About Anthony

Anthony Barcellos grew up speaking Portuguese on his grandfather's dairy farm in Porterville, a small town in central California's Tulare County. While he retains some rudiments of his first language, today Barcellos is much better at using English. He came late to fiction writing, having previously devoted his literary talents to science reporting (the Albuquerque Journal, 1978, under a fellowship sponsored by the American Association for the Advancement of Science), computer technology (PC Magazine, 1984-1985, Micro Cornucopia, 1985-1987, and Sacra Blue, 1985-1990), and mathematics (Calculus and Analytic Geometry, 1992, with Sherman K. Stein).

Anthony's interviews of Martin Gardner, Stanislaw Ulam, and Benoit Mandelbrot were published in the Mathematical Association of America's College Math Journal and collected in Mathematical People (Birkhäuser Boston, 1984). Anthony's 1984 article on "The Fractal Geometry of Mandelbrot" was honored with both the 1985 George Pólya Expository Writing Award and the 1987 Merten M. Hasse Expository Writing Prize. His latest book is A Stroll through Calculus, an elementary calculus primer that says it’s “a guide for the merely curious.”

Anthony served as a legislative assistant to state Senator Albert S. Rodda in 1979-1980 under a California State Senate Fellowship and later worked for the Commission on State Finance (1981-1987) under State Treasurer Jesse M. Unruh. In 1987 he was appointed to the mathematics faculty at American River College in Sacramento, where in 1996 the students chose him as their Instructor of the Year. Anthony was the recipient of the 2014 Patrons Chair Award for his outstanding contributions to ARC as a teacher, colleague, and role model. He continues to teach full-time at ARC and regards it as the best job he's ever had, despite his rewarding experiences in journalism and state service.

Anthony currently resides in Davis, California, and is a 2005 alumnus of the local University of California campus's School of Education doctoral program in mathematics education. UC Davis awarded him two distinguished teaching awards (1976 and 1978) for his instructional services as a teaching assistant in the mathematics department. Prior to his graduate work in Davis, Anthony earned his master's degree in mathematics from California State University, Fresno (1974), his bachelor's degree from the California Institute of Technology (1973), and his associate's degree from Porterville College (1971).

Anthony is very fond of the music of Mahler and Wagner and has a much-neglected piano in his dining room. It has all but disappeared under stacks of books, the overflow from his thirty bookcases. He loves the science-fiction novels of Iain M. Banks and Alastair Reynolds and has a complete set of the works of Mark Twain. When he is not reading or catching up on schoolwork, Anthony is likely to be surfing the Internet.