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.
Alumni News - Teaching Staff
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, Where Once Was Water, directed by Christopher Beaver. Where 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.”
Ali, Kazim
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.
