Sandy Close

Journalist Class of 1995
location icon Location
San Francisco, California
age iconAge
52 at time of award

About Sandy's Work

Sandy Close is a journalist and an editor.

For over thirty years, Close has found, trained, supported, and published writers from a broad range of backgrounds whose work reflects perspectives and experiences rarely found in the mainstream press.  Upon completion of her studies at Berkeley, she moved to Hong Kong, where she worked as the China editor for the Far Eastern Economic Review, covering China as well as the growing U.S. involvement in Vietnam.  Returning to the United States, she founded The Flatlands newspaper, a voice of the inner-city communities of Oakland, California.  She brought her experiences in East Asia and inner-city California together when she assumed editorial leadership of the Pacific News Service, which has since become one of the most diverse sources of literary voices and analytical ideas in U.S. journalism.

Biography

Close has been executive editor of the Bay Area Institute/Pacific News Service since 1974.  In 1992, she founded YO! (Youth Outlook), a collaboration of writers and young people published by Pacific News Service and in 1996 she helped to launch New California Media (NCM), a network of over 600 ethnic news organizations working to enhance interethnic understanding and editorial change.

Close received her B.A. (1964) from the University of California, Berkeley.

Last updated January 1, 2005

Published on July 1, 1995

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