The next leader of the Office of Letters and Light!

Like many people who went to the Night of Writing Dangerously in San Francisco last night, I thought that the ‘big news’ was going to be the fact that this was Chris Baty’s last year as the Executive Director of the Office of Letters and Light, the non-profit that runs Nanowrimo, Script Frenzy, and the Young Writer’s Program.

I don’t know about anybody else there, but I was very excited about an announcement that Chris made in the middle of his moving thank-you speech – naming Grant Faulkner, board member of the Office of Letters and Light, as his successor, and thus our new Fearless Leader.

I don’t know much about Grant. I managed to get a moment to congratulate him at the dinner, and even got my picture taken with Grant and Chris Baty. But he seems cool, and like a reasonably good choice to follow in Chris’ footsteps, even if he also reminded me a little of Adam Baldwin, who wouldn’t really be the kind of guy I’d ask to lead me into 30 days of creative craziness.

So, I’ve started a little fact-finding mission to learn more about Grant. The best place to start is probably this passage, which used to be on the Office of Letters and Light website at http://www.lettersandlight.org/ourteam.php , and has disappeared from that page over the past few days, possibly in preparation for a new version that will acknowledge his status as heir apparent:

Grant Faulkner is the managing editor of the National Writing Project and a fiction writer. His stories have appeared in The Southwest Review, Gargoyle, The Berkeley Fiction Review, Word Riot, The Big Ugly Review, the Used Furniture Review, Ink, and Transfer, and he’s currently working on a novel that is in its eighth and final year. He received his MA in Creative Writing at San Francisco State University and blogs for the Oakland Literature Examiner, Lit Matters, and The Review Review. Grant took part in his first National Novel Writing Month in 2010 and has since become an evangelist of the event (as well as an evangelist for writing 1,672 words between the hours of 5 AM and 7 AM as a strategy to be a NaNoWriMo winner).

Other Grant Faulkner tidbits:

• An interview with Grant at ‘The Review Review.’
• This would appear to be his blog. (Includes some reflections on his Script Frenzy experience.)
• He’s on LinkedIn.
• And on Twitter as @grantfaulkner

So – let’s have a welcome round of digital applause for Grant! I’m looking forward to getting to know more about you and continuing the great creative adventure together!