The San Francisco Bay Area is renowned for food, but who grows our food?

Who prepares it, who delivers it? Who profits from it?

How do you support the local food economy?

Do you eat for nourishment or distraction, comfort or connection?

What are your comfort foods and why?

What else besides food nourishes your soul?

Open to BIPOCs (Black, Brown Indigenous and People of Color) and allies.

No writing experience necessary. Bring pen, paper or a laptop for writing exercises.

3:30 pm (optional): Come early for participant introductions and a get-acquainted discussion.

4 pm: Readings of prose and poetry by Janice Hom, Maw Shein Win, and Shizue Seigel. Writing prompts, free-writing time with optional shares. If there’s time, we’ll end with an open mic.

6pm (optional): Support Chinatown businesses and join us at a local restaurant afterwards.

RSVP: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/food-for-thought-creative-writing-workshop-tickets-814395698457 or at Clarion's website.

Janice Hom was born and raised in San Francisco. She is a Chinatown OG whose humor and poignancy to prose and poetry have been published in East West Journal, the San Francisco Journal, North Beach Now, Asian Week, and Write Now! anthologies. A long-time community volunteer, she was recently recognized by Toastmasters for mentoring in the art of public speaking.

Maw Shein Win's most recent poetry collection is Storage Unit for the Spirit House (Omnidawn). She is the inaugural poet laureate of El Cerrito, CA and teaches poetry in the MFA in Writing Program at USF. Along with Dawn Angelicca Barcelona and Mary Volmer, she is a co-founder of Maker, Mentor, Muse, a new literary community. Win’s full-length collection Percussing the Thinking Jar (Omnidawn) is forthcoming in Fall 2024. mawsheinwin.com

Shizue Seigel, founder/director of Write Now! SF Bay, supports writers and artists of color through workshops, events and anthologies. Her eight books include five anthologies of Bay Area writers and artists of color. writenowsf.com/books She’s a third-generation Japanese American who earned her first dollar sharecropping strawberries. She grew up on Maryland crab, Tokyo food carts, and Indian curries. She loves food and thinks of neighborhood restaurants and farmers markets as family.

More info at writenowsf.com or email writenowsf@gmail.com.