ROOTED & WRITTEN 2026
ROOTED & WRITTEN
2026 CONFERENCE on
Saturday, April 2- Sunday, May 2, 2026
APPLICATIONS NOW OPEN.
ROOTED & WRITTEN 2026
ROOTED & WRITTEN
2026 CONFERENCE on
Saturday, April 2- Sunday, May 2, 2026
APPLICATIONS NOW OPEN.
2026 Rooted & Written
Rooted & Written is a unique space where BIPOC writers come together to grow, connect, and thrive. Founded as the first tuition-free program of its kind in the U.S., Rooted & Written offers emerging writers of color a place to develop their craft across genres—supported by mentorship, community, and access to professional resources. Whether you’re refining your voice, finishing a manuscript, or seeking a literary home, you’ll find guidance, collaboration, and inspiration here.
Our approach is holistic and professional, designed to empower BIPOC writers across multiple genres. We aim to foster connection, build community, and elevate diverse voices—ensuring that the literary landscape grows more inclusive, representative, and bold.
The 2026 Rooted & Written Conference is a hybrid gathering for writers of color, with both in-person and online programming. The conference includes generative workshops, a keynote conversation with moderators, a seminar on the business of writing, and professional training sessions.
Participants also have access to flash classes—available to all applicants, even those not selected as fellows—and the conference concludes with Words of Color, a public reading of work created during the conference.
2026 ROOTED & WRITTEN LEADERSHIP TEAM
Sabina Khan-Ibarra, Director of Rooted and Written
Rowena Leong Singer, Director of Rooted and Written
Rowena Leong Singer, Director of Rooted and Written
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, Director of Rooted and Written
Rowena Leong Singer, Director of Rooted and Written
Rowena Leong Singer, Director of Rooted and Written
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)
MK Chavez, Team Lead of Rooted Written
Swetha Amit, Team Lead of Rooted Written
Swetha Amit, Team Lead of Rooted Written
MK Chavez is a writer and educator whose body of work explores mixed-race identity,
social justice, ecological resilience, and horror cinema. At Ouroboros Writing Lab, Chavez cultivates literary experimentation as a radical act of liberation and supports the creative growth of QTBIPOC writers and allies committed to igniting meaningful cha
MK Chavez is a writer and educator whose body of work explores mixed-race identity,
social justice, ecological resilience, and horror cinema. At Ouroboros Writing Lab, Chavez cultivates literary experimentation as a radical act of liberation and supports the creative growth of QTBIPOC writers and allies committed to igniting meaningful change. They are co-director of Berkeley Poetry Festival, host of Bay Area Book Festival Mixed-Race Affinity Group, and poetry editor at The Fabulist.
Chavez has received the Pen Josephine Miles Award, San Francisco Foundation/Nomadic Press Literary Award, among others. Their published works include Dear Animal, Mothermorphosis, A Brief History of the Selfie, and other chapbooks.
Swetha Amit, Team Lead of Rooted Written
Swetha Amit, Team Lead of Rooted Written
Swetha Amit, Team Lead of Rooted Written
Swetha Amit is an MFA graduate from the University of San Francisco. The author of a memoir and three chapbooks, she has had her work appear in Had, Bending Genres, Ghost Parachute, Gone Lawn, McNeese, Boudin, Monkey Bicycle, and elsewhere. A member of the Writers Grotto and a Rooted and Written fellow, she has had her stories nominated
Swetha Amit is an MFA graduate from the University of San Francisco. The author of a memoir and three chapbooks, she has had her work appear in Had, Bending Genres, Ghost Parachute, Gone Lawn, McNeese, Boudin, Monkey Bicycle, and elsewhere. A member of the Writers Grotto and a Rooted and Written fellow, she has had her stories nominated for the Pushcart Prize, Best of the Net, Best Small Fiction, and Best Microfiction. Her writing has been supported by Tin House, the Kenyon Review Writers Workshop, the Community of Writers, Vona Voices, and the Writers Grotto. She is currently working on two novels—one a sports drama and the other a story tracing the journey of an Indian woman immigrant who is battling a defective birth chart, trying to break free from traditional norms and superstitions, and finding an identity and a sense of belonging. She can be found on @swethaamit on Instagram and @whirlwindtots on Twitter.
ROOTED & WRITTEN ADVISORY BOARD
Roberto Lovato, Program Founder
Roberto Lovato, Program Founder
Roberto Lovato, Program Founder
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 Kiyo Ito, Founding Member
Roberto Lovato, Program Founder
Roberto Lovato, Program Founder
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
Roberto Lovato, Program Founder
Jesus Sierra, Founding Member
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 Sierra, Founding Member
Roberto Lovato, Program Founder
Jesus Sierra, Founding Member
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.
ROOTED & WRITTEN FOUNDERS
