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Featured News

Join us for our next Reading + Meeting on Nov. 15th!

Please join me in welcoming 17 new members to The Grotto who will be treated to excerpts from November book releases by Maw Shein Win (Percussing the Thinking Jar), Dominic Lim (Karaoke Queen), Terry Tierney (Why Trees Stay Outside) and Eleanor Vincent (Disconnected). Readings will be followed by a lively discussion. Brad Balukjian will introduce new members and welcome them to the community. As always, refreshments will be provided. Please join us for this fabulous event!

Featured News

The Writers Grotto Turns 30!

Donate today to help us reach our goal of raising $30,000 for thirty years of literary excellence.

Upcoming Classes & Events

MM/DD

MM/DD

Today

ddd, MMM. DD

7:00pm PT

Members Only: Poetry Group

7:00-8:30pm PT

Members Only: Poetry Group

7:00-8:30pm PT

Members Only: Poetry Group

7:00-8:30pm PT

Members Only: Poetry Group

7:00-8:30pm PT

Members Only: Poetry Group

7:00-8:00pm PT

Fall Write-In with Doug Henderson

7:00-8:00pm PT

Fall Write-In with Shirley Huey

7:00-8:00pm PT

Fall Write-In with Shirley Huey

7:00-8:00pm PT

Winter Write-Ins: February 5th with Maw Shein Win

7:00-8:00pm PT

Winter Write-Ins: February 12th with Maw Shein Win

7:00-8:00pm PT

Winter Write-Ins: March 6th with Laurie Ann Doyle

7:00-8:00pm PT

Winter Write-Ins: March 13th with Laurie Ann Doyle

7:00-8:00pm PT

Winter Classes Virtual Open House

6:30-9:00pm PT

Members Only: Table Reading

6:30-8:30pm PT

Build a World, Seduce the World: How to Hook Your Film or TV Audience with Xandra Castleton

6:00-8:00pm PT

New Fabulism: Stories Beyond the Ordinary with Jenny Bitner

6:00-8:00pm PT

Writing Microfiction with Britta Stromeyer

6:00-8:00pm PT

Writing Microfiction with Britta Stromeyer

6:00-8:00pm PT

Autofiction: Combining Memoir and Fiction with Jenny Bitner

6:00-8:00pm PT

Fiction Workshop with Doug Henderson

6:00-7:30pm PT

Grotto Nights at SFPL: Writing About Marriage: What's Love Got To Do With It?

6:00-7:30pm PT

Grotto Nights at SFPL: When Bad People Do Good Things: Writing the Antagonist

5:30-7:30pm PT

How to Write a Winning Nonfiction Book Proposal with Lyzette Wanzer

5:00-7:30pm PT

Get the Grant! with Lyzette Wanzer

5:00-7:00pm PT

Reading + Meeting: September 20th, 2024

5:00-7:00pm PT

Reading + Meeting: November 15th, 2024

5:00-7:00pm PT

Reading + Meeting: August 16th, 2024

5:00-7:00pm PT

Reading + Meeting: June 21st, 2024

5:00-6:30pm PT

Bones of the Poem: Crafting Detail and Depth with Sabina Khan-Ibarra

4:30pm PT

Members Only: Book Club: A Gentleman in Moscow

4:30pm

Members Only: Book Club - "A Council of Dolls" by Mona Susan Power

3:00-5:00pm PT

Online Event: Words of Color featuring 2024 Rooted & Written Fellows

3:00-4:30 p.m. PT

Members Only: Essay/Memoir Workshop Group

3:00-4:00pm PT

Winter Write-Ins: February 2nd with Britta Stromeyer

2:00-4:30pm PT

Jumpstart Your Writing for 2025 with Elizabeth Forsyth

1:00pm PT

Online Event: Rooted & Written: Keynote Conversation featuring Eirinie Carson and Danny Thiemann

1:00-2:30pm PT

Plan Your Novel in 6 Weeks with Lisa Lerner

12:00pm

Members Only: Lunch with Anna Ghosh

12:00-1:00pm PT

Fall Write-In with Nate Olivarez-Giles

12:00-1:00pm PT

Fall Write-In with Sabina Khan-Ibarra

12:00-1:00pm PT

Members Only: Lunch with Jonah Straus from Straus Literary Agency

12:00-1:00pm PT

Winter Write-Ins: January 6th with Lisa Lerner

12:00-1:00pm PT

Winter Write-Ins: February 24th with Lisa Lerner

11:00am-12:00pm PT

Winter Write-Ins: March 22nd with Shirley Huey

11:00am-12:00pm PT

Winter Write-Ins: March 27th with Sabina Khan-Ibarra

10:00am-1:00pm PT

A Writer's Inventory: Build Your Own Memoir Prompts with Susan Ito

10:00am-12:00pm PT

Flash Fiction: Little Stories with a Big Kick with Jenny Bitner

10:00am PT

Online Event: Rooted & Written: Keynote Conversation with Susan Ito and Dominic Lim

10:00am - 12:00pm PT

Writing a Sex Scene: The Good, The Bad, & The Ugly with Jenny Bitner

10:00-11:00am PT

Fall Write-In with Xandra Castleton

10:00-11:00am PT

Fall Write-In with Xandra Castleton

10:00-11:00am PT

How to Write for Educational Publishing with Lisa Lerner

10:00-11:00am PT

Winter Write-Ins: January 18th with Doug Henderson

10:00-11:00am PT

Winter Write-Ins: January 25th with Doug Henderson

10:00-11:00am PT

Winter Write-Ins: February 22nd with Livian Yeh

8:00-9:00am PT

Let's NaNoWriMo! with Lisa Lerner

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:

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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Join Us.

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.

Take A Class Become A Member Other Ways to Get Involved

Get a Lit Start.

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.

Lit Start books written by The Writers Grotto. Lit Starts on Memoir, Humor, Sci-Fi/Fantasy, Dialogue, Character & Action