This week on the Stoop
Creative Coworking
Drop-in, creative co-working with peers over Zoom.
Stop by for a few minutes or stay for the whole session — it’s totally up to you. You can use this time to write, edit, read, daydream, or whatever best serves your literary life.
We will open and close the session with 10 minutes to check-in about our writing goals, obstacles, and accomplishments. Mics will stay off during the silent working portion of the event (3:40-5:20 pm ET).
Note: we do not workshop or read our work aloud to the group.
This event is free and open to all.
Thursdays on the Stoop: Writing for Young Readers
Thursdays on the Stoop is a series of free, virtual writing workshops led for and by our community members. With topics ranging from generative prompts to editing strategies, these informal workshops are sure to shake up your Thursday routine. RSVP below to get the link.
As an adult, writing for young people can be challenging. But tapping into our own adolescent experiences can help. In this free hour-long session, middle grade novelist Eric Bell will provide several prompts designed to help you see the world from a younger POV. There will be time to write, optional sharing, and an inside look at Eric's Kidlit Playground writing group.
Eric Bell (he/him) is the author of ALAN COLE IS NOT A COWARD (Katherine Tegen Books/HarperCollins) and ALAN COLE DOESN’T DANCE (Katherine Tegen Books/HarperCollins), two middle grade novels about a gay seventh grade boy dealing with bullies, crushes, the power of art, and coming out. The first book was nominated to the Rainbow Book List for LGBTQ Books for Children and Teens. The books have also been translated into multiple languages. Eric is also featured in the queer middle grade short story anthology THIS IS OUR RAINBOW: 16 STORIES OF HER, HIM, THEM, AND US (Knopf). Eric has taught courses on writing middle grade and young adult novels. He is a packet exchange instructor at Drexel University’s Low-Residency MFA in Creative Writing program. Eric has also run numerous virtual workshops and writing groups, including the Kidlit Playground, a group geared toward writers working on children’s books.
Creative Coworking
Drop-in, creative co-working with peers over Zoom.
Stop by for a few minutes or stay for the whole session — it’s totally up to you. You can use this time to write, edit, read, daydream, or whatever best serves your literary life.
We will open and close the session with 10 minutes to check-in about our writing goals, obstacles, and accomplishments. Mics will stay off during the silent working portion of the event (3:40-5:20 pm ET).
Note: we do not workshop or read our work aloud to the group.
This event is free and open to all.
Thursdays on the Stoop: Intro to Technical Writing
Thursdays on the Stoop is a series of free, virtual writing workshops led for and by our community members. With topics ranging from generative prompts to editing strategies, these informal workshops are sure to shake up your Thursday routine. RSVP below to get the link.
Technical writing — the art of translating complex information into simple terms — can be a lucrative skill. But breaking into the field is easier said than done. Many existing resources fail to offer practical advice, or assume that the aspiring technical writer has no writing experience at all. In this free and interactive hour-long session, technical writer Lisa DellaPorta will explain the different types of technical writing jobs, demonstrate a few industry best practices for software and hardware writing, and share resources for continued learning.
Lisa is a former high school teacher with a decade and a half of documentation and knowledge management for a variety of startup companies. She lives in Philadelphia. Her work, both personal and professional, can be found at https://dellaporta.xyz.
REGISTRATION DEADLINE: Beyond the Page w/ Dimitri Reyes
Friday, April 4th is the last day to register for Beyond the Page: Performance Skills for Poets, a 3 week class with Dimitri Reyes. Details below:
Saturdays, April 12 – 26, 2025 | 12:00 – 2:00 PM (ET) | In-person
Need financial aid? Apply here first.
Let your voice be heard! In this immersive 3-week workshop, participants will learn strategies for structuring and performing impactful poems by studying the Black Arts, Nuyorican, and Breakbeat movements. Through manipulating pacing, pauses, rhyme, and rhythm, students of all experience levels and poetic genres will generate new material and gain experience performing work that is transformative for writers and audiences alike.
Class dates: April 12, April 19, April 26
Location: 1315 Walnut Street, Philadelphia
Instructor: Dimitri Reyes is a Boricua multidisciplinary artist, content creator, and educator from Newark, New Jersey. He has been named one of The Best New Latinx Authors of 2023 by LatinoStories.com for his most recent book, Papi Pichón (Get Fresh Books, 2023) which was a finalist for the Omnidawn chapbook contest and the Andrés Montoya Poetry Prize. His other books include Every First and Fifteenth, the winner of the Digging Press 2020 Chapbook Award, and the poetry journal Shadow Work for Poets, now available on Amazon. Dimitri's work has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net and you can find more of his writing in Poem-a-Day, Vinyl, Kweli, & Acentos. He was also an inaugural poetry fellow for the Poets & Writers Get The Word Out publishing incubator and is a 2024 fellow with the NJ Arts Professional Learning Institute. Dimitri is also the Marketing & Communications Director at CavanKerry Press. Learn more about Dimitri by visiting his website at https://www.dimitrireyespoet.com/
Read our FAQ
REGISTRATION DEADLINE: From Query to Collaboration — How to Get an Agent
Saturday, April 26th and Tuesday, April 29th are the last days register for the nonfiction and fiction sessions (respectively) of From Query to Collaboration: How to Get an Agent. These 90 minute sessions can be purchased individually or as a pair. Details below:
Need financial aid? Apply here first.
These 90 minute virtual masterclasses, available for purchase individually or as a pair, will guide students through the process of getting an agent. Separated by genre, students in these standalone sessions will learn how to identify the ideal agent, write a successful query letter and choose comp titles, and manage the query process and communications, as well as what happens after you acquire representation. Participants will get an overview of best practices, the opportunity to ask questions about the publishing industry, and helpful tools to shape their future queries.
NONFICTION: Sunday, April 27, 6:30 – 8:00 PM (ET) — Zoom. Taught by Elizabeth Greenspan
FICTION: Wednesday, April 30, 6:30 – 8:00 PM (ET) — Zoom. Taught by Eshani Surya
Instructors:
Elizabeth Greenspan is a writer based in Philadelphia, and a member of the Blue Stoop Board. Her second book, about architects Denise Scott Brown and Robert Venturi, is forthcoming from W.W. Norton, for which she received a 2024 Silvers Grant. Her articles and reviews have appeared in The Believer, The New Yorker, The New Republic, and Places Journal, among other outlets. She has worked with multiple literary agents over the years—the good, the brilliant, the not-so-great—and looks forward to passing on what she has learned with you.
Eshani Surya is a disabled, brown writer interested in how we love while navigating the complications, trauma, and radical self-acceptance inherent to marginalization. Her novel, RAVISHING, will be published by Roxane Gay Books/Grove Atlantic. Eshani is a 2022 Asian Women Writer’s Workshop mentee, a 2022 Kenyon Review Writer’s Workshop scholarship recipient, a 2021 Mae Fellowship recipient and a 2021 Semi-Finalist for Key West Literary Seminar’s Marianne Russo Award for Novel In-Progress. Her fiction and essays can be read in The Rumpus, DIAGRAM, Catapult, Joyland, the anthology, Tiny Nightmares, and elsewhere. She is a board member at Blue Stoop, a literary non-profit in Philadelphia, the city where she now lives. She also holds an MFA from the University of Arizona in Tucson, where she also taught undergraduates. Previously she was a Flash Editor at Split Lip Magazine.
Read our FAQ
Thursdays on the Stoop: Incantations Against Empire
Thursdays on the Stoop is a series of free, virtual writing workshops led for and by our community members. With topics ranging from generative prompts to editing strategies, these informal workshops are sure to shake up your Thursday routine. RSVP below to get the link.
In this free hour-long workshop, we'll study the components of poetic spells (e.g. repetition, invoking powerful forces, spoken delivery) and practice writing our own. We'll start with source texts like June Jordan's "Intifada Incantation: Poem #8 for b.b.L." then gather materials to generate (and optionally share) our own incantations. We'll close with strategies for giving our incantations power, asking ourselves: What physical form could the words take? What happens when you sing it to the air, paint it on a banner, or write it on a stone and throw it in the ocean?
Miriam Saperstein (they/them) is a poet, mixed-media artist, and arts educator. Miriam engages history, ritual, and art to teach practical skills for sustaining communities, which is all we’ve got at the end of the day. They know our struggles are interconnected, from Lenapehoking to Palestine, and thus they strive to teach, create, and strategize accordingly.
Creative Coworking
Drop-in, creative co-working with peers over Zoom.
Stop by for a few minutes or stay for the whole session — it’s totally up to you. You can use this time to write, edit, read, daydream, or whatever best serves your literary life.
We will open and close the session with 10 minutes to check-in about our writing goals, obstacles, and accomplishments. Mics will stay off during the silent working portion of the event (3:40-5:20 pm ET).
Note: we do not workshop or read our work aloud to the group.
This event is free and open to all.
REGISTRATION DEADLINE: The Queer Art of Friendship w/ Kurt David
Monday, March 17th is the last day to register for The Queer Art of Friendship, a 3 week class with Kurt David. Details below:
Mondays, March 24 – April 7, 2025 | 6:00 – 8:00 PM (ET) | In-person
Need financial aid? Apply here first.
What is friendship? What isn't it? And isn't it kinda queer? In this 3-week class, we'll think through these questions in the context of our own lives and communities. Taking inspiration from representations of friendship in literature and visual media, students will work across genre to generate new writing.
Class dates: March 24, March 31, April 7
Location: 1315 Walnut Street, Philadelphia
Instructor: Kurt David is a public school teacher and unionist. His creative work has appeared in publications such as Gulf Coast and Split Lip and often centers friendship, queerness, and the labor movement. He has his MFA in poetry and nonfiction from The Ohio State University. For more, visit www.kurt-david.com.
Read our FAQ
Thursdays on the Stoop: Crafting the Online Essay
Thursdays on the Stoop is a series of free, virtual writing workshops led for and by our community members. With topics ranging from generative prompts to editing strategies, these informal workshops are sure to shake up your Thursday routine. RSVP below to get the link.
From LiveJournal to Substack, blogs have come a long way. In this free, hour-long workshop, we'll explore strategies for writing online personal essays, options for free self-publishing platforms, and tips for establishing a posting routine. Expect a generative writing prompt and group discussion, as well as a Q&A, if time permits.
Natalie Crystal is an essayist documenting the little things in life that spark inspiration (and spiraling) over at her digital journal, sky mind, on Substack.
Creative Coworking
Drop-in, creative co-working with peers over Zoom.
Stop by for a few minutes or stay for the whole session — it’s totally up to you. You can use this time to write, edit, read, daydream, or whatever best serves your literary life.
We will open and close the session with 10 minutes to check-in about our writing goals, obstacles, and accomplishments. Mics will stay off during the silent working portion of the event (3:40-5:20 pm ET).
Note: we do not workshop or read our work aloud to the group.
This event is free and open to all.
Thursdays on the Stoop: Working with Editors
Thursdays on the Stoop is a series of free, virtual writing workshops led for and by our community members. With topics ranging from generative prompts to editing strategies, these informal workshops are sure to shake up your Thursday routine. RSVP below to get the link.
Writing a book may be a solitary process, but it takes a team to prepare it for publication. In this free hour-long workshop, professional book coach and editor Dayna M. Reidenouer will provide an overview of the publishing process, with a focus on the multiple types of editing in traditional and independent publishing, how to find editors, and what to do with editorial feedback.
Dayna M. Reidenouer (they/she) is Your Publishing BFF, a line/copy editor and book coach specializing in inclusive romance, cozy mysteries, and children's books. They’ve also been known to ghostwrite, turning the frameworks of stories into fleshed-out novels readers return to again and again. When Dayna’s not polishing a manuscript, reading another MM romance, or tinkering with their website, they can be found in a professional development class or volunteering. Dayna chaired the 2024 Contemporary Romance Writers virtual writing conference and is in their second term as an elected member of the Editorial Freelancers Association board of directors. Your Publishing BFF is a partner member of the Alliance of Independent Authors. Learn more about Dayna’s editing, coaching, and writing services at www.YourPublishingBFF.com, and follow them at www.instagram.com/yourpublishingbff and @YourPublishingBFF on Threads.
Creative Coworking
Drop-in, creative co-working with peers over Zoom.
Stop by for a few minutes or stay for the whole session — it’s totally up to you. You can use this time to write, edit, read, daydream, or whatever best serves your literary life.
We will open and close the session with 10 minutes to check-in about our writing goals, obstacles, and accomplishments. Mics will stay off during the silent working portion of the event (3:40-5:20 pm ET).
Note: we do not workshop or read our work aloud to the group.
This event is free and open to all.
REGISTRATION DEADLINE: Writing the Wounded Character w/ Emily Jon Tobias
Friday, February 28th is the last day to register for Writing the Wounded Character, a 3 week class with Emily Jon Tobias. Details below:
Sundays, March 9 – 23, 2025 | 2:00 – 4:00 PM (ET) | Zoom
Need financial aid? Apply here first.
In this generative 3-week class, students will take a deep dive into narrative structure by way of the wounded character. Through reading, writing, and discussion, we'll learn the foundations of story structure, including character roles (protagonist, antagonist, etc) and how they function, narrative timelines, and character motives and development. We'll also explore how we as writers and individuals can learn from our fictional characters' pain and capacity for change.
Class dates: March 9, March 16, March 23
Location: Online
Instructor: Emily Jon Tobias is an American author and poet. She is an award-winning writer whose work has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize, along with other honorable mentions, and has been featured in various literary journals and magazines. Her debut collection MONARCH: STORIES (Black Lawrence Press, 2024) won the American Book Fest International Book Award and an International Impact Book Award. The collection was further honored as a 2024 finalist in the American Book Fest Fiction Awards, a distinguished favorite in the NYC Big Book Award, second place winner in the Story Monsters Royal Dragonfly Award, and a third place winner in the 2025 Feathered Quill Book Awards Program. Currently, Emily is a proud mentor in the PEN Prison Writing Mentorship Program. She holds a Master of Fine Arts in Writing from Pacific University Oregon. Midwestern-raised, she now lives and writes on the coast of Southern California.
Read our FAQ
Thursdays on the Stoop: Writing the Word, Writing the World
Thursdays on the Stoop is a series of free, virtual writing workshops led for and by our community members. With topics ranging from generative prompts to editing strategies, these informal workshops are sure to shake up your Thursday routine. RSVP below to get the link.
This free, hour-long session takes its inspiration from the Paolo Freire quote, "Reading the world thus precedes reading the word and wríting a new text must be seen as one means of transforming the world." Participants will read short excerpts from writers like Kao Kalia Yang and Audre Lorde, examining their use of narrative to explore power dynamics. Through discussion and generative writing prompts, we'll work to narrativize our own experiences in "reading the world."
Note: This session will not be recorded.
Sakae Kikuchi is a writer and organizer based in Philadelphia. They have over a decade of labor and community organizing experience and hold an MFA in creative writing from Rutgers Camden.
Creative Coworking
Drop-in, creative co-working with peers over Zoom.
Stop by for a few minutes or stay for the whole session — it’s totally up to you. You can use this time to write, edit, read, daydream, or whatever best serves your literary life.
We will open and close the session with 10 minutes to check-in about our writing goals, obstacles, and accomplishments. Mics will stay off during the silent working portion of the event (3:40-5:20 pm ET).
Note: we do not workshop or read our work aloud to the group.
This event is free and open to all.
REGISTRATION DEADLINE: Through the Back Door w/ Kristen Martin
Wednesday, February 26th is the last day to register for Through the Back Door: Writing the Hybrid Memoir, a 6 week class with Kristen Martin. Details below:
Wednesdays, March 5 – April 16, 2025 | 6:00 – 8:00 PM (ET) | Zoom
Need financial aid? Apply here first.
When we break away from what’s going on inside our heads, we just might see our own lives in a new light and discover something universal. This is the foundation of a “backdoor memoir”: a work that seems at first to focus on an outside phenomenon—the love letters of a Southern Gothic novelist, or the oil-and-gas industry in the North Sea—but ends up revealing just as much about its author as it does its topic. In this 6-week class, students will read excerpts from memoirs such as Jenn Shapland's My Autobiography of Carson McCullers, experiment with prompts, and then write a final piece that uses research, reporting, and/or criticism to open the door to the self.
Class dates: March 5, March 12, March 19, April 2, April 9, April 16
Location: Online
Instructor: Kristen Martin is a writer and critic based in Philadelphia. Her work has appeared in The New York Review of Books, The New York Times Magazine, The Washington Post, The Atlantic, The New Republic, The Nation, NPR, and elsewhere. She received an MFA in nonfiction writing from Columbia University. Her first book, The Sun Won’t Come Out Tomorrow: The Dark History of American Orphanhood, will be published by Bold Type Books in January 2025.
Read our FAQ
REGISTRATION DEADLINE: The Tipping Point w/ Sam Heaps
Friday, February 21st is the last day to register for The Tipping Point: Writing Choice as Scene, a 3 hour, single session class with Sam Heaps. Details below:
Saturday, March 1, 2025 | 1:00 – 4:00 PM (ET) | In-Person
Need financial aid? Apply here first.
A moment of decision can be one of the most memorable elements of a story. In this prose-focused 3-hour session, we will analyze two skillfully executed scenes of choice, brainstorm what we as a group think is important to show in a decision, and generate our own empathetic depictions of this critical point. Students of all levels are welcome, and sharing is encouraged, but not required. Those who have a work in progress are welcome to bring these characters to the workshop; all others should be ready to start a new story with a crossroads.
Location: 1315 Walnut Street, Philadelphia
Instructor: Sam Heaps is a writer whose debut memoir, Proximity, was released by Clash Books in 2023. They have published fiction and essay places such as Write or Die, Rejection Letters, Full Stop, Taco Bell Quarterly, Entropy's WOVEN Series, among many others. They were a Tin House Workshop Scholar and have received support from the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts and the Gullkistan Artist Residency. They currently live with their dog in Philadelphia where they work as labor organizer and teach writing at Arcadia University.
Read our FAQ
Thursdays on the Stoop: Characters at Play
Thursdays on the Stoop is a series of free, virtual writing workshops led for and by our community members. With topics ranging from generative prompts to editing strategies, these informal workshops are sure to shake up your Thursday routine. RSVP below to get the link.
This free hour-long workshop explores how writing depictions of play — sports, games, make-believe, and other cooperative and competitive activities — can produce compelling scenes, characters, and dynamics. We'll analyze examples from film, prose, and poetry; respond to writing prompts; and discuss our goals and inspirations.
C.P. Jude (Colin Bonini) is a writer from San Jose, California. His work appears in The Under Review, The Michigan Quarterly Review, Wig-Wag, The Masters Review, The Chicago Review of Books, The 2024 Driftwood Anthology, The Adroit Journal, and elsewhere. He is a graduate of Gonzaga University and earned his MFA from Arizona State University. He currently lives, writes, and teaches in Philadelphia, PA, and is eternally heartbroken about the A’s leaving Oakland.
Creative Coworking
Drop-in, creative co-working with peers over Zoom.
Stop by for a few minutes or stay for the whole session — it’s totally up to you. You can use this time to write, edit, read, daydream, or whatever best serves your literary life.
We will open and close the session with 10 minutes to check-in about our writing goals, obstacles, and accomplishments. Mics will stay off during the silent working portion of the event (3:40-5:20 pm ET).
Note: we do not workshop or read our work aloud to the group.
This event is free and open to all.
REGISTRATION DEADLINE: Between Music & Language w/ Hiwot Adilow
Friday, February 14th is the last day to register for Between Music & Language: Black Acoustemologies, a 3 hour, single session class with Hiwot Adilow. Details below:
Saturday, February 22, 2025 | 1:00 – 4:00 PM (ET) | In-person
Need financial aid? Apply here first.
Acoustemology, a hybridization of the words “acoustic” and “epistemology,” emphasizes sonic ways of knowing and being in the world. In this three-hour, generative poetry workshop, participants will study the use of sound in Black poetics before applying these lessons to their own work. By playing with musicality and crafting precise lyrics, we'll begin to unveil new ways of knowing and being known through poetry. This single-session workshop is open to writers of all backgrounds and experience levels.
Location: 1315 Walnut Street, Philadelphia
Instructor: Hiwot Adilow is an Ethiopian American poet from southwest Philadelphia. She is co-winner of the 2018 Brunel International African Poetry Prize and author of the chapbooks In the House of My Father (Two Sylvias Press, 2018) and Prodigal Daughter (Akashic Books & African Poetry Book Fund, 2019). Her work appears in Callaloo, The Offing, Reconstructed Magazine, and elsewhere, and has been anthologized in The BreakBeats Poets Vol 2.0: Black Girl Magic (Haymarket Books, 2018).
Read our FAQ
Thursdays on the Stoop: Poetry as Pleasure
Thursdays on the Stoop is a series of free, virtual writing workshops led for and by our community members. With topics ranging from generative prompts to editing strategies, these informal workshops are sure to shake up your Thursday routine. RSVP below to get the link.
This free hour-long workshop uses reflective exercises and poetry to explore how sexual and non-sexual pleasure can be a pathway to personal and collective liberation. Grounded in the teachings of Audre Lorde, bell hooks, and Adrienne Maree Brown, we'll use poetic expression to reclaim our right to sensuality and to challenge systems of oppression. The workshop encourages participants to embrace pleasure and poetry as tools for self-awareness, self-care, and resilience. Expect writing prompts, intentional reflection, and open conversation.
Amir Methvin is a poet, social worker, sex educator, and aspiring sex therapist with a passion for using writing as a medium for healing and liberation. She writes about love, people, pleasure, and pretty sunsets. With a background in psychology and gender studies from Temple University, Amir has spent over six years facilitating poetic spaces that center joy, pleasure, and self-discovery. Their work draws on the teachings of bell hooks and Audre Lorde, with a particular focus on the intersection of pleasure, identity, and liberation. Through workshops like Poetry as Pleasure, Amir empowers participants to explore the intimate connections between body, mind, and spirit through creative writing and reflection. As a Black, queer facilitator, Amir prioritizes creating inclusive, affirming spaces where participants can safely engage with pleasure as a liberatory practice. In addition to writing, Amir advocates for pleasure-centered sex education and consults with nonprofits and social service agencies to help incorporate sex-positive, inclusive frameworks into their work.
Creative Coworking
Drop-in, creative co-working with peers over Zoom.
Stop by for a few minutes or stay for the whole session — it’s totally up to you. You can use this time to write, edit, read, daydream, or whatever best serves your literary life.
We will open and close the session with 10 minutes to check-in about our writing goals, obstacles, and accomplishments. Mics will stay off during the silent working portion of the event (3:40-5:20 pm ET).
Note: we do not workshop or read our work aloud to the group.
This event is free and open to all.
Author Mentorships: Getting the Most Out of the Experience
This event is hosted by the Authors Guild, and co-sponsored by Blue Stoop. Please contact the Authors Guild with any questions.
Do you want to learn from an experienced mentor—or give back to the writing community by mentoring an emerging writer? Drawing on personal experience with writing mentorship programs and community organizations, our panelists will address what curious writers should know about becoming either a mentor or mentee.
Author mentorships can take many shapes: formal or informal, free or paid, craft-focused or career-oriented. We’ll discuss:
How to select the right mentorship program for you
What makes a great author mentor
How writer mentees can best benefit from the experience
Engaging in a writing community for ongoing support
Special thanks to the Asian American Writers’ Workshop, Blue Stoop, and Las Musas for collaborating on this event.
A Q&A will follow the presentation; you can pre-submit a question when registering for the event. A recording will be made available for those who cannot attend live.
The event will take place via Zoom with automatic closed captioning. To request any other accessibility features, please email support@authorsguild.org and we will make every effort to accommodate.
Presenters
Crystal Hana Kim is the author of the critically acclaimed novels The Stone Home (2024), a finalist for the Maya Angelou Book Prize and current longlist for the Joyce Carol Oates Award, and If You Leave Me (2018), which was named a best book of 2018 by over a dozen publications. Kim is the recipient of the 2022 National Book Foundation’s 5 Under 35 Award and the winner of a 2017 PEN/Robert J. Dau Short Story Prize for Emerging Writers. She lives in Brooklyn, New York with her family.
M. García Peña / Mia García (she/her) was born and raised in San Juan, Puerto Rico. She got her MFA at The New School and is the author of Even If the Sky Falls, The Resolutions, a contributor in the YA monster anthology Our Shadows Have Claws, and the picture book When We Find Her forthcoming from Viking Books for Young Readers. She is a founding member of the artist collective Las Musas Books and splits her time between Puerto Rico and New York.
Moderator: Julian Shendelman is a writer, editor, and organizer based in the greater Philadelphia area. When he’s not co-directing the literary arts organization Blue Stoop, he’s working on a novel about haunted houses, capitalism, and queer community. Learn more at www.shendelman.com.
A Celebration of 2025 Philly Books
Join Blue Stoop and The Head & the Hand Books on Zoom for…
A CELEBRATION OF 2025 PHILLY BOOKS!
By our count, there are 46 conventionally published titles by Philly or Philly-connected authors coming out in winter, spring, and summer 2025, and we think that’s worthy of celebration. Come hear the authors of 9 of them, from celebrated literary novelists and poets to buzzy romance writers and innovative young adult and children’s writers, read and discuss their recent and forthcoming books. Attendees will also receive a downloadable PDF guide to the details of all 46 titles. All are welcome; this is a night of literary toasting and camaraderie not to be missed!
To attend, please donate to Blue Stoop's winter fundraiser at any level, and you will receive a link to register. All $$ raised benefits Blue Stoop, Philadelphia’s nonprofit home for writers. Booksellers and bookish media/influencers: please email info@bluestoop.org to receive your free registration link.
Featured readers:
J.B. Hwang received her MFA in Fiction from the University of Florida, and her short fiction and translation can be found in The Temz Review, The Denver Quarterly, Oxford Magazine, and december magazine. She lived in San Francisco for eight years and worked as a mail carrier during the pandemic. She currently lives in Philadelphia.
Kayleb Rae Candrilli is the recipient of a Whiting Award, a PEW fellowship, and of a fellowship from the National Endowment of the Arts. They are the author of Winter of Worship, Water I Won’t Touch, All the Gay Saints, and What Runs Over. Candrilli lives in Philadelphia with their partner.
Sophie Lewis is an ex-academic queer feminist living in Philadelphia with several of her kin, including Barnacle the cat. Besides Enemy Feminisms, Sophie's published books include Abolish the Family and Full Surrogacy Now, both of which have been translated into many languages. You can support Sophie's writing at patreon.com/reproutopia and find her essays everywhere from the New York Times to the London Review of Books.
Tre Johnson is a freelance writer and critic on race and culture whose work has appeared in Rolling Stone, Vanity Fair, New York Times, Vox, San Francisco Chronicle, The Washington Post and several other outlets. His first book, the nonfiction work, ‘BLACK GENIUS: Our Celebrations and our Destructions’, will be published by Dutton Books at Penguin Random House Summer 2025. Originally from Trenton, NJ, he is based in Philadelphia, PA.
Julia Drake’s debut novel The Last True Poets of the Sea was published in 2019 by Little, Brown Books for Young Readers and received the 2020 New England Book Award, six starred reviews, and was named a 2019 Best Book of the Year by Kirkus, Publishers Weekly, and Booklist, among other publications. Her short fiction has appeared in The Gettysburg Review, Esopus, and McSweeney’s Internet Tendency, and her second young adult novel, Lovesick Falls, is forthcoming from Little, Brown Books for Young Readers in June 2025. She holds an MFA from Columbia University, and occasionally moonlights as a professor of creative and academic writing. She lives and works in Philadelphia with her partner and their rescue rabbit, Ned.
Weike Wang is the author of CHEMISTRY (Knopf 2017), JOAN IS OKAY (Random House 2022) and RENTAL HOUSE (Riverhead 2024). She is the recipient of a Pen Hemingway, a Whiting award and a National Book Foundation 5 under 35. Her work has appeared in Ploughshares, The New Yorker, The Atlantic, Best American Short Stories and has won an O. Henry Prize. She earned her MFA from Boston University and her other degrees from Harvard. She currently lives in New York City and teaches at the University of Pennsylvania, Columbia University and Barnard College.
Sawyer Lovett is a writer who lives in Tazewell County, VA by way of Philadelphia. He is a writer and professor, a dog dad, an occasional bookseller, barista, and balloon artist who makes zines, mistakes, and messes frequently and enthusiastically. Shampoo Unicorn is his first book.
Laura Piper Lee has wanted to be an author since she was a kid. Well, first she wanted to be a mermaid, but that didn't work out. She enjoys making people laugh, flirting, and avoiding exercise, so writing romantic comedies is pretty much a perfect career choice. Elle Magazine named her debut novel Hannah Tate, Beyond Repair a Best Romance of 2024, and her second novel, Zoe Brennan, First Crush releases January 21, 2025.
Kim Kelly is a labor reporter for In These Times Magazine and has been a regular labor columnist forTeen Vogue since 2018. Her writing on labor, class, politics, disability, and culture has appeared in The Nation, Rolling Stone, The New Republic, The Washington Post, The New York Times, The Baffler, and Esquire, among many others. Kelly has also worked as a video correspondent for More Perfect Union, The Real News Network, and Means TV. Her first book, FIGHT LIKE HELL: The Untold History of American Labor, was published by Atria/One Signal in 2022, and the young readers’ edition, Fight to Win: Heroes of American Labor, will be published by Simon & Schuster Kids in May 2025 (preorder it here!). She was born in the heart of the South Jersey Pine Barrens, and currently lives in Philadelphia with a hard-workin’ man, a couple of taxidermied bears, and way too many books.
Spring class info session
Considering registering for spring classes? Join Blue Stoop and several of this semester’s teachers for this virtual Q&A session. We’re here to answer questions about financial aid, payment plans, policies, and picking the right class for you.
Creative Coworking
Drop-in, creative co-working with peers over Zoom.
Stop by for a few minutes or stay for the whole session — it’s totally up to you. You can use this time to write, edit, read, daydream, or whatever best serves your literary life.
We will open and close the session with 10 minutes to check-in about our writing goals, obstacles, and accomplishments. Mics will stay off during the silent working portion of the event (3:40-5:20 pm ET).
Note: we do not workshop or read our work aloud to the group.
This event is free and open to all.
Thursdays on the Stoop: By the Book — Key Legal Issues for Writers
Thursdays on the Stoop is a series of free, virtual writing workshops led for and by our community members. With topics ranging from generative prompts to editing strategies, these informal workshops are sure to shake up your Thursday routine. RSVP below to get the link.
Contracts and clients and copyright, oh my! In this free hour long presentation, local attorney Gabrielle Sellei will address key legal issues for writers and creators. Topics will include contract basics (e.g., how do contracts work? what makes a contract binding? and how do I get out of a contract?) and copyright and intellectual property issues. Attendees will walk away with a clear understanding of what a contract is (and isn't), how to handle a negotiation, and the basics of copyright law as it applies to creative writing. Q&A to follow.
Gabrielle Sellei founded Sellei Law in 2015, after practicing employment, business, and entertainment law in the Philadelphia area for 20 years. Over the course of her career, Gabrielle has led complex business transactions, helped launch numerous start-up ventures, closed on many millions of dollars of financings, negotiated and completed deals for television appearances, video games, podcasts, feature and documentary film rights, sports exhibition matches, celebrity endorsements, and literary rights, and has resolved copyright, trademark, and other intellectual property disputes, on behalf of many creative and talented individuals and their business ventures.
A graduate of Boston University School of Law (JD) and Wesleyan University (BA, Art History), Gabrielle is the Board Vice President of Philadelphia Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts, and has been a volunteer attorney with PVLA over the course of her entire 25+ year legal career. She also serves on the Board and various committees of the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society and the Philadelphia Cultural Fund. Gabrielle is also a past Director of The Clay Studio in Philadelphia. She is also involved in the revitalization of the Sculpture Park at the Abington Art Center, in her hometown of Abington, PA. Prior to attending law school, Ms. Sellei was a consultant to artists and fine arts galleries throughout New England.
Ms. Sellei is a frequent speaker on copyright, contracts, start-ups, non-profit entities, and other legal issues affecting artists, entertainers, and entrepreneurs, and has been quoted in the Philadelphia Inquirer on these issues. Past teaching and speaking engagements include Drexel University’s Entertainment & Arts Management program, the Pennsylvania Bar Institute’s (PBI) Real Estate Institute, the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Moore College of Art & Design, University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School, The Center for Emerging Visual Artists, Tyler School of Art and Architecture, as well as numerous business, networking, and arts organizations.
Creative Coworking
Drop-in, creative co-working with peers over Zoom.
Stop by for a few minutes or stay for the whole session — it’s totally up to you. You can use this time to write, edit, read, daydream, or whatever best serves your literary life.
We will open and close the session with 10 minutes to check-in about our writing goals, obstacles, and accomplishments. Mics will stay off during the silent working portion of the event (3:40-5:20 pm ET).
Note: we do not workshop or read our work aloud to the group.
This event is free and open to all.
Live @ Kelly Writers House, ft. Blue Stoop
Join us at the Kelly Writers house for live performances from Blue Stoop’s community of teaching artists and music by HUEY, The Cosmonaut.
With readings by:
Anndee Hochman is a journalist, essayist, teaching artist and storyteller. For nine years, her column, "The Parent Trip" ran weekly in the Philadelphia Inquirer, and an anthology of those columns, along with her personal essays on parenthood, is forthcoming in fall 2025 from Temple University Press. For more than 30 years, Anndee has guided writers across the age span in poetry, memoir, storytelling and creative non-fiction, working in schools, community venues, detention centers and a tiny village on Mexico's Pacific coast.
Chukwuma "Chuks" Ndulue is a writer and teacher. He is author of the chapbook Boys Quarter (Ugly Duckling Presse). He has been the recipient of fellowships from Columbia University and the Kenyon Review.
Edythe Rodriguez is an Upper Darby poet and copywriter, hardcore Bustelo drinker and non-violent Beyhive member. She’s the author of We, the Spirits which won Grand Prize in the 2022 Button Poetry Chapbook Contest. Edythe has received fellowships from The Hurston/Wright Foundation, The Watering Hole, Brooklyn Poets and elsewhere. Her work is published in Obsidian, Brown Sugar Lit, Torch Literary Arts and elsewhere. You can follow her work at www.edytherodriguez.com.
Originally born and raised on the Northside of Wilmington, DE, Enoch is a poet, manga writer, and trauma-informed teaching artist living an anime lifestyle in Philadelphia. As a mental health advocate and human living with bipolar disorder and autism, Enoch’s work investigates the emotional and spiritual nuances of the Black human experience. Enoch is the 2017 Philadelphia Fuze Grand Slam Champion and the author of two poetry collections, “The Guide to Drowning” published in 2017 and “Burned at the Roots” published in 2020. Enoch operates as the Program Director for ArtWell, a multi-disciplinary arts programming non-profit geared towards using the arts as a medium to enhance students’ social-emotional toolkit, nurture their exploration of self, and strengthen their presence in community.
Kale Choo Hanson is a writer and editor. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in Peatsmoke Journal, The Good Life Review, Glassworks, and Thirteen Bridges Review. She holds an MFA from Temple University and currently resides in South Philadelphia with her partner. Kale is represented by Nour Sallam at P.S. Literary Agency.
With live music by HUEY, The Cosmonaut
Thursdays on the Stoop: Empowered Plotting
Thursdays on the Stoop is a series of free, virtual writing workshops led for and by our community members. With topics ranging from generative prompts to editing strategies, these informal workshops are sure to shake up your Thursday routine. RSVP below to get the link.
In this hour-long introductory workshop geared toward queer, trans/nonbinary, and disabled writers, we'll dive into the gate-kept field of screenwriting. Together, we'll pitch, draft, and revise our plots in a supportive, collaborative environment. Participants will learn about the three-act structure, form new connections, share professional resources, and gain new perspective on the screenwriting process.
Note: This event will not be recorded.
Bridgid Ryan is a writer driven by the idea that storytelling offers relief from isolation. She was head writer for The Core, a series on Shudder, featuring Glenn Danzig, Mary Harron, and Elijah Wood — a must for any horror fan. Bridgid is a community organizer, a tenacious advocate, and was awarded a 2023 CALI Catalyst grant, which supports artists and arts workers who are on the frontlines of effecting greater inclusion, access, diversity, and equity in the arts and culture sector. Her dedication to storytelling, collaboration, and inclusion makes her a formidable asset to any creative project, as long as there isn't a bird in the room. Bridgid is terrified of birds.
Creative Coworking
Drop-in, creative co-working with peers over Zoom.
Stop by for a few minutes or stay for the whole session — it’s totally up to you. You can use this time to write, edit, read, daydream, or whatever best serves your literary life.
We will open and close the session with 10 minutes to check-in about our writing goals, obstacles, and accomplishments. Mics will stay off during the silent working portion of the event (3:40-5:20 pm ET).
Note: we do not workshop or read our work aloud to the group.
This event is free and open to all.
Winter Break
Blue Stoop will be closed for winter break from December 21, 2024 through January 5, 2025. See you next year!
Creative Coworking
Drop-in, creative co-working with peers over Zoom.
Stop by for a few minutes or stay for the whole session — it’s totally up to you. You can use this time to write, edit, read, daydream, or whatever best serves your literary life.
We will open and close the session with 10 minutes to check-in about our writing goals, obstacles, and accomplishments. Mics will stay off during the silent working portion of the event (3:40-5:20 pm ET).
Note: we do not workshop or read our work aloud to the group.
This event is free and open to all.
Thursdays on the Stoop: Avoiding the Info Dump
Thursdays on the Stoop is a series of free, virtual writing workshops led for and by our community members. With topics ranging from generative prompts to editing strategies, these informal workshops are sure to shake up your Thursday routine. RSVP below to get the link.
Good writing grabs the reader's attention. In this free one-hour workshop, we'll unpack several examples of solid opening paragraphs from published novels and stories, discussing which details the author has included or excluded, why the authors may have chosen their particular tactic, and what impact those choices have on the reader.
Tony Knighton is an American crime fiction author known for his lean, suspenseful writing style. He is a thirty-eight-year veteran of the Philadelphia Fire Department, which has influenced his writing and given him a unique perspective on the darker aspects of urban life.
Tony has written a collection, Happy Hour and Other Philadelphia Cruelties, and three novels, Three Hours Past Midnight, A Few Days Away, and A Night at the Shore, all published by Brash Books. In addition to his books, he’s had short stories published in various crime fiction anthologies and magazines, further establishing himself as a respected voice in the genre.
Creative Coworking
Drop-in, creative co-working with peers over Zoom.
Stop by for a few minutes or stay for the whole session — it’s totally up to you. You can use this time to write, edit, read, daydream, or whatever best serves your literary life.
We will open and close the session with 10 minutes to check-in about our writing goals, obstacles, and accomplishments. Mics will stay off during the silent working portion of the event (3:40-5:20 pm ET).
Note: we do not workshop or read our work aloud to the group.
This event is free and open to all.