It’s that time again! Please elect this new slate of officers down below to continue to guide our chapter through the next two years (2022-2024).
We welcome the opportunity for ongoing and new WNBA-SF leadership! (Please note that in accordance with WNBA-SF Bylaws, there are two Vice President positions). The WNBA-SF Bylaws also provide brief descriptions of the officer positions and are attached here for your review:
https://wnba-books.org/members-only/
VOTING DEADLINE – APRIL 20, 2022
If you wish, you may also nominate an active, qualified WNBA-SF Chapter member as an alternative to this slate with their prior, written consent not later than April 11, 2022.
Many thanks,
Elise Marie Collins, President WNBA-SF Chapter
2022-2024 WNBA-SF EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE ELECTION SLATE
PRESIDENT
ELISE MARIE COLLINS
Current WNBA-SF Chapter President, Elise Marie Collins has played major roles in the overall direction and strategy development of the chapter, leading teams to accomplish successful Pitch-O-Ramas, membership drives and mixers, and educational literary presentations. A yoga instructor, health coach, and author with a master’s degree in gerontology from USC, Elise became more in touch with how food and lifestyle affects us spiritually. This knowledge led her to author “An A-Z Guide to Healing Foods, A Shoppers Companion,” and “Chakra Tonics. Essential Elixirs for Mind, Body and Spirit,” published by Conari Press. As a gerontologist, she writes about how to be well and live a long life. Her latest book is “Super Ager: You Can Look Younger, Have More Energy, A Better Memory, and Live a Long and Healthy Life.”
CO-VICE PRESIDENT
JOAN GELFAND
Author of three poetry collections and a chapbook of short fiction, Joan Gelfand’s reviews, stories, essays, and poetry have appeared in national and international literary journals and magazines. Winner of twenty writing awards, Joan teaches for The Writing Salon. “You Can Be a Winning Writer,” a book for writers is an Amazon #1 best seller. “Extreme,” Joan’s debut novel (Blue Light Press) is set in a Silicon Valley gaming startup and received praise from Katie Hafner of the NYT and Ransom Stephens. A member of the National Book Critics Circle and a Juror for the Northern California Book Awards, Joan lives in San Francisco with her husband Adam Hertz and two beatnik kitties – Jack Kerouac and Lawrence Ferlinghetti. www.joangelfand.com
CO-VICE PRESIDENT
ANNIQUA RANA
Anniqua Rana is a writer and educator committed to eliminating inequities around her. She has done this in collaboration with the California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office providing professional development and training to colleges in the Bay Area. She co-founded Aalimocracy.com a volunteer organization providing professional development to educational institutions in Pakistan. She has taught English, ESL, EFL, International Education, and Creative Writing at San Mateo Community Colleges, DeAnza College, University of San Francisco, Lahore University of Management Sciences, Pakistan, and Stanford University. Her debut novel, Wild Boar in the Cane Field was shortlisted for Pakistan’s UBL Literary Award 2020. To create a platform for writers she co-founded the blog Tillism.
TREASURER
BRENDA KNIGHT
Brenda Knight began her career at HarperCollins, working with luminaries Paolo Coelho, Marianne Williamson, and His Holiness the Dalai Lama. Knight was awarded IndieFab’s Publisher of the Year in 2014 at the ALA, American Library Association. She is the author of Wild Women and Books, Random Acts of Kindness, The Grateful Table, Be a Good in the World, and Women of the Beat Generation, which won an American Book Award. Brenda is Associate Publisher and Director of Editorial Acquisition at Mango Publishing and has served the immediate past President of the Women’s National Book Association, San Francisco Chapter, as well an instructor at the annual San Francisco Writers Conference.
SECRETARY
KATHLEEN ARCHAMBEAU
Native San Franciscan, Kathleen Archambeau, is an award-winning writer and LGBTQ activist. She is author of four nonfiction works, Climbing the Corporate Ladder in High Heels (2006), “Seized,” an essay in The Other Woman (2007), edited by Victoria Zackheim, Pride & Joy (2017), and We Make It Better (2019), with gay dad, Eric Rosswood. Academy Award-winning screenwriter, Dustin Lance Black wrote the Foreword to Pride & Joy and endorsed We Make It Better. Archambeau’s work has been favorably reviewed in global and national literary publications and she has been a featured speaker at national and global Pride literary events. Her book was included as part of the Oakland Museum of California store’s Queer California Exhibit, and she is a founding member of the James Hormel LGBT wing of the SF Public Library. Currently, she is on a final draft of her novel, Liberty Street, about a gay presidential candidate and his Quixotic campaign for equal protection.
Vote here:
Voting stops as of midnight, April 20th, 2022
Nita’s first book, the running and mental health memoir, 
Nita Sweeney
Suzanne Pederson released Bend in the Circle in October 2020. A women’s fiction/contemporary romance about an American military couple in Germany who navigate the aftermath of rape in the 1980s.
WNBA-SF past president Kate Farrell
Saturday, December 12
The New York Times Magazine recently described Ellery Akers’ new poetry book,
Sheryl J. Bize-Boutte‘s short story “The Last Collard Green” will be published in the upcoming Colossus:Home anthology. Slated for summer 2020 release, all proceeds will be donated to Oakland’s Moms4Housing.
WNBA-SF past president Kate Farrell released her storytelling book June 16th, Story Power: Secrets to Creating, Crafting, and Telling Memorable Stories. She’s had both online and in-person events, with more to come.
B. Lynn Goodwin had a piece on journaling posted on the 
San Francisco Values: Common Ground For Getting America Back On Track, by Geri Spieler and Rick Kaplowitz, published by Palmetto Publishing Group, looks at America’s values and follows how they begin in the Bay Area and then are adopted throughout the rest of the country. While the phrase has garnered some negative responses, in truth, they are America’s values.
Lisa Braver Moss‘ novel Shrug has won the gold in YA fiction in the 2020 IPPYs, as well as the silver in general fiction in the 2020 IBPA Benjamin Franklin awards.
Joan Gelfand launched her debut novel, Extreme on July 14th, 2020: 
Maxine Schur advanced picture book, Brave with Beauty, was named a 2020 Notable Trade Book in the Field of Social Studies by the Children’s Book Council. Also, her wacky fun alphabet book, Pigs Dancing Jigs will be published in October by Lawley Publishing.
Beatrice Bowles’ Spider Grandmother’s Web of Wonders, an illustrated storybook, is out and available in all bookstores.