Staff
We can best be reached at (707) 967-2900 x1611.
John Leggett, Program Director
John Leggett’s biography of William Saroyan, A Daring Young Man, was published in 2002. A former editor with Houghton Mifflin and Harper and Row, Leggett was Director of the Writers’ Workshop at the University of Iowa for 17 years and co-founded the Napa Valley Writers’ Conference.
Anne Matlack Evans, Program Director
Anne Matlack Evans, now in her thirteenth year managing the conference, received her MFA in fiction from Bennington College, and teaches writing and literature. Her fiction has appeared in Eclipse and Memoir (and); her nonfiction in the San Francisco Chronicle and the Ruminator Review. Anne is the conference’s fundraiser. Contact her at writecon@napavalley.edu.
Andrea Bewick, Managing Director
Andrea Bewick is a graduate of the University of Iowa Writers’ Workshop and was a Wallace Stegner Fellow in Fiction at Stanford. She was a runner-up for the Nelson Algren Award, and her fiction has also appeared in American Short Fiction and Epoch. She teaches English at Napa Valley College. Contact her at writecon@napavalley.edu.
Nan Cohen, Poetry Program Director
Nan Cohen is the author of Rope Bridge (Cherry Grove Collections, 2005), and her poems have appeared in Ploughshares, Poetry International, Tikkun, Prairie Schooner, and other publications. A past Wallace Stegner Fellow and Jones Lecturer at Stanford University, she received a 2005 Rona Jaffe Writer’s Award and a 2003 NEA fellowship. She lives in Los Angeles, where she teaches in the Master of Professional Writing Program at the University of Southern California. Read Nan’s blog and for poetry inquiries, email Nan at poetry@napawritersconference.org.
Lakin Khan, Fiction Director
Lakin Khan is a graduate of the MFA Program at Antioch Los Angeles. Her fiction, poems and essays have been published by zaum, Crimson Crane, the anthology Zebulon Nights, and Tiny Lights, A Journal of Personal Essay. She writes a monthly column, “Nature’s Way,” concerning the interaction of the campus community and the surrounding natural environment for Newsbytes, a publication of Sonoma State University, and an idiosyncratic blog, Rhymes with Bacon. Contact Lakin with fiction enquiries at fiction@napawritersconference.org.
Jeannie Kim-McPherson, Poetry and Fiction Assistant
Jeannie Kim-McPherson is a graduate of the MFA Program at Bennington College. She teaches English at Napa Valley College and joined the conference staff in 2010 after volunteering in 2009. Contact Jeannie with fiction enquiries at fiction@napawritersconference.org or poetry enquiries at poetry@napawritersconference.org.
Catherine Thorpe, Marketing and Events Manager
Catherine Thorpe is a technologist, book researcher and recovering journalist. Her travel pieces have appeared in Travelers’ Tales: Italy and Santa Rosa Magazine, and she is a contributing writer at the murder mystery serial Crimescene.com. Contact Catherine with media and events enquiries at media@napawritersconference.org.
Christy Palella, Housing Coordinator and Conference Assistant
Christy joined the conference staff in 2010 and teaches at Napa Valley College and Sonoma State University. Contact Christy with housing enquiries at housing@napawritersconference.org.
Susie Moore, Administrative Assistant
Susie handles the logistics of admissions and tuition payments and fields general enquiries: 707-967-2900 x1611.
