Every month, we celebrate the successes of our fellow Grubbies who were published in literary journals across the country, won awards and prizes, secured book deals, and so much more. Our community is closing May 2023 out with fifty-two publications, four awards and prizes, two book deals, and seven book publications! Let us celebrate you: submit your good news to GrubStreet’s Department of Congratulations.

Viktoria Shulevich's humor piece "I Just Love Hosting This Dinner Party and I Am Not Stressed Out at All" was published in The Belladonna Comedy. Sarah Cypher's debut novel, The Skin and Its Girl, was published on April 25. Additionally, Sarah's essay on the cats of Türkiye, "Feral, Beautiful and Free: Sarah Cypher on Turkish Cats" was published on Lit Hub and invites the reader to consider tolerance and generosity toward all creatures. Instructor Carolyn Zaikowski's short story "The First of June" was featured in the new issue of Grist: A Journal of the Literary Arts.

Janet Banks's poem "Thieving" was published by the Bryant Literary Review. She thanks instructor Marcella Haddad and her fellow classmates in "6 Weeks, 6 Poems." Julie Brill's essay "My Grandmother Learned Hebrew After the Holocaust. Now I’m Learning It, Too." was published in Kveller. Memoir Incubator alum Tamara MC was accepted into The Kenyon Review Writers Workshop. Boston Writers of Color member Constance Garcia-Barrio's 500-word essay "Vivid vengeance" is in the current issue of Persimmon Tree.

Jesse Liberty's flash fiction piece "Acid" was published in Flash Fiction Magazine. Memoir Generator graduate Iris (Yi Youn) Kim's op-ed "I Was So Excited To Watch 'Beef' — But David Choe Ruined It For Me" was published in Huffington Post. Diane Forman's Readers Write piece on Tattoos was published in the May issue of The Sun. Mimi Manyin's short story "Whisper in the Wind" was published in Ploughshares.

Nick Fuller Googins's debut novel, The Great Transition, is coming out this summer. Instructor Sara Daniele Rivera's debut book of poetry, The Blue Mimes, won the Academy of American Poets First Book Award (selected by Eduardo C. Corral) and will be published by Graywolf Press in 2024. Marcia Yudkin's "The Litterer and I," written in Carolyn Zaikowski's "Six Weeks, Six Essays" class, was published in The Bluebird Word. Boston Writers of Color Member Margo Gabriel is an honoree for Dine Diaspora’s 2023 Black Women In Food Amplifier Awards.

Boston Writers of Color Member Cynthia Yee’s collection of essays and historical Chinatown stories will be performed in the Rose Kennedy Greenway 2023 Momentum Dance Project. Additionally, passages from Cynthia’s essay, “Sky,” written in Stacy Mattingly’s class, and Cynthia’s poem, ”My MaMa’s Back,” which won the City Hall 2022 poetry contest judged by Poet Laureate Porsha Olayiwola and displayed outside Mayor Michelle Wu’s office, will be inscribed on a public art installation titled "Joyful Stitch." Memoir Generator graduate Rebecca Liebendorfer's essay "What Happened?" was published in Roxane Gay's newsletter, The Audacity. Russell Dupont's poem “Pretty Woman,” along with his woodcut “Open Letter to Duke,” were published in a special Duke Ellington issue of Jerry Jazz Musician.

Dennis Trainor Jr's memoir Manifest Destiny's Child will be brought to the stage in a solo play premiering at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in August 2023. Boston Writers of Color Member Federico Erebia's debut novel, Pedro & Daniel (Levine Querido, June 6) has received starred reviews from Kirkus and Publishers Weekly. Sara B. Fraser's story "The Visitor" was published by the American Literary Review. Instructor JD Debris's debut collection, The Scorpion's Question Mark, winner of the Donald Justice Poetry Prize, is now available from Autumn House Press. Paul Korins’s children’s novel Unlikely Friends was published on April 25. B. B. Garin's short story "Noise and Water" was published in the Hawai'i Pacific Review.

Meeshelle L. Monti's poem "Mother's Lonely Paintbrushes" appeared in the new journal, Cosmic Daffodil. Boston Writers of Color member and Instructor Alexis M. Wright was selected to participate in the Tin House Summer 2023 workshop for memoir with Jaquira Díaz. Wendy Dodek's essay "Reclaiming My Late Father" was published in First Person Singular. Emerging Writer Fellow Antonia Yang has completed the first draft of her novel-in-progress, thanks to taking part in the Novel Generator program this past year, and the various classes and workshops she's participated in through GrubStreet. Deborah Norkin's essay "When My Mother Died at 58, Aging Became Uncharted Territory" was published in Cognoscenti. Boston Writers of Color member Lisa Ann Yiling Calcasola's letter to the editor was published in the May 8 issue of The New Yorker. She thanks GrubStreet instructors Asata Radcliffe and Nakia Hill for encouraging her to write and submit more.

Essay Incubator instructor Ethan Gilsdorf published two humor pieces: "Quiz: Major League Baseball Mascot or Yoga Pose?" in Robot Butt, and "Antidepressant Brand Name, or Elf Character from Middle-Earth?" in Greener Pastures Magazine. Memoir Incubator alum Judy Bolton-Fasman's essay on Rabbi Harold Kushner appeared on WBUR's Cognoscenti. Instructor Catherine Parnell's flash fiction "High Water" appeared in Switch: a magazine of micro fiction. Boston Writers of Color member Patricia Whitney received a request for a full manuscript; co-authored middle grade fantasy. Instructor Yu-Mei Balasingamchow was accepted for a summer residency on Norton Island in Maine. Jenn Bouchard's debut novel, First Course, was released in audiobook by Tantor Audio.

Julia Grant was accepted as a contributor in nonfiction at the Sewanee Writing Conference 2023. She shared that she is fortunate to have had Xujun Eberlein as both a teacher and mentor. Hidden Beneath, the eleventh novel in Barbara Ross's Maine Clambake Mystery series, will be released by Kensington Books on June 27. Memoir Incubator graduate Lorena Hernández Leonard was selected to participate in the Juniper Summer Writing Institute at UMass Amherst for memoir with author T Kira Māhealani Madden. Mimi Manyin's short story "Grow-A-Whale" was published in The Greensboro Review.

Fairyland, the film adaptation of Alysia Abbott's 2013 memoir, is set to kick off the NewFest Pride Festival in New York City on June 1, the Frameline Festival in San Francisco on June 14, the Provincetown International Film Festival in Provincetown on June 17, and the Nantucket Film Festival on June 21. She would like to thank her Memoir Incubator students for cheering her on these past few years. She continues to be awestruck by the big heart of this community of students. Boston Writers of Color member Andrew Zubiri’s essay “America is in the Mind” was a finalist for the 2022 CRAFT Creative Nonfiction Award. He thanks Shuchi Saraswat for her seminar “Where Personal Meets Political: The Art of Writing About Home,“ which inspired the essay. The piece will be published this summer under a different title in another literary journal.

Memoir Incubator alum Molly Howes's poem "Early Lesson" was a finalist in the Mississippi Review's Poetry Contest and will appear in the summer 2023 issue. Her prose poem "Without or Without You" appeared in Persimmon Tree, and her poems "A Wedding Poem" and "Tonglen" were published in Offerings: A Spiritual Poetry Anthology from TIferet Journal. As always, she's grateful for the (Memoir Incubator) Hive, still supporting her as she's expanded into poetry-writing. Pete Prokesch's short story "Washed Away" was published in Soundings East. Instructor Nancy Agabian’s novel The Fear of Large and Small Nations has been published this month by Nauset Press. It was a finalist for the PEN/Bellwether Prize for Socially Engaged Fiction and has received a Kirkus Star.

Novel Incubator alum Aube Rey Lescure’s debut novel, River East, River West, is forthcoming from William Morrow/HarperCollins in January 2024. She thanks Michelle Hoover and her Novel Incubator Year 9 cohort, who are all essential to the book’s existence. Alta McDonald adapted an essay that she wrote under the guidance of Ethan Gilsdorf. She presented it to Stories from the Stage, a program at WGBH television in Boston. She will be featured on a segment entitled "Animal Companions" on May 22, 2023. JB Harris's debut novel, The Immigrant's Wife, is now available for resale from Sunbury Press. She thanks Christopher Castellani and Lynne Griffin for their help as well as members of her GrubStreet Advanced Novel in Progress classes for all of their helpful critique and support.

Amy Glynn was selected to participate in Aspen Summer Words' book editing workshop with Michelle Wildgen to revise her queer coming-of-age novel. She thanks GrubStreet instructors Kate Senecal and Lori Goldstein for all their support and guidance. Instructor Henriette Lazaridis' essay "The love letter my mother never sent me" was published in WBUR's Cognoscenti on May 12. Peg Newman recently published her article (also a chapter of her memoir-in-progress) "Covid: Remembering the Early Days" in Medicine and Meaning. In the piece, Peg chronicles her work as a hospital chaplain during the first months of the pandemic. She thanks instructors Ethan Gilsdorf, Judah LeBlang, and Michelle Seaton.

Memoir Incubator graduate G. Wright Muir was selected to participate in the Hedgebrook Virtual Radical Craft Retreat with author Mira Jacob. Gil Israeli's short story "Witness Seven" will be appearing in the Spry Literary Review. Additionally, Gil will be attending the Dorland Mountain Arts and Craigardan Residencies during the summer of 2023. Memoir Incubator graduate Jason Prokowiew has been awarded a Creative Residency at the Hambidge Center for Creative Arts and Sciences. Eryn Johnson published their first essay, written in Laura Kiesel's "6 Weeks 6 Essays" class, in Insider. Essay Incubator graduate Kat Read's essay about Taylor Swift appeared in Cognoscenti. She's grateful to Sara Shukla for her edits and support.

Memoir Incubator graduate Doug Smith published a flash essay in Hippocampus Magazine. He thanks Rachel Zimmerman, Katie Liesener, and Aimee Christian, as well as GrubStreet instructor Dorian Fox. Memoir Incubator graduate Lorena Hernández Leonard's essay "Killing in the Name" was named a Finalist in the CRAFT Creative Nonfiction Award. She thanks her Memoir Incubator family for their valuable feedback in helping shape this piece. Viktoria Shulevich’s humor piece “Our Upscale Casual Intimate Bustling Restaurant Brewery Bar Isn't Trying to Be Too Many Things at Once” was published in McSweeney’s Internet Tendency.