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 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.

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.

Novels in Progress presents…

Thorns & Roses: A Stem by Lauren Holguin and STOPPING by Nikki Volpicelli (synopses below)

This fall, join us for one, two, or all three events of the Novels in Progress series, a salon-style reading and conversation featuring the work of two writers deep in the process of a long project. This event is free and open to the public. Light refreshments will be provided. Masks are strongly encouraged!

Sponsored by:

• Blue Stoop, a nonprofit "Home for Philly Writers"

• Molly's Books and Records

• The Literature Department at The Free Library of Philadelphia

Thorns & Roses: A Stem by Lauren Holguin

Poet and burnt out elementary teacher Lola is devastated by the death of her beloved Abuela. Rushing from Philly to the Los Angeles she worked to get away from, Lola misses her opportunity to read Abuela the children's story she always wished Lola would write for her. With the stem who held them all together gone, the landscape of this already strange family is further complicated when post-funeral, Abuela returns as a stubborn rose plant sprouting within Lola’s body. When everything from an over-the-phone exorcism to a pack of razors fail to alleviate her condition, Lola reluctantly follows the instincts of Abuela’s spirit through dreams and uncomfortable bodily urges. With her resentful older sister Dora and a couple of favorite cousins, Lola embarks on an answer-seeking road trip though the Southwest beginning in the Mojave desert of Abuela’s childhood— the source of her environmentally caused cancer. Thorns & Roses explores the past, present, and future anatomy of a Mexican-American family, particularly the thorns of estranged relationships amidst roses of memories. Full of desert delirium, rest stop karaoke, family secrets, and drama, Lola journeys through the following questions: What are your thorns? , What are your roses?, and Who or what is your stem?

Lauren Holguin is a Chicanx writer, educator, and dancer from Los Angeles who calls Philly home. She is a recent grad of Rutgers Camden's MFA program, a poetry and fiction editor at Barrelhouse Mag, and co-host of the Philly reading series Spit Poetry. She currently works as a high school special education teacher in Camden, NJ. Her words have been featured in No Tokens Journal, The Fourth River, Subnivean, and Barrelhouse Magazine

STOPPING by Nikki Volpicelli

Stopping is a novel-in-stories about coming of age in and around Philadelphia during the opioid crisis that follows Danni, a teenager searching for—and refusing to accept—love, obliteration, and rescue. Years later, her life consists of staying sober, separating from her husband, and avoiding her mother’s phone calls about her little sister, Alyssa, who lives in a tent in Kensington. To reconnect with Alyssa, test her sobriety, or both, Danni returns to the neighborhood where her addiction began to volunteer at a syringe exchange, finding that her past is still very much alive, and more dangerous than ever.

Nikki Volpicelli is a graduate of the Bennington Writing Seminars. Her work has been shortlisted for The Masters Review Short Story Award for New Writers and the Craft Literature Short Story Award. Her writing has been featured in Neutral Spaces, XRAY, Entropy, Expat, and more. She lives in Philadelphia with her two chihuahuas, Gene and Bones, and her human, Eric.

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 generative workshop is a space for participants to engage poems that model what daughters are capable of making and unmaking. Through writing prompts, we will work to answer the question: What are you devoted to? This workshop encourages poems that bow to and buck against subjects of devotion like fathers, mothers, lovers, nations, and The World. Participants will leave the workshop having developed maps toward honoring themselves and what they hold dearest.

Hiwot Adilow is an Ethiopian American poet from southwest Philadelphia. Hiwot 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 Vinyl, Callaloo, The Offing, Reconstructed Magazine, and elsewhere. She has been anthologized in The BreakBeats Poets Vol 2.0: Black Girl Magic (Haymarket Books, 2018), Best Small Fictions (Sonder Press, 2019), The New Teacher Book (rethinking schools, 2019) and An Anthology of Contemporary Poetry: Volume 3, (20.35 Africa, 2020). Hiwot’s writing has been supported by the Callaloo Creative Writing Workshop, the Pink Door Writing Retreat, Anaphora Writing Residency, and VONA.

Hiwot holds a BA in Anthropology with a certificate in African Studies from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where she was a member of the First Wave Hip Hop and Urban Arts Learning Community. She also holds a M.Ed. in Early Childhood Education from Lincoln University in Pennsylvania.

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 is a series of free, virtual workshops. 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.

You’ve done it–you have a book coming out! How do you get readers interested in your work? How do you spread the word about your own name? How do you promote a book or other project effectively? And how do you work effectively with your publisher to achieve your goals? Here we’ll discuss all things book promotion and how to work well with your publishing team to bring the most readers to your book.

PANELISTS:

Whitney Peeling, Co-founder, Broadside PR, handles narrative nonfiction and works with mission-driven organizations. She has a soft spot for big-picture science, technology, and economics; under-explored civil rights/humanitarian issues; ground- breaking research; and top-notch investigative journalism. Current and former authors/projects include Matthew Desmond’s Eviction Lab, Paul Farmer, Carlotta Gall, co-authors David Graeber and David Wengrow, Adam Grant, Kelly Lytle Hernández, Daniel Kahneman, Elizabeth Kolbert, Jaron Lanier, Victor Luckerson, Nathaniel Rich, James Risen, Elizabeth Rush, Reshma Saujani, Eric Schlosser, Safiya Sinclair, Clint Smith, Carrie Sun, Ellen Ullman, Linda Villarosa, The Whiting Foundation, and Muhammad Yunus. Click here for a full list of her clients.

Libby Burton, Executive Editor at Crown, publishes both practical and narrative nonfiction with an eye for stories and insight from traditionally underrepresented voices. She has edited a wide range of award-winning and bestselling authors including former New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, Stacey Abrams, Katie Porter, Mariah Carey, Melissa Broder, Jessica Valenti, Lyz Lenz, Aurora James, and Ai Weiwei. Previously she worked as an editor at Henry Holt & Company, Twelve Books, and Grand Central Publishing, and is the author of the poetry collection Soft Volcano.

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 is a series of free, virtual workshops. 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.

So, you’re a writer–maybe you’ve written a novel or you have a great idea for a nonfiction book, and you’re the right person to write it. How do you transform that idea or manuscript into a book deal? Do you need a literary agent? And how do you go about getting one–and what do they actually do? What is the query process? What is the relationship between literary agents and editors? Here we’ll discuss the best way to turn that manuscript (or idea) into something that can be published.

PANELISTS:

Jenny Herrera, Literary Agent, David Black Agency, joined the David Black Agency in 2015 after working at Fletcher & Company and Europa Editions, where she was an early advocate of Elena Ferrante. She went to college in Ohio, where she studied Philosophy, French, and Russian, and has master’s degrees in Philosophy and Social Sciences. Her authors have been awarded the Harriet Tubman Prize, nominated for the J. Anthony Lukas Prize, appeared on NPR’s Fresh Air, and been New York Times bestsellers. She loves reading nonfiction books about big ideas and is particularly drawn to smart, issue-driven books, especially those from journalists as well as writers with professional expertise, including science, psychology, philosophy,economics, prescriptive, lifestyle, history, and the stories of underrepresented groups.

Caroline Eisemann, Senior Literary Agent & VP, Frances Goldin Agency, joined Francis Goldin in 2017 after spending four years at ICM Partners. Her clients include Sam Adler-Bell, Delia Cai, Kyle Chayka, Sheldon Costa, Jasper Craven, Cody Delistraty, Rose Eveleth, Linda Rui Feng, Jaime Green, James Gregor, Courtney Gustafson, Katy Kelleher, Theresa Levitt, Rennie McDougall, Micah Nemerever, Haley Nahman, Jenny Odell, the Adrienne Rich Literary Trust, Reagan Penaluna, Cameron Russell, Lauren Slater, Claire Stapleton, Michelle Webster-Hein, Ye Chun, Kate Wagner, and Jennifer Wilson. Authors represented by Caroline have appeared on the New York Times Bestseller list and been short or longlisted for the National Book Award in fiction, the National Book Award’s 5 Under 35 Award, the Scotiabank Giller Prize, the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence, and the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize.

Libby Burton, Executive Editor at Crown, publishes both practical and narrative nonfiction with an eye for stories and insight from traditionally underrepresented voices. She has edited a wide range of award-winning and bestselling authors including former New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, Stacey Abrams, Katie Porter, Mariah Carey, Melissa Broder, Jessica Valenti, Lyz Lenz, Aurora James, and Ai Weiwei. Previously she worked as an editor at Henry Holt & Company, Twelve Books, and Grand Central Publishing, and is the author of the poetry collection Soft Volcano.

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 is a series of free, virtual workshops. 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.

So, you’ve written a fiction or poetry manuscript, or you’ve got a solid idea for a nonfiction book...

What does it mean to have a “platform” as a writer and why does it matter? What are literary agents and publishers looking for in terms of a “platform?” Here we will discuss what platform means in the world of book publishing—both fiction and nonfiction, and even poetry—and how writers should think about their own platform to best position themselves to sell and publish a book.

PANELISTS:

Matt Inman, VP and Editorial Director (Crown and Ten Speed Press, Entertainment and Special Projects), loves distinctive voices, immersive journeys, and books that entertain as they teach. He’s looking for narrative and illustrated nonfiction, including memoir, biography, cultural history, humor, pop culture, and pop reference, as well as select art/photography, how-to, and business books. Matt has acquired and edited New York Times bestsellers by Matthew McConaughey (Greenlights), Dolly Parton (Behind the Seams), Jimmy Chin (There and Back), The Moth (How to Tell a Story, Occasional Magic, and A Point of Beauty), Rhett & Link (Rhett & Link’s Book of Mythicality and The Lost Causes of Bleak Creek), Gracie Gold (Outofshapeworthlessloser), Conor Knighton (Leave Only Footprints), and The Onion (The Ecstasy of Defeat). His authors also include Shirley MacLaine, Eric Idle, John "MrBallen" Allen, Andrew Rannells, The Explorers Club, Dave Holmes, Mike Matheny, and Olivia de Havilland, as well as the creative teams of The Crown, Black Mirror, and Shark Tank.

Libby Burton, Executive Editor at Crown, publishes both practical and narrative nonfiction with an eye for stories and insight from traditionally underrepresented voices. She has edited a wide range of award-winning and bestselling authors including former New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, Stacey Abrams, Katie Porter, Mariah Carey, Melissa Broder, Jessica Valenti, Lyz Lenz, Aurora James, and Ai Weiwei. Previously she worked as an editor at Henry Holt & Company, Twelve Books, and Grand Central Publishing, and is the author of the poetry collection Soft Volcano.

Lori Kusatzky, Associate Editor, has been at Crown since October 2023, brought over by Amy Einhorn (from Henry Holt / Macmillan) to restart the fiction division. While at Holt, she published Suzie Miller’s Prima Facie and Kate Flannery’s Strip Tees, and worked with authors Alison Espach, Liane Moriarty, Andy Cohen, John Stamos, and Gary Janetti, amongst others. Prior to being on the editorial side, she worked at Abrams Artists Agency and Innovative Artists Agency. She is a PW Star Watch Honoree and graduated from UNC School of the Arts with a BFA in drama.

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.

Novels in Progress presents…

Who Disturbs My Peace This Lovely Evening? by Chandler Myer and Planet Surrey by Maya Afilalo (synopses below)

This fall, join us for one, two, or all three events of the Novels in Progress series, a salon-style reading and conversation featuring the work of two writers deep in the process of a long project. This event is free and open to the public. Light refreshments will be provided. Masks are strongly encouraged!

Sponsored by:

• Blue Stoop, a nonprofit "Home for Philly Writers"

• Molly's Books and Records

• The Literature Department at The Free Library of Philadelphia

Planet Surrey by Maya Afilalo

Sepi Halimi observes her Philadelphia suburb like Planet Earth’s David Attenborough—but when best friend drops her, she finds herself the object of her own observations, fallen through the cracks of her school’s social hierarchy, seeking connection and at times, survival. Amidst the 2008 financial crisis, Sepi’s father loses his job, while her older brother, the once-golden Persian son, spirals into reckless college partying. As Sepi struggles to hold her family together, she must navigate her first queer crush, and decide if a new friendship is worth risking for love.

Maya Afilalo’s stories and essays appear or are forthcoming in New Ohio Review, The Rumpus (Funny Women), Porter House Review, Bayou Magazine, The /tƐmz/ Review, and elsewhere. Her work has been nominated for a Best of the Net Prize, earned her a residency with Sundress Academy of the Fine Arts, and was awarded the 2022 James Hurst Prize for Fiction. She lives in Philadelphia. Read more at mayaafilalo.com.

Who Disturbs My Peace This Lovely Evening? by Chandler Myer

Who Disturbs My Peace This Lovely Evening? is the story of two women, Wendy and Gladys, who have been best friends for 50 years. They live across the hall from one another in a dilapidated New York apartment building and make ends meet working in cheap real estate as they approach 70 years old. Wendy begins receiving mysterious bags of cash outside her door just as she unwittingly becomes involved in an international crime syndicate. Will the two widows, with the help of some unlikely allies, foil the bad guys and find happiness in retirement? Maybe… if the subway didn’t have so damned many stops!

Chandler Myer published his first novel, Jayne and the Average North Dakotan, winner of the Literary Titan GOLD Award, at age 57, following a 35-year career as a professional musician. The book is based on his short story, “That Night I Ran the High Heel Race,” published in the Medium publication Prism & Pen. He has been published in Bear Creek Gazette and Medium publications Rainbow, An Idea, and Atheism101. Myer was born in Bryan, Ohio, and now lives in Philadelphia with his amazing husband of more than a quarter century. He loves to walk, travel, and make friends with every dog he sees.

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 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.

A ghost is an amorphous thing, but a haunted house is a construction. The heavy urns, the veranda, the patterned carpet, the warm fireplace, the blue room, the library’s iron stairs: all make Eleanor Vance feel “like a small creature swallowed whole by a monster” in Jackson’s The Haunting of Hill House. How do we make wicked houses come alive in prose? How do we guarantee their physical construction to envelop the reader’s mind? In this one-hour free session, we will discuss the craft of building a haunted house in three parts: the physical construction, how to manipulate the mood of literary space, and finally, how to use contemporary culture or personal experience to adapt the classic framework to your own artistic endeavors. Examples will be given from writers like Gaston Bachelard, Edith Wharton, and Jamil Jan Kochai. Through the hour, writing prompts will be paired with these prose examples, so writers will leave with three generated elements to ultimately revise together into a future haunted house story. This is a supportive and relevant class for anyone writing the mood of an unhappy or evil domestic space. Prose writers of all genres are welcome.

Zinnia Smith’s work is published with TSR: The Southampton Review, East, Voicemail Poems, and Peach Mag, among others. She’s included in the speculative anthology WORLDS IN WHICH ed. by Fargo Nissim Tbakhi. She was the 2018 recipient of Fugue's writing contest in prose, and a semi-finalist for both the American Short Fiction's American Short(er) Fiction writing contest and the Ralph Angel Poetry Prize by Foundlings Press. She received a 2024 Mass Cultural Council Grant for Creative Individuals. www.zinniasmith.com

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 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 with Amy Beth Sisson, we'll explore the contrapuntal, a two-column poem that can be read in various directions. Named after a similar musical form, contrapuntal poetry foregrounds multiple ways of storytelling and highlights complexity. We'll discuss how poets such as Airea D. Matthews, Tyehimba Jess, and Kamiko Hahn use the form, and experiment with writing exercises and strategies for construction.

Amy Beth Sisson (she/her) was a 2024 Peter Taylor Fellow with the Kenyon Review Writing Workshops, received her MFA from Rutgers University Camden in 2023, and is an Editorial Assistant for Fence Publishers.

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.

Join us for a luminous night of queer poetry to celebrate National Coming Out Day! Revel in community with local poets. Features will be followed by an open mic.

• Doors at 6; show starts at 6:30 pm

• Free parking across the street or around the corner on Susquehanna

• Beer and wine (and non-alcoholic options) available for donation — no outside beverages, please

• Tickets are $5 (no one turned away for lack of funds) and proceeds will benefit Blue Stoop. Purchase online or just show up!

About the performers:

Taylor Townes, also known as rough draft, is a poet, mixed media artist, teacher, storyteller, and community organizer born and raised in Philadelphia. With a passion for fostering spaces of collective creativity and healing, she currently works part time as a Co-Director for Blue Stoop, a home for Philly writers. Outside of work, she is an avid reader and writer, a paper and fiber artist, and can often be found at art exhibitions and events, seeking community and art wherever it may blossom. She shares her poetry on custom clothing with her brand Poetry for the Streets, is a creative lead on a digital healing project with Cry Collective, a project of Asian Arts Initiative, and is part of Voices in Power’s 2023 Millionaire’s Club for surpassing 3 Million Views across social platforms on her Spoken Word Performance “lay up”. She is a Philly Typewriter sponsored poet, recipient of the 2022 Judith Star Writing Award, and hopes to finally finish her first chapbook of poetry (eventually).

Vriddhi Vinay (they/she) is a South Indian New York City-based writer, poet, researcher, art reviewer, and poetic anthropologist. A December 2022 Temple University graduate, Vriddhi uses their multidisciplinary background to write about anti-colonial art, South Asian feminism, and sexuality. They love to explore the intersection of sexual reclamation, radical survivorship, community between brown women, queerness, and memory. The ethos of their art writing surrounds highlighting braveness, archive-keeping, and subversion in artistic works. Their work has appeared in Artblog Philadelphia, MUNDI Global Academic Journal, Kweli Journal, Tilted House, Cosmonauts Avenue, Apiary Magazine, and The Inklette Magazine. Find them at vriddhivinay.com to read more of their work.

Audrey Zee Whitesides is a poet & musician from Elizabethtown, KY, currently living in Philadelphia, PA. Her work touches desire, affect, queerness, capital, & the social. You can find her live or recorded with artists like Speedy Ortiz, Mal Blum, & Mel Stone, or on the internet talking about reality tv, anime, & old video games. Her work is published or forthcoming in Bullshit, Bone Bouquet, Eoagh, Glittermob, and more.

Adam Gianforcaro is the author of the poetry collection Every Living Day (Thirty West, 2023). His poems can be found in The Offing, Poet Lore, Muzzle Magazine, The Cincinnati Review, and elsewhere. He is a Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net nominee, was a finalist in Lucky Jefferson’s 2023 Poetry Prize, an honorable mention in The Maine Review’s Embody Awards, and a winner of Button Poetry’s 2018 Short Form Contest. He lives in Delaware.

Alison Lubar teaches high school English by day and yoga by night. They are a queer, nonbinary, mixed-race femme whose life work has evolved into bringing mindfulness practices to young people. Their poetry collection, The Other Tree, was the recipient of Harbor Editions’ 2024 Laureate Prize. They’re the author of four chapbooks: Philosophers Know Nothing About Love (Thirty West, 2022), queer feast (Bottlecap Press, 2022), sweet euphemism (CLASH!, 2023), and It Skips a Generation (Stanchion, 2023), as well as one full-length, METAMOURPHOSIS (fifth wheel press, 2024). Find out more at http://www.alisonlubar.com/ or on Twitter @theoriginalison.

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 Kalela Williams' forthcoming YA novel TANGLEROOT (forthcoming 10/15), the main character finds herself wandering a former plantation by that name, the land where her ancestors were once enslaved. In this free one hour workshop, Kalela will walk with you into an exploration of place. What are the singularities of a place, whether real or fictional? What are its energies and who are its witnesses? If you have images of places to share during the workshop, such as your old childhood home, or snapshots from your neighborhood, email them to development@bluestoop.org by October 7 so they can be incorporated. Be primed to explore, share, and reconsider how place shapes your poetry or prose.

Kalela Williams is an author, a proud auntie, a cat mama, and a "Black History Maven." For the past two years she has directed the Virginia Center for the Book, after more than a decade of creating public programs for the Free Library of Philadelphia, Mighty Writers, and other Philadelphia institutions. Besides her forthcoming book, her poetry and prose has been published and commissioned by BBC 4, Calyx: A Journal of Literary Arts for Women, Drunken Boat, Philadelphia Contemporary, and others.

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.

Novels in Progress presents…

THE ROWHOUSE by Alaina Johns & Untitled by M.J. Ivory (synopses below)

This fall, join us for one, two, or all three events of the Novels in Progress series, a salon-style reading and conversation featuring the work of two writers deep in the process of a long project. This event is free and open to the public. Light refreshments will be provided. Masks are strongly encouraged!

Sponsored by:

• Blue Stoop, a nonprofit "Home for Philly Writers"

• Molly's Books and Records

• The Literature Department at The Free Library of Philadelphia

THE ROWHOUSE by Alaina Johns

Abby, Matt, and Sam are strangers in desperate need of roommates. When they find a South Philly rowhouse, the timing is perfect, except that it’s February 2020. They each have their own secrets, but just as quarantine descends, they start to suspect that there’s someone or something else in the house…and their landlord knows all about it.

Alaina Johns (she/her) is a Philly-based freelance writer and the editor-in-chief of Broad Street Review, Philly's only professional interdisciplinary arts and culture publication. THE ROWHOUSE is her first novel, after 15 years (and counting) of being a journalist.

Untitled by M.J. Ivory

The year is 2120 and the rich have abandoned a Miami half-drowned by climate disaster for an escapist paradise on the sea. Those left behind have formed a new religion prophesying God's message for a planet gone haywire -- and for the superhumans inexplicably cropping up among Black populations across the globe. When the young and pious Elijah betrays his faith and shares a forbidden kiss with his best friend Keith, he manifests a deadly “miracle” that launches the two boys onto separate journeys to answer a single question: if you or your world must face judgment and burn, which receives salvation?

Michael "M.J." Ivory is a Miami, FL native whose journeys have led him to Philadelphia. A preacher's kid by birth and a magician in his daydreams, his writing has been an unending journey to share the magic he feels in the everyday with others. Whether it's the wonder of water, the anointing that is queerness, or the way-making power of Black folks, he wants to help people marvel at it. His work can be read in Waterproof: Evidence of a Miami Worth Remembering and heard in the forthcoming Audio-Anthology: Who We Are is Made, both published with O, Miami. Michael holds an MFA in Fiction from North Carolina State University and can be found using his spare time becoming a Pokemon master or laughing way too loudly.

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.

Join Sisi Reid of Soul Shine Theater Garden for one hour of writing and movement exercises inspired by Lucille Clifton’s poem “won’t you celebrate with me”. This workshop is an invitation to pause and reflect on what you’ve made it through. This workshop is an invitation to make space for joy — joy not absent of grief, heartache, and tragedy but alongside and despite these experiences. Participants will use embodied storytelling, movement tableaus, and writing exercises to tap into the complexities of celebration.

Sisi SoulShine (she/they) is a touring multidisciplinary writer and theater artist from Norfolk, Virginia and Wheaton, Maryland who practices theater as tools for collective liberation, healing, and youth empowerment. Sisi’s art is grounded in the values of justice, community building, and education instilled by her family. Sisi is an actor, writer, playwright, dancer, director, spoken word poet, Emcee, facilitator, teaching artist, educator (including English language arts) and an applied theater practitioner. Sisi is a graduate of University of Maryland and The Theater Lab’s Life Story Institute. They’ve taught (poetry, playwriting, acting, and devising) and performed in Washington D.C., Maryland, Virginia, New Jersey, Michigan, Colombia, London, and Brazil. They’ve facilitated theater workshops in prisons with University of Michigan’s Prison Creative Arts Project, Voices Unbarred, and University of Rio's Theater in Prison program. Sisi continually curates and facilitates joyFULL spaces that are Black, queer, and abundant. She is the founder and artistic director of Soul Shine Theater Garden, a dance-theater organization that illuminates joy by practicing storytelling, dance- theater, creative healing arts, and Black Afro-Indigenous cultural technologies in order to guide people in embodying their joy in spaces to be in connection to nature. @sisisoulshine @soulshinetheatergarden www.sisireid.com

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.

You asked and we listened! Join Blue Stoop for a full day of drop-in coworking, in-person at Indy Hall Clubhouse. Indy Hall has generously provided a pay-what-you-wish option: $0–30. Just type in the amount you wish to pay during checkout.

All proceeds from ticket sales support Indy Hall. If you’d like to support Blue Stoop, consider buying a yummy snack from us on site, or making a donation through our website.

Coworking starts at 9:00am and continues until 6:00pm. Join us for some writing, editing, reading, daydreaming, freelancing, or anything else you’d like to work on, whether it be for a few minutes, an hour or two, or even the full day. See you there!

Accessibility: Face masks are recommended by us, but not required by our hosts. The space is ADA compliant (elevator available) and all bathrooms are gender neutral.

Considering registering for our fall classes? We’re here to answer questions about financial aid, payment plans, policies, and picking the right class for you. Join Blue Stoop and a few of this semester’s teachers for this drop-in virtual Q&A session.

Kick off the autumn season at ICA’s newly launched monthly after-hours night, Later @ ICA! 

Join us for a lively mix of cocktails and light snacks, all on the house, as you explore our Summer/Fall 2024 exhibitions during exclusive late-night hours. Enjoy art-inspired games on our Terrace, catch short in-gallery poetry readings from our friends at Blue Stoop, and groove to the beats of Philly-based electronic artist and DJ JEWELSSEA.

A fantastic way to unwind, make new friends, and kick off the back-to-school season!

FREE & OPEN TO ALL (Poetry readings begin at 7PM)

Performers:

Cam Simmons is a Philly based water justice advocate and poet. They’ve been writing poetry for most of their life, moving between spoken word, slam, and the written form. Poetry has taken on many different roles in Cam’s life, from a casual hobby to an academic pursuit to a deeply beloved side hustle. But through all its forms, poetry has been their way of making sense of themself and the world around them. They cannot remember a time before they were a poet. Since moving to Philly, they’ve been attending and sharing at local readings and are ever grateful for how the Philly poetry community has embraced them. 

rough draft is a poet, mixed media artist, teacher, storyteller, and community organizer born and raised in Philadelphia. With a passion for fostering spaces of collective creativity and healing, she currently works as a Co-Director for Blue Stoop, a home for Philly writers. She shares her poetry on custom clothing with her brand Poetry for the Streets, is a creative lead on a digital healing project with Cry Collective, a project of Asian Arts Initiative, and is part of Voices in Power’s 2023 Millionaire’s Club for surpassing 3 Million Views across social platforms on her Spoken Word Performance “lay up”. She is a Philly Typewriter sponsored poet, recipient of the 2022 Judith Star Writing Award, and hopes to finally finish her first chapbook of poetry (eventually). 

Philipe AbiYouness is a Lebanese-American poet and teaching artist from New Jersey. His work has been published in New England Review, Mizna, Gulf Coast, Pigeon Pages, Muzzle, and the anthologies “Best of the Net 2020” published by Sundress Publications and “We Call to the Eye & the Night: Love Poems by Writers of Arab Descent.” He is a graduate of the MFA in Creative Writing at Rutgers University, Newark and has received support and fellowships from Vermont Studio Center, Brooklyn Poets, and Bread Loaf Writers Conference.

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 (4:10-5:50 pm ET). Please note that we will not workshop or read our work aloud to the group.

This event is free and open to all.

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 (4:10-5:50 pm ET). Please note that we will not workshop or read our work aloud to the group.

This event is free and open to all.