About the Author

Kathleen Ann Gonzalez started out as a teacher but was surprised to discover that she is a writer and dancer as well.  While she spends most of her time trying to infect teenagers with her great enthusiasm for literature and writing, she still squeezes in time to write about her work and her travels. Her first book, Free Gondola Ride, is about the gondoliers of Venice, while her second book, A Small Candle, includes interviews with participants in the Camp Everytown program. Returning to her love for Venice, she then published Seductive Venice: In Casanova's Footsteps, a guidebook to sites in Venice visited by famed lover Giacomo Casanova. She followed that book with A Beautiful Woman in Venice, biographies spanning five centuries about remarkable Venetian women. A Living Memory: Immortality for Sarra Copia Sulum expands on this Venetian Jewish scholar's life. These last three books are also available in Italy from Supernova Edizioni, with the guidebook now available in Italian as A Venezia con Casanova. Her 2018 book First Spritz Is Free: Confessions of Venice Addicts collects 35 stories showcasing ways their authors fell in love with this watery city. 

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Gonzalez has worked with the San Jose Area Writing Project since 1996 as a participant and Teacher Consultant, and she earned her National Board teaching credential in 2000. She also received a National Endowment for the Humanities grant to study Nathaniel Hawthorne as well as a Japan Fulbright Memorial Fund grant to study education in Japan. She spent her first twenty years as a teacher in San Jose, California, public schools and eight years ago began working at the Woodside Priory in Portola Valley, California. Passionate about travel, Gonzalez finds any excuse to hop on an airplane, particularly to Venice. Learn more about her writing at www.kathleenanngonzalez.com.