SFSU Creative Writing Department

10/08/2026

Small Press Traffic is accepting proposals for the 2027 San Francisco Poets Theater Festival.

What they're looking for:
Poets plays — scripted works for one or more voices

Poets monologues — solo performance rooted in text

Interdisciplinary work — text in combination with movement, sound, video, or other forms
Interactive experiments — works that implicate the audience

Revivals — bring back a favorite poets theater work
Improvisational and embodied poetry — durational, responsive, or scored work

Collaborations — performance texts developed with other writers, artists, musicians, dancers, or community members

The deadline is November 9th!

https://www.smallpresstraffic.org/currently-post/open-call-for-the-2027-san-francisco-poets-theater-festival

10/08/2026

SF State will be hosting an on-campus polling place for the November 3rd Election; it will be open in Annex 1 (1N State Dr, San Francisco, CA 94132) from 7AM to 8PM. For more information, visit: https://icce.sfsu.edu/event/2026-general-election-vote-sfsus-voting-center

Additionally, students can sign up to be poll workers at the on-campus location and neighboring locations throughout San Francisco! Please refer interested folks to sign up here: https://www.powerthepolls.org/icce

The Ballots, Bats, & Brews Voter Registration Drive will host spooky games, crafts, and snacks in the ground floor of the Student Center on 10/29 from 12PM-2:30PM for students and all campus communities to enjoy, while also learning about the ballot in time for the General Elections on November 3, 2026. For more information, visit: https://icce.sfsu.edu/event/2026-bats-brews-ballots-voter-registration-drive

10/08/2026

Students can create this year's SF State exclusive "I Voted" sticker to be handed out to folks that vote at the on-campus polling place! Design submissions are due October 16th, votes for the winning design will start October 19th, and the winner will be announced October 30th. Students can submit their designs at: https://forms.gle/XQefAVAgbcvZ9K9R6

10/08/2026

Good afternoon Writers! Atmosphere Press is holding a two day virtual writing summit on October 21-22. You'll be able to ask MFAs and PhDs from top writing programs questions as well as get insight into the writing industry. The event is free to attend! 🐊

https://books.atmospherepress.com/october-writers-summit?utm_medium=email&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-9LFZWNHG_zyqoU9ow32mnrfXBaTw6CjDSQHiM4Q1DadHwYbGRXa5O1S8b0Rl93zmb5jamTG2zitC4T54Yl6oDCayM5Uw&_hsmi=443067228&utm_content=442986758&utm_source=hs_email

10/08/2026

San Francisco is a City full of stories. We want to give a platform to the voices that make our city special.

That’s why we’re offering this generative, five-week workshop completely for FREE as part of our Dispatches from the City of Awe project! Backed by a generous grant from the SVANE Foundation, and the SFAC, our mission is to empower local writers, champion authentic San Francisco narratives.

Led by SFCWI teaching artist Julie Zigoris, this 5-week in-person workshop will posit San Francisco as the main character in a driving narrative in our lives. Exploring the city—both with our own memories and with the primary and secondary sources available at the San Francisco Public Library’s History Center—and what it means to us will offer a “way in” to craft a personal essay that has a strong beginning, middle and end.

Our time together will culminate with a polished piece ready for submission.

Whether you’re a beginner or a seasoned writer, you belong here.

We hope that you can choose to contribute a story at the end of the workshop to our Dispatches from the City of Awe Project. Together, let’s shine a light on the REAL San Francisco stories.

🗓️ Fridays, Oct 16 – Nov 20, 2026 | 12:00 – 1:30 PM
🎟️ FREE (Space is limited!)
📍 SF Public Library Main Branch, 4th Floor - Sycip Room, 100 Larkin St., San Francisco

👉 Click the link in our bio to reserve your spot or visit https://sfwriting.institute/course/telling-your-san-francisco-story/



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10/07/2026

Mr. Burns: A Post-Electric Play is an exploration of storytelling in the post-apocalypse. After civilization collapses, a group of survivors entertain themselves by retelling the Simpson’s episode “Cape Feare” from memory.

Seven years later, they make their living as a theater troupe performing Simpsons episodes, commercials, and other tributes to a world that no longer exists.

Seventy-five years after that, The Simpsons becomes the basis for a mythological epic about family, chaos, and facing a world beyond Springfield.

This show is PG-13, including strong language, gun violence, sexually suggestive choreography, and apocalyptic nihilism.

PHOTOSENSITIVITY WARNING: This production contains flashing lights, rapid flickering, and strobe effects that may trigger seizures or discomfort for viewers with photosensitive conditions.

SFSU Players Club

The Players Club is a student-run theatre focused organization that brings high quality, professional productions entirely produced by students of all majors at San Francisco State University.

The Players Club would like to thank the San Francisco State University School of Theater & Dance Faculty for help, advice, resources, and general support. This production would not have been possible without you all!

Tickets are $15 General Admission and $10 Student/Senior Discount

🐊

https://sfsu.universitytickets.com/w/event.aspx?SeriesID=43

10/07/2026

Join us tomorrow for Take Place!

Take Place is happening next week on October 7th in the Poetry Center (HUM 511).

Ben is a q***r educator and writer and libra living in the East Bay, and likes to write about people’s relationships with the natural world and each other, whenever and wherever that may be. Much love to the family and friends who have helped make writing and teaching the vocations of my life, and the rest of you too!

Jaine is an Afro feminine futurist completing her final year of her MFA program at San Francisco State, as an Editor in Chief for 14 Hills: the SFSU Review. Her fiction, nonfiction, and poetry seek to explore ghosts and the non-human, the outer universe, and the strange-complicated existence of love, Blackness, and Queerness. Jaine believes in celebrating culture, love for women, the arts, education, and liberation for all oppressed nations.

We hope to see you there Gators! 🐊

10/06/2026

Submissions for the Gina Berriault Work-in-Progress Award open this Friday, October 9! Emerging prose writers (those who have yet to publish a full-length manuscript), send us your 50-100 page manuscript by January 15, 2027. This year’s award will be judged by Kat Lewis, author of Good People and founder of Craft with Kat. The winning author will receive an award of $1000 and an excerpt of the winning work will be published in an upcoming issue of Fourteen Hills.

The Gina Berriault Award was inaugurated by Peter Orner in conjunction with Fourteen Hills Press to pay homage to the eponymous writer, a former SFSU professor and PEN/Faulkner award-winning fiction writer, whose work embodied a strong sense of selflessness and compassion.
Selected by an external judge, the award is given annually to an emerging prose writer with a similar spirit, one who has shown a love of storytelling and commitment to the larger writing community.​

Submissions for the Michael Rubin Work-in-Progress Award open this Friday, October 9! If you are a current SFSU student or a recent graduate, we invite you to submit your 25-75 page manuscript by January 15, 2027. This year, we’re accepting manuscripts in poetry, and the award will be judged by San Francisco’s poet laureate, Genny Lim. The winning author will receive $750 and an excerpt of the winning work will be published in an upcoming issue of Fourteen Hills.

The Michael Rubin Work-in-Progress Award is an annual award open to students and recent graduates of San Francisco State University. Alternating each year between poetry and fiction, manuscripts are gathered in an open competition and read by an independent guest judge. The winner must be an enrolled student or recent graduate at SFSU whose work shows exceptional accomplishment and promise.

🐊

10/05/2026

Congratulations to our Alumni on their Residency positions! Ha Kiet Chau and Evelyn Ch'ien are two of this years Lisa Brown and Daniel Handler Residents!
The Lisa Brown and Daniel Handler Residency, made possible through the generosity of Lisa Brown and Daniel Handler and presented in partnership with McSweeney's, is designed to nurture emerging and established San Francisco–based writers by providing free studio space and connecting them with the San Francisco Public Library. Together, Friends of the San Francisco Public Library and McSweeney's are creating opportunities for writers to develop their work, connect with readers, and contribute to the city's vibrant cultural life.

Congratulations Ha and Evelyn!

09/30/2026

Take Place is happening next week on October 7th in the Poetry Center (HUM 511).

Ben is a q***r educator and writer and libra living in the East Bay, and likes to write about people’s relationships with the natural world and each other, whenever and wherever that may be. Much love to the family and friends who have helped make writing and teaching the vocations of my life, and the rest of you too!

Jaine is an Afro feminine futurist completing her final year of her MFA program at San Francisco State, as an Editor in Chief for 14 Hills: the SFSU Review. Her fiction, nonfiction, and poetry seek to explore ghosts and the non-human, the outer universe, and the strange-complicated existence of love, Blackness, and Queerness. Jaine believes in celebrating culture, love for women, the arts, education, and liberation for all oppressed nations.

We hope to see you there Gators! 🐊