Grandmother Standing Woman: Local Indian elder shares her traditions

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• Unsung Heroes: Dedicated to literacy for all

  Unsung Heroes: Dedicated to literacy for all

  In the 15 years that Liz Curren has been a volunteer for The Literacy Council of San Luis Obispo County — first as a tutor and later as a center director — she’s seen dozens of adult students progress from speaking little English to gaining the language skills and confidence to start their own businesses; volunteer in their children’s classrooms; earn U.S. citizenship; serve as interpreter for co-workers and friends ... the list goes on.

  Curren has joined in celebrating those successes.

  “It’s been a wonderful experience. I’ve gone to weddings and baptisms and birthdays,” she said. “It’s almost like a big family there.”

• Crawl inside the mind of a writer

  Crawl inside the mind of a writer

  Have you ever finished a book and said to yourself: “Cripes, I could have written that.” Well, so have tens of thousands of others. In 2009, for example, 288,355 new titles and editions were published in the U.S. alone.

  I couldn’t find more current numbers, but you get the idea. A lot of people take up the life of a writer, and a lot more harbor Walter Mitty aspirations of doing so. (Hey, if it were easy, everyone would be doing it.)

  I make note of this with regard to the Central Coast Book and Author Festival at Mission Plaza from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. this Sunday. It’s an opportunity to meet some 50 authors — both local and from out of the area — who have taken the plunge into publishing.

• Unsung Heroes: Poly grad a friend to orphans

  Unsung Heroes: Poly grad a friend to orphans

  Recent Cal Poly graduate Noel Friend had an opportunity to study abroad during her junior year of college in 2009. She could have chosen Australia, England or Spain, but she wanted an experience that was “enlightening and would let me see the world from a perspective I knew nothing about.”

  So she took off to Africa.

  Through Food for the Hungry, a Christian nonprofit that helps those in need around the world, Friend expanded her mind and made a difference by teaching and caring for women and children in Rwanda and Uganda.

• Man sentenced in attack on driving grandmother

  Man sentenced in attack on driving grandmother

  A Half Moon Bay man convicted of brutally attacking his 82-year-old grandmother for driving too slowly is headed to prison.

• Cambria hosts January Blues art exhibit

  Cambria hosts January Blues art exhibit

  January Blues at the Cambria Allied Arts Association’s showroom could reflect the letdown following the holidays, the cold weather, or simply pay homage to such artists as Picasso, Degas and O’Keeffe, who went through their “blue” period.

  No matter how you interpret it, however, the exhibit offers a glimpse of blue through the eyes of artists.

  Two of the artists, Loretta Novak and Nicole Anderson, experienced their own blue periods, so selecting work for the exhibit was no problem.