Camp Staff

Chris Angotti is a former middle and high school teacher who believes in encouraging creativity among all ages. In his spare time, he tries to make his own things, as well as read, watch, and listen to as much as he can. Also, he will never get tired of looking at dogs. Here at the office, Chris oversees NaNoWriMo, Camp NaNoWriMo, and the Young Writers Program. He works with all staff to ensure that our websites and resources are the best they can be for participants and educators.

As Editorial Director, Tim oversees communications, including the blog, newsletter, and general updates from HQ. In other words, he is a glorified town caller. As a former NaNoWriMo intern himself, he also oversees our intern program. Tim has worked for Once magazine, WIRED, San Francisco magazine, and at Condé Nast. He is searching for new ways to humble-brag about the fact that he is only two degrees of separation away from Taylor Swift, and that his dog is basically the best.

Shelby Gibbs received her B.A. in English Literature from Mills College in 2012. She has written literary criticism, personal essays, and the occasional poem on the color purple since childhood. Before NaNoWriMo, she interned at a small publishing house in Berkeley and penned a senior thesis on Virginia Woolf. In her free time, she enjoys grocery shopping (especially the free samples) and further exploring her native Bay Area. At NaNoWriMo, she holds down the fort by answering customer service emails, tending to office plant life, and coordinating staff and program events.

Sarah is a nap enthusiast and fanatical knitter with a background in libraries, an English degree, a diploma in Public Relations, and a slightly spoiled cat named Weasley. She lives in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, and thus spends a great deal of time on webcams and Google chat with her coworkers. As Director of Community Engagement, Sarah is responsible for coordinating NaNoWriMo’s more than 650 volunteers around the world, running the various social media accounts, working with libraries and bookstores through the Come Write In partnership, and helping to organize the annual Night of Writing Dangerously fundraising gala.

As a boy, Grant spent his allowance on all sorts of pens and paper, so there was never much question that he would become a writer. He received his B.A. from Grinnell College in English and his M.A. in Creative Writing from San Francisco State University. He has published in such journals as The Southwest Review, Poets & Writers, The Rumpus, Gargoyle, and The Berkeley Fiction Review, among others.

He’s the founder and editor of the lit journal 100 Word Story and writes essays and book reviews for a number of publications and blogs. He believes quite simply that everyone is a writer—that we create our world through the stories we tell—so he now enthusiastically prods nearly everyone he meets to write a novel or a script and feel how life can be transformed through a daring creative act.

Shortly after Tavia graduated from the University of Southern California with a degree in Creative Writing, she packed up and moved to San Francisco in search of a new life immersed in the Bay Area’s literary scene. Over the past six plus years with OLL, she’s done just about everything from answering emails, to planning our annual Night of Writing Dangerously Write-a-thon, to helping pen our Young Novelist Workbooks.

Currently, she is in charge of overseeing our wonderful staff, financial oversight, the NaNoWriMo Donation Station and Store and fulfillment warehouse, and assisting Grant with strategic planning, fundraising calendaring, and general organizational operations.

When she’s not working at OLL, or hanging with her extra-awesome son Archer, she also curates literary-based audio tours for her very own small start-up, Invisible City.

Suburban-born, Dan was raised on video games, Slurpees, the best-of-the-worst action flicks, and juvenile mischief. It’s taken nearly a decade for him to “get out of the house” and the shock of it all has him entertaining delusions of subsistence farming and off-the-grid living from time to time. His notable strengths include sandwich composition, scat singing, spinning pile-drivers, and techniques for bailing from a mountain bike.

Jezra enjoys writing code in various programming languages, as well as riding a bike, trying not to fall off a skateboard, and playing the bagipes. When he grows up, he hopes to be an an astronaut.

Heather is a 30-something mother of two and a hopeless writing addict, and is currently serving as the Lead Forums Moderator for the for the community forums. A relapsed webmaster with extensive moderating experience, she started volunteering in the NaNoWriMo forums in 2003. Her dreams came true in 2007 when she was asked to join staff as the Forums Moderator, and started in 2008. She wrangles the hundreds of thousands of posts and participants that flow through the forums on a daily basis, moving them around, answering questions, and reporting forum feedback to the staff back at HQ. In 2012, she was promoted to Lead Forums Moderator, and is responsible for overseeing the volunteer and staff moderators over both the main and YWP websites.

Ari Asercion graduated from the University of California Santa Cruz after studying creative writing amidst the deer, the beaches, and the redwoods. She has since returned to her home in the East Bay Area where she juggles jobs and internships galore, all of which keep her researching, and writing. Her greatest loves include tea drinking, video games, blues guitar, design, and technology. This is her second time around interning with the folks at OLL and she couldn’t be more pleased about this.

Andrea grew up in San Francisco, a city where the best conversations are found on street corners and subway trains. She graduated from UC Santa Barbara with a double major in English and Psychology. As a freelance writer, she has spent the past two years writing a variety of travel, lifestyle, education, and non-profit articles. Ever searching for lush experiences and characters to include in her writing, she has backpacked though Europe, South America, and across the USA. She now lives in Berkeley with her boyfriend and their furry sidekick Leila. While interning with the stellar staff at the OLL and working at the UC Berkeley International House, she continues to write her first novel: a young adult fiction about Dill Pickle and his misadventures with earthquakes.

A West Texas native, Hilary hails from the dusty deserts of El Paso. Quite recently she made the huge decision of packing up her treasured books and budding record collection, so as to move to the Bay Area in search of new adventures and shenanigans. Hilary received her B.A. in English and Literature from Texas Tech University, and nabbed a minor in Music along the way. Among her (long) list of favorite interests you would find: experimenting with baking recipes, bad karaoke, crossword puzzles, and buying almost anything that is plaid. She is most anxious to start penning her novel, tackle the beast that is her word-count goal, and hopefully meet you at the winner’s circle!

Michael received a B.A. in English Literature in 2010 and has since spent time not using it in several different capacities. He prefers working in nature, but is becoming increasingly of the opinion that the urban environment is as natural as it can get. He’s still not sure how he feels about asphalt. Michael’s hobbies include reading science fiction, dancing to rock and roll music that is far older than he, climbing mountains that are far, far older than that, and inhabiting the mercurial intersection of mischief, bravery, and stupidity.