New Literary Project

08/13/2026

NewLit '26. RISING ROADSHOW - FOR STUDENTS. FOR TEACHERS. FOR READERS. FOR WRITERS. FOR BELIEVERS.
Mark your calendars: Oct 26 – Nov 1. NewLit is hitting the road (well, the East Bay) with a benefit dinner, a bookstore afternoon, and Homecoming — our unforgettable finale night.

Every year, the Joyce Carol Oates Prize honors a mid-career author doing extraordinary work. This year, that's Erika Krouse. Join us as NewLit celebrates her across Rising Roadshow. Ticket info is coming soon. For now: save the week. Let's tell the stories of our lives.

07/13/2026

Summer is here and there's no better time to kick back and read, read, read. At NewLit, our summer reading lists tend to be long — and we're always curious:
What's on your summer reading list?

06/15/2026

ONE OF LITHUB'S MOST ANTICIPATED BOOKS OF 2026 • NAMED A BEST BOOK OF SUMMER BY THE L.A. TIMES & KIRKUS

"A comic masterpiece. The current administration is finally getting the book it deserves."—Kirkus (Starred Review)

Ben was gracious enough to answer a few questions for us. Read on.

We caught up with NewLit Board Member Ben Fountain , author of the newly released Rasputin Swims the Potomac , and he agreed to do an exclusive mini-interview with NewLit. Read on. Q: This is a highly entertaining, energetic and propulsive narrative. What were the biggest unknowns for yo

06/10/2026

Da-na-na-na. They say it's our birthday. Happy Birthday to us. NewLit turns 11 today. NewLit was founded on June 10, 2015. Read all about our journey on our blog today. See link.

Eleven years ago, NewLit started as just a dream in the mind of our founder Joe Di Prisco. He had a few ideas and the simple hope of doing good work for the literary arts and arts education, making space where creative writing and free expression would bring people together. Like all non-profits, w

06/03/2026

On May 8th, we gathered to celebrate our 2026 teaching fellows. This year, NewLit had five Bonetti-Bell fellows from and six Iris Starn Fellows from the MFA in Creative Writing Department

We gathered for a happy hour at the home of NewLIt board member James Bell with our fellows along with partners and friends. The fellows reflected on their experience teaching creative writing in classrooms around the Bay Area to students who otherwise might not have had exposure to writing poetry, fiction, and non-fiction before.

See link in on our website for some fun photos and video from the event.
https://www.newliteraryproject.org/whats-new/thats-a-wrap-thanks-to-our-2026-bonetti-bell-and-iris-starn-fellows

05/21/2026

New Literary Project Announces Leadership Transition: Founding Executive Director Diane Del Signore to Step Aside After Seven Transformative Years; Vanessa Merina Named Incoming Executive Director

New Literary Project (NewLit), the Bay Area nonprofit dedicated to literary arts, arts education, and free creative writing programs across generations and communities, announced the transition of Executive Director Diane Del Signore after seven years of leadership, with Vanessa Merina assuming the role in mid-June.

Under Del Signore’s leadership, NewLit evolved from an ambitious literary nonprofit founded in 2015 into a nationally recognized force for arts education, social impact, and literary culture.

Read more: https://www.newliteraryproject.org/whats-new/new-literary-project-announces-leadership-transition-founding-executive-director-diane-del-signore-to-step-aside-after-seven-transformative-years-vanessa-merina-named-incoming-executive-director

05/06/2026

Victoria Tatum, author of More Than Any River, will be in conversation with Joe Di Prisco, Thurs, May 7 at Orinda Books (Orinda, CA) at 7pm. See link in bio to register for this in-person event.

About MORE THAN ANY RIVER
For those tied to the western landscape who wonder whether we might find redemption in the story of its water during a time of increasing climate extremes, a based-on-true-events tale of family farmers fighting to save the land they steward.

Inspired by true events, this Chinatown-meets–The Grapes of Wrath novel tells the story of California’s Sacramento Delta farmers facing off against agribusiness owners over the massive water tunnel(s) the state plans to build under hundreds of thousands of acres of prime Delta farmland.

Winter 2022-’23 inundated California with as much as three times the average rain and snowfall and pulled the state out of one of its biggest droughts in recorded history. But the truth is that the American West, from the Oregon border down to Mexico, is prone to drought—and in California, the biggest battle for water takes place in the Great Central Valley, where south-of-Delta agribusiness controls every stream feeding into the Sacramento and San Joaquin Rivers. The protagonists of More Than Any River are the family farmers fighting for the Delta, and the antagonist is the big agribusiness controlling its water—but ultimately, the Great Central Valley itself emerges as the central character in this gripping tale of divisive land politics and high stakes.

05/05/2026

Erika Krouse, of Colorado, is the eleventh Recipient of the Joyce Carol Oates Prize awarded by New Literary Project. The author receives $50,000. Her most recent publication is a book of short stories, Save Me, Stranger (Flatiron Books). Prize recipients are emerged and continually emerging writers of major consequence—short stories and/or novels—at the relative midpoint of a burgeoning career.

The Prize stands not only as testament to Krouse’s impressive literary accomplishments as a mid-career author, but also as encouragement and support for work to come. The author represents the resilience, power, and diversity of our national literary communities, and unforgettably gives voice, in her resonantly distinctive style, to the most urgent issues of today.

Join us in congratulating Erika Krouse. Read the full press release. See link in bio.

04/29/2026

Meet 2026 Jack Hazard Fellow Nicole Lozano Simonsen of Sacramento, CA. 🖊️

Nicole Lozano Simonsen has taught high school English for twenty-two years. Her short stories have appeared in Chicago Quarterly Review, Washington Square Review, Booth, among other places. Over the years, as she has worked to carve out time for writing, usually in the wee morning hours, she has received support and encouragement from the Tin House Summer Workshop, Community of Writers, and Salamander Magazine, where she won the Fiction Prize in 2021. For fun, she likes to run with her dog, kayak with her husband, and read, of course.

Congratulations, Nicole!

04/27/2026

Meet 2026 Jack Hazard Fellow Brittany Rogers of Detroit, MI. 🖊️

Brittany Rogers is a multidisciplinary artist, educator, and lifelong Detroiter. Her work has been published widely, including the Academy of American Poets, Lit Hub, The Hopkins Review, Lambda Literary, and Oprah Daily. She is Editor-in-Chief of Muzzle Magazine, co-host of VS Podcast, and the author of the poetry collection Good Dress, a Michigan Notable Book for 2025, and finalist for both the NAACP Image Award and the Lambda Literary Award for Bisexual Poetry (Tin House, 2024). In 2025, Brittany was awarded the Betty Berzon Emerging Writer Award and a Kresge Arts in Detroit Fellowship.

Not only is Brittany a 2026 Jack Hazard Fellow, but we just learned that Brittany is also a 2026 Whiting Award Winner. Amazing.

Congratulations, Brittany!