Alison Bing - Alison Bing - culture commentator, food writer, art critic, editor, and content maven. Alison's writing credits cover 25 titles for Lonely Planet and parent company BBC, pop culture and art books for Barnes & Noble and Chronicle Books, news media from San Francisco Chronicle to The Guardian (UK), culture magazines such as Cooking Light, BlackBook, Architectural Record, and Flash Art, and commentary for NPR, NBC, and PBS. She also consults on content for leaders in media, technology, and consumer goods, including Proctor & Gamble, Blurb, NBCi/Universal, TransFair USA, American Documentary Inc., LeapFrog, Telemundo, and FRONTLINE/World. http://twitter.com/AlisonBing

Joshua Citrak - producer of slouch magazine, veteran of Small Spiral Notebook, Air In the Paragraph Line, SoMa Literary Review, Instant City and a whole bunch of others that he can't remember at the moment. His office is the one with the maps, the pinup girls and the weapons. He is currently at work on his first best seller. http://twitter.com/JoshuaCitrak

Michelle Gagnon - a former modern dancer, bartender, dog walker, model, personal trainer, and Russian supper club performer. Her IMBA bestselling novels have been published in North America, France, Spain, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Australia. Her debut thriller THE TUNNELS (June 2007) involves a series of ritualized murders in the abandoned tunnel system beneath a university. BONEYARD (July 2008) depicts a cat and mouse game between dueling serial killers and was described by the Chicago Tribune as, "utterly gripping...an addictively readable thriller." THE GATEKEEPER (November 2009) concerns a domestic terror plot by anti-immigration hate groups. Michelle is a member of Sisters in Crime, Mystery Writers of America, and International Thriller Writers. In her spare time she runs errands and indulges a weakness for Scrabble, stale cinema popcorn, and Hollywood blockbusters. Read more at www.michellegagnon.com

Scott James - a columnist for The New York Times covering the San Francisco Bay Area. He also writes fiction under the pen name Kemble Scott, and is the author of two bestselling novels. His first novel SoMa (2007), set in San Francisco's notorious South of Market neighborhood, was a finalist for the national Lambda Literary Award for Debut Fiction, and was the first novel launched using videos on YouTube. His second novel, The Sower (2009), was the first ebook novel sold by social publishing giant Scribd.com http://www.scribd.com/kemblescott. It was later published in hardcover by Numina Press and is currently being translated into Spanish for publication in Spain and Mexico by Ediciones del Viento (2010). The Sower is a darkly comic thriller and modern day parable about a man who possesses a miracle cure for all diseases, but dark forces conspire to try to prevent him from healing others. Scott is co-founder and editor of the ezine SoMa Literary Review , and has three Emmy Awards for his work in television news. www.kemblescott.com

Ammi Keller - publisher of the the zine "Emergency" since 1998. A Wallace Stegner fellow in fiction at Stanford for 2008-2009, Ammi is at work on a book of short stories.

Paul Linde - a clinical professor of psychiatry at UCSF, is author of the nonfiction book Danger to Self: On the Front Line with an ER Psychiatrist, published by the University of California Press in January 2010. He's worked in the San Francisco General Hospital's Psychiatric Emergency Service, where he teaches psychiatric residents, interns, medical students, and nursing students, since 1992. His writing has been compared to that of Alexander Luria, Oliver Sacks, and Sherwin Nuland. His first book, Of Spirits and Madness: An American Psychiatrist in Africa, was published by McGraw-Hill in 2002. Linde has also contributed to the New York Times, San Francisco Chronicle, San Jose Mercury News, and JAMA. He's written animation screenplays and also created, produced, and hosted a weekly health program on KALW Radio in San Francisco.

Shana Mahaffey - skier, wine and book lover, freelance writer, and author San Francisco Chronicle notable book for Fall 2009, Sounds Like Crazy—a darkly comic and ultimately healing story about Holly Miller, an Emmy Award winning cartoon voiceover performer who has actual voices in her head, multiple personalities who make her career a huge success, and shield her from a terrible secret in her past. Check out the book trailer. Shana's work has appeared in publications such as Sunset Magazine, SoMa Literary Review, Spectrum Literary Journal, Reflections Literary Journal, and assorted literary blogs. In addition to writing fiction, Shana has contributed articles, white papers, and product reviews to various technology publications. Her cat blogs for her at www.shanamahaffey.com

Teresa K. Miller - author of Forever No Lo (Tarpaulin Sky Press, 2008), reviewed in American Book Review 30(3) for National Poetry Month. Her unpublished manuscript sped was a finalist for the 2009 National Poetry Series. She received her MFA from Mills College, and her work has appeared in ZYZZYVA, Columbia Poetry Review, MiPOesias, Word For/Word, DIAGRAM, Coconut, Pebble Lake Review, and others. Originally from Seattle, she currently teaches in Oakland.

Raj Patel - activist, academic and author of Stuffed and Starved: The Battle for the World Food System and the New York Times bestselling The Value of Nothing. He has published in a range of peer-reviewed journals in economics, sociology and philosophy, appeared in publications such as Los Angeles Times, the Observer, and The Atlantic's Food Channel and has chronicled his enthusiasm for gin at NYTimes.com. RajPatel.org

Stephanie Soileau - grew up in Lake Charles, Louisiana, but has spent the last decade or so in Chicago and San Francisco. She is currently a lecturer at Stanford University, where she was also a Truman Capote Fellow in the Wallace Stegner Fellowship Program. Her short stories have appeared in Tin House, Gulf Coast, StoryQuarterly, Nimrod International Journal, Glimmer Train (forthcoming), three volumes of New Stories from the South, and Best of the South, Volume II: From 10 Years of New Stories from the South. She is working on a collection of stories and a novel about fishermen, oil and erosion in coastal Louisiana.

Diane Weipert - a San Francisco-based screenwriter. She has developed and sold projects for film, television, and the web. Her first film, Solo Dios Sabe, starring Diego Luna and Alica Braga, premiered at Sundance 2006 before being distributed throughout Latin America by Buena Vista Int'l. Since then she has adapted Argentine horror film Rooms for Tourists, written a script for Eddie Izzard's production company (scheduled for production in 2010), and developed several projects with actress Michelle Rodriguez. Her latest spec script will be included in a slate of six films to be produced in 2010, including a comedy by Back to the Future's Bob Gale. Diane is currently developing projects with producers in both LA and San Francisco.

Doug Wilkins (aka Whimsical Doggo) - professional goof-off, and future winner of the Booker Prize (once he becomes a Kiwi) is the author of the forthcoming novel of futuristic nostalgia, Wag and the Distant Bums, as well as the young reader's novel Trudy and the Transdimensional Trolley co-authored with his nephew, Derrick Flakoll. Doug is currently working on a non-fiction memoir of his life in New Zealand, where he resides with his wife and a noble terrier or two.

Sanchez Grotto Alumni

Sean Beaudoin - author of Going Nowhere Faster, Fade to Blue, and the upcoming You Killed Wesley Payne (Little, Brown- fall 2010). His stories and articles have appeared in numerous publications including Narrative Magazine, the Onion, the New Orleans Review, the San Francisco Chronicle, Opium, and Glimmer Train. He currently lives in a Grotto-less Seattle. www.Sean Beaudoin.com

Melodie Bowsher - author of My Lost and Found Life. Also, a former Wall Street Journal reporter, Melodie has worked as a freelance business writer in various forms.  She is the mother of two, whose crisis-filled teenage years provided fodder for her first novel.

Michael Chorost - freelance writer, contributor to Wired and Technology Review, and author of two books: Rebuilt: How Becoming Part Computer Made Me More Human (which won the PEN/USA award for Creative Nonfiction in 2006), and World Wide Mind: The Coming Integration of Human and Machine (The Free Press, Oct. 2010). In 2007 he scriptwrote a PBS show, The 22nd Century. Mike focuses on how technology is changing communication and the body. In July 2008 he moved temporarily to Washington D.C. to be a visiting professor at Gallaudet University, and in August 2009 decided to stay in D.C. permanently while continuing to work as a freelancer. Although now an alumnus, he calls his home office The Sanchez Grotto Annex, East Coast Branch. He keeps a blog at www.michaelchorost.com.

Jeff Kirschner - Internet entrepreneur turned storyteller.

Kara Knafelc - Travel writer, Lonely Planet contributor, USF writing instructor, and fiction writer.

Eric Tipler - is writing a book about the achievement gap based on his experience teaching in Fairfax County, Virginia and inner-city Washington, DC. His work has appeared in The Washington Post and he's been a resident of the Mesa Refuge in Point Reyes, California. He's also served as a reader for the AP World History Exam and consulted for schools and districts on standards, curriculum and assessment. Learn more at www.erictipler.com.

Rob Tocalino - associate editor for Bookmarks Magazine and novelist-in-progress.

Bernice Yeung - freelance journalist who enjoys writing about people, social issues, culture and the law -- or, ideally, some unexpected combination thereof. Her work has appeared in publications such as The International Herald Tribune, The New York Times, Glamour, Wired and San Francisco. A Bay Area native, Bernice has also lived in Chicago and 'da Bronx. www.berniceyeung.com