ANNENBERG BEACH HOUSE — Author Charles Hood has been selected as the fourth writer-in-residence at the Annenberg Community Beach House, city officials said last week.
Hood will work through February on a series of fictional biographies, currently titled "Back Stories," based around the "orphaned portraits" of painter Don Bachardy, a longtime Santa Monica resident who was the life partner of author Christopher Isherwood.
Among the portraits Bachardy made of the known and beautiful, including Tom Ford, Ginger Rogers and Henry Fonda, he also painted sitters whose identities are now lost.
Hood's goal is to weave a fictional history for these faces, welcoming them back to the common narrative, city officials said.
An L.A. native, Hood has been a dishwasher, a factory worker, a ski instructor and a nature guide in Africa. He attended Glendale College, Cal State Northridge, U.C. Irvine and the University of Utah. He also did Fulbright work in New Guinea, translating tribal poetry.
Hood's tenure began Monday.
All are welcome to drop in and say hello. His office hours are from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. on most Saturdays beginning Dec. 1. Check out his blog for updates: beachhouseair.blogspot.com.
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