James Dalessando was co-founder of the Santa Cruz Poetry Festival, for four years was the nation's largest literary event, which brought together Ken Kesey, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Charles Bukowski, Allen Ginsberg, Gary Snyder, Bob Kaufman and musicians like Charles Lloyd and Anthony Braxton. He has published four books: poetry in Canary In A Coal Mine, the highly acclaimed San Francisco murder mystery Bohemian Heart (St. Martin's Press), true crime (Citizen Jane), and his new novel, 1906, an epic recreation of the great San Francisco earthquake and fire. He is a 20-year veteran of the Writer's Guild of America, West, and has written the screenplays for all three of his books, including 1906, which was sold to Warner Brothers after a heated Hollywood bidding war. He is currently writer and co-director, with four-time Oscar winner Ben Burtt, of The Damndest Finest Ruins, a feature documentary about the 1906 earthquake.  He is also co-executive producer and screenwriter of Citizen Jane for Wolper Productions and Court TV, producer and co-writer, with Lidia Fraser, of Draconin, a trilogy of novels and animated feature films. He teaches the longest-running screenwriting course in San Francisco and served as the writer for the award-winning House of Blues Radio Hour. He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Meet James at these upcoming events: