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

Instructor Deborah Sosin's essay, "What Matthew Perry Taught Us," recently appeared in WBUR's Cognoscenti. BWOC community member Shirley Jones Luke will release her first poetry collection Traumaland later this month. Published by Unleash Lit in September, incubator graduate Polly Ingraham's essay, "Falling in Love, Over the Chasm'' was nominated for a 2023 Pushcart Prize. Instructor Derek JG Williams, recently published poems in Banshee, The Shore, and Stirring. He also has a short excerpt from his nonfiction manuscript in progress in the latest issue of Words & Sports Quarterly.

BWOC member and memoir incubator graduate Lorena Hernández Leonard’s essay, "Children of the Sun" appeared on this year's The Best American Essays Notable list. She is indebted to Alysia Abbott and her Memoir Incubator family for their support and love, and for providing thoughtful feedback on earlier drafts of this essay. Another BWOC member, Amy Yee's new narrative nonfiction book received a rave review in the Boston Globe. Far From the Rooftop of the World: Travels among Tibetan Refugees on Four Continents also got great reviews in Foreword, Lion's Roar and the Wilson Center.

Patty Mulcahy, memoir incubator graduate, had her essay “You can recover from schizophrenia — I did. But the stigma of the disease prevents too many from getting treatment” appear in WBUR Cognoscenti. Patty would like to thank instructor Dorian Fox and the members of her writing group. BWOC member Yael Valencia Aldana’s debut full-length poetry collection Black Mestiza has won the University Press of Kentucky New Poetry and Prose Series publication and is forthcoming in January 2025. Samia Chandraker’s supernatural short story was published in Coffin Bell. She is grateful to the writers in the BIPOC Short Story Publishing Intensive program, to instructors Tim Weed & Rolando Lopez and to her Dream Thieves writing group.

Memoir Incubator graduate, Doug Smith's essay "The Last Thing My Father Told Me” was published posthumously in the Boston Globe. He passed away on October 18th from complications related to leukemia. His essay was published with the help of former classmate Rachel Zimmerman and former instructor Alysia Abbott. He was an invaluable member of our community and a leader in creating the Memoir Incubator Alumni Board.

Carinn Jade sold the novel she first drafted in the 2021 Novel Generator with Henriette Lazaridis, The Astrology House, to Atria for publication in Summer 2024. Carolyn Roy-Bornstein's opinion piece "A Fourth of Med Students Want to Quit: The Humanities Can Help Them Reconnect" was published in MedPage Today. She thanks Ethan Gilsdorf for his op-ed advice. Sherel Purcell published a memoir essay, "Joe" in The Memorist Quarterly after completing Xujun Eberlein's Advanced Memoir Workshop.

Karen Wilfrid's debut middle-grade novel Just Lizzie was released on November 14th. She would like to thank instructors Michelle Hoover, Ursula DeYoung, and Tim Weed. She also extends her gratitude to her Novel-in-Progress writing group and Novel Incubator cohort. Mary Huff Stevenson published a book, Our Words Were Our Bond: A Mother-Daughter Relationship Preserved in Letters, based on five years of correspondence between her and her mother. Arya Samuelson was awarded New Ohio Review's Nonfiction Prize for her essay, "I Am No Beekeeper." She is grateful for the Your Body, Your Story series, which helped her trust that her experience of abortion was worth telling and sharing.

NmaHassan Muhammad has been longlisted for the Sevhage Prize for Creative Non-Fiction. He'd like to thank his fiction instructors and classmates. Memoir Incubator graduate, Jason Prokowiew's essay 'Tis the Season to Love or Hate on Mariah Carey was published in Salon. Additionally, Jason was accepted into the Tin House Winter Workshop where he'll work with Edgar Gomez. Essay Incubator graduate Sara Schreur had her essay "I still reach for Elliott Smith, 20 years after his death" appear in WBUR Cognoscenti. Memoir Generator graduate Iris (Yi Youn) Kim's essay "This is Not a Story About Sobriety" was published by The Rumpus and Kitchen Table Literary Arts.

Paulette Stout’s second novel, What We Never Say, won its 6th award, a Finalist designation in Women's Fiction from the Independent Author Network 2023 Book of the Year Awards. Meredith Wilshere's nonfiction essay “My family spent 5 days in Las Vegas for my grandma's birthday. Our multigenerational group ranged from 27 to 91, and it was so worth it.” was published in Business Insider. She has been taking GrubStreet classes for a few years, including "Jumpstart Your Novel." She is grateful for her instructors and classmates' support. Ben Berman's book, Writing While Parenting, based on his Grub Street column of many years, was selected as a TLS Book of the Year. 2022-23. Emerging Writer Fellow and BWOC member Anasazi Chavez’s flash fiction piece “In Bloom” was published in The Los Angeles Review. She would like to extend her gratitude to GrubStreet instructor Yu-Mei Balasingamchow for her support and her 6 Weeks, 6 Stories class.

Marcia Yudkin's essay "But My Dance Card Isn't Yours" was published in the November 2023 print edition of Down in the Dirt. She'd like to send appreciation to Grub Street instructors Judith Hertog and Dorian Fox. Pete Prokesch's flash-fiction story "My First Boat" was published in the Tiny Molecules Autumn 2023 issue. Novel Incubator graduate Rachel Barenbaum's podcast Check This Out, has been picked up by NHPR (New Hampshire's NPR) and is now a radio show! The show premiered on-air last week and will feature 7 episodes this year and 16 next year. Brett Lewis, a current student of the Essay Incubator, had an essay published in Time, "Doctors in the U.S. Can’t Be Silent in the Face of What’s Happening in Gaza". She is grateful to Ethan Gilsdorf and her fellow students, especially Ruth Bayer, for help with edits.

BWOC member Faithna Geffrard has been accepted as a speculative fiction fellow for the Roots. Wounds. Words. Winter Writer's Retreat in January 2024. She would like to thank Black Pruitt and Lyz Flo and BWOC for its many opportunities. Memoir Generator student Tommie Bower's essay “The Accidental Cordelia” was published in Dorothy Parker's Ashes. She thanks Aimee Seif Christian and Shuchi Saraswat for exceptional craft guidance and her GrubStreet companions in writing. Jeffrey M. Feingold’s second short story collection There Is No Death in Finding Nemo is one of five finalists in the Eyelands International Book Awards. The winners, to be announced in December, will have their books translated into Greek and offered foreign publication contracts. Additionally his magical realism short story “The Box” won third place in the annual Ben Nyberg Fiction Contest at Choefpleirn Press and will be included in their forthcoming print anthology of contest finalists and winners.

Incubator graduate Jason Prokowiew was awarded a Pruitt-Meinke Fellowship for the Eckerd College Writers’ Conference where he'll work with Ann Hood. He has also been offered a residency at Ragdale. He thanks Xujun Eberlein and Alysia Abbott for their recommendations. Daphne Kalotay has been longlisted for New Literary Project's 2024 Joyce Carol Oates Prize, a $50,000 award for "a mid-career author of fiction in the midst of a burgeoning career, a distinguished writer who has emerged and is still emerging." Laura Beretsky’s book Seizing Control: Managing Epilepsy and Others’ Reactions to It was released this week by Haley’s Publishing, Athol, MA. She is grateful for help from editors Michelle Seaton and Lynne Griffin and instructors Judah LeBlang, Nadine Colburn, and Ethan Gilsdorf who read and commented on book excerpts.