Jeff Van Hanken is a writer of political and cultural features for both daily newspapers and monthly magazines. He is also a writer, director and producer of short films and feature films. Van Hanken produced, The HOLA Film Project, a collaborative project that matched recently arrived young men from Los Angeles' Rampart district with film industry professionals. One of the shorts, The Test, won Best U.S. Short at the Los Angeles International Latino Film Festival. Other festivals played include those in Havana, Buenos Aires, London, New York, San Diego, as well as screening on KCET, Southern California's premier public broadcasting channel. Script for feature film, The Legend of Billy Fail, was named a semi-finalist in the Chesterfield Writer's Film Project and given a top 10 percent nod in the Academy of Arts and Sciences Nicholl Fellowships. Some of Vank Hanken's short stories that appear in on-line journals are Word Riot and Ascent Aspirations. His interests include overlooked or otherwise marginalized communities, and the ways that members of these communities look to define themselves against traditional notions of mainstream society. Further interests include linking narrative construction with measurable healthful mental and physical benefits.