Contributors
Charlene Anderson received an MA in English Literature from Purdue University and an MA in Research Psychology from San Francisco State University and spent most of her working life at the University of California San Francisco in grant administration. As a child, she always knew she would write, told stories to her friends, and even invented a pen name for herself, Charles Andrè. So, while working on budgets and submitting grant proposals at UCSF, she continued to write and, in 2001 published a novel, Berkeley’s Best Buddhist Bookstore. When Vistas & Byways was launched in 2015, she was pleased to be asked to chair the Editorial Board. She has served in that capacity ever since.
Contributions to this issue:
​V&B Board member
Fiction
The Dream within the Dream
Poetry
The Mississippi, 
​Paradise Lost, California​
Visual Arts
​​Three ‘Literary’ Landscapes
Polly Richards Babcock is a photographer as well as a writer, although her book took over her creative life for a couple of years. She has lived in San Francisco for more than forty years. She says the 2010s has been her favorite decade, with respect to her personal life. Polly thinks Jerry Seinfeld said it best about why he does what he does: “It's joyful, difficult and interesting.”
Contributions to this issue:
Poetry
​Album
Kaaren Strauch Brown is a lifelong student, retired Professor of Social Work, and post retirement museum docent. She is a recent transplant to San Francisco from the Midwest. After annoying her fellow sixth graders with her fiction many, many years ago, she has returned to writing. Her science fiction book, The Abril Legacy, is available at Amazon E-Books.
Contributions to this issue:
Nonfiction
Brief Encounters in San Francisco
​Rufus Browning taught political science and ran the Public Research Institute at San Francisco State University. He co-authored Protest Is Not Enough: The Struggle of Blacks and Hispanics for Equality in Urban Politics (UC Press, 1984) and co-edited and contributed to Racial Politics in American Cities. He has facilitated the Caring Community Study Group at OLLI at SF State since 2008. He sings and composes and loves to hike.
Contributions to this issue:
Fiction
Men
Juanita Callejas has explored a variety of destinations as a universal traveler in both mind and body to get to her current “port” of creative writer. Her passport has been stamped as a Mexican-Nicaraguan first-generation native-born San Franciscan. She is a mother of three, an amazing visual artist, an alumna of San Francisco State University (BA in Spanish; BS in International Business and Accounting) and University of California, Berkeley (MBA), Finance and HR professional (banking, shipping and apparel industries), and a grandmother of one amazing grandson. She continues to add pages to her passport for trips to all continents and more visual art and creative writing projects!
Contributions to this issue: 
​Fiction
​Magical Mexican Mariscos
The time Barbara Campbell spent with her Long Island grandparents was a great influence on her. Her grandmother taught her to be an outstanding cook. Her grandfather allowed her to spend hours in his basement rummaging through antique books, fabrics, paper cards and other items he collected on his monthly auction trips. He was a master of collecting history. Barbara went on to study art and design at the Fashion Institute in New York. Influenced by teachers Barbara Ellman, Leslie Giuliani and Nancy McTague, her current body of work honors history. Her work has been shown in exhibits, juried shows and galleries around New York, Connecticut and California. Many of her paintings are in private collections.
Contributions to this issue: 
​Visual Arts
​Gates to the Past
Bill Carpenter has a degree in Creative Arts with an emphasis in film. A San Francisco resident for over forty years, his career has been as a CAD (computer aided drafting) specialist in engineering and architecture. He has taken classes through OLLI at SF State, off and on, since 2005. In 2010, he began writing seriously and concentrating on the writing classes offered through OLLI at SF State.
Contributions to this issue:
Fiction
Across the Room
​
Joe Catalano practiced law for more than 30 years before he retired in 2018. He has since pursued his interests in photography, high performance driving, travel and writing. He has enjoyed his first OLLI as SF State courses in the spring semester 2019 and thanks the members of the OLLI at SF State Poetry Writing interest group for their input and support. He lives in San Francisco with his wife Joan. 
Contributions to this issue: 
​Poetry
​Floating Fleeting Photon
Richard Chackerian was born in San Francisco. He received a BA from The University of California Berkeley, and a PhD in Political Science from the University of Washington, Seattle. He retired from Florida State University after 34 years of service as Professor Emeritus of Public Administration and Policy. He is a member of Sixty Plus at San Francisco State University and co-chair of the Education Committee. He lives in San Francisco with his wife and near their children Ara and Cynthia. They have three grandchildren.
Contributions to this issue: 
​Poetry
​The Symphony of Marital Discussion
​Thomas O. Davenport is an independent writer and business advisor living in San Francisco. He spent 32 years as a human resource consultant for a global consulting organization. He has written three business books and many serious articles and now writes sardonic verse, much of it commenting on business practices he observed (and helped create) and on social phenomena that amuse and bemuse him. You can read his writings (verse and other) at http://www.worklodes.com.
Contributions to this issue:
Poetry
​The Disgruntled Traveler: An Experiential Quartet
Heather Saunders Estes has been writing all her life and recently left her long-term role as a non-profit CEO. Living in San Francisco, many of her poems include fog, politics, justice and family. She walks around the city, tends her bonsai and kale, observes ravens, and maps the best blackberry patches. She has a few poems published and is editing a chapbook. ​ Heather's new debut book of poetry, Inner Sunset, will be coming out in June 2019.
Contributions to this issue:
Poetry
​Dignity of Trees, 
​​Fall into The Next
​Elsa Fernandez grew up in Asia. She has lived in San Francisco since 1970 and never gets tired of this lovely city. She has travelled the world and still gets excited flying back home and to finally land at SFO. Her family is scattered around the world—India, Australia, Dubai, England, Ireland and Argentina. She is a political junkie and majored in Journalism and Political Science. She loves music and plays the piano quite well (one of her dreams was to own a piano bar in upcountry Maui . . .  she would probably call it the Maui Moon!). Writing poetry is an emotional outlet for her.
Contributions to this issue:
​​V&B support staff
Fiction
​Swimming with Deep Blue 
​Poetry
Chasing the Blood Moon​,
Islais Creek​​
Find your passion and follow it!   -  Oprah Winfrey.  
Cathy Fiorello’s  passions are food, Paris, and writing. A morning at a farmers’ market is her idea of excitement and visiting Paris is her idea of heaven. And much of her writing is about food and Paris. She worked in publishing in New York, freelanced for magazines during her child-rearing years, then re-entered the work world as an editor. She moved to San Francisco in 2008 and published a memoir, Al Capone Had a Lovely Mother. In 2018, she published a second memoir, Standing at the Edge of the Pool. Cathy has two children and four grandchildren. Her mission is to make foodies and Francophiles of them all.
Contributions to this issue:
​Nonfiction
​Paris: A State of Mind​,
​Provence and Tuscany: Homegrown Contentment​
​Book Review
An Intrepid World Traveler
​Elinor Gale has been a writer, observer of human nature, and lover of the English language since childhood. An inveterate eavesdropper, she has woven her curiosity about human behavior into her work as writing teacher, editor and creator of humorous yet poignant fiction and poetry. She holds a BA in English from Smith College and an MS in Counseling from Northeastern University. Her essays, poetry and articles have been published in print and online. Elinor moved to the Bay Area from New England over 20 years ago and still marvels at flowers and green grass in February.
Contributions to this issue:
Fiction
Evergreen Follies
Fred Goldman has been an OLLI at SF State member since 2012. His enjoyment of the OLLI learning experience motivated him to serve on the Curriculum Committee as member and Chair. He has been interested in photography for over 40 years, but his interest accelerated after his retirement, leading him to become an avid digital photographer utilizing sophisticated post-processing computer software. He has also been an active member and officer of the Peninsula Camera Club where he has participated in Club (and Club sponsored) photo competitions. Fred and his wife Kathryn spend a portion of their year traveling to new and exciting places and documenting those trips photographically.
Contributions to this issue:
Visual Arts
​​A Brief Photographic Travelogue of Some Special Places
Kathryn Santana Goldman is a native of San Francisco. Her interest in poetry began when she was working in ICU as a registered nurse. She used this practice to process the variety of stressful scenarios experienced. Over the years, she has continued to experiment with different types of writing such as short stories and plays. As an avid traveler, Kathryn has become skilled at capturing photographs about the diversity she encounters. Three years ago, she began to combine her love of photography with her writing by using the images she captures as seeds for her poems. She continues to explore new ways to use these two art forms to share her experience with family and friends.
Contributions to this issue:
Poetry
​Lighting San Miguel​,
​Executive Presence 
Visual Arts
​​Celebrating the Diversity of Life
​Jane Bell Goldstein has held a variety jobs in her life: salesperson, tour guide, accountant, middle school teacher, and half a dozen different positions during her 19 years with the Internal Revenue Service, all of which might fall under the general description of spirit guide to taxpayers through the fathomless bureaucracy. Since her retirement in 2010, she has pursued interests in writing, bird-watching, genealogy, history and most recently website design, as chief architect of the Vistas & Byways website. Jane is a graduate of San Francisco State University (BA History, 1974). She has a grown son and daughter and two grandchildren. She and her husband, Mark, live in Oakland.
Contributions to this issue:
V&B Board member
​​Fiction
​The Flow
​Mary Heldman is retired from a career in medical school administration, computer programming, and business systems analysis. She grew up in Los Angeles but lived in Palo Alto, Washington D.C., Cambridge, and Stony Brook, New York before settling in San Francisco in 1974. She tutors at a local high school, studies piano, and designs costume jewelry. From time to time she writes sardonic prose for her friends. Mary wishes she lived with a chocolate lab or a golden retriever, but she doesn’t.
Contributions to this issue:
V&B Board member
​Harry (Hari) Huberman is a retired high school teacher who worked nearly 30 years mostly here in San Francisco. He is married and has two grown children. He enjoys painting, swimming, tennis, travel, baking bread, rock ’n’ roll, and has even self-published a book on travel. Most recently for the last two years he has volunteered at an adult education class for beginning English learners who are adults from 18-70 from all over the world.
​Contributions to this issue:
Visual Arts
​​The Art of Travel
Mary Hunt worked at San Francisco State University for twenty years, first in the College of Business Graduate Office and then in the Office of Research as an IRB (Institutional Review Board) Administrator. Previously, she worked in music and media production. During her tenure at SFSU, she earned an MA in humanities. She has been an OLLI at SF State member and volunteer since 2014. After taking an OLLI at SF State course in short article writing, she has had several articles published for neighborhood and online magazines. Her interests include yoga, dance, travel, and photojournalism.​
Contributions to this issue:
V&B support staff
Nonfiction
​An Inside Look at V&B
​Vivian (Sinick) Imperiale left her 18-year career as support staff in a real estate office because of a chance encounter with a man with schizophrenia. Since then, she has been a mental health advocate for over 40 years, including 20 years employed in the field. Vivian has a BA in Psychology and an MA in Special Education.
Contributions to this issue:
Poetry
​Journeying to a Better Place​,
​​Traveling to Me from Afar​
Mike Lambert is a long-time resident of San Francisco and led the effort to start Vistas & Byways in the fall of 2015. In an earlier life, he worked in the telecommunications industry for 35 years and taught at San Franciso State University’s College of Business for 15 years. He refutes the adage about old dogs and new tricks. He took up creative writing as a hobby at age 75. He recently self-published two novels and a collection of his short stories. His main fictional character is Jessica Jones, a single working girl in contemporary San Francisco.  See his Author page at Amazon under the name of M. L. Lambert for more details.
Contributions to this issue:
​V&B support staff
Nonfiction
​A Journey to Hospital Land; And Back
Before Tina Martin retired in 2014 from City College of San Francisco, where she taught for thirty-two years, she taught and/or trained teachers on five continents: Tonga (Oceana), Spain (Europe), Algeria (Africa), Mexico (North America), and Japan (Asia). She has a son, Jonathan, soon to turn forty, with whom she founded the JoMama Book Club in 2007. They have a written chat once a month for three hours on the book they've chosen to read and discuss together. She is writing a memoir, Everything I Should Have Learned I Could Have Learned in Tonga. Three nonfiction pieces she wrote appear in anthologies and two others are online.
Contributions to this issue:
​Nonfiction
​​“Dates” I Know by Heart,
​​​A Fifteen-Minute Sanity Test
​Marsha Michaels has been a student at OLLI at SF State since 2009. Her first writing class was with Barbara Rose Brooker. Barbara helped Marsha self-publish a memoir called, Pulling At Straws. She also took a class with Dave Casuto, and they developed a website, where many of Marsha’s stories and recipes can be found. Marsha has been published in previous issues of Vistas & Byways. Marsha takes writing classes and other diversified subjects at OLLI at SF State. She finally feels that she’s been educated where she missed out in her youth. Marsha thanks OLLI at SF State for the enormous difference it has made in her life.
Contributions to this issue:
Nonfiction
​​Have Scooter, Will Travel: Journey to Freedom
​Angie Minkin retired from a long career as an administrative law judge with the State of California and now spends her time rehabilitating her right brain. She practices yoga, takes dance classes several times a week, and loves to write poetry. She volunteers with a local non-profit that serves low-income immigrant families. Angie has two adult children and lives in San Francisco with her husband and two cats, all of whom provide inspiration. She escapes to the sun whenever possible.
Contributions to this issue:
​V&B Board member 
Poetry
​Alchemy
After becoming an attorney, Pamela Pitt graduated with an MFA (1990) from the San Francisco Art Institute. She showed her photography work nationally in group and solo shows. Seeking daylight after years in the dark room, she worked on collage with mixed media painting and photography. Ideas from social issues became the basis of certain collage series:
2014: ripped pages from a law book on the “Patriot Act” to use as collage elements.
2016: used tissue dress “Patterns" in a series about the place of women.
2017: produced a collage series based on the concept of making land a commodity.
With her current focus on photography and scanner digital art, Pam works on achieving peace through creativity and beauty.
Contributions to this issue:
​Visual Arts
​Papua New Guinea​​
​Don Plansky has participated in many OLLI at SF State writer workshops. In a former incarnation, he worked as a freelance journalist, contributing more than 200 articles to The Jewish Bulletin of Northern California, as well as book reviews for The Pacific World: Journal of the Institute of Buddhist Studies. Don has been a member of the Vistas & Byways Editorial Board since 2015.​
Contributions to this issue:
​​V&B Board member
​Fiction
​Androcles and the Lion
Rodney J. Shapiro was born and raised in South Africa. He worked as a journalist and published several short stories and articles. He taught English Literature as a part-time school teacher but decided on psychology as a career. He graduated from the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, with a PhD in 1965. He immigrated to the USA in 1966. His professional career included faculty positions as Associate Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Rochester, NY, and Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at the University of California, San Francisco. While dedicated to his profession of clinical psychology, his interests have included long distance running, travel, pets, and amateur photography. His primary reverence is for writing prose and poetry.
Contributions to this issue:
​Fiction
The Bully
​​Poetry
​Facing Truth
​Steve Surryhne was an Associate Lecturer in English Literature at San Francisco State University from 1993-2012. He is currently semi-retired and has recently returned to writing poetry. A native of San Francisco, he was a baby-beat in the sixties, knew some of the beat poets and is now a neo-beat. In his alternate career, he worked in Community Mental Health in San Francisco from 1979-2012. He took first place in the Jack Kerouac Poetry contest in 2015 and has published in The Blue Moon Review and Interpretations. He is currently working on a project with a photographer friend on poem-texts and photos. 
Contributions to this issue:
Poetry
​​Leadville
A New York City native, Monika Trobits has lived in San Francisco for more than 36 years. She has studied local history since the mid-1980s. In addition to working in the corporate world, Monika was a docent/tour guide for historically-based organizations and local tour operators for more than 25 years. Nowadays, she teaches walking history classes for OLLI at SF State. Her article, "Dashiell Hammett’s San Francisco in the 1920s," was published in the winter 2011 edition of The Argonaut, a local historical journal. The History Press published Monika’s first book: Antebellum and Civil War San Francisco: A Western Theater for Northern & Southern Politics in 2014 and her second book: Bay Area Coffee: A Stimulating History in February 2019.
Contributions to this issue:
Nonfiction
​The First Hill of Beans: Folger’s Coffee,
​Urban Legend or Not: The Questionable Circumstances Surrounding the Death of a President
​A retired physician, Corey Weinstein is a musician, poet, songwriter and clarinet player. He has published two CDs of original music inspired by the Klezmer and Yiddish stage musical traditions and led Umzist, a Klezmer band playing benefits for Jewish elders for more than a decade. He wrote and performed at various venues a singspiel, Erased: Babi Yar, the SS and Me to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the massacre at Babi Yar. He plays clarinet in the Or Shalom Jewish Community choir, with The Jamberries Jazz Band at Shabbat services at Rhoda Goldman Plaza, and with any chamber music group he can find. He lives in the Ingleside of San Francisco with his wife of 37 years, Pat Skala.
Contributions to this issue:
​Poetry
​​Rumi’s Yom Kippur
Vivien Zielin was born in England and graduated in history and social studies at the University of Sussex. She was a history teacher in London, worked for an interior design company in Jerusalem, and was the owner of “The China Ware House Company” in Carnaby Street, specializing in fine English made giftware, dinnerware, and quirky teapots. She has worked for media companies on various projects. She has traveled the world. In 2005 she moved to California and became a citizen in 2012. She discovered OLLI at SF State in 2009 and is the Event Organizer for the annual Creativity Celebration. Eyeballing Big Croc: Chasing Dreams Around the World is her first book and was published in 2018.
Contributions to this issue:
​Nonfiction
Monsoons and Showers

​The Vistas & Byways Review is the semiannual journal of fiction, nonfiction, poetry and visual arts by members of OLLI at SF State.
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​The Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at San Francisco State University​ provides material support to the Vistas & Byways volunteer staff.