Naomi Benaron
Naomi Benaron is the author of Running The Rift (2012), winner of the 2010 Bellwether Prize for Socially Engaged Fiction, and Love Letters from a Fat Man, winner of the 2006 G. S. Sharat Chandra Prize for Short Fiction. She earned an MFA from Antioch University and an MS in earth sciences from Scripps Institute of Oceanography. She teaches at UCLA Writers Extension and online through the Afghan Women's Writing Project. An advocate for African refugees in her community, she has worked extensively with genocide survivor groups in Rwanda. She is also an Ironman triathlete.