Stefan Merken is an activist, short-story writer, and a novelist. He was an American Fulbright Scholar in Japan from Columbia University. A conscientious objector in the mid 1960s and a draft counselor and West Coast representative of the Jewish Peace Fellowship from 1978 to 1995, he also served on the National Council of the Fellowship of Reconciliation for more than twenty years. With his wife, Betty, he has written two books: Wall Art and Three Plays for Quarter.