Literary Stars

On March 23, 2012, guests dined and mingled with Bay Area Literary Stars on the second floor of the Walnut Creek Library. The evening began with a reception and silent action followed by dinner served by Willowstone Catering.

Check back soon for the date of the 2013 gala.

Thank you to our 2012 “Stars!”

Annie Barrows  turned her pen to children’s books, after scoring success with adult titles, including “The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society” and books about fortune telling, urban legends and opera.

Darrin Bell, a UC Berkeley graduate, is the writer and illustrator of the “Candorville” cartoon strip and the author of three collections of the strip.

Gary Bogue writes a popular East Bay newspaper column on pets, wildlife and the environment and is the author of four books, including “There’s an Opossum in my Backyard” and “The Raccoon Next Door.”

Stacy Carlson is an Oakland author, editor, ecologist and wilderness guide whose first novel, “Among the Wonderful,” published in 2011, is set in the fabled P.T. Barnum Museum in New York City in the 19^th century.

Matthew Cronin is a sports columnist and author of the newly published “Epic: John McEnroe, Bjorn Borg and the Greatest Tennis Season Ever.”

Narsai David  is the dean of Bay Area celebrity chefs and long-time proprietor of the Kensington restaurant and catering business that bore his name. He is also the author of a legendary collection of recipes, “Monday Night at Narsai’s.”

Cheryl Dumesnil is an award-winning Bay Area poet and creative writing teacher and editor of a collection of stories by gay couples who married in San Francisco. She has a published book of poetry, “In Praise of Falling,” a forthcoming memoir “Love Song for Baby X,” and anthologies, “Hitched! Wedding Stories from San Francisco City Hall” and “Dorothy Parker’s Elbow: Tattoos on Writers, Writers on Tattoos.”

Carol Edgarian is a San Francisco-based author whose new novel, “Three Stages of Amazement,” set in San Francisco, is a New York Times bestseller. She is also editor of “The Writer’s Life,” a collection drawn from the diaries of great writers.

Glen David Gold is a San Francisco resident and the author of two historical novels, “Carter Beats the Devil,” set in San Francisco, and “Sunnyside,” about the early years of Hollywood.

Lisa Goldstein is an Oakland author whose newest novel “The Uncertain Places,” is set in the East Bay and based on the story of Sleeping Beauty.

Stephen Joseph and Linda Rimac Colberg are the photographer and writer, respectively, who produced the splendid photo essay “Mount Diablo: The Extraordinary Life and Landscapes of a California Treasure.”

Caitlin Lempres Brostrom is an award winning architect who recently published a twenty year collaboration with the architect Professor Richard C. Peters describing in depth the work and influence of California’s first modernist, William Wurster.

Michael Krasny is the host of the popular KQED Forum radio program and the author of the memoir “Spiritual Envy: An Agnostic’s Quest.”

Joyce Maynard is the author of “To Die For,” “The Good Daughters,” and five other novels. She is one of the first prominent authors to write an online blog. Her novel, “Labor Day,” will be made into a movie in summer 2012.

Alison Owings is the Marin County author of three highly praised oral history books about Native Americans, women in Hitler’s Germany, and waitresses.

Michelle Richmond is the author of two novels set in San Francisco: “No One You Know,” and the New York Times and international bestseller “The Year of Fog.”

Mary Roach is the Oakland-based author of the New York Times best-sellers — “Packing for Mars,” “Stiff,” “Bonk,” and “Spook.”

Ellen Sussman is a Bay Area author whose new novel, “French Lessons,” a racy account of Parisian life, is a New York Times bestseller and an Entertainment Weekly “must read.”

Gail Tsukiyama is the author of the best-selling novel “The Street of a Thousand Blossoms,” which was Walnut Creek’s One City One Book selection in 2010.

Frank Villafana is a Cuban-born resident of Florida whose books “Cold War in the Congo” and “Expansionism: Its Effects on Cuba’s Independence” chronicle the recent history of his homeland.