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.
An exciting continuation of the Bea Bellerose adventures is here! You heard chapters from it at the San Francisco Writers Workshop first, and now buy the book for all the 8-12 year olds in your life.
Twelve-year-old Bea from Passaic, New Jersey, receives her cousin and aunt visiting from Paris. The girls are looking forward to a fun week of sightseeing in New York City, while Aunt Juliette is there to write a profile on a famous French actress, Eva, who’s starring in a stage adaptation of Agatha Christie’s The Mystery of the Blue Train. But when the priceless diamond necklace Eva plans to wear on opening night is stolen from her hotel suite, Bea and Céline find themselves once again at the center of a mystery.
Don’t miss the exciting sequel to the middle grade mystery, available for sale from Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers. Order on Bookshop or Amazon. Don’t forget to rate and review!
Reminder: our event is coming up this Friday! Please join us on June 12 to celebrate our community and collaborate with our hacker friends to raise funds for Noisebridge Makerspace. Help us spread the words and bring friends!
Since 2022, Noisebridge has been providing us a welcoming place to meet free of charge, and we would love to give back as much as possible to ensure Noisebridge’s long-term survival in San Francisco’s storied Mission District.
This year, we’re collaborating with the hackers. We’ve asked several of our glorious authors to share their literary work with a hacker, who will respond with a device/app/gadget/doohickey inspired by the writing. On the night of the event, audience members (you!!) will vote for the device that best complements the assigned writer’s piece. The winning hacker will receive a prize of dubious value.
Flyer design by Kelci Hartz
The event will also feature a raffle!! refreshments!! opportunities to mingle!! and to celebrate the 80th anniversary of the San Francisco Writers Workshop that according to the lore was started by female poets in the aftermath of WWII, in 1946.
Be there on June 12 at 7 pm, at 272 Capp Street and celebrate with us!
Jiyoung Han was born in Seoul, Korea and grew up in the American Midwest. She has lived and worked in four continents but now calls San Francisco home. When not writing, she conducts research in climate change and human behavior. Her first novel, Honey in the Wound, was published in April 2026.
Lalita Abhyankar is a family physician and writer based in San Francisco. Her work explores the challenges and rewards of working in a broken primary care system. She was a regular contributor to the American Academy of Family Physicians New Physicians blog from 2017-2022 and was the host and producer of the 2021 Health Affairs podcast Piecemeal, exploring the impact of consolidation on independent primary care. She has independently produced a podcast called “One Click at a Time” exploring how AI and technology are impacting the speciality of family medicine. She is currently working on a manifesto on the importance of family medicine.
John “Jaune” Hanig (they/them) is a queer, non-binary writer and licensed psychotherapist working in private practice in San Francisco, serving a wide diversity of LGBTQ+ teens and adults using arts therapy and harm reduction. They are currently writing a novel that draws from issues encountered in their therapeutic work, including transgender and non-binary social and medical transition, trauma recovery, active substance use, living with HIV, and living as an undocumented immigrant.
Contact: john [at] honeyartstherapy.com
Aaron Lee (any pronouns) is a para for kids with complex trauma. His students have grown so much this school year and he is so proud of them :)! He likes writing once in a while and bringing it to the SF writer’s workshop (at Noisebridge PLEASE DONATE) — he wishes he could go more. He usually writes about the worst moments of his life but he’s studying to become a WATER RESOURCE ENGINEER which is cool I think! He enjoys learning guitar, Nathan Fielder, and the 16 million word-LitRPG-web serial The Wandering Inn. He wants to be a better person but it can be difficult at 22. My instagram or whateva: aaronlee.ves
Savannah Mandella was born in Westchester, New York and now works as a substitute teacher in San Francisco. She was the recipient of the 2025 Presidential Award For Undergraduate Research at the University of Albany, and worked as a writing tutor throughout her college career. Her writing explores themes of intergenerational conflict, physical repression, the philosophy of status and the flexible limits of the unconscious mind. She can be contacted at smandella [at] albany.edu.
Samantha Shields was adopted from foster care and reunited with her original mother in 1997. Her mother was one of the “girls who went away,” the approximately 4 million women sent to maternity homes during the Baby Scoop Era to give birth in secret, often with devastating consequences. Shields’s work explores issues of identity within adoption, adoption reunion, maternity homes, and reproductive freedom. She is a member of the San Francisco Writer’s Workshop and the Page Street Memoir writers group. She lives in San Francisco.
Come out on June 12 to celebrate our community and collaborate with our hacker friends to raise funds for everyone’s favorite local makerspace: Noisebridge!
Since 2022, Noisebridge has been providing us a welcoming place to meet free of charge, and we would love to give back as much as possible to ensure Noisebridge’s long-term survival in San Francisco’s storied Mission District.
This year, we’re collaborating with the hackers. We’ve asked several of our glorious authors to share their literary work with a hacker, who will respond with a device/app/gadget/doohickey inspired by the writing. On the night of the event, audience members (you!!) will vote for the device that best complements the assigned writer’s piece. The winning hacker will receive a prize of dubious value.
Flyer design by Kelci Hartz
The event will also feature a raffle!! refreshments!! opportunities to mingle!! and to celebrate the 80th anniversary of the San Francisco Writers Workshop that according to the lore was started by female poets in the aftermath of WWII, in 1946.
Be there on June 12 at 7 pm, at 272 Capp Street and celebrate with us!
Jiyoung Han was born in Seoul, Korea and grew up in the American Midwest. She has lived and worked in four continents but now calls San Francisco home. When not writing, she conducts research in climate change and human behavior. Her first novel, Honey in the Wound, was published in April 2026.
Lalita Abhyankar is a family physician and writer based in San Francisco. Her work explores the challenges and rewards of working in a broken primary care system. She was a regular contributor to the American Academy of Family Physicians New Physicians blog from 2017-2022 and was the host and producer of the 2021 Health Affairs podcast Piecemeal, exploring the impact of consolidation on independent primary care. She has independently produced a podcast called “One Click at a Time” exploring how AI and technology are impacting the speciality of family medicine. She is currently working on a manifesto on the importance of family medicine.
John “Jaune” Hanig (they/them) is a queer, non-binary writer and licensed psychotherapist working in private practice in San Francisco, serving a wide diversity of LGBTQ+ teens and adults using arts therapy and harm reduction. They are currently writing a novel that draws from issues encountered in their therapeutic work, including transgender and non-binary social and medical transition, trauma recovery, active substance use, living with HIV, and living as an undocumented immigrant.
Contact: john [at] honeyartstherapy.com
Aaron Lee (any pronouns) is a para for kids with complex trauma. His students have grown so much this school year and he is so proud of them :)! He likes writing once in a while and bringing it to the SF writer’s workshop (at Noisebridge PLEASE DONATE) — he wishes he could go more. He usually writes about the worst moments of his life but he’s studying to become a WATER RESOURCE ENGINEER which is cool I think! He enjoys learning guitar, Nathan Fielder, and the 16 million word-LitRPG-web serial The Wandering Inn. He wants to be a better person but it can be difficult at 22. My instagram or whateva: aaronlee.ves
Savannah Mandella was born in Westchester, New York and now works as a substitute teacher in San Francisco. She was the recipient of the 2025 Presidential Award For Undergraduate Research at the University of Albany, and worked as a writing tutor throughout her college career. Her writing explores themes of intergenerational conflict, physical repression, the philosophy of status and the flexible limits of the unconscious mind. She can be contacted at smandella [at] albany.edu.
Samantha Shields was adopted from foster care and reunited with her original mother in 1997. Her mother was one of the “girls who went away,” the approximately 4 million women sent to maternity homes during the Baby Scoop Era to give birth in secret, often with devastating consequences. Shields’s work explores issues of identity within adoption, adoption reunion, maternity homes, and reproductive freedom. She is a member of the San Francisco Writer’s Workshop and the Page Street Memoir writers group. She lives in San Francisco.
A reminder (and thanks to those of you who already submitted): 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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!
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.
Regulars and moderators reunite July 12, 2022! Left to right: Olga Zilberbourg, Hannah Custis, [?], Judy Viertel seated, Tamim Ansary, Monya Baker, Linda Jackson
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.
San Francisco Writers Workshop 