Writing Salon student Robin Michel published her debut poetry collection entitled Beneath a Strawberry Night Sky with Raven & Wren Press.

The paperback edition of instructor Lisa Moore Ramée’s third book, MapMaker, was released in September from Harper Collins Publishers.

Instructor Cary Groner is delighted to report good news from four of his former students. Kate Keleher went on to earn an MFA from Johns Hopkins and has joined the faculty there as a junior assistant professor. Chelsea Bowlby completed her MFA at Vanderbilt in 2021, and has stories recently published or forthcoming in Story and The Sun. Vanessa Chan earned her MFA at the New School in NYC and will publish her debut novel, The Storm We Made, with Simon & Schuster in January 2024. Finally, Sachiko Ragosta will begin her MFA studies at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop this fall. Congratulations to all!

Student Dorothy O’Donnell‘s The Road to Durango, about intergenerational trauma, mental health, and the love between family members that transcends all, is out now in HerStry.

The poem Long Distance, by instructor Brian Tierney came out in Poetry Magazine. It was the audio poem of the day on May 1, 2023.

Instructor Alison Luterman’s poem Offering came out in the Anacapa Review.

Instructor Andy Touhy’s story Arms was published by Lake Effect in Spring 2023.

The audobook for Looks Good on Paper by instructor Kilby Blades came out March 7, 2023.

Bay Area writer and Writing Salon student Patricia Ljutic published her story Echoes in The Seattle Star.

In February 2023, student Barry Brynjulson self-published his second novel, PAWNS, QUEENS, KINGS…THE ENDGAME. It chronicles six seniors in a senior living facility who seek purpose, esteem, companionship and dignity as they deal with the effects of aging.

Student Mary Beth O’Connor’s memoir From Junkie to Judge: One Woman’s Triumph Over Trauma and Addiction came out in January 2023. She covers the child abuse that led to teenage meth addiction, the chaos of the addiction, and the first years of her recovery. Plus, how she became a judge!

With warmth and a touch of the sardonic, Instructor Jeff Chon’s stories in This Is the Afterlife (Dec 2022) deal with how we navigate the fallout of what came before—and the ways we’re then destined to navigate the fallout of those subsequent actions. It is a study in the recursive nature of fate, how the end of one action’s lifespan leads to the birth of another, and how the most unexpected and bizarre twists in our lives are inevitable, even when they’re undeserved.

Like a hanging mobile, the stories in Instructor Jennifer Lewis’ The New Low move around each other, creating ever-changing insights between its characters, each of whom struggle with identity, addictions, judgments, and life’s contradictions.

Instructor Allison Landa’s memoir Bearded Lady is a tale of hiding and revealing, of secrets and salvation, of how what we believe sets us apart actually unites us. It’s the story of what happens when you can no longer push down your deepest humiliation and instead must truly face the world.

Student David Stewart’s collection of memoir essays True North, Down South is coming out on September 20, 2022. To write this book, David attended many workshops at The Writing Salon with facilitators Kathleen McLung, Kerry Muir, and Julie Bruck.

Student C. Eliot Mullins was a featured poet for the June 2022 edition of Cathexis Northwest Press. Two of the poems featured were written during her poetry mentorship with Instructor Erin Rodoni.

Instructor Lori Ostlund has taken over as the new Flannery O’Connor Award for Short Fiction Series Editor. The award is given to one unpublished short story collection each year.

Student Ana Maria Carbonell’s short story The Grapevine recently appeared in The Acentos Review, a journal that promotes Latinx writers. Ana Maria started the story in instructor Elaine Beale’s class and workshopped parts of it in instructors Lori Ostlund and Anne Raeff’s class.

Student Sara McAulay’s poem Get in line and stay there was published in Rise-Up Review

Instructor Lisa Gluskin Stonestreet’s poem Certain, Impossible Likely appears in the anthology Broadsided Press: Fifteen Years of Poetic and Artistic Collaboration.

Student Sara McAulay’s poem Snail was published in Halfway Down the Stairs.

Instructor Andy Touhy’s story Touchdown is published in Invisible City (out of University of San Francisco).

Student Wendy A. Warren’s novel-in-progress, The Butcher’s Apprentice, was longlisted for the 2021 Grindstone International Novel Prize. She is grateful to Writing Salon instructors, Kathy Garlick, Junse Kim, Jessica Litwak and Andrew Touhy for helping her get to the third draft, and closer to publication.

Student C. Eliot Mullins’ poem Mating Ritual was recently published in the anthology Interconnectedness. The anthology is available through Village Books in Bellingham, WA.

Student Patricia Linn’s short story, Flashmob – Actuación Relámpago, in Spanish, has been published in El Narratorio Nº71 — thanks to Instructor Kerry Muir’s encouragement to send the story out.

Instructor Shelby Hinte joined the Split/Lip Press team as a Short Fiction/Flash Fiction reader.

2019 Jane Underwood Poetry Prize Winner John Sibley Williams’s latest poetry collection, Scale Model of a Country at Dawn, which won the Cider Press Review Book Award, is now available for preorder.

Instructor Shelby Hinte’s essay, If God is My Drug of Choice Can I Still Claim Sobriety, was published in fall 2021 in SmokeLong Quarterly.

Instructor Allison Landa’s memoir, Bearded Lady, is forthcoming from Woodhall Press in October 2022.

Instructor Kerry Muir’s essay, The Forest, is slated for publication in Issue 26 of Hunger Mountain Review.

Student Mary Tharin wrote and revised a story, Mirage, in Fiction Master Class with Lori Ostlund, and it appeared in the Summer 2021 edition of Sixfold.

Student Sara McAulay’s poem, Letter to the child in a tree, is published in Pine Row Press Issue #4, Winter 2021.

Instructor Erin Rodoni’s 3rd poetry collection, And If the Woods Carry You, winner of the 2020 Michael Waters Poetry Prize, was recently published by Southern Indiana Review Press.

Student C. Eliot Mullins’ poem, Letter to my 14-year-old self, was published in Lavender Review.

Carla Mullins, a student in Erin Rodoni’s Poetry Mentorship class, was also accepted into the Writer’s Studio program at Simon Fraser University.

Winner of Jane Underwood Poetry Prize 2019, John Sibley Williams’s upcoming collection, The Drowning House, is available for pre-order on Amazon — includes “Armistice” that won the Jane Underwood Poetry Prize in 2019.

Student Kate Sweeney’s debut novel, Catch the Light, is now available for pre-order at Black Bird Bookstore.

Student Wendy A. Warren’s novel-in-progress, The Butcher’s Apprentice, has won First Place in the 2021 Pacific Northwest Writer’s Association Literary Contest, Mainstream Unpublished division.

Student Rowena Leong Singer has been selected as the winner for literary fiction in the BookPipeline 2021 Unpublished Contest for her novel-in-progress, All Manner of Beasts.

Instructor Andy Touhy’s story, Winner’s Circle, is published in Atticus Review.

Instructor Andy Touhy’s prize-winning fiction chapbook, Designs for a Magician’s Top Hat, has been released by Yemassee at the University of South Carolina.

Instructor Steve Mitchel’s story, The Return of the Capellmeister, was a finalist for LitMag’s 2021 Virginia Woolf Award for Short Fiction. The story will be published in the fall.

Running on Moontime, instructor Kerry Muir’s new play, is excerpted in The Best Women’s Stage Monologues 2020, now out from Smith & Kraus. Other playwrights in the anthology include Adam Szymkowicz, Ralph Greco, Jr., Susan Eve Haar, Diana Burbano and more! The anthology can be purchased on Amazon or from Smith & Kraus directly on their site. 

Instructor Katharine Harer has a new book of poetry out titled Deconfliction from the Page Poets Series in SF.

Kerry Muir’s award-winning play for young actors, Befriending Bertha, was recently published by NoPassport Press in a bilingual English-Spanish Edition. Click here to purchase

Instructor Katharine Harer’s poems, The Migrant Caravan and Hope’s Trick, were published in Sin Fronteras issue #24

Dim Lights, Falling Through October, and Lure, three poems by student Dariana German, were published in Buddhist Poetry Review.

Student Erin Newellen’s Op-ed, Joe Biden’s 2020 appeal to the white working class can work. Just ask my dad., was published by NBC news.

Student LiYanne Yu’s essay TV Was My Family’s Universal Translator was just published in the New York Times.

Selected by Naomi Shihab Nye, instructor Alison Luterman’s poem, Some Girls, is featured this week in The New York Times Magazine.

Student Wendy Yim’s humorous essay Ant Farm was just published in the online journal, HerStry.

Expert travel writer and instructor Erin Van Rheenen tells what makes good travel writing, how to get started, how to pitch, and why now is a great time to work on your travel writing in an interview with Dubai Literary Salon.

Instructor Joan Gelfand will Speak on “Getting Published” at Copperfield’s Books in Petaluma on March 19, 2020 from 6:30-8pm.

Instructors Anne Raeff and Lori Ostlund, both former recipients of the Flannery O’Connor Award for Short Fiction, have stories included in the recently released Flannery O’Connor Award anthology entitled Down on the Sidewalk: Stories About Children and Childhood. The anthology is edited and published by University of Georgia Press.

Instructor Maxine Rose Schur’s new children’s book, Brave with Beauty, has been published by Yali Books.

Student Linda Jackson Collins has released her new book of poems, Painting Trees, published by Random Lane Press.

Instructor Laura Atkins’ co-authored book with Stan Yogi, Fred Korematsu Speaks Up, has been selected as part of 2020 Chicago Public Schools’ Battle of the Books program, grades 4-6.

Instructor Erin Rodoni has two new poems in Issue Twenty-Nine of The Adroit Journal.

Student Kimberly Gomes’ debut collection of poetry, Love Notes to the Body, is published by Dancing Girl Press.

Instructor Nate Klug has an essay on spirituality and friendship, “Open, Empty Hands,” in Issue 100 of Image journal.

Student Sherry Mayle’s essay “How Weed Delivery Helped Me Come Out to Mom on Her 70th Birthday” is in The Bold Italic.

Instructor Kerry Muir’s award-winning play, The Night Buster Keaton Dreamed Me, is available on Amazon from NoPassport Press as part of their Dreaming the Americas series. The bilingual edition includes the original play in English as well as a Spanish translation by Ercilia Sahores.

Instructor Heather June Gibbons’ poetry collection Her Mouth as Souvenir is featured in O, the Oprah Magazine as one of the seventeen best poetry books to read for National Poetry Month.

Instructor Maxine Rose Schur’s middle grade novel, The Word Dancer, is now available on Amazon.

Student Ellen Woods’ essay “Taking charge” is published in Moon Magazine.

The Writing Salon is featured in the Independent Book Review as one of “ten literary organizations promoting writing centers, classes, and community” through the US.

Instructor Kevin Dublin’s poem “Divorce” is a finalist for the James Applewhite Poetry Prize and will be published in the North Carolina Literary Review‘s Summer 2019 issue.

Instructor Kerry Muir’s play for children, Befriending Bertha, opened at the Gibraltar Drama Festival in Spain, garnering nominations for Best Director, Best Supporting Youth Actress, and Best Supporting Actress, while the play’s lead, Mei Liu, landed the award for Best Youth Actress.

Instructors Lori Ostlund and Anne Raeff will be in conversation with Joe Di Prisco on February 26 at 7pm at the Lafayette Library as part of its Distinguished Speakers Series.

Student Cecile Earle’s poem “Centos for John Haines” won first prize in the Bay Area Poets Coalition 2018 contest (under 40 lines category).

Instructor Kathleen McClung’s poem “Inverness Late March” won first prize in the Bay Area Poets Coalition 2018 contest (under 15 lines category).

Instructor Heather June Gibbons’ poetry collection Her Mouth as Souvenir was reviewed in Tupelo Quarterly.

Student Sherry Mayle’s essay “I Faked Epilepsy as a Child to Get Attention” was just published in Narratively.

Instructor Andrew R. Touhy’s three fictions (“Forty-two,” “A Dream,” and “Daddy Days”) are in the fall 2018 issue of Birdland Journal.

Instructor Kerry Muir’s essay “BLUR,” which originally appeared in River Teeth, was named as a notable in the Best American Essays 2018, ed. Hilton Als.

Instructor Nate Klug’s poem “Aconite” is in Best American Poetry 2018, ed. Dana Gioia.

Two Writing Salon students placed in the Glimmer Train “New Writers” contest. Alyse Han won an honorable mention, and Chelsea Bowlby Novello was a finalist.

Instructor Brian Tierney’s poem “Polyphagia” was awarded second place in Frontier Poetry’s 2018 Industry Prize.

Students Elise Kazanjian/Raluca Ioanid and Bonnie McManis/Sarah HaBa are among the seven intergenerational pairs of writers who will be reading at Bay Area Generations on Monday, July 23 at The Bindery on Haight Street. Instructor Kathleen McClung is co-curator of the event.

Instructor Laura Atkins’ co-written book, Fred Korematsu Speaks Up, is selected as the winner of the Social Justice Literature Award in the nonfiction category from the International Literacy Association (ILA).

Instructor Daniel Ari’s poem “I want more of you” is published by Dual Coast Magazine.

Instructor Heather June Gibbons’ poetry collection Her Mouth as Souvenir, winner of the 2017 Agha Shahid Ali Poetry Prize, has been published by the University of Utah Press and is now available for order.

Instructor Kathleen McClung has won the 2017 Morton Marr Poetry Prize for her pantoum, “Biking Circle Drive.” A three-time finalist in recent years, she receives a cash prize of $1,000 and publication in Southwest Review. Erica Dawson served as the 2017 judge for the formal verse contest.

Instructor Laura Atkins’ co-written book, Fred Korematsu Speaks Up, has won the Carter G. Woodson Award for middle grade social studies books from the National Council for Social Studies (NCSS).

Instructor Daniel Ari will perform his poetry sequence “Mirabai and the Faeries” at The Marsh Theater in San Francisco (1062 Valencia St) as part of the Monday Night Marsh series on April 16 and April 30.

Student Kate Jessica Raphael has been nominated for a 2018 Lambda Literary Award for her mystery novel, Murder under the Fig Tree.

Instructor Karen Bjorneby has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize for her essay, “A Half Century Later, the Cuban Missile Crisis Haunts My Dreams”, published as part of the Smithsonian’s “What It Means To Be American” project in connection with Zocalo Public Square.

Instructor Lori Ostlund will be conversing with Anne Raeff to launch Raeff’s new novel Winter Kept Us Warm on February 13th at Green Apple Books on 9th Ave. Start time is 7:30pm.

Student Janey Skinner’s story entitled “Footholds” has recently appeared in Litro.

Instructor Kerry Muir’s BLUR & Other Essays, a memoir-in-essays, was just named as one of three finalists in Bauhan Publishing’s 2017 Monadnock Essay Collection Prize, judged by Andrew Merton.

Instructor Jenny Pritchett has begun writing a pregnancy and parenthood advice column at millennial moms’ site Romper.com.

Instructor Michael David Lukas’ second novel, The Last Watchman of Old Cairo, will be published by Spiegel & Grau in March 2018.

Instructors Julie Bruck and Kathleen McClung are the featured readers January 9 for the Coastside Poetry Series in Half Moon Bay. The reading at Cafe Society on Main Street begins at 7pm, followed by an open mic at 8pm.

Instructor Kerry Muir’s essay “At The Angela Peralta Theatre” is published in Fron//tera, an English-Spanish bilingual literary magazine based in Madrid.

Instructor Brian Tierney’s poem “Morning In Galilee,” published in the most recent Cincinnati Review, is included among Frontier Poetry’s periodic round-up of the best poetry recently published on the web.

Instructor Laura Atkins will be speaking at the UC Berkeley History-Social Science Project on November 2nd.

Instructor Leora Fridman’s essay “Trying to Breathe in the Bay Area” was recently published in the New York Times.

Student Erin Rodoni recently won the 2017 Montreal International Poetry Prize for her poem “Caesura.” Her winning poem was selected from nearly 2200 entries from 70 countries.

Student Barry Brynjulson has recently self-published his first fiction novel Down.

Instructor Katharine Harer will be reading on Sunday, October 1 at Copperfield’s Bookstore in San Rafael.  She will be joined by Yukari Iwatani Kane, Rachel Levin, Samantha Schoech & Maxine Rose Schur, all of whom will be reading from the new anthology from Travelers Tales, The Best Women’s Travel Writing 2016.

Instructor Lyzette Wanzer’s essay “Saddest Tale“ appears in The Los Angeles Review.

Instructor Lori Ostlund’s short story “A Little Customer Service” is included on the Notables list in the 2017 Best American Short Stories. The story first appeared in ZYZZYVA. To celebrate, she will be reading from it at Diesel in Oakland on September 15 with other ZYZZYVA contributors.

Student Sabina Letang has enrolled this fall in University of San Francisco’s MFA in Writing Program.

Instructor Arisa White and several Cave Canem poets will be performing at the Museum of the African Diaspora on August 17, 6:00-8:00pm, to celebrate the culmination of the Community Voices: Poets Speak program.

Instructor Katharine Harer is reading on Sunday, August 13 at Expressions Gallery in Berkeley with poet, Judy Bebelaar. She’ll be accompanied by jazz bassist, Ollie Dudek, 3-4 PM.

Instructor Arisa White’s chapbook “Fish Walking” and Other Bedtime Stories for My Wife was selected by Daniel Handler for the inaugural Per Diem Poetry Prize.

Director Ben Jackson will be reading at “Why There Are Words” in Sausalito on August 10.

Instructor Jess Wells will be teaching “Writing Your Family Saga: From Attic Treasures to Characters on the Page” at the upcoming Historical Writers of America annual conference to be held Sept. 21-24th, 2017 at the Tamaya Resort in New Mexico.

Student Sharon H. Smith’s poem “The Hawk” appears in Dime Show Review.

Instructor Shirin Bridges’ picture book Mary Wrightly So Politely is now speaking up in Chinese translation.

Instructor Cary Groner will read at “Why There Are Words” in Sausalito on July 13.

Instructor Kathleen McClung’s poem, “Manhattan Ghazal,” appears online in the Summer 2017 issue of Blue Lyra Review.

Instructor Jess Wells’ new audio book, The Disappearing Andersons of Loon Lake, is now available on Amazon, Audible, and iTunes.

Instructor Laura Atkins’ co-authored book, Fred Korematsu Speaks Up, has been selected as the summer all-school reads for middle schoolers at Seven Hills School in Walnut Creek. Since the book launched in January 2017, Laura and co-author Stan Yogi have spoken to over 4,000 students at close to 30 schools.

Instructor Nate Klug has four poems in the spring issue of Raritan.

Instructor Kathleen McClung’s poem “The Comrade” appears in Issue #23 of cahoodaloodaling.

Instructor Brian Tierney’s poem “Greystone Park” appears in Issue 38.1 of the New England Review

Instructor Brian Tierney’s poem “Flags on the Moon” appears in Issue #96 of FIELD.

Instructor Jay Ridler’s novel Hex-Rated: A Brimstone Files Novel is due out from Night Shade Books on August 1, 2017.

Instructor Andy Touhy’s short story, “Grownups,” is published in Atticus Review.

The Writing Salon is featured in Writing Tips Oasis as 1 of “7 Top Providers of Writing Classes in San Francisco.”

The Writing Salon’s return to San Francisco is featured in Hoodline.

Instructor Lori Ostlund is a visiting writer in Tianjin, China, for 10 days in June, where she’s working with students at Nankai University and Metacircle, a foundation committed to bringing artists from around the world together.