List of San Francisco Bay Area writers

This is a list of San Francisco Bay Area writers, notable writers who have lived in, or written about, the San Francisco Bay Area.

This is an incomplete list that may never be able to satisfy particular standards for completeness. You can help by expanding it with reliably sourced entries.

A

• Chester Aaron (May 9, 1923 – ) An American Ghost^[1]
• Scott Adams (June 8, 1957 – ) Dilbert^[2]
• David M. Alexander (1945 – ) My Real Name Is Lisa
• Kim Addonizio (July 31, 1954 – ) My Dreams Out in the Street
• Isabel Allende (August 2, 1942 – ) The House of the Spirits
• Dorothy Allison (April 11, 1949 – ) Bastard out of Carolina^[1]
• Charlie Anders (?) Six Months, Three Days
• Brent Anderson (June 15, 1955 – ) Astro City series^[1]
• Sarah Andrews (?) An Eye For Gold^[1]
• Tamim Ansary (November 4, 1948 – ) West of Kabul, East of New York

B

• Peter S. Beagle (April 20, 1939 – ) The Last Unicorn
• John Bear (1938 – ) Bears' Guide to Earning Degrees by Distance Learning
• Dodie Bellamy (?) Pink Steam
• Terry Bisson (February 12, 1942 – ) "They're Made Out of Meat"
• Vance Bourjaily (September 17, 1922 – August 31, 2010) Brill Among the Ruins
• Steven R. Boyett (?) Elegy Beach
• Kate Braverman (1950 – ) "Squandering the Blue"
• Luther Burbank (March 7, 1849 – April 11, 1926) How Plants are Trained to Work for Man

C

• Patrick Califia (1954 – ) Speaking Sex to Power
• Michael Chabon (May 24, 1963 – ) The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay
• Ann Weiser Cornell (1949 – ) The Power of Focusing

D

• Avram Davidson (April 23, 1923 – May 8, 1993) The Scarlet Fig
• Kyra Davis (?) Sex, Murder and a Double Latte
• Tiffanie DeBartolo (November 27, 1970 – ) How To Kill a Rock Star, Dream for an Insomniac
• Alonzo Delano (July 2, 1806 – September 8, 1874) On the Trail to the California Gold Rush
• N. A. Diaman (November 1, 1936 – ) Castro Street Memories
• Diane di Prima (August 6, 1934 – ) Loba
• Greg Downs (November 22, 1971 – ) Spit Baths
• Howard Dully (November 30, 1948 – ) My Lobotomy

E

• Dossie Easton (February 26, 1944 – ) The Ethical Slut
• Dave Eggers (March 12, 1970 – ) A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, You Shall Know Our Velocity
• Duane Elgin (1943 – ) Voluntary Simplicity
• Stephen Elliott (December 3, 1971 – ) Happy Baby

F

• Lawrence Ferlinghetti (March 24, 1919 – ) A Coney Island of the Mind
• Timothy Ferris (August 29, 1944 – ) The Whole Shebang: A State-of-the-Universe(s) Report
• Karen Joy Fowler (February 7, 1950 – ) The Jane Austen Book Club
• Soma Mei Sheng Frazier
• Robert Frost (March 26, 1874 – January 29, 1963) "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening"

G

• Michelle Gagnon (July 4, 1971 – ) "Don't Turn Around"
• Erle Stanley Gardner (July 17, 1889 – March 11, 1970) Perry Mason novels
• Eric Garris (December 1953 – )
• Robert Gluck (February 2, 1947 –) Jack the Modernist, Margery Kempe
• Allen Ginsberg (June 3, 1926 – April 5, 1997) "Howl"
• Herbert Gold (March 9, 1924 – ) Birth of a Hero
• Lisa Goldstein (November 21, 1953 – ) The Red Magician
• Daphne Gottlieb (1968 – ) Final Girl
• Judy Grahn (July 28, 1940 – ) "A Woman is Talking to Death"

H

• Katie Hafner (1957 –) A Romance on Three Legs
• Dashiell Hammett (1894 – 1961)
• Daniel Handler (February 28, 1970 – ) A Series of Unfortunate Events
• John L. Hennessy (1953 – ) Computer Organization and Design
• Dorothy J. Heydt (?) A Point of Honor
• Jack Hirschman (1933 – )
• Jane Hirshfield (February 24, 1953 – ) The Ink Dark Moon
• Adam Hochschild (1942 – ) King Leopold's Ghost
• Khaled Hosseini (March 4, 1965 – ) The Kite Runner
• Daedalus Howell (July 19, 1972 – ) The Late Projectionist

J

• Shirley Jackson (1916 – 1965)

K

• Richard Kadrey (1957 – ) From Myst to Riven
• Alan Kaufman (?) Jew Boy
• Jack Kerouac (March 12, 1922 – October 21, 1969) On the Road
• Derek Kirk Kim (1974 – ) Same Difference and Other Stories
• Laurie R. King (September 19, 1952 – ) The Beekeeper's Apprentice
• Maxine Hong Kingston (October 27, 1940 – ) The Woman Warrior
• Ellen Klages (1954 – ) "Basement Magic"

L

• Michael Lederer (July 9, 1956 – ) "Cadaqués"
• Gus Lee (1946 – )
• Fritz Reuter Leiber, Jr. (1910 – 1992)
• Daniel Levitin (1957 – )
• Jack London (January 12, 1876 – November 22, 1916) "To Build a Fire"
• Michael Lewis (October 15, 1960 – ) Liar's_Poker

M

• Nick Mamatas (February 20, 1972 – ) Move Under Ground
• Anthony Marra A Constellation of Vital Phenomena
• Micheline Aharonian Marcom (1968 – ) Three Apples Fell from Heaven
• Armistead Maupin (May 13, 1944 – ) Tales of the City
• Joaquin Miller (September 8, 1837 – February 17, 1913) "Columbus"

N

• Annalee Newitz (1969 – ) White Trash: Race and Class in America
• Katia Noyes (?) Crashing America

O

• Carol Anne O'Marie (1933 – 2009)

P

• Charlotte Painter (1926 – ) The Fortunes of Laurie Breaux
• Diana Paxson (February 20, 1943 – ) Mistress of the Jewels
• Howard Pease (September 6, 1894 – April 14, 1974) The Tod Moran Mysteries
• Michael Pollan (February 6, 1955 – ) The Omnivore's Dilemma
• Tim Pratt (December 12, 1976 – ) The Strange Adventures of Rangergirl

Q

• Carol Queen (1958 – ) Real Live Nude Girl
• Lisa Quinn (?) $500 Room Makeovers

R

• Justin Raimondo (November 18, 1951 – ) Reclaiming the American Right
• Ruth Reichl (January 16, 1948 – ) Tender at the Bone
• Daniel Reid (1948 – ) Guarding the Three Treasures
• Mark Rein-Hagen (?) Vampire: The Masquerade
• Kathryn Reiss (December 4, 1957 – ) Time Windows
• Barbara Jane Reyes (1971 – ) Poeta en San Francisco
• Kim Stanley Robinson (March 23, 1952 – ) Red Mars
• Rudy Rucker (March 22, 1946 – ) Software

S

• Kate Schatz (September 19, 1978 – ) Rad American Women A-Z
• Ariel Schrag (December 29, 1979 – ) Awkward
• Charles M. Schulz (November 26, 1922 – February 12, 2000) Peanuts
• Mary Ann Shaffer (December 13, 1934 – February 16, 2008) The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society
• Asha K. Sharma (?) An American in Khadi: The Definitive Biography of Satyanand Stokes^[3]
• Dave Smeds (1955 – ) The Sorcery Within
• Jane Smiley (September 26, 1949 – ) A Thousand Acres
• Jeremy Adam Smith (?) The Daddy Shift
• Gary Snyder (1930 – )
• Starhawk (June 17, 1951 – ) The Spiral Dance
• Joseph Staten (?) Halo: Contact Harvest
• George R. Stewart (May 31, 1895 – August 22, 1980) Pickett's Charge
• Lisa Gluskin Stonestreet (born 1968) The Greenhouse
• Rachel Swirsky (April 14, 1982 – ) "The Lady Who Plucked Red Flowers Beneath the Queen’s Window"
• Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore (?) That's Revolting!

T

• Amy Tan (February 19, 1952 – ) The Joy Luck Club
• Michelle Tea (1971 – ) Rose of No Man's Land
• Daniel Terdiman (May 31, 1974 – ) The Entrepreneur's Guide to Second Life
• Walter Tevis (1928 – 1994)
• Robert Alfred Theobald (1884 – 1957) The Final Secret of Pearl Harbor
• Adrian Tomine (?) Optic Nerve
• Gail Tsukiyama (?) The Samurai's Garden
• Mark Twain (November 30, 1835 – April 21, 1910) The Adventures of Tom Sawyer

V

• Abraham Verghese (1955 – ) My Own Country

W

• Ayelet Waldman (December 11, 1964 – ) Love and Other Impossible Pursuits
• Alice Walker (February 9, 1944 – ) The Color Purple
• Vivian Walsh (?) Olive, the Other Reindeer
• Alice Waters (April 28, 1944 – ) The Art of Simple Food
• Jacob Weisman (February 23, 1965 – ) Death and the Elephant
• Herman Whitaker (1867 – 1919) The Mystery of the Barranca
• Sean Wilsey (1970 – ) Oh the Glory of It All
• Yvor Winters^[4] (October 17, 1900 – January 25, 1968) "The Testament of a Stone"
• Naomi Wolf (1962 – )
• Tobias Wolff (June 19, 1945 – ) This Boy's Life
• Russ Woody (?) The Wheel of Nuldoid

Y

• Laurence Yep (1948 – )

Z

• Daisy Zamora (June 20, 1950 – ) En limpio se escribe la vida
• Helen Zia (1952 – )

See also

• List of people associated with San Francisco
• Litquake

References