Santiago Mejia / San Francisco Chronicle / Polaris
Joe Di Prisco is Founding Chair of the New Literary Project, launched in 2016, in collaboration with the University of California, Berkeley, English Department, along with altruistic, visionary educators and artists.
The nonprofit New Literary Project fosters new literature, supports authors, and enhances the lives of readers, writers, educators, and students in diverse communities in California and the nation. We believe storytelling is the foundation of a literate, democratic society. To that end, the Project inspires and equips writers across generations to write their hearts out.
We award annually the Joyce Carol Oates Prize, $50,000, to an emerged and still emerging mid-career author of fiction.
We lead free Simpson Writing Workshops for fledgling teenage writers at places like Contra Costa County Juvenile Hall and Girls Inc Alameda County and elsewhere. Workshops are taught by Simpson Fellows, graduate student creative writing teachers from the University of California, Berkeley, English Department.
We offer Jack Hazard Fellowships, summer awards to creative writers who teach high school.
We edit and produce yearly Simpsonistas: an anthology that is internationally distributed (Rare Bird Books). Featured authors in Volumes 1, 2, and 3 include: Joyce Carol Oates, T. Geronimo Johnson, Anthony Marra, Laila Lalami, Daniel Mason, Danielle Evans, Peter Orner, Dexter Palmer, Kevin Wilson, Chris Bachelder, Sigrid Nunez, Lori Ostlund, Anne Raeff, Ben Fountain, Samantha Hunt, Martin Pousson, Maria Dahvana Headley, Kim Dower, Noah Warren, Uttara Chaudhuri, David Wood, Michael Ross, Shanti Ariker, Ian Maloney, Genaro Padilla, and many, many others who appear alongside teenage workshop writers published for the first time.
Diane Del Signore is Executive Director of the New Literary Project. We invite you to visit our website: