2024 Qtr 2 WW News Roundup Archives

Ann Bancroft

Writers Workshops Participant, '19

Almost Family, the debut novel of AWA affiliate Ann Bancroft, was awarded this month with both the Sarton Prize for best contemporary fiction and the Somerset Award for literary fiction. The novel is the story of three people who meet in a comically awful support group for metastatic cancer. They ditch the group and form their own, calling themselves the Oakland Mets. Their goal is to have some fun outdoors, but they wind up helping each other reach acceptance and solve the unfinished business of their lives. More info here.

R. O. Kwon

Writers Workshops Participant, '10

R. O. Kwon’s second novel, Exhibit, will be published on May 21 with Riverhead Books. Exhibit has been named a most anticipated book by over 20 outlets, including The New York Times. Poets & Writers called it one of the buzziest books of the year, and said it’s “fiery, sexual, and undeniably original.” Kwon will be on tour for three weeks, and her tour stops are listed at here.

Rochelle Duffy

Writer's Workshops, '19

Rochelle Duffy workshopped her book Flight from Silence A Journey to Free One’s Voice in a Family of Seventeen Children in the 2019 Writers Workshops. It was published in March 2024 by Empress Publications.

Anthony J. Mohr

Writers Workshops participant, '08

Anthony J. Mohr’s memoir, Every Other Weekend—Coming of Age With Two Different Dads, swept the spring 2024 Outstanding Creators Awards, including tying in first place for the best nonfiction book and first place in the categories of autobiographies and memoirs, biographies, family, and parenting. His essay “The Last Carefree Summer” was published in Volume 20, No. 1 of the Loch Raven Review. More info here.

Cameron Walker

Writers Workshops Participant, '02, '04

Cameron Walker’s essay collection, Points of Light: Curious Essays on Science, Nature, and Other Wonders Along the Pacific Coast, was published this spring by Hidden River Press.

Susan Pope

Writers Workshop Participant, '11

Susan Pope’s memoir Rivers and Ice: A Woman’s Journey Toward Family and Forgiveness was published in March 2024 by Riddle Brook Publishing. She began working on the book during her week at Writers Workshop. More info here.

Lisa Kusel

Writers Workshops Participant, ’17

Lisa Kusel’s psychological thriller novel, The Widow on Dwyer Court, will be published by Blackstone Publishing on July 16, 2024. More info here.

Dashka Slater

Writers Workshops Participant, '04

Dashka Slater’s book Accountable: the True Story of a Racist Instagram Account and the Teenagers Whose Lives It Changed has won the prestigious J. Anthony Lukas Book Prize. It is the first young adult title to ever win the award. The awards, established in 1998 and named for the late Pulitzer Prize-winning author and investigative journalist, are presented by the Columbia Journalism School and the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University. Previous winners include Robert Caro, Jill Lepore and Isabel Wilkerson. More info here.

George John Berger

Writers Workshops Participant, '04, '05, '14

G. J. Berger’s recent book, released February, 2024, To Steal A Moment’s Time, is a first-person memoir by the most famous and sought after German actress in the last year of WWII. Kirkus Reviews says, “This work is a rare feat, a seamless amalgam of an unflinching literary realism with an unsentimental affirmation of life. A beautiful war account—both unsettling and inspiring.” More info here.