Announcing Bonnie Bonetti-Bell Fellowships and Workshops

The New Literary Project will offer Bonnie Bonetti-Bell Fellowships and Workshops in 2024. Formerly named Simpson Fellowships, these Bonetti-Bell Workshops will be taught by Bonetti Bell Fellows who are UC Berkeley graduate students. The creative writing workshops will be offered to young people in the Bay Area through partner organizations such as Girls, Inc.

About Bonnie Bonetti-Bell

Bonnie Bonetti-Bell (1945 – 2019) wrote and read her heart out as soon as she could read and hold a pencil. For most of her life, she read at least one book per week, and she was a compelling storyteller both as a writer and public speaker. Prior to joining her husband James in managing Bell Investment Advisors, she was a social worker, a mental health counselor, and the founder of two businesses: Key Concepts, an outplacement agency for communication professionals, and Finding Your Way Career Consulting.

In addition to providing career coaching for a broad range of professionals, she conducted dozens of workshops, seminars and retreats. In 2018, Bonnie helped launch the Women’s Leadership Program at Saint Mary’s College of California in Moraga, and she was a presenter at Saint Mary’s Women’s Leadership Symposiums. Bonnie had a gift for telling her own stories and for helping professionals tell their stories with clarity and passion. She developed a large following of professionals looking for help creating their resumes and for help with interview preparation, i.e. storytelling.

Bonnie held a master’s degree in counseling and a Master of Divinity from the Pacific School of Religion in Berkeley. Included in her years of non-profit board service, she co-founded the Berkeley Ecumenical Chaplaincy to the Homeless and served on their board for decades.