Frances Dinkelspiel is an award-winning journalist who co-founded the local news site Berkeleyside. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, People magazine and elsewhere. Her first book, Towers of Gold: How One Jewish Immigrant Named Isaias
Hellman Created California, was a San Francisco Chronicle bestseller and was named a Best Book of 2008 by the newspaper. Her second book, Tangled Vines: Greed, Murder, Obsession, and an Arsonist in the Vineyards of California, was published in October 2015.