Charles H. Alexander is an antiques dealer, artist, writer, and all-around bon vivant who collects dinnerware (particularly the designs of Russel Wright, Homer Laughlin, and Hall China) and pottery (middle period Roseville; Muncie and other Indiana designs). He is working on a book about the Indiana artist Robert Lohman (1919-2001), “a classical artist in a modern world.” Charles is a moderator for Facebook groups on Art Deco, American Dinnerware, and Mid Century Modern; he has taught classes about antique china, pottery, glass, and silver at various auction houses; and he freelances for publications such as AntiqueWeek. He has exhibited and sold the works of Lohman, Ruthven Byrum, and Elmer Taflinger, and curated an Art Deco exhibit at the SullivanMunce Cultural Center in Zionsville, Indiana. He enjoys reading, watching old movies, and—while not quite a gourmand—setting a beautiful table. Charles splits his time between the Central Coast of California and Indianapolis, Indiana, where he lives in an Arts & Crafts American Four Square home.
Charlotte Alexander is an award-winning author, editor, and publisher, with experience in media, higher education, and nonprofit settings. She has been writing reviews of local theatre productions since 2010, and her work has appeared in SLO Life Magazine, SLO Journal Plus, SLO City News, Two for the Show {Central Coast}, and most recently on her website Wise To The Words. She is the co-author of When Your Pet Outlives You: Protecting Animal Companions After You Die (New Sage Press 2002; reprinted 2004), which won a Muse Medallion Book Award from the Cat Writers’ Association. She owns and operates C|C Imprint.
Elie Axelroth is the author of two novels, Cross Body Lead and Thin Places. Her short fiction has been published in Packingtown Review, Adelaide Literary Magazine, and INK Babies. She holds a doctorate in clinical psychology and was director of a university counseling center. She lives in San Luis Obispo with her wife.
Sandy Baer was an educated and experienced journalist, writing for two decades about local artists, community leaders, and nonprofit organizations before her death on May 4, 2023. She was a Kiwanian for 19 years and served on the City of SLO’s Promotional Coordinating and Cultural Heritage committees. Baer was a member of the SLO History Center board of directors and chaired the Dallidet Committee, responsible for public fundraising events. She served on the Foundation for SLO County Public Libraries board of directors and on the Communications Committee of the League of Women Voters. Photo by Brian Lawler
Cindy Blankenburg has been a Central Coast resident most of her life, and the Blankenburg family has been in San Luis Obispo County since 1959. She worked for many years in the editorial department of the former Five Cities Times-Press-Recorder. During that tenure, she focused on schools, community events, and feature stories about interesting people and places. She is involved in community organizations such as Special Olympics, 5Cities Homeless Coalition, South County Chambers of Commerce, and The Pismo Coast Association of Realtors.
Toni Pruett Bouman is a true California Girl who needs regular contact with the Pacific Ocean. Raised in San Diego, she migrated to Los Angeles to attend design school and become a fashion designer. Quickly discovering she wasn’t cut out for mass-produced clothing, she changed course and began a 35-year career as a real estate broker. Wanting a slower pace, she and her artist husband moved to the Central Coast some 30 years ago. While enjoying real estate, Bouman’s true passion is textiles. She now specializes in Japanese Shibori and other ethnic textile techniques, creating hand-painted silk wearable art under the name Slo Silkworks. Her work has been displayed at the SLO Museum of Art and the Mingei International Museum in San Diego, and she currently exhibits her work at Studios on the Park in Paso Robles. Active in the SLO arts community, she is a past president of the SLO County Arts Council, and has written articles for SLO Journal Plus on arts and fine craft.
Carolyn Chilton Casas has lived on the Central Coast for 53 years, the perfect landscape for a love of hiking and playing beach volleyball. She is a Reiki master who often explores ways of healing in her writing. Her articles and poems have appeared in Braided Way, Energy, A Network for Grateful Living, Reiki News Magazine, and in other publications. You can read more of her work on Facebook, Instagram (mindfulpoet_), and in her first collection of poems, Our Shared Breath.
David Congalton
is an award-winning writer and veteran radio host who has been published in various formats over the last 30 years. He is the former director of the Central Coast Writers Conference at Cuesta College and currently serves on the faculty of the Rocaberti Screenwriting Retreat in Spain and France. His work has appeared locally in the San Luis Obispo County Telegram-Tribune, Central Coast Magazine, New Times, and SLO Journal.
Michael J Costa is an accomplished photographer, journalist and entrepreneur. He studied documentary photography at the Academy of Arts University in San Francisco. He completed an internship at the San Mateo Daily Journal and served as editor-in-chief of the Cuestonian at Cuesta College. Journalism allows him the opportunity to tell the stories and culture of the places and people he has encountered throughout his travels. His passion for travel photography has led to creating many series over the years representing the countries he has traveled. He also works as content coordinator for Central Coast Living. Two years ago he opened Costa Gallery in Los Osos, where he enjoys curating art on the Central Coast for all to enjoy.
Andy Greensfelder sold and installed computers for IBM before going to law school and practicing law from 1967 to 2002. From 2004 to 2006 he studied mythology at Pacifica Graduate Institute, including the literature of many of the world’s cultures. He reads about 25 books a year for both enjoyment and to learn about people and cultures that are new to him.
Jeanie Greensfelder served as the San Luis Obispo County poet laureate during 2017 and 2018. Her poems have been published at American Life in Poetry, Writer’s Almanac, and Poetry Foundation’s Poem of the Day; in the anthologies Paris, Etc. and Pushing the Envelope: Epistolary Poems; and in the journals Miramar, Thema, Askew, Persimmon Tree, and others. Her books include Biting the Apple, Marriage and Other Leaps of Faith, and I Got What I Came For.
Jim Gregory taught history at Mission Prep and at his alma mater, Arroyo Grande High School, for 30 years and was Lucia Mar’s Teacher of the Year in 2010. Growing up in the Upper Arroyo Grande Valley and attending the two-room 1880s Branch School was integral to his becoming a history teacher and figured, as well, in the authorship of five books on local history. Three have won national book awards.
King Harris was a writer and long-time media personality on California’s Central Coast when he died on June 14, 2022. He was working on a book of his collected columns previously printed in several Central Coast publications, which will be published later in 2022. A journalist for most of his life, he considered it his good fortune to be able to chronicle the stories of all kinds of folks from all walks of life. Whether he used a camera, a microphone, or a typewriter, he was able to capture a brief moment of their lives from his curious perspective, which he said allowed him the opportunity to try to find answers to unlimited questions of his own. Photo by Chris Gardner
Terry Heinlein. Architect, architecture professor, and architecture critic. Washington, DC native, California lover. Architecture undergrad and graduate, University of Pennsylvania. Architecture practice in restorations, additions, and renovations to historic buildings. Professor at Cal Poly, Northeastern, Boston Architectural College. Married to understanding medical social worker. Young enterprising son who wants nothing to do with architecture. Hiker, traveler, slightly crazy, likes it all.
Colin Jones, in addition to his day job with Caltrans Public Affairs and volunteer work at the SLO Elks Lodge, likes to venture out in the wonderful Central Coast community with friends to enjoy all the great live music happening here. His plan is to share some of those cool experiences with SLO Review readers. As he likes to say: places to be, people to see.
Julie Lynem is a veteran journalist who has been a reporter, columnist, or editor at the Indianapolis Star, San Francisco Chronicle, and San Luis Obispo Tribune. She teaches journalism at Cal Poly SLO, and is a co-founder and vice president of the board of R.A.C.E. Matters SLO, a local nonprofit with the mission to amplify Black voices and matters of racial justice.
Juliane McAdam is a California native who grew up in the stark beauty of the Mojave Desert. After a 40-year teaching career that began in South Los Angeles in a bilingual program and ended with 27 years teaching English and Spanish to middle school students in Los Angeles, she retired to Los Osos. She enjoys volunteering with nonprofits, walks, kayaking, playing piano, and writing poems to record observations and memories.
Ingrid Pires didn’t set out to be an expert on grief. The child of Norwegian-born parents, she grew up in sunny California with a rich, bi-cultural childhood that included significant time spent in Norway’s beautiful nature and healthy lifestyle . . . all life-affirming. Grief had its own agenda when at 28 she lost her toddler Ian to meningitis. In finding her way back to joy, she learned to talk comfortably about death, dying, and grief, earning a master’s degree in psychology and providing grief support in hospice settings. A recipient of the Isabel P. Ruiz Humanitarian Award in 2015 for the impact of her work in SLO County, she helps people negotiate devastating loss and find a renewed joy in life. She has recently turned a talent for writing into a weekly blog and has begun writing a book about grief from her own perspective.
Craig Russell is a classical guitarist, author, and composer of classical music following in the stylistic footsteps of Aaron Copland. Educated at the University of New Mexico and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, he recently retired from the music department at Cal Poly. In 1995 he received the CSU system’s highest teaching award, and in 2013 he was one of only a few North American scholars to be inducted into the Spanish Royal Academy. His compositions have been performed internationally to significant acclaim and his publications have received numerous awards. He co-hosts a weekly radio show, KCBX In Concert, that features local arts organizations, recordings by touring artists performing on the Central Coast, and conversations with the people who make the music.
Kate Stulberg is the Executive Director of the San Luis Obispo Vocal Arts Ensemble. Previously she served as the Executive Director of the San Luis Obispo County Arts Council, and was the editor of the Art Rag and the founder of Open Studios. She has extensive experience in nonprofit management, advocacy work, speechwriting, and public policy. She has lived in the county for 25 years. Her twin daughters Tory and Elizabeth are sophomores at the University of Oregon.
Kevin Patrick Sullivan, a Poet Laureate Emeritus of San Luis Obispo, is the co-founder/curator of the annual San Luis Obispo Poetry Festival since 1984. His books include First Sight, The Space Between Things, UNIMPAIRED, and a number of chapbooks. His poems are in Solo, Hummingbird, Askew, Lummox, Miramar, and Spillway among other journals and anthologies. He co-founded and for 35 years ran Corners of the Mouth at Linnaea’s Café, a monthly event featuring poets and open readings. He is co-editor of Corners of the Mouth: A Celebration of Thirty Years at the Annual San Luis Obispo Poetry Festival.