The late Mary Ann Hogan was an award-winning journalist and teacher whose credits included The New York Times, The Washington Post, the San Francisco Chronicle, the Oakland Tribune, and Mother Jones magazine. She specialized in personal essays, and for six years was syndicated by the Los Angeles Times. She lectured nationally on writing through the American Press Institute and the Poynter Institute for Media Studies. She taught writing at San Francisco State University, Palm Beach State College, and Florida Atlantic University, where she earned a Master of Fine Arts in creative nonfiction. Returning to her childhood home in Mill Valley before she died in 2019 of lymphoma, she wrote a community column for the Marin Independent Journal.