Sandra Salas,
Program Director
Sandra Salas received her MFA in Screenwriting at the American Film Institute where she earned honors and awards for her writing talent. A native Angeleno, she grew up on a staple diet of films, spending summers at dollar movie theaters, and Saturday afternoons watching classic films aired on a local TV station. She has written shorts, promos, and features; co-wrote, produced, and directed a TV pilot; and is currently developing a feature documentary. Her film career has taken her to Bangkok, Malaysia, and Singapore; where she lived and taught screenwriting. During her off hours, she can be found skateboarding through the streets of Berkeley in search of undiscovered frozen yogurt shops, or hiking the east bay trails with her two wonderful dogs.
Sarah Mackey,
Community Liaison
Community Liaison
Sarah is a script enthusiast who becomes far too invested in fictional characters, especially those on television. Although she is most familiar with the stage, thanks to her theatre-nerd sister, her secret life ambition is to win an Oscar for writing a Pixar movie. Since this is much more likely to happen if she ever actually finishes a script, she is immensely grateful for Script Frenzy. Sarah lives in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, a known hotbed of the film industry.
Chris Angotti,
Young Writers Program Director
Chris Angotti received an M.A. in English education from Teachers College at Columbia University, and spent three years teaching middle and high school students in New York City. “Too busy” to write during this time, he put off project after project. After relocating to the Bay Area, Chris decided to enter the world of education nonprofits, and was lucky enough to find a job at OLL that relates to teaching and forces him to write... like, a lot. When he’s not working as the YWP Director or sweating to create vaguely readable prose, Chris enjoys hanging out in Berkeley, drinking coffee, watching movies, and buying too many records. He also finds burritos, ice cream, and dogs to be particularly awesome.
Grant Faulkner,
Executive Director
As a boy, Grant spent his allowance on all sorts of pens and paper, so there was never much question that he would become a writer. He received his B.A. from Grinnell College in English and his M.A. in Creative Writing from San Francisco State University. He has published in such journals as The Southwest Review, Poets & Writers, The Rumpus, Gargoyle, and The Berkeley Fiction Review, among others. He’s the founder and editor of the lit journal 100 Word Story and writes essays and book reviews for a number of publications and blogs. He believes quite simply that everyone is a writer—that we create our world through the stories we tell—so he now enthusiastically prods nearly everyone he meets to write a novel or a script and feel how life can be transformed through a daring creative act..
Tavia Stewart-Streit,
Deputy Director
Tavia graduated with a degree in Creative Writing from the University of Southern California. Since 2006, she has written four terrible novels and two not-as-terrible scripts. In her spare time, she works as an editor and curator for the Berkeley-based literary organization Watchword Press. She loves food, playing Mario Bros., and has recently become a "Mrs."
Tim Kim,
Managing Editor
The ballad of Tim Kim begins by noting that his name rhymes and is, thus, extremely ballad-suited. Tim studied literature at UCSD, then eventually returned to the Bay Area to intern at the Office of Letters and Light. All that close proximity with the OLL staff rock stars launched Tim into positions with San Francisco magazine, WIRED magazine, and Condé Nast. Then lo, did he hear the call of OLL once again, and jumpeth at the chance to return to that creative Eden. (That was an attempt at making this more ballad-like…total success!). On the side, Tim makes time for Once magazine.
Dan Duvall,
Technical Director
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.
Jezra Lickter,
Web Developer
As a jack of all trades, Jezra enjoys reading; writing software in various languages; human locomotion; playing the bagpipes, banjo, and concertina; knitting and crafting; and basically anything semi-productive that will distract him from cleaning up his home.
Heather Dudley,
Lead Forums Moderator
Married with two small children, Heather is the East Coast representative 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.
Shelby Gibbs, Intern
Shelby Gibbs received her BA in English Literature from Mills College. Although this year will be her first attempt at script writing, she has written short stories, essays, and the occasional poem on the color purple since childhood. She plans to attend graduate school in the fall of 2013, and hopes to one day teach at the community college or university level. In her free time, she enjoys grocery shopping (especially the free samples) and further exploring her native Bay Area.
Aliza Sajjad, Intern
Set to graduate from UC Berkeley this May, Aliza is excited and nervous to see where her English degree will take her. She hopes it will take her through the door of a Writing MFA program where she can focus on working through her currently very scattered novel idea. She admits that her biggest dream is to write a best-selling novel that turns into a movie, a graphic novel, and a TV series—but she’d be content achieving just one of those.
Jessica Joyce, Intern
This Spring Jessie Joyce will graduate from UC Berkeley with a Bachelors degree in English Literature. She is extremely sad to leave the Bay Area but she is looking forward to the adventures that await when she moves to the east coast. Jessie is an avid reader and sometimes writer; for the past few years her writing has been limited to academic essays but this April she will try her hand at scriptwriting. Although Jessie doesn't see herself pursing a career as a full-time educator, she enjoys working with kids and her weekly tutoring trips to San Quentin State Prison. In her free time you can find her reading outside, watching bizarre Netflix documentaries, riding her bike, or drinking copious amounts of chocolate milk. She hopes to be very successful someday at something.