Academia and The Writing Life
College life began at Butler University in Indianapolis and continued at the University of California at Irvine, where I graduated cum laude with a Bachelor of Arts in English. I later attended the University of Southern California's Master of Professional Writing Program, where I studied with such authors as Shana Alexander, Betty Friedan, and Gay Talese. I graduated with a master's degree in non-fiction writing.
I return to academia periodically: U.C. Extension at Irvine to teach "Using Life Stories to Sell Non-Fiction" and "Writing the Truth of Your Life." In 1998 I served as conference coordinator of the U.C. Extension at Irvine Creative Writing Conference. In 2012 I appeared on the Humanities Alumni Career Panel "Shaping the Future", with moderator Lucas Hildebrand and panelists Bridget Cooks and T. Jefferson Parker.
I am a member of the editorial board of NINE: A Journal of Baseball History & Culture.
I frequent the Third Street Writers, which meets most every Monday in the Laguna Beach Public Library. I also get together with two longtime friends, a poet and a fiction writer, to review one another's work and gain a couple of pounds over lunch at Sabatino's in the Lido Peninsula.
Some Accolades
The Seymour Medal, Finalist: Breaking into Baseball, 2005
USA Today Baseball Weekly: Best Research Presentation, Society for American Baseball Research National Convention, 1999: "Lefthander Ila Borders: Crossing Baseball's Gender Line from Little League to the Northern League
Orange County Press Club: Best Profile, Orange County Press Club, 1995
Orange County Fair Media Contest: Best Personality Profile, Monthly/Semi-Monthly Publications, "Jack Peltason: New President of the University of California," in Orange Coast Magazine
Edward Moses Award: Honorable Mention, Short Fiction, "Breaking Glass," University of Southern California, 1992
Junior Library Guild Selection, 2017, Making My Pitch: A Woman's Baseball Odyssey
Recent Adventures
June 26-29, 2019. SABR 49, San Diego, California. Moderating the Women in Baseball Plenary Session with stellar panelists Janet Marie Smith, senior vice-president of planning and development, Los Angeles Dodgers; Justine Siegal, founder of Baseball For All; Ila Jane Borders, who played 3-1/2 seasons of men's professional baseball; Jewel Greenberg, producer of the 2019 documentary film "Hardball: A Woman's Baseball Odyssey," and Kelsie Whitmore, who played two seasons of baseball with the Sonoma Stompers.
May 2014. Hanging out at the Doubleday Cafe in Cooperstown between sessions of the Cooperstown Symposium on Baseball and American Culture with like-minded lovers of baseball: Jenny Ring, Kat Williams, Leslie Heaphy, Janet Marie Smith, George Gmelch, Lee Lowenfish .... Going 1-for-2 in the town ball game Tom Heitz organizes each year.
January 2014. Celebrating SABR Day in San Francisco....Marlene Vogelsang of the local Lefty O'Doul Chapter, hosted us panelists at a marvelous French cafe. Appeared at the San Francisco Public Library to open its exhibit in collaboration with the Lefty O'Doul Chapter, "Lipstick and Line Drives: The Untold Story of Women's Baseball." Joan Jasper of the Library moderated the discussion among baseball scholars David Block, Dorothy Mills, Leslie Heaphy, Monica Nucciarone, and me. We continued the discussion at the Library's reception and thence to Lefty O'Doul's old tavern on Geary, a not-to-be-missed baseball shrine. (See image below.)
Fall of 2013. A couple of forays to much loved San Francisco to climb the Filbert Street Steps, hang out at City Lights Books, and relax at Cafe de la Presse.
August. Camping out with family at South Fork in the San Gorgonio Wilderness. South Fork is where we spent many a happy summer vacation through the hospitality of Betsey Helie, whose family has roots in South Fork that date to the early 1900s. Of course, Betsey stopped by for dinner one night.
College life began at Butler University in Indianapolis and continued at the University of California at Irvine, where I graduated cum laude with a Bachelor of Arts in English. I later attended the University of Southern California's Master of Professional Writing Program, where I studied with such authors as Shana Alexander, Betty Friedan, and Gay Talese. I graduated with a master's degree in non-fiction writing.
I return to academia periodically: U.C. Extension at Irvine to teach "Using Life Stories to Sell Non-Fiction" and "Writing the Truth of Your Life." In 1998 I served as conference coordinator of the U.C. Extension at Irvine Creative Writing Conference. In 2012 I appeared on the Humanities Alumni Career Panel "Shaping the Future", with moderator Lucas Hildebrand and panelists Bridget Cooks and T. Jefferson Parker.
I am a member of the editorial board of NINE: A Journal of Baseball History & Culture.
I frequent the Third Street Writers, which meets most every Monday in the Laguna Beach Public Library. I also get together with two longtime friends, a poet and a fiction writer, to review one another's work and gain a couple of pounds over lunch at Sabatino's in the Lido Peninsula.
Some Accolades
The Seymour Medal, Finalist: Breaking into Baseball, 2005
USA Today Baseball Weekly: Best Research Presentation, Society for American Baseball Research National Convention, 1999: "Lefthander Ila Borders: Crossing Baseball's Gender Line from Little League to the Northern League
Orange County Press Club: Best Profile, Orange County Press Club, 1995
Orange County Fair Media Contest: Best Personality Profile, Monthly/Semi-Monthly Publications, "Jack Peltason: New President of the University of California," in Orange Coast Magazine
Edward Moses Award: Honorable Mention, Short Fiction, "Breaking Glass," University of Southern California, 1992
Junior Library Guild Selection, 2017, Making My Pitch: A Woman's Baseball Odyssey
Recent Adventures
June 26-29, 2019. SABR 49, San Diego, California. Moderating the Women in Baseball Plenary Session with stellar panelists Janet Marie Smith, senior vice-president of planning and development, Los Angeles Dodgers; Justine Siegal, founder of Baseball For All; Ila Jane Borders, who played 3-1/2 seasons of men's professional baseball; Jewel Greenberg, producer of the 2019 documentary film "Hardball: A Woman's Baseball Odyssey," and Kelsie Whitmore, who played two seasons of baseball with the Sonoma Stompers.
May 2014. Hanging out at the Doubleday Cafe in Cooperstown between sessions of the Cooperstown Symposium on Baseball and American Culture with like-minded lovers of baseball: Jenny Ring, Kat Williams, Leslie Heaphy, Janet Marie Smith, George Gmelch, Lee Lowenfish .... Going 1-for-2 in the town ball game Tom Heitz organizes each year.
January 2014. Celebrating SABR Day in San Francisco....Marlene Vogelsang of the local Lefty O'Doul Chapter, hosted us panelists at a marvelous French cafe. Appeared at the San Francisco Public Library to open its exhibit in collaboration with the Lefty O'Doul Chapter, "Lipstick and Line Drives: The Untold Story of Women's Baseball." Joan Jasper of the Library moderated the discussion among baseball scholars David Block, Dorothy Mills, Leslie Heaphy, Monica Nucciarone, and me. We continued the discussion at the Library's reception and thence to Lefty O'Doul's old tavern on Geary, a not-to-be-missed baseball shrine. (See image below.)
Fall of 2013. A couple of forays to much loved San Francisco to climb the Filbert Street Steps, hang out at City Lights Books, and relax at Cafe de la Presse.
August. Camping out with family at South Fork in the San Gorgonio Wilderness. South Fork is where we spent many a happy summer vacation through the hospitality of Betsey Helie, whose family has roots in South Fork that date to the early 1900s. Of course, Betsey stopped by for dinner one night.