Julie Zigoris, an arts and culture reporter for The Standard, is a collector of stories, languages and careers. Before becoming a journalist, she taught English and Soviet history at the University of Pittsburgh, Stanford University, the Jewish Community High School of the Bay and Mount Tamalpais College in San Quentin Prison. She’s the author of Belomor: Criminality and Creativity in Stalin’s Gulag, and her fiction is represented by Red Fox Literary. A fan of polka dots and passionfruit, she is often found hanging out with plants. Pennsylvanian by birth and Hungarian by blood, she is now devoted to all things San Francisco and loves writing for The Standard.