SF Creative Writing Institute

Dear Writers, As the new day dawns, I write in my journal. Sometimes no matter what I am feeling. Good or bad. When I get a bit of time to myself – which is rare - as a parent in the summertime, when I sometimes feel like my head is in the washing machine, I write in my journal. Today I realize we are living in two realities – One where a new day is dawning. And another – where hopeless reigns. On one hand, things are harder now than they ever were. And on the other, there is always the...

Dear Writers and Parents of Writers, I hope you are enjoying your summer! If you'e enjoyed taking our camp in the past, I'm happy to announce that we are offering it again this summer at the Harvey Milk Center for the Arts as a private camp sponsored by SF Creative Writing Institute at the tail end of summer. Hope to see you in it! Warmly, Alexandra Kostoulas SF Creative Writing Institute (415) 371-9054 | https://sfwriting.institute SFCWI SUMMER CAMP We're back (as a private program) at...

Dear Writers, I started this newsletter a week ago sitting inside a diner in Union Square and almost didn’t hit send. They were running the milk shake machine over and over again and I thought I would never be able to concentrate. Sometimes the best place to write is a diner on a random Wednesday in the late afternoon with a borrowed blue pen. We’re living in an era where charlatans are using a plagiarism machine to produce content that is “safe” and derivative of what already exists, and...

Dear Writers, I started this newsletter a week ago sitting inside a diner in Union Square and almost didn’t hit send. They were running the milk shake machine over and over again and I thought I would never be able to concentrate. Sometimes the best place to write is a diner on a random Wednesday in the late afternoon with a borrowed blue pen. We’re living in an era where charlatans are using a plagiarism machine to produce content that is “safe” and derivative of what already exists, and...

Dear Writers, Coming up this week, here are some upcoming new workshops that you might be interested in. More info below. I hope you're well. Keep writing! Alexandra Alexandra Kostoulas, Founder & Executive Director, SF Creative Writing Institute --- Spring Fiction Workshop Spring Fiction Workshop: For All Levels. Online Instructor: Ben Adams Do you have a short story or a novel you’ve been working on? Are you finally ready for feedback? As writers, feedback is a crucial part of the writing...

Dear Writers, I'm down with an illness after a busy week of writing and story gathering but I wanted to pop my head up and write that we have two classes starting this weekend that you may be interested in: Intro to Fiction (starts this afternoon) w/ Nick Mamatas at Harvey Milk Center for the Arts, (IN-PERSON) and our online workshop, Threads & Breaks: Narrative Poetry, Micro Essay & Flash Fiction, starts tomorrow at 11am with Paul Corman-Roberts (ONLINE). I have created a human-centered...

Dear Writers, It’s hard to know what to say, after such a turbulent month in our culture and in our hearts and minds. If you’re a sensitive, thinking, artistic person like me, you’ve probably been consumed by the news the past few weeks and your attention has been particularly on Minnesota and all of the drama that is happening there among the ICE raids. It’s hard to be an artist and not be affected by the world around us. In fact, as artists, it’s our job to notice very keenly what is going...

Dear Writers, Despite many challenges, 2025 has been a year of progress for SF Creative Writing Institute. Thanks to amazing creatives like you, we've grown our class enrollment by 25% – hitting our goal for the year. Here are just a few highlights: SFCWI was awarded a SVANE Culture Forward Grant for 2026, and our students and instructors achieved recognition: Tongo Eisen-Martin was awarded the very prestigious Windham Campbell Prize from Yale University and released an album of his...

Finding the Golden Thread Poetry reading & mini workshop An evening w/ Alexandra Kostoulas Join us tomorrow, Sat, December 6, 7pm at Project Artaud Studios. Finding The Golden Thread: Poetry Reading Discussion & Mini-workshop Founder of SF Creative Writing Institute Free RSVP Dear Writers, If you're free tomorrow evening and in the City of SF looking for something writing-related to do, I hope you'll join me for this reading and mini-workshop that I am presenting at Project Artaud. The Golden...

Dear Writers, How do you keep going amid all the chaos from a noisy life? It feels to me – and maybe this is only me—but saying it anyway in case this applies to you too, I feel overwhelmed often by the state of the world. And – also the state of the world – and all of my to-do’s that still keep going during this time, makes my life crazy sometimes because it causes me to deal with more drama than normal. And sometimes my attention is bombarded by a thousand things, and I am sandwiched...