Bay Area Regional Chapter

Amy Z. Chan has had too many pen names. A graduate of Vassar and Clarion West, she once was a reviewer for Publishers Weekly. Under previous indie author pen names, she has spoken on marketing at Clarion West, Skye Warren’s Romance Mastermind, and many ex-chapters of RWAs. A pandemic author existential crisis led her to rebranding under this new name to pursue traditional publishing. She now writes romcoms and fantasy and gives talks on kishōtenketsu, Asian dramas, and writing with the female gaze. A daughter of Chinese immigrants, a feminist, a foodie, and a California girl by way of NY/NJ, Amy is also a member of the Mod Squad at the Kiss and Tell Literary Salon at Books Inc. in Alameda, CA. 

Pia Hinckle is a writer, editor, small business owner, and open water swimmer. A recovering journalist, she was a Knight-Bagehot Fellow in Business & Economics Journalism at Columbia Journalism School and held leadership positions at The San Francisco Examiner, the San Francisco Bay Guardian, and Argonaut Press. Her writing has appeared in Alta Journal, Dorothy Parker’s Ashes, Columbia Journalism Review, Salon, Newsweek, and the Associated Press. She is a co-author of “The Court That Tamed the West: From the Gold Rush to the Tech Boom” (Heyday, 2013), a history of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. She was almost drowned by a sleeper wave on a family outing when she was five but now swims year round in San Francisco Bay. She has three adult children. She is at work on her first memoir.

Duane Horton is a black queer fantasy writer who currently resides in the Bay. He believes in writing his intersection of identity into his fantasy stories to widen the cannon and so that folks who share his intersection can see themselves written on the page. Duane graduated with his MFA in Creative Writing in 2019 and since then has been published in Green Mountains review, Blue Mountain Review and more. Duane has recently released his first book, No Hero Alone and when he is not reading or writing, spends his time facilitating the Fable Writing Storytelling Workshop. Duane is a the Facilitator for the Oakland Chapter of No Names Book Club and is a public speaker.

Nikoo Yahyazadeh is an author, instructional designer, and former teacher. She has also worked on a number of documentaries and independent films. Nikoo is the author of the picture book Yasi and Mina’s Pomegranate Tree, which was awarded an Own Voices Own Stories Honor Winner in 2022 by Sleeping Bear Press. In addition to being a part of the Authors Guild, she is also a member of SCBWI. She lives in Richmond, CA with her daughter. You can follow her on instagram at @nikoo_writes.