Join us in celebrating the commendable community success stories this April! Grubbies were published in literary journals across the country, won awards and prizes, secured book deals, and so much more. Our community is closing April 2024 with twenty-one publications, four awards and prizes, one book deal, and eight book publications! Let us celebrate you: submit your good news to GrubStreet’s Department of Congratulations.

Board member and student Jeannie McWilliams Blasberg had her third novel, Daughter of a Promise, published on April 2 with She Writes Press. She would like to acknowledge that the novel was first workshopped in a class with instructor Marjan Kamali, and thanks Grubbies Kathy Sherbrooke and Katrin Schumann for being instrumental beta readers and supporters of the book. Instructor Elizabeth Santiago’s debut novel, The Moonlit Vine, is one of the titles to be honored this year on the Rise 2024 Booklist. This book was a "Top Ten" Title, meaning that it was a unanimous YES for all committee members. Essay Incubator graduate Ellen Braaten’s essay “What the Kate Middleton Story Says About Us” was published in Cognoscenti. She would like to thank instructor Ethan Gilsdorf and her fellow Incubator colleagues.

Instructor Lesléa Newman's poem "Great Uncle Harry" was published by Poem Alone. Memoir Incubator graduate Linda Katherine Cutting would like to announce a book deal for her Children’s book, Black Angel, with Candlewick Press. Pete Prokesch's short story "Underwater" was published in Denver Quarterly. He thanks his friend Jack Schiff for feedback on the piece. An excerpt from Evelyn Herwitz’s debut yet-to-be-published historical novel, Line of Flight, was published in the spring 2024 issue of The Writing Disorder. Iris (Yi Youn) Kim was accepted into Columbia and WashU's MFA programs in nonfiction. She thanks her Memoir Generator instructor Michelle Seaton for kickstarting the memoir that she excerpted in her application. BWOC member Andrew Zubiri’s speculative essay “Ten Years after Typhoon Haiyan, I Forgot to Tweet about the Disaster” was published in Panorama. He wrote the piece in the "Writing Climate Essays and Op-Eds" class and thanks Ethan Gilsdorf and his classmates for their feedback.

Ariel Friedman's chapbook the universe digests her stars, a collection of 22 poems about the cosmos of family and motherhood, was published by Bottlecap Press. She thanks instructor Sara Daniele Rivera for her revision class and thoughtful feedback on the collection. BWOC member and Simmons MFA candidate Emily Sun Li's debut picture book, Mr. Chow's Night Market, will be published in a two-book deal in spring 2026 by Penguin Workshop/Penguin Random House. Novel and Short Story Incubator graduate Rob Medley’s Tiny Love Stories: ‘You Get Two Months’ was published in The New York Times online edition. BWOC member Fabienne François Keck is thrilled to share that she is participating in the Tin House Summer Workshop this June.

Novel Incubator graduate Timothy Deer’s opening chapter of his novel project, The Folly of Harvest, is featured in Embark Literary Journal’s 20th issue. Memoir and Essay Incubator graduate Kristen Paulson-Nguyen published an interview with Steve Almond in Hippocampus Magazine about his new craft book.

Peter Thorlichen's essay "It's Time: Voices of Urgency and Celebration in Alabama and Mississippi" appears in the current issue of Woven Tale Press. He would like to thank Aimee Christian and the writing group that evolved from her "Memoir in Progress" class for giving him the confidence to be a writer.

Essay Incubator graduate Brandy E. Wyant's essay "24 Hours in the SNL Standby Line" was published by Change Seven. She would like to thank her 2021-22 Essay Incubator cohort and instructors Ethan Gilsdorf and E.B. Bartels. Matthew Borushko published an essay titled "On John Prine: Meditations for April 7th" in First of the Month.

Torn Asunder, the twelfth and final book in Barbara Ross' award-winning Maine Clambake Mystery series, was published on April 23. To this day she is indebted to the GrubStreet Launch Lab for such a great run. Novel Incubator student Sophia Carroll's flash creative nonfiction piece has been accepted by SmokeLong Quarterly in its September 2024 issue. She would like to thank her Novel Incubator classmates, especially Disha Trivedi, for their feedback and support. Ray Anderson received a strong review from Publishers Weekly for his forthcoming speculative novel Lift: The Rise of Mathe-Lingua-Musica. The novel will be released in May. Anderson took fiction courses with instructors Adam Stumacher and Lisa Borders.

Playwriting instructor Kira Rockwell was featured in the American Theatre Magazine as an Atlanta-based artist to watch. B. B. Garin's short story "The Girls with the Stars in Their Eyes" was published in the latest issue of Black Fox Literary. Giulietta Nardone's tiny humor story "Heaven On Earth" will be published in the next edition of Vine Leaves Press's 50 Give or Take.

Yennifer Pedraza has launched a podcast, Her Own Words, dedicated to amplifying the voices of everyday women. Season 1 started April 16 and featured GrubStreet writers, including Djofa Tavares, Andi Pollinger, Jennifer Inglis, Margaret Özemet, and Jean Duffy. Folks can follow on Instagram and subscribe on Spotify or Apple Podcasts. Women writers with personal essays who'd like to participate in upcoming seasons can submit through the website. Instructor Jing Jian was invited to perform her story on stage for GBH's Stories from the Stage: Pride. Holly Woodward's short story "Never Mess with a Witch" is in the new anthology, Water, edited by Shaun Levin.

Muse attendee Janine Guarino was featured in Pride Voices for Lesbian Visibility Week. Her essay is an excerpt from a memoir she is currently working on and she participated in Steven Beeber's Memoir in Progress class last fall. Instructor Samantha Shanley's essay "Keeping It Together" was published in the Boston Globe Magazine on April 21st. She is grateful to her workshop students for reminding her to keep writing. Inspired by her experiences caregiving for a loved one and her time in the expressive arts therapy field, Jessie Piltch-Loeb, published the children’s book What’s Going on with Papa Bear? Viktoria Shulevich's essay "It's College Decision Season: Take the Leap, Get the Rollerblades" was published in WBUR's Cognoscenti. She would like to thank her writers group and Sara Shukla. Muse attendee Jackie Fenn’s short story "Soulmate” has been accepted for publication in Penumbric Speculative Fiction Magazine. She created the story during Stefani Cox’s Speculative Fiction Workshop, and further workshopped it in Sara Rivera’s Advanced Fiction Workshop.

Alexandra Grabbe's debut short story collection The Nansen Factor, Refugee Stories will be published May 14 by Academic Studies Press’s fiction imprint Cherry Orchard Books. She’d like to express gratitude to instructors Chip Cheek, Courtney Sender, Dariel Suarez, and KL Pereira. Instructor and Boston Writers of Color Member Angela Siew's poetry chapbook Coming Home was a finalist for the 2023-24 CutBank Chapbook Contest (University of Montana). Evelyn Herwitz’s opening to her yet-to-be-published historical novel Line of Flight was published by the Embark Literary Journal. Elizabeth Christopher’s short story “Blue Hour” was published in Solstice. She wrote the first draft in Tim Horvath's 6 Weeks, 6 Stories class and would like to thank him for his encouragement. Muse attendee John W. Farrell’s apocalyptic poem “Insolvent Trees” appears in the May print issue of the U.S.Catholic Magazine.

Lee McColgan’s first book A House Restored was published this month by Countryman Press, an imprint of W. W. Norton and Company. He thanks John Cotter, Jessica Keener, Katrin Schumann, Deb Sosin, and Ethan Gilsdorf for their help at various points throughout the project. Sarah Gregorian recently published a third novel, a M/M Romance, Appearances under the pen name T. H. Forest. It is available on Amazon and was born from a class on narrative taught by Ursula DeYoung. Instructor Lesléa Newman's newest picture book Like Father Like Son, illustrated by AG Ford, was recently published by Abrams Books for Young Readers. Eryn Sunnolia's essay "Mars the Father" which explores kink, astrology, and her collapsing relationship with her dad was published in Electric Literature. Also her essay “I Was Madly In Love. Then My Partner Told Me They Had A Crush... On Our Friend” about navigating the complexities of polyamory and desire in a long-term relationship was published in HuffPost. Instructor Natalie Serber’s essay “The Accurate Term” was published by Memoirland.

BWOC member Sofia Romero’s short story collection We Have Always Been Who We Are was longlisted for the 2024 Massachusetts Book Awards. Elizabeth Christopher's short story "No One Wants to Be Here" was published in Prime Number Magazine. She thanks Evgeniya Dame and her "Developing Your Short Fiction" class for their feedback on an early draft of this story. Memoir Incubator graduate Jason Prokowiew's essay "My father survived starvation as a child. He never forgot what it meant to be hungry" was published by WBUR Cognoscenti. Additionally, Jason's essay "Inheritance" was published in The Hooghly Review. He thanks Kristin Amico, Emily May, Alysia Abbott, Sara Shukla, and Cloe Axelson for their support. Kate Phelps's self-published novel A Garden of Her Own recently garnered a “Get it!” review by Kirkus Reviews; the book is a product of the 2020 Novel Generator course taught by Henriette Lazaridis.

AGNI published instructor Vanessa Martir’s essay "Epistle for Edenia" in its special portfolio, "To Never Have Risked Our Lives: A Portfolio of Central American and Mexican Diaspora Writing," edited by Jennifer De Leon. The essay is both online and in print in the AGNI 99 issue. Novel Incubator graduate Aube Rey Lescure's debut novel, River East, River West, was shortlisted for the Women's Prize for Fiction. She'd like to thank her Novel Incubator community, especially Year 9 and instructor Michelle Hoover, as the novel would not exist without their wisdom. Sara Letourneau's poem "Sparkle" was published in the Spring 2024 issue of the Remington Review. Instructor Aimee Seiff Christian is a DeGroot Foundation Courage to Write finalist. Out of over 1870 applications, Aimee's was one of 62 that made it to the finalist round.

Instructor and GrubStreet’s Director of Development and Engagement Mariona Lloreta's poem "Arabesque" has been selected for the Mayor's Poetry Program and it will be displayed at the Boston City Hall for the next year. Memoir Incubator graduate Nadia Ghent's essay "The Suffering of Art" was just published in Dorothy Parker's Ashes. She wishes to thank her amazing Memoir Incubator cohort from 2023, Nellie King, Gail Spector, Kate Chen, Terry Yanulavich, Margaret Woo, Will Horn, Anne Falkowski, Leslie Nguyen-Okwu, and the brilliant Alysia Abbott for their tireless reading and pitch-perfect feedback. Instructor Carolyn Roy-Bornstein's essay “Stitch by Stitch and Word by Word” was published on the Brevity Blog. She thanks Ethan Gilsdorf for the many pearls she took away from his "6 Weeks, 6 Essays" class. Andrea Merrill published an essay that she first workshopped in the "6 Weeks, 3 Essays" class with Colin Corrigan. "The Student's Overture" was published in The Annals of Surgery.

JB Harris is on the "Get After It" book tour with author Kim McCullom. They are traveling cross country selling their books and aiming to influence the future of book publicity. She is the author of The Immigrant’s Wife. Instructor Linda K. Wertheimer recently won two national awards for her narrative nonfiction article on a school prayer battle in Louisiana for The New Republic. She won first place in the magazine category in the 2024 Religion News Association contest and an award of excellence from the Religion Communicators Council. Instructor Mary Carroll Moore's third novel, Last Bets, was released on April 21, and Mary's second novel, A Woman’s Guide to Search and Rescue, which was published in October, is a finalist for the Golden Crown Literary Society's Ann Bannon Popular Choice award.