Our Mission

Kate Kindred published her memoir An Accidental Mother in 2011 and serves on the board of Literacy Volunteers of Maricopa County. She has worked in banking, business management, and private wealth management, including many years with institutions such as Valley National Bank of Arizona, Chase Bank of Arizona, and First Interstate Bank.

Claudia Sternbach, Editor in Chief, Editorial Board Chair has worked as a columnist and feature writer for more than fifteen years, including for the San Francisco Chronicle, the San Francisco Examiner, and the Chicago TribuneHer work has appeared in Redbook as well as in several anthologies. Her first memoir, Now Breathe, was published by Whiteaker Press in 1999, and Unbridled Books published her latest book, Reading Lips: Memoir of Kisses in 2011. When not in the office, Claudia divides her time between her two hometowns, Santa Cruz and New York City.

Leonard Jay studied at the University of New Mexico and received an MA in English from Long Beach State University. He taught Composition and Literature at East Los Angeles College before entering the retail book business. For the last thirty years he has worked as a bookseller, store manager, district manager, regional trainer, and buyer. He lives in San Francisco.

David Masello is a New York-based writer on culture. He has published two books about architecture and art and currently serves as deputy editor for a startup culture and news website. He previously worked as a staff editor at many periodicals, including Town & Country, Travel + Leisure, and Art & Antiques.

Vicki Prichard is a freelance writer in Kentucky; a state that she maintains is as heavily populated with fine storytellers as it is with coal and thoroughbreds, and has written for print, television, and university development. She was a scriptwriter for Kentucky Educational Television’s documentary “Where the River Bends,” which received a 2007 regional Emmy Award. In addition to her affinity for community journalism and public television, she reads and writes for the Dog Eared Book Review.

David Rompf has written essays, stories, and articles for Harvard Review, Newsweek, Los Angeles Times, Missouri Review, Creative Nonfiction, and many other publications. His “Strange Science: Monsters, Fate and Optimism in Dedale” appeared in the exhibition catalog of Pierre Coulibeuf’s film and installation project Dedale, shown in museums around the world. David’s work has been cited in “Best American Essays” and “Best American Travel Writing.” He studied at the University of Southern California, Harvard, and Berkeley.

Larry Connolly, Prose Editor lives, writes and teaches in Burlington, Vermont.

Carl Rosenstock, Poetry Editor has been published in various anthologies and journals and has curated several reading series. He has a BA in Asian History from Union College and an MFA in Creative Writing from Vermont College. He grew up on a farm near Albany, New York and currently lives in Brooklyn.

Jessica Grumet is a writer, poet, and Special Education teacher living in Sausalito, California. She received a BA in Creative Writing from San Francisco State University. In 2011, she received a Golden Bell Award for excellence in teaching. Her published work includes the poems "Rattlesnake Road," "Highland Drive," and "(at) Caledonia," all of which appear in her collection of linked poetry, near completion. In her free time, she enjoys practicing Bikram yoga and traveling to distant, untouched places.

Katey Schultz is the author of Lost Crossings, a nonfiction chapbook, and editor of two fiction anthologies. She has received numerous awards, most notably the Linda Flowers Literary Prize, given by the North Carolina Humanities Council. From 2010 to 2012, Katey is traveling across the United States on writing fellowships and residencies. In addition to her service on Memoir’s Advisory Board, she is Founding Associate Editor of TRACHODON magazine and Managing Editor of Cheek Teeth Blog.

Loren Stephens is president and founder of Write Wisdom and Provenance Press, both of which provide clients with memoir writing and publishing services.  Loren is also Executive Producer and Writer of award-winning PBS documentaries, including Legacy of the Hollywood Blacklist and Los Pastores. Her personal essays and short stories have appeared in Tapestries, MacGuffin, the Los Angeles Times, the Chicago Tribune, Oracle, the Hudson Group of Newspapers, the Sun Magazine, the Jewish Women’s Literary Annual, the St. Louis Jewish Light and the anthology Thanksgiving Tales, among others.  She teaches “Writing Memoir” to all level of students.

Sarah Schafer, Director of Operations and Finance grew up in Southern California and attended UC Santa Barbara, where she majored in Art History. Prior to joining Memoir Journal, she worked as an administrator for various Bay Area arts and education organizations. She lives in Oakland with a cat and a chef.

Jessica Yarris, Marketing, Sales, and Distribution Manager holds an MBA from Mills College and a BA in Multi-Media Art and Design from the University of Oregon. Her background includes marketing strategy, media buying, advertising, and retail management, interning, catering, tea serving, babysitting, and kumquat selling when she was nine. When she is not working hard at Memoir Journal, she deeply enjoys reading, painting, petting animals, pruning roses, bike riding, brainstorming, traveling to new places, and much, much more.

Rae Gouirand, Education Programs Manager has published poetry and essays in American Poetry Review, Boston Review, Columbia, The Kenyon Review, KROnline, Seneca Review, Bateau, Bellingham Review, two recent volumes of the Best New Poets series, and Verse Daily. Her first collection of poems, Open Winter, was recently selected by Elaine Equi for the 2011 Bellday Prize for Poetry. Rae lives in Davis, California, serves as Writer-in-Residence for the Cache Creek Conservancy, leads private workshops in poetry and creative nonfiction throughout California's Central Valley, and maintains a blog, All One Hum.

Madison Brewer, Production Coordinator was born in the heart of the California Central Valley where she immediately ran far far away to obtain her BA in Comparative Literature with a concentration in Creative Writing from San Jose State University. She is currently working towards attending graduate school where she hopes to fill her head with even more literature. Before joining the Memoir Journal team she worked as a freelance content editor, research assistant, technical writer, and active community theatre volunteer.  

Rachel Fiske Reynolds, Memoir Journal Intern is a freelance writer and Memoir Journal's newest intern. She wears two blogging hats--one as a concoctor of recipes and sharer of culinary mishaps at Table1095, table1095.com, and the other as the writer of awe-struck love letters to her kid at Dear, dear Maxine, deardearmaxine.com. Rachel is interested in the meeting of the self and the social, in the world-making capacity of language, and in perfectly chewy oatmeal cookies.