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Featured News
2025 Rooted & Written Symposium and Interim Programming is here!
Announcing the 2025 Rooted & Written Symposium and Interim Programming! This will consist of a weekend online symposium, a write-in series, and reading panels composed of alumni. the 2025 Rooted & Written events are only for Rooted & Written alumni and are free. Registration is required to secure your place for the classes. You can register only through the link that will be sent directly to your email. Please make sure you include rootedwritten(at)gmail.com in your contact list.
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Upcoming Classes & Events
MM/DD
MM/DD
Today
ddd, MMM. DD
7:00pm PT
Members Only: Poetry Group
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7:00-8:30pm PT
Members Only: Poetry Group
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7:00-8:30pm PT
Members Only: Poetry Group
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7:00-8:30pm PT
Members Only: Poetry Group
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7:00-8:30pm PT
Members Only: Poetry Group
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7:00-8:15pm PT
Lyrics & Dirges
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7:00-8:00pm PT
Winter Classes Virtual Open House
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7:00-8:00pm PT
Winter Write-Ins: March 13th with Laurie Ann Doyle
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7:00-8:00pm PT
Winter Write-Ins: March 6th with Laurie Ann Doyle
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7:00-8:00pm PT
Winter Write-Ins: February 12th with Maw Shein Win
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7:00-8:00pm PT
Winter Write-Ins: February 5th with Maw Shein Win
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7:00-8:00pm PT
Fall Write-In with Shirley Huey
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7:00-8:00pm PT
Fall Write-In with Shirley Huey
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7:00-8:00pm PT
Fall Write-In with Doug Henderson
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6:30-9:00pm PT
Members Only: Table Reading
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6:30-9:00pm PT
Members Only: Table Reading
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6:30-9:00pm PT
Members Only: Table Reading
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6:30-9:00pm PT
Members Only: Table Reading
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6:30-9:00pm PT
Members Only: Table Reading
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6:30-8:30pm PT
DIY Author Events with Elizabeth Forsyth
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6:30-8:30pm PT
Great Writers Steal with Laurie Ann Doyle
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6:30-8:30pm PT
Write Your Unformulaic Novel with Jenny Bitner
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6:30-8:30pm PT
Build a World, Seduce the World: How to Hook Your Film or TV Audience with Xandra Castleton
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6:15-8:15pm PT
Scene by Scene: Grow Your Script! with Xandra Castleton
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6:00-9:00pm PT
Members Only: Table Read
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6:00-8:30pm PT
Introduction to Creative Writing with Kristen Cosby
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6:00-8:00pm PT
Fiction Workshop with Doug Henderson
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6:00-8:00pm PT
Pushing the Boundaries: Experiments in Form with Jenny Bitner
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6:00-8:00pm PT
Fiction Workshop with Doug Henderson
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6:00-8:00pm PT
Autofiction: Combining Memoir and Fiction with Jenny Bitner
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6:00-8:00pm PT
Writing Microfiction with Britta Stromeyer
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6:00-8:00pm PT
Writing Microfiction with Britta Stromeyer
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6:00-8:00pm PT
New Fabulism: Stories Beyond the Ordinary with Jenny Bitner
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6:00-7:30pm PT
Grotto Nights @ SFPL: The Closest Bond: Writing About Mothers & Daughters
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6:00-7:30pm PT
Grotto Nights @ The Library: Words of Resistance
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6:00-7:30pm PT
Grotto Nights at SFPL: When Bad People Do Good Things: Writing the Antagonist
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6:00-7:30pm PT
Grotto Nights at SFPL: Writing About Marriage: What's Love Got To Do With It?
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6:00-7:00pm PT
Spring 2025 Write-Ins: Jenny Bitner
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6:00-7:00pm PT
Spring 2025 Write-Ins: Kristen Cosby
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6:00-10:00pm PT
The Writers Grotto 30th Anniversary Part
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5:30-7:30pm PT
Members Only: Grotto Circle
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5:30-7:30pm PT
How to Write a Winning Nonfiction Book Proposal with Lyzette Wanzer
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5:00pm PT
Members Only: Book Club: Colored Television
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5:00pm PT
Members Only: Book Club: Stay True
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5:00-7:30pm PT
Get the Grant! with Lyzette Wanzer
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5:00-7:00pm PT
Reading + Meeting: Nov. 21st, 2025
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5:00-7:00pm PT
Reading + Meeting: Sept. 19th, 2025
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5:00-7:00pm PT
Reading + Meeting: August 15th, 2025
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5:00-7:00pm PT
Reading + Meeting: July 18th, 2025
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5:00-7:00pm PT
Reading + Meeting: June 20th
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5:00-7:00pm PT
Reading + Meeting: May 16th, 2025
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5:00-7:00pm PT
Reading + Meeting: April 18th, 2025
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5:00-7:00pm PT
Reading + Meeting: March 14th, 2025
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5:00-7:00pm PT
Reading + Meeting: Feb. 21st, 2025
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5:00-7:00pm PT
Reading + Meeting
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5:00-7:00pm PT
Reading + Meeting: June 21st, 2024
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5:00-7:00pm PT
Reading + Meeting: August 16th, 2024
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5:00-7:00pm PT
Reading + Meeting: November 15th, 2024
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5:00-7:00pm PT
Reading + Meeting: September 20th, 2024
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4:30pm PT
Members Only: Book Club: "The Known World"
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4:30pm PT
Members Only: Book Club: A Gentleman in Moscow
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4:30pm
Members Only: Book Club - "A Council of Dolls" by Mona Susan Power
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3:00-5:00pm PT
Online Event: Words of Color featuring 2024 Rooted & Written Fellows
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3:00-4:30 p.m. PT
Members Only: Essay/Memoir Workshop Group
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3:00-4:00pm PT
Spring 2025 Write-Ins: Britta Stromeyer
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3:00-4:00pm PT
Winter Write-Ins: February 2nd with Britta Stromeyer
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2:00-4:30pm PT
Jumpstart Your Writing for 2025 with Elizabeth Forsyth
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2:00-3:00pm PT
Spring 2025 Write-Ins: Elise Liu
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1:00pm PT
Online Event: Rooted & Written: Keynote Conversation featuring Eirinie Carson and Danny Thiemann
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1:00-3:00pm PT
Write a Fabulous Beginning with Lisa Lerner
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1:00-3:00pm PT
Poetry as a Tool for Wellness with Audrey T. Williams
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1:00-2:30pm PT
Plan Your Novel in 6 Weeks with Lisa Lerner
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12:30pm PT
Members Only: Journalism Group (hybrid)
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12:00pm
Members Only: Lunch with Anna Ghosh
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12:00-1:30pm PT
Unlock the Poet Within: Transforming Tradition with Sabina Khan-Ibarra
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12:00-1:0pm PT
Words and Stories at Salesforce Park: Prose
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12:00-1:00pm PT
Words and Stories Series at Salesforce Park: Prose
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12:00-1:00pm PT
Spring 2025 Write-Ins: Lisa Lerner
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12:00-1:00pm PT
Spring 2025 Write-Ins: Lisa Lerner
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12:00-1:00pm PT
Spring 2025 Write-Ins: Lyzette Wanzer
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12:00-1:00pm PT
Spring 2025 Write-Ins: Xandra Castleton
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12:00-1:00pm PT
Words and Stories: Short Stories with Heather Bourbeau and Jesus Sierra
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12:00-1:00pm PT
Words and Stories Series at Salesforce Park: Prose featuring Nina Schuyler
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12:00-1:00pm PT
Words and Stories Series at Salesforce Park: Poetry featuring Maxine Rose Schur
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12:00-1:00pm PT
Winter Write-Ins: February 24th with Lisa Lerner
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12:00-1:00pm PT
Winter Write-Ins: January 6th with Lisa Lerner
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12:00-1:00pm PT
Members Only: Lunch with Jonah Straus from Straus Literary Agency
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12:00-1:00pm PT
Fall Write-In with Sabina Khan-Ibarra
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12:00-1:00pm PT
Fall Write-In with Nate Olivarez-Giles
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11:00am-12:00pm PT
Spring 2025 Write-Ins: Lyzette Wanzer
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11:00am-12:00pm PT
Spring 2025 Write-Ins: Jenny Bitner
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11:00am-12:00pm PT
Spring 2025 Write-Ins: Xandra Castleton
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11:00am-12:00pm PT
Winter Write-Ins: March 27th with Sabina Khan-Ibarra
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11:00am-12:00pm PT
Winter Write-Ins: March 22nd with Xandra Castleton
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10:00am-1:00pm PT
A Writer's Inventory: Build Your Own Memoir Prompts with Susan Ito
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10:00am-12:00pm PT
Flash Fiction: Little Stories with a Big Kick with Jenny Bitner
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10:00am PT
How to Write for Educational Publishing with Lisa Lerner
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10:00am PT
Online Event: Rooted & Written: Keynote Conversation with Susan Ito and Dominic Lim
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10:00am - 12:00pm PT
Writing a Sex Scene: The Good, The Bad, & The Ugly with Jenny Bitner
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10:00-11:00am PT
Spring 2025 Write-Ins: Kristen Cosby
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Member Spotlight
Chino Lee Chung
Chino Lee Chung is a queer Chinese Mexican personal essay writer, grassroots activist, and is currently working on a collection of essays that integrate his social activism with his intersectional identities. He is a recipient of the 2024-2025 San Jose State Steinbeck Fellowship and holds an MFA from the California College of Arts. His work appears in Gender Queer: voices from beyond the sexual binary, Our Family Coalition Newsletter, and is an Assistant Fiction Editor at 14 Hills Literary Magazine.
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Featured Work
Percussing the Thinking Jar
by:
Maw Shein Win
A collection of dreamlike poetry, accompanied by ink drawings, reflecting on the experiences of living in an aging body. With her latest collection, Maw Shein Win deftly braids together the pleasures, pains, and anxieties of living in an aging body, revealing how a mind can log thoughts and observations. Win employs new poetic forms to invite her readers into realms that are both deeply personal and universal, rendered with dreamlike imagery and surprising humor. Reflecting on our strange times and the atmospheric undercurrents of chaos and disintegration, Percussing the Thinking Jar is a hypnotic book and invites the reader into conversation with their own vulnerability and resilience. Throughout the book, sumi ink drawings by artist Mark Dutcher echo the rhythms of Win’s poetry.
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The Writers Grotto is a home for writers of all levels. Find your perfect class, grow as a writer in our fellowship program, or join our community of established writers as a member.
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Lit Start books written by The Writers Grotto. Lit Starts on Memoir, Humor, Sci-Fi/Fantasy, Dialogue, Character & Action
Little Books of Writing Prompts created by the Writers Grotto.
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Lit Start books written by The Writers Grotto. Lit Starts on Memoir, Humor, Sci-Fi/Fantasy, Dialogue, Character & Action
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