Three of our CCW community members received a grant from the Mass Cultural Council in recognition of their work!
Pamela Petro (Nonfiction/Comics & Graphic Novels, Mentor) will use her grant to support the writing of her book Haunts — Ghostmaking Past & Present. “In Haunts, I use memoir and research to take the spatial, moral, and temporal measure of haunted and haunting locations around the world—my “haunts,” in effect—at a time when climate change is ferociously making ghosts to haunt the future. Along the way, I tell ghost stories and question the ghosts we’ve made in the past.”
L Scully’s (Nonfiction, January 2023) grant will support their UK book tour for Self-Romancing and cover living expenses while they complete and place their next manuscripts.
Michael Lowenthal’s (Fiction, Mentor) grant was awarded in recognition of the opening pages of his recently-published book Place Envy, about his quest to find a place for himself within his family’s lineage and Jewish traditions—in particular, a search for ‘queeritage,’ or queer heritage.
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D. Dina Friedman’s (Fiction, January 2016) poem, “Surveillance,” was selected as a winner of the 2026 Three Sisters Awards.
Katie Cotugno’s (Fiction, June 2015) forthcoming middle school chapter book Penelope Positano See It All is now available for preorder from Abrams Books.
Sara Zarr (WFYP, Mentor) has launched a new podcast, Still Writing, a spin-off from This Creative Life.
Jason Reynolds (WFYP, Mentor) is featured in an interview in Edutopia, “Jason Reynolds on What Fires the Imagination of Young Readers.”
Nancy Kelley’s (WFYP, January 2014) latest book, The Courage of Two: Anne Hutchinson, Mary Dyer, and the Fight for Freedom of Conscience in Early America, is now available from the Bedazzled Ink Publishing Company.
Hester Kaplan (Fiction, Mentor) is featured in Oldster: “This is 66: Hester Kaplan Responds to The Oldster Magazine Questionnaire.”
Celeste Mohammed’s (Fiction, June 2016) picture book Spree: The Boy Who Made the Steelpan Sing has been chosen as a Junior Library Guild (JLG) Gold Standard Selection. It is now available for preorder from HarperCollins.
Michelle Knudsen’s (WFYP, Mentor) middle-school novel Into the Wild Magic is a finalist for the 2025 Nebula Awards.
Deborah Sosin (Nonfiction, June 2015) had a busy month launching her new memoir: Escape Velocity: How One 70-Year-Old Push-Pulled Her Way Out of Her Too-Much-Not-Enough Family (70 Micro-Memoirs, 70 Words Each) She had an article in the Brevity Blog, “From Never to Yes: How and Why I Self-Published My Memoir,” and was interviewed on The Lit Lab (“The Memoir Land Author Questionnaire 183: Deborah Sosin“) and on the substack Every Day, Luv with Adam Roberts, “Launching a memoir w/Debbie Sosin!” You can read a sample micro from her memoir here.
Rachel Kadish (Fiction, Mentor) has a forthcoming novel The Lost Hotel, now under contract with Avid Reader Press, to be published in 2028
Caitlin Robinson (WFYP, June 2018) recently joined the Senior Editor team at Literary Mama as Managing Editor.
Katie DeBonville’s (Nonfiction, January 2023) cover reveal for her forthcoming memoir, Grace Notes, is now available. Join her on May 28th for her book launch at Porter Square Books.
Robbie Gamble (Poetry, January 2017) also had a busy month of publication. His poem “Jury Pool” was a finalist for the Red Wheelbarrow Prize. Other poems include “Grief” in Molecule: a Tiny Lit Mag; “Chloe Calls from College” in Passager; “Sea of Tranquility” in Sheila-na-Gig; and “Blackberries” in Thimble Literary Magazine.
Jasmine Warga (WFYP, June 2013) was interviewed by the local Cincinnati news station about her children’s book The Unlikely Tale of Chase and Finnegan.
Sara Levine’s (Nonfiction/WFYP, January 2006) nonfiction picture book, Watching and Waiting has been selected as a 2025 Blueberry Honor Award recipient for excellent in environmental education. David Elliott’s (WFYP, Mentor) In the Desert is also a recipient of this award for poetry.
Check out these titles available for PRE-ORDER!
Resources & Opportunities
- Alexis Marie Chute (Nonfiction) will teach an online workshop: Art Book Basics: Publish Your Own Book on Monday, April 20th. “You will leave the program with a deeper understanding of the publishing industry and where your artwork fits within this world.” To register, visit The Paint Spot.
- STK Foundation is offering residencies for K-12th grade teachers, and Maine writers. Due dates for applications are approaching. Learn more at the STK Foundation.
- Sara Zarr (WFYP, Mentor) will teach a week-long Fiction workshop at The Glen. The workshop will run July 12-18 in San Diego, CA. To register, visit The Glen.
- Kate Fussner (WFYP, June 2021) is teaching the course MG/YA Manuscript Toolkit For Publication Success through Grub Street. The class will run May 7 – May 28, 2026 from 6pm – 8:30pm on Zoom. Seats are limited. Registration is required. Scholarships are available. For more information and to register, visit grubstreet.org.
- The Writers’ Room of Boston, a writing space available to writers in the Boston area, is offering discounted memberships to alumni and current students of the Lesley MFA in Creative Writing program. For more details, please email us at lesleycambridgecommon@gmail.com.
Do you have any recent writing successes or news you’d like to share with the Cambridge Common Writers community? Let us know by reaching out to us at lesleycambridgecommon@gmail.com!
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