Rooted & Written alumni was featured at the Monthly Reading Series, Lyrics & Dirges.
March 26 at 7:00 PM - 8:15 PM.
Featured Readers: Sabina Khan-Ibarra, Rowena Leong Singer, Sara Yang, Sabreen Ali, Azucena Brasila,
Chante Owens
This event, open to the public, was at Pegasus Books, 2349 Shattuck Ave, Berkeley.
Grotto Nights with Rooted & Written alumni at the San Francisco Public Library (SFPL).
April 29, 2025 from 6:00 PM - 7:30 PM via Zoom.
Readers explored the theme "Writers of Color on Family and Identity."
Panelists: Swetha Amit, Chino Lee Chung, Alejandro Lazo,
Dera R. Williams
Moderator: Rowena Leong Singer
Roberto Lovato is the award-winning author of Unforgetting (Harper Collins), a “groundbreaking” memoir the New York Times picked as an “Editor’s Choice.” Lovato is also an Assistant Professor of English at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. In addition to receiving a reporting grant from the Pulitzer Center, journalist Lovato has reported on numerous issues—racism, criminal justice, psychedelics and health, violence, terrorism, the drug war and the immigration and refugee crisis—from across the United States, Mexico, Venezuela, El Salvador, Dominican Republic, Haiti, and France, among other countries.
Grace Loh Prasad is the author of The Translator’s Daughter (Mad Creek Books/The Ohio State University Press, 2024), a debut memoir about living between languages, navigating loss, and the search for belonging. Her writing has appeared in The New York Times, Literary Hub, Longreads, Guernica, Brevity, The Offing, Oldster Magazine, KHÔRA, and elsewhere. A member of the Writers Grotto and the AAPI writers collective Seventeen Syllables, Prasad lives in the Bay Area.
Audrey T. Williams is a poet-writer of Black American and Indo-Burmese heritage whose work synthesizes ancestral healing, nature, and preservation of cultural narratives. Her multidimensional practice explores the intersection of speculative literary arts, the imaginal, and community wellness. Her innovative "Words for Wellness" programming weaves together her training in DreamTending from Pacifica Graduate Institute and her experience facilitating “Poetry as a Tool for Wellness” through the Institute for Poetic Medicine.
Website: AncestralFutures.org / Instagram: @audthentic_stories / LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/words-for-wellness/
Danny Thiemann’s fiction and essays have appeared in McSweeney’s, Guernica, AGNI, New Delta Review, Bosque Magazine, Beloit Fiction Journal, and elsewhere. His fiction has won, among other honors, the Nelligan Prize from Colorado Review, the Tobias Wolff Award from Bellingham Review, the Table4 Foundation New Writer Award, and the Madalyn Lamont Award from the American University in Cairo. He has served as an attorney for Earthjustice and for the Migrant Farmworker Program at Oregon Law Center. He has also taught writing for the Rooted and Written Conference at San Francisco’s Writers Grotto and for Write Around Portland.
MK Chavez is a writer and educator whose work explores mixed-race identity, social justice, environmental resilience, horror cinema, magic, ritual, and the creative process. As founder of the Ouroboros Writing Lab, MK Chavez provides a nurturing space for writers to grow. The Lab offers workshops designed to expand creative boundaries and individual and group creative coaching. Chavez’s work is recognized with the Pen Josephine Miles Award, San Francisco Foundation/Nomadic Press Literary Award, and the Ruth Weiss Maverick Award. Chavez’s publications include Dear Animal, Mothermorphosis, the lyric essay chapbook A Brief History of
the Selfie, and Virgin Eyes. Recent work can be found as part of the art installation Manifest Differently.
Jesus Francisco Sierra is a Cuban writer who immigrated to San Francisco and grew up in San Francisco’s Mission District. His work has appeared in Zyzzyva, Los Angeles Review of Books, The Common, Alta, Gulf Stream Literary Journal, Solstice Literary Magazine, The Caribbean Writer and The Acentos Review among others. His short story collection “At Times of Loss and Other Cuban Stories” was a finalist for the 2023 Leapfrog Global Fiction Prize. He holds an MFA from Antioch University Los Angeles. A member of The Writers Grotto, he is currently at work on his first novel.
Dominic Lim’s debut, All the Right Notes, was named a best book of 2023 by over fifteen publications, including USA Today, Goodreads, Library Journal, and Entertainment Weekly. His follow-up, Karaoke Queen, is a 2024 Amazon Editor’s Pick. Dominic is a member of the Writers Grotto and co-hosts the long-running Babylon Salon reading series in San Francisco. He holds a Master of Music from Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, is an alum of Oberlin College and Conservatory of Music, and is a proud Actors’ Equity Association member. He lives in Oakland with his loving husband, Peter, and their whiny cat, Phoebe.
Jenny Qi is the author of Focal Point, winner of the 2020 Steel Toe Books Poetry Award. Her essays and poems have appeared in The New York Times, The Atlantic, Sierra Magazine, Tin House, and elsewhere. She has been supported by organizations such as the San Francisco Foundation, the Crested Butte Center for the Arts, the Center for Cultural Innovation, and the Brown Handler Residency. She is working on a hybrid collection titled Liminal Bodies and a memoir in essays in conversation with her late mother’s memoirs of the Cultural Revolution and life in Las Vegas. She holds a PhD in Biomedical Science from UCSF.
Nate Olivarez-Giles is a fiction writer. His day job is scripting, UI / social / marketing writing at Apple. For a decade before that, he was working in journalism at The Wall Street Journal, Wired, the Los Angeles Times, and The New York Times. He has a BA in Journalism and Mexican American Studies from the University of Arizona. In 2024
Nate Olivarez-Giles is a fiction writer. His day job is scripting, UI / social / marketing writing at Apple. For a decade before that, he was working in journalism at The Wall Street Journal, Wired, the Los Angeles Times, and The New York Times. He has a BA in Journalism and Mexican American Studies from the University of Arizona. In 2024, his focus is short story submissions to actually get some fiction published, and fiction MFA applications, where he plans to write his debut novel's manuscript.
Christl Rikka Perkins is a Black/Japanese writer and teacher living in Oakland, CA. She was a freelance writer and teacher in China for 8 years. She was published in American Fiction 17, Half and One and God’s Cruel Joke. Christl has been an active member of WriteNow!-SF Writers Workshop and was published in Essential Truths: The Bay Area
Christl Rikka Perkins is a Black/Japanese writer and teacher living in Oakland, CA. She was a freelance writer and teacher in China for 8 years. She was published in American Fiction 17, Half and One and God’s Cruel Joke. Christl has been an active member of WriteNow!-SF Writers Workshop and was published in Essential Truths: The Bay Area in Color. She is a member of the Writers’ Grotto and a fellow of the Writers Grotto-SF’s Rooted & Written. Christl earned her BA in International Relations from SFSU, her MA in Government & Politics from University of Maryland, College Park, her Certificate in Fiction from UCLA Extension’s Writers Program and her MFA in Creative Writing from Antioch University, Los Angeles.
Tania Malik is the author of the novel Hope You Are Satisfied (Unnamed Press/Verve Books UK), which was recommended by NPR and named one of the best espionage novels of 2023 by CrimeReads. Her previous novel, Three Bargains (W.W. Norton), received a Publishers Weekly Starred review and a Booklist Starred review. Her work has appeared in E
Tania Malik is the author of the novel Hope You Are Satisfied (Unnamed Press/Verve Books UK), which was recommended by NPR and named one of the best espionage novels of 2023 by CrimeReads. Her previous novel, Three Bargains (W.W. Norton), received a Publishers Weekly Starred review and a Booklist Starred review. Her work has appeared in Electric Literature, Lit Hub, The Brooklyn Rail, Off-Assignment, Write or Die Magazine, Full Stop Magazine, Salon.com, Calyx Journal, Baltimore Review, and other publications. She lives in San Francisco’s Bay Area. www.taniamalik.com.
Jessica Martinez tells stories about underdogs who discover their power through comedic misadventures in several mediums. She has written and staged plays in LA and the Bay Area, including "Schooltown Funk" a satire on public school teaching which had a sold-out run at the SF Fringe Festival. She is also at work on a young adult novel abo
Jessica Martinez tells stories about underdogs who discover their power through comedic misadventures in several mediums. She has written and staged plays in LA and the Bay Area, including "Schooltown Funk" a satire on public school teaching which had a sold-out run at the SF Fringe Festival. She is also at work on a young adult novel about a wannabe chola who joins theater as a way to see her best friend / girlfriend through the Las Musas Mentorship program. And she self-publishes a series of zines about how to get over a breakup using quotes from Wayne's World, blending comics, collage and essays to insert her personal stories into the dominant narrative.
With the DIY punk ethos she developed in the Bay Area and a solid foundation in craft from an MFA in Fiction and screenwriting classes, Jessica also writes screenplays and children’s books, and performs comedic storytelling to share the witty and sincere perspective of a queer feminist Latinx daydreamer from southeast Los Angeles.
Sabina Khan-Ibarra writer/poet and teacher. She is currently working on completing her chapbook, new vocabulary, and her novel, The Poppy Flower. Her poetry, short stories and creative nonfictions have been published in various journals and anthologies, including Non-White and Women, Taboos and Transgressions, both published within the pa
Sabina Khan-Ibarra writer/poet and teacher. She is currently working on completing her chapbook, new vocabulary, and her novel, The Poppy Flower. Her poetry, short stories and creative nonfictions have been published in various journals and anthologies, including Non-White and Women, Taboos and Transgressions, both published within the past two years. She worked as a Communications Director at MuslimARC (Muslim Anti-Racism Collaborative) for ten years and is still a member. Sabina has taught Creative Writing in SFSU and now teaches at the Grotto. She lives in Half Moon Bay, California with her husband, two children and two cats, Twyla and Mipha.
Rowena Leong Singer is a Chinese-Filipino writer who is published, or pending publication, in The New York Times, North American Review, Black Warrior Review, Narrative, and elsewhere. She is the grand prize winner in literary fiction for the Book Pipeline Unpublished Contest, a semifinalist for the James Jones First Novel Fellowship Cont
Rowena Leong Singer is a Chinese-Filipino writer who is published, or pending publication, in The New York Times, North American Review, Black Warrior Review, Narrative, and elsewhere. She is the grand prize winner in literary fiction for the Book Pipeline Unpublished Contest, a semifinalist for the James Jones First Novel Fellowship Contest, and a fellowship recipient for the International Literary Seminar Fiction Contest, inaugural Rooted & Written Conference, and Martha’s Vineyard Institute of Creative Writing Summer Writers’ Conference. She received her MFA from the Bennington Writing Seminars, where she was awarded the Barry Hannah Merit Scholarship in Fiction. She is an associate editor at CRAFT and a member of The Writers Grotto. Find her on Instagram at @rowenaleongsinger.
(Image Credit: Andria Lo)
Nate Olivarez-Giles is a fiction writer. His day job is scripting, UI / social / marketing writing at Apple. For a decade before that, he was working in journalism at The Wall Street Journal, Wired, the Los Angeles Times, and The New York Times. He has a BA in Journalism and Mexican American Studies from the University of Arizona. In 2024
Nate Olivarez-Giles is a fiction writer. His day job is scripting, UI / social / marketing writing at Apple. For a decade before that, he was working in journalism at The Wall Street Journal, Wired, the Los Angeles Times, and The New York Times. He has a BA in Journalism and Mexican American Studies from the University of Arizona. In 2024, his focus is short story submissions to actually get some fiction published, and fiction MFA applications, where he plans to write his debut novel's manuscript.
Christl Rikka Perkins is a Black/Japanese writer and teacher living in Oakland, CA. She was a freelance writer and teacher in China for 8 years. She was published in American Fiction 17, Half and One and God’s Cruel Joke. Christl has been an active member of WriteNow!-SF Writers Workshop and was published in Essential Truths: The Bay Area
Christl Rikka Perkins is a Black/Japanese writer and teacher living in Oakland, CA. She was a freelance writer and teacher in China for 8 years. She was published in American Fiction 17, Half and One and God’s Cruel Joke. Christl has been an active member of WriteNow!-SF Writers Workshop and was published in Essential Truths: The Bay Area in Color. She is a member of the Writers’ Grotto and a fellow of the Writers Grotto-SF’s Rooted & Written. Christl earned her BA in International Relations from SFSU, her MA in Government & Politics from University of Maryland, College Park, her Certificate in Fiction from UCLA Extension’s Writers Program and her MFA in Creative Writing from Antioch University, Los Angeles.
Roberto Lovato is the award-winning author of Unforgetting (Harper Collins), a “groundbreaking” memoir The New York Times picked as an “Editor’s Choice.” Newsweek listed Lovato’s memoir as a “must read” 2020 book and the Los Angeles Times listed it as one of its 20 Best Books of 2020. Lovato is also an Assistant Professor of English at th
Roberto Lovato is the award-winning author of Unforgetting (Harper Collins), a “groundbreaking” memoir The New York Times picked as an “Editor’s Choice.” Newsweek listed Lovato’s memoir as a “must read” 2020 book and the Los Angeles Times listed it as one of its 20 Best Books of 2020. Lovato is also an Assistant Professor of English at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. In addition to receiving a reporting grant from the Pulitzer Center, journalist Lovato has reported on numerous issues—racism, criminal justice, psychedelics and health, violence, terrorism, the drug war and the immigration and refugee crisis—from across the United States, Mexico, Venezuela, El Salvador, Dominican Republic, Haiti, and France, among other countries. His essays and reports from around the world have appeared in numerous publications including The New York Times, Guernica Magazine, The Believer, the Boston Globe, Foreign Policy magazine, The Rumpus, the Guardian, and other national and international publications.
Susan Ito began reading at the age of three, and writing stories at the age six. She is the author of award-winning memoir, I Would Meet You Anywhere. She co-edited the literary anthology A Ghost At Heart’s Edge: Stories & Poems of Adoption. Her work has appeared in The Writer, Growing Up Asian American, Choice, Hip Mama, Literary Mama, C
Susan Ito began reading at the age of three, and writing stories at the age six. She is the author of award-winning memoir, I Would Meet You Anywhere. She co-edited the literary anthology A Ghost At Heart’s Edge: Stories & Poems of Adoption. Her work has appeared in The Writer, Growing Up Asian American, Choice, Hip Mama, Literary Mama, Catapult, Hyphen, The Bellevue Literary Review, and elsewhere. She is a MacDowell colony Fellow, and has also been awarded residencies at The Mesa Refuge, Hedgebrook and the Blue Mountain Center. She has performed her solo show, The Ice Cream Gene, around the US. Her theatrical adaption of Untold, stories of reproductive stigma, was produced at Brava Theater She is a member of the Writers’ Grotto, and teaches at Mills College/Northeastern University and Bay Path University. She was one of the co-organizers of Rooted and Written, a no-fee writing workshop for writers of color. She lives in Northern California.
Eirinie Carson is a Black British Londoner and writer living in California. She is a mother of two children, Luka and Selah. A member of the Writers Grotto in San Francisco, Eirinie is a frequent contributor to Mother magazine, and her work has also appeared in Mother Muse and You Might Need To Hear This, with an upcoming piece in The Son
Eirinie Carson is a Black British Londoner and writer living in California. She is a mother of two children, Luka and Selah. A member of the Writers Grotto in San Francisco, Eirinie is a frequent contributor to Mother magazine, and her work has also appeared in Mother Muse and You Might Need To Hear This, with an upcoming piece in The Sonora Review’s Fall edition. Eirinie contributes to her local paper, The Argus Courier, via a column, Eirinie Asks. She mostly writes about motherhood, grief and relationships and the release of her first book, The Dead Are Gods (from on Melville House, 2023) was a critically acclaimed Spring release, with Oprah Daily, Shondaland, People Magazine and the Washington Post sharing rave reviews on their platforms. Most recently, Eirinie was asked to be a featured author at 2023 Texas Book Festival, and is also the Program Coordinator for the Mesa Refuge, a writers residency out of Point Reyes Station, California.
Jesus Francisco Sierra is a Cuban writer who settled in San Francisco and grew up in the Mission District. His work has appeared in Zyzzyva, Los Angeles Review of Books, Gulf Stream Literary Journal, The Bare Life Review, Solstice Literary Magazine, The Caribbean Writer, The Acentos Review and Lunch Ticket among others. He holds an MFA f
Jesus Francisco Sierra is a Cuban writer who settled in San Francisco and grew up in the Mission District. His work has appeared in Zyzzyva, Los Angeles Review of Books, Gulf Stream Literary Journal, The Bare Life Review, Solstice Literary Magazine, The Caribbean Writer, The Acentos Review and Lunch Ticket among others. He holds an MFA from Antioch University Los Angeles and is currently at work on his first novel.
