Bios

CAITLIN ROTHER, a New York Times bestselling author and Pulitzer nominee who worked as an investigative newspaper reporter for 19 years, is the author or coauthor of eight books: Lost Girls, Dead Reckoning, Poisoned Love, Naked Addiction, Body Parts, Twisted Triangle, Where Hope Begins/Deadly Devotion, and My Life, Deleted. A former staff writer for The San Diego Union-Tribune, she has been published in Cosmopolitan, the Los Angeles Times, the Chicago Tribune, The Washington Post, The Boston Globe and The Daily Beast. Her scores of media appearances as a crime expert include national shows such as Nancy Grace, the Jay Thomas Show, E! Entertainment, the Oxygen Network, Investigation Discovery, Greta Van Susteren's On the Record, America at Night, American Radio Network and XM's The Agenda. She also has appeared on TV and radio shows in San Diego, including KPBS’s These Days and Full Focus. She teaches narrative non-fiction, journalism, interviewing and creative writing at University of California San Diego Extension. Rother, who speaks to groups large and small, has a bachelor’s in psychology from University of California, Berkeley and a master’s in journalism from Northwestern University. To contact Caitlin, email her at crother@flash.net. For more information, visit her website at http://caitlinrother.com/.

KATHI DIAMANT, author of Kafka’s Last Love, The Mystery of Dora Diamant, has led the international Kafka Project at SDSU since 1998, the official international search to recover the original letters and writings of literary genius Franz Kafka, which the Gestapo confiscated in 1933. Her research has taken her on extended trips to England, Germany, Poland, and Israel. In the 1980s, Kathi co-hosted morning talk shows in North Carolina and California, including KFMB Channel 8’s morning talk show, Sun Up San Diego, for which she received an Emmy award for Outstanding Performer. From 2004-2008 Kathi served as Anchor/Producer at KPBS TV and Radio, and currently works for PBS and APT (American Public Television) as a national fundraising host, narrator and producer. An Actors Equity member, Kathi continues to work in local theater, is an adjunct writing professor at SDSU’s Osher Institute, and teaches Tai Chi at the YMCA. A popular speaker and moderator, in 2006 she received a Living Legacy Award from the Women’s International Center, and in 2007 was inducted into the Silver Circle of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. Kathi holds a bachelor's in theater from Florida State University.

LAUREL CORONA, the author of 23 books, has combined her love of writing and teaching for more than three decades. She has taught at local colleges since 1975, first at San Diego State University then at UCSD, and now at San Diego City College, where she is a humanities professor. She began her career as an author in 1999 with a book on Kenya for Lucent Books. From there, she wrote 17 young adult titles for the same company, and went on to award-winning debuts in fiction and non-fiction books for adults in 2008. The Four Seasons: A Novel Of Vivaldi’s Venice won the 2009 Theodor Geisel Award for Book of the Year from the San Diego Book Awards and has been translated into eleven foreign languages. Until Our Last Breath: A Holocaust Story Of Love And Partisan Resistance won a San Diego Book Award as well as a Christopher Medal. Laurel’s second novel, Penelope’s Daughter was released in October 2010, and her third novel, Finding Emilie, made her a two-time Geisel winner in 2012. Laurel has a bachelor’s and a Ph.D. in English from University of California, Davis, and a master’s in English from University of Chicago. When not teaching or writing, or taking research adventures relating to her books, Laurel plays a wicked game of tennis, experiments in the kitchen, and explores the back country of San Diego County. For more information, visit http://www.laurelcorona.com.

GEORGEANNE "GEORGE" IRVINE is the author of more than 20 books on animals and wildlife, her most recent being the colorful and informative coffee table book, The Katrina Dolphins: One-Way Ticket to Paradise. Whether she’s trekking through rain forests in Borneo to photograph orangutans and illegal loggers, cavorting with dolphins in the Bahamas to research a new book, or wrestling with 50-pound panda cubs to help promote wildlife tours to China, George’s career is all about sharing animal stories to raise global awareness about conservation. By day, she is associate director of development communications for the San Diego Zoo and Safari Park, where she has worked for 33 years. In her spare time George volunteers her writing and photography skills to various organizations, including the Orangutan Foundation International (OFI) and the Australian Koala Foundation. She is also the president of her own non-profit organization, The Gordy Foundation, which provides grants to grassroots wildlife conservation programs around the world. George has a bachelor’s in journalism, with a PR emphasis, from San Diego State University, from which she graduated summa cum laude.

DIVINA INFUSINO is the author of Day Trips From Orange County, an often personalized account of Southern California’s iconic and idiosyncratic locales, natural and cultural sites, hotels, day spas, shopping areas and restaurants. She is also a co-author of The Love Response and Rock Gods. She has developed and consulted on numerous books over the past eight years, including those by bestselling self-help author Debbie Ford and wellness author Dr. Ellen Cutler. Divina has worked as a staff entertainment writer for The Milwaukee Journal and The San Diego Union, was a cultural commentator for KPBS Radio, and has also been published in Rolling Stone, The Economist, TV Guide, Entertainment Weekly, The Los Angeles Times, Reuters,The New York Times Syndicate, Harper’s Bazaar, Salon.com, and HuffingtonPost.com. Among her celebrity interview subjects are Madonna, Julia Roberts, Bono, Bob Dylan, George Harrison, Deepak Chopra, Robert Redford, Tom Hanks, Kate Bosworth, Stephen Covey, Norman Mailer, Bishop Desmond Tutu, and Keith Richards. She earned her bachelor’s in English and Communications from Marquette University and a master’s in mass media analysis from the University of Wisconsin.

JUDITH LIU, an award-winning sociology professor, has taught at University of San Diego since 1982. She is the author of Foreign Exchange: Counterculture behind the Walls of St. Hilda’s School for Girls 1929-1937 and the co-editor of The Ethnographic Eye: Interpretative Studies of Education in China. Her latest book tells three tales of an American Episcopalian missionary school in central China. The first is about Judith’s mother, Yeh Yuanshuang, who attended the school from 1929-1935; the second is about an American teacher, Dorothea Kingsley Wakeman, who went to the school to teach English during the Depression; and the third is a history of St. Hilda’s School for Girls. Liu’s academic research interests range from the discussion of issues of diversity to the telling of stories of heterosexual women with HIV/AIDS, and the study of education in the People’s Republic of China. Liu has a bachelor’s and a PH.D. in Sociology from UCSD and a master’s in Sociology from SDSU. For more information, please visit www.sandiego.edu and click on the Department of Sociology.

ZOHREH “ZOE” GHAHREMANI was born in Iran. Her family ties to Europe helped her become multi-lingual. After graduating from Ferdowsi University in 1972, she studied pediatric dentistry at London University. For twenty-five years, Zoe taught at Northwestern University Dental School and also ran her private practice in Evanston, Illinois. In 2000, when her family moved to California, she retired from dentistry to devote her life to writing. She is the author of two books: The Commiserator, which is in her native language of Persian, and Sky of Red Poppies (Turquoise, July 2010), her English-language novel, which was chosen as the winner of KPBS’s “One Book, One San Diego” contest. In addition, she has contributed more than 200 articles and vignettes to ethnic publications in the United States. Zohreh’s radio and TV appearances include Voice of America TV and a KPBS radio interview with Maureen Cavanaugh. Zoe will also be a featured speaker at The Mehregan Cultural Seminar in Washington, D.C. in September. Contact her at Zoeg2010@gmail.com or visit her website at www.zoeghahremani.com.

MARJORIE HART is the author of Summer At Tiffany (William Morrow, March 2010), which became a New York Times bestseller. Summer is the true story of how Marjorie and her college roommate, Marty, arrived in New York fresh out of college, and miraculously found jobs as pages at Tiffany & Co. As the first women to work on the sales floor, the young women met the rich and famous, danced away weekends with dashing midshipmen, celebrated VJ Day with millions at Times Square, and learned lessons that changed their future. Combining her love of writing with education and music, Hart worked as an instructor at DePauw University and as a professor at the University of San Diego, where she headed the Fine Arts Department. As a professional cellist, Hart joined the San Diego Symphony, the San Diego Opera and numerous chamber music ensembles. She earned her bachelor's from at the University of Iowa and her master's at San Diego State University. Hart wrote her memoir after retiring from USD. To contact Hart, visit her website at http://marjoriehart.com

SUSAN MCBETH, founder and owner of Adventures by the Book, has worked as an events coordinator for over 20 years, four and a half of which were spent specializing in author events as Director of Marketing and Events at Warwick's, a major independent bookstore in San Diego. Adventures was created from the notion that many readers and authors are looking for experiential events that allow them to connect on a more intimate basis than through a traditional lecture format.  Because Susan has extensive experience working with publishers, publicists, agents and authors, she’s able to organize these unique events in conjunction with an author’s book tour. Susan graduated magna cum laude from San Diego State University with a bachelor’s degree in business administration and a master’s in comparative literature, earning membership in Phi Beta Kappa and the Mortar Board Honor Society. Susan is currently pursuing publication of her master’s thesis, “The Historicity of Fiction in Holocaust Literature.” She is a member of the “One Book, One San Diego” committee, and a former board member of the Southern California Booksellers Association. Contact Susan at susan@adventuresbythebook.com or visit www.adventuresbythebook.com.

MARGARET DILLOWAY is the author of the acclaimed best-selling novel, How To Be An American Housewise (Putnam), about the strained relationship between Japanese war bride and her bi-racial American daughter, and the journey from San Diego to Japan that opens up family secrets and changes their lives. People magazine gave it four stars, saying, “This radiant debut pays moving tribute to the power of forgiveness.”  Her second novel, The Care and Handling of Roses With Thorns, will be published by Putnam in Spring 2012. Margaret earned a B.A. in Studio Art from Scripps College in Claremont. She lives in San Diego with her three children and husband, is working on her third novel, and writes a blog, American Housewife, at www.margaretdilloway.com.

   ELIZABETH COBBS HOFFMAN writes on topics from the Eighteenth Century to the present. A Stanford Ph.D., she holds an endowed cha ir in American history at SDSU. Her first non-fiction book, The Rich Neighbor Policy, explored post-World War II relations between the U.S and Latin America and won two national awards (the Allen Nevins and the Stuart Bernath Prizes). Smithsonian Magazine called her second book, All You Need is Love: The Peace Corps and the Spirit of the 1960s, “the truest, most moving portrait of the volunteer experience.” Elizabeth’s college textbook, Major Problems in American History, is now in its third edition. She has also published articles with the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, San Diego Union, and Washington Independent. Following a Fulbright fellowship in Ireland, she recently branched into fiction, winning a San Diego Book Award for Broken Promises: A Novel of the Civil War, as well as Director’s Mention for the Langum Prize in American Fiction. Elizabeth has also served on the jury for the Pulitzer Prize in History, and the Historical Advisory Board of the U.S. State Department. Her forthcoming books include a history of American Foreign Relations since 1776, and a novel on Alexander Hamilton. See: www.elizabethcobbshoffman.co

   CAITLIN O'CONNELL, a Stanford University School of Medicine instructor, is a world-renown expert on elephants and an award-winning author of three nonfiction books about elephants. Publisher’s Weekly calls her internationally acclaimed nonfiction science memoir, The Elephant’s Secret Sense (Free Press, 2007; paperback Chicago University Press, 2008), “a successful combination of science and soulfulness,” and Booklist reviewer calls “an addictive narrative”. Her co-authored, The Elephant Scientist (Houghton-Mifflin, Scientist in the Field series, 7/2011), won the 2012 Sibert Honor and the Horn Book Honor.  Her photo book, An Elephant’s Life (Lyons Press, 11/2011) has been reviewed enthusiastically by The Washington Post, USA Today, Reader’s Digest and O Magazine. O’Connell teaches science writing, blogs for the New York Times Scientist at Work series (7/2011; 7/2012) and her essays have appeared in numerous popular magazines, including Smithsonian Magazine (feature 11/2010; 3/2013), The Writer and Africa Geographic (feature 2007, 2012). Her work and writing has been covered by multiple international magazines, newspapers, radio shows and documentaries including National Geographic, Discover, Science News, Boston Globe, LA Times, Seattle Times, The Baltimore Sun, Discovery Channel, PBS Nature, Scientific American Frontiers, BBC, NPR(Science Friday, Diane Rehm, WYNC Lenard Lopate). For more information, visit her website at www.caitlineoconnell.com and www.utopiascientific.org.