Evan Karp, Executive Director
Evan Karp is the creator and executive director of Quiet Lightning, which the Los Angeles Review of Books called “collective alchemy,” and the founding editor of Litseen, recognized by the New York Times as a go-to, near-comprehensive source for Bay Area literary events. He writes columns for the San Francisco Chronicle and SF/Arts, and since moving from Savannah, GA in 2009 has produced more than 200 events featuring over 1,000 artists in more than 75 venues, from dive bars to national landmarks. He has written columns for KQED and SF Weekly, and his writing has also appeared in Guardian UK, BOMBlog, The Bay Citizen, and many other places. Evan worked with The Emerald Tablet to develop both of their interdisciplinary performance series, Under the Influence and Call and Response, and is currently events manager at Booksmith and organizer of Berkeley Arts & Letters. With his brother Miles he’s Turk & Divis.
evan at quietlightning dot org
Chris Cole, Managing Director
Chris Cole is a father, a writer, and the NBA 6th man of the year three years running. Wait, scratch that last thing. He does run the West Coast office for a killer User Experience Agency called EffectiveUI and he coaches West Marin Little League games like nobody’s business. And, he is nice to animals. He’s also co-founder of Pints and Prose, the Fairfax-based reading series founded by the Tuesday Night Writers. That makes seventy-five words. chris at quietlightning dot org
Meghan Thornton, Treasurer
Meghan Thornton is a writer and visual effects artist originally from Chicago. She first became involved in Quiet Lightning as a reader, performing at the inaugural show in December 2009, and now serves as a board member and Treasurer. She writes both poetry and fiction, and has a series of novels in the works. meghan at quietlightning dot org
Josey Rose Duncan, PR
Josey Rose Duncan is a writer. She offers editorial, content, and strategic services to clients in fields from social media marketing and technology, to music, and wellness. Josey’s articles have appeared in Willamette Week, Ode (now Optimism) magazine, SheKnows, The Huffington Post, and more; her poetry has been published in Quiet Lightning’s very own sPARKLE + bLINK. She first met the QL crew in 2011 when (much to her surprise) she was invited to read. A Bay Area native, Josey holds a Bachelor’s degree in English and Creative Writing from Reed College in Portland, Oregon. She is currently hard at work on a memoir. josey at quietlightning dot org
Laura Ceron Melo, Art
Laura Cerón Melo is a Colombian Editorial Designer / Print lover / Illustrator. An advocate and enthusiast of self publication, she’s published “De Suna en Suna” (2011), an interactive journal exploring the passing of time in Bogotá; “Plastic Panties”, a Spanglish Queer zine with her partner, and a myriad of chapbooks, zines, small books in collaboration with the Colombian art collective “Tyrannus Melancholicus”. Laura has worked for printing houses such as McSweeney’s and La Silueta Ediciones. She has a serious obsession with letters and birds, which she scribbles with pen and ink, watercolors and crayons. Lately she’s worked with relief ink in a series of linocut prints for the Colombian Marriage Equality campaign. She holds a degree in Communication and Product Design, a Certificate in Print Media, and is currently working as Graphic and Web designer in San Francisco.
Kelsey Schimmelman, Secretary
Kelsey Schimmelman holds a bachelor’s degree in literature from the College of Creative Studies at UC Santa Barbara, where she specialized in creative writing and literary theory. Kelsey is a compulsive diarist, community enthusiast and conference organizer. Former contributing editor to Spectrum Literary Magazine, she currently curates and manages GitHub’s San Francisco event space and produces events designed to galvanize the local open source and art communities.
Christine No, Producer / Assistant Managing Director
Christine was born and bred in Los Angeles, CA. but has called New Mexico, New York City and now Oakland her home. She holds her BA in creative writing from the College of Santa Fe and her MFA in Film from the American Film Institute. By day she is a producer of films, commercials and media content. By night, she is usually hungry and sleepy. Christine’s film projects have shown at the Sundance Film Festival, in VOD/theaters, in exhibition at the Oakland Museum of California and recently in exhibition at the Crocker Art Museum. Her writing has appeared in Writing Without Walls, Tayo Literary Magazine, Catch & Release, sPARKLE+bLINK, STORY, and she has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize. Christine is an Aries, likes the colors blue and grey and Moroccan food. She has long conversations with her dog Brandeh, because Brandeh is people. When you meet Christine, ask her to talk in her dog’s voice. (She’ll do it.)
Brandon Loberg, Design
When he was younger, Brandon Loberg‘s fascination with hopeless adventurism was awakened by a series of bizarre and embarrassing events, culminating with a stint in the Argentine military as a gun-for-hire during the Falklands War. Despite his choice of sides, however, his poor understanding of Spanish earned him commendation from the late Margaret Thatcher, after he misunderstood his commanders’ orders and caused the sole incident of friendly-fire during the conflict. Taking a vow of pacifism (and 500,000 pesos), he now indulges his curmudgeonly predilections from his hideout deep in the railway tunnels of San Francisco. He prides himself on his sincerity. brandon at quietlightning dot org
Sarah Ciston, Books
Sarah Ciston runs Bootleg Books, an editing and design studio that helps independent authors and publishers go rogue. She is publisher of the literary zine We Still Like and is currently co-authoring an interactive fictional audio tour of San Francisco’s Mission District for Invisible City Audio Tours, as well as working on at least two books. books at quietlightning dot org
Katie Wheeler-Dubin, Films
Katie Wheeler-Dubin, born and raised in San Francisco, enjoys collaboration, ginger, lucid dreaming, and film projects. She has been published in Sparkle and Blink, Poets 11 2012, Carry the Light, and TheNew and has read at numerous Bay Area reading series, such as Porchlight, Quiet Lightning, Portuguese Artists Writing Colony, LitUp Writers, and UC Santa Cruz’ Literature Undergraduate Colloquium. She won the UC Santa Cruz Deans’ Undergraduate Award with her story “Inside Games” and won the acclaimed San Mateo County Fair Best of Show with her short story “Lilith.” She pays homage to all indigo children. films at quietlightning dot org
Lapo Guzzini, Associate Editor, vitriol
Lapo Guzzini is executive director of events and activities for The Emerald Tablet. In the years from 1996 through 2001, while residing in Rome, Italy, Lapo created video projections and installations in collaboration with musical artists, developing conceptual and textual material as well as visual experiences for audiences across Italy, Spain and France. Since moving to California from Italy in 2001, Lapo has been studying and producing art in a variety of media, passing through painting, drawing, sculpture and ceramics to his current focus on the written word. From 2007 through 2009, Lapo attended UC Berkeley and studied mathematics and logic with leading experts in the field. He is a strong believer in the fundamental unity of the human pursuits of reasoning and creativity. By curating the scene that gravitates around The Emerald Tablet, which he opened in 2011 in partnership with proprietor Della Heywood, he seeks to create a welcoming and vibrant community space for creators, a melting pot for all the multifaceted expressions of the human spirit to intersect and find points of synergy.
Rebecca Samuelson, Associate Editor, Litseen
Rebecca Samuelson was born in Hayward, CA and still resides there today. She received her BA in Creative Writing from San Francisco State University and is the first in her family to graduate from university. Her work has been published in Transfer Magazine and she is furthering her involvement in the literary community. In her spare time she likes to indulge in Young Adult novels, watch musicals, laugh a lot, and hopes to one day write a novel of her own.
