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 and specializes in transforming nonfiction books into scripts for online courses.
Kerry grew up near Flint, Michigan, and is based in Richmond, California. She’s a writer, executive coach, and educator whose work has appeared in Up North, Café Society, and New Ventures West. Her study of poetry and fiction at University of San Francisco (MFA ’19) led to her current novel in progress, as well as a poetry collection. She teaches workshops on artistry and the soul, Zen writing, and spiritual memoir.
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 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 and continues to be involved as a member. Sabina has taught Creative Writing at SFSU and is now teaching at the Grotto.
Tureeda is a Story Medicine Woman, poet, writer, Qigong Healer, storyteller, lyricist, astrologer, and performance artist. She has published over 70 CA Poets in the Schools student anthologies since 1989, and performs storytelling in schools, libraries, and universities, and at public and private events. Her book Synchronicity: Oracles of Story Medicine was released in February 2020.
Denise is an author, journalist, and cultural worker. She is editor of the San Francisco story anthology, Your Golden Sun Still Shines, the author of five published titles, including Keep on Pushing: Black Power Music From Blues to Hip Hop as well as the S.F. Lives columnist at The San Francisco Examiner, a contributing writer to DownBeat and the San Francisco Chronicle.
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.
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