Congratulations to all the 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 September 2025 with nineteen publications, eight awards and prizes, and seven book publications! Let us celebrate you: submit your good news to GrubStreet’s Department of Congratulations.

Yvonne Liu was named a recipient of the inaugural James Patterson "Go Finish Your Book" Grant. Liu’s agented memoir-in-progress, Left to be Found, recounts her journey from abandoned Hong Kong orphan to abused adopted daughter to a mother trying to stop the cycle of generational trauma. Incubator graduate Anne Falkowski’s 4,000-word short story was accepted by The Sun Magazine for publication in 2026. She would like to thank Jenny Elkus and Sophia Carroll for their support. Instructor Tina Tocco's short story "That Boy's a Catch," originally published in New Ohio Review, was included in the International Women’s Writing Guild's 2025 anthology, Write Forward: A Constellation of Voices.

Essay Incubator graduate Mathilde Piton’s Broken Pussy, Trentenaire décomplexée veut un bébé désespérément! was published on September 3rd in France through Éditions Larousse. She thanks Samantha Shanley for her “Writing Motherhood” class and Ethan Gilsdorf for his creative nonfiction instruction. Christine Eskilson’s short story “Fatally Fungi” appears in issue 207 of Black Cat Weekly. BWOC member and instructor Nancy Agabian attended two residencies this summer, Hewnoaks and the Salty Quill, to work on her collection of essays. Andrea Caswell's craft interview with instructor Tim Weed about his recent novel, The Afterlife Project, was published by Cleaver Magazine. Andrea would like to thank Tim for sharing his wisdom on drafting and research in novel writing. Stephanie Cotsirilos's essay "The Gift" is a finalist in The Sewanee Review’s 2024 Fiction, Poetry & Nonfiction Contest and now appears in the summer edition. She thanks her valued colleague Katie Bannon, whom Stephanie met at GrubStreet's Muse and the Marketplace conference.

Amy Shea is excited to announce that her debut book, Too Poor to Die: The Hidden Realities of Dying in the Margins, is coming out on September 9th with Rutgers University Press. The book bears witness to the disparities in death and dying faced by some of society’s most vulnerable and marginalized. The first seeds of this book were developed at GrubStreet and she worked on various sections of this book in Grub classes. Olga Katsovskiy’s published two craft essays, "CONTENT WARNING: Triggers in Creative Nonfiction" in Reckon Review, and "Psssst, Are You Listening?" in Unleash Lit. BWOC member Melissa A Watkins’s humorous essay, "I Became My Own Fun Auntie," was published in the August edition of Carefree Magazine.

Instructor Milo Todd's debut The Lilac People is a finalist for the 2025 New England Book Award in Fiction. Melissa Fraterrigo’s memoir-in-essays The Perils of Girlhood was published on September 1st by the University of Nebraska Press. The book received a starred review from Booklist. She is grateful for GrubStreet classes with both E.B. Bartels and Samantha Shanley. Novel Incubator graduate E.B. Moore’s fourth novel, Silent Cauldron, comes out September 30th from Frayed Edge Press. She would like to thank Michelle Hoover and the First Year Novel Incubator for a great writing foundation.

Novel Generator graduate Sophia Carroll's debut chapbook, I Think We Should Be Louder at Dyke March, has been published by Bottlecap Press. She thanks many of her classmates, particularly Disha Trivedi, Travis Ezell, Anne Falkowski, Anna Hundert, Michaella Sangiolo, and Stacia Sheputa for their support. Memoir Incubator graduate Polly M. Ingraham's memoir Unconverted: Memoir of a Marriage has won two awards – the Literary Titan Gold Book Award and the International Firebird Book Award (Marriage). She is grateful to all of her Grub classmates, instructors Garrard Conley and Ethan Gilsdorf for editing help, and friends Robin Taylor, Kristen Paulson-Nguyen, and Linda Button for the steady support through the past few years.

Essay Incubator graduate Mathilde Piton’s essay “Conversations on Having an Only Child” was published in Mutha Magazine. She would like to thank all of her fellow Incubees from the 2024–2025 Essay Incubator, especially Lourdes Fernandez, who repeatedly and kindly encouraged her to add more reflection to her writing. Instructor Dorian Fox's travel story "Wading In" won gold in the U.S./Canada Travel category in the 2025 Lowell Thomas Travel Journalism Competition. He thanks his family for hanging out with him in Virgin Islands National Park.

Maggie Russell's short piece “Lunch Money” was published by Five Minutes, an online literary magazine publishing memoirs and short stories that are exactly 100 words and take place in 5 minutes. Her piece was generated in response to a prompt in Ani Gjika's class. Essay Incubator and GrubStreet instructor Ethan Gilsdorf’s essay "Plastic Water Bottle: Origin Story," published in Witness Magazine, has been nominated for Best of the Net 2026.

Instructor and BWOC member Tatiana Johnson-Boria’s essay "Notes on Conception" was nominated for a 2026 Best of the Net Prize by Torch Magazine. Essay Incubator graduate Randi Stern’s essay “The Ballad of Billy Latreuil” appears in the Fall 2025 issue of Literally Literary Magazine. She is grateful to her instructor, Rolando Lopez, and her classmates in the "Advanced Revision & Submission: Nonfiction" class for their thoughtful feedback. She also thanks Bessie, Brandon, and Mathilde Piton for their support.

BWOC member and instructor Kayla Degala-Paraíso's narrative prose poem "Archipelago" was recently published in MacQueen's Quinterly. Essay Incubator and Writing to Heal Immersive graduate Jennifer Dines's essay "I Was An Award-Winning Teacher By Day. After Dark, My Behavior Was Increasingly Troubling" was published in the HuffPost. Dr. Tamara MC won the Bronze Lowell Thomas Travel Journalist of the Year award. She only began travel journalism in the past year and couldn't be more thrilled. Incubator graduate Ellen Braaten’s essay “The More I Talk About Gun Violence, the Less I Have to Say" was published in WBUR’s Cognoscenti.

Novel Generator graduate Heather Thompson-Brenner’s short story "That's What Breaks My Heart" was published in Fiction-On-The-Web. BWOC member Lisa Stringfellow’s novel Kingdom of Dust is a 2025 Mass Book Award Middle Grade/Young Adult Honors title. Aubrey Perin is thrilled to announce the publication of three books now available through IngramSpark: Mind the Gap: Navigating and Maintaining Relationships After Transformative Healing, Ethical Business: Restoring Philosophical Integrity, and What Holds Us Together: Reframing Addiction. Aubrey found that becoming part of the GrubStreet community created a sense of accountability and encouragement that helped propel these projects across the finish line. Liam Carnahan’s essay "Ask Me How My Mother Died" was awarded 8th Place in the 94th Annual Writer's Digest prize.