Judy Batalion
Writers Workshop participant '11Her new book, The Light of Days: The Untold Story of Women Resistance Fighters in Hitler’s Ghettos, will be published by HarperCollins in June, 2020.
Alumni News - 2020 Quarter 2 WW News
Erica Plouffe Lazure
Writers Workshop participant '18Her short story, “The Duck Walk” appears in the Spring 2020 issue of Phoebe Journal.
Lise Haines
Writers Workshop participant '99She has an essay up on the Broad Street Blog.
Lorraine Comanor
Writers Workshop participant '09Her essay “Walking with Birds” was published in the Fall 2019 issue of Boulevard.
Leslie Hsu Oh
Writers Workshop participant '14, '19She recently received 2 gold medals from the NATJA Travel Media Awards. “Painting the Next Chapter,” published in Adventure Journal won gold in Lifestyle, Personality & Profiles and “What It’s Like to Break Bread in the Desert” in Saveur Magazine won gold in Family Travel.
Attended with the help of The O’Dwyer Scholarship
Grace Talusan
Writers Workshops Participant '98; Published Alumni Reading Series '19The paperback of her memoir, The Body Papers, was published by Restless Books in March 2020 with a new afterword, reading guide, and interview. Winner of The Restless Books Prize for New Immigrant Writing, Grace Talusan’s memoir The Body Papers bravely explores her experiences with sexual abuse, depression, cancer, and life as a Filipino immigrant, supplemented with government documents, medical records, and family photos. The memoir is on the Must Reads (long list) for the 20th Annual Massachusetts Book Awards.
Vonetta Young
Writers Workshops Participant, ‘18Her short story, “Sand and Salt,” from which she began the novel chapter she workshopped at the Community of Writers, was published in the anthology, Furious Gravity in May, 2020. She also published another short story, “As Far Away,” in Gargoyle issue 71.
Susan Henderson
Writers Workshop Participant, '09She has an essay in the upcoming anthology, Alone Together: Love, Grief, and Comfort During the Time of COVID-19, published by Central Avenue. All net profits will be donated to The Book Industry Charitable Foundation, helping indie booksellers in need.
Attended with the help of Lojo Foundation scholarship
Vishwas Gaitonde
Writers Workshops Participant, '14He was a finalist in The Chautauqua Institution’s 2020 Janus Prize “for daring formal and aesthetic innovations that upset and reorder readers’ imaginations.”
Kris Newby
Writers Workshop participant '17She was recently awarded a Nautilus Award (Silver) for her book Bitten: The Secret History of Lyme Disease and Biological Weapons. With a Kirkus starred review, it was also listed as one of the “best books of 2019” by Bookworm and Stanford Medicine, as well as the #1 book in public health by BookAuthority.
Attended with the help of Carlisle Family Scholarship
Gail Reitano
Writers Workshop Participant, '97,'98,'99,'02,'03,'19Her personal essay “Wanting Warhol: My Connections to Andy Warhol” appears in the June 2020 issue of Catamaran Literary Reader.
Vishwas R Gaitonde
Writers Workshops Participant, '14His short story “Kismet” was published in Pembroke Magazine, Issue No 52, 2020.
Lyndsey Ellis
Writers Workshop participant '17Her debut novel, Bone Broth, will be published in spring 2021 by Hidden Timber Books.
Wayétu Moore
Writers Workshop participant 2009; Published Alumni Reading Series 2019Her memoir, The Dragons, The Giant, The Women, was published June 2, 2020, by Graywolf Press.
Shelley Blanton-Stroud
Writers Workshops Participant, '04Her novel, Copy Boy, will be published by She Writes Press, June, 2020.
Christina Adams
Writers Workshop participant '00She was recently awarded the Nautilus Book Award for her book Camel Crazy: A Quest for Miracles in the Mysterious World of Camels.
Scott Edward Anderson
His book, Falling Up: A Memoir of Second Chances, was recently awarded the First Literary Prize from Letras Lavadas, in conjunction with PEN Azores.
Janyce Stefan-Cole
Writers Workshop Participant '04Her short story, “The Runaway,” appeared in The Broadkill Review, January – February 2020 issue. An essay, “How I Lost My Vegan,” appeared in the February 2020 issue of Literary Veganism; Editions Bibliotekos.
Gail Reitano
Writers Workshops Participant, '97,'98,'99,'02,'03,'19Her novel, Italian Love Cake, will be published by Bordighera Press, April 2021. Italy and America collide in this story of feminism and political awakening in late 1930’s America.
Eileen Garvin
Writers Workshop Participant '17Her novel Bee Music was purchased at auction by Dutton for publication in 2021. The novel chronicles the story of three lonely residents in a rural Oregon town, each struggling to deal with one of life’s curveballs — a teenager who has just become paraplegic after a freak accident, a middle-aged widow suffering from panic attacks, and a young man with social anxiety — who come together on a local honeybee farm where they find surprising friendship, healing and maybe even a second chance. Eileen is the author of How to be a Sister: A Love Story with a Twist of Autism and has written for PsychologyToday.com, The Oregonian and Creative Nonfiction Magazine (forthcoming).
Susan Starbird
Writers Workshop Participant '04Nonfiction fragmentologist Susan Starbird launched the fifth issue of Susan The Magazine, with the theme of Varmints. Prior issues focused on water, women, work, and cars. All are available from Amazon, findable if you search the author’s name.
Elison Alcovendaz
Writers Workshop participant '16His flash fiction piece, “The Assimilation of Boyboy Santos” (originally published in Lost Balloon magazine), was selected for inclusion in the Best Small Fictions 2020 anthology.
Attended with the help of Carlisle Family Scholarship
Christine Sunderland
Writers Workshops Participant, ‘05Her seventh novel, Angel Mountain, has been published by Wipf and Stock Publishers. Set on Mount Diablo in the present day, the story is about a holy hermit, a Holocaust survivor, a literary librarian, and a Christian geneticist who search for peace and happiness in a culture of chaos. Themes include history and memory, faith and science, human dignity and free speech. “In Angel Mountain, Christine Sunderland has created a gripping and theologically rich novel, in which four remarkable people make their way through a shifting cultural landscape ringed with apocalyptic fire, revolutionary politics, and end-times expectancy.” Wilfred M. McClay, University of Oklahoma (jacket endorsement).
Jesse Bedayn
His article, “Inside the Bay Area’s Geriatric Homeless Shelter,” was recently published in the New York Times. Jesse has been a Poetry Elf during our summer writing workshops for the last four years, and is currently getting his Masters in Journalism, with a focus in narrative writing, at University of California, Berkeley.
Robert Stone
The Eye You See With: Selected Nonfiction is a vast collection of Robert Stone’s nonfiction, from war reporting to literary criticism, and was published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt in March, 2020. Stone was a staff member from the very early years, and a longtime friend of the Community of Writers
Ryan Ridge
Writers Workshop participant '10His new collection of short stories, New Bad News, will be published by Sarabande Books in May, 2020.
Ksenia Lakovic
Writers Workshop Participant, '12Her short story “A Man at the End of the Hallway” has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize. It was published in Scoundrel Time, in October 2019.
Edan Lepucki
Writers Workshop participant '07; Writers Workshop teaching staff '14, '18She edited the upcoming book, Mothers Before: Stories and Portraits of Our Mothers as We Never Saw Them, which is due out April, 2020, from Abrams Image.
Alia Volz
Writers Workshops Participant, '11, '14Her debut memoir, Home Baked: My Mom, Marijuana, and the Stoning of San Francisco, will be published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt in April 2020.
Attended with the help of Oakley Hall Memorial Scholarship; Oakley "Tad" Hall Prose Scholarship
Aimee Liu
Writers Workshop participant '94Her new novel, Glorious Boy, which will be published by Red Hen Press in May, 2020, was recently selected by Good Housekeeping as one of the best books of 2020.