Let's celebrate the commendable community success stories from this June! Grubbies were published in literary journals across the country, won awards and prizes, and so much more. Our community is closing June 2024 with eighteen publications, nine awards and prizes, and two book publications. Let us celebrate you: submit your good news to GrubStreet’s Department of Congratulations.

BWOC member Nelson de Witt and Roberto Coto’s essay about coming to terms with being forcibly disappeared during the Salvadoran civil war was recently published in the last issue of NACLA Report on the Americas. Instructor Lori Goldstein has sold two books at auction to Harper Mira. Writing as Lori Gold, Lori makes her debut in the book club fiction space with the first book, Romantic Friction, set to publish in Spring 2025. BWOC member Avani Patel is an Atlanta-based writer, community leader, & coach who recently had an essay published in The Gratitude Journal.

Instructor Tina Tocco's short story "The Unknown Soldier" will appear in the middle-grade horror anthology The Haunted States of America, a joint effort between the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators and Macmillan Publishers’ Godwin Books. BWOC member Yael Valencia Aldana’s manuscript Black Mestiza won the University Press of Kentucky New Poetry and Prose Series Prize. It will be published by the University Press of Kentucky in 2025. Additionally, her poem “Black Person Head Bob” won a Pushcart Prize. Christine Eskilson’s short story “A Family Affair” appears in Malice Domestic 18: Mystery Most Devious. The Gay and Lesbian Review published Michael Appell’s poem "Cereal Dating" in the May-June 2024 issue.

Marshall Robbins Church had his essay published in Swing the Fly. He would like to thank David Abrams for his expertise as a writing consultant. Instructor Yasmine Ameli started a free, monthly newsletter called “Word Play: Your Guide to a Sustainable Writing Life,” featuring book recs, micro-essays, resources, and self-care ideas for writers. She'd like to give a big thank you to Milo Todd and his class “How to Start a Newsletter” which got her started. Jeffrey M. Feingold’s short story “The Blender” was published in the journal Meat for Tea. The story will be included in his forthcoming novella-in-stories, A Fine Madness.

Instructor Deborah Sosin's essay "Write It Like It Is: The Power of Group Freewriting" was recently published on the Brevity Blog. Marcia Yudkin's postmortem on a friendship was published by Your Tango. She thanks Judith Hertog and Dorian Fox for their excellent classes. Instructor A.J. Rodriguez was named a 2024-2025 Writer-in-Residence by the Kerouac Project. He will spend two months in the house where Jack Kerouac wrote his second novel, The Dharma Bums. Juliet Kahn's short story "The Gospel of GirlBot™" has been published in the spring/summer issue of Black Warrior Review. She'd like to thank Zinnia Smith for giving her the chance to read an excerpt of it at the latest GrubStreet open house.

Amy Rothschild's poem "Dementia Unit for John Glenn" was selected by Melissa Lozada-Oliva as the winner of the 2024 Bellevue Literary Review Prize for Poetry. She participated in Dennis Sweeney's "How to Submit: Publishing Your Writing with Literary Magazines and Small Presses" class.

A. D. Metcalfe's novel Street was a finalist in the general fiction category of the 2024 Next Generation Indie Book Awards. Instructor, BWOC Member, and Essay & Memoir Incubator alum Theresa Okokon's debut memoir, Who I Always Was, will officially publish on February 4, 2025. Who I Always Was is now available for pre-sale.

Muse attendee Mimi Manyin's short story "A Blotch of Ink" was published in Witness Magazine (Spring 2024). Linda Woolford's short story "Snared" was published in the current spring/summer issue of Orca.

Marcia Yudkin's latest essay, "88.6," published in Feels Blind Literary, was inspired by the atmosphere in several GrubStreet personal essay workshops. Essay Incubator graduate Judy McClure's essay “Violet Vixen” was published in Miniskirt Magazine. She thanks the Column A Writers for their feedback and the Essay "Incubator Friday Morning Hour of Power" crew for their support. Instructor Aimee Seiff Christian won the 2024 Crossfield Fellowship for the Cuttyhunk Island Writers’ Residency Fall Session. She is always grateful to Rachel Zimmerman and Katie Liesener for their eternal support.

BWOC member Ernest C.J. Sandefer re-released his first novel, Late Nights on Broadway. He thanks God as well as the dedication and loving support from instructor Asata Ratcliffe and other BWOC writers. Instructor and BWOC member Nancy Agabian is the winner of a bronze medal in the Foreword Indies Awards for Multicultural Fiction. Novel Generator graduate Sophia Carroll's poems "Metamour" and "Sick Day" were published in Rust & Moth and Whisky Blot, respectively. She wants to thank her Novel Generator classmates for their encouragement.

Fabienne François Keck, a BWOC member, is thrilled to share that she earned her MFA in Writing and Literature from the Bennington Writing Seminars. Connie Johnson Hambley's short story "Obscura Eclipse" will be published by Crime Spell Books in the Best New England Crime Fiction collection Devil's Snare. Jeffrey M. Feingold’s debut collection, The Black Hole Pastrami, won the National Indie Excellence Award for short story collections published in 2023, and his second short story collection, There Is No Death in Finding Nemo, was a finalist in the same category.

Steffi Gauguet is excited to share that her essay "Stairwell Reflections" was published in Intima, a journal of narrative medicine, this month. She wrote this essay as one of her pieces in Colin Corrigan's “6 Weeks, 6 Essays” class. She’d like to thank Colin and her classmates Amy Gluckman and Deirdri Redddington for their feedback and support. Short Story Incubator graduate Katie Edkins Milligan's short story "Class Notes" was published in the new issue of Meridian (no. 48).

Polly Ingraham has signed a contract with Rootstock Publishing for her manuscript, with the working title, Unconverted: Memoir of a Marriage. She is grateful for the help she received from all of her Memoir Incubator classmates, instructor Garrard Conley, Ethan Gilsdorf, Grub friends, and the Muse conferences. Rachel Zimmerman had two essays published this week; one in the Boston Globe about recording the audiobook of her memoir Us, After and the other in LitHub about her friendship with writer and fellow Memoir Incubator alumni Doug Smith, who passed away last year. Donna Luff is thrilled to be named the First Place Winner in the Boston in 100 Words contest. Donna generated the idea for her winning story, “Arrival,” in a short class at GrubStreet led by Kristen Paulson-Nguyen.

Memoir Incubator graduate Tamara MC had her essay “The Pleasure of Decaf Coffee” published by Slate in their “One Thing” column. Instructor Mary Carroll Moore's novel A Woman's Guide to Search & Rescue is a finalist in the LBTQIA+ category of the 18th Annual National Indie Excellence Awards. Her novel is also a finalist for the Ann Bannon Popular Choice Award in the 2024 Golden Crown Literary Society awards.

Lynda Rushing is a recipient of a Mass Cultural Council grant for creative individuals in 2024. She will use some of the funds to attend a residency at Prospect Street Writers House. She thanks Carolyn Zaikowski for helping with her grant application and Ethan Gilsdorf and Dorian Fox for ongoing support with her writing. Incubator graduate Anne Falkowski's creative nonfiction piece "How to be Made by Men 1981" was Editor's Pick for The Goodlife Review's 2024 HoneyBee Prize and will be published in their summer edition. She would like to thank her 2023 Memoir Incubator class and Alysia Abbott for their support.

Instructor and BWOC member Angela Siew's poetry chapbook “Coming Home” was a finalist for the 2023-24 CutBank Chapbook Contest (University of Montana) and is now in print. BWOC member Lisa Stringfellow's forthcoming middle grade fantasy, Kingdom of Dust, was named a Junior Library Guild (JLG) Gold Standard Selection. It will be published August 20, 2024, by HarperCollins/Quill Tree Books. Additionally, Lisa's debut novel, A Comb of Wishes, is a Bram Stoker Award nominee and is currently on four state book lists, including the 2025 Hawaii Nēnē Award Nominee list.

Instructor Jillian Jackson’s story “Family Resemblance” was a finalist for the Mississippi Review Prize and appears in issue 52.1&2. She is grateful to fellow instructor Elena Britos and her "Fiction II" classmates for their feedback. Alexandra Grabbe recently reviewed a memoir about attending medical school in the 1970s for the Washington Independent Review of Books.

Ten years after finishing the 2014-2015 Memoir Incubator, John Hamilton is publishing his memoir, Honest To God, with Wildhouse Publications on September 15, 2024. He credits the Incubator, his classmates, and especially that year’s instructor, Alex Marzano-Lesnevich, with providing him with the solid foundation of a fist draft.