Don't miss out, here's everything happening this week at Grub:

Short Classes at Grub HQ:

• Writing Motherhood: Two-Part Essay Workshop, October 22nd 

• Unlocking Structure: Using Films to Give Your Story Shape, October 22nd

The first time you publish a book, it’s a pretty surreal experience. First you wallow deliciously in the dreams and hopes that have built up inside you for years. Eventually, you learn to deal with the inflated expectations that breathless articles about the writing life have created in you. And then, when you make a sale, you have to wade through a lot of conflicting information: reconciling what your publisher promises with the sometimes demoralizing advice you get from other first-time authors (who often just don’t seem quite as happy as you think they should be).

With an eye to ...

The November 2019 edition of "Writing Life Essentials," a monthly hand-curated list of contests, grants, scholarships, submissions calls, and awards, with a focus on opportunities that are at least one of the following: local, free to apply, and/or committed to celebrating and supporting writers from historically marginalized communities. We do the research, so you have more time for what matters: the writing. Or, stuffing tofurkies. That matters too.

Join us TONIGHT for the next Craft on Draft, a reading series created and managed by alumni of GrubStreet's Novel Incubator program and devoted to great fiction—and the mechanics behind it. Three authors read and discuss their work, plus that of one lucky audience member. So grab a drink, a page of your own writing, and come craft your own draft.

Novel Incubator alum Elizabeth Chiles Shelburne will launch her debut novel this Thursday, October 24th at 7pm at Harvard Book Store. Join her for discussion of her novel Holding On To Nothing, a present-day Appalachian story in the tradition of Lee Smith, Silas House, and Ron Rash, cast without sentiment or cliché, but with a genuine and profound understanding of the place and its people.