1888: The How, The Why

Jerry Van Leeuwen is a native Californian. He was born in Artesia. His father, an immigrant from Holland, was a dairy farmer and Jerry’s first real employment was milking cows for his dad in Chino, CA at the age of 15. He received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Westmont College in Santa Barbara, California in 1972 and a Masters of Administration from the University of California, Riverside in 1975. Jerry began a career in local government by working for the City of Chino Police Department as a guidance counselor moving into a management position in 1978. He left the City of Chino to accept the position of Assistant Director of Community Services in Escondido in January 1987. He retired from the City of Escondido in December 2012. In June 2013 Jerry accepted the position of Executive Director for the California Center for the Arts, Escondido. In that role he oversees the Center’s operations that include 3 theaters, a visual arts museum, art education programs and a full service conference center.Beth Solomon M

Richard L. Rose is a Richmond writer and composer, whose eighth opera, Monte & Pinky, was performed at the Black History Museum of Virginia in April 2018. Rose is also the author of Frameshifts, a book of stories and poems in two volumes (2011).PushBackAtmosphere Press, 2021A World Without Books was created to help writers connect with readers during the pandemic. This Micro-Podcast provides authors a platform to share stories about writing, discuss current projects, and consider life without books. Listen on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you podcast.Without Books®, a division of Heritage Future, is an author-centric book initiative. Our resources support authors. We also provide access to millions of books.

Nathan Dean Talamantez is a Bay Area transplant from Texas, Air Force veteran, and current student pursuant of his MFA from California Institute of Integral Studies. Dean received his undergraduate in cultural anthropology in 2013 from Texas State University. His writing tends toward the examination of complex social issues from unfamiliar and often surreal angles.Sacred FoolAtmosphere Press, 2021A World Without Books was created to help writers connect with readers during the pandemic. This Micro-Podcast provides authors a platform to share stories about writing, discuss current projects, and consider life without books. Listen on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you podcast.Without Books®, a division of Heritage Future, is an author-centric book initiative. Our resources support authors. We also provide access to millions of books.

Martha Ackroyd Curtis is an Australian writer, and artist. She works in the realms of video, installation and multi- mediums. Her work consists of large-scale installation art, which is formulated through cohesive conceptual design. She has exhibited extensively in Australia and overseas, and participated in various art festivals.Hello TittyBusy Bird Publishing, 2020A World Without Books was created to help writers connect with readers during the pandemic. This Micro-Podcast provides authors a platform to share stories about writing, discuss current projects, and consider life without books. Listen on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you podcast.Without Books®, a division of Heritage Future, is an author-centric book initiative. Our resources support authors. We also provide access to millions of books.

Natasha Mynhier is a director, editor, and cinematographer based in Los Angeles. As a director, Natasha's accolades include winning Gold at the 2020 Young Directors Awards for her film In A Beat, and being featured at the 2017 Voice of a Women Festival: Cannes and the 2018 Utah Dance Film Festival for her dance films.She began writing In a Beat two years ago when she was inspired by a close friend's story of resilience. But her interest in the arts began during her time as a professional dancer. At age 17, she founded 37 Laines, LLC, an entertainment production company, through which she created a variety of content, including a sold-out full length dance play.During her senior year, at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, she garnered her first major promotional series through a contest where her script earned her the opportunity to write and produce commercials for MD Anderson Cancer Center in collaboration with AT&T and IBM Watson. After graduating, she relocated to LA where she joined forces with cinematog

Daniel Hagedorn lives in Seattle, Washington, where he was born and raised, with his wife and elderly dog. An alum of Pacific Lutheran University, he now splits his time between writing and helping various businesses and entities do what they do. The Lodestar is his first published novel.The LodestarAtmosphere Press, 2021A World Without Books was created to help writers connect with readers during the pandemic. This Micro-Podcast provides authors a platform to share stories about writing, discuss current projects, and consider life without books. Listen on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you podcast.Without Books®, a division of Heritage Future, is an author-centric book initiative. Our resources support authors. We also provide access to millions of books.

Cheryl I. Harris is the Rosalinde and Arthur Gilbert Foundation Chair in Civil Rights and Civil Liberties at UCLA School of Law where she teaches Constitutional Law, Civil Rights, Employment Discrimination, Critical Race Theory and Race Conscious Remedies.A graduate of Wellesley College and Northwestern School of Law, Professor Harris began her teaching career in 1990 at Chicago- Kent College of Law after working for one of Chicago’s leading criminal defense firms and later serving as a senior legal advisor in the City Attorney’s office as part of the reform administration of Mayor Harold Washington of Chicago. The interconnections between racial theory, civil rights practice, politics, and human rights have been important to her work. She was a key organizer of several major conferences that helped establish a dialogue between U.S. legal scholars and South African lawyers during the development of South Africa’s first democratic constitution. Since joining the UCLA Law faculty in 1998, Professor Harris has c

Award-winning journalist Kenji G. Taguma is the founding president of the Nichi Bei Foundation. As the Nichi Bei Times was closing in the summer of 2009, he led the movement to launch the first nonprofit ethnic community newspaper of its kind in the country. Currently, Kenji serves as the President of the Foundation, the Editor-in-Chief of the Nichi Bei Weekly, and Executive Producer of Films of Remembrance, a showcase of films related to the Japanese American incarceration during WWII.In 1998, Kenji received the distinguished Alumni Honors Award from California State University, Sacramento. In 1999 the then-English section editor of the Nichi Bei Times received the Community Service Award from New California Media for an article that documented the struggle for redress by Japanese Americans during WWII. In 2013, he was awarded a Consul General Award from the Consul General of Japan in San Francisco. In 2014 he helped launch the Nikkei Angel Island Pilgrimage to recognize the community's legacy at the Immigra

Dr. Cameron McCoy is a native of Washington, D.C. and is currently an assistant professor of U.S. Diplomatic and Military history at the United States Air Force Academy (USAFA). His focus of research is 20th and 21st century military and diplomatic history as well as the race relations the American military. Before arriving at USAFA the fall of 2019, Dr. McCoy was an assistant professor of U.S. History at Brigham Young University (BYU) from 2017 to 2019. Before that, he was a postdoctoral fellow at the United States Military Academy at West Point during the 2016–2017 academic year. He earned his doctorate in U.S. history at the University of Texas at Austin after receiving a masters in military history at Texas A&M University, and his bachelors in International & Area Studies at BYU. In addition to being a professor at USAFA and teaching courses on the Great Wars, U.S. Foreign Policy, modern warfare studies, Dr. McCoy also serves in the Marine Corps Reserves as an infantry officer. He has held several

Jimmie C. Gardner was a rising professional baseball player when he was wrongly incarcerated in 1990. While in prison, Gardner continued to pursue his education, earning three Associates Degrees and numerous certificates. He taught himself the law and worked tirelessly to secure his freedom, while serving as a representative for other prisoners during legal proceedings. He spent 27 years in jail before being exonerated.  Since his release, Gardner has become an advocate for other wrongfully imprisoned and over-incarcerated peoples. He is married to US District Court Judge Leslie Abrams Gardner, and is the brother-in-law of Stacy Abrams.Learn more about Jimmie at jcgardnerspeaks.com.Listen to Jimmie's lecture at chapman.edu/wilkinson.Engaging the World: Leading the Conversation on the Significance of Race is a ten-part podcast series of informed and enriching dialogues to help us better understand our world – how we got here, who we are, and where we are going as a society. This series engages in conversations

Jane P. Perry is a retired Researcher Teacher from UC Berkeley's Child Study Center. Since sheltering in place, Jane has interviewed with Paula Whitacre, appeared in Hidden Timber Books Small Press Author Reading Series, and has published in Persimmon Tree, McSweeney's Quarterly Concern, Women Writers, Women's Books and The Oaklandside.White Snake Diary: Exploring Self-InscribersAtmosphere Press, 2020A World Without Books was created to help writers connect with readers during the pandemic. This Micro-Podcast provides authors a platform to share stories about writing, discuss current projects, and consider life without books. Listen on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you podcast.Without Books®, a division of Heritage Future, is an author-centric book initiative. Our resources support authors. We also provide access to millions of books.

Heidi Turner is a writer and musician from Maui, Hawaii who writes in the in-between space of grace and disaster. She earned an MA in English from Azusa Pacific University and is now pursuing an MFA in Fiction from the University of New Hampshire.The Sacred Art of Trespassing BarefootHeritage Future, 2019A World Without Books was created to help writers connect with readers during the pandemic. This Micro-Podcast provides authors a platform to share stories about writing, discuss current projects, and consider life without books. Listen on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you podcast.Without Books®, a division of Heritage Future, is an author-centric book initiative. Our resources support authors. We also provide access to millions of books.

Larry Oda was born in a Justice Department Internment Camp in Crystal City, Texas during World War II and lives in Monterey, California.  He was educated in Monterey City Schools and earned his Bachelor’s and Master's degrees from California State University, Fresno.Larry is Chair Emeritus of the National Japanese American Memorial Foundation and served two terms as the National President of the Japanese American Citizens League. He has served on the Buddhist Churches of America (BCA) National Board, and President of the BCA Coast District Council, and is currently a Trustee of the Big Sur Land Trust. He is the author of The Seapride Canning Company and the Oda Family HistoryLarry retired as the Maintenance Superintendent and Administrative Hearing Officer after 27 years with the City of Salinas, California.  His interests include US-Japan Relations, Auto Restoration, and Golf.Tim Thomas is a fisheries historian and author who has researched the fisheries and cultural history of Monterey for over thirty years

Stephanie Harper is the author of Wesley Yorstead Goes Outside (Propertius Press, 2020), as well as a poetry collection entitled Sermon Series (Finishing Line Press, 2017). She writes fiction, nonfiction, and poetry.Wesley Yorstead Goes OutsidePropertius Press, 2020A World Without Books was created to help writers connect with readers during the pandemic. This Micro-Podcast provides authors a platform to share stories about writing, discuss current projects, and consider life without books. Listen on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you podcast.Without Books®, a division of Heritage Future, is an author-centric book initiative. Our resources support authors. We also provide access to millions of books.

Nick Olson is an author and editor from Chicagoland now living in North Carolina. He was a finalist for Glimmer Train’s Very Short Fiction Award, and he’s been published in SmokeLong Quarterly, Hobart, decomP, and other fine places. His debut novel, Here’s Waldo, is available now.Here's WaldoAtmosphere Press, 2020A World Without Books was created to help writers connect with readers during the pandemic. This Micro-Podcast provides authors a platform to share stories about writing, discuss current projects, and consider life without books. Listen on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you podcast.Without Books®, a division of Heritage Future, is an author-centric book initiative. Our resources support authors. We also provide access to millions of books.

Ivan Forde works across printmaking, sound, and installation. Ivan's training in English literature and epic poetry guides the themes he explores in his visual art practice such as migration and memory. Awards, and Fellowships include the 2020 Emerging Artist Award Baxter Street Camera Club, Civitella Ranieri Fellowship 2019, The Paul and Daisy Soros Fellowship for New Americans class of 2017, ACRE Projects, Vermont Studio Center, Pioneer Works, and the Lower East Side Printshop. Group exhibitions and performances include Visitor Welcome Center, MICA, The Jewish Museum, SCAD, MCA Chicago, The Whitney Museum, Studio Museum Harlem Postcards, the International Print Center, Lagos Photo Festival 17, and a 2018 solo exhibition at The Baxter Street Camera Club of New York. Ivan graduated with an MFA in Printmaking from Columbia University.  Learn more about Ivan at ivanforde.com.Listen to Ivan's lecture at chapman.edu/wilkinson.Engaging the World: Leading the Conversation on the Significance of Race is a ten-part p

Philip Brunetti has been writing fiction and poetry since his early 20s. His innovative work has been published in various literary journals including Cobalt, The Boiler, The Wax Paper, and Identity Theory. He lives in Brooklyn and currently works as a librarian. Newer Testaments is his first published novel.Newer TestamentsAtmosphere Press, 2020A World Without Books was created to help writers connect with readers during the pandemic. This Micro-Podcast provides authors a platform to share stories about writing, discuss current projects, and consider life without books. Listen on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you podcast.Without Books®, a division of Heritage Future, is an author-centric book initiative. Our resources support authors. We also provide access to millions of books.

Susannah Rodríguez Drissi is an award-winning writer, poet, playwright, translator, and scholar. Her work has appeared in Publisher’s Weekly, the Los Angeles Review of Books, Miami Herald, Nuevo Herald, Literal Magazine, and elsewhere. She is the author of The Latin Poet’s Guide to the Cosmos (Floricanto Press, 2019) and the award-winning plays Houses Without Walls, Rey y Atenea, and Hola, Soledad. Her novel Until We’re Fish published in October, 2020.Until We’re FishPropertius Press, 2020A World Without Books was created to help writers connect with readers during the pandemic. This Micro-Podcast provides authors a platform to share stories about writing, discuss current projects, and consider life without books. Listen on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you podcast.Without Books®, a division of Heritage Future, is an author-centric book initiative. Our resources support authors. We also provide access to millions of books.

Eddy Boudel Tan is the author of two novels, After Elias (Fall 2020) and The Rebellious Tide (Summer 2021). His work depicts a world much like our own — the heroes are flawed, truth is distorted, and there is as much hope as there is heartbreak. ​After EliasDundurn, 2020A World Without Books was created to help writers connect with readers during the pandemic. This Micro-Podcast provides authors a platform to share stories about writing, discuss current projects, and consider life without books. Listen on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you podcast.Without Books®, a division of Heritage Future, is an author-centric book initiative. Our resources support authors. We also provide access to millions of books.

Janet Stilson lives in 2 worlds. On one hand, she is a journalist. On the other, she writes scripts, novels and short stories that largely fall in the grounded sci-fi and fantasy genres and illuminate the human condition in provocative ways. She lives in New York with her husband and two opinionated cats.The JuiceDragon Moon Press, 2021A World Without Books was created to help writers connect with readers during the pandemic. This Micro-Podcast provides authors a platform to share stories about writing, discuss current projects, and consider life without books. Listen on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you podcast.Without Books®, a division of Heritage Future, is an author-centric book initiative. Our resources support authors. We also provide access to millions of books.