Mary Menzel is the Director of the California Center for the Book, 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. This year, Mary is working closely with Cal Humanities on a statewide reading program about the issues facing our returning veterans. Mary has a master’s degree in library and information studies from UCLA and a B.A. in creative writing (poetry) from Stanford University. Before coming to the California Center for the Book, Mary was a librarian with the Culver City branch of the County of Los Angeles Public Library.