Shangyang Fang
Poetry Workshop participant '19His poetry collection, Burying the Mountain, was recently published by Copper Canyon Press.
Omnium Gatherum: Alumni & Teaching Staff News
Welcome to the Community of Writers Omnium Gatherum & Alumni News. We invite you to find out what our community has been up to recently. You may view by date or by program (see left sidebar). Sign up for monthly updates here.
We also invite alumni and staff to submit your news here. Please note that news must be less than 12 months old, brief and to the point, and may be edited for brevity and/or clarity.
Nevada McPherson
Writers Workshop Participant, '08Her novel, Poser, will be published by Outcast Press in February, 2022.
First in a noir series called the Eucalyptus Lane Novels, set in and around Palo Alto, CA, Poser offers a “class-conscious, peeping-Tom gaze into Silicon Valley’s bedrooms and back-alleys, where dreams really do come true and unlikely, life-altering connections are made, for better—or worse.”
Mary Kuryla
Writers Workshop participant '10Her novel Away to Stay comes out with Regal House Press in February, 2022.
Fran Castan
Poetry Participant, '92She won the 2021 Hippocrates Prize for Poetry and Medicine. The award includes publication in The Hippocrates Prize Anthology and 1,000 British pounds. Her poem, “Voice Mail,” was chosen from a record number of entries submitted from 30 countries to The Open Category for Poets. There was a separate division for health professionals and another for young writers of poetry. A video of Fran reading “Voice Mail,” one of a series of poems she wrote while her friend battled pancreatic cancer, can be seen on the society’s website: www.hippocrates-poetry.org.
Erica Plouffe Lazure
Writers Workshops participant, '18Her short story collection, Proof of Me and Other Stories, is now available for pre-order at Barnes & Noble.com. It will be released by New American Press in Philadelphia on March 24, 2022 during AWP. To preorder: tinyurl.com/5f58mcf4
Neysa King
Poetry Participant '20Her first poetry chapbook, Rainbow Body, is now available for purchase. This 12-poem collection tells the story of self-discovery amidst the sex and lights of Miami Beach. You can get your copy at your local bookstore or at any online retailer. Visit www.neysaking.com/rainbow body or follow Neysa on IG @neysaking for more details.
Anara Guard
Writers Workshops Participant, '16Her debut novel, Like A Complete Unknown, will be published in March, 2022 by New Wind Publishing.
Martina Clark
Writers Workshops Participant, '13Her memoir, My Unexpected Life: An International Memoir of Two Pandemics, HIV and COVID-19, has just won an award from POZ Magazine for 2021 Best in Literature. While it holds less literary weight, it does hold high endorsement from the community of people living with HIV which, considering the subject matter of Clark’s memoir and her own life with HIV, it sends a resounding endorsement from a key readership.
Attended with the help of Carlisle Family Scholarship
Lynne Goldsmith
Poetry participantHer self-published picture book, The Story of Doves, won Honorable Mention in the 2021 Royal Dragonfly Book Awards for Picture Books 5 & Younger.
Jeff Adams
Writers Workshop Participant '19His short story “The Sensible Gardener” appears in the December 2021 issue of Anti-Heroin Chic.
Jan Verberkmoes
Poetry Participant, '17Her debut poetry collection, Firewatch, will be published by Fonograf Editions on December 7th, 2021.
Attended with the help of Galway Kinnell Memorial Scholarship
Neysa King
Poetry Workshop participant '19Her first chapbook of poetry, Rainbow Body, will be released on December 12, 2021.
Vishwas Gaitonde
Writers Workshop Participant, '14His short story, ‘The Queen of Artichoke Hearts’ was published in the inaugural online issue of The Other Side of Hope, a new literary magazine in Britain dedicated to refugee and immigrant writing.
Jon Riccio
Poetry Participant, '15,'19His chapbook Eye, Romanov was published in July as one of the James Tate Prize’s shared winners (SurVision Books). His chapbook Bayou Oncology will be published in 2022 with Osmanthus Press.
Vishwas Gaitonde
Writers Workshop Participant '14His commentary “The Queens on the Throne of Kings,” written to mark Queen Elizabeth’s platinum jubilee (70 years on the throne) which falls on Feb 6, 2022, was published in Merion West on November 8.
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.
A.W. “Tony” Scott
Screenwriting Workshop Participant '12His satirical short film “Representation Matters?” was named “Best Short Film” at the Atman Film Festival in Los Angeles on 10/31/21. The film also garnered nominations for “Best Script”, “Best Actor”, and won for “Best Actress” at the Atman Film Festival. The film has also been screened at the Buenos Aries Film Festival and Osaka International Film Festival, and several other festivals in the United States, earning nominations for “Best Film”, “Best Script” and “Best Director”.
Freeman Ng
Writers Workshop participant '19His debut picture book, a biography of the seminal haiku poet Matsuo Basho (written entirely in haiku, of course!) was released by Stone Bridge Press on October 19, 2021.
A.W. “Tony” Scott
Screenwriting Workshop Participant '12He and his writing partner Jean Su’s pilot script “Leading Edge”, an Asian female-led one hour drama television series set in Silicon Valley, was named “Outstanding Drama Pilot” at the Catalyst Story Institute 2021 Content Festival (formerly ITV Fest) for television and web series content.
Jackie Davis Martin
Writers Workshop Participant '14Her novel Stopgaps was published in May, 2021 and is available through Bookbaby. com or Amazon.com.
Alison Turner
Poetry Participant '10Her debut collection, The Second Split Between, selected by Dorianne Laux for the 2021 Catamaran Poetry Prize for West Coast Poets, was published in November 2021 by Catamaran.
Chelsea B. DesAutels
Poetry Workshop Participant, '18Her first poetry collection, A Dangerous Place, was published by Sarabande Books in October, 2021.
Vishwas Gaitonde
Writers Workshop Participant, '14His short story “New Lives, Old Habits” was published in the Autumn 2021 issue of Spellbinder magazine in the United Kingdom.
Jeff Adams
Writers Workshop Participant, '19His short story “The Stonecutter’s Wife” appears in Otoliths.
Antonia Angress
Writers Workshop participant '19Her debut novel, Sirens and Muses, will be published by Penguin Random House in July, 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.
T.A. Niles
Memoir and Nonfiction Workshop participant '21A play he co-wrote with Linda C. Lederman, An Attitude of Gratitude, will be performed virtually on November 6. To register for the live performance, visit this link.
Amanda Moore
Poetry Workshop participant '19Her newest book of poetry, Requeening, which was selected by Ocean Vuong as a National Poetry Series winner, was published on October 26, 2021 by Ecco.
Tom Lutz
Writers Workshop teaching staff '17, '19, '21The third volume of his travel series, The Kindness of Strangers, was published in October, 2021.
Holaday Mason
Poetry Workshop participant '00, '06, '19Her work is featured in the upcoming anthology, What Falls Away is Always: Writers Over 60 on Writing and Death. There is an in-person publication reading at Village Well Bookstore this Wednesday, October 27, in Culver City.
Lynne Goldsmith
Poetry Participant '00Her children’s picture book, Critters in the Neighborhood Come and See with Me, is now available.
Meghan Robins
Writers Workshops Participant, '15Her short essay “Being a Woman is Like Making French Onion Soup” won first place in the WOW! Women on Writing Creative Nonfiction Essay Contest.
Attended with the help of Alexander Cushing Memorial Scholarship for Locals
Rashaan Alexis Meneses
Writer's Workshop Participant, '17Her piece “On Teaching at the End of the World” was recently published in Literary Hub’s series “Teaching Through a Pandemic” on October 18, 2021.
Attended with the help of Ancinas Scholarship
Lynne Goldsmith
Poetry participant '00The sequel to her picture book, The Story of Doves: Part Two, is out now!
Michelle Bitting
Poetry Participant '05She was short-listed for the 2020 Montreal International Poetry Prize, and a finalist for the 2021 Coniston Prize, Ruminate’s “The Waking” Flash Prose Contest, and the 2020 Reed Magazine Edwin Markham Prize.
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.
Tiphanie Yanique
Writers Workshop participant '05; Writers Workshop teaching staff '15, '21Her newest novel, Monster in the Middle, was recently published by Riverhead Books.
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.
Nicholas Nichols
Poetry Workshop participant '19They were recently named the associate editor of The Offing, an online literary magazine that publishes creative writing in all genres and art in all media. “The Offing publishes work that challenges, experiments, provokes — work that pushes literary and artistic forms and conventions.”
Vishwas Gaitonde
Writers Workshop participant '14He was a finalist in The George Floyd Short Story Competition conducted by the Nottingham Writers Studio, in Nottingham, England. His story, ‘The Worth of a Miracle’ was included in the prize anthology Black Lives. An audio recording of the story has been posted on the Nottingham City Libraries website as part of Black History Month (celebrated in October in Britain) & can be accessed here all October.
Judy Juanita
Writers Workshop Participant, '92Her collection of stories,The High Price of Freeways, is co-winner of this year’s Tartt Fiction Award. Livingston Press, from the University of West Alabama, will publish this collection in June, 2022.
Rowena Leong Singer
Writers Workshop Participant '19Her novel manuscript, All Manner of Beasts, has been selected as the winner in literary fiction in the 2021 Book Pipeline Unpublished Contest. In this novel, a wife becomes the hero to the husband who thought she needed saving in the midst of Japanese-occupied Philippines during World War II, while soldiers hunt for guerrillas and their supporters, making this couple their target. The excerpt she submitted for this contest is a revised version of the one she submitted for critique at the Community of Writers summer Fiction workshop in 2019.
Mandy Gardner
Writers Workshops Participant '17Her piece, “Recovery from Simultaneous Stroke and Cardiac Arrest,” a humorous take on the traditional medical abstract and based on a true story, was recently published in the Maine Review.
John Foran
Writers Workshop participant '13His newest novel, A Mistaken Hostage, was published in September, 2021.
Susan Henderson
Writers Workshop Participant, '09Her short story, “Dead Eddie” will be in the 150th anniversary anthology of the Elm Leaves Journal out of Buffalo State.
Attended with the help of Lojo Foundation scholarship
Joshua Ferris
Writers Workshop participant '03His newest novel, A Calling for Charlie Barnes, was published in September, 2021, by Little, Brown and Company.
Amanda Moore
Poetry Workshop (Virtual Valley), 2021Amanda Moore’s debut collection, Requeening, selected by Ocean Vuong for the 2020 National Poetry Series was published in October 2021 by HarperCollins/Ecco.
Judy Juanita
Writers Workshops Participant '92Judy Juanita’s poetry collection, Manhattan My Ass, You’re in Oakland, won the American Book Award 2021 from the Before Columbus Foundation. Many of the poems appear in New Verse News online. Her short story collection, The High Price of Freeways, won the Tartt Fiction Prize 2021 at the University of West Alabama [UWA] and will be published by Livingston Press [UWA] in 2022.
Elder Gideon
Poetry '21 (Virtual Valley)Elder Gideon’s debut poetry collection Aegis of Waves was published by Atmosphere Press, with a book launch at the Sacramento Poetry Center in August.
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.
Deborah Dashow Ruth
Poetry Participant. 1991, ‘92, '93, ‘95, ‘98, '00, ‘01, ‘05, ‘08, ‘13, ‘15, ‘17, ‘21A short play by Deborah Dashow Ruth is a winner in the Chameleon Theatre Circle’s 22nd Annual New Play Contest. The play is titled “The Previous Incident Versus a Recent Development,” and will be streamed sometime in the fall. Also, one of her poems was accepted for the debut issue of the Thuya Poetry Review, a new journal.
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.
Stella Santamaria
Poetry Workshop Participant (Virtual Valley), 2021Two of Stella Santamaria’s poems were published in The Acentos Review, September 2021 issue after attending Community of Writers, Poetry Program in the Summer of 2021 in the Virtual Valley.
Attended with the help of the Ancinas Family Scholarship
Terence Clarke
Writers Workshops Participant, 1972, 1973Terence Clarke’s latest novel is The Moment Before, was published September 15. Renowned Parisian artist Yvette Roman suffers from epileptic seizures that are preceded by extraordinary visions. Much of her work is based on those visions. While in New York City for an exhibition of her work at The Guggenheim, a painting by Yvette is delivered to her Manhattan gallery. But, Yvette has no recollection of having done it, even though the painting may be her masterwork. Is it hers? Is it a forgery? Is someone trying to destroy Yvette?
This novel is the third of a trilogy. The others are My Father in The Night and When Clara Was Twelve. All three are available everywhere, in print and digital versions.
Martina Clark
Writers Workshops Participant, '13Martina Clark’s memoir, My Unexpected Life: An International Memoir of Two Pandemics, HIV and COVID-19, is being published by Northampton House Press and comes out October 5th, 2021. This memoir was her workshop piece in 2013.
Attended with the help of the Carlisle Family Scholarship
Barbara West
Memoir Participant, '21Barbara West interviewed Megan Stielstra for Another Chicago Magazine on the occasion of Northwestern University Press reissuing two of Stielstra’s essay collections. Topics covered include how we take care of ourselves and each other, Moratorium on Shame and Stielstra instructing me to “Please, look at all the asses, Barbara!”
Amanda Moore
Poetry Participant, Virtual Valley '21Amanda Moore’s [Her] debut collection, Requeening, was selected by Ocean Vuong for the 2020 National Poetry Series and will be published in October 2021 by HarperCollins/Ecco.
Lynne A Goldsmith
Poetry Participant.'00Lynne’s has new children’s picture book The Story of Doves was published in 2021.
Debra A. Daniel
Writers Workshops Participant, '01Debra A. Daniel’s novella-in-flash, A Family of Great Falls, was short listed for the Bath Novella-in-flash Award 2021, and was published by Ad Hoc Fiction in the UK. Two of her pieces were also shortlisted for the Smokelong Quarterly Mikey Award, the Bath Flash Fiction Award, and long listed for the Reflex Fiction Award.
Attended with the help of Nona Stuck Fiction Scholarship
Andrea Carter Brown
Poetry Participant, '90Andrea Carter Brown’s fourth poetry collection, September 12, was published by The Word Works in September 2021 to mark the 20th anniversary of 9/11.
Swathi Desai
Writer's Workshop Participant '17, '18Swathi Desai’s short story, “A Girl, Almost Ten”, was featured in the May 2021 issue of Faultline. https://issuu.com/faultlinejournal/docs/faultline30printfinal
Cathy Park Hong
Staff Poet: 2011, 2016Cathy Park Hong has been included in Time Magazine’s 100 MOST INFLUENTIAL PEOPLE OF 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.
Peggy Dobreer
Poetry Workshop participant '21Her newest book of poetry, Forbidden Plums: Poems in Quarantine, was recently published by Glass Lyre Press. It is a collection of poetry written during the first 40 days of quarantine in 2020.
Rachel Hinton
Poetry Participant, '11Her debut poetry collection, Hospice Plastics, was selected by Emma Bolden as the winner of the Cowles Poetry Prize and will be published by Southeast Missouri State University Press in October, 2021. Mary Szybist called Hospice Plastics “that rare collection that I’ve not been able to stop re-reading.” This somewhat autobiographical collection of poetry focuses on the illnesses and deaths of the poet’s parents during her teen years, centering on palliative care and literal plastics: medical tools and supplies—artificial, grotesquely present, weirdly funny, sublimely comforting.
David Mills
Poetry Participant, '21His poetry collection, Boneyarn, was a June bestseller at Small Press Distribution. This collection is the first book of poems about slavery in New York City, where the oldest and largest slave cemetery in the United States is located. If you are interested in a signed copy, you can email David at edgarallanpoit@yahoo.com. Boneyarn is also available at Small Press Distribution and Amazon.
Attended with the help of Veteran's Poetry Scholarship
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.
Meg Waite Clayton
Writers Workshops Participant, '00; Alumni Reading Series participant '04;Her eighth book, The Postmistress of Paris, has been named a Publisher’s Weekly Notable Book for Fall/Winter 2021. The novel, inspired by the efforts of real-life Chicago heiress Mary Jayne Gold’s efforts to rescue artists, writers, and intellectuals from Nazi-occupied France, will be published by HarperCollins November 30, 2021, and in multiple translations. Her most recent novel, the international bestseller and National Jewish Book Award finalist The Last Train to London, has now been published in 17 languages, and will be translated into French, Hebrew, and Turkish in the coming year.
Tory Adkisson
Poetry Workshop participant '11His first book of poems, The Flesh Between Us, selected by Brian Turner as the winner of the Crab Orchard Series in Poetry Open Competition, is forthcoming from SIU Press this October.
Paco Márquez
Poetry Participant, '12He has two new poems in the current issue of The Literary Review.
Antonio Lopez
Poetry Participant '17His debut collection of poetry, Gentefication, is coming out through Four Way Books September 15, 2021. It was selected by Gregory Pardlo as the winner of the 2019 Larry Levis Prize in Poetry.
Attended with the help of Lucille Clifton Scholarship
Meg Waite Clayton
Writers Workshop participant ‘00; Published Alumni Reading Series ‘03Her most recent novel, The Postmistress of Paris (HarperCollins, November, 2021) was included on Publishers Weekly’s notable literary fiction for fall 2021, and received a starred review praising its “lyrical, thought-provoking prose” and concluding, “This sterling portrait of a complex woman stands head and shoulders above most contemporary WWII fiction.” Meg’s international bestseller and National Jewish Book Award finalist The Last Train to London is now forthcoming or published in 20 languages.
Kate Nason
Writer's Workshop Participant '18Her debut memoir, Everything is Perfect, narrated by the author, was released by Audible on August 5th.
Manjula Stokes
Writers Workshop Participant, '09, '11Her novel, Celeste & Chris, workshopped at Community of Writers, was recently published.
Anthony J. Mohr
Writers Workshops Participant 08His essay “Places of Worship” appeared in Penmen Review on June 11, 2021. His essay “One Year After the Break-in” was published by Eclectica Magazine Vol.25, No.3 (July/August 2021).
Vishwas R Gaitonde
Writers Workshops Participant, '14His short story “The Saint” was published online in the summer 2021 issue of Baltimore Review, and will be included in the magazine’s annual print anthology. Also published online is an audio recording (check the horizontal black bar at the bottom of the screen) of Gaitonde reading his story, with music by Lydian Nadhaswaram.
Danusha Laméris
Poetry Participant, '00Her first book, The Moons of August (2014), was chosen by Naomi Shihab Nye as the winner of the Autumn House Press Poetry Prize and was a finalist for the Milt Kessler Book Award. Some of her work has been published in: The Best American Poetry, The New York Times, Orion, The American Poetry Review, The Gettysburg Review, Ploughshares, and Prairie Schooner. Her second book, Bonfire Opera, (Pitt Poetry Series), was a finalist for the 2021 Paterson Poetry Award, and was the winner of the Northern California Book Award in Poetry. She was the 2018-2020 Poet Laureate of Santa Cruz County, California, and is currently on the faculty of Pacific University’s low-residency MFA program.
Gail Reitano
Writers Workshop Participant, '97, '98, '99, '02, '03, '19Her first novel, Italian Love Cake (Bordighera Press, 2021), about a young Italian American woman struggling to save her family’s store on the eve of WWII, will be translated into French and published by Éditions Anne Carrière, Spring 2022.
Alison Turner
Poetry Participant '10Her manuscript The Second Split Between was selected by Dorianne Laux to be the winner of the 2021 Catamaran Poetry Prize for West Coast Poets. The collection will be published by Catamaran in the fall of 2021.
Barry Garelick
Writers Workshops Participant '92His book Out on Good Behavior: Teaching Math While Looking Over Your Shoulder was published by John Catt Educational, in January, 2021.
Paul Burgoyne
Fiction Workshop participant '10His novel, Two Seasons, workshopped at the Community of Writers in 2010, was recently published and is now available on Amazon.
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.
Anne Chadwick
Writers Workshops Participant '02, '04Splitting Heirs, written and illustrated by Anne Chadwick (McCaa Books, July, 2021), reimagines her grandfather’s legal quest to find the rightful heirs of mysterious loner. In 1923, a puritanical lawyer teams with a profligate genealogist on an odyssey from Los Angeles to Paris and Provence, where they encounter characters ranging from grateful to greedy and sympathetic to seductive. This historical courtroom fiction explores multicultural perspectives on families and kinship.
Lynne Thompson
Poetry Participant, '97, '04In February 2021, she was appointed Poet Laureate for the city of Los Angeles by Mayor Eric Garcetti.
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.
Hari B Khalsa
Poetry Participant '03, '06Her chapbook of poems, She Speaks to the Birds at Night While They Sleep, won the 2020 Tebot Bach Clockwise Chapbook Contest and was published in July, 2021.
Marcia Meier
Writers Workshop participant, 2019Her latest book, Face, A Memoir (January 2021, Saddle Road Press), was shortlisted for the 2021 Eric M. Hoffer Book Award grand prize, and won honorable mention in the memoir category. Her essat, “Skin Craft,” which is about her relationship with her surgeon and derived from the book, was shortlisted for the Fish Publishing Short Memoir Prize, and is in the latest edition of Reed Magazine.
Corey Campbell
Writers Workshops Participant, '18Her short story “Outside the Mayan” recently appeared in Story Issue 10.
Attended with the help of Isobel English Scholarship
Lawrence Coates
Fiction Workshop participant '17His story “The Ferry and the Road” appeared in the April 2021 issue of Story. An excerpt of this story was workshopped at the Community of Writers in 2017.
Joseph Holt
Writers Workshop Participant, '18His debut story collection, Golden Heart Parade, will be published by Santa Fe Writers Project in September, 2021. Golden Heart Parade was a winner of the SFWP Literary Awards, which were judged by Carmen Maria Machado. In her comments, Machado wrote, “I loved this collection—it’s raw, dark, and surprisingly funny. . . . There’s so much precision and verve in these stories. I was captivated the entire way through.”
Nawaaz Ahmed
Writers Workshops Participant, '11His debut novel, Radiant Fugitives, following three generations of a Muslim Indian family confronted with a nation on the brink of change in Obama-era San Francisco and Texas, was published by Counterpoint Press on August 3, 2021.
Attended with the help of Ford scholarship
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.
Lisa Alvarez
Writers Workshop participant; Writers Workshop co-directorHer article “A reading guide to legendary Colombian author Gabriel García Márquez” was recently published in the Los Angeles Times Books section.
Cory Wilson
Writer's Workshop Participant, '15He has signed an agreement with Los Angeles based publisher Mystic Boxing Commission. His debut novel, A Kiss Away, will be released Fall, 2021.
Wendy Voorsanger
Writers Workshops Participant '16 or '17Her historical novel, Prospects of a Woman, published in October, 2020 from She Writes Press, has won 7 awards: 2021 IPPY Awards Gold Winner in Best Regional Fiction-West-Pacific, 2021 Independent Press Awards Winner in Western Fiction, 2021 Next Generation Indie Book Awards Winner in Regional Fiction, 2021 Next Generation Indie Book Awards Finalist in First Novel, 2021 National Indie Excellence Awards Winner in Western Fiction, 2021 National Indie Excellence Awards Winner in Regional Fiction: West, and 2021 National Indie Excellence Awards Winner in Book Interior Design: Fiction.
Lester Graves Lennon
Poetry Participant, '99, '01, '03, '05, '07, '09, '11, '13, '15, '17, '19, '20His poem,”Frank Embree Standing on Buggy Facing Camera Fayette, Missouri, July 22,1899 (Photographer Unknown)” which was first written during Poetry Week at the Community of Writers was published by Literary Matters.
Janine Kovac
Writers Workshop Participant: '11, '12, '14, '16Her essay “Dancing on the Blade” won the San Francisco Foundation/Nomadic Press Literary Award in Nonfiction and appears in the spring 2021 issue of Under the Sun.
Attended with the help of 2011: George Pascoe Miller; 2012: Carlisle Family; 2014: Eshleman Scholarship
Diane P Wolff
Writers Workshop Participant '83; Screenwriters Workshop Participant '84She did not win the Buchanan Prize of the Association for Asian Studies for her book, Batu, Khan of the Golden Horde: The Mongol Khans Conquer Russia. As they say in Hollywood, it was an honor to be invited to submit, and there are four more books in her Silk Road Series: The Heirs of Chinggis Khan (Genghis Khan). She did do a virtual talk for the American Center for Mongolian Studies to launch the book and it has been peer reviewed in Education about Asia, for use as a course book in global history.
David Mills
Poetry Participant '92, '21A finalist for the Crab Orchard Review and Richard Snyder Memorial Prize, his third collection, Boneyarn, came out in April 2021 from Ashland University Press. It is the first book of poems about slavery in New York City where the oldest and largest slave cemetery in the United States is located.
Terence Clarke
Writers Workshop Participant, '72,'73His new novel, The Moment Before, will be published on September 1, 2021. It is the third of a trilogy. The others are My Father in The Night and When Clara Was Twelve.
Lauren Barbato
Writers Workshop Participant, '17Her short story “Patroness” appears in the latest issue of Pacifica Literary Review.
Attended with the help of Lojo Foundation Scholarship
Jeanine Stevens
Poetry Participant '07, '10, '14, '17Her chapbook, Gertrude Sitting: Portraits of Women, won the Heartland Review 2020 chapbook prize.
Tracy Fuad
Poetry Participant '17Her debut collection of poetry, about:blank, was chosen by Claudia Rankine as the 2020 winner of the AWP Donald Hall Prize and will be published by University of Pittsburgh Press in October, 2021. The book is available for pre-sale now.
Attended with the help of Galway Kinnell Memorial Scholarship
Alicia Hokanson
Poetry participant '86, '87, '88, '90, '98Her new collection, Perishable World, was published by Pleasure Boat Studio press in May, 2021.
Jen Siraganian
Poetry Workshop participant '12, '14She was recently inducted as the Poet Laureate of Los Gatos in April 2021. Selected by the mayor and members of the Los Gatos Library Board and Arts and Culture Commission after an unanimous vote, she will serve a three-year term promoting poetry and literature in the community.
Gwen Goodkin
Writers Workshop Participant, ‘07, ‘11Her short story collection, A Place Remote, (West Virginia University Press) has won a Silver IPPY in the Great Lakes – Best Regional Fiction category.
Michelle Ruiz Keil
Writers Workshop participant, 2014Inspired by the Greek myth of Iphigenia and the Grimm fairy tale “Brother and Sister,” Michelle Ruiz Keil’s second novel, Summer in the City of Roses, follows two siblings torn apart and struggling to find each other in early ’90s Portland. It will be available July 6, 2021 wherever books are sold.
Lois Rosen
Her new book of poetry, Diving and Rising, was recently published by Finishing Line Press.
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.
Jennifer Sperry Steinorth
Poetry Participant, '19An artifact of erasure at once poetry and visual art, Her Read, a graphic poem by Jennifer Sperry Steinorth will be published in full color and hardback by Texas Review Press in June, 2021. In the tradition of reusing canvases, with correction fluid, scalpel & embroidery floss, Steinorth transforms a tome of art criticism, The Meaning of Art by Herbert Read, into feminist verse. Though the maternal body appears with frequency in Read’s illustrated text which spans from prehistory to the modern age, he includes zero female artists. Her Read, a graphic poem, is an excavation of buried voices– a reclamation of bodies framed in gilt & an homage to those whose arts remain unsung.
Attended with the help of I did (blessedly) receive a scholarship, which made attendance possible, but I cannot seem to locate the name!
K.M. English
Poetry Participant, '16Her debut full-length collection, Wave Says, was published by Kore Press on May 15, 2021.
Attended with the help of Cushing Scholarship!
Shangyang Fang
Poetry Participant, '19His poetry collection, Burying the Mountain, will be published by Copper Canyon Press in October, 2021.
Attended with the help of The Sharon Olds Honorary Scholarship
Jeanine Stevens
Poetry Participant 2007, 2010,2014,2017Her chapbook, Gertrude Sitting: Portraits of Women, was awarded the Heartland Review Chapbook Award for Poetry 2020, and recently published. The chapbook was also a Main Street Rag Finalist.
Mary Dixie Carter
Writers Workshops Participant '17Her debut novel The Photographer will be published by Minotaur Books/ St. Martin’s Press (U.S.) on May 25, 2021 and by Hodder Books (UK) on May 13, 2021.
Laura Otis
Writers Workshops Participant, '08, '11She has been awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship for 2021-2022 to work on a book she is calling The Neuroscience of Craft. The book will analyze contemporary fiction-writers’ techniques for helping readers to blend senses in their imaginations.
Stella Beratlis
Poetry Participant, '07, '12Her second poetry collection, Dust Bowl Venus, was published by Sixteen Rivers Press in May, 2021.
Pablo J Lopez
Poetry Participant, '08His book Structures the Moment was published by the Los Angeles press Anonymous Energy.
Lynne Goldsmith
poetry participantHer poetry book, Secondary Cicatrices, won a Distinguished Favorite in the 2021 Independent Press Awards.
Marc Jampole
Writers Workshop participant '05His first novel, The Brothers Silver, was published by Owl Canyon Press. The Brothers Silver follows the lives of two brothers who grow up in a family haunted by mental illness, drug abuse, and violence.
Anthony S. Abbott
Poetry Participant, '91/'02His new collection Dark Side of North was published in January, 2021 by Press53.
Casey Guerin
Writers Workshop Participant ’19Her short story “What Consumes You” won the 2020 Greensboro Review Robert Watson Literary Prize and appears in the Spring 2021 issue, as well as online.
Claire Boyles
Writers Workshop Participant '18Her debut short story collection, Site Fidelity, is coming June 15, 2021 from W.W. Norton.
Monica West
Writers Workshop participant '09, '12Her novel, Revival Season, will be published by Simon and Schuster on June 15, 2021.
Noel Obiora
Writers Workshops Participant, '09,'10His first novel, A Past That Breathes, will be published by Rare Books, Inc on May 11, 2021.
Chaney Kwak
Fiction, 2012His debut memoir, The Passenger: How a Travel Writer Learned to Love Cruises & Other Lies from a Sinking Ship, comes out from Godine in June, 2021. A tragicomic story about an (almost) sinking cruise ship, The Passenger journeys from the Norwegian coast to the South China Sea, from post-WWII Korea to pandemic-struck San Francisco.
Attended with the help of Scholarship recipient (and I thank The Community's generosity in the book's acknowledgements)
Josephine Ensign
Writers Workshops Participant, 2013Her forthcoming narrative history book, Skid Road: On the Frontier of Health and Homelessness in an American City, (August 3, 2021 pub date) from Johns Hopkins University Press is now available for pre-sale.
Danusha Laméris
Poetry Participant, '00She will be reading on May 16th with Ellen Bass, Jane Hirshfield, Marie Howe, and Naomi Shihab Nye. Donations to this event will benefit the S.H.E. students, young women from the Maasai tribe who have escaped Female Genital Mutilation and early childhood marriage.
Mark Coggins
Writers Workshops Participant 1996, Screenwriting Workshop Participant 2001His newest book, Street Stories, a street photography monograph, will be published by Poltroon Press in May, 2021.
Teri Ellen Cross Davis
Poetry Participant, '19Her new collection, a more perfect Union, (Mad Creek Books, an imprint of Ohio State University Press) was selected by Kathy Fagan for the 2019 OSU Journal/Charles B. Wheeler Poetry Prize. It was published in February, 2021 and is available now!
Attended with the help of Lucille Clifton Memorial Scholarship
Leslie Hsu Oh
2020, 2019 Writers Workshops ParticipantA chapter from her memoir-in-progress was published in the February 2021 issue of Travel + Leisure.
Attended with the help of The O’Dwyer Scholarship
Stacy D Flood
Writers Workshop Participant, '98An unanchored traveler meets devastating consequences as he searches for a new life in The Salt Fields, a debut work of prose from Stacy D. Flood, a stark and poignant Southern Gothic novella focused on the African American Great Migration after the Second World War, and a work that will leave readers thinking long after the final page.
Attended with the help of Getty Scholarship
Iris Jamahl Dunkle
Poetry Participant, '97, '12Her new poetry collection, West: Fire Archive at Jack London State Historic Park was published by the Center for Literary Publishing (Mountain/West Poetry Series) in March 2021
Ron Nyren
Writers Workshops Participant, '94Ron Nyren’s novel The Book of Lost Light was the finalist for the 2020 David J. Langum, Sr. Prize in American Historical Fiction.
Jeffrey Kingman
Poetry Participant, '12His first full-length poetry book, Beyond That Hill I Gather, will be published by Finishing Line Press in May, 2021. The book features portrait poems of notable women.
Gail Reitano
Writers Workshop Participant '97, '98, '99, '02, '03, '19Her novel, Italian Love Cake, is forthcoming from Bordighera Press in May, 2021.
Tamsin Smith
Poetry Participant, '21Her third poetry collection, Displacement Geology, has been published by fmsbw press.
Tamsin Smith
Poetry Participant, '21Her first work of fiction, XISLE, a novel, has been published by fmsbw press.
RONALD ALEXANDER
Summer 1995His story, “Marrow,” appears in the January 2021 issue of The Hong Kong Review. Alexander is an instructor at the UCLA Extension Writers’ Program in Los Angeles.
Jenny Pritchett
Writers Workshops Participant '04Her new book, You Look Tired: An Excruciatingly Honest Guide to New Parenthood, was published by Running Press/Hachette in May, 2021. An audiobook is also available.
Attended with the help of Walker Foundation Scholarship
Eileen Garvin
Writers Workshop Participant '16Her debut novel, The Music of Bees, will be published on April 27 by Dutton.
Cai Emmons
Writers Workshop '93, '94, '97 , Writers Workshop Teaching StaffHer new novel, Sinking Islands, will be published in September, 2021 by Red Hen Press. It has been chosen as the Rumpus Book Club pick for July, and she will be interviewed on A Mighty Blaze by Lisa Genova on April 29.
Tiphanie Yanique
Her new novel, Monster in the Dark, will be published by Penguin in October, 2021.
Kari Flickinger
Poetry Participant '17Her debut poetry collection, The Gull and the Bell Tower, was recently published by Femme Salvé Books.
Katherine Field Rothschild
Writing Workshop Participant, 02Her young adult novel, Wider than the Sky, about sisters in the aftermath of their father’s sudden death who discover family secrets, was published by Soho Teen on January 19, 2021.
Lynne Goldsmith
Poetry Participant. '00Her poetry book, Secondary Cicatrices, won Book Excellence Finalist Award.
Lynn Gordon
Writers Workshops Participant, '11Her stories appeared in the spring 2021 issues of Prime Number Magazine and The Louisville Review.
Ananda Lima
Poetry Participant, '17Her poetry collection, Mother/land, winner of the Hudson Prize, is on pre-order (October 21) with Black Lawrence Press. Her fiction chapbook Tropicália, winner of the Newfound Prose Prize is on pre-order with Newfound press. Her micro-chapbook, Amblyopia, was published by Bull City Press as part of their INCH series.
Jon Riccio
Poetry Participant, '15, '19His chapbook Prodigal Cocktail Umbrella was recently published by Trainwreck Press. His debut full-length collection, Agoreography, is forthcoming from 3: A Taos Press.
Vishwas Gaitonde
Writers Workshops Participant, '14His short story ‘The Worth of a Miracle’ was a finalist in The George Floyd Short Story Competition conducted by the Nottingham Writers Studio, Nottingham, England. His story, along with stories of other winners and finalists, have been published in the anthology Black Lives, in the United Kingdom, available as print and Kindle editions.
Joan Steinau Lester
Writers Workshop Participant '03Her memoir, Loving Before Loving: A Marriage in Black and White, will be published May 18, 2021, from the University of Wisconsin Press. Pulitzer Prize-winning author Alice Walker says, “This book is the real deal, the way it was. A good book for folks to grow on. I love it.”
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.
Alma Katsu
Her novel, Red Widow, will be published by G.P. Putnam’s Sons on March 23.
Carol Edgarian
Her new novel, Vera, was recently published by Scribner.
David Loux
His debut novel, Chateau Laux, will be released in April, 2021.
Yang Huang
Writers Workshops Participant,'19Her third literary novel, My Good Son, won the University of New Orleans Publishing Lab Prize. It was published on April 29, 2021.
“MY GOOD SON is about a tailor named Mr. Cai in post-Tiananmen China and the dreams he holds for his only son, Feng. Mr. Cai schemes with one of his clients, Jude, a gay American expat, to get his son to the States, and the novel, about parental expectations, social class, and sexuality, highlights both the similarities and differences between Chinese and American cultures.”
Attended with the help of Barbara Hall Memorial Scholarship
Kateema Lee
Poetry Participant, '18Her poem “Last Epistle” won the first place prize in the anthology This is What America Looks Like. Kateema’s new collection of poems, Transcript of the Unnamed, explores the “brief, bright lives” of missing and forgotten black women.
Genevieve Kaplan
Poetry Participant, '18Her new chapbook, I exit the hallway and turn right, was published by above/ground press in December, 2020.
Anthony Cody
Poetry Participant '18His debut collection, Borderland Apocrypha (Omnidawn), was a 2020 National Book Award Finalist in Poetry, Winner of the 2018 Omnidawn Open Book Prize, was recently named a 2020 Southwest Book Award Winner from the Regional Border Library Association, longlisted for The Believer Magazine 2020 Editor’s Award in Poetry, and is now a finalist for the Jean Stein Award from PEN/America.
Attended with the help of Galway Kinnell Memorial Scholarship
JoAnne Tompkins
Writers Workshop Fiction Participant, '06, '10Her debut novel, What Comes After, will be published by Riverhead Books on April 13th, 2021.
Sally Van Doren
Poetry Participant, '01,'03,'06Her drawings are featured in the spring 2021 issue of The 2River View.
Heather Altfeld
Poetry Participant, '08, '10, '12, '15Her second book, Post-Mortem, was released April 2, 2021, by Orison Books after winning their annual poetry contest in 2019.
Arisa White
Poetry Participant, 2010Her new memoir, Who’s Your Daddy, was recently published by Augury Books. Who’s Your Daddy ( is a lyrical, genre-bending coming-of-age tale featuring a queer, Black, Guyanese American woman who, while seeking to define her own place in the world, negotiates an estranged relationship with her father.
“A lyric anthem for the fatherless, for seekers of the places and people that made us, for the artists ready to unearth and reshape their own stories. I gulped this exquisite manual like precious medicine, a spell that made me more myself.” —Melissa Febos, author of Abandon Me
Attended with the help of Cave Canem Scholarship
Brionne Janae
She was recently awarded the 2020 Cave Canem North Western University Press Poetry Prize for her book, Blessed are the Peacemakers.
Ananda Lima
Her new book, Tropicália, was recently published by Newfound.
Ann Tweedy
Poetry Participant, '97, '00, '04, '07, '12, '15, '20Her hybrid chapbook, A Registry of Survival, was recently published by Last Word Press. The chapbook explores her relationship with her mother and how this relationship has been impacted by her mother’s homelessness and mental health struggles.
Leslie Hsu Oh
Writers Workshop Participant 19, 20An excerpt from her memoir and photographs appear in the February 2021 issue of Travel + Leisure Magazine.
Attended with the help of The O’Dwyer Scholarship
Amy Haddad
Poetry ParticipantShe recently received honorable mention in the Backwaters Press Poetry Prize. She will be awarded $1,000 and her manuscript, An Otherwise Healthy Woman, will be published in the spring of 2022. Haddad is a nurse, ethicist and poet who taught in the health sciences at Creighton University in Omaha, NE for 30 years.
Attended with the help of NA
Laura Cresté
Poetry Participant '20Her chapbook, You Should Feel Bad, was selected by Stephanie Burt for a Poetry Society of America Chapbook Fellowship and was published in November 2020.
Attended with the help of Sharon Olds Honorary Scholarship
Mary Freericks
Poetry Participant '89 / '91 / '09Her new poetry memoir, Furs for a Vegetarian, focuses on her artist mother, Sophie, Sonia Avakian, who was born in Moscow, married to escape the Communists and moved to Iran.
E. Martin Pedersen
Writers Workshops Participant, unsure of year, perhaps 2012He published two books of short poems, Bitter Pills and Smart Pills (Cyberwit.net). His full chapbook, Exile’s Choice, is coming soon from Kelsay Books (March, 2021).
Christine Sunderland
Writers Workshops Participant, '05Her novel, Angel Mountain (Wipf and Stock 2020), won Finalist and Inspirational, in the Feathered Quill Book Awards. Set in the present in the hills east of UC Berkeley, the story involves a holy hermit, a Holocaust survivor, a literary librarian, and a Christian geneticist who search for peace and happiness in a culture of chaos. The importance of history, memory, free speech, and human dignity are some of the themes explored.
Lynne Thompson
1997, 2004She was recently named Poet Laureate of Los Angeles by Mayor Garcetti.
Thompson, an Award-winning poet, is nationally recognized as a trailblazer in contemporary literature.
R.O. Kwon
She is the editor of a new collection of stories, Kink, published by Simon and Schuster on February 9, 2021.
Jasmin Darznik
Writers Workshops Participant '06, '10Her novel The Bohemians was published on April 6, 2021, by Ballantine. The novel imagines the friendship between a young Dorothea Lange and her Chinese American assistant in 1920s San Francisco.
Grant Farley
Writers WorkshopsHis novel, Bones of a Saint, will be published by Soho Press March 16, 2021. The opening chapter to this novel was first treated in workshop at the Community of Writers.
Antonia Angress
Writers Workshop Participant, '19Her debut novel Sirens & Muses will be published by Ballantine/Random House in 2022.
Attended with the help of the O'Dwyer Scholarship
Merridawn Duckler
Writers Workshop participant '07Her short story won the Elizabeth Sloane Tyler Memorial Award from Woven Tale Press, judged by Ann Beattie, and appeared in the 2019 issue of Woven Tale magazine.
Merridawn Duckler
Writers Workshop participant '07Her chapbook Idiom recently won the Washburn Prize from Harbor Review.
Anthony J. Mohr
Writers Workshop Participant '08He has recently been named a fellow in the Advanced Leadership Initiative at Harvard.
Regina Louise
Writers Workshops Participant '01, '14; Screenwriting Participant, '03Her new book, Permission Granted: Kickass Strategies to Bootstrap Your Way to Unconditional Self-Love, will be published by New World Library in June, 2021. Permission Granted illustrates proven paths from “you couldn’t possibly” to “just watch me!” Regina Louise puts a unique spin on tried-and-true techniques of personal growth, coaching readers to deeply understand who they are and what they have been through. From this self-awareness, they can move into self-compassion and learn to give themselves the care and support they may have lacked.
Attended with the help of UC Riverside Scholarship
Marcia Butler
Writer's Workshop Participant '16Her third book, and second novel, Oslo, Maine, releases on March 2, 2021 from Central Avenue Publishing.
Florencia Milito
Poetry Participant, '18Her bilingual poetry collection, Ituzaingó: Exiles and Reveries, was published by Nomadic Press in February, 2021.
Kate Hope Day
Writers Workshop Participant '16; Published Alumni Reading Series '19Her second novel, In the Quick, will be published by Random House on March 2, 2021.
Andrew Nicholls
Fiction Participant, '14He has a new book, Comedy Writer, about techniques and habits of mind for humor writing. The paperback is half craft, including exercises, and half information about markets. It covers TV, monologue, animation, stage and print, expanding on an undergrad course Andrew taught at UC Davis as Artist in Residence in 2019. Andrew was also the former head writer for Johnny Carson.
Tim Wendel
Writers Workshops Participant, '86-89; Screenwriting, '05His new novel, Escape from Castro’s Cuba, will be published by University of Nebraska Press in March,2021, with endorsements from Daniel Silva, Jane Leavy and former big-league pitcher Luis Tiant. Escape is a sequel to his award-winning novel Castro’s Curveball.
Maw Shein Win
Poetry Participant '02She was recently selected as a Spring 2021 Arts Research Center Poetry & the Senses Fellow at UC Berkeley in cohort with Vethea Cerna Cole, Elizabeth Zhiying Feng, reelaviolette botts-ward, Noah Warren, Ramona Nadoff, Ken Ueno, and Sara Mumolo. Win’s poetry collection Storage Unit for the Spirit House from Omnidawn was longlisted for the 2021 PEN America Open Book Award.
Julia B Levine
Poetry Workshop Participant, '95Her fifth poetry collection, Ordinary Psalms, will be released by LSU Press in March, 2021.
Stephanie Austin
Writer's Workshops Participant, '12Her essay “Something I Might Essay” appears in the February 2021 issue of The Sun magazine.
Hanna Bahedry
Writers Workshop Participant ‘19Her short story “Key Change” was recently published in the Maine Review.
Laura Otis
Writers Workshop Participant, '08, '11She has just published The Memory Hive, a novel about a woman struggling to survive with an abusive husband, a demented mother, and a demanding job. In a non-linear way, the story unfolds in 50 interconnected episodes, exploring the way that memory works.
Tom Laichas
Poetry Participant '20He is celebrating two publications: Empire of Eden (The High Window Press) and the chapbook Sixty-Three Photographs from the End of a War (3.1 Press). He’ll be reading from both in a solo show online at Beyond Baroque, Thursday, January 14, 2021 at 6 pm Pacific. The event is free, but reservations are required through Eventbrite.
Chad Michael Lange
Writers Workshop Participant, '99, '02, '07His short story “The Tutor” was published in the Winter 2021 issue of Catamaran.
John B. Roberts II
Writers Workshops Participant '18His book, Reagan’s Cowboys: Inside the 1984 Reelection Campaign’s Secret Operation Against Geraldine Ferraro, (McFarland 2020) has been optioned by a major television network for a forthcoming series.
Robert Steven Williams
Writers Workshops Participant, '04, 05,He recently launched Gatsby in Connecticut head-on into the global pandemic thinking the film festival circuit might bring attention to his documentary. The film, starring Sam Waterston and narrated by Keir Dullea, made The New Yorker’s Best Movies List for 2020. According to The New Yorker, the film develops in poignant detail the story of F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald’s wild summer of 1920. Available on Amazon Prime, major cable and other digital platforms in the US/Canada. ROW in 2021. Distributed by Vision Films.
Jade Yeung
Poetry Participant, '20She had the honor of reading alongside Patricia Spears Jones, Ali Black, A. Van Jordan, Janice Lowe, Peter Covino, and Michael Broder this year. You can check out the recording here.
Attended with the help of Maat Scholarship
Jessi Phillips
Writers Workshop Participant '18Her short story “Anything You Ask Me To”, was a finalist in the Nimrod Literary Awards and appears in the Fall/ Winter 2020 issue.
Lauren Barbato
Writers Workshop, '17Her short story “Fatherhood” appears online in the December 2020 issue of Hobart.
Attended with the help of Lojo Foundation Scholarship
Sally Charette
Art of the Wild Participant, 1997Her poem “New Moon” appears in Juxtaprose Magazine, Vol. 25, Fall, 2020.
Vishwas R Gaitonde
Writers Workshops Participant, '14His two-part multimedia essay “Ode to Beethoven” (illustrated, with embedded videos) to mark the 250th birth anniversary of Ludwig van Beethoven, was published by Serenade magazine.
Judy Brackett Crowe
Poetry Workshop participant '08, '12, '15, '18, '20Her poems have recently appeared in New World Writing, The Inflectionist Review, Catamaran, and the anthology California Fire & Water.
Vishwas Gaitonde
Writers Workshops Participant, '14His essay “The Milk in Many Lands” appeared in the 2020 issue (No: 3) of the literary magazine, Stonecrop.
Katherine Seligman
Writers Workshops Participant '14Her debut novel, At the Edge of the Haight, which won the 2019 PEN/Bellwether prize, will be published by Algonquin Books in January, 2021.
Monika Rose
Poetry Workshop participant '97; Writers Workshop participant '00; Art of the Wild participant '95, '96She wrote and illustrated an early reader children’s book, Bed Bumps, in 2020, published by Manzanita Writers Press. Bed Bumps is a poetic tale of a little boy grappling with organization issues and a mischievous sister.
Carol Orange
Writers Workshop Participant 2013A Discerning Eye by Carol Orange was published by Cavan Bridge Press in October 2020. An audiobook narrated by Campbell Scott and Kathleen McElfresh was launched in December 2020. The story takes off from the tragic robbery at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston.
Jack Estes
Writers Workshops Participant, '98 & ScreenwritingParticipant, '05Jack Estes’ new novel, Searching for Gurney, which follows the lives of three US Marines and a North Vietnamese soldier during the Vietnam war, was published by O’Callahan Press in November 10, 2020.
Anthony Cody
Poetry Participant '18Anthony Cody’s collection Borderland Apocrypha (Omnidawn, 2020), was was longlisted for the 2021 PEN America’s Jean Stein Award, and Anthony was named a 2020 Poets & Writers Debut Poet for that collection. To read about his first book and hear him read form his collection visit www.pw.org or pick up the January/February 2021 edition of Poets and Writers.
Attended with the help of Galway Kinnell Memorial Scholarship
Jenn Alandy Trahan
Writers Workshops Participant, '08, '17Jenn Alandy Trahan’s short story, “The Freak Winds Up Again,” is the November 2020 issue (#271) of One Story.
Attended with the help of Carlisle Family Scholarship
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
Marcia Meier
Writers Workshop Participant, '19; Janet Fitch's Writing from the Senses Workshop, '20Her book, Face, A Memoir, will be published Jan. 12, 2021, by Saddle Road Press.
Lucille Lang Day
Writers Workshop participant '78, '79; Poetry Workshop participant '76Her seventh full-length poetry collection, Birds of San Pancho and Other Poems of Place, was published by Blue Light Press in November, 2020.
Judy Juanita
Writers Workshops Participant, '92Her first collection of poetry, Manhattan My Ass, You’re in Oakland, will be published by EquiDistance Press in December, 2020.
Diane Wolff
Writers Workshop Participant '83; Screenwriting Workshop participant '84She will be giving a talk on her new book Batu, Khan of the Golden Horde: The Mongol Khans Conquer Russia for the Virtual Speakers Series of the American Center for Mongolian Studies in Ulan Batur.
This is the first book in her Silk Road Series, about the successors of Chinggis Khan (Genghis Khan). The other books in the series are forthcoming.
Vishwas R Gaitonde
Writers Workshops Participant, '14His short story “How Does Your Garden Grow?” appeared in the 2020 issue of the literary magazine, The Broken Plate.
Lorraine Comanor
Writer’s Workshop participant '09Her essay “Walking with Birds,” published in Boulevard, fall 2019, made the Notables of Best American Essays of 2020.
Evan I. Schwartz
Screenwriting Workshop participant '12His debut novel, Revolver, will be published in 2021 by the Concord Free Press.
Swathi Desai
Writers Workshop Participant, '17, '18Her short story “Lady: Part I” appears in the November 2020 issue of the literary magazine Orca.
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.
Colleen Morton Busch
Writers Workshops Participant, '04, '15Her piece about her family’s deliberations over what to do about her father’s Michigan mail-in ballot when it arrived one day after he died in September 2020 appeared in The Washington Post. Her piece about Jane Hirshfield’s latest collection, Ledger, was featured in Orion and Wild Hope earlier this year.
Susan Henderson
Writers Workshop Participant, '09She judged the 2020 High Plains Book Award for Fiction (winner: Joe Wilkins’ Fall Back Down When I Die). She taught workshops for Hampton Roads Convergence of Writers and the Brandeis National Committee. And she was recently interviewed by Sean Murphy, Executive Director of 1455 Literary Arts, about books, the writing process, and more.
Attended with the help of Lojo Foundation Scholarship
Darien Hsu Gee
Writers Workshop participant '99She will have two new titles published this year: Other Small Histories (Poetry Society of America, 2019 Chapbook Fellowship winner), and Allegiance: Micro Essays, in which she dissects her beliefs and navigates the complexity of family dynamics in search of her identity–– What does it mean to be Chinese American? How are we reflected in the people we love, and us in them? What obligation do we have to those who share our blood, and how does a woman claim her life as her own?
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.”
Amy Elisabeth Davis
Poetry Workshop participant '16, '20; Writers Workshop participant '01Her poem, “As Company,” was recently published in the Southern Humanities Review.
Scott Edward Anderson
Art of the Wild, Participant, '92His book-length poem, Azorean Suite/ Suite Açoriana, was published in a bilingual (English/Portuguese) edition by Letras Lavadas in October, 2020.
Natasha Saje
Poetry Participant '93Her memoir-in-essays, Terroir: Love, Out of Place, was published by Trinity UP in November, 2020. The chapters contain arguments about immigration, nationality, gender, race, sexual orientation, class, and religion.
Lyndsey Ellis
Writers Workshops Participant, '17Her debut novel, Bone Broth, will be published by Hidden Timber Books in spring 2021. Her short story, “Jazz & Other Words for Love,” appeared in issue 2 of the Community of Writers’ new online literary journal, Omnium Gatherum Quarterly.
Attended with the help of Maat Scholarship (Waimea Williams)
Ron Nyren
Writers Workshops Participant, '94His debut novel, The Book of Lost Light, won the 2019 Big Moose Prize and will be published by Black Lawrence Press on November 16, 2020. It’s the story of Joseph Kylander, his obsessive photographer father, and the impulsive young cousin helping to raise him, as they take refuge with a group of artists in the Berkeley hills after the 1906 earthquake.
David Kerns
Writers Workshop Participant, '07His novel, Fortnight on Maxwell Street, recipient of the Eric Hoffer Award for the best general fiction book of 2018, has been released as an audiobook performed by Chicago voice and stage actor Doug MacKechnie. The novel is a reluctant hero’s journey of fear and courage set in Chicago in the spring of 1968. 24-year-old medical student Nick Weissman spends two weeks delivering babies in the kitchens and bedrooms of the inner-city’s slum tenements. Over his head medically, and unprotected in one of America’s most dangerous neighborhoods, his character and resourcefulness are tested in the extreme when a national tragedy intervenes.
Jacquelyn Stolos
Writers Workshops Participant '14, '19Jacquelyn Stolos’ debut novel, Edendale, will be published by Creature Publishing on October 20, 2020.
Jessica O’Dwyer
Writers' Workshop Participant '06, '16, '18Her debut novel, Mother Mother, was published by Loyola University’s Apprentice House Press on October 1, 2020.
Josh Folan
Screenwriting Workshop participant, '13His new cynical indie filmmaking case study joint, Still Filmmaking, the Hard Way, is available on Kindle, iBooks, Nook, Kobo, Scribd, and all the other places humans read things.
Maria Espinosa
Writers Workshop Participant '93Her latest novel, Suburban Souls, was published on October 15, 2020, by Tailwinds Press.
Jesse Nathan
Poetry Workshop Participant, '15, '18His interview with Robert Hass in the Paris Review appeared in the Summer 2020 issue. It is #108 in their “Art of Poetry” series.
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.
Anthony J. Mohr
Writers Workshops Participant '08His essay “The Hardy Girls” appeared in the 2020 spring/summer issue of Maryland Literary Review. His Essay “My Father and Me Too” was published in Green Hills Literary Lantern’s GHLL XXXI (2020).
Alison Turner
Poetry Workshop Participant '10Her long poem, “from the Covid Notebooks,” appears in the 2020 Summer/Fall issue of the American Journal of Poetry.
Mary Kuryla
Fiction Participant, '10; Published Alumni Reading Series '19Her novel, Away to Stay, will be published by Regal House Press in September, 2021.
Thomas Allbaugh
Writers Workshops Participant '13His chapbook, The View from January, was published by Kelsay Books in January, 2020.
Sherah Bloor
Poetry Participant, '18She is the new editor of Peripheries, a Journal of Word and Image published annually by the Center for the Study of World Religions at Harvard Divinity School. The new 2020 issue includes work by Poetry Teaching Staff members, Sharon Olds and Evie Shockley, and Poetry Participants ’18, Brionne Janae, KT (Katie Taylor), and Eden Werring.
Jabari Jawan Allen
Poetry Workshop participant '18He will be teaching an advanced poetry workshop on Wednesdays, November 4 – 18, 2020 from 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. MST on Zoom with the Virginia G. Piper Center for Creative Writing at Arizona State University.
Over three sessions, students will explore the erotic god, subversion versus abolition in form, and the contemporization of the sonnet through the poems of Gerard Manley Hopkins, John Donne, Alice Dunbar Nelson, Countee Cullen, Gwendolyn Brooks, Wanda Coleman, Malachi Black, Phillip B. Williams, Natasha Oladokun, and more. Registration is $109. Learn more and register today at https://piper.asu.edu/classes/jabari-allen/advanced-poetry-workshop
Attended with the help of Lucille Clifton Scholarship Recipient
Paul Watsky
Poetry Participant, '20His work, 4 poems and a short personal essay, appeared in the September 8 Litbreak.
Holiday Reinhorn
Writers Workshop Participant '17Her short story, “Sagrada Familia,” (workshopped at the Community of Writers Summer Workshop in ’17) was featured as ‘Story of The Week’ at Narrative Magazine and appeared in the Fall 2020 issue. Other stories by Holiday are upcoming in the Fall 2020 issue of Ploughshares and the Spring 2021 issue of American Short Fiction.
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.
Dorothea Bonneau
Writers Workshop Participant '12Her historical fiction, Once in a Blood Moon, was a 2020 American Fiction Winner for the African American Category. The novel is also a 5 Star Reader’s Choice pick.
Terence Clarke
Writers Workshop Participant, '72,'73A translation of his novel, The Splendid City, to Spanish by Chilean novelist, Jaime Collyer, will be published on December 1, 2020.
Joan Baranow and David Watts
Their documentary film, The Time We Have, is an Official Selection in five festivals and will screen online November 13-14 as part of the UK Film Review Festival.
Wendy Voorsanger
Writers Workshop participant '16Her debut novel, Prospects of a Woman, is available October, 2020 from She Writes Press. A gripping and illuminating window into life in the Old West, Prospects of a Woman is the story of one woman’s passionate quest to carve out a place for herself in the liberal and bewildering society that emerged during the California gold rush frenzy. Featured in BuzzFeed as “New Historical Fiction Books You Won’t Be Able To Put Down This Fall.” Favorable Early Reviews: “The author’s language is evocative and beautiful.”—Kirkus. “A lusty, intelligent, and captivating portrait of a woman in early California.”—Foreward. “A fascinating, complex, dark, and beautiful novel.”—Douglas Glover
Lauren Barbato
Writers Workshop participant '17Her essay “What Would You Call It?” appears online at North American Review.
Attended with the help of Lojo Foundation Scholarship
Michelle Latiolais
Writers Workshop teaching staff, special guestHer short fiction will appear in the LA Issue of ZYZZYVA, issue no. 119, due November, 2020.
Jeff Adams
Writers Workshop '19His short story “A Trip to the Store: A Memoir” appears in VOICES 2020, a themed issue of Dreams, Desires & Delusions from Cold River Press.
Troy Jollimore
Poetry Workshop Participant, '11, '15His poem, “The Garden of Earthly Delights,” originally published in ZYZZYVA, was reprinted in The Best American Poetry 2020, edited by Paisley Rekdal. His fourth poetry collection, “Earthly Delights,” will appear in the Princeton Series of Contemporary Poets in 2021.
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.
Aida Salazar
Writers Workshop participant '07Her second novel, Land of the Cranes, was published in September, 2020, from Scholastic Press. It is about a little girl and her pregnant mother who are caged in an immigration detention facility. The book has already gained a starred review from KIRKUS who called it, “powerful… lyrical… soaring…” and another starred review by Publisher’s Weekly who called it “Lyrical, passionate, and all-too timely.” It was a BookCon 2020 Middle Grade Buzz Book and was featured on the Cultural Frontline on the BBC’s World Service’s program Cultural Impact.
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.
Threa Almontaser
Poetry Workshop participant '19Her upcoming book of poetry, The Wild Fox of Yemen (Graywolf Press, April, 2021), was recently awarded the Walt Whitman Award from the Academy of American Poets.
Gwen Goodkin
Writers Workshops Participant, '07, '11Her short story collection, A Place Remote, was published in September, 2020, by West Virginia University Press.
Tyler McAndrew
Writers Workshop Participant, '19His short story, “The Storyteller,” recently appeared on The Baffler.
Attended with the help of Gill Dennis Memorial Scholarship
Caitlin McCarthy
Screenwriters Workshop Participant, '13Her feature screenplay Wonder Drug is now in the works with producer Stephen Nemeth, who she met at the Community of Writers Screenwriters Workshop when he was a featured guest speaker. Director Tom Gilroy will direct the film.
Kimberly Sheridan
Writers Workshop Participant ‘19Her essay, “Restoration,” was published by Entropy Magazine.
Inderjeet Mani
Writers Workshops Participant, '00His novel, Toxic Spirits (Calumet Editions, 2019), set in Thailand, is now being translated into multiple languages. Reviews have included “A complex and enthralling international intrigue with a treasure of remarkable detail” (Frederick Barthelme) and “Mani tells his story in taut, highly descriptive prose, capturing his Thai setting’s cornucopia of sights and tastes” (Kirkus).
Lev Grossman
Writers Workshop Participant '94His novel for children, The Silver Arrow, was published in September by Little, Brown Books for Young Readers.
Mariya Zilberman
Poetry Workshop Participant '20Her poem, “Against Temporality,” won the 2020 Ploughshares Emerging Writer’s Contest and will appear in the Winter 2020-2021 issue.
Attended with the help of Galway Kinnell Memorial Scholarship
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.
Donna Miscolta
Writers Workshop Participant '98Her third book, Living Color: Angie Rubio Stories, was published by Jaded Ibis Press in September, 2020. It was listed in Ms. Magazine’s September 2020 Reads and Parade Magazine’s 20 New Fall Books From Latinx Writers.
Linda Olson
Writers Workshop Participant, '13Her debut memoir, Gone, will be published on October 27, 2020, from She Writes Press.
Vishwas R Gaitonde
Writers Workshops Participant, '14His essay “Lydian Nadhaswaram: From Musician to Actor – and Back” (on a child music prodigy in India making his movie debut) was published in Serenade magazine on Sep 3, 2020.
Iris Jamahl Dunkle
Poetry Participant, '97, '12Her new biography, Charmian Kittredge London: Trailblazer, Author, Adventurer, was published in September, 2020, by University of Oklahoma Press. Charmian Kittredge London (1871–1955) was the epitome of a modern woman. Free-spirited and adventurous, she defied modern expectations of femininity. Today she is best known as the wife of the famous American author Jack London, yet she was a literary trailblazer in her own right. This biography is the first book to tell the complete story of Charmian’s life—freed from the shadow cast by her famous husband. In this biography, Iris Jamahl Dunkle draws the reader into Charmian’s private and public worlds, underscoring her literary achievements and the significant role she played in promoting her husband’s legacy.
Lucinda Watson
Poetry Workshop Participant '91, '92, '96, '98, '02, '04Her first book of poems, The Favorite, was published by Golden Antelope Press in September, 2020.
A.R. Taylor
Her new novel, Jenna Takes The Fall, was published September 1, 2020 from She Writes Press.
Caroline Kim
Poetry Workshop participant '18, '19Her short story collection, The Prince of Mournful Thoughts and Other Stories, winner of the 2020 Drue Heinz Prize in Literature, will be published by the University of Pittsburgh Press in October, 2020.
Swathi Desai
Writers Workshop Participant ‘17, ‘18Her short story, “The Big Men”, appears in the June 30th, 2020 issue of Prometheus Dreaming.
Magdalena Montagne
Poetry Workshop Participant '97Magdalena Montagne (formerly Mary Renga) is happy to announce that her first collection of poems, Earth, My Witness, will be published in August, 2020, by Finishing Line Press.
Janine Kovac
Writers Workshop participant '11, '12, '14, '16Her essay “Destination: Okay” will be featured in a new anthology What We Didn’t Expect: Personal Stories about Premature Birth, due out November, 2020, from Melville House and available now for pre-orders. Subject matter from this essay—specifically the science of language acquisition— was originally workshopped at the Community of Writers in 2011.
Attended with the help of 2011: George Pascoe Miller Memorial Scholarship; 2012: Carlisle Family Scholarship; 2014: Eschelman Scholarship
Rashaan Alexis Meneses
Writers Workshop Participant '17She was recently honored as a 2020 Bainbridge Resident for The Seventh Wave, where her latest essay, “Foreign Domestic” is featured in their 11th Issue.
Attended with the help of The Ancinas Scholarship
John Roberts II
Writers Workshops Participant, '18Part memoir, part detective story and part political thriller, his non-fiction book Reagan’s Cowboys: Inside the 1984 Reelection Campaign’s Secret Operation Against Geraldine Ferraro was published by McFarland & Company, Inc. in July, 2020.
Armen Davoudian
Poetry Workshop participant '18His chapbook, Swan Song, won the 2020 Frost Place Chapbook competition and is available for pre-order from Bull City Press.
Attended with the help of Barbara E. Hall Memorial Scholarship
lynne goldsmith
Poetry Workshop Participant '00Lynne Goldsmith’s poetry book, Secondary Cicatrices, won a Finalist Award in the International Book Awards.
Barbara B Ristine
Writers Workshops Participant '18Her novel, Faces of War, has been selected as a finalist in the Women’s Fiction Writers Association’s 2020 RISING STAR Award for Unpublished Women’s Fiction.
Barbara Fischkin
Writer's Workshop Participant '95Her piece on “Autism in the Time of Covid” was published in Statorec, as part of a 31-author series on the Pandemic – so that we won’t forget.
Jeff W. Bens
Writers Workshop participant '93His new novel, The Mighty Oak, will be out September 15, 2020, from Blackstone Publishing.
Vishwas R Gaitonde
Writers Workshops Participant, '14His short story “At Home and Away,” set against the backdrop of one of the bloodiest conflicts in recent memory, the Sri Lanka civil war, was published in the Spring/Summer 2020 issue of Epiphany.
Andrew Tonkovich
Fiction Participant '93His short story “Metonymy” was a finalist in the Solstice Summer Fiction Contest, and appears in the magazine’s current issue.
Jeff Bens
Writers Workshop participant '93His new novel, The Mighty Oak, will be out in September 2020 from Blackstone Publishing.
Lori Tobias
Writers Workshop participant '94, '95Her memoir, Storm Beat: A Journalist Reports from the Oregon Coast, is due out in September, 2020, from Oregon State University.
Khadijah Queen
Poetry Workshop participant '09Her new book of poetry, Anodyne, will be published by Tin House Books in August, 2020.
Attended with the help of Cave Canem Scholarship
Joanna Solfrian
Poetry Workshop participant '06Her second book of poems, The Mud Room, was released by MadHat press in April, 2020.
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.
Alice Jones
Poetry Participant, '88, '89; Teaching Staff, Writing the Medical ExperienceHer book, Vault, was published on July 1, 2020, by Apogee Press.
Erica Plouffe Lazure
Writers Workshop participant '18Her short story, “The Duck Walk” appears in the Spring 2020 issue of Phoebe Journal.
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.
Lise Haines
Writers Workshop participant '99She has an essay up on the Broad Street Blog.
Penny Cagan
Poetry Participant '92, '93; Writers Workshop participant '92She has entered into a 7 1/2 year cycle called Daf Yomi, where people around the world read the same portion of the Talmud each day. She has been writing daily about the readings from a literary perspective in the Times of Israel. Her blog can be found here.
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.
Anthony Cody
Poetry Participant '18His debut Borderland Apocrypha was recently published in April 2020 with Omnidawn. The collection was the winner of the 2018 Omnidawn Open Book Prize by Mei-mei Berssenbrugge. In her citation Berssenbrugge writes, “Intense feeling, empathy, rage, compassion swerves language, torques the page. History and data inflict. Intelligence composes, sequence wrestles with violence. It must be witnessed, expressed. The love is expression. Witness is form.” The collection is now available for purchase.
Attended with the help of Galway Kinnell Memorial Scholarship
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.
Ann Tweedy
Poetry Participant, '20, '15, '12, '07, '04, '00, '97Her chapbook Beleaguered Oases, first published in 2010 by tcCreativePress, was republished in Seven Kitchens Press’s Rebound Series in April 2020.
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
Sarah Maclay
Poetry Participant, '97, '06, '19Her poem “A Mirror of Leaves” appears in the Winter 2020 volume of Hotel Amerika.
Erin L. McCoy
Poetry Participant, '16She recently won second place in the 2019–2020 Rougarou Poetry Contest, judged by CAConrad, for her poem, “How a lake flash-froze a herd of horses.”
Kristi Maxwell
Poetry Participant, ‘02Her seventh book of poems, My My, was published by Saturnalia Books in May, 2020.
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.
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.
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.
Ken Haas
Poetry Workshop participant '08, '11, '13, '16, '19His first full-length poetry collection, Borrowed Light, was recently published by Red Mountain Press, and won the 2020 Red Mountain Discovery Award.
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.
Maxima Kahn
Poetry Participant, '07; Writers Workshops Participant '06, '10Her first full-length collection of poems, Fierce Aria, is forthcoming from Finishing Line Press in summer 2020.
Attended with the help of Mary Turnbull Scholarship
Shelley Blanton-Stroud
Writers Workshops Participant, '04Her novel, Copy Boy, will be published by She Writes Press, June, 2020.
Meryl Natchez
Poetry Participant, '87...2013Her second book of original poetry, Catwalk, is forthcoming in June, 2020, from Longship Press. Preorders available here.
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.
Richard Tayson
Poetry Participant, '93His poem, “Antigone’s Dream,” appears in the Spring 2020 issue of Colorado Review.
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).
Lynne Goldsmith
Poetry Participant '00Her book, Secondary Cicatrices, won a Human Relations Indie Book Award for poetry.
Leah Naomi Green
Poetry Participant '08Her essay “Return, Investment, Return” appeared in The Paris Review in April 2020 around the debut of her book The More Extravagant Feast (Graywolf Press), selected by Li-Young Lee for the 2019 Walt Whitman Award of The Academy of American Poets.
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.
Judy Halebsky
Poetry Workshop participant '06, '09, '11, '14Her newest collection of poetry, Spring and a Thousand Years, winner of the Miller Williams Poetry Prize, was recently published by University of Arkansas Press.
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.
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.
Leslie Hsu Oh
Writers Workshop participant '14, '19Her two short stories were recently awarded gold medals at the NATJA Travel Media Awards in the Family Travel and Profile categories.
Diannely Antigua
Poetry Workshop participant '16She was recently awarded the Whiting Award in Poetry for her debut collection, Ugly Music (YesYes Books, 2019). The judges said her poems “layer lyricism, religious language, and the tactile materials of daily life to build altars of affection for the people and things of her world,” each “meticulously shaped by a formal and aesthetic vision that already feels authoritative.”
Elizabeth Kadetsky
Writers Workshop Participant, '98, '04; Alumni Reader, '04Her fourth book, The Memory Eaters, winner of the first Juniper Prize in Creative Nonfiction, was published by University of Massachusetts Press in March 2020. She is currently undertaking her second Fulbright fellowship to India.
Attended with the help of UCI scholarship
David Koehn
Poetry Workshop participant '04, '06, '14His new book of poetry, Scatterplot, will be published by Omnidawn in April, 2020.
John Murillo
Poetry Workshop participant '10His new collection of poetry, Kontemporary Amerikan Poetry, was published by Four Way Books in March, 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.
Paco Márquez
Poetry Participant, '12His poems “…a petrel” & “Leaf on Water” appear in Fence, Issue #36, Winter 2020.
Beatrice Bowles
Poetry Workshop participant '91Her new storybook, Spider Grandmother’s Web of Wonder, is now available for pre-order on Amazon. It will be published April 30, 2020.
Leah Naomi Green
Poetry Workshop participant '08Her new book, The More Extravagant Feast, will be published by Graywolf Press in April, 2020.
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.
Ann Keniston
Poetry Workshop participant '96, '03, '08, '13Her new collection of poetry, Somatic, is now available for preorder. It will be published by Terrapin Books this spring.
Michele Karas
Poetry Participant '17She has joined the editorial staff of the new online poetry journal The Night Heron Barks, and her poem, “Tulip Cuttings,” appears in the Spring 2020 issue of Mid-American Review.
Devi S. Laskar
Poetry Workshop participant '04, '08, '14; Writers Workshop participant '04, '15; Published Alumni Reading Series '19Her novel, The Atlas of Reds and Blues, recently won the Award for Literature in Adult Fiction from the Asian/ Pacific American Library Association.
Elana K. Arnold
Arnold, Elana K.Her new children’s book, An Ordinary Day, was published in March, 2020, by Beach Lane Books.
Eliot Schain
Poetry Participant, '98, '02, '07, '11, '16; Writers Workshops Participant, '99His second book of poetry, The Distant Sound, will be published in April 2020 by Sixteen Rivers Press.
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
Alma Katsu
Writers Workshop participant '03Her new book, The Deep, was published by G.P. Putnam’s Sons in March, 2020.
John DeSimone
Writers Workshop participant '11, '12His new novel, The Road to Delano, was recently published by Rare Bird Books in March, 2020.
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.
Monica Sok
Poetry participant '15Her debut collection, A Nail the Evening Hangs On, was published by Copper Canyon Press in February, 2020.
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.
Shira Dentz
Poetry Workshop Participant '05Her fifth book, Sisyphusina (PANK Books), a cross-genre collection of prose, poetry, visual art, and improvisatory music centered on female aging is available now. By deviating from formal classical construction, and using the recurring image of a rose, Sisyphusina circles around conventions of beauty, questioning traditional aesthetic values of continuity, coherence, and symmetry. The interweaving of multi-media collaborations, the author’s voice and voices from other sources imbue this book with a porous texture, and reimagines the boundary of THE BOOK as a membrane. Advance praise from Jenny Boully, M. NourbeSe Philip, Diana Khoi Nguyen, Carla Harryman, & artist Kay Rosen.
April Dávila
Writers Workshop participant '18Her new novel, 142 Ostriches, was published in February, 2020, by Kensington.
Jeff Bens
Writers Workshop ParticipantHis new novel, The Mighty Oak, will be out in September 2020 from Blackstone Publishing.
Danusha Lameris
Poetry Workshop participant '00Her new collection of poetry, Bonfire Opera, was published in March, 2020, by University of Pittsburgh Press.
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.
Genevieve Kaplan
Poetry Participant '18Her new book of poems, (aviary), was released in March, 2020, by Veliz Books.
Monica Sok
Poetry Workshop participant '15Her poem “Ode to the Boy Who Jumped Me” was featured on Poets.org‘s Poem-A-Day on February 20, 2020
Bill Pieper
Writers Workshop Participant '10His new book, Borders and Boundaries, was published by Cold River Press in March, 2020.
Terence Clarke
Writers Workshop participant '72, '73His newest novel, the second in a trilogy, When Clara was Twelve, was published in March, 2020.
Jessica Guzman
Poetry Participant, '18Her collection Adelante was chosen by Patricia Smith as winner of the 2019 Gatewood Prize and was published by Switchback Books in March, 2020.
Susan M. Gaines
Writers Workshop Participant '94; Alumni Reading Series (Carbon Dreams) '01Her new novel, Accidentals, was published by Torrey House Press in March, 2020.
Attended with the help of Scholarship
Anthony Mohr
Writers Workshop Participant '08His essay “The Fairest of the Fair” appeared in Streetlight Magazine.
Andrew Altschul
Writers Workshops Participant, '97His third novel, The Gringa, was published in March, 2020, by Melville House.
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.
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.
Meryl Natchez
Poetry Workshop participant '13, '09, '05, '00, '88Hew new book of poetry, Catwalk, will be published by Longship Press in June, 2020.
Lynne Thompson
Poetry Workshop participant '97, '02Her poem “She Talk Like This ‘Cause Me Mum Born Elsewhere, Say!” was recently selected by Paisley Rekdal for 2020 Best American Poetry.
Khadijah Queen
Poetry Workshop participant '09Her new book of poetry, Anodyne, will be published by Tin House Books in August, 2020.
Attended with the help of Cave Canem Scholarship
Caroline Kim
Writers Workshops Participant, '18, '19Her short story collection, The Prince of Mournful Thoughts and Other Stories, won the 2020 Drue Heinz Literature Prize and will be published by the University of Pittsburgh Press in October, 2020.
Christine Hemp
Poetry Workshop participant '06Her forthcoming memoir, Wild Ride Home: Love, Loss, and a Little White Horse, was published by Arcade/Skyhorse Publishing on February 4th, 2020.
Jeff Adams
Writers Workshop '19His short story, “The Citron Tree,” will appear in the Spring 2020 issue of The McNeese Review.
Dani Burlison
Writers Workshop Participant, '12Her short story collection, Some Places Worth Leaving, was published by Tolsun Books in February 2020.
Jami Macarty
Poetry Workshop participant '10, '14, '17Her new book of poetry, The Minuses, was published by University Press of Colorado in February, 2020.
Chelsea B. DesAutels
Poetry Participant, '18Her poem “Why I Think of Jungle Crows” will be published in the Winter 2019-20 issue of Ploughshares. Chelsea B. DesAutels’s work appears or is forthcoming in the Missouri Review, Copper Nickel, The Adroit Journal, Pleiades, Willow Springs, and elsewhere. Natasha Trethewey named Chelsea’s manuscript, Metastasis, the finalist for the AWP Award Series Donald Hall Prize in Poetry. Chelsea received an MFA from the University of Houston, where she served as Poetry Editor of Gulf Coast. Ploughshares is an award-winning journal of new writing. Since 1971, Ploughshares has discovered and cultivated the freshest voices in contemporary American literature.
Christine Sunderland
Writers Workshops Participant, 05Her seventh novel, Angel Mountain, has been contracted to be published by Wipf and Stock Publishers in 2020. Set on Mount Diablo in the present day, the story involves a holy hermit, a Holocaust survivor, a literary librarian, and a faithful geneticist who meet in a world of earthquake, fire, and mob violence. Themes include human dignity and free speech, history and memory, faith and science.
Clancy McGilligan
Writers Workshop Participant '17His novella, History of an Executioner, was published in January, 2020, by Miami University Press after winning the 2019 Novella Prize.
Attended with the help of SpringCreek Foundation Scholarship
Meg Day
Poetry Workshop participantThey are the Poem-a-Day Guest Editor for January 2020.
Cameron Walker
Writers Workshops Participant, '02, '04His essay collection, Points of Light, won the 2019 Tamaqua Award from Hidden River Arts Press.
Amanda Eyre Ward
Writers Workshop participant '92Her new novel, The Jetsetters, was published by Ballantine Books in February, 2020.
Joann Gardner
Poetry Workshop participant '91, '96Her chapbook of poetry, The Deaf Island, was published in July, 2019, and was recently named the winner of the Poetry Society of America Chapbook Award.
Gretchen McCullough
Writers' Workshop, '06, '08, '19Her essay “Alexandria Melodies” about Alexandria, Egypt and its writers was published in the Los Angeles Review of Books in December, 2019.
Jami Macarty
Poetry Participant, '10, '14, '17Her full-length collection of poetry, The Minuses, is forthcoming in the Mountain West Poetry Series by The Center For Literary Publishing at Colorado State University, February 2020.
Marcelo Hernandez Castillo
Poetry Workshop participant '11His memoir, Children of the Land, was published in January 2020 from HarperCollins.
Devi S. Laskar
Writers Workshop participant '04, '15; Poetry Workshop participant '04, '08, '14Her novel, The Atlas of Reds and Blues, was recently awarded the Crook’s Corner Book Prize.
Robert Hass
Poetry Workshop Program DirectorHis newest volume of poetry, Summer Snow, and his first collection of poems since 2010, was published by HarperCollins in January, 2020.
Michele Karas
Poetry Workshop Participant '17The San Diego Poetry Annual has nominated Michele Karas’ poem “For First Wives Who Have Considered Suicide” for a Pushcart Prize in Poetry.
Ann Fisher-Wirth
Poetry ParticipantHer sixth book of poems, The Bones of Winter Birds, was published by Terrapin Books in February, 2020.
Lisa Braver Moss
Writers Workshop Participant, '03Her novel Shrug has won first prize in YA historical fiction in the 2019 Moonbeam Awards, and was a finalist in the 2019 “Best Book” awards.
Valyntina Grenier
Poetry Workshop participant '05Her new book, Fever Dream/ Take Heart, was published in January, 2019, from Cathexis North West Press.
Christine Hemp
Poetry Workshop participant '06Her memoir, Wild Ride Home: Love, Loss, and a Little White Horse, will be published by Arcade in February, 2020.
Susan Browne
Poetry Participant '88, '10Her third collection, Just Living, won the Catamaran Poetry Prize, 2019, and was published in November, 2019.
Janine Kovac
Writers Workshops Participant '11, '12, '14, '16Hers memoir, Spinning: Choreography for Coming Home, workshopped at Squaw Valley in 2011, 2012, 2014, and 2016, was awarded the 2019 National Indie Excellence Award for memoir.
Attended with the help of George Pascoe Miller Scholarship ('11), Carlisle Family Scholarship ('12), Eshleman Scholarship ('14)
Jeff Kingman
Poetry Participant '12For those in the Bay Area, the book launch for Jeffrey Kingman’s poetry chapbook ON A ROAD will be at Alibi Bookshop, 624 Marin St. in Vallejo, CA on Sunday, January 5th at 3:30pm. Jeff’s book borrows language and places from Kerouac’s On the Road.
Joy Ma
Writers Workshops, 2004Her new book, The Deoliwallahs, was published by Pan Macmillan India in December. It is a non-fiction account of her family and the stories of several Chinese Indians who were interned after the war between India and China in 1962. An essay about it appears on Scroll.In.
Max Byrd
His newest book, Pont Neuf, has just been released as an Amazon Audible Original, and will be published in hardback July, 2020.
Laurel Blossom
Poetry Participant '77Her new chapbook, Un-, a series of short prose poems concerning the search for one of Esther Williams’s understudies and other lost and unsung beauties of 1950s Hollywood, can be pre-ordered now from Finishing Line Press. It will be published on March 13, 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.
June Sylvester Saraceno
Poetry Workshop participant '05Her third collection of poetry, The Girl From Yesterday, will be released in January 2020 from Cherry Grove Collections.
Yiskah Rosenfeld
Poetry Workshop participant '01, '03, '19She was recently named runner up for the 2019 Kallisto Gaia Poetry Prize for her poem “Poetry Submission Guidelines,” which will be published in the next issue of the Ocotillo Review. She will be giving a reading together with Lisa Wenzel (Poetry Workshop alum ’19), whom she met while carpooling to the workshop. The reading will be January 6 at 7:30 at Vanne Bistro in Berkeley.
David Watts
Poetry Workshop participant '90, '91, '92, '93, '97, '99, '02, '04, '13His memoir, Christmas in Georgepatch, was rereleased this December in both paperback and Kindle editions.
Sean Marciniak
Writers Workshop participant '09, '14His short story, “Bridge of the Hallelujahs”, appeared in the autumn 2019 issue of Orca, and was nominated for a Pushcart prize.
Nancy Kelly
Screenwriting Workshop participant '83, '00; Writers Workshop participant '06, '16The new digital restoration of her film, Thousand Pieces of Gold, enjoyed several screenings at the Rafael Film Center in November, 2019.
Joan Baranow
Poetry Workshop participant '90, '91, '92, '93, '97, '99, '01, '03, '06, '08, '11, '18Her poetry collection, In the Next Life, was published this year by Poetic Matrix Press. She has poems in recent issues of Blackbird and The Gettysburg Review. Her documentary, The Time We Have, won a nomination for Best Biographical Film at the 2019 New Hope Film Festival. Her film presents an intimate portrait of a teenager facing terminal illness.
James Cagney
Poetry Workshop participant '17He was recently awarded one of the 30th Annual PEN Oakland Josephine Miles Awards for his book Black Steel Magnolias in the Hour of Chaos Theory, published by Nomadic Press in 2018.
Patrick Smith and Jane Smith
Poetry Workshop participantJane Smith is relaunching Pancake Press, a website devoted to the works of her late husband painter and poet, Patrick Smith. in order to locate new places to exhibit her Patrick’s work, and to identify an institution that will accept a donation of his hospice portraits.
Katherine Rothschild
Writers Workshop participant '03Her YA novel on sisterhood in an untraditional family, Hope and Other Feathered Things, will be published by Soho Teen in early 2020.
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
Rosa De Anda
Poetry Participant '18She is the recipient of the Lawrence Ferlinghetti Fellowship from the University of San Francisco.
Betsy Thorne
Poetry Participant, '10Her poetry collection, Measured Words, was published in December 2019 by Main Street Rag Publishing Company.
Lynne Goldsmith
Poetry Participant '00Her book, Secondary Cicatrices, which won the Halcyon Poetry Prize, just got picked as a “Finalist” for the American Book Fest Awards.
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.
Lawrence Coates
Writers Workshop Participant '18His book of short fiction, Bank Run, has been published by Ascent Literary Journal. This is part of the same novel-in-progress he workshopped at the Community of Writers in 2018.
Elaine Barnard
Writers Workshop participant '11Her short stories have won the first, third and fourth Strands International short story competitions.
Sally Abbott
Writers Workshop participant '85, '01, '03, '06, '13Her novel Miami in Virgo was published by Woodbine Odyssey in October, 2019.
Yiskah Rosenfeld
Poetry Participant '01, '03, '19She has new poems in the current issues of Glintmoon and 2River View. Two were generated at the Community of Writers Poetry workshop. Her poem “Arterials” appears in the Fall 2019 issue of The Bitter Oleander.
Sharon Olds
Poetry Workshop staffHer newest book, Arias, was recently published by Penguin Random House.
Veronica Golos
Poetry Workshop participant '09Her new book of poetry, Girl, was recently published by 3: A Taos Press.
Mame Ekblom Cudd
Writers Workshop Participant '09, '11Her short story, “Into a Neat Line,” was a finalist in Glimmer Train’s Short Fiction Contest. Her novel, Shooting Rockets at The Moon, was a finalist in the Pirate’s Alley William Faulkner Society’s 2019 Novel-in-Progress category.
Erica Plouffe Lazure
Writers Workshop Participant '18Her short story “The Ghost Rider,” workshopped at the Community of Writers, took the editor’s choice award for Carve Magazine’s Raymond Carver short story contest and appears alongside an interview in the 2019 fall issue of Carve.
Andrew Roe
Writers Workshops Participant, '97, '04His short story “Is Someone Going to Say Something to the Woman Crying on BART?” will appear in the Winter 2019 issue of ZYZZYVA.
Joy J Ma
Writers Workshop Participant '04Her new book, The Deoliwallahs, will be published by Pan Macmillan India in December. It is a non-fiction account of her family and the stories of several Chinese Indians who were interned after the war between India and China in 1962.
Diane Schenker
Poetry Participant, '14, '19She has two poems coming out in Pen + Brush In Print No. 4. She will be participating in the launch party and reading on November 6, 2019 at Pen + Brush in New York City.
Merridawn Duckler
Writers Workshop participant '07Her chapbook of poems, Interstate, was recently published by from Dancing Girl Press.
Jeffrey Kingman
Poetry Participant '12His chapbook, On A Road, wherein he borrows words and phrases from Kerouac’s On the Road and adapts them for his own purposes, will be published November 22, 2019, by Finishing Line Press. This is Jeff’s first book publication.
Pallavi Dhawan, Tamika Thompson, Devi Laskar
Tamika Thompson Writers Workshop participant '15; Pallavi Dhawan Writers Workshop participant '15, Devi Laskar Writers Workshop participant '04, '15, Poetry Workshop participant '04, '08, '14Community of Writers alums Pallavi Dhawan, Tamika Thompson, and Devi Laskar have co-edited a new anthology called POC United: Graffiti, released on October 15 and available now through Aunt Lute Books.
Charles H Halsted
Poetry Participant, '18His first full book of poetry Extenuating Circumstances has been published by Finishing Line Press and is available through FLP and Amazon Books. Many of its poems were first conceived and written at the 2018 Poetry workshop. This publication follows his published chapbook Breaking Eighty.
Sharon McElhone
Writers Workshops Participant '06An excerpt from her memoir entitled “He Imitated a Stiff-Legged Frankenstein” appears in the Fall 2019 Volume IX issue of Label Me Latina/o.
Marianne Villanueva
Writers Workshop Participant, July 2014Her memoir-in-flash, A Prayer Answered, was in Signs, a special themed issue of Jellyfish Review: September 2019. Her story “Tu-an Ju” was in the Otherworld/Underworld of University of Hawai’i – Manoa’s e-zine vice-versa. Her story “Things She Can Take” was in the Prairie Schooner Winter 2018 special issue on Opioids.
Kathleen O’Toole
Poetry '01,' 03, '05, '09, '11Her latest poetry collection This Far was released in October, 2019. Her poems have recently been featured in Antiphon, Smartish Pace and are forthcoming in The MacGuffin and Public Poetry.
David Corbett
Writers Workshop participant '88, '89, 91, '99; Screenwriting Workshop participant '01His new book, The Compass of Character: Creating Complex Motivation for Compelling Characters in Fiction, Film, and TV, was published in November, 2019, by Writer’s Digest Books.
Eddy Ancinas
Writers Workshop participant '72The 70th Anniversary Edition of her SKADE Award-Winning book, Squaw Valley & Alpine Meadows: Tales from Two Valleys, was published in October, 2019.
Scott Edward Anderson
Art of the Wild participant, ‘92His newest book, Falling Up: A Memoir of Second Chances, was published by Homebound Publications as part of its Little Bound Books Essay Series in September 2019.
Vishwas R Gaitonde
Writers Workshops Participant, '14His essay, “Gandhi and the Mantle of the Mahatma” written to mark Mahatma Gandhi’s 150th birth anniversary (October 2nd) was published on Sept 6, 2019, in The Mantle, New York.
Joe Bardin
Writers Workshop Participant '01His essay collection, Outlier Heart: Essays From My Life As An Immortalist, was published by IFERS Press.
Anara Guard
Writers Workshops Participant '16Her new book of poetry, Hand on My Heart, will be published by New Wind Publishing on November 1, 2019.
Evan Brooke
Writers Workshop Participant '16His essay, “The Incredible Shrinking Sentence,” was recently published in the Fall 2019 issue of The Threepenny Review.
Lynne Goldsmith
Poetry Workshop participant '00Her new book, Secondary Cicatrices, was recently named winner of 2018 Halcyon Poetry Prize.
Deborah Casillas
Poetry Participant, '09, '12Her new book of poetry, Quiet at the Edge, has just been published by Finishing Line Press.
Ashley Wurzbacher
Writers Workshop participant '19Her debut novel, Happy Like This, will be published by University of Iowa Press in October, 2019.
Attended with the help of Carlisle Family Scholarship
Ashley Wurzbacher
Writers Workshop participant '19She was recently named one of the National Book Foundation’s “5 Under 35” honorees, a prize that aims to “recognize young, debut fiction writers whose work promised to leave a lasting impression on the literary landscape.” Her debut novel, Happy Like This, will be published on October 15, 2019 from University of Iowa Press.
Attended with the help of Carlisle Family Scholarship
Jessica Lee
Poetry Workshop participant '18Her poem “Lust Must Have Struck for the First Time” that was written for Sharon’s workshop during the 2018 Poetry program was recently published in the September 2019 issue of The New Yorker.
Jung Hae Chae
Writers Workshop participant '19Her essay “Pojangmacha People” recently won an emerging writers contest at Ploughshares. She brought a version of this essay to the Writers Workshop this past summer.
Kyce Bello
Poetry Participant '19Her debut collection, Refugia, winner of the inaugural Test Site Poetry Series Prize, was published in September, 2019, by University of Nevada Press.
Fellow Community of Writers Poetry alum Danny Kraft reviewed Refugia over at Ecotheo Review. Check it out here: http://www.ecotheo.org/2019/08/god-is-the-apple/
Monica Sok
Poetry Participant, '15Her debut poetry collection A Nail the Evening Hangs On forthcoming from Copper Canyon Press in February 2020 is now available for pre-order.
June Sylvester Saraceno
Poetry Participant '05Her novel, Feral, North Carolina, 1965, from Southern Fried Karma Press, hits bookstores on September 17, 2019.
Laurie Ann Ann Doyle
Writers Workshop Participant, '09, '14. Published Alumni Reading Series '17Her book World Gone Missing: Stories is the winner of 2018 Nautilus Book Prize silver medal in fiction.
Olga Zilberbourg
Writers Workshops Participant, '10Her English-language debut Like Water and Other Stories was published by WTAW Press in September, 2019, and received a glowing review from The Moscow Times.
Attended with the help of The Carlisle Family Scholarship
Marjorie Saiser
Poetry Participant, '00Her newest full-length collection, Learning to Swim, forthcoming from Stephen F. Austin State University Press, is a hybrid of memoir and poems.
Michele Karas
Poetry Participant, '17Her poem, “Rose Marie Bentley’s Aberrant Vena Cava,” is published in the Autumn 2019 issue of Rust+Moth. The poem was inspired by the real-life Rose Marie Bentley, who lived to be 99 with organs in all the wrong places.
Vishwas R Gaitonde
Writers Workshops Participant '14His essay, “Has India Had Its Stonewall Moment?” has been published on Sept 6, 2019, in The Mantle, to mark the first anniversary of the decriminalization of the LGBT community in India. June 2019 marked the fiftieth anniversary of the Stonewall Riots in New York. Gaitonde looks at both.
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.
Elaine Barnard
Writers Workshop Partcipant '11She won the 2019 Strands International Flash Fiction first and third competitions with her stories “Howie” and “The Library.”
Arthur Solway
Poetry Participant '19He wont the 2019 Tupelo Press Broadside Competition for his poem “Night School.”
Gail Reitano
Writers Workshop Participant '97, '98, '99, '02, '03, '19Her novel Italian Love Cake will be published by Bordighera Press in Fall 2020; a personal essay, “Beneath Snowy Foothills,” appears online in the July 2019 issue of Ovunque Siamo.
Ashley Wurzbacher
Writers Workshops Participant, '19Her short story collection, Happy Like This, won Iowa’s 2019 John Simmons Short Fiction Award and will be released on October 15, 2019.
Attended with the help of Carlisle Family Scholarship
Melissa Fondakowski
Poetry Workshop Participant, '02Her second book-length work, The Sci-Fi Story With the Cat in It – Short Stories, will be published by Balut Press in September 2019.
Aaron D. Graham
Poetry Workshop Participant '14, '17His newest book of poetry, Blood Stripes, was published by Sundress Publications, which won the publisher’s Fall 2018 first place poetry prize.
C Pirloul
Poetry Workshop participant '01, '05, '17Riga Pine, a poem with audio, appears in Interim’s current issue, Carrying Across: Crossing Disciplines as a Form of Translation.
Victoria Dalkey
Poetry Participant '92Her poem “Watching the Olympics on Morphine” was a finalist for the Bellevue Literary Review’s Marica and Jan Vilcek Prize and appeared in BLR‘s Issue 36, Spring/Summer 2019.
Victoria Dalkey
Poetry Participant '92A selection of her poems are included in Tough Enough: Poems from the Tough Old Broads Ann Menebroker, Victoria Dalkey, Viola Weinberg, Kathryn Hohlwein, A Lake House Publication, released by Cold River in March 2019.
Robin Page
Writers Workshop participant '02Her new book, Small Silent Things, was recently published by HarperCollins.
Jeffrey Kingman
Poetry Participant '12His poem, “A Posterity Conceived and Born of Conscious Love,” is published on the Poydras Review blog. The title is a quote from early 20th century birth control activist Margaret Sanger, who went on to be a founder of Planned Parenthood.
Jenn Alandy Trahan
Writers Workshop Participant, '08, '17Her short story, “They Told Us Not to Say This,” published in Harper’s Magazine in September 2018, was selected for The Best American Short Stories 2019.
Attended with the help of Carlisle Family Scholarship
Colette Sartor
Writers Workshop participant '00Her collection of short stories, Once Removed, will be published in September, 2019, by University of Georgia Press. It recently received the Flannery O’Connor Award for Short Fiction.
Mark Coggins
Writers Workshops Participant, '96; Screenwriting Program Participant, '01His newest, The Dead Beat Scroll, the seventh novel in the August Riordan crime fiction series, was recently released from Down & Out Books.
Caitlin McCarthy
Screenwriting Workshop '13Her screenplay Wonder Drug has advanced into the Semifinal Round of the 2019 Academy Nicholl Fellowships in Screenwriting, one of only 149 entries to advance from the Quarterfinal Round. During the Semifinals, four Academy members, drawn from a variety of branches, will read Wonder Drug. From 10 to 15 Semifinalists will be selected as Finalists. All Semifinalists will be included in the Nicholl contact list that is forwarded in the fall to agents, development executives, managers, and producers who request it.
Charles Halsted
Poetry Participant, '18His first full length book, Extenuating Circumstances, which contains three of the six poems written at the Squaw Valley Community of Writers, is due for publication on October 4, 2019. A second full length book is in preparation.
Scott Edward Anderson
Art of the Wild Participant, '92His new book, Falling Up: A Memoir of Second Chances, is being published by Homebound Publications as part of their Little Bound Books Essay Series in September 2019.
Meg Waite Clayton
Writers Workshop Participant, ‘00Her newest book, The Last Train to London, a novel based on the true story of the Vienna Kindertransports and the extraordinary woman who led the rescues, will be published by HarperCollins and HarperCollins-Canada September 10, and in translation in fifteen languages.
Jeffrey Thomas Leong
Poetry Participant, '97, '00, '02His recent book, Wild Geese Sorrow: The Chinese Wall Inscriptions at Angel Island, was awarded the 2019 Northern California Book Award for translation in poetry.
Maurya Simon
Writers Workshop Participant '84Her 10th volume of poetry, The Wilderness: New and Selected Poems, was published in 2018, and was recently awarded a gold medal from the Benjamin Franklin Independent Book Awards. Her recent work has appeared in the The Georgia Review and The Gettysburg Review.
Caitlin McCarthy
Screenwriting Workshop participant '13Her scientific drama Wonder Drug advanced to the quarterfinals in the prestigious 2019 Academy Nicholl Fellowships in Screenwriting competition, one of only 365 entries to emerge from the First Round (out of 7,302 scripts entered). Wonder Drug, a Sloan script at the Hamptons Screenwriters Lab, was also a Bitch List honoree and “Featured Script” on the Black List website. In more Nicholl news, Caitlin’s thriller A Native Land placed among the Top 10% of all entries in this year’s competition. Semifinalists will be announced in August.
Claire Boyles
Writers Workshop Participant, '18Her essay, “Riding Ditch”, was recently published in the Summer 2019 issue of Virginia Quarterly Review. Her short story, “Lost Gun, $1000 Reward, No Questions”, won Boulevard’s Short Fiction Contest for Emerging Writers and will appear in the Fall 2019 issue.
Lisa Rappoport
Writers Workshop participant '94, Poetry Workshop participant '00Her new book of poetry, Penumbra, was recently published by Longship Press.
Dedria Humphries Barker
Writers Workshop participant ‘08, 15She featured in a July 2019 Facebook Live event “Poets in Pajamas,” sponsored by Sundress Publications.
Marcelo Hernandez Castillo
Poetry Workshop participant '11His memoir, Children of the Land, will be released in January, 2020 from HarperCollins.
Lester Graves Lennon
Poetry Workshop participant '99, '01, '03, '05, '07, '09, '11, '13, '15, '17, '19He recently became the poetry editor for Rosebud Magazine.
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.
Holly Payne
Screenwriting Workshop participant '08She was recently featured in Forbes, discussing her company Booxby and what led her to founding the Saas cloud platform that uses artificial intelligence to help publishers optimize the acquisition and marketing of their books.
Lorraine Comanor
Writers Workshop participant '09Her essays have recently appeared in The Gold Man Review and Ruminate ( shorts). Two are in press for the Euonia Review and Boulevard.
Danusha Laméris
Poetry Participant, '00Her second book, Bonfire Opera, will be released by the University of Pittsburgh Press in spring 2020. She has also recently been named the 2020 recipient of the Lucille Clifton Legacy Award.
Yoav Potash
Writers Workshops Participant, '05, '08The American Jewish Press Association is honoring Yoav Potash with a Simon Rockower Award for Best Personal Essay, for his piece titled “How I learned all Israelis are not my father,” published by J. The Jewish News of Northern California. The American Jewish Press Association bills the Rockower Awards as “the Jewish Pulitzers.”
Attended with the help of Entrenkin Foundation Scholarship
Max Byrd
Writers Workshop participant '83, Writers Workshops teaching staff '18, '15, '13, '12, '11, '10, '09, '08, '06, '05, '04, '03, '02, '01, '00, '99, '98, '97, '96His newest novel, The Sixth Conspirator, will be released in August 2019 by Post Hill Press.
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.
Heather Altfeld
Poetry Workshop participant '08, '10, '12, '15She has recently been awarded the 2019 Orison Poetry Prize for her manuscript Post-Mortem. She will receive a cash prize and publication of her manuscript by Orison Books.
Mary Freericks
Poetry Workshop participant '89, '91, '00Her second poetry book, Cheer for Freedom, with illustrations of her paintings of her Armenian and Russian family in Iran has been published this year.
Alia Yunis
Writers Workshops Participant '04Her documentary feature, The Golden Harvest, which she wrote and directed, debuted at the Thessaloniki International Film Festival in March, 2019, a top 10 international film festival, and was selected as “Best of the Fest” at the Minneapolis St. Paul International Film Festival in April, 2019.
Adair McPherson
Writers Workshops Participant, '04Her debut picture book, Roadkill abc, was published by Xlibris Press in September, 2018.
Frances Badgett
Fiction Participant '99, '00, '02Her story “Half Hitch” that was published in Salamander in the Summer ’18 edition has been selected for Best of Small Fictions.
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.
Peter Marcus
Poetry Workshop participant '89, '90, '91, '92, '95, '11His new book of poetry, Dark Square, was recently published by Pleasure Boat Studio: A Literary Press.
Susan Henderson
Writers Workshop Participant, '09Her novel, The Flicker of Old Dreams, (HarperCollins, 2018) won the Western Writers of America Spur Award, in the category of Best Western Contemporary Novel, and was chosen as an Honor Book for the Montana Book Award.
Attended with the help of Lojo Foundation Scholarship
Jeanine Stevens
Poetry Participant '07, '10, '14, '17Her newest book of poems, Limberlost, was released by Future Cycle Press, 2019. Her chapbook of poems, Citadels, is soon to be released by Folded Word Press.
Sharon McElhone
Writers Workshop Participant '06Her first chapter from her collection of personal essays on childcare and immigrant issues is forthcoming in the Label Me Latina/o Fall 2019 issue. The first chapter is entitled “He Imitated a Stiff-Legged Frankenstein.
Lauren K. Alleyne
Poetry Workshop Participant '08She published her second collection of poems, Honeyfish, in April with New Issues Press (US), and in July, with Peepal Tree Press (UK).
Anthony J. Mohr
Writers Workshop participant '08His essay “Super Summer Spectacular” was reprinted in Air (A Hippocampus anthology).
Forrest Gander
His newest book, Be With, was recently awarded the Pulitzer Prize in poetry.
Shira Dentz
Her new book of poetry, the sun a blazing zero, is one of SPD’s May Handpicks.
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.
Karen Stefano
Writers Workshop Participant '08Her debut memoir, What A Body Remembers: A Memoir of Sexual Assault and Its Aftermath, will be published by Rare Bird Books in June 2019.
C. Pirloul
Poetry Workshop participant '17Two poems first drafted at the Poetry Workshop are included in a group of poems in the 2019 issue of Volt (#25).
Allison DeLauer
Poetry Participant, '10, '16Her essay “What’s Love Got to Do With It?” appeared in the collection, Playing Shakespeare’s Characters, Book 1. Playing Shakespeare’s Lovers examines Shakespeare’s romantic characters from multiple perspectives. Contributing actors, directors, educators and scholars bring diverse and wide-ranging insights into the motives, context, history and challenges of performing Shakespeare’s “infinite variety” of lovers. The volume begins with an introductory essay, followed by brief essays and interviews, on various characters within the world of Shakespeare’s lovers.
Karen Laws
Writers Workshop Participant, '06, '16Her story “Shadows Under Trees” is in the current issue of The Antioch Review (Volume 76, No. 4).
Karen’s essay on working with asylum seekers at the border is in the online journal Cagibi, Issue 6.
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.
Molly Fisk
Poetry Workshop participant '92, '95, '98, '04She is the recipient of one of 13 Inaugural American Poet Laureate Fellowships. With the $75,000 she receives, she plans to launch “California Fire & Water,” a statewide teaching, anthology, and public reading project addressing the state’s recent devastating fires.
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.
Kris Newby
Writers Workshop participant '17Her new book, Bitten: The Secret History of Lyme Disease and Biological Weapons, will be released in May, 2019, from HarperCollins.
Varley O’Connor
Writers Workshop Teaching StaffHer fifth novel, The Welsh Fasting Girl, will be published by Bellevue Literary Press on May 7, 2019.
Clancy McGilligan
Writers Workshop Participant '17His novella History of an Executioner won the 2019 Novella Prize from Miami University Press, and will be published in 2020.
Attended with the help of SpringCreek Foundation Scholarship
Nathania Seales Oh
Writers Workshops Participant '18Her essay, “Orange is the No Black” was published in the September 2018 issue of Coast Magazine and online at the Orange County Register.
Ramona Reeves
Writers Workshop Participant '18Her short story won the Nancy D. Hargrove Editors Prize and appears in the Summer 2018 (Sept.) issue of Jabberwock Review. Another short story was runner-up in the Barry Hannah Prize for Fiction and appears in the Winter 2019 issue of Yalobusha Review.
Katherine Factor
Poetry Participant '10Her first children’s book, Choose Your Own Adventure SPIES: Mata Hari, is forthcoming from Choose CO on May 1, 2019. An interactive game novel, this title stars YOU as a real-life historical spy in an interactive, multiple-ending book with historically accurate events and characters.
Cai Emmons
Writers Workshop '93, '94, '98, Teaching Staff 2010Her novel Weather Woman has won a Nautilus Book Award. The sequel to Weather Woman, called Sinking Islands, has just been sold and will be published in the spring of 2021. Her short story collection, Vanishing, won the 2018 Leapfrog Fiction Contest and will come out in 2020.
Sheldon Gleisser
Screenwriting Participant '14His short story “The Money Shot” was published in the latest issue of the literary magazine Rosebud, issue #65.
Lorraine Comanor
Writers Workshop Participant '09Her essay “The Year There Were No Mushrooms” appeared in November 2018 issue of The Goldman Review. Two pieces of flash non-fiction “The Lost Patient” and “That Which Saves Us” appeared in spring 2018 and recent 2019 issues of Ruminate.
Joe Bardin
Writers Workshop Participant '01His essay, “The Inclusion Orthodoxy,” was published in Literary Yard, his essay, “Big Art,” was published in Image Journal: Good Letters, his short play, Intermission, is being performed at Winding Road Theatre in Tucson, Arizona, and his essay “Drinking from the Air” was selected for inclusion in the Transhumanism Handbook (Springer).
Vishwas Gaitonde
Writers Workshops Participant '14His trilogy of multimedia essays on India’s 13-year-old music prodigy Lydian Nadhaswaram was published in Serenade magazine in March 2019. Lydian Nadhaswaram won the CBS international talent show The World’s Best, which had competitors from all fields of arts & entertainment from 36 countries.
Amanda Fields
Writers Workshops Participant, '09She co-edited the essay collection, My Caesarean: Twenty-One Mothers on the C-Section Experience and After, which will be published by The Experiment Press on May 1, 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.
Renato Rosaldo
Poetry Workshop participant '00, '02, '07His newest book of poetry, The Chasers, will be published by Duke University Press.
Nettie Reynolds
Writers Workshop Participant '99Her new ten minute play, “Detecting Obstacles” will be produced as part of the annual “Out of Ink” Scriptworks festival in May. Nettie is currently working on her memoir as well, entitled, This is How You Start Over which details her leaving her PR career to become a spiritual death and dying chaplain.
Keetje Kuipers
Poetry Participant, '05Her third collection of poems, All Its Charms, was published this spring by BOA Editions. It contains poems that appeared in the Pushcart Prize and Best American Poetry Anthologies, as well as Narrative, Tin House, The Believer, New England Review, and Orion.
Jeffrey Thomas Leong
Poetry Participant, '97, '00, '02His book, Wild Geese Sorrow: The Chinese Wall Inscriptions at Angel Island, was published by Calypso Editions in 2018, and is the first new translation in almost 40 years of the iconic immigrant wall poems found carved on the walls of this detention center. His new poetry chapbook, Writ, published by Eastwind Books in March 2019, converses with the translations in WGS, interrogating the interrogators and seeking redemption in his father’s story.
Stephen Long
Writers Workshop participant '95, '06His newest book, All Hat, was recently released from Handin Hand Publishing.
Holaday Mason
Poetry Workshop participant '00, '06Her newest book of poetry, The Weaver’s Body, is forthcoming from Tebat Bach Books.
Stephen Massimilla
Poetry Workshop participant '04, '06His adaptation of a Montale poem recently received a Der-Hovanessian prize citation from The New England Poetry Club.
Stephen Massimilla
Poetry Participant '04, '06His multi-genre Cooking with the Muse (Tupelo), recently won new awards, including the Living Now Award, the IAN Book of the Year Award in Nonfiction, the Apple Award in Cross-Genre, and others. The latest reviews of the book have appeared in The Los Angeles Review, Poetry International, Colorado Review, Five Points, The US Review of Books, USA Today, The Northwest Indiana Times, The Food Poet, Gluten-Free Magazine, Catering Magazine, Green Living, Vital Nutrition, and elsewhere.
Grace Shuyi Liew
Poetry participant '16Her debut collection of poetry, Careen, was published by Noemi Press in April 2019.
Attended with the help of Lucille Clifton Memorial scholarship
Renee Thompson
Writers Workshops Participant, '03, '07, '09Her short story “The Winterist” won second prize in Narrative’s Fall 2018 Story Contest. This is Renee’s third appearance in the magazine; two previous stories appeared as “Stories of the Week.”
Devi S. Laskar
Poetry participant 2004, 2008, 2014 fiction participant 2004, 2015Her debut novel, The Atlas Of Reds And Blues, has been picked up abroad, and is being published by Fleet (an imprint of Little, Brown) in the UK and commonwealth countries and by Hachette India in the subcontinent.
Mark Fitzgerald
Poetry Participant, '06His second book of poems, Downburst, was published by Cinnamon Press in March. The second edition of his first collection, By Way of Dust and Rain, was also recently published by Cinnamon Press.
Shira Dentz
Poetry ParticipantHer fourth book, the sun a blazing zero, is now out from Lavender Ink/Diálogos.
Attended with the help of Scholarship
Justin McFarr
Writers Workshops Participant, '13His short story collection, Controlled Chaos, was published by Wheeler Street Press in April, 2019.
Donna DiGiuseppe (Matcovich)
Writers Workshops Participant, '13Her biographical novel, Lady in Ermine: The Story of a Woman Who Painted the Renaissance, was published in January 2019 by ACMRS/Univ of Arizona. This historical fiction dramatizes the life of Renaissance artist Sofonisba Anguissola, whose work will be a major exhibit at the Prado, Madrid in October 2019.
Martina Newhook
Writers Workshop '15Her essay, “The Lonely Hours Before Supper,” was published in Meat For Tea (March 2019; V.13 (1)).
C Pirloul
Poetry Participant, '01, '04, '17Excerpts of her map-poem appear in Lana Turner 11. Poems and recordings are forthcoming in The Santa Fe Telepoem Project.
Marcelo Hernandez Castillo
Poetry Workshop participant '11His book of poetry, Cenzontle, was awarded the Northern California Book Award and the NCIBA Golden Poppy Book Award, and was recently named a finalist for the Thom Gunn award for poetry and the Lambda Literary Award.
Kenji Liu
Poetry Workshop participant '14His newest book of poetry, Monsters I Have Been, will be released from Alice James Books in April, 2019.
Colleen Morton Busch
Writers Workshop ‘04, ‘15She narrated the audiobook version of her nonfiction book, Fire Monks, the story of how five Zen monks saved a California monastery from a wildfire with a combination of hard work, aplomb, and wisdom. Blackstone released the audiobook in March 2019.
Vishwas R. Gaitonde
Writers Workshop '14His essay “Jaya He! The Story of India’s National Anthem” was published by The Mantle in January 2019. It delves into the history and controversies swirling around the anthem composed by Nobel laureate & polymath Rabindranath Tagore – and also highlights the largely hidden role of an Irish woman’s contribution to the music. You can read it here: http://www.mantlethought.org/arts-and-culture/jaya-h%C3%A9-story-india%E2%80%99s-national-anthem
Anthony J. Mohr
Writers Workshops Participant '08His essay “Nixon for President” appeared in North Dakota Quarterly (Spring-Summer-Fall-Winter 2018). His essay “Love North of Sunset” appeared in Saint Ann’s Review (Winter 2019). His essay “The Last Honors Class” appeared in Glint Literary Journal (Winter 2018).
Kelly Cass Falzone
Poetry Participant, '03She was awarded the 2018 Bea Gonzalez Prize for Poetry for a group of three poems published in Stone Canoe: A Journal of Art, Literature and Social Commentary, published by the Downtown Writers Center, a program of the YMCA of Greater Syracuse, NY.
Susan Henderson
Writers Workshops Participant, '09Her novel, The Flicker of Old Dreams, won the Western Writers of America Spur Award in the category of Best Western Contemporary Novel, and was chosen as an Honor Book for the Montana Book Award. She was additionally awarded a Hawthornden International Fellowship and will spend a month writing at the Hawthornden Castle in Midlothian, Scotland.
Attended with the help of Lojo Scholarship
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.
Marcia Butler
Writers Workshop Participant '15Her debut novel, Pickle’s Progress, will be published on April 9, 2019. Recent praise from Richard Russo: “The four main characters in Pickle’s Progress seem more alive than most of the people we know in real life because their fears and desires are so nakedly exposed. That’s because their creator, Marcia Butler, possesses truly scary X-ray vision and intelligence to match.”
Grant Hier
Writers Workshops Participant, ’93; AOW ’95; Poetry Participant '98His book of historical flash fiction, California Continuum, co-written with John Brantingham, Poet Laureate of Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks, is forthcoming in March, 2019.
Juan Alvarado Valdivia
Writers Workshops Participant '13His short story collection, Ballad of a Slopsucker, was published by the University of New Mexico Press in February 2019.
Attended with the help of Carlisle Family Scholarship
Kate Hope Day
Writers Workshop Participant '15Her debut novel If, Then is forthcoming from Random House March 12, 2019. It has been optioned by Heyday Television. She will be joining us this summer as part of our Published Alumni Reading Series.
Renee Moffett Thompson
Her story, “The Winterist” took second place in Narrative’s Fall 2018 Story Contest.
Juliana Roth
Writers Workshops Participant, '17Her screenplay for her film in independent development, What We Know, which follows a sexual assault survivor as she navigates the Title IX process, is a semifinalist in the 2019 Atlanta Film Festival’s Screenplay Competition and a finalist in the 2019 Socially Relevant Film Festival in New York. The crowdfunding campaign for the film is accepting donations until mid-March on Seed & Spark.
Attended with the help of Carlisle Family Scholarship
Bethanie Humphreys
Poetry Participant, '15Her debut poetry collection, Dendrochronology, is available for preorder through Finishing Line Press February 11 – April 12, 2019.
Aida Salazar
Non-Fiction Workshop 2007Her debut book, The Moon Within, a middle grade novel in verse, will be released on February, 2019, by Arthur A. Levine Books / Scholastic. The book was called “A worthy successor to Are You There God, It’s Me Margaret” in a Kirkus starred review.
Emily Pérez
Poetry Participant '10, '18Her new chapbook Made and Unmade, a limited edition, hand bound, letterpress, tragi-comic exploration of growing up female in a patriarchy, is now available from Madhouse Press.
Rowan Sharp
Poetry participant, ‘12She has new work in the Beloit Poetry Journal 69.1 (Spring 2019).
Judy Crowe
Poetry Workshop participant '08, '12, '15, '18, Writers Workshop participant '87, '88, '90Her new book of poetry, Flat Water: Nebraska Poems, was recently released from Finishing Line Press.
Ramtin Arablouei
Writer's Workshop participant '05He is the co-host, along with Rund Abdelfatah, of NPR’s first history podcast, Throughline.
Samiya Bashir
Poetry Workshop participant '09She was recently featured on Blue Flower Arts, A Literary Speakers Agency. To check out the profile, click here.
Claudia March Reder
Poetry Participant '08Her book of poems, How to Disappear, was recently published by Blue Light Press.
Sharon Olson
Poetry Participant, '97Her second poetry collection Will There Be Music? was published by Cherry Grove Collections in February 2019.
David Corbett
Writers Workshop participant '88, '89, '91, '99, Screenwriting Workshop participant '01His latest novel, The Long-Lost Love Letters Of Doc Holliday, has been nominated for the Lefty Award for Best Historical Mystery. The winner will be announced on March 30th at Left Coast Crime in Vancouver, BC.
Jeffrey Kingman
Poetry Participant, '12His poetry manuscript, Beyond that Hill I Gather, won the Eyelands Book Award (Greece) for best unpublished poetry book. The poems in the collection are mostly portraits of notable women.
Chelsea Rathburn
Poetry Participant, '09Her third poetry collection, Still Life with Mother and Knife, was published by LSU Press in February.
Michelle Bracken
Writers Workshop Participant '17Her essay “When Your Writing Comes Through The Ether” was published in The Superstition Review.
Kate Wisel
Writers Workshop Participant '16Her first book of short stories, Driving in Cars With Homeless Men, has won the prestigious Drue Heinz Literature Prize, which includes a substantial cash prize and publication by the University of Pittsburgh Press. She was selected by judge Min Jin Lee.
Attended with the help of Carlisle Family Scholarship
Caitlin McCarthy
Screenwriting Workshop '13Her crime thriller screenplay A Native Land has been named an Official Selection at the 2019 Beverly Hills Film Festival. It has also advanced to the quarterfinals in the 2019 Atlanta Film Festival Screenplay Competition. Caitlin is represented by Barry Krost of Barry Krost Management (BKM).
Jeanne Foster
Poetry Workshop participant '88, Writers Workshop participant '89, '92Her poem “Letters to Peter” appears in the Winter 2019 issue of The Southern Review. You can also hear her read the poem in TSR Audio Gallery.
Stephanie Austin
Writer's Workshop Participant, '12Her short story “Carrion” will be in the spring 2019 issue of Pembroke Magazine. Her flash fiction piece “Stray” will appear in the June issue of the Jellyfish Review.
Attended with the help of Joe Heinrich Scholarship
Noah Blaustein
Poetry Workshop participant '07, '11His book of poetry, After Party, will be published on February 15th by the University of New Mexico Press.
His poems have appeared in the last year in the San Francisco Chronicle, The Harvard Review, The Southern Review, Poetry Northwest, Greensboro Review, and The Southampton Review. His review of Christopher Merrill’s Self Portrait in Dogwood was featured in the Los Angeles Review of Books. He was one of one hundred poets selected by the Harvard Review to contribute lines to Renga for Obama, a book length Renga for and presented to President Barack Obama. Most recently he was an AIR fellow with the National Park Service, teaching poetry to homeless youth in the Santa Monica Mountains.
Matthew Murrey
Poetry Participant, '95His debut poetry collection, Bulletproof, was published by Jacar Press in February 2019. It was selected in 2018 by Marilyn Nelson who described it as “A generous range of thought-worthy subjects, approached with simplicity, wisdom, and a deft use of language.”
Karen Moulding
Writers Workshops Participant, '07, '08, '10Her novel, The Naked Shopper, has been selected First Runner Up by Red Hen Press in the Quill Prose Award contest. An excerpt from The Naked Shopper was published in January 2019 in the Capra Review.
Alex Luke
Writers Workshops Participant, '18Her short story “Sweet Blood” was published in Issue 18 of SAND Journal, and nominated for a Pushcart Prize.
Attended with the help of Maat Scholarship
Denise Nicholas
Writers Workshop Participant '01The 10th Anniversary edition of her novel, Freshwater Road, was recently named in Pacific Standard’s “A Martin Luther King Jr. Day Civil Rights Reading List.”
Kathryn Machi
Screenwriting Participant '04 and '10, Fiction Workshop Participant '18.Her “Me, Too” dance thriller Buzz was recently sold as a TV movie to MarVista Entertainment in Los Angeles.
Cynthia Arrieu-King
Poetry Participant, '13Cynthia Arrieu-King’s project, Futureless Languages, is available now from Radiator Press. In it she wrestles with what is happening to the planet and to its nations. It is elegy on language as a home, whiteness, and what matters most to us in life.
Ann Tweedy
'97, '00, '04, '07, '12, '15A poem first written at the Community of Writers Poetry session entitled “The Aspen” was awarded second place in San Antonio Writers’ Guild’s annual contest in 2018. The poems “Anatomy of a Name” and “An Instant” and the creative non-fiction pieces “Rental Property” and “Storm” are forthcoming in the anthology Queer Voices: Poetry, Prose, and Pride, to be published by Minnesota Historical Society Press in May 2019.
Dedria A. Humphries Barker
Writers Workshop Participant, '08, '15Dedria Humphries Barker’s creative nonfiction book, Mother of Orphans: The True and Curious Story of Irish Alice, a Colored Man’s Widow, will be published in April 2019 by 2Leaf Press (distributed by The University of Chicago Press). In which four generations of black women recall their daring 19th century white matriarch, it is the story of Barker’s great-grandmother, Alice Donlan Johnson.
Attended with the help of a community of writers tuition waiver.
Aida Salazar
Writers Workshop Participant '07Her debut novel, The Moon Within, was acquired by Nick Thomas at AALB/Scholastic. This free verse middle grade novel tells the story of 11-year-old Celi, whose life swirls with questions about her changing body, her first attraction to a boy, her best friend’s exploration of what it means to be genderfluid, and her mother’s insistence she have a Chicana moon ceremony for her first menses. Publication is slated for spring 2019; Marietta B. Zacker of the Gallt and Zacker Literary Agency negotiated the deal for North American English and Spanish rights.
Devi S. Laskar
Poetry Workshop participant '04, '08, '14, Writers Workshop participant '04, '15Her new novel, The Atlas of Reds and Blue, was published by Counterpoint Press in February, 2019.
Emmalie Dropkin
Writers Workshop participant '18She is the co-editor, along with Edie Meidav, of the new anthology Strange Attractors: Lives Changed by Chance. It will be released from the University of Massachusetts Press in March, 2019.
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.
Cynthia Arrieu-King
Poetry Workshop participant '13Her book Futureless Languages was recently released by Radiator Press
Ella Martinsen Gorham
Writers Workshop Participant, '18Her short story, Protozoa, appears in the winter 2018 issue of New England Review.
Meg Waite Clayton
Writers Workshop Participant '00Her newest novel, The Last Train to London, will be published later this year as part of a two book deal with HarperCollins.
R.O. Kwon
Her essay “On Being A Woman in America While Trying to Avoid Being Assaulted,” was recently published by The Paris Review.
Danusha Lameris
Poetry Participant, '00Her poems are currently out, or forthcoming in: The New Ohio Review, The Gettysburg Review, TriQuarterly, Ploughshares, and The American Poetry Review. As of September 2018, she has served as the Poet Laureate of Santa Cruz County, California.
Lex Williford
Screenwriting Workshop Participant '97, '04His novella, Balsa and Tissue Paper, is forthcoming as an ebook and in the forthcoming 2019 Solos issue of Ploughshares.
Jami Macarty
Poetry Participant, '10, '14, '17Instinctive Acts, her third chapbook came into the world via Nomados Literary Publishers in October 2018. Her first chapbook, Landscape of the Wait, was reviewed by Michelle Mitchell-Foust in Drizzle Review. And, sixteen additional poems appeared in the Canadian, American, and Australian journals: EVENT, Contemporary Verse 2, The Paddock Review, Light: A Journal of Photography & Poetry, Otoliths, and descant.
Ann Fisher-Wirth
Poetry Participant, '92, '00, '09, '13Her sixth book of poems, The Bones of Winter Birds, was chosen from several hundred submissions and will be published by Terrapin Books in February 2019. Ann’s fifth book, Mississippi, is a poetry/photography collaboration with Maude Schuyler Clay (Wings Press 2018). From May 11-18, 2019, Ann will lead the poetry workshop at Longleaf Writers Conference, in Seaside, Florida.
Berwyn Moore
Poetry Participant '90, '92Her third poetry collection, Sweet Herbaceous Miracle, winner of the 2017 John Ciardi Poetry Prize, has been released by BkMk Press.
Charles Halsted
Poetry Participant, '18.His first chapbook collection of poems, Breaking Eighty, has now been published by Finishing Line Press. A full poetry book Extenuating Circumstances will be published in 2019.
Judy Bebelaar
Poetry Participant, '08, '10She has been named, along with her co-author Ron Cabral, 2019 Library Laureates by the Friends of the San Francisco Public Library for their book, And Then They Were Gone: Teenagers of Peoples Temple from High School to Jonestown, about the students they came to know when Jim Jones sent all the Temple teenagers to the small school where they taught. Bebelaar and Cabral will join other laureates, including Dave Eggers, Samin Nasrat and Wendy McNaughton, Amy Freed, and Tongo Eisen-Martin at the benefit gala on March 8, 2o19.
Marci Vogel
Writers Workshop participant '05, Poetry Workshop participant '17Her new novel, Death and Other Holidays, was recently published by Melville House.
Michael Chabon
Writers Workshop participant '86, '87, Writers Workshop Teaching Staff '00, '02His newest book, Bookends: Collected Intros and Outros, will be published by HarperCollins in January, 2019.
Molly Fisk
Poetry participant, '92, '95, '97, '01Her fourth book of radio commentary, Naming Your Teeth: Even More Observations from a Working Poet, came out in November, 2018, containing 50 three-minute essays that originally aired on KVMR-FM Nevada City, CA.
Terence Clarke
Writers Workshops Participant, '72, '73His 11th book, The Splendid City, was published in February 2019.
Michelle Brittan Rosado
Poetry Participant, '16Her debut poetry collection, Why Can’t It Be Tenderness, won the Felix Pollak Prize in Poetry selected by Aimee Nezhukumatathil. It was published in November 2018 by University of Wisconsin Press.
Paul Watsky
Poetry Participant '07, '09, '11, '13, '17.His poem “What Mattered About The Wind,” begun and set in the Valley, appears in the current issue of The Moth (#35, December 2018).
Terry Shames
Writers Workshop participant '98Her newest Samuel Craddock mystery, A Risky Undertaking for Loretta Singletary, will be published in January, 2019, by Seventh Street Books.
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.
James Jordan
Writers Workshop participant '09His debut novel, The Speed of Life, was published in November, 2018, by Turning Leaf Books.
Charles Harper Webb
Poetry Participant, '91His 12th collection of poetry, Sidebend World, was published in October 2018.
Matthew M. Monte
Writers Workshop Participant '11, '15His debut poetry collection, The Case of the Six-Sided Dream, was recently published by Blue Light Press. It won the 2017 Blue Light Press Poetry Prize.
Owen Prell
Screenwriters Participant '02, '04; Screenwriters Panel (various)His debut novel, Chance to Break, was published in 2018 in both U.S. (North Loop Books) and U.K. (The Book Guild) editions. The next author event will be a reading at Depot Bookstore in Mill Valley on November 30.
Charles Halsted
Poetry Participant, 18His first full length poetry book Extenuating Circumstances has been accepted for publication by Finishing Line Press. It will contain three of the poems written at the Poetry Workshop.
Lynne Thompson
Poetry Participant, `97, `02She won the 2018 Marsh Hawk Press Poetry Prize, selected by Jane Hirshfield, for her manuscript Fretwork, which will be published in 2019. Thompson’s essay “The Family Stories of Jane Cooper” will be published the anthology Jane Cooper: A Radiance of Attention, forthcoming in 2019.
Maxima Kahn
Poetry Participant, '07, Writers Workshops Participant, '06, '10Her poems have appeared this year or are forthcoming in Sweet, The Louisville Review and Orbis Journal, and she was nominated for Best of the Net. Her essays appeared in Just How Cool Is That, The Creative Penn, Tiny Buddha and Positively Positive.
Attended with the help of Mary Turnbull Scholarship 2010
Sally Van Doren
Poetry Workshop participant '01, '03, '06Her poem “Housewife as Poet” from her 2017 book, Promise, was featured on Ted Kooser’s American Life in Poetry column sponsored by the Poetry Foundation on November 12, 2018.
Liz González
Poetry Participant, '00Her mixed genre book, Dancing in the Santa Ana Winds: Poems y Cuentos New and Selected, was published by Los Nietos Press in July 2018. Her poem “Fall in the Chaparral” appeared in the anthology Fire and Rain: Ecopoetry of California, 2018 released by Scarlet Tanager Books in October 2018. Her poem “Menudo vs. Hotdogs” appeared in the August 2018 issue of Voices de la Luna: A Quarterly Literature and Arts Magazine.
Leland Cheuk
Writers Workshop participant '01, '02His newest novel, No Good Very Bad Asian, is forthcoming from C&R Press in 2019.
Tom Barbash
Writers Workshop Teaching Staff '14, '16, '18His newest novel, The Dakota Winters, will be published in December, 2018, by HarperCollins.
Joe Bardin
Writers Workshop Participant '01His essay, “In the Name of Not Repeating”, was published in Eclectica.
Katherine Rothschild
Writer’s Workshop participant, ‘03Her YA novel on sisterhood in an untraditional family, Hope and Other Feathered Things, will be published by Soho Teen in early 2020.
Francisco Marquez
Poetry Workshop participant '18As the inaugural recipient of the Letras Latinas Poetry Scholarship to the Community of Writers, Marquez was interviewed by former staff poet Francisco Aragón on the Letras Latinas blog.
D. P. Medina
Writers Workshops Participant, '85, '86His novel, The Madness of the Brave, was published by Moonshine Cove Publishing in Summer 2018. A unique character-driven thriller, the novel is set in the late 70s’ world of political activism, a world of shifting alliances, faceless informants and betrayal and challengeson some of our most fundamental beliefs.
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.
Jessica Rae Bergamino
Poetry Workshop participant '11Her new novel, Unmanned, was published in November, 2018, by Noemi Press.
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.
Cerrissa Kim
Writers Workshops Participant, '13She served as editor and contributor to the anthology Mixed Korean: Our Stories. From the struggles of the Korean War, to the modern dilemmas faced by those who are mixed race, comes an assortment of stories that capture the essence of what it is to be a mixed Korean. With common themes of exclusion and recollections of not looking Korean enough, black enough, white enough, or “other” enough, this powerful collection features works by award-winning writers, poets, and scholars, alongside voices of literary newcomers. Mixed Korean: Our Stories is a testament to the courage, strength and resilience of all mixed people. Proceeds will be donated to 325Kamra and KoreanAmericanStory.org.
Alma Katsu
Writers Workshop participant '03Her horror novel, The Hunger, published in March, 2018, by G.P. Putnam’s Sons, was recently named one of the “5 Horror Novels to Read by Women Right Now” by The Writer.
Beverley Bie Brahic
Poetry Workshop participant '08Her fourth collection of poetry, The Hotel Eden, was published in September, 2018, by Carcanet Press (UK).
Cynthia Robinson
Writers Workshop participant '13, '14Her debut novel, Birds of Wonder (Standing Stone Books, 2018), has been named one of four finalists for the 2018 CNY Awards in the fiction category by judge Stephanie Dickson. The winner will be announced on November 8.
Debra Kang Dean
Poetry Participant, '93, '96Her third collection of poetry, Totem: America, was published by Tiger Bark Press in October 2018.
Catherine Staples
Poetry Workshop participant '18Her recent work has been published in The Southern Review and Terrain.
Michelle Bitting
Poetry Participant '05, '06She won the 2018 Mark Fischer Poetry Prize, and her fourth collection, Broken Kingdom, recently won the 2018 Catamaran Prize.
Tim Foley
Writers Workshop Participant, '99, '01, '02His recent short story publications include: “Some Pages From the Journal of James Morris,” in A Book of the Sea (Egaeus Press.) and “Aneurism,” in Morpheus Tales: The Best Weird Fiction, Number 7. His essay on Ambrose Bierce, “Night-Doings in Victorian England: The Sojourn of Ambrose Bierce,” has appeared in Wormwood 30 (Tartarus Press, 2018).
Angel Garcia
Poetry Workshop Participant '12His new book of poetry, Teeth Never Sleep, was published in November, 2018, by University of Arkansas Press.
Attended with the help of the UC Riverside Scholarship.
Ruben Quesada
Poetry Workshop Participant '07His new book of poetry, Revelations, will be published in November, 2018, by Sibling Rivalry Press.
Attended with the help of he UC Riverside Scholarship.
Gordon Jack
Writers Workshops Participant '03, '08His second novel, Your Own Worst Enemy, will be published by HarperTeen on November 13, 2018.
Alexander Payne Morgan
Writers Workshop participant '10, '13His new book of poems, Loneliness Among Primates, was published by Kelsay Books/ Aldrich Press in September, 2018.
Kenji Liu
Poetry Workshop Participant '14His new collection of poetry, Monsters I Have Been, is forthcoming from Alice James Books in April 2019.
Attended with the help of the Oakley Hall Memorial Scholarship.
Vickie Vértiz
Poetry Participant, '14Her book, Palm Frond with Its Throat Cut, won the 2018 PEN America prize for poetry. The prize is for an outstanding book of poetry published in 2017 west of the Mississippi River. Read more in the LA Times feature here.
Attended with the help of the Ancinas Scholarship (Writers Workshops) and Lucille Clifton Scholarship (Poetry Workshop).
Christine Granados
Writers Workshop Participant '09Her second book of fiction, Fight Like a Man and Other Stories We Tell Our Children, which was published by the University of New Mexico Press in 2017, won the 2017 Writer’s League of Texas Fiction Discovery Prize in April 2018. The book received Honorable Mention for Best Latino Focused Fiction Book in English from the 2018 International Latino Book Award. Fight Like a Man was also the winner of the 2018 NACCS Tejas Foco Fiction Book Award.
Attended with the help of the Ancinas Family Scholarship.
Sheila Thorne
Writers Workshops Participant, '04Her story, “The Horses,” appeared in the 2018 fall issue of Raleigh Review.
Yiskah Rosenfeld
Poetry Participant, '01, '03She currently serves as final judge of the Anna Davidson Rosenberg Poetry Award for poems on the Jewish experience (through Poetica Magazine).
Charles Halsted
Poetry Participant '18His first chapbook, Breaking Eighty, was accepted by Finishing Line Press and will be published in November.
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.
Lynne Goldsmith
Poetry Workshop Participant '00Her newest book of poems, Secondary Cicatrices, won the Halcyon Poetry Book Contest. It will be published in early 2019 by Middle Creek Publishing.
Jon Riccio
Poetry Participant, '15His recent work appears in A-Minor Magazine, The Cincinnati Review, COAST | noCOAST, The Ekphrastic Review, and E·ratio. He was a 2018 Lambda Poetry Fellow.
Alicia Upano
Writers Workshop participant '12She won the 2018 James Jones First Novel Fellowship Competition for her novel, Big Music.
Attended with the help of the Mohr Scholarship.
Michelle Bitting
Poetry Participant '05Her fourth collection, Broken Kingdom, was recently published. It received the 2018 Catamaran Poetry Prize.
Vishwas Gaitonde
Writers Workshops Participant, '14His short story “Faith” will appear in the Fall 2018 issue of Santa Monica Review. This is the journal’s 30th anniversary of publication, and the issue will be launched on October 14 at The Edye in Santa Monica. Gaitonde has been invited to read at the event. The attached poster has more details.
Adela Najarro
Poetry Participant, '16She placed as a semi-finalist for The Pablo Neruda Prize for Poetry, and her poem “Chantico Swings” will appear in the Nimrod International Journal upcoming award issue, October 2018. Adela entered the contest with the volcano poems she started at the Community of Writers.
Jenn Stroud Rossmann
Writers Workshop Participant, '99Her debut novel, The Place You’re Supposed to Laugh, will be published by 7.13 Books in November, 2018.
Kirsten Whatley
Writers Workshops Participant, '06Kirsten Whatley’s short nonfiction piece, “Only Moths,” appeared in PANK‘s Spring/Summer 2018 online issue, and was subsequently translated into Italian. Two of her Hawaii-based food stories recently appeared in AFAR (May 2018) and Saveur (Fall 2018).
Attended with the help of the Carlisle Family Scholarship.
Scott Edward Anderson
Art of the Wild Participant, '92His new book, Dwelling: an ecopoem, which received an honorable mention for The Hopper Poetry Prize last year, has just been published by Shanti Arts of Brunswick, Maine. A sequence of poems and prose questions about the nature of our dwelling, place, home and our relationship with the other species with which we share this planet, Dwelling: an ecopoem has been called “a phenomenology of how we live on the Earth,” by Alison Hawthorne Deming.
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.
Kate Hope Day
Writers Workshop participant '15Her debut novel If, Then is forthcoming from Random House March 12, 2019. It has been optioned by Heyday Television.
Elaine Barnard
Writers Workshop Partcipant (11)Elaine Barnard will be reading from the collection of stories from her travels in Asia, Emperor of Nuts at 7pm on Oct.11 at the famous KGB bar in NYC. The event is sponsored by her publisher New Meridian Arts.
Jeffrey Kingman
Poetry Participant, '12He was a finalist in Inlandia Institute’s 2018 Hillary Gravendyk Prize poetry book competition.
Margaret C. Murray
Screenwriters Workshop, '87In late September, she launched her 4th novel, Pillow Prayers—Love Ruined, Love Reborn after the Summer of Love, at Fourth Street Fine Art Cooperative in Berkeley, CA where much of her story takes place.
Attended with the help of National Endowment for the Arts
Tim Wendel
Writers Workshop participant '86, '87, '88, '89. Screenwriters Workshop participant '05A writer-in-residence at Johns Hopkins University, Tim Wendel’s latest book is a memoir, Cancer Crossings: A Brother, His Doctors and the Quest to Cure Childhood Leukemia. He read the audiobook and is now doing voice skills for the company working with the Amazon Echo. In addition, work continues on the documentary of his book Summer of ’68, which was named a notable book by the State of Michigan.
Jen Beagin
Writers Workshop participant '11She recently made the short list for the 2018 Center for Fiction First Novel Prize.
Attended with the help of the UC Irvine Scholarship for MFAs.
Wayétu Moore
Writers Workshop Participant '09Her new novel, She Would Be King, was released from Graywolf Press on September 11, 2018. She will be joining us next summer for our Published Alumni Reading Series.
Attended with the help of the Carlisle Family Scholarship.
David Paul
Writers Workshops Participant, '17,'18His short story ‘Barbed Wire’ appears in the Fall 2018 issue of ZYZZYVA.
Emily Jungmin Yoon
Poetry Workshop, 2015Her first full-length collection of poetry, A Cruelty Special to Our Species, will be published by Ecco Books in September, 2018.
Attended with the help of the W C & F Scholarship.
Cai Emmons
Writers Workshop Participant '93, '94, '98Her new novel, Weather Woman, will be published on October 9, 2018, by Red Hen Press.
Grant Hier
Writers Workshop Participant ’93, Art of the Wild ’95, Poetry Participant ’98His new poetry collection, The Difference Between, was published by Pelekinesis in April 2018. A book of Flash Fiction, co-written with the Poet Laureate of Sequoia and Kings Canyon Parks, John Brantingham, is forthcoming in February, 2019.
Melisa Cahnmann-Taylor
Poetry Participant, '00, '03Her new co-edited book, Arts-based Research in Education: Foundations for Practice, was recently published by Routledge in 2018.
Joanna Solfrian
Poetry Participant, '06Her second collection, The Mud Room, will be published by MadHat Press in 2019.
Attended with the help of a scholarship and and a work-waiver.
Ama Codjoe
Poetry Participant, '15Her poem “Etymology of a Mood” was selected by Natasha Trethewey for the Georgia Review‘s Loraine Williams Poetry Prize.
Attended with the help of Lucille Clifton Scholarship
Anne Ray
Writers Workshop Participant, '06Her story “Weekend Trip”, originally published in Gettysburg Review, won a 2018 Pushcart Prize. Her story “Black Feather” is forthcoming in Indiana Review.
Leslie Hsu Oh
Writers Workshop Participant ,'14Her essay “K’E YIL YAL TX’I: SAYING SOMETHING,” first published in Alpinist Magazine and a Bronze medalist in the Family Travel category of the 2018 Solas Awards, was selected for Waymaking, an anthology of prose, poetry and artwork by women who are inspired by wild places, adventure and landscape, available now from Vertebrate Publishing. Her story “On the Line” was selected for Grace in Darkness, an anthology of metro D.C. women, available now from American University.
Attended with the help of The O'Dwyer Scholarship
Sean Marciniak
Writers Workshop Participant, '09, '14His short story, Sanctuary, was published in the Spring 2018 edition of J Journal.
Randy White
Poetry Participant, '16His company, Blue Oak Press, is publishing Lisa Dominguez Abraham’s first book of poems Coyote Logic in Fall 2018. Randy is also publishing Karst Mountains Will Bloom: The Collected Poems of Pos Moua during Winter 2018. Moua is considered by many to be the father of Hmong poetry. Blue Oak Press has also begun compiling poems for the anthology They Will Rise Like A Wave: An Anthology of Asian American Women Poets which will be released in Spring 2020.
Lynn Gordon
Writers Workshops Participant, '11Her stories are appearing this year in J Journal and The Examined Life.
Charles Halsted
Poetry Participant '18His first 30-poem chapbook, Breaking Eighty, will be published by Finishing Line Press on November 16, 2018. Orders can be placed at:
https://www.finishinglinepress.com/product/breaking-eighty-by-charles-halsted/
Julia Park Tracey
Writers Workshops Participant '16, '18Her in-depth feature on San Francisco Bay Area author and activist Kate Schatz was the cover story for Alameda Magazine in August 2018, and a major feature in Oakland Magazine August 2018.
Janyce Stefan-Cole
Writers Workshop '04Her short tale, “Clowns,” is included in the The Open Space, issue 21, “Things That Matter”.
Justin McFarr
Writers Workshops Participant, '13His collection of 4 short stories – which feature the main characters from his first novel, The Bear Who Broke the World – was published as a Kindle exclusive by Wheeler Street Press in August, 2018.
David Stallings
Poetry Participant, '11He recently published his second book of poetry, Risking Delight (Aldrich Press, Kelsay Books, 2018).
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.
giovanni singleton
Her new book of poetry, American Letters: Works on Paper, was recently published by Canarium Books.
Vanessa Hua
Writers Workshop Participant '08Her new novel, A River of Stars, was recently published by Ballantine Books.
David Corbett
Writers Workshop Participant '88, '89, '91, '99, Screenwriting Workshop Participant '01His newest book, The Long-Lost Love Letters of Doc Holliday, is now available from Black Opal Press.
Penelope Moffet
Poetry Workshop Participant '87, '17Her new book of poems, It Isn’t That They Mean to Kill You, is now available from Arroyo Seco Press.
Norma Liliana Valdez
Poetry Participant '16Her chapbook manuscript, Preparing the Body, is forthcoming by YesYes Books. Her essay, “Inheritance”, was recently published in The Rumpus as part of the “Mothering Outside the Margins” series.
Robert Schladale
Writer's Workshop '16, '17His story, “Life in the Littoral Waters,” appears in the most recent issue of Redivider (February 2018).
Robert Rorke
Writers Workshop Participant, '11Harper Collins published his first novel, Car Trouble, on September 11, 2018.
Marilyn Kallet
Poetry participant, '96, '98, '00In June, she was inducted as Poet Laureate of Knoxville, Tennessee. Mayor Madeline Rogero made the proclamation.
Marcia Butler
Writer's Workshop Participant '15Her debut novel, Pickle’s Progress, will be published on April 9, 2019. Recent praise from Richard Russo: “The four main characters in Pickle’s Progress seem more alive than most of the people we know in real life because their fears and desires are so nakedly exposed. That’s because their creator, Marcia Butler, possesses truly scary X-ray vision and intelligence to match.”
Dedria Humphries Barker
Writing Workshop Participant '08, '15She won a Tier 1 writing residency award to Can Serrat, El Bruc, Barcelona, Spain, and was in residence March – May, 2018.
Gina DeMillo Wagner
Writers Workshops Participant '14Her essay, Mourning the Loss of a Sibling Rival, was featured in the Ties column of the New York Times.
Regina Louise
Writers Workshop Participant ‘02, '15, Writers Workshop Alum Reading ‘03, Screen Writing Workshop ‘09Her new book, Someone Has Led This Child to Believe: A Case History of Love, was published on July 10 by Agate Publishing. The film adaptation of her memoir, Someone’s Somebody, wrapped principal photography June 27th.
Kristi Maxwell
Poetry Participant '02Her sixth book of poems, Bright and Hurtless, was recently published by Ahsahta Press.
Amber Flora Thomas
Poetry Participant '92, '99, '01, '03, '05, '13Her book Red Channel in the Rupture: Poems will be published in August, 2018, by Red Hen Press.
Forrest Gander
Poetry Workshop Teaching StaffHis new collection, Be With, will be published by New Directions in August 2018.
Brenda Rickman Vantrease
Writers Workshop Participant '02Her new historical fiction series entitled Broken Kingdom from Severn House. Vol. I: The Queen’s Promise was released August 1, 2018, with Vol. 2: A Far Horizon to follow in February of 2019.
Meg Waite Clayton
Writers Workshop Participant '00Her new novel, Beautiful Exiles, was published August 1, 2018, by Lake Union Publishing.
R.O. Kwon
Writers Workshops Participant, '10Her first novel, The Incendiaries, was published on July 31, 2018 by Riverhead in the U.S. and by Virago/Little Brown in the U.K. It’s about Phoebe Lin, a Korean American woman who gets involved with a fundamentalist cult with ties to North Korea. Kwon was recently profiled in the New York Times as a writer to watch.
Samantha Thornhill
Poetry Workshop, 2009Her third children’s book, A Card for My Father, was published in May, 2018, by Penny Candy Books.
Attended with the help of Cave Canem Scholarship
Blas Falconer
Poetry Workshop Participant '12, '16His new book of poetry, Forgive the Body This Failure, will be released late this summer by Four Way Books.
Regina Louise
Writers Workshop participant '01, '14Her memoir, Someone Has Led This Child to Believe, will be released by Agate Bolden in July, 2018.
Ama Codjoe
Poetry Participant '15Her poem “My Nothings” was recently featured as the Academy of American Poets’ Poem-a-Day.
Lise Goett
Poetry Participant, '86, '87, '88, '92, '94, '06Her second book of poetry, Leprosarium, was recently published by Tupelo Press.
Laurie Ann Doyle
Her new book of stories, World Gone Missing, was released by Regal House press in Fall 2017. She teaches writing at The San Francisco Writers Grotto and UC Berkeley.
Anne Ray
Writers Workshop Participant, '06In collaboration with actors Sean McIntyre and Emily Shain, Anne Ray is teaching a workshop on performance for writers of prose, at NYC’s Playwright’s Horizon Theater School, May 19-20.
Sommer Schafer
Writers Workshops Participant '13Her short story, “Mary and the Machine,” appears in the Spring 2018 issue of North American Review.
Josh Weil
Writers Workshop Staff '17His 2017 short story collection The Age of Perpetual Light was awarded the California Book Award in Fiction.
Lauren Barbato
Writers Workshop Participant '17Her short story “Old Girls, or, The Ordinary Adventure” was published in the spring 2018 issue of The Hopkins Review. Her short story “Former Marys” was also published in the spring 2018 issue of Blackbird.
Attended with the help of The Lojo Foundation Scholarship
Michelle Ruiz Keil
Writers Workshop 2014She sold her debut novel All of Us With Wings to Amara Hoshijo at Soho Teen for publication in June, 2019.
David Kerns
Writers Workshop participant '07His novel Fortnight on Maxwell Street won the Eric Hoffer Award for the Best General Fiction Book of 2018. Published by Bay Tree Publishing, the novel is a reluctant hero’s journey of fear and courage set in Chicago in the spring of 1968. The manuscript, a memoir in its earliest incarnation, was workshopped at the Community of Writers in 2007.
Holiday Reinhorn
Writers Workshops Participant, '17The title story of Holiday Reinhorn’s second collection, “Our Lady of Perpetual Sadness,” was accepted for publication by American Short Fiction magazine.
Chris Wilson Simpkins
Poetry Participant '11, '14Chris Wilson Simpkins won a Summer Literary Seminars fellowship through their 2018 poetry contest, and plans to attend the Kenyan seminar in December.
Christine Gosnay
Poetry Participant '13, '16Her first book of poetry, Even Years, was selected by Angie Estes for the Stan and Tom Wick Poetry Prize and published by Kent State University Press in 2017.
John Harvey
Poetry Participant '95, Writers Workshop Staff '97His new Frank Elder novel, Body and Soul, was published by William Heinemann in the UK in April, and will be published by Pegasus in the US in September, 2018.
Andrea Alban
Writer's Workshop Participant, '04Her Writer’s Tribe has been named the official manuscript critique forum at the annual Book Passage Children’s Writer and Illustrator Conference (June 15-17, 2018). Andrea has served on the faculty of this popular conference for 10 years, presenting talks about creating quintessential characters, the art and craft of RE-Vision, and achieving self-editing mastery.
Peggy Townsend
Writers Workshop Participant '07Her first thriller, See Her Run: An Aloa Snow Mystery, was released by Thomas & Mercer on June 1 as part of a two-book deal. Her short story, “First Peak,” also will appear June 19 in Santa Cruz Noir, an anthology series published by Akashic Press and edited by Susie Bright.
Cynthia Robinson
Writers' Workshops Participant, '13 and '14She was recently spotlighted in an interview with BBC Ulster presenter Marie-Louise Muir discussing her new novel Birds of Wonder (Standing Stone Books, 2018). The interview is available via podcast here until May 25.
Aneesha Capur
Writers Workshop Participant '05She was recently invited to join the San Francisco Committee of Human Rights Watch. She is looking forward to supporting HRW’s broader efforts to raise awareness of local and global human rights issues, generate support, and mobilize policymakers to recognize basic freedoms for all.
Shira Dentz
Poetry Workshop Participant '05Her third full-length book of poems, how do i net thee, was published in April, 2018, from Salmon Poetry. It’s available for purchase now at Salmon Poetry, Amazon, and selected bookstores.
Sommer Schafer
Writers Workshops Participant '13Her story, “My Little Pet,” appears in the Spring 2018 issue of Boulevard.
Aida Salazar
Her debut picture book, Jovita Wore Pants, will be published by Arthur A. Levine Books/ Scholastic in 2020.
Michael Barsa
Writers Workshop Participant '04His first novel, The Garden of Blue Roses, was published on April 17 from Underland Press, with praise from Alice Sebold, Paul Tremblay, Ramona Ausubel, Ron Carlson, Michelle Latiolais, and others.
Lise Haines
Writers Workshop participant '99Her new novel, When We Disappear, was released from Unbridled Books in June, 2018.
Akil Kumarasamy
Writers Workshops Participant, '15Akil Kumarasamy’s debut novel, Half Gods, was published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux in June 2018.
Attended with the help of The Eshleman Scholarship
Gwen Goodkin
Writers Workshops Participant, '07, '11Her first book, an essay collection titled Mass for the Shut Ins will be published by Eyewear Publishing in early 2019.
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.
Joanell Serra
Writers Workshop participant '15Her literary novel, The Vines We Planted, was published by Wido Publishing in May 2018. The novel is set in Sonoma, California, and follows the complex interactions of three families during a year in the wine country. The novel was in progress when she attended the workshop.
Melissa Stein
Poetry Participant, '99Her second poetry collection, Terrible Blooms, was published in April 2018 by Copper Canyon Press.
Tessa Fontaine
Poetry Participant '00, '07Her memoir, The Electric Woman: A Memoir in Death-Defying Acts, is forthcoming from Farrar, Straus, & Giroux, on May 1, 2018. Publisher’s Weekly, in a starred review, says: “Fascinating . . . This remarkable, beautifully written memoir explores the depth of mother-daughter love and the courageous acts of overcoming fear and accepting change.” Book Page, the monthly book review publication distributed to over 400,000 readers through bookstores and libraries, just listed her as one of “Eleven Women to Watch in 2018.”
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.
Adrienne Sharp
Writers Workshop Participant '88, '98Her novel, The Magnificent Esme Wells, was released by HarperCollins in April, 2018.
Jeff Walt
Poetry Participant, '17He recently completed a one month writing residency at the Fairhope Center for the Writing Arts in Fairhope, AL. He also has poems recently published in Red Wheelbarrow and Southword.
Teresa (T) Stores
Writers Workshop Participant '04Her collection of short fiction, Frost Heaves, will be published by Green Writers Press in April 2018. This is her fourth book and her first collection of stories.
Attended with the help of Sallie Bell Scholarship
Nettie Reynolds
Writers Workshop Participant '99She was the first playwright picked for the Associated Writing Program Mentee Fall Program 2017. She is currently working on her memoir on resiliency titled Magical Thinking Got Me Here. She recently had her ten minute play “The Groovy Ride” produced in Austin, where she lives.
Kevin Conder
Screenwritng Workshop participant '10; Poetry Workshop Participant '05He was selected by the Erbacce Contest as the Featured Poet for May 2018. His poetry collection Beautiful Enough to Burn was recently published by Erbacce Press UK, 2018.
Ariel Lewis
Writers Workshop, '17She has a personal essay up at Electric Literature.
Johnny Kovatch
Writers Workshop participant '00His debut novel, 59 Hours, a Simon True book, was released by Simon Pulse in March, 2018.
Jennifer Haupt
Writers Workshop Participant '09, '13Her debut novel, In the Shadow of 10,000 Hills, was published on April 2, 2018, by Central Avenue Publishing.
Attended with the help of Carlisle Family Scholarship
Tessa Fontaine
Poetry Participant, '99, '08Her first book, The Electric Woman, is forthcoming from Farrar, Straus & Giroux in May, 2018. The Electric Woman follows the author on a life-affirming journey of loss and self-discovery– through her time on the road with the last traveling American sideshow and her relationship with an adventurous, spirited mother.
Susie Hammond
Poetry Participant '17She was among 17 participants from eight countries to convene as guests of the Faber Residency in Olot, Catalonia, Spain during October and November, 2017 for an interdisciplinary residency focused on Feminisms.
On June 14, 2018, she will be one of the evening’s featured readers at the Ballard Branch of the Seattle Public Library. Among the poems she will share will be several written at The Community of Writers. The reading is sponsored by Seattle’s longest running poetry series, It’s About Time, whose fundamental mission is social justice and inclusion.
Consuelo Marshall
Poetry Participant '12Her poem, “Myself As A Playboy Bunny” won the Verve International Poetry Festival Competition, in Birmingham, UK, and was judged by Luke Kennard. It appears in It All Radiates Outwards, the Verve Anthology of City Poems, Verve Poetry Press.
Varley O’Connor
Writers Workshops Teaching Staff '04, '12; Participant '88, '89Her fifth novel, The Welsh Fasting Girl, will be published by Bellevue Literary Press in May 2019.
Nancy Huxtable Mohr
Poetry Participant '04, '06Her book of poetry, The Well: Poems From Twin Pines Farm, is now available.
Kenji Liu
Poetry Workshop Participant '14His new collection of poetry, Monsters I Have Been, will be published by Alice James Books in April, 2019.
Valerie Wallace
Poetry Participant '10Her debut novel, House of McQueen, was published by Four Way Books in March, 2018.
Tim Wendel
Writers Workshop Participant '86, '87, '88, '89, '05His new book, Cancer Crossings: A Brother, His Doctors and the Quest for a Cure to Childhood Leukemia, will be released in spring 2018. He is a writer-in-residence at Johns Hopkins University.
R.T. Jamison
Writers Workshops Participant, '15His short story, “Forty Days in the Desert,” first published in the Kenyon Review, was selected for the anthology Buffalo Cactus and Other New Stories from the Southwest, available now from the University of New Mexico Press.
http://www.rtjamison.com/buffalo.html
Aida Salazar
Writer Workshops Participant '07Her debut novel, The Moon Within, was acquired by Nick Thomas at AALB/Scholastic. This free verse middle grade novel tells the story of 11-year-old Celi, whose life swirls with questions about her changing body, her first attraction to a boy, her best friend’s exploration of what it means to be genderfluid, and her mother’s insistence she have a Chicana moon ceremony for her first menses. Publication is slated for spring 2019; Marietta B. Zacker of the Gallt and Zacker Literary Agency negotiated the deal for North American English and Spanish rights.
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.
Crystal Reiss
Writers Workshop Participant '97Crystal Jo Reiss’s first novel, Jane Is Everywhere has been published. This “more than #metoo” novel is about one woman’s absurd journey through America during the last two decades. It is now available for order at bookstores around the world (including the usual online outlets).
Shobha Rao
Writers Workshop Participant '02Her debut novel, Girls Burn Brighter, was published this month. She is also the author of the short story collection, An Unrestored Woman. She is the winner of the Katherine Anne Porter Prize in Fiction, and her story “Kavitha and Mustafa” was chosen by T.C. Boyle for inclusion in Best American Short Stories 2015.
Scot Siegel
Poetry Participant, ‘07His chapbook, Daughters, Here | Daughters, Gone, will be published by Uttered Chaos Press in March 2018. The publisher writes, “Daughters, Here | Daughters, Gone is not about loss but self-determination. It is a father’s prayer for his daughters, and daughters everywhere, as they remake the world in their vision.”
Ksenia Lakovic
Writers Workshop Participant, '12Her short story “The Addition” was a semi-finalist for the 2017 Tillie Olsen Short Story Award and appeared in The Tishman Review in January 2018.
Gretchen Van Lente
Writers Workshop Participant '96She has two new books out this month. First is a collection of short stories of literary horror published by Hammer and Anvil Press, She-Thing and Other Righteous Tales. The second is Hydriphilica, also literary horror, published by Alternative Book Press. Both are available on Amazon. She-Thing is a book in print, and Hydrophilica is an Amazon Digital (at http://amzn.to/2FUJvjl ).
Emily Jungmin Yoon
Poetry Participant, '15Her poem “Autopsy” was published by The New York Times Magazine in March 2018.
Attended with the help of WC&C Scholarship
Blas Falconer
Poetry Participant '12, '16His upcoming book, Forgive the Body this Failure, will be published in September, 2018. His poem “Apology For My Son Who Stops to Ask About His Mother Once More,” was recently published in the Harvard Review Online. You can read that here.
Dylan Brie Ducey
Writers Workshop Participant, '15Her two flashes, “Disorder” and “The Mother Knocks Again, Louder This Time” appeared in The Occulum in August, 2017. Also, a short story, “Jaconita,” appeared in Four Way Review in November, 2017.
Attended with the help of Carlisle Family Scholarship
Sanam Mahloudji
Writers Workshops Participant, '12Her fiction will appear in the next issue (#52) of McSweeney’s Quarterly. Her fiction is also in Passages North‘s 2018 issue and Crab Creek Review‘s Spring 2017 issue. She was also nominated for the 2018 PEN/Robert J. Dau Prize for Emerging Writers.
Priscilla Elliott
Writer's Workshop Participant, '05Her book The Sociopath’s Guide to Getting Ahead is a practical satire coming out March 13, 2018 from Skyhorse Publishing.
Ben Hinshaw
Writers Workshops Participant, '17His story ‘Brazil and Back’ appeared in the Fall/Winter 2017 issue of The Carolina Quarterly. Elsewhere, his story ‘Queen of the Forest’ placed third in the 2017 Bridport Short Story Prize, and his collection Exactly What You Mean won the 2017 Maurice Prize in Fiction. In January 2018, Ben received a grant from the Elizabeth George Foundation.
Attended with the help of Carlisle Family Scholarship
Diane Wolff
Writers Workshop Participant '84In early February, she did a reading from her work of narrative history An Offer He Couldn’t Refuse: The Man of Iron Recruits the Man of Letters. The reading took place at a conference at the Embassy of Mongolia in Washington, D. C., hosted by the Ambassador.
Ashley Roach-Freiman
Poetry Workshop Participant, '14Her first chapbook, Bright Along the Body, was released by Dancing Girl Press in December 2017. Ashley reckons with and troubles the idea of identity in marriage and the overwhelming project of desire.
David Dixon
Poetry Participant '17His poem “Noel Reeks of Bleach,” was recently published in the winter 2018 issue of Blue Streak, a poetry journal from Military Experience & the Arts. He wrote this poem during his time in Squaw Valley for his session with staff poet Forrest Gander.
Attended with the help of Veteran's scholarship
Maw Shein Win
Poetry Participant '94Her full-length poetry collection, Invisible Gifts, will be published by Manic D Press in April, 2018. She is currently featured on Poetry International Web. Read the full article is here.
Susan Henderson
Writers Workshops Participant, '09Her second novel, The Flicker of Old Dreams, was published by HarperCollins in March of 2018. Susan lives in New York and blogs at the writer support group, LitPark.com.
Jasmin Darznik
Writers Workshop Participant '06, '10Her novel Song of a Captive Bird was published by Random House/Ballantine in February 2018. It tells the story of Iran’s iconic woman poet, Forugh Farrokhzad.
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.
Michael Andreasen
Writers Workshop Participant '07, Published Alumni '18His debut collection The Sea Beast Takes a Lover was published February 28, 2018, by Dutton. Michael will be returning to Squaw Valley this summer as a part of the Published Alumni Reading Series.
Attended with the help of UCI Scholarship
Ramona Ausubel
Writers Workshop Participant '07, '12Her new novel Awayland will be released from Riverhead Books this month.
Attended with the help of UC Irvine Scholarship
Hilary Zaid
Writers Workshop Participant, '12Her debut novel, Paper is White, was published in March 2018 from Bywater Books.
Attended with the help of The James D. Houston Memorial Scholarship
Sands Hall
Writers Workshops Participant and StaffHer memoir, Flunk. Start.was published by Counterpoint Press in March, 2018.
Analicia Sotelo
Poetry Participant, '16Her first full-length of collection of poetry, Virgin, the inaugural winner of the Jake Adam York Prize, selected by Ross Gay, was recently published by Milkweed Editions in February 2018.
Attended with the help of The Rebecca Osheroff Honorary Memorial Scholarship
Kazim Ali
Poetry Participant '98 / Poetry Teaching StaffHis new collection of poems, Inquisition, will be published by Wesleyan University Press, March 6, 2018.
Devi S. Laskar
Poetry Participant, '04, '08, '14, Writers Workshop Participant '04, '15Her novel The Atlas of Reds and Blue will be published by Counterpoint Press in February, 2019.
Cynthia Robinson
Writers' Workshops Participant, '13 and '14Her debut novel, Birds of Wonder, was published by Standing Stone Books on 20 February, 2018.
Cynthia Lim
Writers Workshops Participant, '15Her memoir, Wherever You Are: A Memoir of Love, Marriage, and Brain Injury, will be published by Coffeetown Press September 1, 2018.
Kenji C. Liu
Poetry Participant, '14His second full-length poetry collection, Monsters I Have Been, which frankensteins news articles, legal documents, and other texts to explore a range of masculinities, will be published by Alice Jones Books in Spring 2019. Selections from the new book have recently been published in two literary journals: Apogee and Anomaly.
Attended with the help of Oakley Hall Memorial Scholarship
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.
Michael David Lukas
Writers Workshop Participant '09His second novel, The Last Watchman of Old Cairo, will be published March 13, 2018, by Spiegel and Grau.
Attended with the help of The James D. Houston Memorial Scholarship
Wayétu Moore
Writers Workshop Participant '09Her debut novel, She Would Be King, will be released in September 2018 from Graywolf Press.
Attended with the help of the Carlisle Family Scholarship
Hilary Zaid
Writers Workshop Participant, '12Her debut novel, Paper is White, will be be released on March 13, 2018 from Bywater Books.
Attended with the help of The James D. Houston Memorial Scholarship
Javier Zamora
Poetry Participant '10Letras Latinas, the literary initiative at the University of Notre Dame’s Institute for Latino Studies (ILS), in partnership with Duende District Bookstore, is pleased to welcome award-winning poet, Javier Zamora, who will be in Washington, D.C. from February 26 through March 1. While in Washington, Zamora will give a public reading, take part in a colloquium with university students, spend time with students at a bilingual elementary school, and dialogue with students in a college-level writing workshop.
Scott Edward Anderson
Art of the Wild Participant, '92He has two recent essays published, “Hallelujah: I’m No Genius” in Schuylkill Valley Journal Online and a craft essay, “POETRY AS PRACTICE: How Paying Attention Helps Us Improve Our Writing in the Age of Distraction” in Cleaver Magazine. His new book, Dwelling: an ecopoem, will be published in Fall 2018 by Shanti Arts.
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.
Shobha Rao
Writers Workshop Participant '02Her debut novel, Girls Burn Brighter, will be published by Flatiron Books in March 2018. She is also the author of the short story collection, An Unrestored Woman.
Valerie Wallace
Poetry Participant '10Her debut novel, House of McQueen, will be published by Four Way Books in March, 2018.
Sara Borjas
Writers Workshop Participant '13Her debut collection of poetry, We Are Too Big for This House, will be published in 2019 by Noemi Press as part of the Akrilica Series.
Attended with the help of UC Riverside Scholarship
Marlene Shigekawa
Screenwriters Workshop Participant '06, '12Her documentary film, For the Sake of the Children, will be screened in San Francisco on February 24 at the New People Cinema as well as in Los Angeles. Prior screenings have taken place at venues throughout LA , at the Museum of the Moving Image in New York and at the University of Montana.
Bill Pieper
Writers Workshops Participant, '10His story “Wildflower Season” was published in the winter 2017 issue of Chiron Review, joining a lineage of past contributors that runs from Kerouac and Bukowski to Marge Piercy and Lorri Jackson. It is the first of his recent acceptances to see print, soon to be followed by “Barcelona Days” in Lipstick Party Mag and “Hi, Grandma” in Corvus Review. ChironReview.com
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.
Michael Andreasen
Writers Workshops Participant, '07His debut collection The Sea Beast Takes a Lover will be available February 28, 2018, from Dutton. The collection features stories that have appeared in The New Yorker, Tin House, McSweeney’s, Zoetrope: All-Story, and Quarterly West. “Andreasen has the soul of a poet and the heart of a yarn spinner; he breathes new life into familiar tropes via the ingenuity of his storytelling and his tendency to color outside the lines. The 11 refreshing stories in this debut collection are full of delicious detours, and ultimately they’re the point.” –Publisher’s Weekly
Attended with the help of UCI Irvine Scholarship
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
Vishwas R Gaitonde
Writers Workshop Participant, '14Gaitonde’s multimedia essay, “The Birth, Death & Reincarnation of the Harmonium,” published by The Mantle, New York, in 2016 & republished by Scroll.in (Delhi, India) in 2016, has been republished by the music magazine Serenade in Jan 2018. A Dutch translation of Gaitonde’s essay, titled “De tijreis van het harmonium over de continenten,” along with additional material on the harmonium, was published in Vox Humana, Holland, in 2017.
Elaine Barnard
Writers workshops Participant 11Elaine Barnard’s work collection of stories from her travels in Asia: Emperor of Nuts: Intersections Across Cultures will be published by New Meridian Arts in 2018.Elaine Barnard’s work has appeared in a number of publications: Her short story, “Shadows” was recently published in Red Fez; “Pomegranate” was recently published in Crux; “The Road” was recently published in Fixional; and “An Ordeal” is forthcoming in Sunlight.
Ann Fisher-Wirth
Poetry Participant, '92, '00, '09, '13Ann Fisher-Wirth’s fifth book of poems, Mississippi, has just been released by Wings Press; it is a poetry/photography collaboration with the acclaimed Delta photographer Maude Schuyler Clay. She will be traveling throughout Mississippi to promote the book during the spring of 2018. In May she will be a Research Fellow at Bielefeld University, Germany, giving readings and teaching ecopoetry for their Project Entangled Americas; and will be giving readings for the Environmental Humanities Laboratory at the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, Sweden. She has recently completed Because Here We Are (poems); one chapbook-length section is forthcoming in At Length.
Robert Lipton
Poetry Participant 2003, 1995Robert Lipton won the the 2018 Gregory O’Donoghue Poetry Competition at the Munster Literature Center in Cork, Ireland. Author of A Complex Bravery published by Marick Press, the prize is for his poem “Official Story.” He will participate in the Cork International Poetry Festival, Feb. 2018, and will have his work published in the Munster Literary journal Southword.
David Kerns
Writers Workshop Participant '05His novel, Fortnight on Maxwell Street was published in February, 2018.
Jasmin Darznik
Writers Workshops Participant in Fiction and Nonfiction, '06,'10Her novel Song of a Captive Bird was published by Random House/Ballantine in February 2018. It tells the story of Iran’s iconic woman poet, Forugh Farrokhzad.
Cynthia Robinson
Writers' Workshops Participant '13, '14Her forthcoming novel, Birds of Wonder, out on February 20, 2018, with Standing Stone Books, received 5 stars and a featured review in the January/February 2018 issue of Foreword.
Marilyn Kallet
Her new book of poems, How Our Bodies Learned, was published by Black Widow Press in January, 2018.
Marcelo Hernandez Castillo
Poetry WorkshopMarcelo Hernandez Castillo’s collection, Dulce, will be published by Northwestern University Press in April, 2018.
Emily Jungmin Yoon
Poetry Participant, '15Emily Jungmin Yoon’s first full-length collection of poetry, A Cruelty Special to Our Species, will be published by Ecco Books this September.
Attended with the help of WC&C Scholarship.
Michelle Ruiz Keil
Writers Workshop Participant '14Her short story “Random Magick” was recently published on Cosmonauts Avenue. You can read it here.
Sawnie Morris
Poetry Participant '90, '92, '07, '10, '13She was recently named the inaugural poet laureate of Taos, New Mexico.
Dave Essinger
Writers Workshops Participant, '09His new novel Running Out was published by Main Street Rag Publishing Company in June 2017.
Attended with the help of Lojo Foundation Scholarship.
Linda González
Writer Workshops Participant '15Her memoir The Cost of Our Lives, a story of two families on either side of the Rio Grande, was published by Wido Press and is available at widopublishing.com.
Lara Gularte
Poetry Participant '05, Writers Workshop Participant '04, '06Her new book of poetry, Kissing the Bee, was published by The Bitter Oleander Press in January, 2018.
Michele Montgomery
Writers Workshop Participant '07Her essay, “We Were Snubbed by Our Dead Dog. Twice.” was published this month in the New York Times. The link to the essay can be found here.
Tara Dorabji
Writers Workshop Participant '13She has new work published in All the Women in My Family Sing, edited by Deborah Santana, a collection of prose and poetry. The collection includes writing by Michelle “Mush” Lee, Natalie Baszile, Phiroozeh Petigara, Samina Ali, Soniah Kamal, Nayomi Munaweera, Kira Lynne Allen and more!
Amber Flora Thomas
Poetry Participant, '92, '99, '01, '03, '05, '13Her book Red Channel in the Rupture: Poems is forthcoming from Red Hen Press, August 2018.
Ramona Ausubel
Writers Workshop Participant '07, '12Her new novel Awayland will be published by Riverhead Books in March, 2018.
Mary Freericks
Poetry Workshop participant '89, '91, 09Her collection of poems, Blue Watermelon, which represents vivid memories from her childhood in Iran, was published in January and is now available on Amazon.
Caitlin McCarthy
Screenwriting Program Participant, '13Her pilot teleplay “Virtual Vida” is a Quarterfinalist for the 2018 CineStory TV/Digital Fellowship (Original Comedy Division). Her script boasts an inclusive cast with a Puerto Rican female lead. Learn more about Caitlin’s writing at www.caitlinmccarthy.com.
Devi S. Laskar
Poetry Participant '04, '08, '14, Writers Workshop Participant '04, '15Her second chapbook Anastasia Maps was published by Finishing Line Press in December 2017. Her first chapbook, Gas & Food, No Lodging was also published by Finishing Line last March.
Gene Berson
poetry participant, '17His book, raveling travel, was published by Open Book Press. The book contains several poems recently published in Sisyphuslitmag.org, the winter issue of Canarylitmag.org, and Red Fez.
Attended with the help of the Alexander Cushing Memorial Scholarship for Locals.
Terry Shames
Writers Workshop Participant '99A Reckoning in the Back Country, Terry Shames’s seventh novel in the award-winning Samuel Craddock series,was published in January 2018, by Seventh Street Book.
Jamie Cat Callan
Writers Workshop Participant, '91Her latest book Parisian Charm School was published by Penguin Random House in January, 2018.
David Hagerty
Writers Workshop Participant, 2006He has published the third book in his series of political mysteries. They Tell Me You Are Brutal (Evolved Publishing, 2017) continues the story of Gov. Duncan Cochrane, who has a murderous family secret to conceal and a saboteur to capture.
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.”
Marilyn Kallet
Poetry participant, 1995, 1996, 2005Her new book of poems, How Our Bodies Learned, will be out from Black Widow Press in early January, 2018.
Kimball Pier
Writer's workshop 2005, 2011, 2015Her memoir, Killing Penelope – A daughter’s Memoir of Failed Rescues, was published in August of 2017 by Lucky Bat Books. Killing Penelope is a true story about a girl’s devotion to her mother Penelope, a wild and eccentric woman who held a shotgun with more comfort than she held her baby girl. When Penelope became seriously ill, Kimball’s life became frightening and unpredictable. The author gives a beautiful portrayal of her experience of retrieving humor, grace, and gratitude from the rubble of despair and loss.
Sandra Scofield
Writers Workshops Teaching StaffHer craft book, The Last Draft: A Novelist’s Guide to Revision, has been published by Penguin.
Dedria A. Humphries
Writers Workshop Participant '08, '15Her essay, “The Girl with the Good Hair” appeared in the anthology, The Beiging of America: Personal Narratives about Being Mixed Race in the 21st Century, edited by Cathy J. Shlund-Vials, Sean Frederick Forbes and Tara Betts with an afterword by Heidi W. Durrow, published by 2Leaf Press. 2Leaf Press also published Dedria’s essay, “Was My Father Just Another Pig” in their Black Lives Have Always Mattered anthology edited by Abiodun Oyewole. Dedria also published an essay entitled “When the Riot Came Home” on salon.com about the 1967 Detroit riot. www.2leafpress.org
Vishwas R. Gaitonde
Writers Workshops Participant, 2014His article, “The Grand Piano Chase,” tracing the progress of Lydian Nadhaswaram, a music prodigy in India through the pianos he played, was published on Nov 9, 2017 in The Hindu, a leading newspaper in southern India. You can read it online here. Though a stand-alone piece, it is also a follow-up to his earlier comprehensive multi-media essay on Nadhaswaram, published in May 2017 in The Mantle, New York, which you can read here.
Sands Hall
Writers Workshops Participant, Teaching StaffHer memoir, Flunk. Start., will be released by Counterpoint Press in March, 2018.
www.sandshall.com
Cynthia Robinson
Writers' Workshop Participant, '13, '14Her op-ed, “Girls Are Fine, Just Don’t Get Caught,” has been published in the opinion section of The Hill. The topic–which never seems to go away, not even in the #metoo moment we’re living right now–is closely related to her forthcoming debut novel, Birds of Wonder (February 2018).
Judy Bebelaar
Poetry Participant '08, '10Her non-fiction book, And Then They Were Gone: Teenagers of Peoples Temple from High School to Jonestown, co-written with fellow teacher Ron Cabral about the students they knew who were sent to San Francisco’s Opportunity High by Jim Jones in 1976, will be published by Sugartown Publishing in December, 2017.
Jennifer Egan
Writers Workshop Participant, '89Her newest novel, Manhattan Beach, was released from Charles Scribner’s Sons in October, 2017.
Stephanie Taylor
Writers Workshop Participant '13As a celebration of the 200th anniversary of the publication of Shelley’s Frankenstein in 1818, she is working with the director of the Sacramento library, Rivkah Sass, on a special graphic narrative. She will be editing the text, without changing any words, and adding around 50 of her interpreted illustrations. This will take on a “how to make a monster” approach, and describe what happened when Frankenstein (only a student, never a doctor) succeeded. The Sacramento Library events start in January.
Erin Adair Hodges
Poetry Participant '14Erin Adair-Hodges’ first book, Let’s All Die Happy, is the winner of the 2016 Agnes Lynch Starrett Poetry Prize and was published as part of the Pitt Poetry Series in October 2017.
Victoria Patterson
Writers Workshop Participant, '06, '12Her new book of stories, The Secret Habit of Sorrow, is forthcoming from Counterpoint in July, 2018.
Maria Hummel
Writers Workshop Participant, '09Her newest novel, Still Lives, is forthcoming from Counterpoint in June, 2018.
Julia Scheeres
Writers Workshop Participant, '03She confronts ghosts during a tour of her childhood home for an essay in Narrative Magazine.
Jacqueline Doyle
Writers Workshop Participant, '14She has recent creative nonfiction in The Gettysburg Review (Summer 2017) and Superstition Review (Spring 2017), and a Notable Essay listing in Best American Essays 2017 for her essay “A Eulogy, Despite” in Full Grown People. Her flash chapbook The Missing Girl (winner of the Black River Chapbook Competition) was published by Black Lawrence Press in fall 2017. Her flash “Zig Zag” won the 2017 flash contest at Midway Journal, judged by Michael Martone, and she has recent microflash in matchbook and Wigleaf, among others.
Jeanne Foster
Poetry Participant, '88, Writers Workshop Participant '89, '92The Living Theatre: Selected Poems by Bianca Tarozzi, translated from the Italian by Jeanne Foster and Alan Williamson, was released by BOA Editions, Ltd., October 2017, in The Lannan Translations Selection Series.
Katherine Vaz
Writers Workshops Staff and Participant, '88Katherine Vaz’s new fifth book, The Love Life of an Assistant Animator & Other Stories Paperback, was published in April 2017 by Tailwinds Press. “What rich, eccentric, at times even farcical joys these stories evoke–and, at the same time, what poignant, aching sorrows. Vaz’s characters, from the gravity of their family ties to the folly and grace of their soaring aspirations, take us deep inside ourselves and our never-ending struggle to find our way in a world that changes far too fast around us.”– Julie Glass, author of Three Junes.
Attended with the help of the UC Irvine Scholarship
Jimin Han
Jimin Han’s novel, A Small Revolution, was published in May 2017 (Little A Books). It was featured as: A BuzzFeed Binge-Worthy Literary Book, one of Electric Literature’s 34 Books by Women of Color to Read This Year, one of Redbook’s 20 Books By Women You Must Read this Spring
Susan Henderson
Writers Workshops Participant, '09She was featured in Publishers Weekly‘s September 11th Author Profile. The profile discussed the Montana town of 180 people that Henderson lived in for a month to research her novel, The Flicker of Old Dreams, which will be published by HarperCollins in March of 2018.
Jasmin Darznik
Writers Workshops Participant in Fiction and Nonfiction, '06,'10Her novel Song of a Captive Bird will be published by Random House/Ballantine in February 2018. It tells the story of Iran’s iconic woman poet, Forugh Farrokhzad. Darznik also recently joined the MFA faculty at California College of the Arts.
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.
Sommer Schafer
Writers Workshops Participant '13Her short story, “Leaving Hope,” appears in the Fall/Winter 2017 Issue of The Carolina Quarterly.
David Kerns
Writers Workshop Participant '05His novel, Fortnight on Maxwell Street, is forthcoming from Bay Tree Publishing in February, 2018. It is a reluctant hero’s journey of fear and courage set in Chicago in the spring of 1968. The young medical student protagonist spends two weeks delivering babies in the kitchens and bedrooms of the inner-city’s slum tenements. Over his head medically, and unprotected in one of America’s most dangerous neighborhoods, his character and resourcefulness are tested in the extreme when a national tragedy intervenes.
David Corbett
Writers Workshop Participant '88, '89, '91, '99, '01His latest novel, The Long-Lost Love Letters of Doc Holliday, will be published in 2018 by Black Opal Books. His writing guide, The Art of Character, recently has been purchased for publication in Spain and China. His short story, “Rusty Cage,” appeared in the anthology Just to Watch Them Die, premised on the songs of Johnny Cash. He is a contributing editor at Writer’s Digest, a regular contributor to the blog Writer Unboxed, and continues to provide his fiction workshops at the San Miguel de Allende Writers’ Conference in Mexico (and other conferences), as well as at Book Passage in the Bay Area (where he is co-chair of the annual Mystery Writers’ Conference), and online at Litreactor.
Jimin Han
Writers Workshop Participant '95Her novel, A Small Revolution, was published in May 2017 (Little A Books). Los Angeles Review of Books called it “a novel of remarkably rendered extremes.…It is an ambitious and accomplished debut that pulls us out of our comfortable window seats and places us in a room, in a young woman’s heart, and in a nascent democracy’s earliest days.” It was featured as: A BuzzFeed Binge-Worthy Literary Book, one of Electric Literature’s 34 Books by Women of Color to Read This Year, one of Redbook’s 20 Books By Women You Must Read this Spring
Attended with the help of Ann & Gordon Getty Foundation Scholarship
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/
Evie Shockley
Poetry Teaching Staff & Participant, '99Evie Shockley’s new collection, semiautomatic, was published by Wesleyan University Press in September and was featured on Publisher’s Weekly’s best 10 list for Poetry this Fall. “Insisting on the power of art, Shockley traces the various forms of violence that cross racial, ethnic, gender, class, sexual, national, and linguistic boundaries.” www.publishersweekly.com
Lucinda Watson
Poetry Participant '91, '92, '96, '98, '02, '04Her essays “In Rome with My Dad on Business” and “Letter Yet Unsent” were nominated for a Pushcart Prize in 2017. They will appear in Issue 30 of Umbrella Factory magazine, coming out December 15, 2017.
Christopher Sindt
Poetry Participant, '13Christopher Sindt’s new book, System and Population, is published in Parlor Press’s Free Verse Editions series (2017). System and Population is a lyric account of the proposed damming of the American River in Northern California. It explores the intersections of personal and cultural experience, scientific study, and the politics of dams and rivers; meditates on human experiences, such as parenthood and loss; and studies the effects of environmental damage and disaster. www.parlorpress.com
Jami Macarty
Poetry Participant, '10, '14, '17Mind of Spring, the winner of the 2017 Vallum Chapbook Award and Jami Macarty’s second chapbook of poetry, was released into Poetry Land October 16, 2017. www.vallummag.com
Marjorie Robertson
Writers Workshop Participant '08Her debut novel, Bitters in the Honey, is now available in paperback. This novel began as Robertson’s MFA these at George Mason University under the tutelage of Alan Cheuse.
Laura Swearingen-Steadwell
Poetry Participant '15Her new poetry collection, All Blue So Late, winner of the 2016 Cave Canem Northwestern University Press Poetry Prize, was released in December, 2017, from Northwestern University Press.
Grace Talusan
Writers Workshop Participant, '98She is the winner of the 2017 Restless Books Prize for New Immigrant Writing for Nonfiction for The Body Papers, a memoir about trauma, illness, and immigration as told through personal and official documentation, scheduled for publication in the Fall of 2018. She teaches writing at Tufts University and Grub Street. As a Fulbright Scholar, she returned to the Philippines for several months, the longest time she spent there since leaving at age three. She lives outside of Boston with her husband Alonso Nichols, a photographer. She attended The Community of Writers in 1998.
JJ Strong
Writers Workshops Participant, 2013.His debut novel, Us Kids Know, was published on October 24 by Razorbill, an imprint at Penguin Random House.
Michele Karas
Poetry Participant, '17Several of her poems begun at the 2017 Community of Writers Poetry Workshop appear in 2 Horatio, an annual Village-based literary journal. She read several poems at the book launch in October at Jefferson Market Library in NYC.
Judy Juanita
Writers Workshop Participant ‘92The paperback edition of her book Virgin Soul was recently released (Equidistance Press, 2017). Virgin Soul was “discovered” at Squaw by the late greats Fred Hill and James Houston., and is a required text in many college classes. Her collection of essays, a Distinguished Finalist in OSU’s NonFiction 2016 Prize, DeFacto Feminism: Essays Straight Outta Oakland (Equidistance, 2016), garnered a starred Kirkus Review and Kirkus Book of the Month, March, 2017.
Marjorie Saiser
Poetry Participant '00Her most recent book, I Have Nothing to Say About Fire (The Backwaters Press, 2016) won the Nebraska Book Award for poetry. For a video of a reading from the book launch, go to poetmarge.com.
Elaine Barnard
Writers Workshop Participant, '72, '80, '11Her short stories appeared or are forthcoming in the 2017 issues of Fixional, Zimbell House, Lost River Review, Beach Reads, Sunlight Press, Argot, and The Crux.
Jonathan (J.G.) McClure
Poetry Participant '14His first poetry collection, The Fire Lit & Nearing, is coming soon from Indolent Books. It includes poems he workshopped at the Community of Writers. The book will be generally available at bookstores and online in April 2018.
Attended with the help of The UC Irvine MFA scholarship
Ama Codjoe
Poetry Participant '15She recently received the 2017 Rona Jaffe Foundation Writer’s Award, which is given annually to six women writers who demonstrate excellence and promise in the early stages of their careers.
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.
Marcelo Hernandez Castillo
Marcelo Hernandez Castillo’s new collection of poetry, Cenzontle, will be published by BOA Editions, Ltd., in April of 2018.
Jennifer Haupt
Writers Workshop Participant '09, '13Her new novel, In the Shadow of 10,000 Hills, a story about finding grace when there can be no forgiveness, set against the backdrop of post-genocide Rwanda, will be published by Central Avenue Publishing on April 1, 2018. She workshopped this novel both times she attended the Community of Writers workshops.
Stephen Massimilla
Poetry Workshop Participant '04, '06His multi-genre co-authored volume, Cooking with the Muse (Tupelo), won the Eric Hoffer Award, the National Indie Excellence Award, the New England Book Award, the USA News Best Book Award, and others, and was named a top pick by Bella Magazine, Foreword, and Epicurus’s Laurie’s Library, and “best of the summer” by The Chicago Tribune. Over 70 recent interviews appeared or are forthcoming in such newspapers as Epoch Times, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, and the Huffington Post; the sites of Edible, Food52, Mass Poetry, Poetry Flash, Poetry International, the PSA, and many others; and many radio shows. Other work appeared in recent months in over 30 publications, including The Collagist, Mudlark, Notre Dame, Poet Lore, Poetry Daily, Pleiades, Posit, StorySouth, Washington Square, Whole Life, The New English Verse anthology, and The Traveler’s Vade Mecum.
Michael Andreasen
Writers Workshop Participant '07His debut collection The Sea Beast Takes a Lover will be available February 28, 2018, from Dutton. The collection features stories that have appeared in The New Yorker, Tin House, McSweeney’s, Zoetrope: All-Story, and Quarterly West.
Attended with the help of UCI Scholarship
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
Paco Márquez
Poetry Participant, '12His first chapbook, Portraits in G Minor, is out through Folded Word Press. He also has poems soon forthcoming in Huizache and Perigee.
Berwyn Moore
Poetry Participant '90, '92Her third collection of poems, Sweet Herbaceous Miracle, won the 2017 John Ciardi Prize from BkMk Press, University of Missouri-Kansas City. Enid Shomer was the judge.
Sally Van Doren
Poetry Participant "01, "03, "06Garrison Keillor featured a poem, “Defiance,” from her upcoming book Promise on his show The Writer’s Almanac. Promise was published by LSU Press this fall.
Cynthia Robinson
Writers Workshop Participant '13, '14Her story, “Maison des Oiseaux,” finalist for the Jeffery E. Smith Editors’ Prize, is featured this week on the Missouri Review‘s website. You can read it for free at missourireview.com. Her novel, Birds of Wonder, will be published by Standing Stone Books in February 2018.
Aleta George
Writers Workshops Participant, '05, '10She received an inaugural Alan Jutzi Residential Fellowship for Non-Traditional Scholars at The Huntington Library.
KB Ballentine
Poetry Participant ‘15Her fifth collection of poetry, Almost Everything, Almost Nothing, was released in September by Middle Creek Publishing. Several of the poems in this collection were crafted in the Community of Writers at Squaw Valley Poetry Program, including the title poem. www.kbballentine.com.
Attended with the help of The Galway Kinnell Memorial Scholarship
Jill Kolongowski
Writers Workshops Participant '14Her first book, an essay collection called Life Lessons Harry Potter Taught Me, will be released by Ulysses Press in October 2017. Using a combination of personal stories and literary criticism, these essays grapple with the themes at the core of Harry and the trio’s journey and considers how the series shaped the worldview of a generation–from the need to hold tight to a sense of humor and wonder to the feminism of Hermione and the courage needed for the fight against oppression.
Attended with the help of St. Mary's MFA Scholarship
Melissa Fondakowski
Poetry Participant, 02Her first novel, Out, was published on August 29, 2017. Out is a coming-of-age, coming out novel that mirrors the plot of Dante’s Purgatorio. Melissa’s novel, as well as her podcast, can be found at sermonarian.com.
Dan Bellm
Poetry Participant, '90, '92, '95, '97, '03His translation of Mexican poet Pura López Colomé, Speaking in Song, came out from Shearsman Books (UK) in September 2017. His fourth book of poems, Deep Well, was published by Lavender Ink (New Orleans) in April 2017. His translation of The Song of the Dead by Pierre Reverdy was published by Black Square Editions (New York) in September 2016.
Ian Randall Wilson
Poetry Participant '08, '93; Writers Workshop '04His first poetry collection, Ruthless Heaven, was published by Finishing Line Press in October, 2017.
Bruce Rettig
Writers Workshops Participant, '12, and '15He won first place for his memoir, Refraction, in the Pacific Northwest Writers Association’s 2017 Literary Contest. Over six hundred pieces were submitted to twelve contest categories, and final winners were announced at the conference and awards dinner in Seattle. PNWA is a nonprofit organization dedicated to authors and the development of writing talent from pen to publication through education, accessibility to the publishing industry, and participation in an interactive, vital writer community. Rettig’s memoir was workshopped at the 2015 Community of Writers Workshop. His website is BruceRettig.com.
Attended with the help of The Carlisle Family Scholarship
Vickie Vértiz
Writers Workshop and Poetry Participant, '15She recently published Palm Frond with Its Throat Cut, her second collection of poetry with the University of Arizona Press, Camino del Sol Series. In 2016, she was selected by Natalie Diaz as the Poetry Center resident at the University of Arizona, Tucson. She continues to write essays on Los Angeles arts and community development for KCET. www.vickievertiz.wordpress.com
Attended with the help of The Lucille Clifton Scholarship, Ancinas Scholarship
Emily Jungmin Yoon
Poetry Participant 2015She was recently awarded the Ruth Lilly and Dorothy Rosenberg Sargent Fellowship from the Poetry Foundation. Her chapbook, Ordinary Misfortunes, winner of the Sunken Garden Chapbook Poetry Prize, was published by Tupelo Press this July, and her first full-length poetry collection, A Cruelty Special to Our Species, will be published by Ecco Books in September 2018.
Attended with the help of WC&C Scholarship
Mary Kuryla
Writers’ Workshop Participant, '10.Her collection Freak Weather: Stories was selected by Amy Hempel for the 2016 AWP Grace Paley Prize in Short Fiction and was published by University of Massachusetts Press in November, 2017. This Fall, 2017, her short stories appeared in Shenandoah and The Denver Quarterly.
Attended with the help of The Thomas P. Jones Scholarship
Alia Volz
Writers Workshop Participant, '11, '14Her essay “Snakebit,” originally published in The Threepenny Review, has been selected for The Best American Essays 2017, guest-edited by Leslie Jamison. Available at a local independent bookstore near you in October.
Attended with the help of Oakley Hall Memorial Scholarship, Oakley Hall III Fiction Scholarship
Christopher DeWan
ScreenwritingHis short story “The Atheist of Dekalb Street” was selected for this year’s Best Small Fictions anthology, edited by Amy Hempel and now available from Braddock Avenue Books.
Elana K Arnold
Writers Workshop Participant '95,'98Her novel What Girls Are Made of has been longlisted for the National Book Award in Young People’s Literature.
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
Laurie Ann Doyle
Writers Workshops Participant, '09, '14Laurie Ann Doyle’s new book of stories, World Gone Missing, was published by Regal House press in September 2017.
Tiphanie Yanique
Her essay “Americans in a Battered Paradise,” on Hurricane Irma and the U.S. Virgin Islands, appeared in the New York Times on September 12th. Tiphanie was subsequently interviewed on “Democracy Now” and NPR’s “Weekend Edition Sunday.”
Charmaine Craig
Writers Workshops Participant, '97, '98.Her novel Miss Burma (Grove Press/ Grove Atlantic) made the National Book Award long list for fiction. www.nationalbook.org
Janine Kovac
Writers Workshops Participant, '11, '12, '14, '16Her debut memoir Spinning: Choreography for Coming Home was published by Moxie Road Productions on September 19, 2017. Originally conceived as a cognitive science primer, Spinning is a memoir that weaves the story of micro preemie twins with chronicle of the untimely end to Janine’s career as an international ballet dancer.
Attended with the help of George Pascoe Miller (2011 ), Carlisle Family Foundation (2012), Dirk Eshleman (2014)
Erich Stonestreet
Screenwriters Workshop Participant, '06Erich Stonestreet colonized Mars in the comedy sci-fi short The Americano, produced for the 2017 NASA film festival.
Judy Bebelaar
Poetry Workshop '08, '10Her non-fiction book, And Then They Were Gone: Teenagers of Peoples Temple from High School to Jonestown, co-written with fellow teacher Ron Cabral about the students they knew who were sent to San Francisco’s Opportunity High by Jim Jones in 1976, will be published by Sugartown Publishing in the fall of 2017.
Thomas Allbaugh
Writers Workshops Participant, '13His first novel, Apocalypse TV, will be published by eLectio Publishers in early October, 2017.
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.
Alice Anderson
Poetry Workshop Participant '92, '93, '08Her new memoir, Some Bright Morning, I’ll Fly Away, was published by St. Martin’s Press in August, 2017.
Jeff Solomon
Poetry Participant '00, Writers Workshop Participant '92His book So Famous and So Gay: The Fabulous Potency of Truman Capote and Gertrude Stein was published in May 2017 by the University of Minnesota Press.
Attended with the help of UC Irvine Scholarship
Lucy Biederman
Poetry Participant, '11Her book The Walmart Book of the Dead won the 2017 Vine Leaves Press Vignette Collection Award and will be published later this year.
Nettie Reynolds (previously Hartsock)
Writers Workshop Participant 1999Her two one-minute plays are part of this year’s National One Minute Play Festival.