Mary Menzel is the Director of the California Center for the Book, a reading promotion agency affiliated with the California State Library and the Center for the Book in the Library of Congress. The California Center for the Book develops programs that celebrate California's rich literary heritage and promote reading, libraries, and authorship. (www.calbook.org) Mary has a Masters of Library and Information Studies from the University of California, Los Angeles, and a B.A. in creative writing from Stanford University. Before coming to the California Center to the Book she was a librarian with the County of Los Angeles Public Library.

Mary Menzel is moderating the History: True Stories, True Lives panel during Session 1.