Anne Rice Studied Writing at San Francisco State

Photo: CHRIST THE LORD Book Tour, 2005. Anne, Top of the Rock, after The Today Show

While famous best-selling vampire novelist Anne Rice was known for her deep connections to her birthplace of New Orleans, many might not realize that she spent many years in the Bay Area, living both in San Francisco and in Berkeley.

Rice’s son Christopher Rice announced his mother’s death on Twitter on Saturday from complications from a stroke, writing that as he sat by her bed in her final hours he was, “awash in memories of a life that took us from the fog-laced hills of the San Francisco Bay to the magical streets of New Orleans to the twinkling vistas of Southern California.” She was 80.

Rice earned a Master’s degree in creative writing from San Francisco State University where her husband Stan Rice worked.

Rice, an accomplished writer in his own right, was a Professor of English, Chairman of the Creative Writing program, and Assistant Director of the Poetry Center, according to the university’s archives. The couple left the Bay Area in 1989 to reside in New Orleans, later returning to live in Southern California.

Stan Rice died Dec. 9, 2002, of cancer at age 60 in New Orleans.

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