Linda Watanabe McFerrin—poet, travel writer, and novelist, contributor to numerous newspapers, magazines and anthologies, author of two poetry collections, past editor of a popular Northern California guidebook, winner of the Katherine Anne Porter Prize for Fiction— is the founder of Left Coast Writers® and has led workshops in Greece, France, Italy, Ireland, Central America, and the United States. She has mentored a long list of accomplished writers toward publication. Her novel, Namako: Sea Cucumber, was named Best Book for the Teen-Age by the New York Public Library.
In addition to authoring an award-winning short story collection, The Hand of Buddha, she has co-edited several anthologies, including the Hot Flashes: Sexy Little Stories & Poems series. Her latest novel, Dead Love, which was short-listed as a 2007 William Faulkner-William Wisdom Creative Writing Competition finalist, will be published in September. Linda has judged the San Francisco Literary Awards, the Josephine Miles Award for Literary Excellence and the Kiriyama Prize, served as a visiting mentor for the Loft Mentor Series, has been guest faculty at the Oklahoma Arts Institute, is a past NEA panelist, and has been a juror for the Marin Literary Arts Council. She will conduct a limited registration workshop, Love Makes the Literary World Go Round during Words & Music, 2010. For more on Linda, Click Here.