Author: Olga Zilberbourg

Olga Zilberbourg’s English-language debut LIKE WATER AND OTHER STORIES (WTAW Press) explores “bicultural identity hilariously, poignantly,” according to The Moscow Times. It also dives into topics of bisexuality and immigrant parenthood. Anthony Marra called it “…a book of succinct abundance, dazzling in its particulars, expansive in its scope,” and Karen Bender said, “Olga Zilberbourg is a writer to read right now.” Zilberbourg’s writing has appeared in World Literature Today, The Believer, Electric Literature, Lit Hub, Alaska Quarterly Review, and elsewhere. Born in Leningrad, USSR in a Russian-speaking Jewish family, she makes her home in San Francisco, California. She has published four collections of stories in Russia, including most recent Задержи дыхание [Hold Your Breath] from Vremya Press. She serves as a consulting editor at Narrative Magazine and as a co-facilitator of the San Francisco Writers Workshop. Together with Yelena Furman, she has co-founded Punctured Lines, a feminist blog about literature from the former Soviet Union. She is currently at work on her first novel.

Feeding Ghosts

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by Colleen Shoshana McKee

New poetry collection from our long-term regular participant, published by Be About It Press. “Feeding Ghosts isn’t just a window into the life of an artist — addiction, mental illness, poverty, disability — it’s also a testament to the power of story, and even the tricky predicament we face when writing about real people.”

— Matthew Freeman, author of Dopamine and the Devil (Coffeetown Press 2025).

Colleen Shoshana McKee is the author of six collections of poetry, memoir, and fiction: My Hot Little Tomato (Cherry Pie Press’ Midwestern Women Poets Series); Are We Feeling Better Yet? Women Speak About Health Care in America (PenUltimate Press); A Partial List of Things I Have Done for Money (JKP); Nine Kinds of Wrong (JKP); The Kingdom of Roly Polys (Pedestrian Press); and Routine Bloodwork, a finalist for the Charlotte Mew Award (Headmistress Press). Colleen Shoshana teaches English as a Second Language to refugees in San Francisco. She also works as an editor and teaches creative writing to private students.

Purchase from the publisher, on Bookshop, or Amazon.

Lit Crawl Submissions

~ Olga Zilberbourg ~ 1 Comment

Dear SFWW community,

We’re putting together our proposal for an event in San Francisco’s Lit Crawl festival, and this year we’re asking you to submit your work for a chance to read on stage!

Lit Crawl organizers want audience participation, so we’ve come up with a format to do that and also support a wide variety of stories. At the end or in the middle of your reading, you’ll ask the audience for a simple prediction of what would work best for the story. It can be a yes-no question or limited multiple choice; it can be about plot or a character’s state of mind or the story world.

To be considered, please email sftuesdaywriters@gmail.com by Wednesday April 14 with the following:

1)  an expression of interest confirming your availability to read the evening of Saturday, October 24th 

2) a draft (or idea) of a new or finished piece before that could be modified for this exercise

3) the draft of the question you’d ask the audience

4) a <75-word bio of yourself

Though we won’t be able to accommodate everyone, we’re looking forward to reading your work!

We should know whether we’ll be hosting a Crawl event by the end of the summer.

SFWW moderators

PS: Here’s how we’re describing it in our Lit Crawl submission:

Who hasn’t suffered a devastating split? Whether from a lover, a lifestyle, reality, or the known world, such partings are never easy (though they may be exhilarating). Regulars of the San Francisco Writers Workshop share stories of characters on the cusp of a major transition: such as breaking with a spouse, shattering a window of goodwill (or of glass), placing an irrevocable bet on a comforting illusion, or just crossing a red line.

At a suspenseful point in each story, the reader will have the audience weigh in by asking for simple input about what would be best for the story. Should the widow ignore her phone? Should the astronaut leave the capsule? Should that purring noise be coming from a space heater, a ghostly visitor, or inside Veronica’s head? 

After gauging audience response, readers will share any portion of the story remaining, reflect on outcomes they’d considered, and how they just might take participants’ input onboard for revision. 

Celebrate Jiyoung Han’s Debut at Book Passage

~ Olga Zilberbourg ~ 1 Comment

Dear San Francisco Writers Workshop Community,

Our own Jiyoung Han will be presenting her debut novel HONEY IN THE WOUND at Book Passage in the Ferry Building on Tuesday, April 7 at 5:30 pm. Let’s help her celebrate by showing up! Do pre-order the book — strong pre-order sales tell publishers to put more marketing efforts behind a title.

More about the book: Young-Ja infuses food with her emotions. She revels in her gift for cooking, nourishing the people she loves with her cheerfulness. But her sunny childhood comes to an end in 1931 when Japanese soldiers crush her family’s defiance against the Empire. Young-Ja is cast adrift, her food turning increasingly bitter with grief. When a Korean rebel fighter notices her talents, however, she is whisked off to Manchuria to join a secretive sisterhood of beautiful teahouse spies. There, Young-Ja finds a new sense of belonging and starts using her abilities for the resistance. But the Imperial Army is not yet finished with her…

As an unforgettable family perseveres in the long shadow of colonialism, Honey in the Wound transports readers to mountain forests where tiger-girls stalk, to Manchurian teahouses and opium dens where charming smiles veil secrets, and to the modern metropolises of Tokyo and Seoul where restless ghosts stir. This debut novel is a tender yet powerful multi-generational drama that shines light onto the twentieth century’s darkest corners and gives voice to those who bore witness.

Published by Avid Reader Press. Preorder at Book Passage, on Bookshop or at your favorite local bookstore!

Tracing Our Roots

Featured ~ Olga Zilberbourg ~ Leave a comment

San Francisco Writers Workshop was founded in 1946 and met for many years at the San Francisco Public Library. During the years since its founding, we have had a number of different moderators and regulars, and have met in a variety of interesting locations. An archive of the Workshop is currently held in the San Francisco Public Library’s History Room. Here, we’re hoping to highlight some of your creative work about the workshop and nonfictional materials from our history. If you have contributions to offer, please talk to Olga or email bowlga at gmail dot com.

St. Ulphia’s Dead

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by Scott Lambridis

Disgraced medical researcher Mirs and his skeptical new supervisor Jo arrive on the remote island of St. Ulphia to investigate an outbreak of mass psychosis. The villagers claim they’re being possessed—one by one—by a cannibalistic demon known as the Wendigo. A psychological mystery laced with absurd humor, St. Ulphia’s Dead explores how trauma warps truth, how isolation breeds belief, and how the most terrifying demons are the ones we conjure for ourselves.

Currently based in Bellingham, WA, Scott Lambridis earned his MFA from San Francisco State University and was a regular at the San Francisco Writers Workshop. His work has appeared in Slice, Fence, and The Café Irreal, and he once ran an indie press, toured with a progressive rock band, tended an olive farm, read a book from every country of the world, and wrote his debut novel during his daughter’s naps in France.

This book is available for pre-order from Regal House Publishing, on Bookshop, and at your favorite neighborhood bookstore.

Holiday Schedule and Noisebridge

~ Olga Zilberbourg ~ 1 Comment

Dear writers,

This holiday season, the San Francisco Writers Workshop WILL meet on Tuesday, December 23, and WILL NOT meet on Tuesday, December 30. We will see you back at Noisebridge (272 Capp Street) on January 6, 2026.

Speaking of Noisebridge, thanks in part to your efforts, their GoFundMe page has raised almost $22,000 so far. Let’s please continue donating, as much as possible, to ensure that we have a stable place to meet in 2026 and onward. Noisebridge is truly a special place. Anyone curious about it is enthusiastically invited to check out Noisebridge this weekend: all types of hackers will be celebrating NB’s 16th anniversary! Take a look at all the festivities on Noiserbridge Wiki.

To learn more about the Noisebridge community, consider joining the Discord: https://discord.gg/GtpDdX5.

Happy holidays,
Your moderators

Muñeca

~ Olga Zilberbourg ~ Leave a comment

by Cynthia Gómez

It is 1968 Oakland, and Natalia Fuentes has been hearing rumors about the beautiful Violeta Miramontes. The young heiress to Spanish colonial wealth has been left paralyzed by a mysterious illness. But Nati knows a thing or two about witchcraft, and she is certain that this is the work of dark magic.

A vivid, surreal Gothic about a queer, Latine, working class witch who sets out to rescue a bespelled heiress and loses control of her powers and her heart in the process.

A regular of both the San Francisco Writers Workshop and the Zoom-based Wednesday Edition, where she workshopped this novel, Cynthia Gómez is also the author of The Nightmare Box and Other Stories. Her short fiction has published in Fantasy Magazine, Strange Horizons, Pseudopod, Nightmare Magazine, and numerous anthologies. She lives in Oakland.

Published by G.P. Putnam’s Sons. Preorder on Bookshop.com or at your favorite local bookstore.

Support for Noisebridge

~ Olga Zilberbourg ~ 2 Comments

Dear San Francisco Writers Workshop community,

Since we’ve returned to in-person meetings after the pandemic, Noisebridge Hackerspace has provided us a space to hold our weekly meetings, for free.

Noisebridge is a unique space, allowing room for artists, makers, coders, and creatives of all kinds to experiment with their projects. A membership-based organization, it survives based on financial contributions of its paying members, while allowing groups like ours to meet on its premises without any charge.

Due to a series of financial setbacks (including the need to upgrade its infrastructure to code), this organization finds itself in a precarious situation. They lost access to some of the funds they were counting on to make rent. While they have a path toward financial solvency (in part, by growing their membership base), they are asking for our help to fundraise as a stop-gap measure.

Here’s a Go Fund Me page started by a Noisebridge member with more details on this ongoing saga. Please consider donating to this organization at this time. Noisebridge is 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. Your donation may be tax-deductible.

For us writers, Noisebridge has been an incredibly welcoming home. While we remain committed to the SFWW being free for all participants, think about what you’d spend on a writing class or working with a coach. Ask yourself, isn’t it worth a few dollars a month to have a place like Noisebridge that I can come to?

Reminder: Come Crawl with us on Saturday!

~ Olga Zilberbourg ~ Leave a comment
An image of a blackboard with a stack of yellow pencils in the foreground. Text in yellow and white reads: San Francisco Writers Workshop Presents Five writers read their stories and share the feedback that made them great. Then YOU get to critique a juicy story, Live! Below: Author's portraits with signatures: Beverly Parayno Peng Ngin Tim Sullivan Jo Beckett-King Tony Tepper Below: We've Got Notes for You! October 25, 2025 Lit Crawl, Phase II, 6:30 pm Noisebridge, 272 Capp Street

This Saturday, we hope to see many of you at our Lit Crawl event on October 25, 2025. Come support the workshop and our amazing writers, and bring your friends!

Our theme this year is “We’ve Got Notes for You!” Five of our current and former regulars will read their work and tell us how workshop feedback has informed their revision process. Then, we’ll offer you all a chance to provide a live critique on a piece of writing.

As many of you know, Lit Crawl is the final night of San Francisco’s annual Litquake festival. Beginning October 9, Litquake is bringing a slew of amazing international and local authors for signings, readings, panels, and parties. Then, it all ends with a literary pub crawl (aka Lit Crawl) through the Mission District. Our event is scheduled for Phase 2 of 3.

We will see you on:
October 25, 2025 at 6:30 pm
Noisebridge, 272 Capp Street

Our featured readers:

Beverly Parayno is from East San Jose. Her debut story collection WILDFLOWERS (PAWA Press, 2023) was shortlisted for the 43rd Annual Northern California Book Award in Fiction, winner of a 2024 IPPY Bronze Medal and 2024 National Indie Excellence Award in AAPI Fiction. She lives in the Sierra Nevada foothills.

Jo Beckett-King is the author of the Bea Bellerose mysteries published by Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers. Her debut middle-grade novel, The House of Found Objects, was published in July 2025, and a sequel is scheduled for release in summer 2026. In addition to her middle-grade fiction, she writes for adults; her work has been listed for the Bath Children’s Novel Award, the Bristol Short Story Prize, and the Bridport Prize in the UK.

Peng Ngin left his native Malaysia to attend Vassar College. He moved to the Bay Area for graduate school at UC Berkeley, where he took his first creative writing classes. Peng returned to his lifelong interest in writing and literature during the pandemic. He lives in San Francisco and works as an investment manager.

Tim Sullivan is a San Francisco–based educator and theatre director whose fiction explores reinvention, queer life, class, and labor. He’s writing a debut novel inspired by his time as a toll collector on the Massachusetts Turnpike.

Tony Tepper: 1954 Born, lovechild of Audrey Hepburn and Sherlock Holmes, left on doorstep of Tingpangoli Monastery in the Pamir Mountains. 1963 Learns to eat oatmeal. 1995 Listens to Bob and Ray while working for Dickensian firm, accidentally swallows butterfly. 2012 Falls in love with language, but love is unrequited. 2023 Dreams of beauty in eye of storm.