Alex Espinoza
Writers Workshop Participant, '04-'06; Staff; Board Vice-ChairHis new novel, The Sons of El Rey, just sold to Simon and Schuster.
Alumni News - Teaching Staff
Matthew Zapruder
Poetry Workshop Teaching StaffHis new book, Story of a Poem, a memoir about writing poetry and fathering, is available for pre-order!
“… the luminous, lyrical meditation on wringing from suffering and air, threaded with a singular, moving story about parenting an atypical child. I read it in a single gulp, and you will too.”
—Mary Karr, author of THE LIARS’ CLUB
Sandra McPherson
Poetry Teaching Staff '80/'Art of the Wild Teaching Staff 92, '93, '95, '96, '97, '99Two of her collections were published in 2022: Speech Crush (Gunpowder Press, Santa Barbara); and The 5150 Poems (Nine Mile Books, Lafayette, NY).
Charmaine Craig
Writers Workshops Teaching Staff '18; Writers Workshop Participant '97, '98Her novel My Nemesis will be published by Grove Press in February, 2023. Her previous novel, Miss Burma, was longlisted for the National Book Award and the Women’s Prize for Fiction.
Alex Espinoza
Writers Workshop participant '04, '05; Writers Workshop teaching staffHis short story, “Detainment,” was included in 2022’s Best American Mystery and Suspense.
Forrest Gander
Poetry Workshop Teaching StaffHis collection of poetry, Knot, a project in collaboration with photographer Jack Shear, will be published by Copper Canyon Press in November, 2022.
Devi S. Laskar
Poetry Workshop participant '04, '08, '14, '21; Writers Workshops participant '04, '08; Writers Workshop teaching staff '20, '23Her second novel Circa was published by Mariner Books in May, 2022, and her third novel, Midnight at the War, will be published by Mariner Books in 2024. Circa was chosen by Gwyneth Paltrow’s Goop Book Club this summer.
Meg Waite Clayton
Writers Workshops Teaching Staff '22; Participant ‘00Her 8th novel, the international bestseller The Postmistress of Paris—a New York Times Editors Choice and GMA Buzz book—is out in paperback. It’s the Costco Book Club pick for October and on the IndieNext New in Paperback list for November. Her book, The Last Train to London, is now out in French, the 18th of the 20 languages it will be published in.
Margaret Wilkerson Sexton
Writers Workshop Teaching StaffHer third novel, On the Rooftop, was recently selected as Reese’s Book Club pick.
Sharon Olds
Poetry Workshop Teaching StaffHer newest book, Balladz, is on the long list for the National Book Award for Poetry.
Jamie Ford
Writers Workshop Participant, '06His latest novel, The Many Daughters of Afong Moy, was named the #1 Indie Next List book for August 2022. It was also chosen for the Today Show’s Read With Jenna book club, and has been optioned for a streaming series by Universal Content Productions.
Cai Emmons
Writers Workshop '93, '94, '97; Writers Workshop Teaching StaffShe has two novels coming out in September, 2022: Unleashed (A Publishers Weekly BuzzBook 2022) from Dutton, and Livid from Red Hen Press. These books were sold on the same day within half an hour of each other! Despite having lost her voice to ALS, she is doing her best to get the books into the hands of readers.
Terence Clarke
Writers Workshop Participant, '72, '73; Writers Workshops Teaching StaffHis new piece on the Turkish Harem is now live on Substack. It’s more than what you think.
Karen Joy Fowler
Writers Workshop teaching staff '00, '01, '03, '05, '09, '13, '18, '22Her newest book, Booth, was recently long listed for the Booker Prize.
Terence Clarke
Writers Workshops Teaching StaffHis new story collection, San Francisco, was published on June 1, 2022. To order, click here. He is also writing on The Arts on Substack.
Andrew Tonkovich
Fiction Workshop participant; Fiction workshop teaching staffHis essay on Michelle Latiolais’ novel SHE appears in a new collection, The Many Voices of
the Los Angeles Novel (Cambridge Scholars Press). The essay, “Ariadne’s Thread or Things Befall Apart (Together) in L.A.: She by Michelle Latiolais,” appears alongside laudatory meditations on the work of writers Wanda Coleman, Joan Didion and Carolyn See, among others.
Sands Hall
Fiction Workshop teaching staffHer piece on “finding current relevancy—and outrage—in the accusations of plagiarism that have long haunted a classic of the West: Wallace Stegner’s Angle of Repose” is out now in Alta.
Patricia Spears Jones
Poetry Workshop participant '91, '92, '94; Poetry Workshop teaching staff '16She is being honored at The Poetry Project Gala in New York City on April 8. More details can be found here: https://www.poetryproject.org/gala?token=5de6c2883029110cb33f6ec372915af1ac1545ae
Rachel Howard
Writers Workshop participant '13; Writers Workshop teaching staff '17, '19Her essay, “The Man with the Poodle: Political Theater in the Time of CRT” was recently featured in the Los Angeles Review of Books.
Karen Joy Fowler
Writers Workshop teaching staff '00, '01, '03, '05, '09, '13, '18, '21Her new novel, Booth, will be published by Penguin in March, 2022.
Andrew Tonkovich
Writers Workshop participant '93; Writers Workshop teaching staffThe inaugural issue of his newest project, Citric Acid: An Online Orange County Literary Arts Journal of Imagination and Regimagination, features writing by Community of Writers friends Victoria Patterson, Grant Hier, Lisa Alvarez and Mary Camarillo, among OC writers sharing poetry, fiction, and memoir from and about the region.
Molly Giles
Writers Workshops Teaching StaffHer fifth story collection, Wife with Knife, won the Leapfrog Press Global Fiction Prize and is being published both by Leapfrog Press in the US in November 2021 and by Can of Worms Press in the UK in 2022.
Louis Edwards
Writers Workshop teaching staff '06, '10, '22His novel, Ramadan Ramsey, was recently selected by Publisher’s Weekly as one of the 20 best works of fiction of 2021.
Tom Lutz
Writers Workshop teaching staff '17, '19, '21The third volume of his travel series, The Kindness of Strangers, was published in October, 2021.
Julia Flynn Siler
Writers Workshop participant '03, '04; Writers Workshop teaching staff '14, '15, '16, '18, '19, '20, '21Her feature in Alta Journal, “The Safe Place That Became Unsafe,” won Folio’s national award in the category of Best Investigative Reporting. This is the story about a predatory pastor who abused generations of Chinese boys and a follow-up to her book, The White Devil’s Daughters.
Lisa Alvarez
Writers Workshop participant '93; Co-director of the Fiction WorkshopHer short story, “Everyone was Singing Freiheit,” appears in the fall 2021 issue of Air/Light magazine.
Cai Emmons
Writers Workshop Participant 1993, 94, 97, Teaching StaffCai Emmons’ fifth book of fiction, the novel Sinking Islands, was published on Sept. 14, 2021. In addition, she has two novels forthcoming in 2022, Unleashed from Dutton, and Hair On Fire from Red Hen Press.
Tiphanie Yanique
Writers Workshops Participant '05/ Writers Workshops Staff '15, '21Tiphanie Yanique’s new novel, Monster in the Middle, will be published by Riverhead Books on October 19, 2021.
Forrest Gander
Staff Poet: 2010, 2013, 2015, 2017, 2019, 2021Forrest Gander’s collection Twice Alive, has been long-listed for this year’s National Book Award in Poetry. His poem “Post-Fire Forest,” was published last spring in The New Yorker.
Cai Emmons
Writers Workshop participant '93, '94, '98; Writers Workshop teaching staff '08, '10Her newest novel, Sinking Islands, will be published by Red Hen Press in September, 2021.
DeWitt Henry
Writers Workshop Teaching StaffThe concluding collection of his trilogy of memoirs, Endings & Beginnings: Family Essays, was published in April, 2021, by MadHat Press, with an introduction by John Skoyles.
Andrew Tonkovich
1993His short story “Bone Saw,” a fantastical political meditation responding to the murder of journalist Jamal Ahmad Khashoggi appears in the recent Technology issue of ZYZZYVA.
Gerald Haslam (1937-2021)
Writers Workshop teaching staff '05, '09, '10He is the winner of the 2021 AASLH Award of Excellence for Individual Achievement, in recognition of his decades-long career.
Amy Tan
Writers Workshops Participant '87, frequent Writers Workshops Special Guest, Member of Board of DirectorsA new documentary, Amy Tan: Unintended Memoir, recently premiered on PBS. Amy Tan is an intimate portrait of the groundbreaking writer that interweaves archival imagery, including home movies and personal photographs, animation and original interviews to tell the inspiring story of Tan’s life and career. To watch, click here.
Tiphanie Yanique
Her new novel, Monster in the Dark, will be published by Penguin in October, 2021.
Martin J. Smith
Writers Workshops Teaching StaffHis newest book, Going to Trinidad: A Doctor, a Colorado Town, and Stories from an Unlikely Gender Crossroads, will be published on April 15 by Bower House Books (hardcover) and Tantor Media (audio). This is longtime staff member Smith’s fifth nonfiction book, in addition to his five suspense novels.
Rhoda Huffey
Writers Workshops Participant, '85/ Writers Workshop staff, 2000 onwardRhoda Huffey’s novel 31 Paradiso will be published by Delphinium Books in the spring of 2022.
Attended with the help of attended on UCI scholarship
Andrew Tonkovich
Writers Workshop participant '93; Writers Workshop teaching staffHis short story and novella collection, Keeping Tahoe Blue and Other Provocations, was published in November, 2020, from What Books Press. The collection features eight short stories which appeared originally in Ecotone, Juked, Orange Coast Review, Faultline and The Best American Nonrequired Reading, and a novella featuring the famous alpine lake. Realism and absurdism, unrealism and political autobiography all mixed up for our weird moment. Cover art by the legendary Gronk.
Ellery Akers
Art of the Wild teaching staff '94Her new poetry book, Swerve: Environmentalism, Feminism, and Resistance, was recently featured in The New York Times Magazine; Naomi Shihab Nye, the NYT editor, described the book as “powerful.”
Kazim Ali
Poetry Workshop Participant ;98, Poetry Workshop teaching staff '10, '12, '16, '18His newest collection of poetry, The Voice of Sheila Chandra, was published by Alice James Books in October, 2020.
Andrew Tonkovich
Writers Workshop participant '93; Writers Workshop teaching staffHis short story and novella collection, Keeping Tahoe Blue and Other Provocations, arrives in November, 2020, from What Books Press. The collection features eight short stories which appeared originally in Ecotone, Juked, Orange Coast Review, Faultline and The Best American Nonrequired Reading, and a novella featuring the famous alpine lake. Realism and absurdism, unrealism and political autobiography all mixed up for our weird moment. Cover art by the legendary Gronk.
Michelle Latiolais
Writers Workshop teaching staff, special guestHer short fiction will appear in the LA Issue of ZYZZYVA, issue no. 119, due November, 2020.
Oakley Hall
Co-Founder of the Community of Writers and Writers Workshops Staff Member.His classic proto-postmodern novel Warlock, is featured in Library of America’s new anthology, The Western: Four Classic Novels of the 1940s & 50, edited by Ron Hansen (September, 2020). The book also includes The Ox-Bow Incident (Van Tilburg Clark), Shane (Schaefer), The Searchers (Le May).
Read Thomas Pynchon’s 1965 review of Warlock.
Lisa Alvarez
Writers Workshops Teaching Staff; Writers Workshop Participant, '91, '92Her poem “On the Origin of Karl Marx” appears in So It Goes, the annual literary journal of the Kurt Vonnegut Museum and Library.
Attended with the help of UCI scholarship and Ancinas scholarship
Claudia Rankine
Poetry Workshop participant '93; Poetry Workshop teaching staff '07Her new book, Just Us: An American Conversation, was recently published by Graywolf Press.
Margaret Wilkerson Sexton
Writers Workshop teaching staff '18, '19; Writers Workshops in the Virtual Valley special guest '20She was recently awarded the Janet Heidinger Kafka Prize for Fiction published in 2019 for her novel The Revisioners.
Alice Jones
Poetry Participant, '88, '89; Teaching Staff, Writing the Medical ExperienceHer book, Vault, was published on July 1, 2020, by Apogee Press.
Cornelius Eady
Poetry Workshop Teaching Staff '92, '99, '01, '04He was interviewed for Yale University’s Beinecke Library Corona Series. He discussed the on-going music project he is working on remotely with his folk trio (himself, with guitarists Lisa Liu and Charlie Rauh). Check it out here.
Alice Jones
Poetry Participant, '88, '89. Teaching Staff, Writing the Medical experienceHer newest collection, Vault, was recently published by Apogee Press. A poem in the book, “Spell,” won the first annual Narrative Magazine Poetry Prize.
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
Julia Flynn Siler
Writers Workshop participant '03, '04; Writers Workshop Teaching Staff '14, '15, '16, '18, '19Her newest book, The White Devil’s Daughters: The Women Who Fought Slavery in San Francisco’s Chinatown, was recently awarded two Golden Poppy Awards, in the Regional Book and Non-Fiction categories. The Golden Poppy Awards honor books published each year by Northern California authors and artists chosen by independent booksellers throughout Northern California.
Tom Lutz
Writers Workshop Teaching Staff '17, '19His new novel, Born Slippy, was published by Repeater Books/Penguin Random House in January, 2020.
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.
Brenda Hillman
Director of the Community of Writers Poetry ProgramShe was recently awarded the Morton Dauwen Zabel Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. This award goes to a poet of progressive, original, and experimental tendencies.
Don Mee Choi
Poetry Workshop Staff '14Her newest book of poetry, DMZ Colony, forthcoming from Wave Books in April, 2020, recently received the 2019 International Griffin Poetry Prize.
Margaret Wilkerson Sexton
Writers Workshop teaching staff '18, '19Her novel, The Revisioners, recently won an NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literary Work – Fiction.
Elizabeth Tallent
Writers Workshop teaching staff '16, '18Her new memoir, Scratched: A Memoir of Perfectionism, was published in February, 2020, by HarperCollins.
Lisa Alvarez
Writers Workshop participant; Co-Director of the Fiction Workshop.Her poem, “Imagining my Grandmother on the Laredo Bridge, 1917,” was recently published in the Borderlands: Texas Poetry Review.
Cai Emmons
Writers Workshop '93, '94, '97, Teaching Staff 2010Her short story collection, Vanishing, won the 2019 Leapfrog Fiction Contest, and was published in March, 2020. Sinking Islands, the sequel to her novel Weather Women, will be published in early 2021. She is pleased to be an Authors Guild ambassador for the new Portland, Oregon chapter.
Cathy Park Hong
Poetry Workshop Teaching Staff '11, '16Her new book, Minor Feelings: An Asian American Reckoning, will be published by One World on February 25, 2020.
Max Byrd
His newest book, Pont Neuf, has just been released as an Amazon Audible Original, and will be published in hardback July, 2020.
Vanessa Hua
Writers Workshop participant '08, '17; Writers Workshop teaching staff '19Her book of short stories, Deceit and Other Possibilities, recently rereleased with three additional tales, received a starred review from Kirkus.
Lisa D Alvarez
Writers Workshop participant, '92, '93; Staff since '96.Her poem “9 Line Cento for Now” was recently published by “What Rough Beast.”
Attended with the help of UCI and the Ancinas scholarship
Jane Ciabattari
Writers Workshops teaching staff, '16Her new story collection in progress was a finalist for the 2018 Dzanc Short Story Collection Prize. New stories include “Swarm,” upcoming in The Slag Review print edition (published online in March 2020), and “Acqua Alta,” published online in BigOther in September, 2019.
Sharon Olds
Poetry Workshop staffHer newest book, Arias, was recently published by Penguin Random House.
Patricia Spears Jones
Poetry Teaching StaffA selection of her poems will be featured in Persimmon Tree. Poems are forthcoming in Plume and The New Yorker.
Harryette Mullen
Poetry Workshop teaching staff '06, '14A poem of hers was chosen for poets.org’s Poem-a-Day by Ruth Ellen Kocher and Francisco Marquez. It will be featured on August 2, 2019.
Andrew Tonkovich
Fiction participant '94; Writers Workshop teaching staffHis new book, The Dairy of Anne Frank (and More Wish Fullfilment in the Noughties) is out now. Tonkovich is the longtime editor of the Santa Monica Review and host of Bibiocracy Radio, a weekly books show on Pacifica’s KPFK in Southern California.
Janet Fitch
Writers Workshop participant '93, Poetry Workshop participant '17, Writers Workshop Teaching Staff '01, '02, '04, '06, '08, '09, '13, '15, '17Her newest novel, Chimes of a Lost Cathedral, the sequel to her best-selling novel The Revolution of Marina M., was published by Little, Brown & Co. in July, 2019.
Jane Ciabattari
Writers Workshops teaching staff, '16Her new short story collection-in-progress, Arabella Leaves & Other Stories, was a finalist for the Dzanc Short Fiction Award. Her short story “Swarm” was published in The Slag Review on March 1, 2019. Her short story “Brooklyn After the Fall” was included in a flash anthology commissioned for Independent Bookstore Day in 2018, and also published in The Literary Hub.
Forrest Gander
His newest book, Be With, was recently awarded the Pulitzer Prize in poetry.
Julia Flynn Siler
Writers Workshops Participant, '03, '04, Writers Workshops Teaching StaffShe was interviewed by KQED Forum host Michael Krasny about her new book, The White Devil’s Daughters: The Women Who Fought Slavery in San Francisco’s Chinatown (Knopf, May 2019). The book was also reviewed in the Sunday San Francisco Chronicle’s Datebook section, which called it “meticulously researched and inspiring.”
Janet Fitch
Poetry Workshop participant '17; Writers Workshop Teaching Staff '01, '02, '04, '06, '08, '09, '13, '15, '17She recently celebrated the 2oth anniversary of the publication of White Oleander. It was released in May, 1999 from Back Bay Books.
Alex Espinoza
Writers Workshop Participant '04, '05, Writers Workshop Teaching Staff '13, '15, '17His newest book, Cruising: An Intimate History of a Radical Pastime, will be published in June, 2019, by Unnamed Press.
Natalie Serber
Writers Workshop Teaching Staff '16Children Are Magic, a story from her novel-in-progress, was just published by One Story.
Varley O’Connor
Writers Workshop Teaching Staff '04, '12; Participant '88, '89Her fifth novel, The Welsh Fasting Girl, will be published by Bellevue Literary Press in May 2019.
Amy Tan
Writers Workshop participant '87, Screenwriting Workshop participant '90, Writers Workshop teaching staff '99-'18The Joy Luck Club is celebrating its 30th birthday! A part of the manuscript was workshopped at the Community of Writers when Amy was first a participant.
Rachel Howard
Writers Workshop participant '13, Writers Workshop teaching staff '17, '19Her new novel, The Risk of Us, was released from Houghton Mifflin Harcourt in April, 2019.
Julia Flynn Siler
Writers Workshop participant '03, '04, Writers Workshop teaching staff '14, '15, '16, '18Her newest book, The White Devil’s Daughters: The Fight Against Slavery in San Francisco’s Chinatown, will be published by Knopf Doubleday Publishing in May, 2019.
Max Byrd
Writers Workshop participant '83, Writers Workshops Teaching StaffHis newest novel, The Sixth Conspirator, will be published in August 2019 by Post Hill Press.
Edie Meidav
Writers Workshop Teaching Staff '16, '18She is the co-editor, along with fellow Community of Writers alum Emmalie Dropkin, of the new anthology Strange Attractors: Lives Changed by Chance. It will be released from the University of Massachusetts Press in March, 2019.
Janet Fitch
Writers Workshop participant '93, Poetry Workshop participant '17, Writers Workshop Teaching StaffHer newest novel, Chimes of a Lost Cathedral, the sequel to her best-selling novel The Revolution of Marina M., will be published by Little, Brown & Co. in July, 2019.
Tom Barbash
Writers Workshop Teaching Staff '14, '16, '18His newest novel, The Dakota Winters, will be published in December, 2018, by HarperCollins.
Evie Shockley
Poetry Workshop participant '99, Poetry Workshop teaching staff '9, '10, '13, '15, '18Her book semiautomatic won the Legacy Award for Poetry from the Hurston/ Wright Foundation.
Alex Espinoza
Writers Workshop Participant '04, '05, Writers Workshop Teaching Staff '13, '15, '17His newest book, Cruising: An Intimate History of a Radical Pastime, will be published in June, 2019, by Unnamed Press.
Attended with the help of the UC Irvine Scholarship for MFAs.
DeWitt Henry
Writers Workshops Teaching Staff, '94, '95, '96, '97, '98.His new collection, Sweet Marjoram: Notes and Essays, will be published this October by Plume Editions/Mad Hat Press.
Louis B. Jones
Writers Workshops Participant '89, Writers Workshops StaffHis short story, Everybody’s Long-Term Welfare, appears in the Fall, 2018 issue of ZYZZYVA.
Forrest Gander
Poetry Workshop Teaching StaffHis new collection, Be With, will be published by New Directions in August 2018.
Josh Weil
Writers Workshop Staff '17His 2017 short story collection The Age of Perpetual Light was awarded the California Book Award in Fiction.
Evie Shockley
Her new collection of poetry, semiautomatic, was a finalist for the 2018 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry. Evie will be back on staff this summer at the 2018 Community of Writers Poetry Workshop.
Patricia Spears Jones
Poetry Teaching Staff, 2016She received the 2017 Jackson Poetry Prize from Poets & Writers and a 5-week Rauschenberg Residency in Captiva, Fl. Poems: “After Hell” The Golden Shovel Anthology: New Poems Honoring Gwendolyn Brooks, “Good Bourbon Helps” and “The Room Behind the Room” Cutthroat: A Journal of the Arts: Truth to Power, Writers Respond to the Rhetoric of Hate and Fear; “Morning Song” w/art work by Yuko Otomo, WORD: An Anthology A Gathering of the Tribes. Poems in journals including translated poems in http://www.recoursaupoeme.fr/ Numéro spécial – juillet-août : n. 176 “L’Esprit de New York et ses poètes”; Green Mountain Review; Paterson Literary Review, and Brooklyn Rail.
Gregory Pardlo
Poetry Workshop Teaching Staff '17His memoir, Air Traffice: A Memoir of Ambition and Manhood in America, was published this month by Knopf. Pardlo was on staff at the Community of Writers Poetry Workshop in 2017.
Kazim Ali
Poetry Participant '98; Poetry Teaching Staff '10, '12, '16, '18He is featured in the March/ April issue of The American Poetry Review. Kazim will be joining us again this summer on staff at the Poetry Workshop.
Elizabeth Rosner
She will be giving a talk entitled “How Do We Deal With the Wounds of History? Understanding and Addressing Intergenerational Trauma,” at the Commonwealth Club in San Francisco on April 10th at 6 PM.
Sands Hall
Writers Workshops Participant and StaffHer memoir, Flunk. Start.was published by Counterpoint Press in March, 2018.
Sands Hall
Writers Workshop Teaching Staff and Past ParticipantHer memoir, Flunk. Start., published March, 2018, was recently named one of the top 10 best books in spirituality and religion for Spring 2018 by Publisher’s Weekly.
Edan Lepucki
Writers Workshop Participant '07, Writers Workshop Teaching Staff '14, '18Her most recent novel, Woman No. 17, published by Hogarth in 2017, is now out in paperback. Woman No. 17 was named a notable book of the year by the San Francisco Chronicle, POPSUGAR, and the Washington Post. People Magazine picked it as the May selection for the Book of the Month Club.
Rachel Howard
Writers Workshop Participant, '13, Writers Workshop Staff, '17Her novel The Risk of Us sold to Houghton Mifflin Harcourt for publication in Spring 2019. It’s about a woman who longs to be a mother; the troubled child she and her husband take in from the foster care system; the inevitable tests children bring to a marriage; and the limits of human empathy coupled with the joys of new parenthood, and was pitched as appealing to fans of Jenny Offill, Rachel Cusk, and Sheila Heti.
Attended with the help of Carlisle Scholarship
Brenda Hillman
Poetry Teaching Staff, Poetry Guest DirectorBrenda Hillman’s new collection, Extra Hidden Life, among the Days was published by Wesleyan Poetry (Wesleyan University Press) in February 2019.
Glen David Gold
Writers Workshops Participant, '96, '97 / Writers Workshops Teaching StaffHis memoir I Will Be Complete will be published by Knopf in June 2018.
Attended with the help of The UC Irvine Scholarship
Terence Clarke
Writers Workshops Participant, 1972, 1973. Special Guest, 2013, 2014.His new book, New York: Stories, was published by Astor and Lenox on November 1, 2017. Publishers Weekly says “This gem of a collection by Terence Clarke celebrates the art, passions, and people of New York City.” Kirkus Reviews says “Tales like these feel like new takes on classic stories of New York by Salinger or Capote—fine company, all in all.”
Sandra Scofield
Writers Workshops Teaching StaffHer craft book, The Last Draft: A Novelist’s Guide to Revision, has been published by Penguin.
Sands Hall
Writers Workshops Participant, Teaching StaffHer memoir, Flunk. Start., will be released by Counterpoint Press in March, 2018.
www.sandshall.com
Janet Fitch
Writers Workshops Teaching Staff & Participant, ’89/ Poetry Participant '17Janet Fitch’s novel, The Revolution of Marina M., set during the turbulent years of the Russian Revolution was published in November, 2017 by Little Brown and Co.
Martin J. Smith
Writers Workshop '92; Faculty member since 2002Globe Pequot published Mr. Las Vegas Has a Bad Knee in November 2017, Martin J. Smith’s collection of journalistic essays spanning his 31-year career in the American Southwest, with a foreword by David L. Ulin. “[…] Smith’s true gift resides in his empathy—in the gentle way he forces us to see grace and redemption in the lives of people whom most of us would be inclined to mock.”—Steve Hawk, former editor of Surfer and Sierra magazines.
Julia Flynn Siler
Writers Workshop Participant '04, '05, Writers Workshop Teaching Staff, '14, '17Julia Flynn Siler is a Logan Nonfiction Fellow this the fall. Along with 18 other celebrated journalists, she will be using the time to complete her work of narrative investigative history, Daughters of Joy: America’s Other Slaves and Their Fight for Freedom (forthcoming from Alfred A. Knopf). For more information, please visit http://careyinstitute.org/
John Harvey
Poetry Participant '95, Writers Workshop Staff '97His new book, Going Down Slow and Other Stories, will be released by Five Leaves Publications in November, 2017.
Amy Tan
Writers Workshop Participant '87, '90, Special GuestHer new book, a memoir entitled Where the Past Begins: A Writer’s Memoir, was released by HarperCollins in October, 2017
Diana Fuller
Diana Fuller is producing the film, Once Was Water, directed by Christopher Beaver. Once Was Water is a lively solutions-oriented documentary that tells the story of how the driest city in America, in the middle of the Mojave desert, leads the way in sustainable water conservation.
Trailer: https://vimeo.com/229357749
Matthew Zapruder
Poetry Teaching Staff '14Matthew Zapruder’s new book Why Poetry was published by Ecco Press in August, 2017.
Josh Weil
Teaching Staff '13, '14, '17His new novel The Age of Perpetual Light was published by Grove/Atlantic in September, 2017.
John Daniel
His poem “After the Wedding” was read by Garrison Keillor on The Writer’s Almanac. The podcast can be found here: http://writersalmanac.org/episodes/20170810/
Elizabeth Rosner
Writers Workshop Participant '82, '83, '87, Poetry Participant '99, Teaching Staff '06, '15Her new book, Survivor Cafe: The Legacy of Trauma and the Labyrinth of Memory, was released from Counterpoint Press this month.
Julia Flynn Siler
Writers Workshop teaching Staff & Participant '04, '05She was awarded the 2017 Mayborn Fellowship in Biography for her third book. She’ll be recognized at next month’s Mayborn Literary Nonfiction Conference in Grapevine, Texas, where such masters as Sebastian Junger (A Perfect Storm), Katherine Boo (Behind the Beautiful Forevers) and Charles Johnson (Middle Passage) will be keynote speakers. More information please visit http://bit.ly/2qKoH4V
Jordan Fisher Smith
Writers Workshop Participant '01/ Teaching Staff '14 '16His book, Engineering Eden, won the 2017 California Book Award Silver Medal for nonfiction.
Sands Hall
Writers Workshops participant '89/ Teaching StaffHer memoir, Flunk. Start., has been purchased by Counterpoint Press for publication in January 2018. Sands is represented by Michael Carlisle at Inkwell Management.
Sandra Scofield
Writers Workshops, Teaching StaffHer eighth book of fiction, Swim: Stories of the Sixties, will be published May 15.
Edan Lepucki
Writers Workshops Participant 2007, Teaching StaffEdan Lepucki’s second novel, Woman No. 17, was published by Hogarth/Crown in May, 2017.
Janet Fitch
Writers Workshops Teaching Staff & Participant, ’95Janet Fitch’s novel The Revolution of Marina M. set during the turbulent years of the Russian Revolution, will be released on November 7, 2017 by Little Brown and Co. Fitch’s punk-rock novel, Paint It Black, has been adapted into ta feature film which will be released in May.
Patricia Spears Jones
Poetry Participant ’91,’92,’94 / Poetry Teaching StaffPoet and playwright Patricia Spears Jones is the the 2017 recipient of the Jackson Poetry Prize from Poets & Writers. The judges praised Jones for her “sophisticated and moving” work. Her books of poems are Painkiller, Femme du Monde and, most recently, A Lucent Fire: New and Selected Poems. “Patricia Spears Jones’ poems are made of fever, bones, and breath. The fever of eros, the bones of family and friends, and the breath of everyday existence. She is an accessible poet, but never boring,” the citation reads. “More of us should know who she is, and even more should read her.”
Robert Hass
Director of the Poetry Program, and Staff PoetHis new book, A Little Book on Form: An Exploration Into The Formal Imagination of Poetry, was published by Harper Collins in 2017. From the former U.S. Poet Laureate, Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award-winner, an illuminating dissection of poetic form, traditional and modern.
Kazim Ali
Poetry Participant, '98; Poetry Staff, '10, '12, '16Kazim’s new novel written in the form of a string quartet, The Secret Room: A String Quartet, has been published by Kaya Press. He also edited a collection of essays, Mad Heart Be Brave: On the Poetry of Agha Shahid Ali, published in April 2017 from the University of Michigan Press.
Elizabeth Rosner
Writers Workshop Participant,'82,'83,'87; Poetry Participant,'99; Teaching StaffElizabeth Rosner’s first book of non-fiction, entitled Survivor Café: the Legacy of Trauma and the Labyrinth of Memory, will be published in September 2017 by Counterpoint Press.
John Daniel
Writers Workshops, Teaching StaffJohn Daniel’s novel, Gifted, his first full length piece of fiction, will be released April 11th by Counterpoint. Fellow Oregon author David James Duncan calls it “one of the best Oregon books of all time.”
Kazim Ali
Poetry Participant, '98; Teaching StaffKazim Ali’s poem, “Refuge Temple,” is in the April edition of Poetry Magazine. The poem reflects on the houses of poets–specifically Lucille Clifton’s home in Buffalo and C.D. Wright and Forrest Gander’s home in Barrington.
Gerald Haslam
Writers Workshops, Teaching StaffGerald Haslam’s 2016 novel, Grace Period (Univ. of Nevada Press), won the 2016 Eric Hoffer Award for Legacy Fiction.
Robin Romm
Writers Workshops Participant, '03; Teaching StaffRobin Romm has edited Double Bind: Women on Ambition, an anthology of personal essays by brilliant women on the subject of striving. It will be published in April by Liveright/Norton.
Also, Robin and her partner, Don Waters, had a baby girl in August. Sylvie Jacquelyn was born August 27, 2016 and is a total joy.
Lisa Alvarez
Writers Workshop Participant, '92, '93; StaffLisa Alvarez’ s flash fiction story “Intro to Women’s Studies or Too Much Margaret Atwood” appeared in Only Light Can Do That: 100 Post-Election Poems, Stories & Essays, published in December by The Rattling Wall and PEN Center USA. She is pleased to note that Community of Writers staff Janet Fitch and Andrew Tonkovich have poems in the anthology along with the contributions of many Community of Writers alums. Lisa attended the Community of Writers with the support of a UCI scholarship and the Ancinas Scholarship.
Louis B. Jones
Writers Workshop Participant, '89, StaffLouis B. Jones has an essay on Jane Austen in the Winter 2016 Three Penny Review, and a piece on Plato for the upcoming Spring, 2017 Three Penny Review issue. Louis originally attended the Community of Writers with the support of a UC Irvine Scholarship.
Attended with the help of UC irvine Scholarship
Lisa Alvarez
Writers Workshop Participant '92, '93; StaffLisa Alvarez’s poem, “At The Free Clinic, 1977,” appears in the Fall 2016 issue of Huizache: The Magazine of Latino Literature. She is also happy to note a number of other alums are in the same issue. Lisa attended the Community of Writers with the support of a UCI scholarship and the Ancinas scholarship.
Attended with the help of UCI scholarship, Ancinas scholarship
Richard Ford
Writers Workshop Participant, '70; StaffRichard Ford’s newest book is a memoir, Between Them: Remembering My Parents. It was released in May of 2017 by Harper Collins.
Michael Chabon
Writers Workshop Participant, '86, '87; StaffMichael Chabon’s latest novel, Moonglow, was released November 22, 2017 by Harper Collins, and reviewed here in the New York Times.
Patricia Spears Jones
Poetry Workshop Participant, '91,'92,'94, StaffPatricia Spears Jones’s poem, “Etta James at the Audubon Ballroom,” is included in the Pushcart Prize Anthology XLI.
Lisa Alvarez & Andrew Tonkovich
Writers Workshops Teaching StaffLisa Alvarez and Andrew Tonkovich look forward to the early spring arrival of their co-edited book from Heyday, the first-ever literary anthology of Orange County, California. Featuring nearly 200 years of writing from and about the County, this collection includes work by Community of Writers staff and alums, as well as co-founder Oakley Hall. Publication date of Orange County: A Literary Field Guide is February 1, 2017. Thanks to all our fellow Communitarians for suggestions and direction, especially Heyday founder and frequent workshop guest Malcolm Margolin.
Don Mee Choi
Poetry Workshop StaffDon Mee Choi’s latest collection of poetry, Hardly War, was published in April of 2016 by Wave Books.
Tyler Dilts
Writers Workshop StaffTyler Dilts’ latest novel, Come Twilight, was published in August by Thomas & Mercer. Come Twilight is the fourth book in the Long Beach Homicide series.
Diana Wagman
Writers Workshops StaffDiana Wagman‘s new novel, Extraordinary October, was released in October by Ig Publishing. It was recently reviewed by Kirkus: “In an auspicious debut for teens, adult author Wagman (Life #6, 2015, etc.) proves particularly adept at mixing genres and maintains a terrific balance between fantastical (and occasional macabre) happenings and genuine teen perceptions. Offbeat while also incorporating themes of tolerance, October’s tale will have readers rooting for her every step of the way.”
Jordan Fisher Smith
Writers Workshop Participant, '01, StaffJordan Fisher Smith’s latest nonfiction work, Engineering Eden: The True Story of a Violent Death, A Trial, and the Fight Over Controlling Nature, was released in June by Crown.
Martin J. Smith
Writers Workshops Participant '91, Teaching StaffMartin J. Smith’s newest book, Combustion, was released in September by Diversion Publishing.
Sharon Olds
Poetry Workshop, StaffSharon Olds, a longtime Poetry Workshop staff member, has been awarded the Wallace Steven’s Award for “proven mastery in the art of poetry.” The award comes with a $100,000 cash prize.
Regina Louise
Writers Workshops Participant,'01,'14, Screenwriters Workshop, '02, StaffRegina Louise’s essay, “I was Adopted at–41,” was recently published by Narratively, and was then picked up by the BBC World News and the interview aired on Outlook “30 Years Looking For Mum.” Her essay, “Milk Vat,” was recently published in Black Clock Journal. Regina is currently working on the first release of the nonprofit publishing company she’s founded: Someone Has Led This Child to Believe: A Case History of Love, Luck & Self-Determination. It is the followup to her ’03 memoir, Somebody’s Someone.
Kazim Ali
Teaching Staff, Poetry Participant '98Kazim Ali’s book of stories, Uncle Sharif’s Life in Music, will be published in November 2016 by Sibling Rivalry Press. It is available for pre-order now.
Gerald Haslam
Writers Workshops Teaching StaffGerald Haslam’s 2006 novel Grace Period (University of Nevada Press) won the 2016 Eric Hoffer Award for Legacy Fiction from the US Review of Books.
Mary Volmer
Writers Workshop Participant, '03, '05Mary Volmer’s second novel, Reliance, Illinois (Soho Press) is out on May 10, 2016.
Elana K. Arnold
Writers Workshop Participant, '95,'98, and StaffElana K. Arnold’s latest novel, What Girls are Made Of, will be published in spring 2017 by Carolrhoda Books.
Molly Giles
Writers Workshop, StaffMolly Giles new book of short fiction, All The Wrong Places, was published by Lost Horse Press in July of 2015.
Michelle Latiolais
Writers Workshops, Teaching StaffMichelle Latiolais’s new novel, She, will be published by W.W. Norton & Company in May, 2016.
Martin J. Smith
Writers Workshops Teaching Staff“The Million Dollar Duck,” the documentary film based on Martin J. Smith’s 2012 book The Wild Duck Chase, about the strange and wonderful world of competitive duck painting, will have its world premiere at the Slamdance Film Festival in Park City, Utah, in January 2016. In addition, Diversion Books will release his fifth crime novel, Combustion, in 2016 as well.
Sandra Scofield
Writers Workshops Teaching StaffHer memoir, Mysteries of Love and Grief, was published in September, 2015 by Texas Tech University Press. An excerpt from the book was won the Narrative Magazine Spring Contest.
Jane Ciabattari
Writers Workshops Participant, '77, and StaffJane Ciabattari’s flash fiction, “My Celebrity Goat,” appears in New Flash Fiction Review (2015). The Rumpus published an interview with her in December 2015, just in time for the first anniversary two-hour ‘Flashathon” of the [Flash Fiction Collective] reading series she co-founded with Grant Faulkner and Meg Pokrass at Alley Cat Books in San Francisco. (Twelve readers in two hours, including Molly Giles, Ethel Rohan, Kirstin Chen, Cornelia Nixon, Jane McDermott.)
David Lukas
Long-time Community of Writers staff naturalist, David Lukas, has just published a book called Language Making Nature, a toolkit of techniques and insights into the highly imaginative process of word making, with a particular focus on creating new words for speaking of the natural world. This book is designed for writers, artists, and thinkers of all types, and to be a tool for creative writing programs and writing workshops at all levels.
Janis Cooke Newman
Writers Workshop Participant, '97,'98,'01, and StaffThe paperback of Janis Cooke Newman’s second novel, A Master Plan for Rescue, will be released by Riverhead in May 2016.
Elana K Arnold
Writers Workshop Participant, 1995,1998 & Writing Workshops StaffHarperCollins/Walden Pond Press has bought two books in the BAT Chronicles, a middle grade series by Elana K. Arnold. In the spirit of Clementine and Ramona, the books follow Bixby Alexander Tam – nicknamed BAT – a third-grader on the autism spectrum, and his funny, unexpected, authentic experiences at home and at school. The first book, A Boy Called BAT, is set to publish in 2017; Rubin Pfeffer at Rubin Pfeffer Content brokered the deal for world English rights.
Christian Kiefer
Writers Workshops Teaching StaffChristian Kiefer’s new novel, The Animals, was released by Liveright/W.W. Norton in March. He is also the winner of a Pushcart Prize for his story, “Hollywood and Toadvine,” originally published in Santa Monica Review.
Will Allison
Writers Workshops StaffWill Allison, a contributing editor and author at One Story, will be teaching an online class for the Brooklyn-based literary magazine entitled “Become Your Own Best Editor,” which will guide students through a case study of a One Story debut, “Claire, the Whole World,” by Jonathan Durbin.
Katie Ford
Poetry Teaching StaffKatie Ford’s poem, “Still-Life,” which she composed at Squaw Valley in 2012, will be printed in the forthcoming textbook The Norton Introduction to Literature, Fuller and Shorter editions.
Elise Blackwell
Writers Workshops Teaching Staff & Participant, '88, '90Elise Blackwell’s fifth novel, The Lower Quarter, was published in October by Unbridled Books, and received a starred review in Kirkus.
Josh Weil
Writers Workshops Teaching StaffJosh Weil’s novel, The Great Glass Sea, won the 2015 Dayton Literary Peace Prize.
Malcolm Margolin
Special Guest, '15After forty-one years at the helm, Heyday founder and publisher/executive director Malcolm Margolin is retiring. Heyday has begun the search for a successor, and information about the position is available at https://heydaybooks.com/executive-search/
Lisa Alvarez
Writers Workshops Participant, '91,'93,'94, and StaffLisa Alvarez’s poem was published in the Fall 2015 Issue of Huizache.
Martin J. Smith
Writers Workshops Teaching Staff & Participant, '91“The Million Dollar Duck,” a documentary film based on Martin J. Smith’s 2012 nonfiction book The Wild Duck Chase, will premiere in early 2016. In addition, Diversion Books will release Smith’s latest suspense-thriller, Combustion, in early 2016.
Claudia Rankine
Poetry Teaching Staff & Participant, '93Claudia Rankine, whose book, Citizen: An American Lyric, won the National Book Critics Circle Award for Poetry in 2015, has joined the English department at USC Dornsife as Aerol Arnold Chair of English.
Lynn Freed
Writers Workshops Teaching StaffLynn Freed’s story, “The Way Things Are Going”, published in Harper’s, has been awarded the O. Henry Prize.
Christopher Upham
Screenwriting Teaching StaffChristopher Upham’s film, Return to Dak To, had its Bay Area premier in April, 2015, at the Roxie Theater in San Francisco.
Elizabeth Rosner
Poetry Participant, '99, Writers Workshop Staff & Participant, '82,'83,'87Elizabeth Rosner’s latest novel, Electric City, was released in paperback in late September, and was named as one of the best books of 2014 by National Public Radio.
