Tavia Stewart-Streit, Office of Letters and Light Young Writers Program Director
Tavia is the Young Writers Program Director for Script Frenzy and National Novel Writing Month. Since 2006, she has written three terrible novels and two not-as-terrible scripts. In high school, she had a "Kill Your TV" bumper sticker on her brown 1982 Toyota Corolla. Now, she isn't ashamed to admit that she loves TV. So much so, that she may just write the pilot for her yet-to-be-named sci-fi cop drama TV series.
Jennifer Arzt, Script Frenzy's Program Director
Jennifer Arzt holds a MFA in Film, Television and Recording Arts where she pursued writing, directing and producing. Her films have appeared in festivals around the country garnering much acclaim including the Directors Guild of America Student Film Award. Prior to film school, Jennifer was the founder and chief troublemaker of a successful web design company. With a project always in development, she is happy living a creative life.
Chris Baty, Office of Letters and Light Executive Director
In addition to running Script Frenzy's sister event, National Novel Writing Month, Chris oversees the parent nonprofit of both events. Chris loves writing, bike riding, and writing while bike riding (though he tries not to do it that often).
Lindsey Grant, Community Liaison
After Lindsey finished her MFA in Creative Nonfiction at Mills College, she stumbled upon the magical place that is the Office of Letters and Light. She could hardly believe that there were so many people in the world who love words as much as she does! She enjoys writing about food and travel, but not quite as much as she enjoys eating food while traveling. She is fighting against inertia and excoriating self-edits in order to finish a novel based on her years as a dog-walker.
Dan Duvall, Tech Manager
Suburban-born, Dan was raised on video games, Slurpees, the best-of-the-worst action flicks, and juvenile mischief. It's taken nearly a decade for him to "get out of the house" and the shock of it all has him entertaining delusions of subsistence farming and off-the-grid living from time to time. His notable strengths include sandwich composition, scat singing, spinning pile-drivers, and techniques for bailing from a mountain bike.
Heather Dudley, Forums Moderator
Married with two small children, Heather is the East Coast representive for OLL. After spending more hours than she really likes to think about volunteering on the forums, Heather was invited to take over Forums Moderation from Cybele May. She spends entirely too much time at the computer, not getting sleep, moderating the forums and writing the Perfect Novel (tm). She has discovered (the hard way) that it is physically impossible to have babies and write novels at the same time... it gets on the doctors' nerves. One day, she's gonna make it to the West Coast, and you'll never get rid of her.
Sam Gawthrop, Web Programmer
Sam is an East Coast refugee, who has lived along highway 80 since
immigrating to California, from Oakland to Tahoe, and now Albany. Despite
being a hopeless computer nerd, he spends a good amount of his time
outdoors, backpacking, hiking, rock climbing, skiing, or some exciting and
borderline-miserable combination of those. Sam enjoys writing with run-on
sentences and capricious punctuation, yet lives in mortal fear of anyone
reading what he has written.
From a young age, Candace's career goals have destined her for poverty. A sophomore English major at UC Berkeley, her greatest ambition is to make a living as a published novelist. She refuses to admit that this is an unreasonable goal. On days when she acknowledges that making money as a writer will be difficult, she considers the idea of teaching English or being a perpetual intern at the Office of Letters and Light---which, coincidentally, also doesn't pay. When not reading or writing, she releases her energies by knitting scarves, traveling with her family, and obsessing over musical theater.
The Young Writers Program Editorial Board of Directors
Zulema Renee Summerfield, Creative Writing Consultant/Curriculum Developer
Zulema Renee Summerfield has been reading and writing since as far back as she can remember. And she's loved every minute of it! She wrote her first NaNo-novel in 2006, and while she didn't make the 50,000-word mark, she's excited to report that she is still working hard on the novel she began. Zulema has worked with young people in all kinds of ways, from teaching them about rocks and squirrels, to helping them write book reports, to leading awesome field trips to petting zoos and amusement parks. Zulema is currently working on her MFA in fiction at San Francisco State University. She lives with her husband (The Incredible Hulk) and her cat (Little One) in San Francisco.
Rachel Walman, Language Arts Consultant for Middle School/Curriculum Developer
Rachel Walman earned a BA in history from Grinnell College, an M. Ed. from Lesley University, and currently resides in Davis with her wonderful boyfriend Ethan, baker of amazing pies. As a former Teaching Fellow with Citizen Schools—a national after school program that engages students in hands-on learning after school—Rachel worked with NaNoWriMo to develop a creative writing curriculum for after school programs. Rachel's wildly fascinating interests include nineteenth-century urban history, eating, movies, knitting, and "playing" softball. Rachel makes ends meet by working as a receptionist in a law firm while she applies to museum studies programs and dreams of writing a screenplay—during the next Script Frenzy!
Lauren Guza, Language Arts Consultant for High School
Lauren Guza has loved stories since the day she was three years old and discovered invisible people living in the rock pile in her backyard. She's grown up only slightly since then. After graduating from Middlebury College in 2005 with a B.A. in English and a focus in creative writing, she spent two years teaching English and ESL in Los Angeles with the Teach for America program. She then moved to the Bay Area and worked as an in-schools projects intern for the education non-profit 826 Valencia, explaining essay structure, verb conjugations, and the supremacy of the Dodgers to San Francisco's kids. She now teaches sixth grade writing at KIPP Bridge College Preparatory in West Oakland.
Lily Jones, Language Arts Consultant for Elementary School
Lily Jones spends her days explaining the wonders of the world to the kindergarten and first graders she teaches at North Oakland Community Charter School. In November 2007, she led her first graders through NaNoWriMo for the first time. During that month Lily's students impressed her with their inexplicable excitement for counting words, writing stories about monsters going crazy for candy (among other things), and responding to her requests by saying "Not now, I'm writing a novel." When not surrounded by little kids, Lily enjoys lying on her huge comfy couch, drinking tea, and reading.
Jake Strohm, Language Arts Consultant for Elementary School
Jacob Strohm has taught 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th graders in San Francisco for thirteen years at Jose Ortega Elementary. He is currently enjoying a one year sabbatical, highlighted by two and a half months driving all over the country with his two year old son Elijah strapped in the backseat. His plans for the rest of the year include helping Elijah learn to play the drum set, hanging out at the new science museum, and (hopefully) doing some writing of his own. He is somewhat eager to get back to teaching everyday.