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.
Category: History
Tamim Ansary, 2015
Thanks to Asa Murphy for pictures of Tamim Ansary, taken when he chose to step down as a moderator of the San Francisco Writers Workshop in July 2015. His last Tuesday night as a moderator gathered a great number of old and new regulars at Alley Cat books.
Kurt Wallace, 2014
Thank you Tania Amochaev for this picture of our moderator Kurt Wallace from Alley Cat Books circa 2014.
Kitty Costello’s History of the Workshop
A longtime participant of the workshop since 1977, Costello created the San Francisco Public Library archive for the San Francisco Writers Workshop. We’re happy to share a collection of her writings about the Workshop.
Kitty Costello worked for thirty years for the San Francisco Public Library, while also practicing Shaolin kung fu and working as a teacher, editor, and social justice organizer. She earned a master’s degree in social psychology, specializing in labor and mental health, and in recovery from trauma. She practices psychotherapy and leads meditation, writing and chi gung classes. She is literary trustee for Native Alaskan writer Mary TallMountain. Working with Freedom Voices, she has helped give voice to marginalized writers and artists, especially in San Francisco’s Tenderloin District, for nearly thirty years. Costello lives in San Francisco’s Mission District.
Continue reading “Kitty Costello’s History of the Workshop”Poster from the 1980s
This workshop poster was created by Randy (Elinor Randall) in the mid-1980s. At the time, the workshop met at the (old) Main Library, usually in the 1st floor Lurie Room. Kitty Costello writes: “Randy was Leonard Irving’s partner, and the two of them were the keepers of workshop lore, which they loved to recount. Randy died back in Vermont in July 2023.”
San Francisco Writers Workshop 