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CONTRIBUTORS

Something Normal  -  Springtime at Stow Lake  - GG Park     -    Jane Hudson                       

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Charlene Anderson received an MA in English Literature from Purdue University and an MA in Research Psychology from San Francisco State University and spent most of her working life at the University of California San Francisco in grant administration. As a child, she always knew she would write, told stories to her friends, and even invented a pen name for herself, Charles Andrè. So, while working on budgets and submitting grant proposals at UCSF, she continued to write and, in 2001 published a novel, Berkeley’s Best Buddhist Bookstore. When Vistas & Byways was launched in 2015, she was pleased to be asked to chair the Editorial Board. She has served in that capacity ever since.

Contributions to this issue:
​V&B Editorial Board Chair
Fiction
A Tired and Lazy God
Bay Area Neighborhoods
​Life in the Time of Covid - 19
Poetry
In the Shadow
Inside OLLI 
A Tribute to Richard Simmonds

Barbara Applegate is a retired administrator of Early Childhood Education, mother of three daughters, a traveler and contemplative. She enjoys writing but finds it challenging to write consistently. She loves taking writing classes—not just because she learns from them, but because they give her structure for writing.

Contributions to this issue:
V&B​ Board member
Fiction
The World Above
Nonfiction 
Stillness
Absolution
​Various Photos

Amy Benedicty is an author, translator, and freelance editor. Her work has appeared in Voices from the Middle, Through Mathematical Eyes, and Poetry for the People Press. Amy taught students writing and mathematics and for their successes, she won a Golden Apple Fellowship to UC Berkeley. After leaving the classroom, Amy directed the teacher outreach program at the World Affairs Council. In her spare time, Amy enjoys hiking, cross country skiing and visiting her far-flung grandchildren.

 

Contributions to this issue:
Poetry
Domestic Arrest

Alan Brewer has lived in San Francisco for 45 years and been an OLLI at SF State member for over a decade. He has a BA from Northwestern University and an MA in Clinical Psychology from John F. Kennedy University. He has had many different jobs, from house painter to alcohol/drug rehab counselor to legal secretary. He has been writing poetry for over 40 years, has written feature articles for The Richmond Review and The Sunset Beacon. For the last 15 years, he has written mostly memoir. He has trekked in Nepal (Annapurna, later Everest), sailed as passenger/crew member on an 18th Century square-rigger in French Polynesia, and has traveled to all continents except Australia and Antarctica. 

Contributions to this issue:
Poetry
The End of All Roads
The Man of the Always Never

Kathy Bruin is a writer, artist, and erstwhile activist. She has worked in publishing, event management, operations, and is currently the director for Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at San Francisco State University. Kathy is the founder of About-Face, a media literacy campaign which educates about the way media impact female body images. Among other appearances for About-Face, she was “punked” on a Comedy Central program called Crossballs. Kathy also produces Bruin Snappy Cards and a meditative game called the Fox Box. She lives in San Francisco. Her son, Miles, recently graduated from high school and headed off to college.

Contributions to this issue:
Nonfiction
Predestiny

Joe Catalano practiced law for more than 30 years before he retired in 2018. He has since pursued his interests in photography, high performance driving, travel and writing. He enjoyed his first OLLI as SF State courses in the spring semester 2019 and thanks the members of the OLLI at SF State Poetry Writing interest group for their input and support. He lives in San Francisco with his wife Joan. 

Contributions to this issue: 
​V&B Editorial Board member​
Poetry
The Day She Left Us
Fiction
Sometimes You Find Magic, and Sometimes Magic Finds You

Nancy Colvin is 89 years old and still lives in the same house in which she and her husband raised their two children. She met her husband at UC Berkeley and went on to teach first grade in her early years. She is a people-person and misses all the things she used to do before the Pandemic. She started a book club, was an avid tennis player, and had a movie group which hiked every Wednesday on Mt Tam. She and her husband have also had some wonderful adventures hiking. One of her favorite memories was being a docent at the Museum of Modern Art. She so much enjoys OLLI classes and hopes everybody can get back to being together soon.​

Contributions to this issue: 
​Poetry
ENOUGH

Thomas O. Davenport is an independent writer and business advisor living in San Francisco. He spent 32 years as a human resource consultant for a global consulting organization. He has written three business books and many serious articles and now writes sardonic verse, much of it commenting on business practices he observed (and helped create) and on social phenomena that amuse and bemuse him. In addition to Visas & Byways, his work has appeared in Defenestration, WORK Literary Magazine, Workers Write! and in the anthology Love Affairs at the Villa Nelle (Kelsay Books, 2019). You can also read his writings (verse and other) at http://www.worklodes.com.     

Contributions to this issue:
Poetry
Delayed Replay

​Elsa Fernandez grew up in Asia. She has lived in San Francisco since 1970 and never gets tired of this lovely city. She has travelled the world and still gets excited flying back home and to finally land at SFO. Her family is scattered around the world—India, Australia, Dubai, England, Ireland and Argentina. She is a political junkie and majored in Journalism and Political Science. She loves music and plays the piano quite well (one of her dreams was to own a piano bar in upcountry Maui . . .  she would probably call it the Maui Moon!). Writing poetry is an emotional outlet for her.

Contributions to this issue:
V&B Board member
Poetry
Her Only Son
The Squirrels of Candlestick Point
Bay Area Neighborhoods
The Bayview District in SF
Inside OLLI
Book Review - Dreams and Blessings--Six Visionary Poets

Find your passion and follow it!   -  Oprah Winfrey.  
Cathy Fiorello’s passions are food, Paris, and writing. A morning at a farmers’ market is her idea of excitement and visiting Paris is her idea of heaven. And much of her writing is about food and Paris. She worked in publishing in New York, freelanced for magazines during her child-rearing years, then re-entered the work world as an editor. She moved to San Francisco in 2008 and published a memoir, Al Capone Had a Lovely Mother. In 2018, she published a second memoir, Standing at the Edge of the Pool. Cathy has two children and four grandchildren. Her mission is to make foodies and Francophiles of them all.

Contributions to this issue:
​Nonfiction
Life in the Time of Covid
He Used to Bring Me Flowers

​Elinor Gale has been a writer, observer of human nature, and lover of the English language since childhood. An inveterate eavesdropper, she has woven her curiosity about human behavior into her work as writing teacher, editor and creator of humorous yet poignant fiction and poetry. She holds a BA in English from Smith College and an MS in Counseling from Northeastern University. Her essays, poetry and articles have been published in print and online. Elinor moved to the Bay Area from New England over 20 years ago and still marvels at flowers and green grass in February.

Contributions to this issue:
Fiction
Escape from Safe Harbor

​Kathy Gilbert received her MFA from San Francisco State University in 2013 after a career in public transport. She received the Marc Linenthal Poetry Award in 2012 from SFSU and won the San Francisco Browning Society Gita Specker Award three times for her dramatic monologues. She was commissioned to write a play for the 2015 San Francisco Olympians Festival. Her one act play, Delphin and the Children of Amphitrite, was performed at the Exit Theater. She also tutors third graders, studies tai chi, practices yoga and swims.     

Contributions to this issue:
Poetry
April Two, Two Oh Two Oh
​Ode to a Night Owl

​Matt Ginsburg recently received an MFA degree in Creative Writing with a concentration in playwriting at San Francisco State University. His work often explores his interest in business, economics, and politics. Matt has written several short stories, monologues, and comedy routines in addition to his focus on playwriting. His plays have been read or performed at numerous theaters in San Francisco. In the fall of 2019, a memoir piece by Matt, “Finding My Father,” was published by Vistas & Byways.

Contributions to this issue:
Fiction
Midnight in Morocco 
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Kathryn Santana Goldman is a native of San Francisco. Her interest in poetry began when she was working in ICU as a registered nurse. She used this practice to process the variety of stressful scenarios experienced. Over the years, she has continued to experiment with different types of writing such as short stories and plays. As an avid traveler, Kathryn has become skilled at capturing photographs about the diversity she encounters. Three years ago, she began to combine her love of photography with her writing by using the images she captures as seeds for her poems. She continues to explore new ways to use these two art forms to share her experience with family and friends.

Contributions to this issue:
Poetry
The Flamingo Mystery, March 2020
​Military Maneuvers 0200 Hours, April 26, 2020
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​Mary Heldman is retired from a career in medical school administration, computer programming, and business systems analysis. She grew up in Los Angeles but lived in Palo Alto, Washington D.C., Cambridge, and Stony Brook, New York before settling in San Francisco in 1974. She tutors at a local high school, studies piano, and designs costume jewelry. From time to time she writes sardonic prose for her friends. Mary wishes she lived with a chocolate lab or a golden retriever, but she doesn’t.

Contributions to this issue:
V&B Editorial Board member
Nonfiction
Me and My Mom

A native San Franciscan, Jane Hudson has a BA in Psychology and an MA in Library Science from the University of California, Berkeley, as well as a second BA in Art History from San Francisco State University. She is retired from a 27-year career as a librarian at the SF Public Library, where she was a district manager. Prior to that, she was a government documents librarian, a children's librarian, and a branch manager. Since 2014, she has focused on writing, taking a variety of writing classes at OLLI at SF State. In addition, she enjoys making art, attending theater and opera, getting together with friends and family, and working as a volunteer with the Bay Area Book Festival.

​Contributions to this issue:
Winner:  V&B Cover Contest
Various Other Photos

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​Vivian (Sinick) Imperiale left her 18-year career as support staff in a real estate office because of a chance encounter with a man with schizophrenia. Since then, she has been a mental health advocate for over 40 years, including 20 years employed in the field. Vivian has a BA in Psychology and an MA in Special Education.

Contributions to this issue:
Poetry
Shelter at Home
​No Time for Answers

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​Patricia Koren has been absorbed in the visual arts for the past 40 years. After receiving an MFA in photography, she became a graphic designer and worked for several different magazines, then founded Kajun Design, where she still works part time. The last several years she has reconnected to her earlier passion for photography. Three of her photo series may be viewed at camerawalks.com.
   

Contributions to this issue:
Bay Area Neighborhoods
Murals During a Pandemic


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Mike Lambert is a long-time resident of San Francisco and led the effort to start Vistas & Byways in the fall of 2015. In an earlier life, he worked in the telecommunications industry for 35 years and taught at San Francisco State University’s College of Business for 15 years. He refutes the adage about old dogs and new tricks. He took up creative writing as a hobby at age 75. He recently self-published two novels and a collection of his short stories. His main fictional character is Jessica Jones, a single working girl in contemporary San Francisco.  See his Author page at Amazon under the name of M. L. Lambert for more details.

Contributions to this issue:
​V&B​ Web Master
Inside OLLI 
Interview with Helena Chiu
Bay Area Neighborhoods
From Sea Dreams to Shining Sea
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​Carol Langbort was a Professor of Education in Mathematics for 30+ years at SFSU, teaching teachers how to teach mathematics. She was Chair of the Department of Elementary Education, and for 15 years directed the SF Math Leadership Project, a professional development program for classroom teachers. She developed a master’s degree program in Mathematics Education. She is co-author of several books, including How to Encourage Girls in Math and Science and Building Success in Math. Recently, she was a volunteer for the de Young and Legion of Honor Museums. She is currently on the Board of Nicaragua Children’s Friendship Committee. She has studied Spanish for many years in language schools in Mexico, and participates in the OLLI Spanish conversation group. 

Contributions to this issue:
V&B Board Member

​Edward Lebowitz is a physician who practices medicine part-time at Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital at Stanford. He also graduated with a Masters’ degree in English (Creative Writing) from San Francisco State University in January 2018. He attends many OLLI classes in person and online. He was supposed to perform his solo performance play Dave, Muhammad and I at The Americana Hotel at the 2020 San Francisco Fringe Festival. Unfortunately, the 2020 festival was cancelled, so he is scheduled to present it there next year.

Contributions to this issue:
Bay Area Neighborhoods
A Covid - 19 Photo Journal

​Linda Zamora Lucero is writing a series of short stories set in San Francisco’s Mission District. Published stories include “When It Rains” (Yellow Medicine Review, 2020, editor Zibiquah); “Mexican Hat,” Puro Chicanx Writers of the 21st Century (Cutthroat: A Journal of the Arts, 2020, editors Luis Alberto Urrea, et al); “Balmy Alley Forever” (Santa Clara Review 2016, and Yellow Medicine Review, 2016, editor Trevino Brings Plenty); “Take the Money and Run—1968” (Bilingual Review, ASU, 2015, editor G.F. Keller), and Vistas and Byways (SFSU, 2018). A graduate of San Francisco State University, Lucero is the Executive/Artistic Director of Yerba Buena Gardens Festival, an admission-free outdoor performing arts series in San Francisco. She is sheltering in place. 
 

Contributions to this issue:
Fiction
When It Rains

​Dina Martin was fortunate to have earned a living through writing, first as a newspaper reporter and later as an advocate for public education. She found her husband of 34 years the same way, by writing a personal ad in the Bay Guardian. Now retired, she occasionally finds time to write in between folk dancing, OLLI classes and trying to do a little good. She and her husband reside in Bernal Heights, and are happy to have their two adult children living and working nearby.

Contributions to this issue:
V&B Board member
Inside OLLI
Zooming Boomers
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​Before Tina Martin retired in 2014 from CCSF, where she taught ESL for 32 years, she taught and/or trained teachers on five continents--Oceana, Europe, Africa, North America, and Asia. She has a son, Jonathan, born in 1979 and now living in NYC, with whom she founded the JoMama Book Club in 2007, leading to once-a-month discussions on Google Chat. She is currently hiding her memoir, Everything I Should Have Leaned I Could Have Learned in Tonga, from all but her closest friends, while writing the sequel, Letters of Apology for My First Memoir. She’s also working on a piece of fiction, Sisters Sheltering, which takes place in San Francisco during the pandemic. Three nonfiction pieces she wrote appear in anthologies, and two others are online.    

Contributions to this issue:
Fiction
Nobody Knows - A Pandemic Interlude
Bay Area Neighborhoods​
A Pandemic View of My Window--The Evolution of a Bear and a Window
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Marsha Michaels has been a student at OLLI at SF State since 2009. Her first writing class was with Barbara Rose Brooker. Barbara helped Marsha self-publish a memoir, Pulling At Straws. She also took a class with Dave Casuto, and they developed a website, where many of Marsha’s stories and recipes can be found. Marsha takes writing classes and other classes on diversified subjects at OLLI at SF State, and has been published in previous issues of Vistas & Byways. She finally feels that she’s been educated where she missed out in her youth. Marsha thanks OLLI at SF State for the enormous difference it has made in her life.

Contributions to this issue:
Nonfiction
The Anguish of Compromise
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​Angie Minkin retired from a long career as an administrative law judge with the State of California and now spends her time rehabilitating her right brain. She practices yoga, takes dance classes several times a week, and loves to write poetry. She volunteers with a local non-profit that serves low-income immigrant families. Angie has two adult children and lives in San Francisco with her husband and two cats, all of whom provide inspiration. She escapes to the sun whenever possible.

Contributions to this issue:
​V&B Editorial Board member 
Poetry​
Viral Nights
​Unfinished Notes on Aging

​M J Moore lives in the San Francisco Bay Area. Her various incarnations have included technical writer and editor, grassroots environmental activist, first grade teacher, poet and flash fiction writer, wife, and mother. Strongly bi-coastal, she thrives on salt air, wind and waves, but also loves mountains, deserts, forests and streams. Writing for her is a source of vision and joy. 

Contributions to this issue:
Poetry
Imprint
November Apples - Hudson Valley
​Wedding Day

​Don Plansky has participated in many OLLI at SF State writer workshops. In a former incarnation, he worked as a freelance journalist, contributing more than 200 articles to The Jewish Bulletin of Northern California, as well as book reviews for The Pacific World: Journal of the Institute of Buddhist Studies. Don has been a member of the Vistas & Byways Editorial Board since 2015.​

Contributions to this issue:
​​V&B Editorial Board member
Focus - An Editorial Note
Fiction
O Canada, Oh Lonely Boy!--You Shall Be Lonely No More!

​Robin Roth is a Health Educator, retired after 40 years of teaching at City College of San Francisco. She created the Women's Health Issues course, the HIV Prevention Education Program, wrote Elder Abuse Prevention curriculum, taught Gerontology, Human Sexuality (also at SFSU), Hepatitis ABCs, and other courses in the Health Education and Women's Studies departments. Robin is co-chair of the SF Hepatitis C Task Force, on the Coordinating Committee of End Hep C SF, and the California Hepatitis Alliance. A life-long activist, Robin is currently writing postcards with Reclaim Our Vote in the Interfaith Action Committee of Or Shalom Jewish Community. She is the hands-on grandmother of an active toddler, and practices Qigong, Tai Chi, gardens and hikes.

Contributions to this issue:
​​Poetry
​Coronavirus Pod

​Denize Springer’s fiction and nonfiction have appeared in various publications and literary journals including the Marin IJ, East Bay Express, Pearl, Estero, Vistas & Byways and Ocean Realm. Her short story, “The Way We Say Goodbye,” was named a semi-finalist in the 2019 Tillie Olsen Short Story Award and will appear in the online journal Please See Me in early 2020. Her plays and adaptations have been presented in New York and San Francisco venues including the New York Theatre Workshop, the Public Theatre and the Bay Area Playwrights Festival. She earned an MFA in creative writing from San Francisco State University and has taught creative writing courses at OLLI at SF State.

Contributions to this issue:
​​Fiction
​Burl

​Jill Stovall grew up on the East Coast and transplanted to the Bay Area in the early 1990s, after a 7-year expatriation in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. While in Saudi, she started a small cottage industry, taught English to kindergarteners on a Saudi Royal Air Force Base, and served as board president of an international pre-school. After relocating to California and receiving an MA from California State University, East Bay, she began work in a congressional district office where she became Director of Constituent Services for an East Bay congressman. Since retiring, she has earned a certificate in grant writing and volunteered at several nonprofits. She joined OLLI at SF State in 2015 and currently serves on the Curriculum Committee.

Contributions to this issue:
​​Nonfiction
The Postcard

​Steve Surryhne was an Associate Lecturer in English Literature at San Francisco State University from 1993-2012. He is currently semi-retired and has recently returned to writing poetry. A native of San Francisco, he was a baby-beat in the sixties, knew some of the beat poets and is now a neo-beat. In his alternate career, he worked in Community Mental Health in San Francisco from 1979-2012. He took first place in the Jack Kerouac Poetry contest in 2015 and has published in The Blue Moon Review and Interpretations. He is currently working on a project with a photographer friend on poem-texts and photos. 

Contributions to this issue:
Poetry
In the Year 2020

​Karen Thompson is a recently retired federal employee who has taken to the streets, parks and beaches with her camera to cope with the lockdown. Walking with her camera has forced her to slow down, be more present and enjoy her beautiful coast side surroundings. She lives in Pacifica with her husband and adult son, who joins her on walks from time to time. Although she has lived in Pacifica for almost 24 years, her daily walks have taken her to many places in and around Pacifica that she had not yet visited pre-Covid-19. This has been the silver lining for her.

Contributions to this issue:
​Bay Area Neighborhoods
A Walk to Pacifica's Beach During Covid-19

​A retired physician, Corey Weinstein is a musician, poet, songwriter and clarinet player. He has published two CDs of original music inspired by the Klezmer and Yiddish stage musical traditions and led Umzist, a Klezmer band playing benefits for Jewish elders for more than a decade. He wrote and performed at various venues a singspiel, Erased: Babi Yar, the SS and Me to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the massacre at Babi Yar. He plays clarinet in the Or Shalom Jewish Community choir, with The Jamberries Jazz Band at Shabbat services at Rhoda Goldman Plaza, and with any chamber music group he can find. He lives in the Ingleside of San Francisco with his wife of 37 years, Pat Skala.

Contributions to this issue:
​Poetry
Viral Tryptic - 3 Poems

Vivien Zielin was born in England and graduated in history and social studies at the University of Sussex. She was a history teacher in London, worked for an interior design company in Jerusalem, and was the owner of The China Ware House Company in Carnaby Street, specializing in fine English made giftware, dinnerware, and quirky teapots. She has worked for media companies on various projects. She has traveled the world. In 2005 she moved to California and became a citizen in 2012. She discovered OLLI at SF State in 2009 and is the Event Organizer for the annual Creativity Celebration. Eyeballing Big Croc: Chasing Dreams Around the World is her first book and was published in 2018.

Contributions to this issue:
Bay Area Neighborhoods
The Civic Center in Normal Times

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