among other things, Courtney Weaver's greatest claim to fame is the fact that she is a native San Franciscan. She packed herself off at the tender age of 17 to study semiotics — don't ask — at Brown University, and later received an M.A. in creative writing from New York University. She has worked for the BBC and the San Francisco Chronicle, and is also a food writer whose works have appeared in Restaurant Hospitality, the San Francisco Examiner and Cuisinenet. When not studying the sexual and romantic foibles of herself and her peers, she pontificates with authority on the politics of Northern Ireland, having lived and worked in the lovely resort town of Derry for two years. She hates Anais Nin.