K. Patrick Conner

A sixth-generation Californian, K. Patrick Conner grew up in the Central Valley and attended Chico State University, receiving his Bachelor’s degree in English in 1976 and his Master’s degree in English in 1977. In 1978, he was a winner of the San Francisco Foundation’s Joseph Henry Jackson Award, which recognizes promising young writers from Northern California.

After working for the Chico News & Review and the Whole Earth Review, Conner was hired by the San Francisco Chronicle in 1987. He worked at the newspaper for more than twenty years, including five years as City Editor. He was Assistant Managing Editor for News when he left the paper in 2009.

Conner is the author of three prior novels: “Blood Moon,” published by Doubleday in 1987; “Kingdom Road, published by Donald Fine, Inc. in 1991 and subsequently brought out as a paperback (titled "Blind Obsession") by Signet in 1992; and "Dying Words," published by NaCl Press in 2012. He is also the co-author of “Horace Bristol: An American View,” a biography of one of the first photographers to work for LIFE magazine, published by Chronicle Books in 1996.

He lives on San Francisco’s Russian Hill with his wife, Christine Cuccia, and their cats.