Every month, we celebrate successes of all stripes! In February, Grubbies were published in literary journals across the country, won awards and prizes, published books, and so much more. Our community is closing February 2023 out with 37 publications, four book publications, three awards & prizes, and three book deals! Let us celebrate you: submit your good news to GrubStreet’s Department of Congratulations.

Boston Writers of Color Member Patrice Gopo recently launched the Picture Books Are for Grown-Ups Too! podcast. As a personal essayist and children's book author, Patrice started this podcast because she believes you're never too old for a great picture book, AND these tiny tales can lead to big connections! Amit Shah’s essays “To Look Without Fear” and “Conformations of Grief” were published in Monograph. He is grateful for the encouragement of Samantha Shanley and Caitlin McGill. Alison Kaplan's essay "The Things We Do for Booty" was published in The Razor. She wrote and workshopped this piece in “6 Weeks, 6 Essays” with instructor Meghan Lamb.

Memoir Incubator Graduate Jason Prokowiew was offered a fall residency at Wildacres in North Carolina. He plans to work on his new book about Queerness, fatness, and American diet culture while there. He thanks his Memoir Incubator family for their ongoing love and support. Susan Dwyer’s essay “The Shape of Love” was published in Pithead Chapel. She thanks Dorian Fox and the Memoiristas for their wisdom, inspiration, and support. Russell Dupont’s five Jazz haiku poems were published in JerryJazzMusician. His drawings also illustrate the issue.

Jeffrey Feingold’s surreal flash fiction about a troubled marriage will be published by Maudlin House on February 17th. His short story collection There Is No Death in Finding Nemo and Other Stories will be published in September by Impspired Press. Gil Israeli's fiction is forthcoming in The Argonaut, The Eunoia Review, and The Spry Literary Journal. He has been awarded a South Porch Artists Residency for June 2023. He will soon begin nurturing (not instructing) writers at the Burlington Writers Workshop in Vermont. Essay Incubator Graduate Jennifer Dines' humorous essay "Indulge Your Almond Mom This Holiday Season" was published in Little Old Lady Comedy. Her day-in-the-life essay "How a BPS Reading Specialist Spends Her Fridays" was published in the Schoolyards News.

Boston Writers of Color Member Melissa A Watkins’ essay "A Repat's Guide To Boston" was published in Statesider. Boston Writers of Color Member Marchaé Grair was selected to participate in the 2023 Anaphora Writing Residency for writers of color. Marchaé will participate in one of the prose cohorts. Andrea Bossi's essay “Today's Female Rappers Are Ushering In A New Era Of Hip Hop Fashion” was published on Fashionista. Boston Writers of Color Member Pınar Banu Yaşar’s poetry was published in Odes to our Undoing: Writers Reflecting on Crisis.

Jeffrey Feingold’s autobiographical short story collection, The Black Hole Pastrami and Other Stories, will be published by MFT Press this summer. Memoir Incubator Graduate Linda Button recently told her flight-of-terror saga on Stories from the Stage. She thanks her amazing fellow Memoir Incubator alums for sharing the opportunity and cheering her on! Cat Green's short essay "A Perfect Man," about loving the mad trans body, was published in fifth wheel press

Sara Letourneau's poem "Self-Preservation During a Pandemic" was published in Offerings, the new spiritual poetry anthology from Tiferet Journal. Essay Incubator Graduate Brandy E. Wyant's flash essay “Hometown” was published in Atlantic Northeast. Randy Rockney’s essay “Animals” was published in Sole. He thanks Ethan Gilsdorf for his support and guidance. Pete Prokesch's flash-fiction stories, "Sisyphus," "New Moon," and "Dear Son," were published in White Wall Review.

Memoir Incubator Graduate Jason Prokowiew received a Mass Cultural Council Cultural Sector Recovery Grant. Jeffrey Feingold’s short story “There Is No Death in Finding Nemo” was published by Maudlin House. The melancholy, surrealistic tale is the title piece in his forthcoming collection of short stories from Impspired Press. Chris Vrountas's poems “Lenten Eve, 2021” and “Meadow Aers” were published in Vita Poetica. Chris received huge inspiration from Michael Zendejas and guidance, including: "have a firm grasp of what you want to say" and "trust your instincts.

Pete Prokesch's flash-fiction story "Unmoored" was published in On the Run. Memoir Incubator Graduate Rani Neutill’s piece “BTS: Permission to Desire” was published in the Los Angeles Review of Books. Boston Writers of Color Member Rei Alta’s poems “Inflection Point 1b,” “wave height,” and “I Outline the Hypotheses” (forthcoming in Painted Bride Quarterly) were featured in the latest episode of PBQ’s Slush Pile podcast. She thanks Tatiana Johnson-Boria, Aimee Suzara, and Rebecca Rolland for their valuable feedback. Boston Writers of Color Member and Essay Incubator student Thuy Phan's essay "Mirrors" was published in Pangyrus. She thanks her friend and instructor Victor Yang for his continued support and generous reading of her early drafts.

Essay Incubator student Marion Williams-Bennet’s essay "The Hot Dog Dog" was published in The Boston Globe Magazine’s “Connections” column. She is grateful to Ethan Gilsdorf and the current essay incubator class for their input and support! Amy Johnson's short story "Excuse Me, This Is My Apocalypse" won this year's NESFA short story contest. You can read and listen to the story on Escape Pod. Avie M. Fields received a Mass Cultural Council Cultural Sector Recovery Grant. Her Black Horror Survivors Movie Challenge is open. She has also received a spot on a panel about writing, community empowerment & the culture: An In-Depth Look at How Black Books, Movies, and Music Impact the World.

Memoir Incubator Graduate Judy Bolton-Fasman’s essay “Raquel and Me” appeared in WBUR’s Cognoscenti. Jan Krause Greene's second novel—The Space Between Dark and Light, described by BookLife as "A time-crossed climate fiction story as thrilling as it is urgently relevant"—was released in February by Jaxon Meadows Publishing. After being traditionally published, she is enjoying her foray into self-publishing, and she's happy to discuss the rewards and challenges of self-publishing with Grubbies. Instructor Robin McLean’s interview with Story Prize Winner and National Book Award Finalist Jim Shepard, "Looking for the Weirdness," was published in The Common. Stacey Resnikoff’s short story "The Missing Pieces" was published in Joyland.

Amy Bernstein and Pete Prokesch received Mass Cultural Council Cultural Sector Recovery Grants. Instructor Natalie Serber's personal essay “Banana Cake on the Breezeway” was published in Dorothy Parker's Ashes. Memoir Incubator Graduate Tamara MC’s craft essay “Why I Play Pickleball: On Calming the Writing Monster” was published in Brevity. Instructor Mary Carroll Moore’s flash story “Blindness” was named a semi-finalist in American Short Fiction’s Short(er) Fiction Prize. Instructor Ben Berman's new book, Writing While Parenting (based on his GrubWrites column of many years), will be released on March 10th. Join him in conversation with Whitney Scharer at The Coolidge Corner Theater on March 15th at 6:00pm (EST) to celebrate its release.

Novel Incubator Graduate Rachel Barenbaum’s second novel, Atomic Anna, will be released in paperback on March 7th. She will be in conversation with Christopher Castellani at Brookline Booksmith on March 7th at 7:00pm (EST) to celebrate. Brenden Layte's essay "#FF073A (Neon Red)" was published in X-R-A-Y Literary Magazine. Roxana Trabulsi’s debut novel, Of Mud and Honey, was released on January 10th. Jan Jacobson's memoir essay "Checking a Different Box" was published in Gray Love: Stories About Dating and New Relationships After 60. She will be participating in a virtual and an in-person reading along with the editors and another contributor at Malaprop's Bookstore in Asheville, NC on March 15th at 6:00 pm (EST).

Katie DeBonville's essay “Bridges” was published in Quibble. Kathryn Silver-Hajo's debut novel, Roots Of the Banyan Tree, will be released in September 2023 by Juventud Press. She thanks GrubStreet for providing such a nurturing, supportive creative space, to Matthew Salesses in whose workshop "Writing the Novella" the book got its start, and to Adam Stumacher for helping the novel jump to the next level in "A Master Course in Revision and Submission." She thanks Ann Hood for her wise editorial support and guidance in the polishing and submission phase. Kathryn’s full-length flash fiction collection, Wolfsong, will be released in May 2023 by ELJ Editions. Some of the stories in Wolfsong have earned 2023 Pushcart Prize, Best American Food Writing, and Best Small Fictions nominations. Kathryn is a longtime GrubStreet member, and she is grateful for Grub’s role in supporting her development as a writer.