Grubbies were published in literary journals across the country, won awards and prizes, secured book deals, and so much more. Our community is closing February 2025 with seventeen publications, five awards and prizes, and two book publications! Let us celebrate you: submit your good news to GrubStreet’s Department of Congratulations.

Writing to Heal Immersive and Essay Incubator graduate Jennifer Dines's essay "Fashion Dare! Nancy Pelosi's Comeback Clogs" was published in Another Jane Pratt Thing. Denise DiIanni's essay on a meaningful volunteer experience will appear in the New York Time's Modern Love column on 2/7/25. She thanks her GrubStreet instructors, with a special nod to Katie Bannon. Matthew Borushko published his short story "Little Miss Hampton Beach" in BULL. He thanks Caroline Belle Stewart and fellow classmates from "6 Weeks, 3 Stories," where an early version of this story was workshopped.

Incubator graduate Jason Prokowiew has been selected as a 2025 Fellow at the Jack Straw Cultural Center. Lourdes Fernández's memoir Sparks That Ignite received an Honorable Mention from Miami Book Fair's Emerging Writers Fellowship. Lourdes was in last year's GrubStreet Memoir Incubator class, and she credits instructor Xujun Eberlein, her classmates, and the Memoir Incubator program for helping her achieve this milestone. Additionally, Dorian Fox, who was an incredible support for this award and in writerly life. Bernadette Benda's personal essay "The Place We Write From" was published in White Wall Review.

Jean Duffy’s nonfiction book Soccer Grannies won two awards and was translated to Japanese in 2024. Jean is grateful to E.B. Bartels and Judah Leblang and the Page Six Writing Group. Memoir Incubator graduate from the first year of the program, Judy Bolton-Fasman, published her personal essay “La Tomatina” in ContiguousLyt. Instructor Marcella Haddad was awarded the Mark Baumer Residency in Wellfleet. Additionally, Marcella's short story collection has been picked up by Game Over Books. Maggie Huff-Rousselle’s poem "Mongata: Atlantic Shore, Boston, 2020" was published in Issue 14 of Waxing & Waning. She thanks instructor Otto Vock for his class "Publish Your Poems," which inspired her submission to this publication.

Melanie Winklosky's story “Disappearing” won the 2025 University of Iowa's Write Now Flash Writing Contest. She is grateful to Ethan Gilsdorf and the GSD Writing Group for their weekly reminder to just keep writing. Instructor and BWOC member, Yu-Mei Balasingamchow, was selected for this year's fiction cohort of Poets & Writers Get the Word Out publicity incubator, which guides early-career authors to promote and publicize their forthcoming books. Her novel Names Have Been Changed will be published in 2026. Chris Looby’s short story 'The Significance of the Ostrich' was published in MetaStellar Magazine.

BWOC member Ashley D'Souza's short fiction story "Unholy" was published in The Margins, the Asian American Writers' Workshop's literary magazine. Ashley wrote and workshopped this story in Maggie Cooper's "6 Weeks, 6 Stories" class in 2023. This is their first fiction publication. Christine Johnson-Duell has been awarded a seven-week residency at Joshua Tree Highlands Artist Residency (JTHAR) to work on her memoir. Included in her proposal to JTHAR was work she developed in a GrubStreet personal essay class taught by Shuchi Saraswat. BWOC member Vanessa Cid’s article “'It Hurts the Earth if There’s Trash Inside the Planet: Encouraging Preschoolers’ Wonder and Affection for Nature” has been published in Exchange Magazine. She wants to thank her writing coach Arya Samuelson for her endless encouragement.

Instructor and BWOC member, Angie Chatman's short story, “Calla's Song” will appear in the March print issue of Iron Horse Literary Review. Angie polished the piece in GrubStreet's “Six Weeks, Six Stories” class helmed by Rolando Lopez in Spring 2023. Jen Hallaman's poem "Dream Poem" was published in the Little Patuxent Review. It was originally drafted during Laniesha Brown's Advanced Poetry class. The Belmont Media Center interviewed Len Abram about his novel Killers App. Jeanette Tran published her flash essay "Work Search Requirements" in the Perigee section of The Apogee Journal.

Current essay incubator student Christina Ganim published a piece in Cognoscenti about what it's like to join a circus class after the age of 40. Modern Love Podcast featured incubator graduate Linda Button’s essay “We Were a Party of Two, but Never Quite Alone” in this week’s episode. She thanks her original Grub writing tribe and Grace Talusan who coaxed the essay to life in class. Pete Prokesch's micro-fiction story "Dairy and Beer" was published in Six Sentences.

Kathleen Reidy's short story "An Invitation" was published in February's kindness-themed issue of WayWords. She thanks Colin Corrigan and her fellow classmates in the “Short Story Revision” class where an early version of this story was workshopped. Viktoria Shulevich's humor piece "My Most Compatible Matches According to Hinge" was published in The New Yorker's in the Shouts & Murmurs section. Stephanie Cotsirilos's essay "The Gif" has been selected as a finalist in The Sewanee Review's 2024 Fiction, Poetry & Nonfiction Contest and will appear in the journal later in 2025. Special thanks to Katie Bannon, whom she met at the 2024 Muse.

Butch Meily’s book From Manila to Wall Street - An Immigrant’s Journey with America’s First Black Tycoon launches May 6 from Heliotrope Books. He would like to thank Ethan Gilsdorf, Maria Mutch, Sara Freeman, Caroline Leavitt, and E.B. Bartels for their time, patience and encouragement! He is also grateful to GrubStreet for being a great writing community. NmaHassan Muhammad's micro story "Rotten Rats”, selected by Matt Kendrick, has been Highly Commended in the 2025 Welkin Mini Prize. His poems "Night Before Eid” and "A Proud Nigerian” appeared in the Brittle Paper Festive Anthology Vol. 3 and Poets Choice's Postcard Book.

BWOC member Lorena Hernández Leonard's essay "Life is Sweet in the Belly of the Beast" was published in Pangyrus. She is grateful to Anri Wheeler for her support and smart editorial feedback. Novel Generator graduates Sophia Carroll, Disha Trivedi, Michaella Sangiolo, and Stacia Sheputa have launched a new online literary magazine Menace. They are currently open to poetry, fiction, flash, and visual art submissions for their inaugural issue.

When Russell Dupont was invited to take part in GrubStreet's and the City of Boston's Memoir Project, he turned to writing full time. His latest book, Norman Mailer Walks into a Bar and Other Stories, has been published by Squidink Press. Stephanie Cotsirilos' essay "The Gift" has been selected as a finalist in The Sewanee Review's 2024 Fiction, Poetry & Nonfiction Contest and will appear in the journal later in 2025. She thanks Katie Bannon whom, Stephanie met at the 2024 Muse.