2006 Memoirs

(click on photo to read short story)

Thanks to Rebecca Lee and David Thompson for taking many of the photos .

Emma Ammirati		Emma has lived in the Bay Area her whole life, so she is going to college farther away. Emma loves to bake cookies, write, and is an aspiring photographer. The main character Natasha is drowning in her past because of an awful event that changed her life.
Molly Bell		Many aspects of Molly Bell’s story relate to her, and many do not: She has a tattoo and wants one her shoulder blade. She’s been to Amsterdam. Molly knows who she is and what she believes in. But, she has never been involved in an abusive relationship and never changes who she is.
Emma Bloom		Emma Rose Bloom lives in Alameda with the porcupine and baby sister because she was emancipated at age 15. She has been a part of the ice capades her entire life and it is her inspiration to write. Emma is planning to take a year off of school and
Lucas Buckman		I love sunsets and sunsets always appear to love me back.
Anna Capurso		Anna wants to see the world. Her life is based around her obsessions with music and Burning Man. She does not know if she will attend college next fall, but she has magnificent plans for her future.
Isabel Callejo-Brighton		Isabel grew up in Berkeley surrounded by her family, three cats, two dogs, a frog and a lizard. Since writing this short story, both of her dogs have passed away. They had both lived long, healthy, happy lives and were truly part of her family. This story is in their loving memory… the best dogs anyone could ever ask for.
David Coplan-Castillo		David has lived in Berkeley since he was 3, when he came from Nicaragua. His father is American and his mother is Costa Rican. You should find his memoir intoxicatingly good. He believes that "you should never piss on an electric fence." He plans to do ROTC in Southern California after high school.
David Crane		David Crane finished this story at 8:15 in the morning while searching for his shoes so that he could, at the very least, be tardy to his first period Environmental Science class. This is, as they say, the story of David's life. He hopes that people enjoy/comprehend his story.
Rebecca Creger		Rebecca Creger moved to Berkeley at the tender age of three from Kensington and has been here ever since. Her family is multi-ethnic, which makes her a Hapa and she believes that life is too short to take yourself too seriously. She wants to travel a lot, (but hopefully not in the way the main character in her story does) and get a liberal arts education.
Kate Donahue		Kate grew up in Emeryville and has lived half the week in Berkeley since Freshman year. She has a mother, father, step mother, step father, baby half sister, and two fake sisters. She wants to go to a small liberal arts college on the east coast like everyone else.
Robin Fischer		Robin has lived in the Bay Area for most of her life. She is never quite sure of what to say in biographies, though is hard to shut up during a conversation. She gets obsessed with things easily, weather it dinosaurs, silly hats or zombies. She laughs kinda funny too.
Natalya Gibbs		Natalya, unlike her character, enjoys peas, butterscotch and carrots. She hopes that you don't think this story is an encouragement to try all three at once. Instead, she hopes that you embrace all foods; regardless of their color. Her classmate, Nicholaus James, said that one day he would put all three in a blender and let her know how it tastes. She hopes he doesn't. She thinks it's a very bad idea.
Nate Haile		Nate was born in Ethiopia. He wants you to understand that reading his story won't solve any conflict going on with your brother. Nate's main sports are cross country, track and basketball. In the future he hopes to attend a UC and continue his favorite sports.
Audrey Haynes		Audrey Haynes lives in Berkeley with her parents and sometimes her brother. She is currently pursuing her high school diploma and hopes to soon go on to higher learning, although she is not amazingly attached to this idea. Actually, she would quite okay with becoming sunflower farmer in Argentina instead. Either way.
Amber Hogue		Amber’s home is in Oakland, but lives in Berkeley because that’s where she is most of the time. She plans to travel around Europe and to do some community service next summer before going to college.
Wes Holtermann		Wesley Holtermann can't stop thinking about basketball. It is everything. There are some days when he is interested in other things like outer space maybe. Or plants. Almost all of his future plans include the NBA.
Nick James		Nicholaus James was born on January 22, 1990 in Berkeley. He was raised in both Berkeley and Oakland. His parents are ArVaughn Manning and Orlando James, two very hardworking parents. Nick was always with his grandparents, Katherine and Robert Manning. He likes to work, shop, take trips, and go to the movies.
Zoe Janachek		Zoe was born in San Francisco but spent the majority of her childhood in Seattle. Much to her dismay her parents grew tired of Seattle’s rainy nature and returned to California. Although she misses Washington she now considers the Bay Area her home. She is a proud member and current captain of the Oakland Strokes crew team. When shes not in school or rowing Zoe enjoys dance parties with her teammates in the JLAC parking lot, laying in the sun and road trips with friends. Zoe plans to continue her education and rowing at a four year university.
Emily Judd		Emily Judd is 17 and never has her cell phone on. She thinks phones are weird. She likes to take walks and talk to people. She gets lost and people lose her. She might want to go to college, but she really wants you to like her story.
Delia Keller		Delia lives in Berkeley.
Simone Kertesz		Simone is seventeen years old and loves Berkeley California! Simone plans to go to college next fall and study theater. Simone hopes you enjoy her memoir about Israel. Israel is her favorite place in the world and she hopes to live there someday.
Anne Kabori		Anne Yumi Kobori has lived in SF and Thailand, but settled in Berkeley. Half her waking hours are spent ice skating, the other acting. Currently she is content to be an economically challenged bohemian. With this story of war, duty, and love, she hopes to inspire a new perspective on those directly affected by the conflicts in the Middle East.
Rebecca Lee		Rebecca was born in New York and after several moves with her parents and her brother she ended up in Berkeley where her sister and her other brother were born. She hopes to sew enough bags to have a different one for every day of the week at some point in the near future.
Max Leonhard		Max was born in San Francisco, at the age of 3, he moved to southern Germany, where he has lived ever since. Max lived in the Black Forest in a village called Kollnau. His mother is American, his father is German; that makes him half and half. Max's hobbies are: traveling, playing chess, playing guitar, partying and acting. In the future he will probably study drama and philosophy, but later on Max wants to travel a lot, see the world and find out what he is looking for in life.
Tina Li		Tina's goal is to make enough money to hire Jeremy Irons to follow her around and do her dialogue. On a scale of 1 to 10, 1 being not so extreme and 10 being extremely extreme, she hopes you give her story a 9.5. She also hopes that you do not find her lack of original conversation disturbing.
Genevieve Mather		Genevieve wishes to disclose no information about her person, but nevertheless invites you to read her story. She supposes you can call it a more or less twisted telling of Little Bo Peep who had lost her sheep.
Chazney McBride		Chazney, a Berkeley native, was born at Summit Hospital on August 3, 1990. She stays with her mom and 7-year-old brother whom she wants to throw out of the window most of the time. After high school, Chazney wants to attend either Northridge or SF State to study apparel design. She dreams of becoming a household name in the world of fashion.
Neoma Moreno		Neoma is currently living in Berkeley, she still considers San Francisco her hometown. Coming from a family of multiple talents, she is considered as a multitalented artist. She hopes that her memoir won\rquote t cause any of her readers to have any nightmares. Neoma believes that people should live life like there is no tomorrow. She hopes to study computer graphic arts at UAT in Tempe, Arizona next year.
Paul Navarrete		Paul Navarrete is a descendant of Robert the Bruce, the great Scottish warrior, and maybe of George Washington, the great American warrior. He is a Native Son, having lived in Berkeley his whole life. Paul’s short story is about space heaters and Gila monsters. He recently met Monty, the first humanoid robot of his kind.
Alex Nichols		Alex has lived in Berkeley his whole life. He enjoys meeting random people and discussing the quality aspects of life. Eventually he will attend a University in Canada much like his parents, diligently studying earth sciences much like his father. Alex believes that, “you know what happens when you assume, they make an ass outta you and me.”
Calvin O'Leary
Maria Parangueo		Maria has lived in Mexico for nine years. She migrated to the US in 1999. maria also hopes to be the first generation to go to college.
Talia Pauwels-Lloyd		Talia is quite smallia, and that my friend, is not fiction.
Leila Pakawongse		Leila was born and raised in Berkeley. Her parents, natives of Thailand, have had a huge influence on the lives of her older brother and her own. They have also influenced her memoir. She'd like to believe in "Don't sweat the little things," but you can't always get what you want. She hopes to study architecture at UC Berkeley.
Ruth Pardee		Ruth has lived in Berkeley her whole life with her parents and older brother. She plays piano and plays golf and softball for Berkeley High. She is very excited to be attending Vassar College in the fall.
Anh Van Pham		Anh Van Pham is hyper, loud, and rude. Nice is rarely a part of her vocabulary. While reading her work, you should be cautious. Her thoughts are a mess and take her forever to perfect down on paper. This is due to the fact that she's abnormal and rarely makes sense. Please approach this piece with an open mind.
Katrin Pitzken		Katrin was born in Germany. She is staying in Berkeley as an exchange student. Going to such a big school is totally new for her, but she really enjoys her stay. Besides doing Kung-Fu, she is interested in dance and music.
Ethan Poole		Ethan was born and raised in Berkeley, though if asked he will claim he hails from Pittsburgh and that his father is railroad tycoon, Cornelius Vanderbilt. In his spare time, Ethan enjoys referring to himself in the third person, acting obtusely regal and re-enacting scenes from "Rear Window" for the enjoyment of his overly nosy neighbors.
Adrian Roland-Holst		Adrian was born in Maryland and soon moved to Berkeley after a few months. Adrian loves Berkeley very much and is always heartbroken whenever he travels out of town. He also believes that a first draft should never be typed and has stuck by this philosophy his entire life. He wishes to study eco-friendly architecture at the University of Oregon next year.
Zoe Richards		Zoë Richards is 17, and lives in Berkeley. She is anticipating some sort of college experience in the near future, but hopes to defer that for a year or so. In her free time Zoë walks a bunch, because she doesn’t know how to drive. She is pretty comfortable with disorganization.
Sheilicia Runnels		Sheilicia was born and raised in Oakland. Although she is her mother's only child, she is far from spoiled. From the age of six, she has been constantly involved in track and field, to be separated from all of the bad influences around her. Next fall, she plans to attend Clark University in Atlanta to study biology.
Rhodesa Salisi		Here we go again! Rhodeza will just skip the intro and let you read her story. She hopes you don't get too annoyed that her story might be a little rushed and if her dialogue is too...corny? She's never tried to be a guy before. Enjoy!
Milena Schaller		Milena is not anything like Simple or his master, she hopes. This story was downright depressing to write... she thinks she's remembered the title of the pink fish book. If she's right, it's called The Lampfish of Twill. Recently she's been reading Book of Enchantments out loud, though it's not as satisfying as Cyrano de Bergerac -- Cyrano's much better for swoops and thumps.
Andrei Smith		Andrei Smith has grown up around the world, living in places such as Tokyo, Madison, and all over Australia. His father’s is the Author of “A Series of Unfortunate Events”, and his mother works at UC Berkeley. Jill Banfield, Andrei’s mother, is the famed designer of the Gravel Smoother, a machine that shines ordinary gravel for expensive resorts. Andrei is Tall.
Lynn Smith		Lynn is a simple girl who writes the craziest things. She does what she wants and thinks is appropriate rather than what is to be expected. As you'll find in her stories, they aren't what most people would expect.
Matt Stewart-Cohn		Matt has lived in the same house located in Berkeley, California, his whole life. At this moment in time, Matt wishes Ice Cream trucks still drove on his street again.
Shinequa Sutherland		Shinequa Sutherland is nice, caring, and generous person. She is the youngest of all her friends, and is also the shortest. She was born in Brooklyn, New York and moved to California when she was 8 years old. She lives with both her parents and her little brother. Because she was born late in the year her favorite holiday is Thanksgiving because not only does she get a birthday cake, but the whole holiday meal.
Celeste Swain		Celeste Swain was born and raised in Berkeley. Above all, she would like to inform her readers that although her story is dark and depressing, one should not feel the pressure to refer her to a suicide hotline. In fact, Celeste is a happy person who enjoys happy things like unicorns, rainbows, and cuddling.
Sienna Swan		Sienna was born in Berkeley, and, except for a brief stint in England, has lived there her whole life. She was partially raised by wolves, and it may show in her writing. She enjoys outer space, reading, and nature, and tries to incorporate all three into her lifestyle. She hopes to attend Oregon school of Arts and Crafts next year.
Ellie Tandeta		Ellie has lived in Oakland her entire life, and has lived in Berkeley for the last five years. She lives with her mother, father, and older sister. She believes that we only get one life, so we shouldn't waste it doing things we hate, like homework. She hopes to study nutrition at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo.
Alaicia Taylor		Alacia, a Virginia native, was born in California. She has travelled to cities all over the East Coast. Alaicia enjoys writing, art, and music. She has made many changed to her life because of travelling so much and hopes that she can "journey through her emotions." She now studies mathematics and plans one day to be a mathemetician.
David Thompson		David is a Berkeley native, born and raised. He happily lives with his huge family. His story deals with Spicing Up Your Life & staying true to yourself/temptation. David enjoys photography and will never be found without his camera. David knows he will be successful in his life no matter what and is hoping to attend a UC next fall.
Jessica Tong		Jessica Tong has lived in Berkeley since she was born with her parents and younger brother. Her hobbies include reading, playing soccer, and traveling. She reccomends her story to anyone interested in goats.
Wendy Ung		Wendy has basically lived in Berkeley for all her life. She lives with parents and her two sisters. Wendy believes writing is the best way to express oneself and she hopes everybody enjoys her story. She hopes to get into her first choice college.
Aria Vahdani		Aria has lived in Richmond/El Cerrito all his life. His family is from two different cities in Iran: Esfahan and Tehran. His memoir shows a glimpse of his weekend lifestyle. Aria is going to school in Santa Barbara next year and will eventually become a cook.
Liza Veale		Liza is a literary expeditionary. Believe it.
Merav Walklet		Merav Walklet is like a box of chocolates. Enjoy
Tequilla Warner		Tequilla has lived in Berkeley all her life. Coming from a line of cooks, she often feels the heat. She hopes that you find her memoir about badminton smashing and that it doesn't drop your interest. Tequilla believes that people who can't cook can't write and vice-versa. But people who can do both write creatively. She hopes to study psychology at San Francisco State next year.
Ana Weidenfeld		Ana Weidenfeld has lived in Berkeley her whole life. She hopes that you enjoy her short story about a journey North that turns south. Ana enjoys hip-hop, hop scotch, and scotch on the rocks.
Sara Wilson		Sara Wilson is a Berkeley native who lives with her parents, her brother, and her dog. She is a historical fashion and costume enthusiast who wishes that she had somewhere to wear her costume collection.
Sarah Woodard		Sarah is looking forward to being a second semester senior. She is planning on attending college next year and hopes to eventually study the culinary arts. She hopes that everyone enjoys her story!
Shoshana Zambryski-Stachel		Shoshana is a traditional photographer and as such is tactile and believes that the process is just as, if not more, important than the result. Her memoir is about the process.