso, Claudia
Greenberg , Steven
Grice, Gordon
Grundfest , Bill
Guerdat, Andrew
Gutman, Karin
Haft, Jeremy
Harrison, Wayne
Hasley , William
Hatem, Richard
Haynes, Betsy
Hewitt, Cindy
Hewitt, Don
Hightower, Lynn
Hong, Anna Maria
Howard-Johnson, Carolyn
Iglesias, Karl
Inclan, Jessica Barksdale
Iovenko, Chris
Ipcizade, Catherine
Isaacs, David
Jaffe , Daniel M.
James, Elizabeth
Janover, Michael
Johnson, Kristine
Johnson, Matt
Kann, Rachel
Kellard, Phil
Kellogg, Carolyn
Kenney, Shawna
Khanna , Vandana
Kiesbye, Stefan
King, Kathleen Wallace
Kirschenbaum, Alan
Kobrin, Sandra
Kolpas, Norman
Krizan, Kim
Kutner, Merrily
Lauber , Lynn
Lazarus , Tom
Leavitt , Caroline
Leff, Howard
Lehr, Leslie
Leibner, Joshua
Lepucki , Edan
Levine, Paul
Levitin , Sonia
Lichtenstein, Barney Miles
Liu, Aimee
Livingston, Sonja
Lombardo, Billy
Lummis, Suzanne
MacBird, Bonnie
Mandelbaum, Paul
Mandell, Corey
Manning, Richard
Markel, Michelle
Marsa , Linda
Martell, Leon
Matarazzo, Marisa
Mathews , Lou
Mazur, Stephen
McKewin, Vince
Medway, Lisa
Meeks , Christopher
Melrod, George
Mengert, Christina
Mernit, Billy
Milliken, Kate
Monroe, Robert
Morton, Philip
Mueller, Anton
Murdock, Maureen
Myers , Scott
Nash, Jennie
Nazemian, Abdi
Neri, Kris
Niad, Wendi
Norton, Lisa Dale
O' Neill, Alexis
O'Reilly, Sean
Ollstein, Laurel
Osborne, Andrew
Palmer, Karen
Palmer , Linda
Palumbo, Dennis
Parrish, Christopher
Patterson, Victoria
Peeples, Quinton
Plesko , Les
Polsky, David
Prager, Judith
Raab, Diana
Raley, Ron
Raymond, Linda
Reid, Annie
Resnick , Rachel
Roberge , Rob
Rosenberg, David
Rosenthal, Lisa
Rosenthal, Laurence
Rosin, Charles
Ruppenthal, Chris
Saber, Luciano
Saltzberg, Barney
Sandler, Ellen
Sands, Katharine
Santiago, Eduardo
Sartor, Colette
Sarvas, Mark
Scharlach , Ed
Schimmel, John
Schraft, Micah
Schwartz, Leslie
Schwartz, Virginia Frances
Sedaka, Marc
Selbo, Jule
Shahan, Sherry
Shapiro, Rochelle
Shaw, Deirdre
Simon, Clea
Sohmer, Steve
Specktor, Matthew
Spiller, Nancy
Staahl, Jim
Steen , Mark
Stenson , Jacqueline
Suppa , Ron
Taub, Bill
van der Linde, Laurel
Verducci, Patricia
Vigon, Barry
Villanueva, Marianne
Vining, Dan
Vitale, Tony
Wachtel, Brooks
Walsh, Laurence
Warfield, David W.
Wax, Roberta
Waxman, Stephanie
Wayland, April Halprin
Webb, Chris
Webb, Don
Weinberg, Sanford
Weiser, Stanley
Weiss, Michael
Welch, Douglas
Welch, Rosanne
What, Leslie
Wilkerson, Ronald
Williams, Bett
Williams, Sheila J.
Wilson, Antoine
Wilson, Ian Randall
Wilson, John Morgan
Wilson, Larry
Wisdom, Victoria
Witten, Matt
Wolfson , Steven
Wyatt , Charles
Yang, Lyndane
Yee, Lisa
Yoo, Paula
Youtt , Harry
Zackheim, Victoria
Zambrano, Jacqueline
Journalist and author of Entertaining Disasters: A Novel (with Recipes). Ms. Spiller was a staff feature writer at San Jose Mercury News and the Los Angeles Herald-Examiner, and an editor at the Los Angeles Times Syndicate. Her food articles and essays have appeared in such publications as Los Angeles Times Sunday Magazine, Cooking Light, and Salon.com.
Read Irene Lacher's article in The Los Angeles Times on a recent reading
I write for the same reasons as Joan Didion: “to find out what I’m thinking, what I’m looking at, what I see and what it means. What I want and what I fear.” I have found that successful writing means going the distance, whether it’s finishing a sentence or completing a novel. It requires commitment, determination and vast tracts of substantive reading--especially since the world doesn’t need any more writers. But for those who believe in the power of words, writing is the most important thing, what Norman Mailer referred to as “the spooky art.” More than an activity, it is a way of being in the world. It is a solitary undertaking that miraculously connects us to life’s expansiveness and lends it meaning. Writing does this in ways that can only be discovered through the process of writing. And writing is learned by doing, by putting one word after the other, like a hiker must put one foot after the other to enter a landscape unfamiliar at first but that will be intimately known by trail’s end. As an instructor I hope to help guide other writers toward their destination.