Every month, we celebrate successes of all stripes! In June, Grubbies were published in literary journals across the country, won awards and prizes, published books, and so much more. Our community closed June 2022 out with 46 publications, 10 awards and prizes, and eight book publications! Let us celebrate you: submit your good news to GrubStreet’s Department of Congratulations.

Boston Writers of Color Member, Short Story Incubator Graduate, and Emerging Writer Fellow Julian Iralu was selected as a 2022 PEN America Emerging Voices Fellow and a 2022 Writers Room of Boston Gish Jen Fellow. She is especially grateful to Sara Daniele Rivera, BWOC, and the GrubStreet Emerging Writer Fellowship program. Monica Judge's essay "Bonsai" was published in New Delta Review. She first drafted it in Theresa Okokon's "6 Weeks, 6 Essays" class. She appreciates the feedback she received from Theresa and her classmates. Jane Marcellus’ “Made by History” essay, “Tennessee Republicans turn to mail regulation to restrict abortion,” was published in the Washington Post. It discusses how the 19th-century Comstock Act is mirrored in current efforts to restrict abortion and how coded language was used to get around it.

Nicole Zhao’s essay "Love in the Time of Racial Reckoning" was published in Witness Magazine. The essay, about what she decides to do after grappling with her relationships with white men as an Asian woman, was workshopped in E.B. Bartels’ December 2020 Advanced Essay Workshop. She thanks her fellow students and E.B. for their help with the piece. She is also grateful to have received the Bread Loaf Katharine Bakeless Nason Contributor Award for Nonfiction for the Bread Loaf Conference. Ashley Trebisacci’s flash essay "Nature is Healing" was published in Pangyrus. They thank instructor E.B. Bartels for recommending this rad lit mag. Essay Incubator Graduate Judy McClure's essay "The Heavy Book" was published in the Chautauqua Journal. She thanks her Essay Incubator cohort, Ethan Gilsdorf, Column A Writers, and Write Down the Street for support and feedback on this piece.

Boston Writers of Color Member and Memoir Incubator Graduate Lorena Hernández Leonard’s essay “​​I saw gun violence as a child. I carry it with me still” was published in WBUR’s Cognoscenti. She thanks her Memoir Incubator family for their consistent support. 2021 GrubStreet Emerging Writing Fellow Tochukwu Okafor has been awarded a Bread Loaf Scholarship in Fiction for the 2022 Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference. He has also been offered a Susannah McCorkle Scholarship in Fiction to the 2022 Sewanee Writers’ Conference. In addition, Tochukwu has been awarded a very generous grant by the John Anson Kittredge Fund. He would like to express his gratitude to Dariel Suarez, his mentor, for his immense support and encouragement. Sara Streeter's flash creative nonfiction piece "Erased" was published in Fatal Flaw Literary Magazine. Her flash creative nonfiction piece "My Weapon" was published in GASHER Journal. She thanks instructor Dennis James Sweeney for his class on submitting to literary journals and for connecting her with other wonderful writers.

Instructor Joy Baglio will be the Kerouac Project's spring 2023 writer-in-residence. She will live and write in Jack Kerouac's house in Orlando, Florida for three months. She was interviewed by Constance Malloy of The Burning Hearth about her writing journey, speculative fiction, haunted residencies, ghosts, and her new short story forthcoming in The Missouri Review this month. Instructor Derek JG Williams' lyric essay chapbook, Poetry Is a Disease, was published by Greying Ghost Press. An excerpt from instructor Olivia Kate Cerrone's novel-in-progress, Displaced, recently won the Novel Slices Issue Four Contest. She thanks fellow GrubStreet instructors for their help and support: Stephanie K Brownell, Kayleigh Shoen, Zyanya Avila Louis, Blair Hurley, Milo Todd, and Cam Terwilliger.

Memoir Incubator Graduate Patricia Harney’s essay "Diamonds and Dust Bunnies" was published in Dorothy Parker's Ashes. She thanks instructor Alysia Abbott and her Memoir Incubator class for their encouragement and her Small-but-Mighties writing group members Sylvia Baedorf Kassis, Patty Mulcahy, Leah Soumerai, and Caroline Stowell for their long-term inspiration. Instructor Jillian Jackson's story "Lonely, Lucky, Brave" was published in the The New Ohio Review. She thanks fellow instructor Elena Britos and her "Developing Your Short Fiction" classmates for their feedback and encouragement. Boston Writers of Color Member Nicole-Anne Bales Keyton's short story "The Things She Swallows in Her Sleep" was published in So to Speak. Nicole would like to thank instructor Shubha Sunder for sharing revision advice in last fall's “Short Story Revision and Submission Strategies Bootcamp.”

Jeffrey Feingold’s short story about a bipolar musician and her extraordinary gifts will be published this October by After Dinner Conversations, who will also publish it in their seventh story anthology this winter. His essay “Here’s Looking at You, Syd” will be published by Choeofpleirn Press in their Glacial Hills Review. Ann Wilberton's essay “The Annotated Bibliography of One Librarian’s Spiritual Life, including Library Cataloging and Classification (of course)” was published in the Maine Review. The first draft was written in instructor Kim Adrian's “6 Essays, 6 Weeks” class. Memoir Incubator Graduate Judy Bolton-Fasman's essay “Perfect Balance” was published in Dorothy Parker's Ashes. Novel Incubator Graduate Pam Loring received a grant from the Barbara Deming Memorial Fund, supporting feminist women in the arts, for an excerpt from her novel-in-progress, The Disappearance of Belmira Alvarez. She'd like to express her gratitude for instructor Michelle Hoover and the countless Novel Incubees who've helped guide her through every step of Belmira's journey.

Instructor Mary Carroll Moore’s flash story “Blindness” was a finalist in the Bellingham Review’s Tobias Wolff Short Fiction Contest. Boston Writers of Color Member U-Meleni Mhlaba-Adebo’s poem “Gardening: A Poem for my Mother” will be published in the forthcoming She Writes Press anthology, Art in the Time of Unbearable Crisis. All royalty proceeds for the book will be going to World Central Kitchen, a nonprofit that sets up meal distribution sites on the Polish border in Ukraine. Giulietta Nardone's self-hope book Feel More Alive! 30 Brilliant Ways To Reignite Your Inner Spark was named a 2022 Finalist in the National Indie Excellence Awards for the category of Inspiration. Sara Letourneau's poems "In the Bath" and "Self-Portrait of the Poet, Looking at a Photo of Herself" were published in the Spring 2022 issue of Living Crue.

Former instructor Thomas H. McNeely's collection of stories Pictures of the Shark will be released in June by Texas Review Press. An excerpt of Amy Bernstein’s novel-in-progress, The Dybbuk, was published in Fig Tree Lit. She worked on this novel in the “Advanced Novel in Progress Workshop: Revision Focus” with Henriette Lazaridis. Boston Writers of Color Member and 2021-2022 GrubStreet Emerging Writer Fellow Tochukwu Okafor has won AWP’s 2022 Kurt Brown Prize for Fiction for his short story “Our Lady Queen of Africa.” Emily Shawn’s essay “swallowing it,” written in Jennifer Crystal’s “Writing to Heal,” was published in Tangled Locks Journal. She thanks everyone from “Writing to Heal” for their support and encouragement. Anne E. Macdonald’s essay “Bittersweet” was published in Palette, a blog by Follow Your Art writers and artists.

Short Story Incubator Graduate Pam Wolfson's story "Still Life" was published in Fjords Review. She thanks Ron MacLean and fellow Grub colleagues for their smart critiques and support. Barbara Ross' tenth Maine Clambake Mystery, Muddled Through, will be published on June 28th. The first book in this series was launched with the aid of the GrubStreet Launch Lab. Jeffrey Feingold's essay "My Left Foot" will be published in the American Writers Review. Instructor ​​Linda K. Wertheimer recently was a featured storyteller in an episode of the World Channel's Stories From the Stage. The episode she was in aired on June 13th on WGBH-TV and nationally. Lee Sarpel’s post-cyberpunk novel, Razor Strike, was released. She would like to thank Stephanie K Brownell and the “Master Science Fiction and Fantasy” class.

Instructor Carolyn Roy-Bornstein's personal essay "I'm a pediatrician. I unexpectedly became a foster mom to a patient" was published in The Washington Post. Instructor Hunter Liguore’s book review of Jesi Bender’s Kinderkrakenhaus, a hybrid play with magical realism giving voice to neurodiversity, was published in Strange Horizons. Colleen Temple’s debut novel, Summer Breakdown, was released on June 21st. She thanks her Novel Generator instructor, Annie Hartnett, and her fellow classmates for all their helpful feedback and support along the way. Memoir Incubator Graduate Linda Katherine Cutting’s book review “Why American Classical Music Has Stayed White” was published in Pangyrus. She thanks fellow Memoir Incubator alum and editor for Pangyrus reviews, Anri Wheeler, for her help with the book review.

Boston Writers of Color Member and Instructor Kim Coleman Foote received a two-book deal from SJP Lit, an imprint of the new publisher, Zando. She's also psyched to have finally gotten into Bread Loaf—a reminder from her Muse session that persistence can pay off! Stephanie Mohr’s essay “Summer nights are no longer 'a chaos of sound.' Where have all the insects gone?” was published in WBUR's Cognoscenti. She began it in “6 Weeks, 3 Essays” with Ethan Gilsdorf, and she’s grateful for the help and support she received from Ethan and her peers in the class.

Instructor David Farrow's speculative short story "Liminal Spaces" was published in Mythaxis Magazine. He would like to thank his fellow Science Fiction & Fantasy Grubbies for workshopping this piece and always being so supportive of his work. Pangyrus editor Aime Card's nonfiction book The Tigerbelles will be released from Lyons Press in 2023. It tells the story of how a women's track team from Tennessee overcame insurmountable hurdles — literally and metaphorically — to become celebrated the world over during the 1960 Olympics. She thanks GrubStreet editors Deborah Norkin and E.B. Bartels for their help.

Instructor Mary Carroll Moore's YA novel, Qualities of Light, a story of two teen girls who fall in love after a nearly fatal accident, was released in a second edition. She'd like to thank authors Jon Odell, Kaethe Schwehn, and Rachel Moulton for their new blurbs. Jon Grate wrote a study skill manual to aid high school and college students with studying, research, and test-taking. A thumb drive of the text is available to students gratis for copying in the GrubStreet office. Marshall Robbins Church’s creative nonfiction piece “A Farewell to Fish” was published in Backcountry Journal. He thanks GrubStreet consultant David Abrams for his help.

Rachel Barenbaum's personal essay "The Sports Bra Gave Us the Freedom to Compete" was published in Harper's Bazaar, marking the anniversaries of Title IX and the sports bra. Mee Ok Icaro's essay "Rear Window," selected by National Book Award winner Sarah M. Broom as the runner-up for the Prairie Schooner nonfiction contest, was published this month. Maurisa Li-A-Ping graduated from the Randolph College MFA program. She is grateful for the Boston Writers of Color group consulting scholarship and the financial support that helped her on this journey.

Trần Vũ Thu-Hằng's review of Everything Everywhere All At Once was published in Pangyrus. She thanks her Memoir Incubator 2020 classmate Anri Wheeler for her astute edits. She also thanks Tâm-Anh Day and Sớm-Mai Nguyễn for their early comments. Diane Forman's Mother's Day essay went viral on HuffPost; she then published a follow-up piece on Brevity Nonfiction Blog.

Gloria Estela Gonzalez’s story "Cherán of the Fireflies” was published in the Latino Book Review. Lisa M. Barr will be graduating from Vermont College of Fine Arts on June 30th with a MFA in Writing. Alicia Jennings published her first journal, Nurture Your Soul: A Personal Growth Journal for Women. Paula Elliot received the 2022 Creative Entrepreneur Fellowship from Boston’s Arts and Business Council. Colleen Williams-Rennie published her newest book, From Bitter and Broken to Beautiful and Blessed. Yasmine Ameli will be reading excerpts of her work for the 2022 Writers-In-Residence Celebration at the Edith Wharton House on June 26th, as well as teaching both Introduction to Poetry in June/July and Writing the MFA in August through the Loft Literary Center in August. Additionally, Yasmine is taking on new poets and essayists seeking holistic coaching on sustainable writing practices, craft techniques, and grant/fellowship applications.

Dolores Johnson’s paperback of Say I’m Dead was published on June 7th. To celebrate, she hosted a book talk at the Roxbury/Nubian Square Public Library at 1pm on June 11th. Lorena Leonard’s commentary piece “I saw gun violence as a child. I carry it with me still” was published in WBUR’s Cognoscenti, and her essay “El Palomero” was published in Corporeal Khôra. Leslie V. Nguyen-Okwu’s opinion piece, “Asian and Black Communities Have a Long History of Share Solidarity,” was published in the New York Times. Jen Martinez wrote “Motif’s mini-guide to summer BIPOC festivals and events” for the publication Motif. Jacquinn Sinclair’s article “Mobile pop-up party a Trike Called Funk aims to bridge divides through music” was published via WBUR. Additionally, Jacquinn's work was featured in New Jersey Fan Club: Artists and Writers Celebrate the Garden State. Heather Watkins’s poem “Exhaling: the luxury” was published in Mass Poetry’s poetry series “Hard Work of Hope.” She also read her work aloud with the artist collective at GrubStreet’s headquarters on May 17th.