A story in many parts

he was there, sitting, crying, weeping. He asked, “What’s the matter with your dolls?” She replied back, “I wasn’t crying. I was acting.”
◊ Trevyn Wong, age 9 (San Luis Obispo, California)

He asked her, "Can I see that doll?"
"OK but be careful with her," she said.
Carefully he lifted the doll up and looked at her. She had long, straight blond hair. The doll was wearing a red and white dress and purple shoes.
He laughed and said, "Your doll's hair is a rat's nest!"
The doll was mad. She pinched the little boy. He was so surprised he dropped the doll. The doll yelled out, "My name is Matilda, and I say shut your lip!"
◊ Hannah Fowler, age 9 (San Luis Obispo, California)

Matilda, the fabulous doll with blonde hair pushed her head up to look at the little boy as he disappeared down the street. She had a huge grin on her face and when she looked at her crying friend, she said, "I wasn't really mad, honestly.... I was trying to be an actress just like you." She hugged Matilda close to her chest and ran home laughing as loud as she can. She and Matilda agreed that they should visit another world and meet new characters.
◊ Kate Sarrami, age 8 (Canada)

Matilda and Grace had a secret. Once they were home, they opened the heater vent under the special toy box in their room. They first looked around to make sure no one was watching, then jumped down the heater shaft.
They slid on cushy pillows in dim light until they came to an abrupt stop in a candlelit, orange chamber. In the chamber was a time machine.
Matilda and Grace stepped cautiously into the time machine probe, pressed the green button, and were off.
After they stopped they stepped out and couldn't believe their eyes.
◊ Isabella Zuniga, age 9 (Los Osos, California)

They were now in a colorful world where the trees were made of lollipops, the roads were made of flowers, and the fields were growing chocolate carrots. The sun was a giant, yellow gumdrop and the clouds were made of marshmallows.
Matilda said, "I smell cookies!" They turn around and see a river flowing with chocolate chip cookies. They now look up and can't believe what they see.
◊ Marguerite Zuniga, age 6 (Los Osos, California)

A gigantic ship was floating in the sky, gliding gently towards them.
A few seconds later, it had landed right in front of them. A woman came out, and Matilda and Grace gasped.
The woman who had come out had a lion's head!
"Hello." said the lady with the lion's head. "My name is Lily."
Matilda and Grace were staring with very large eyes.
"Are you going to eat us?" Matilda whispered.
"No." said Lily. "I have a delivery for you. Mr. Silver, would you bring the package please?" She called to the ship.
A short man with a horse head came from the ship, holding a little package covered in brown paper. He gave it to Grace, and walked back to the ship.
Grace unwrapped the package.
◊ Sophia Greco, age 11 (San Diego, California)

In the package there was a golden lollipop.
"Ooh, that looks so yummy!" said Matilda.
"It's so shiny," said Grace.
Lily walked up to them and handed them the lollipop. "You better eat it soon because the gummy dolphins might try to steal it from you." said Lilly.
"What gummy dolphins?" asked Grace.
"Those," said Lilly and she pointed at the river with a bunch of colorful dolphins.
"Wow! This place is cool," said Grace looking at the happy dolphins.
Matilda came running over to the dolphins with the lollipop in her hand. "Can we pet them?" asked Matilda.
"Why not? They're harmless, but they do like the gold-colored candy." said Lily.
Just then, the dolphin jumped up, grabbed the lollipop, and swam away.
"Oh, no!" said Matilda.
◊ Enzo Greco, age 9 (San Diego, California)

"Chase that dolphin!" screamed Grace. They started running down the river side after the dolphin. They ran faster and faster until they were a blur.
 "Oh no he is getting away, run faster" yelled Matilda. 
 "I can’t run any faster I’m getting tired" said Grace. 
 "Look the river is flowing into a lake. We’ll never catch them now." Suddenly they came to a stop. There was a speed boat in front of them made of candy. They jumped into the boat and took off for the dolphin and their candy.
◊ Clara Moore, age 9 (Whitehall, Michigan)

They said to the captain "Go faster!" 
Grace reached her arm down and grabbed the candy from the dolphin.  Matilda, Grace and the captain shared the golden candy. When they ate the golden candy they all turned into different colors.  Grace was pink.  Matilda was blue.  The captain was purple. They all laughed at each other. 
Grace said, "You guys look funny!" 
Suddenly, they saw something enormous coming out of the lake. 
◊ Alice Moore, age 7 (Whitehall, Michigan)

It was an alien holding a big laser gun. He had a green body and five dark blue eyes. He was so tall that if you stood at his feet and looked up you wouldn’t be able to see his head. He took his laser gun and pointed it right at the boat. Suddenly the boat started moving upwards.
"What’s happening," whispered Matilda.
"Oh, it’s just George," replied the Captain.
"Okay, but who’s George?" asked Grace.
"That’s George, there, the one in green," laughed the captain.
◊ Isabelle Gillette, age 9 (Arroyo Grande, California)

We'll be continuing this over the next few days with contributions from various children around the country. Please e-mail info[at]readinginpublic.com if you would like your child to participate.

Drawing by Hannah Fowler

Cruz Trujillo

Cruz Trujillo is thirteen.

(Photo by Anna Landa)

Soul Beach: Behind Rusty barbed wire fences
And flimsy wooden signs ignored,
Lies the beauty grace and tranquility
Of a quiet patient sea.
Waiting for the world to turn,
The wind to blow,
And for the waves to rise and fall again.

If this contribution has piqued your interest, feel free to build on it: Post your own version of the story's continuation here in comments, on Twitter, on Flickr, or text us at (805) 628-2283. You can also wait for the May 15th SLO event and type it all on a real live typewriter.

Allan Cooper

Allan Cooper, FAIA, is a retired professor of Architecture at Cal Poly, and has served as Director and Associate Dean of the department. He is the recipient of a multitude of professional and teaching awards, including the AIA Presidential Citation (awarded four times) and the AIACCC Award of Merit for design of the Cooper Residence. Allan has given many years of service to the community of San Luis Obispo, serving on the boards of various local organizations, including the San Luis Obispo Planning Commission and the San Luis Obispo Arts Council. He is the current president of Obispo Beautiful.

Allan is currently reading Naomi Klein's "The Shock Doctrine - The Rise of Disaster Capitalism," which inspired his rant contribution :

In 1967 Senator Everett Dirksen, a Republican Senator from Illinois, summarized the two basic principals then guiding the Republican party:
1) Conserve assets (i.e., through balancing budgets) and conserve values (primarily 20th century Christian values);
2) Oppose incursions of the government through rule of law into the liberties of the American people (i.e., regulation of so-called "free market" forces, regulation of guns, redistribution of wealth, etc.).

Naomi Klein's thought-provoking book "The Shock Doctrine" carefully documents how the University of Chicago School of Economics under Milton Friedman's leadership managed to impose these values (through clandestine CIA and corporate intervention) on developing third world nations that had been leaning toward socialism and democracy. The net result were quasi-fascist kleptocracies, the dissolution of all social welfare programs (including unions) and the elimination of trade barriers (which benefited multi-national - mostly U.S. - corporations). As Tom Neuhaus so eloquently stated in his April 29th Tribune Letter to the Editor: "The rise of fascism is often preceded by populist anger, fueling the success of the future dictator and founded on the repetition of stereotypes." The most effective strategy is to stereotype liberals or progressives as Socialists, Marxists or Communists (or, in some cases, even as "terrorists"). A study, published in the March 2010 issue of the peer-reviewed scientific journal Social Psychology Quarterly, advances a new theory to explain why people form particular preferences and values. More intelligent people are statistically significantly more likely to exhibit social values and religious and political preferences that are novel to the human species in evolutionary history. Specifically, liberalism and atheism, and for men (but not women), preference for sexual exclusivity correlate with higher intelligence. In the current study, Satoshi Kanazawa, an evolutionary psychologist at the London School of Economics and Political Science, argues that humans are evolutionarily designed to be conservative, caring mostly about their family and friends, and being liberal, caring about an indefinite number of genetically unrelated strangers they never meet or interact with, is evolutionarily novel. So more intelligent children may be more likely to grow up to be liberals. To be fair to all of those "conservative" readers out there, there are many exceptions to these findings and all of us share the following values: Emphasis on tolerance; Concern for the collective good; Moral and religious values; Trust in authority, and; Self interest. But the first two values appear to be the hallmark of liberals and the last three are the hallmark of conservatives.

If this contribution has piqued your interest, feel free to build on it: Post your own version of the story's continuation here in comments, on Twitter, on Flickr, or text us at (805) 628-2283. You can also wait for the May 15th SLO event and type it all on a real live typewriter.

Josephine Crawford

Website: http://www.josephinecrawford.com
Josephine Crawford is 72 years old. Of those 72 years, she has danced 20, been a costume designer for another 20, and has painted for 30 years.
Born and schooled in England, she has done a lot of travelling and currently lives in California.

Josephine's contribution:

"You can't come in here, you're not big enough, move on, and take that other one with you."
The man moved so quickly to kick the bundle in the corner and then sprang back where he had been before, it seemed that not much harm could had been done....then I heard the whimpering and saw the blood.

If this contribution has piqued your interest, feel free to build on it: Post your own version of the story's continuation here in comments, on Twitter, on Flickr, or text us at (805) 628-2283. You can also wait for the May 15th SLO event and type it all on a real live typewriter.

Paul Frommer

Paul Frommer, a communications professor at the University of Southern California (USC) and a linguistics consultant, created the Na'vi language for the fictional indigenous race in James Cameron's 2009 film Avatar.

He is the former Vice President, Special Projects Coordinator, Strategic Planner, and Writer-Researcher at Bentley Industries and served as Director of the Center for Management Communication at the USC Marshall School of Business. Frommer graduated from college at the University of Rochester with a bachelor of arts in mathematics. He taught English and math in Malaysia with the Peace Corps, and earned his masters degree and doctorate in linguistics from the University of Southern California under Bernard Comrie; his doctorate was on aspects of Persian syntax.

Paul's contribution, written in Na'vi for Reading In Public:

Tengkrr palulukan moene kxll sarmi, poltxe Neytiril aylì’ut a frakrr ’ok seyä layu oer.

And the translation:

As the thanator was charging towards the two of us, Neytiri said something I will always remember.

We've had a lot of great additions to Paul's opening line above and some of them have been too long for our comments! So we pulled them out of comments and are extending the post below.


Written and translated by Kayrìlien Rolyu (Alton DeHaan)

Neytiril oeru poltxe san nga oehu ’awsiteng lasyu frakrr sìk.
Ngaru seiyi irayo, ma karyu ’eylansì, ulte Eywa ngahu tì’i’avay krrä!

Translation: Neytiri said to me "You will always be together with me." / I thank you, my teacher and friend, and may Eywa be with you until the end of time.

----------------------------

Written and translated by IRAMightyPirate

"Poel oeti kä’olärìp nekll ne kllte tengkrr palulukan spolä moene. Oe tolawng tengkrr tsaw ftem em moe, tsawä pxia sre’ìl merun’i oeyä pxunit a krr tsaw ftolem."

Translated:
"She pushed me down towards the ground just as the Thanator jumped at us. I ducked as it passed over us, it’s sharp teeth cutting my arm when it passed by."

----------------------------

Written and translated by Mirri

Tengkrr palulukan moene kxll sarmi, poltxe Neytiril aylì’ut a frakrr ’ok seyä layu oer.
(As the thanator was charging towards the two of us, Neytiri said something I will always remember.)

San txo takuk tsakem steyki nì’aw sìk.
("If you hit it, you’ll only make it angry.")

Tolul moe ne tìhawnu ulte swirä fewi.
(We ran for safety and the creature chased.)

Terul kxamlä na’rìng tengkrr ayvulìl takuk oeti sì kì’ong seyki.
(Running through the forest, the branches hit me and slowed me.)

Palulukanìri ska’a fra’ut a mì fya’o.
(The thanator crushed everything in his path.)

Oeri tolìng nari ne’ìm ulte tse’a apxa aysre’it a rerikx oene. Kxal re’ot oeyä frìyìp a krr tsyokxìl za’olärìp neto oet.
(I looked back to see the large teeth coming towards me, and just before its mouth closed around my head, a hand pulled me away.)

Neytiril za’ärìp oeri tangeksìn oel nìwin nìspawnä nong pot, nefä sì nefä tsawla ayvulne.
(Neytiri pulled me onto the trunk of a tree and I jumped after her, upwards and upwards towards the tall branches.)

Woka pamit stawm aysre’ä ulte utral rikx a fì’u ’efu tengkrr sperä fäpane.
(I could hear the loud sounds of teeth and claws and felt the tree shaking while we jumped higher.)

Ke txey vaykrr a tse’a eana taw kxamlä ayrìk.
(I did not stop until I could see the blue sky through the leaves.)

Palulukanìri utralpxaw ulte nguway seri txankrr.
(The thanator circled the tree and howled for a long time.)

Tsakrr hum ne na’rìng nìmun.
(Finally, it left and walked into the deep forest again.)

Nìn Neytirit ulte po plltxe san oe kawkrr tsame’a uniltìrantokx a tul nìwin na tsakem. Nga keteng lu to aylahe sìk
(I looked up at Neytiri and she said "I have never seen an avatar run so fast. You are different from the others.")

Peyä menariri atanatan na sanhì soli ulte lrrtokìl tsweykayon oeyä txe’lanit.
(Her eyes shined like stars and her smile made my heart fly.)

Po lu nìlaw keteng to aylahe nìteng.
(She was certainly something different too.)

----------------------------

Written and translated by Kayrìlien Rolyu (Alton DeHaan)
(Many thanks to LearnNavi.org members Plumps and Lance R. Casey)

As the thanator was charging towards the two of us, Neytiri said something I will always remember. She was always so brave; the bravest hunter I have ever known. On that day, when my heart was not strong, she threw me to the ground and leaped into the air. She shouted to the creature, "Go back! This is our hunting land!" and it walked back into the forest. I did not understand, but I soon would.

Tengkrr palulukan moene kxll sarmi, poltxe Neytiril aylì’ut a frakrr ’ok seyä layu oer. Frakrr fìtxan tstew lamu poe; lamu frato tstewa taronyu a olomum oeri. Krr a txe’lan oeyä ke lamu txur, tsrole’i ne kllte poel oeti ulte spolä yanemfa. Poel swiräru zolawng san "Tìng tseng! Fìtsenge lu awngeyä atxkxe letaron!" sìk, ulte na’rìngnemfa ne’ìm tolìran palulukan. Tsakrr oe ke tslamam, slä ye’rìn tslivam.

I will always remember the day of Neytiri’s Dream Hunt. Eywa showed to us that Neytiri’s spirit animal was the thanator. Now I understood. This was a terrifying omen; no one had ever met an angry thanator and lived to tell the story. I give thanks to Neytiri every day for allowing me to be one of the first two. 

Frakrr ‘ok trrä Uniltaronä Neytiriyä layu oer. Eywal ayoer wamìntxu futa palulukan livu tireaioang Neytiriyä. Tsakrr oe tslolam. Fì’u layu aungia a txopu seyki ayoer nìtxan. Kawkrr tuteol palulukanit a steri ke ultxaralmun ulte mi rarmey fte tsivun vurit piveng. Neytiriru irayo seiyi oe fratrr talun poel tolung futa oe slivu ‘awvea mesuteyä hapxì.

I will always remember the day we first saw the skypeople. I want to kill them all. They attack us from above in their gunships. They destroy the land. My father thinks that they will leave soon. Doctor Grace tells us that they only want a little bit of land to dig up their sacred rock. Screw that! The skypeople will not leave until they have completely destroyed the forest for their useless rock. Their gunships and metal demons will never stop.

Frakrr oel zayerok ’awvea trrit a tsame’änga ayoel sawtutet. Fori oe new tspivang nìwotx. Fol ayoeti ‘eko ta’em hunsìpfa feyä. Fol atxkxeti ska’a. Oeyä sempulìl fpìl futa ye’rìn hayum fo. Toktor Kìreysìl ayoer peng futa sawtutel ’itit atxkxeyä new nì’aw fte tsivun kllkivulat feyä tskxet aswok. Pxasìk! Sawtute ke hayum vaykrr fol na’rìngit skola’a nìwotx fpi feyä tskxe akelsar. Kawkrr ke fpayak ayvrrtep lefngap hunsìpsì feyä.

We went to where the metal demons were sleeping. I knew that we could not kill them with bow and arrow. There was only one way, and that was the way of the skypeople. Fire. But the skypeople’s alarm cry screamed across the land, and their warriors quickly tried to capture us. We ran faster than even the mighty Toruk can fly, hoping that perhaps they could not find us in the forest, but their gunships flew faster still. There was only one other way. Doctor Grace must know what to tell to them. 

Ayoe kolä tsengne a ayvrrtep lefngap harmahaw. Omum oel futa ayoel ayfoti ke tspivang fa tsko swizaw. Nì’aw lamu ‘awa fya’o sawtuteyä. Txep. Slä (alarm) sawtuteyä atxkxeka zayawng ulte ayoeti feyä samsiyul fmi spive’e. Ayoe to Toruk nìwin tamul, ulte sìlparmey tsnì mì na’rìng fol awngati ke tsun rivun, slä ayhunsìp feyä tswamayon nìwin frato. Nì’aw lamu ‘awa fya’o alahe. Zene ivomum Toktor Kìreysì foru futa piveng.

So we ran to the school. Neytiri was there; Oh Neytiri, you were always so beautiful, so strong. And Doctor Grace was there too, even after many years her small eyes still looked strange to me. When we arrived, she said to me, "I see you, my friend, but why have you come so quickly?" I said to her, "We have killed one of your metal demons. The forest is safe once again!" 

Tafral awnga ne numtseng tolul. Neytiril tarmok tsatsengit. Ma Neytiri, frakrr fìtxan sevin lu nga, fìtxan txursì. Ulte Toktor Kìreysì tarmok tsatsengit kop. Oeri mi hì’ia menari poeyä hiyìk leram. Krr a polähem ayoe, poe oeru poltxe san "Oel ngati kameie, ma ‘eylan, slä pelun zola’u ayoel fìtxan nìwin?" sìk. Oe poeru poltxe san "Tspolang awngal ayngeyä vrrtepoti lefngap. Set na’rìng leiu kxuke nìmun!" sìk.

Her face told me everything. I had never seen a skyperson be afraid before, and it frightened me as well. She said to us, "Run! Go to Hometree now; I will protect you!" I did not need to see the warrior skypeople behind her to know it was a lie. And then the shooting began.

Keyìl ngeyä fra’ut oeru poleng. Oel ke tsole’a futa tawtute txopu sivi srekrr, ulte kop tsal oeti txopu seykängi. Poel awngati poleng san "Tivul! Kivä Kelutralne set, ulte oel ayngati hìsyawnu!" sìk. Sawtuteti letsamsiyu uo poe oel ke kin tsive’a fte ivomum futa livayu lay. Ulte tsakrr sngolä’i tìtem.

Yes, I will always remember what Neytiri said to me, even as my blood now flows toward the leafy ground from the body the skypeople have destroyed. My sister said to me, "Sìlwanin, Eywa brings harmony to the people if the people bring harmony to Eywa." And all I could think as I lay there dying among the howling guns and the screams of my friends was, "Have I failed, sister? Have I failed?"

Srane, frakrr oel zayerok aylì’ut a poleng Neytiril oeru, tengkrr reypay oeyä rerängikx klltene alerìk ftu oeyä tokx a sawtutel skola’a. Oeyä tsmuke oeru poltxe san "Ma Sìlwanin, Eywal Na’viru tìme’emit zamayunge txo Na’vil Eywaru tìme’emit zamivunge." sìk. Ulte tengkrr tarmerkup oe ayhunkip anguwaysusi aysìzawngkipsì eylanä oeyä nì’aw tsun fpivìl san "Oe ke flolä srak, ma tsmuke? Oe ke flolä srak?" sìk.

-- The last thoughts of Sìlwanin te Tskaha Mo’at’ite

-- Syena aysäfpìl Sìlwaninä te Tskaha Mo’at’ite

Ashley Schwellenbach

Prunedale native Ashley Schwellenbach has been a bibliophile since the age of seven, when she was first compelled to stay up all night to finish an incredible book. (The dog died in the end, as they somehow always do, but that didn’t stop her from majoring in English at UCLA) After college, she moved to San Luis Obispo where she has been working as New Times' Arts and Entertainment Editor for the past four years. In her spare time she climbs trees, organizes flash mobs, dreams about faraway places, instigates, and collaborates.

Ashley's contribution:

"I realize, in retrospect, that in my naïveté I had traveled around Morocco looking like a 20-something Indiana Jones imitation. Baggy brown cotton pants. An off-white button up shirt. And a straw fedora that, if I had to be completely honest with myself, had cost more than a hat that would spend three sweaty weeks in North Africa should. But I needed a witness to my adventure. And brown cotton pants could not be trusted to recall anything of any importance. Or so I had justified my purchase.
The hat survived exactly nine days of the journey before I forgot it in the back seat of a taxi in Fez, the newest acquisition of a man who tried to cheat me out of 20 dirham (roughly two and a half dollars)."

If this contribution has piqued your interest, feel free to build on it: Post your own version of the story's continuation here in comments, on Twitter, on Flickr, or text us at (805) 628-2283. You can also wait for the May 15th SLO event and type it all on a real live typewriter.

Francesca Nemko

Francesca Nemko is a writer, poet, performance artist and creative consultant. Her byline has appeared in numerous magazines and publications, such as Down Beat, Jazz Times, Los Angeles Times, New Times, The Tribune and others. As a poet,she published two books of poetry, "Childless Mother," and "Of Parrots and Paradigms. She has been seen frequently presenting her poety-and-jazz with such musicians as Darrell Voss, Ken Hustad, Gary Drysdale, Clint Iwanacha and Dylan Johnson. She recently appeared with Los Angeles-based multi-instrumentalist Ray Pizzi at The Inn at Morro Bay.

She conducted a highly successful creative writing class, "Excavating Your Buried Treasure" for six years, and published a book of the same name, consisting of poetry by the participants. She continues to write and perform locally in many different contexts, including last year's "Writing in Public" event. She will be seen in August at the Day With Creative Women.

Francesca is a friend of Reading In Public and her contribution is a short haiku she wrote recently, while listening to a rehearsal by the Unity Community Players:

"Music fills the air
Young people reaching their heights
A new show opens."

If this contribution has piqued your interest, feel free to build on it: Post your own version of the story's continuation here in comments, on Twitter, on Flickr, or text us at (805) 628-2283. You can also wait for the May 15th SLO event and type it all on a real live typewriter.

Brett Bodemer

Brett Bodemer is a Seattle native who spent most of the last decade in Honolulu and Hanoi. He has published poems, essays, short stories, book reviews and one biographical book, "John Hedley in North China and Inner Mongolia, 1898-1912." His novels have never seen the light of day, which is probably a good thing for both readers and his own reputation. Now he only answers the call to write when there is no other solution to working through a deep puzzle. He is currently the Humanities and Social Sciences Librarian at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo.

Brett is also a friend of Reading In Public, not only reading at our first event in 2009, but staying with us for that entire day. And he still wants to be part of this year's event :)

Brett's contribution:

"The hand clamped onto the top of my hand and wouldn't let go. I ran into the kitchen, turned on the burner, and pressed the detached hand onto the coil. It screamed, felt pain, but did not burn. I turned up the heat. Its cries grew more intense but still it did not burn. A smaller hand with two missing fingers crawled out from the woodwork to console it."

If this contribution has piqued your interest, feel free to build on it: Post your own version of the story's continuation here in comments, on Twitter, on Flickr, or text us at (805) 628-2283. You can also wait for the May 15th SLO event and type it all on a real live typewriter.

Bruce Silverberg

Architect, educator, and sometime journalist Bruce Silverberg lives in San Luis Obispo, California, where he is on the full-time faculty of CuestArc, the architecture program at Cuesta College.
Bruce learned touch-typing on a manual Royal FP typewriter, a model featuring that company's famous "magic margins," when he was in the ninth grade at a public school near Philadelphia. "Typing was a required course for all students on the college-preparatory track back then," Silverberg says. "They also taught me to write, in the hope that I might someday have something to say with my newly acquired skill!"
Bruce lives in San Luis Obispo and his contribution is the first from the Central Coast:

"There was a time when words mattered, when the effort expended to get something onto a page made writing less casual. Those were the days!"

If this contribution has piqued your interest, feel free to build on it: Post your own version of the story's continuation here in comments, on Twitter, on Flickr, or text us at (805) 628-2283. You can also wait for the May 15th SLO event and type it all on a real live typewriter.

Dr. James J. Duderstadt

Dr. James J. Duderstadt is President Emeritus and Professor of Science and Engineering at the University of Michigan. A graduate of Yale (B.S.E. in electrical engineering) and Caltech (M.S. and Ph.D. in engineering science and physics), Dr. Duderstadt’s teaching, research, and publishing activities include nuclear science and engineering, applied physics, computer simulation, science policy, and higher education policy. He has served on and chaired numerous national academic and federal commissions including the National Science Board; the National Academies' Committee on Science, Engineering and Public Policy; the DOE's Nuclear Energy Research Advisory Committee; and the NSF’s Advisory Committee on Cyberinfrastructure, and the Intelligence Science Board. He has received numerous awards including the E. O. Lawrence Award for excellence in nuclear research, the Arthur Holly Compton Prize for outstanding teaching, the Reginald Wilson Award for national leadership in achieving diversity, and the National Medal of Technology for exemplary service to the nation. He is currently co-director of the program in Science, Technology, and Public Policy in the Ford School and director of the Millennium Project, a research center exploring the impact of over-the-horizon technologies on society, located in the James and Anne Duderstadt Center on the University's North Campus.

Photo by Mark Washburn

Dr. Duderstadt's contribution to Typing In Public:

THE LIBRARY AS THE POSTER CHILD OF THE IT REVOLUTION: "...the library has become the poster child for the impact of IT on higher education." "...the library may be the most important observation post for studying how students really learn. If the core competency of the university is the capacity to build collaborative spaces, both real and virtual, then the changing nature of the library may be a paradigm for the changing nature of the university itself."

If this contribution has piqued your interest, feel free to build on it: Post your own version of the story's continuation here in comments, on Twitter, on Flickr, or text us at (805) 628-2283. You can also wait for the May 15th SLO event and type it all on a real live typewriter.

Grace Bonney

Website: Design*Sponge

Grace Bonney is the Brooklyn-based editor of Design*Sponge, a daily website dedicated to home and product design. Grace has a unique angle on the industry, working as a contributing editor at Domino Magazine and CRAFT magazine, and as a freelancer with top publications like House and Garden, New York Home, Food and Wine, In Style, Better Homes and Gardens, New York Magazine, CITY Magazine, Time Out New York Kids, Archinect, The New York Post, Everyday with Rachael Ray and others. In addition, she wrote a weekly design column for the Philadelphia Inquirer for two years and has worked as Style Editor of HGTV’s Ideas Magazine.

Grace has been a featured guest on Good Morning America and the Martha Stewart Radio Show and has been invited to speak with wide variety of organizations ranging from design schools to professional trade organizations. Recent engagements include: "Design and the Media" (RISD, 2007), "Getting Your Work Online" (SCAD, 2007), "Design and the Internet" (AIGA, 2007), Design and Marketing Online (FIT, 2008), Design Panel Discussion (SURTEX, 2008), Design Panel Discussion (Interior Design Show (IDS), Canada, 2009)

Grace also runs a national series of meetups for women running design-based businesses called the D*S Biz Lady Series. Grace hosts and speaks at these events designed to connect local designers and provide free advice on the subjects of PR/marketing, legal concerns, business/financial decisions and wholesaling. Meetings have been held in Brooklyn, Chicago, Philadelphia, Portland, Seattle, San Francisco and Los Angeles and Boston.

Design*Sponge also hosts an annual D*S Scholarship to support up-and-coming art and design students. So far over $16,000 in prize money has been awarded to students across the country.

Photo by Anna Wolf

Grace's contribution to Typing In Public:

If this contribution has piqued your interest, feel free to build on it: Post your own version of the story's continuation here in comments, on Twitter, on Flickr, or text us at (805) 628-2283. You can also wait for the May 15th SLO event and type it all on a real live typewriter.

Kate Bingaman-Burt

Website: http://katebingamanburt.com/

Kate Bingaman-Burt was born in Kenosha, Wisconsin in 1977. She founded Obsessive Consumption in 2002 and has documented her personal consumption in many different mediums. Her first book, Obsessive Consumption: What Did You Buy Today? will be published by Princeton Architectural Press in April 2010.

Bingaman-Burt is active in the indie craft and craftivism movements. She provided all of the illustrations for the book Handmade Nation: The Rise of DIY, Art, Craft and Design as well as the promotional materials for the documentary of the same name. She lives in Portland, Oregon where, along with being an Assistant Professor of Graphic Design at Portland State University, she also makes piles of work about consumerism (zines! pillows! dresses! drawings! paper chains! photos!). She happily draws for other good people too (IDEO, Madewell, ReadyMade Magazine, The New York Times, Wieden + Kennedy). Kate also conducts zine workshops and spreads the craftivism word. Her Obsessive Consumption work is represented by Jen Bekman in NYC and she has produced several editions with Jen and 20x200.

Photo courtesy of Kate

Kate's contribution to Typing In Public:

If this contribution has piqued your interest, feel free to build on it: Post your own version of the story's continuation here in comments, on Twitter, on Flickr, or text us at (805) 628-2283. You can also wait for the May 15th SLO event and type it all on a real live typewriter.

George Oates

Website: http://george08.blogspot.com

George is a writer by mistake. After taking up the weblog challenge from Vancouver in August of 2003, she inadvertently wrote the equivalent of a short thesis in her role as designer of Flickr, arguably the world's best photosharing website. She is a voracious fiction lover, and some favorite authors include Iris Murdoch, Martin Amis, Peter Carey, and Philip Roth.

She currently resides in San Francisco, where she runs the Open Library project for the Internet Archive. She's thinking about getting two kittens, if she gets a Green Card.

Photo courtesy of George

George's contribution to Typing In Public:

If this contribution has piqued your interest, feel free to build on it: Post your own version of the story's continuation here in comments, on Twitter, on Flickr, or text us at (805) 628-2283. You can also wait for the May 15th SLO event and type it all on a real live typewriter.

Marian Bantjes

Website: www.bantjes.com

Marian Bantjes is a designer, artist and writer working internationally from her base on a small island off the west coast of Canada, near Vancouver. She was trained as a book typesetter (1984–1994) and was a straight-up graphic designer from 1994–2003. But it is since 2004 that her highly personal, obsessive and sometimes strange graphic work has brought her international recognition. Marian is known for her custom typography, detailed and lovingly precise vector art, her obsessive hand work, her patterning and ornament. Often hired to create custom art for magazines, advertising and special projects, Marian’s work has an underlying structure and formality that frames its organic, fluid nature.

Her clients include Pentagram (Michael Bierut), Stefan Sagmeister, Saks Fifth Avenue, Maharam, Ogilvy & Mather Chicago, Young & Rubicam Chicago, Random House, Houghton Mifflin, Wallpaper*, WIRED, The Guardian (UK), The New York Times, among many others. She has also designed materials for the AIGA, TypeCon 2007, and the Society of Graphic Designers of Canada (GDC).

Her work has been featured in design magazines around the world, including IDEA (Japan), Eye (UK), Communication Arts (USA), STEP (USA), Varoom (UK), Grafik (UK), DPI (Taiwan), Concept (Indonesia), Form (Germany), D2B (Brazil), Design Indaba (South Africa) and étapes (Paris); appears in numerous design compendiums, and has been published in a 120-page book by Pyramyd (France), as part of their design&designer series. In 2007, five pieces were accepted into the permanent collection of the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum (Smithsonian) in New York. In 2008, she was accepted as a member of the prestigious international design organization, Alliance Graphique Internationale (AGI). In 2010, she spoke at the reknowned TED Conference in Long Beach, California. Her book, "I Wonder" is due out in the fall of 2010, published by Thames & Hudson.

Photo courtesy of the artist

Marian's contribution to Typing In Public:

If this contribution has piqued your interest, feel free to build on it: Post your own version of the story's continuation here in comments, on Twitter, on Flickr, or text us at (805) 628-2283. You can also wait for the May 15th SLO event and type it all on a real live typewriter.

Jorge Colombo

Website: www.jorgecolombo.com

Jorge Colombo was born in 1963 in Lisbon, Portugal; moved to the USA in 1989. Has lived in Chicago and in San Francisco. Living in New York City since 1998 with his wife, artist Amy Yoes.

He has worked as an illustrator, as a photographer, and as a graphic designer. He was the art director of Chicago's NewCity, San Francisco magazine, and Jungle Media in NYC. He has three books published in Portugal: "Fullerton," a collection of his watercolor drawings from the 1990s; "Of Big and of Small Love," a photographic novel created in collaboration with novelist Inês Pedrosa; and "Lisboa Revisitada," photographs after poems by Álvaro de Campos, which were exhibited at Casa Fernando Pessoa in Lisbon. Since 2003 he has been working on digital videos, initially restricting himself to one-minute movies, later moving into longer projects.

His cover illustration for the June 1, 2009 issue of The New Yorker was the first one created on an iPhone for a major magazine. Video animations of his Finger Paintings have since appeared weekly in www.newyorker.com.

Photo by Daniel Murtagh

Jorge's contribution to Typing In Public:

If this contribution has piqued your interest, feel free to build on it: Post your own version of the story's continuation here in comments, on Twitter, on Flickr, or text us at (805) 628-2283. You can also wait for the May 15th SLO event and type it all on a real live typewriter.

Birds & Batteries

Website: www.birdsandbatteries.com
Tumblr: www.birdsandbatteries.tumblr.com
Myspace: www.myspace.com/birdsbatteries

Never easy to categorize, Bay area band Birds & Batteries continue to cut their own path of genre-less music. Previously revered by some as alt-country garage, fuzzy synth psych, or electronic pop, Birds & Batteries again find themselves in new territory with their latest EP, Up To No Good. Songwriter Mike Sempert describes it as "a spooky-funky adventure."

Photo courtesy of Birds & Batteries

Birds & Batteries' contribution to Typing In Public:


If this contribution has piqued your interest, feel free to build on it: Post your own version of the story's continuation here in comments, on Twitter, on Flickr, or text us at (805) 628-2283. You can also wait for the May 15th SLO event and type it all on a real live typewriter.

Paulo Coelho

Brazilian author Paulo Coelho was born in 1947 in the city of Rio de Janeiro. Before dedicating his life completely to literature, he worked as theater director, actor, lyricist, and journalist. Paulo wrote song lyrics for many famous performers in Brazilian music, such as Elis Regina and Rita Lee, yet he is best known for his work with Raul Seixas. Together they wrote such successes as "Eu nasci há dez mil anos atrás" ("I Was Born Ten Thousand Years Ago"), "Gita," and "Al Capone." He wrote "The Alchemist," one of the bestselling Brazilian books of all time. He also adapted "The Gift" (Henry Drummond) and "Love letters of a prophet" (Kalil Gibran). His work has been translated in 67 languages and edited in more than 150 countries.

Photo by Philip Van Volsem, courtesy of the author


Paulo's contribution to Typing In Public:


If this contribution has piqued your interest, feel free to build on it: Post your own version of the story's continuation here in comments, on Twitter, on Flickr, or text us at (805) 628-2283. You can also wait for the May 15th SLO event and type it all on a real live typewriter.

Victor Valle

Victor Valle is a professor and former chair of the ethnic studies department at California State Polytechnic University. An investigative reporter formerly with the Los Angeles Times, he is the coauthor of "Latino Metropolis, Recipe of Memory," as well as several other books, articles, and literary collections.
"The Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Victor Valle is the pit bull of Los Angeles writers." -- Mike Davis, author of "City of Quartz"

Photo courtesy of the author

Victor's contribution to Typing In Public:



Excerpted from his new book, "City of Industry: Genealogies of Power in Southern California" (Rutgers University Press, 2009)

If this contribution has piqued your interest, feel free to build on it: Post your own version of the story's continuation here in comments, on Twitter, on Flickr, or text us at (805) 628-2283. You can also wait for the May 15th SLO event and type it all on a real live typewriter.

Max Silvestri

Website: http://www.maxsilvestri.com/

Max Silvestri is a comedian, writer and actor living in Brooklyn. Named by New York Magazine as one of the "Ten Comedians People Find Funny." He's written for The Onion, Gawker, the Huffington Post and other places on the interwebs. Paste Magazine calls him 'World Wide Witty.' Along with Gabriel Delahaye, he makes videos as Gabe & Max for places like Details Magazine. Max has been in some TV commercials. He co-hosts Big Terrific, Time Out New York's Best New Variety Show, every Wednesday in Williamsburg alongside Gabe Liedman and SNL's Jenny Slate.

Photo: Fred Benenson

Max's contribution to Typing In Public:


If this contribution has piqued your interest, feel free to build on it: Post your own version of the story's continuation here in comments, on Twitter, on Flickr, or text us at (805) 628-2283. You can also wait for the May 15th SLO event and type it all on a real live typewriter.

Michele Serros

Website: http://www.muchamichele.com

Named by Newsweek as "One of the Top Young Women to Watch for in the New Century," Michele Serros is the author of "Chicana Falsa and other stories of Death, Identity and Oxnard," "How to be a Chicana Role Model," "Honey Blonde Chica," and her newest young adult novel, "¡Scandalosa!"

A former staff writer for The George Lopez Show, Serros has written for the Los Angeles Times, Ms. Magazine, CosmoGirl, and The Washington Post and contributes satirical commentaries for National Public Radio. Originally from Oxnard, CA, she is currently working on a new novel, "A (Sorta) Unmarried Mexican."

Photo: Marie Gregorio-Oviedo

Michele's contribution to Typing In Public:


If this contribution has piqued your interest, feel free to build on it: Post your own version of the story's continuation here in comments, on Twitter, on Flickr, or text us at (805) 628-2283. You can also wait for the May 15th SLO event and type it all on a real live typewriter.