ELDER PROJECT
Litquake’s Elder Project brings writing and storytelling classes to senior centers across San Francisco and Oakland. Weekly sessions stimulate the senses and memory, provide an outlet for elders to preserve and share their stories, and build community through creative writing. Each year, participants share their work in a printed anthology and at our annual Litquake Festival.
“Express yourself. No criticism! No protocols! The supportive [teachers] provide ideas to guide you or, if you wish, leave you to write as you will. ”
“I just can’t imagine my life now without the wonderful people I met in these classes.”
"This project has been one of the best things I’ve experienced as a (somewhat begrudging) elder.”
Elder Project
Publications
Every year, Elder Project participants are invited to present in our festival and publish their works in our annual anthology.
Our Teachers
Our teachers include accomplished writers, poets, journalists, artists,
and lovers of the written word.
Antony, a writer and visual artist, was awarded the 2023 National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship. He is the author of Haram (Etched Press 2019). His poetry has appeared in Gulf Coast, The Sycamore Review, West Branch, and elsewhere. His work has received support from the San Francisco Arts Commission, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, and the Center for Cultural Innovation.
Tam Putnam
Tam is a former editor at Elle, Gourmet, and European Travel & Life magazines. Her work has been published in The East Bay Times as well as Sunset and Diablo magazines. She received her MFA in nonfiction writing from University of San Francisco.
Mary Gayle (MG) Thomas
MG was born and raised in Texas but has been improved by moving to the Bay Area. After a career in the business world, she now leads memoir writing classes for Litquake, the Community Living Campaign, and SF Rec & Parks. Her poems and short stories have been published in Sparkle & Blink, Persimmon Tree, and on the SF Library’s Poem of the Day.
Michelle is an instructor, editor, copywriter, and writing coach who loves to work with both fiction and nonfiction. Her work has appeared in The Berkeley Fiction Review, 580 Split, Into the Void, The Cutaway and many others. Michelle holds an MFA in English & Creative Writing from Mills College. Her novella, Sexy Life, Hello, was published in 2025.
Melissa Cistaro
Melissa is the author of the award-winning memoir Pieces of My Mother. The HarperCollins Canadian edition was a Globe & Mail bestseller in 2019. Her stories have been published in The New Ohio Review, Hayden’s Ferry Review, Brevity, HuffPost, and the anthologies Cherished and Love & Profanity. Melissa, who received her MFA in creative nonfiction from the University of Victoria, British Columbia, has led writing workshops in Mexico, Canada, and the U.S.
Tureeda is a Story Medicine Woman, poet, educator, Black Panther alum, and Qigong Healer. She was awarded the 2024 Berkeley Poetry Festival Lifetime Achievement Award, and has performed or been poet-in-residence in museums, libraries, and universities throughout the Bay Area, including Stanford. Her books Synchronicity: The Oracle of Sun Medicine (2020) and The Body: Oracle of Memory (2024) are available from Black Lawrence Press.
Denise is an author, journalist, and cultural worker. She is editor of the San Francisco story anthology Your Golden Sun Still Shines, and author of several chapbooks and six published titles, including Keep on Pushing: Black Power Music from Blues to Hip Hop. She's a contributor to the Bay City News regional newswire and the San Francisco Chronicle.
Sabina Khan-Ibarra
Sabina is working on a chapbook of poetry, New Vocabulary, and her novel, The Poppy Flower. Her work has been featured in journals and anthologies, including Nonwhite and Women, Taboos & Transgressions. A member of the Writers Grotto, she's currently the Director for Rooted and Written, the only tuition-free writers conference for writers of color. She served as Communications Director at MuslimARC (Muslim Anti-Racism Collaborative) for 10 years.
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