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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Note: This week’s session will run from 3:30-5:30pm due to a class that starts at 6:00pm.

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). 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.

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.

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.

Note: This week’s session will start and end earlier than usual due to a 6:00 pm ET class with Madeline Miller.

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). Please note that we will not workshop or read our work aloud to the group.

This event is free and open to all.

Note: This week’s session will start and end earlier than usual due to a 6:00 pm ET class with Jennifer Wilson.

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). Please note that we will not workshop or read our work aloud to the group.

This event is free and open to all.