From Monks to Mountain Gorillas

Author Ed Kaufman is a psychiatrist with an MFA in creative nonfiction from Antioch University. He was awarded fellowships in creative writing to participate in the writing programs in Spoleto, Italy, and in Provincetown, R.I., at the Norman Mailer Writers Colony. A native of Philadelphia, he lives in Laguna Beach, Calif., where he is co-host of Orange County Dime Stories, a national network of monthly readings taking place around the nation. Ed Kaufman moved to Laguna Beach, California, from New York City 34 years ago to work at University of California, Irvine, department of psychiatry, where he eventually became director of education and Chief of the Drug and Alcohol Treatment Program. Kaufman was medical director of the Genesis program at South Coast hospital and on the Board of ACTION, an AIDS support group in Laguna. He is currently on the clinical advisory board of Laguna's Friendship Shelter.