So we're going to get the night started with Naomi.
So Naomi Benaron's books include Running The Rift,
Winner of the 2010 Bellwether Prize for Fiction and Love
Letters from A Fat Man, winner of the GS Sharat Chandra Prize
for Short Fiction
A poet as well as a fiction writer, Naomi's work
has appeared in Hayden's Ferry Review, jewishfiction.net,
Spillway Journal, Blast Furnace, and Prime Number.
She holds an MFA in Fiction from Antioch University
in Los Angeles and an MS in Earth Sciences from Scripps
Institution of Oceanography.
She teaches at Pima Community College and online
through the Afghan Women's Writing Project.
An advocate for African refugees in her community,
she has worked extensively with genocide survivor
groups in Rwanda.
And she is also an Ironman triathlete,
so let's please welcome Naomi Benaron.
[APPLAUSE]