A former foreign correspondent for the San Francisco-based Pacific News Service, Stan West remains a working journalist, reporting for the Wednesday Journal. A documentarian who co-coordinates the Oak Park International Film Festival, West has written and co-authored several nonfiction books. He teaches writing, television and first-year seminar at Columbia College Chicago. Stan West received his MFA in Creative Writing from the University of New Orleans. His thesis was on American expatriate writers in Paris and Madrid. West holds a Masters in the Teaching of Writing from DePaul University. If you're interested in him as a speaker, please e-mail [email protected].