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by Mary Rakow, Ph.D. My first years in San Francisco I lived in the Financial District. At Christmas Iloved the towering Christmas trees in bank lobbies, at the center of Union Square,the grid of wreaths across the windows of Macy’s, the ice skaters below. The scaleand lavishness astonished and pleased me. Then one Christmas season…

Two-time SFWC Attendee Shares Publishing Success StoryFrom domestic life to a domestic thriller writer I attended my first in-person writer’s conference in July 2022—the SFWC, and was so nervous.I’d been a stay-at-home mom for years, and my former career in high-tech marketingcommunications had me focused on business writing, far from the more creative writing Idreamed…

By Mary Rakow, Ph.D. Dear Wonderful Writers, I realized again recently, the power of community. The hope we feel when we gather with others. The power in that. The good in that. I remembered how community is a powerful form of resistance against despair. That it creates hope and even, often, joy. So I asked a few writers…

This is the third entry in our microfiction series written by San Francisco Writers Conference community members. Mom’s Pumpkin Boyfriend Carved out jacko on the dresser. Mom first learned to do this last Halloween. Scooped the goo out of a pumpkin head when Dad was out on a drunk. Mom’s own head a beehive of…

This is the second entry in our microfiction series written by San Francisco Writers Conference community members. Candle Hat She told me, she wondered if roses smelled like old gym socks to gardenias, once.  And that relativity was a flexible concept after all and dependent on who was perceiving what.  She was a thinker when I wasn’t, during…

This is the first entry in our microfiction series written by San Francisco Writers Conference community members. Rosetta Post-its by Guy Biederman Los Gatos Tienen Hambre, says the post-it on the fridge. Since when did the cats learn Spanish, since when did they learn to write? The same could be asked of you, says another post-it.…