Gemini Ink

MOSAIC Summer Session: The Art of Gathering | Zine and Poetry Workshop for Teens
2026-06-10 09:00 - 12:00 (America/Chicago) | Contemporary at Blue Star, 116 Blue Star, San Antonio, Texas
Zine & Poetry Workshop with Mariana Cid De León
Presented by Contemporary at Blue Star in Partnership with Gemini Ink
The Art of Gathering invites high school students to explore community and celebration through creative writing and self-publishing. As a collaborative extension of Contemporary at Blue Star’s MOSAIC Student Artist Program and Gemini Ink’s literary initiatives, this workshop guides students to write three original poems and learn zine-making techniques to combine text and imagery into a cohesive, self-published visual piece.

Cost: Free (All materials provided; no experience required)
Eligibility: Open to High School Students

Schedule & Format

Dates: June 10 – July 2, 2026
Days/Times: Wed–Fri, 9am–12pm
Format: Flexible, open-studio format. Students can select the specific sessions and dates that best fit their schedules and work at their own pace.

Application Requirements
The MOSAIC Student Artist Program provides free access to quality arts education, studio practice, and leadership development.

How to Apply: Submit a portfolio of work samples via the Application Form.
Deadline: Tuesday, June 4, 2026, at 11:59 pm
Acceptance Notice: Friday, June 5, 2026
Questions? Contact Juan Zavala Castro (Education and Public Programs Manager) at Juan@contemporarysa.org with the subject line “MOSAIC Inquiry,” or call 210-985-3732.
Or visit: https://contemporarysa.org/events/mosaic-summer-session-the-art-of-gathering-zine-and-poetry-workshop-with-mariana-cid-de-leon/

Veterans' Writing Collective with Sarah Colby
2026-06-17 18:30 - 20:30, 2026-07-15 18:30 - 20:30, 2026-08-19 18:30 - 20:30, 2026-09-16 18:30 - 20:30, 2026-10-21 18:30 - 20:30 (America/Mexico_City) | Online via Zoom
The Veterans’ Writing Collective (VWC) encourages the art of writing in a workshop environment where participants are offered honest, positive, and constructive peer-to-peer and mentor feedback. The workshop is open to all active-duty military, veterans, retirees, and their immediate family members. Writers of all levels working in all genres are welcome.
The VWC meets monthly online via Zoom.
If you would like an invitation to this class, send an email to veteranscollective@geminiink.org

Sarah Colby was born in northern New Mexico and raised in the Rocky Mountains. She is married to a retired Army Chaplain and is mother to a son in the Navy. Sarah has an MFA in Creative Writing from Sierra Nevada College and an exuberant interest in making the ordinary luminous. Her war-time experiences have motivated her to be a voice for the mostly untold stories of families and loved ones during these years of protracted conflict. She is currently working on a manuscript of poems about her experiences as a military family member.

Poetry Crush: A Pride Month Literary Event
2026-06-18 18:30 - 20:30 (America/Chicago) | Coates Chapel – UTSA Southwest Campus, 300 Augusta St, San Antonio, TX, 78205, United States
Join Gemini Ink as we celebrate Pride Month 2026 with a lovestruck literary event! Poetry Crush invites generations of queer poets to read their own work and the works of their poetry crushes. Because poetry is our love language, we’ll reflect on lovesick lessons from the past and present, and imagine a liberated future.
Featured artists will include Dee Lalo Garcia, Lace Garcia, Marcela Hernandez, Barbie Huerta, and Debra Munoz-Bratina.
We’ll have writing prompts available for anyone who feels inspired to write. Bring a poem by your favorite queer author to read during the community open mic. We’ll end the evening with a dance party.
We’ll have plenty of time to mix and mingle, as we rock the chaotic sounds of DJ Mexistenialism. Light refreshments will be served. We’ll end the evening with a dance party!
This event is designed to introduce our community to emerging queer authors and to celebrate queer writers in a fun, sober space.
Coffee sponsored by Poetic Republic.

Teen Writing Circle with Daniel Ramirez
2026-06-27 12:00 - 13:30, 2026-07-25 12:00 - 13:30, 2026-08-29 12:00 - 13:30, 2026-09-26 12:00 - 13:30, 2026-10-31 12:00 - 13:30 (America/Mexico_City) | Online via Zoom
Register
Last Saturday of Every Month 12-1:30pm cst via Zoom
For ages 13-19 years old
Are you a teen who enjoys writing in their free time? Or are you someone who’s never had the chance to write on their own? If so, this Online Teen Writing Circle is for you!
In this once-a-month writing circle, teens will enjoy writing in a judgment free zone. We’ll break the ice with one another and perform various writing exercises. You are encouraged to share your work with your peers and get constructive feedback, but it is not required. Our only goal is to keep you writing!
This course is open to teen writers of any skill level.
Participants will leave the writing circle with:

New, unique written work
Listening and sharing experience
Constructive feedback to help improve their writing

Want to learn more about our Teen Writing Circle? Check out our Frequently Asked Questions!

Daniel Ramirez has been an educator for over 15 years. After studying History in grad school, he tromped around the outdoors doing conservation with teenagers. Spending time as a Montessori educator revealed the power of incorporating creativity with learning. Encouraging youth to tap into their creative abilities convinced him to discover his own. Since then, in addition to his original love of storytelling, he’s found a penchant for calligraphy, puppetry, poetry, and block printing. A San Antonio native, he explores the crystalline waters of Central Texas in his free time.

Open Writers' Labs
2026-06-29 18:30 - 20:30, 2026-07-27 18:30 - 20:30, 2026-08-31 18:30 - 20:30, 2026-09-28 18:30 - 20:30, 2026-10-26 18:30 - 20:30 (America/Mexico_City) | Online via Zoom
These peer-driven workshops, held the last Monday of each month, are free and open to writers of all levels and focus on poetry, flash fiction, and short creative non-fiction.

Online Via Zoom
For the online workshop, sign up the day before the class to ensure you receive the Zoom link.
This workshop is facilitated by Kevin Ramos. Originally from the northeast, Kevin studied theater arts at Rutgers University and The University of Washington. He’s lived all over the country before making his home in San Antonio, Texas. Kevin has written several novels and short stories. Most recently, publishing a short memoir called Enough about addiction, mothers, and missing graves. And a novel, Hayley’s Sense of Fire (DLG Publishing Partners), a modern re-telling of the classic fairy tale, The Little Matchgirl.

In-Person at Gemini Ink

Join our in-person Open Writer’s Lab with Robert Allen at Gemini Ink’s office, 1111 Navarro St., San Antonio, TX 78205.
Robert Allen has worked as a librarian and an electrical contractor for most of his life. Many moons ago, he received a Bachelor of Arts degree in English Literature from the University of Texas at Austin, where he studied poetry under David Wevill. Allen has been active in local writer’s groups and open mics, including the Sun Poets Society. He’s been published in The Ocotillo Review, the Texas Poetry Calendar, Voices de la Luna, di-verse-city, the San Antonio Express-News, and Poetry on the Move. In 2006, he started attending Gemini Ink’s free Monday night writing classes and has attended regularly ever since. With more than a decade of attending writers’ groups, classes, and open mics, he now co-facilitates Gemini Ink’s Open Writer’s Lab.
Parking at Gemini Ink
Gemini Ink offers free parking along the back wall of our downtown offices. Please access this parking lot from Augusta St and first park in any of the 12 spots along the back wall. Only when these 12 spots are full do we ask that you park elsewhere in our lot. We now rent our offices from UTSA and are collaborating with them to create a secure and accessible parking lot for our community of writers and readers.

Finding Voice Through Dialogue with Carmen Tafolla
2026-07-07 18:30 - 20:00 (America/Chicago) | Online via Zoom
Literary Masters Lecture Series
Tue, Jul 7 & 14
6:30-8pm CT via Zoom
Nonmember: $90; Member: $75; Student/Educ/Mil: $63
*EARN CPEs; TWO SCHOLARSHIPS AVAILABLE

Rhythm, pacing, vocabulary, slang, and tone all shape how someone speaks. Whether you’re looking to refine your novel-in-verse or craft more impactful dialogue in your poetry or prose, mastering dialogue is a powerful way to create more vivid, compelling storytelling.
Award-winning author of more than 40 books, Dr. Carmen Tafolla presents a two-part Master Class focused on shaping characters’ voices, so they reflect depth, individuality, and authenticity. In session one, we will explore examples of compelling dialogue and review useful tools, patterns, and exercises that can be used long after the lecture ends. Participants should bring some of their writing to class and be prepared to apply the techniques from the first session to their work. In the second session they can expect to share and discuss their revisions.
This lecture is open to writers of all skill levels 18+.
Students will leave this course with the following:

An understanding of the elements of effective dialogue
Strategies for mastering the art of dialogue writing
Ideas on how dialogue can provide writers with insights into themselves and their characters

Dr Carmen Tafolla is a storyteller, professor emeritus, performance artist, and award-winning author of more than 40 books and hundreds of poems and performance pieces. The 2015 State Poet Laureate of Texas, and San Antonio’s first and inaugural City Poet Laureate, she is the recipient of numerous awards and distinctions, including seven International Latino Book Awards; an Américas Award, presented to her in 2010 at the Library of Congress; three Tomás Rivera Book Awards; the Charlotte Zolotow; the Art of Peace; Top Ten Books for Babies (by the Fred Rogers Corporation 2010), and has been recognized by the National Association for Chicana and Chicano Studies for work which “gives voice to the peoples and cultures of this land.”
Her latest book, Warrior Girl, received a starred review in Publishers’ Weekly, and was a finalist for the Jane Addams Award.

LitMinds Book Club: The Safekeep
2026-07-08 18:30 - 20:00 (America/Chicago) | Gemini Ink, 1111 Navarro St, San Antonio, TX, 78205, United States
Join us for the LitMinds Book Club at Gemini Ink. We’re reading The Safekeep by Yael van der Wouden.
Register for the Book Club

A house is a precious thing…
It is 1961 and the rural Dutch province of Overijssel is quiet. Bomb craters have been filled, buildings reconstructed, and the war is truly over. Living alone in her late mother’s country home, Isabel knows her life is as it should be—led by routine and discipline. But all is upended when her brother Louis brings his graceless new girlfriend Eva, leaving her at Isabel’s doorstep as a guest, to stay for the season.
Eva is Isabel’s antithesis: she sleeps late, walks loudly through the house, and touches things she shouldn’t. In response, Isabel develops a fury-fueled obsession, and when things start disappearing around the house—a spoon, a knife, a bowl—Isabel’s suspicions begin to spiral. In the sweltering peak of summer, Isabel’s paranoia gives way to infatuation, leading to a discovery that unravels all Isabel has ever known. The war might not be well and truly over after all, and neither Eva—nor the house in which they live—are what they seem.
Mysterious, sophisticated, sensual, and infused with intrigue, atmosphere, and sex, The Safekeep is “a brave and thrilling debut about facing up to the truth of history, and to one’s own desires” (The Guardian).

About the Author

Yael van der Wouden is a writer and teacher. She currently lectures in creative writing and comparative literature in the Netherlands. Her essay on Dutch identity and Jewishness, “On (Not) Reading Anne Frank”, has received a notable mention in The Best American Essays 2018. The Safekeep is her debut novel and was acquired in hotly-contested nine-way auctions in both the UK and the US. Rights have sold in a further twelve countries.
Visit our LitMinds page to see what we’re reading next!

Poets & Coffee with Alexandra van de Kamp
2026-07-11 10:00 - 12:00 (America/Mexico_City) | Gemini Ink
Coffee. Poetry. Conversation.
Join Alexandra van de Kamp for an informal gathering focused on the poems and poets shaping today’s literary landscape.
Come listen, share, and connect.
You’ll leave with new poems to read and prompts to keep writing.

​​Alexandra van de Kamp is the Executive Director for Gemini Ink, San Antonio’s Writing Arts Center. Her third book of poems, Ricochet Script, was published by Next Page Press in 2022. ​​Her previous full-length collections include: Kiss/Hierarchy (Rain Mountain Press 2016) and The Park of Upside-Down Chairs (CW Books 2010). She has also published several chapbooks, including A Liquid Bird Inside the Night (Red Glass Books 2015) and Dear Jean Seberg (2011), which won the 2010 Burnside Review Chapbook Contest. Her poems have been published in journals nationwide, such as The Cincinnati Review, Connecticut Review, The Texas Observer, and Denver Quarterly.

Haunted Histories: The Masters of Latina Horror with Elizabeth Gonzalez James
2026-07-11 10:00 - 14:00 (America/Chicago) | Online via Zoom
Please note: Elizabeth’s upcoming class will be held on Zoom.
Sat, Jul 11, 2026
10am-2pm CT, Online via Zoom
Nonmember: $100; Member: $85; Student/Educ/Mil: $70
*EARN CPEs; TWO SCHOLARSHIPS AVAILABLE

Latinas are writing some of the most gut-wrenching and spine-tingling horror on the market today. Their work sheds light on systemic abuse and other brutal aspects of Latin American history.
Whether it’s Silvia Moreno Garcia addressing the hideous legacy of Mexican mine operations in Mexican Gothic, or Mariana Enriquez spinning a devilish tale of cruelty and imprisonment set against Argentina’s Dirty War in Our Share of Night, these authors are using fiction to tell true stories of crime and corruption, resistance and resilience in the face of unimaginable tragedy.
In this one-day workshop, we will begin with an overview of what horror is and how it works. Then we’ll discuss several works by Latina authors, paying close attention to how they blend fact and fantasy. We will examine how truth and storytelling often co-mingle in the Latin American literary tradition, specifically how horror is used by marginalized voices to tell their truths. Finally, we’ll use these approaches as a template to create our own tales of ghosts, witches, demons, and other supernatural forces.
This workshop is open to writers of all skill levels 18+.
Students will leave this course with the following:

Analyze how authors utilize the supernatural to interrogate real-world horrors
Explore techniques for weaving historical facts into speculative fiction
Leave with four story openings ready for development

Elizabeth Gonzalez James is a screenwriter and bestselling author of Mona at Sea, as well as Five Conversations About Peter Sellers. Her most recent novel The Bullet Swallower was named a best book of 2024 by NPR and Esquire, was an honor-winner in the Jesse H. Jones Award for Best Book of Fiction, and was featured on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon. She has taught fiction writing at Grub Street, Story Studio, and elsewhere.

Touch Paper: A Creative Journaling Workshop for Teens
2026-07-17 14:00 - 18:00 (America/Chicago) | Gemini Ink, 1111 Navarro St, San Antonio, TX, 78205, United States
Register to join “Touch Paper” in-person at Gemini Ink
Register to join “Touch Paper” online via Zoom
Free for Bexar County teens ages 13–19
Looking for a safe space to disconnect from the overstimulating world of social media?
A place to share your real feelings?
Teen writers will leave this workshop with:

At least one new piece of writing
Ways to use writing for coping and resiliency
Tools & exercises to keep writing at home

Whether you’re an experienced writer or picking up the pen for the very first time, this workshop is for you! Join us as we touch paper and turn worry into written words.
In this free one-day workshop, teens will focus on using writing as a way to get it all out. We’ll start with an introduction to creative journaling and learn how it can promote positive mental health. Then we’ll put pen to paper and play on the page! All youth writers will have an opportunity to share their writing with an audience.
We will offer the same workshop simultaneously–online and in-person. Teens aged 13-19 are encouraged to register for one of the workshops.
Celebrate Your Writing
All participating youth are invited to celebrate their writing in person with family and friends the following day. Light refreshments will be served.
*For participants attending in person at Gemini Ink, supplies and snacks will be provided.
*For participants attending online via Zoom, supply kits will be available for pick up at Gemini Ink prior to the workshop. We will also provide a list of suggested supplies to gather from around the house.
Seating is limited; please register early.

Dig Into Your Subconscious to Enliven Your Writing with Carmen Calatayud
2026-08-08 10:00 - 14:00 (America/Chicago) | Gemini Ink, 1111 Navarro St, San Antonio, TX, 78205, United States
Sat, Aug 8
10am – 2pm CT, In-person at Gemini Ink
Nonmember: $100; Member: $85; Student/Educ/Mil: $70
*EARN CPEs; TWO SCHOLARSHIPS AVAILABLE

The subconscious mind is a hidden vault that holds our deepest motives, feelings, and beliefs. It is also the cradle of dreams, where meaning emerges and creativity takes shape. So what if we tapped into this inner world to unlock a richer, more profound artistic expression?
In this one-day workshop, we will use guided writing exercises and meditative prompts to quiet the inner critic and awaken the intuitive voice that lies just beneath the surface of everyday thought. Through the study of surrealist writers, we will explore how symbols, images and fragments from the subconscious can transform into powerful narratives. Whether you write poetry, fiction or creative nonfiction, this workshop provides practical tools to write from emotional truth and psychological depth. Come prepared to dig into your fertile inner landscape, using dreams, intuition and memory as seeds for evocative storytelling.
This workshop is open to writers of all skill levels 18+.
Students will leave this course with the following:

An understanding of how the subconscious mind can galvanize writing
Strategies for connecting with body sensations and imagery to access deeper, archetypal truths
Several pieces of new writing that open up to unexpected places

Carmen Calatayud is a poet, nonfiction writer and psychotherapist who is fascinated by the subconscious and the surreal. She is the author of two poetry collections: This Tangled Body (FlowerSong Press/Letras Latinas, 2024) and In the Company of Spirits (Press 53, 2012), a runner-up for the Academy of American Poets Walt Whitman Award. Her poetry has appeared in numerous journals and anthologies, including POETRY Magazine, Poet Lore, Rogue Agent, Tahoma Literary Journal and Verse Daily. She is a Larry Neal Award Winner, a Virginia Center for the Creative Arts fellow, and a member of the Macondo Writers Workshop. Calatayud is on the editorial staff of The Skinny Poetry Journal.

Finding the Fire: Revising and Revisioning the Poem
2026-08-11 18:30 - 20:00 (America/Chicago) | Online via Zoom
Literary Masters Lecture Series
Tue, Aug 11 & 18
6:30-8pm CT via Zoom
Nonmember: $90; Member: $75; Student/Educ/Mil: $63
*EARN CPEs; TWO SCHOLARSHIPS AVAILABLE

Want to turn your cold first draft into a hot work of literary art? Your first draft is the fodder. Your revision process applies the heat. The outcome is one blazing poem. Join former San Antonio and Texas Poet Laureate Laurie Ann Guerrero for a workshop where she walks us through her process for refining her poems.
In this two-part lecture, Laurie Ann Guerrero will offer insight into her process of revising and revisioning poems—listening for urgency, clarifying imagery, and taking creative risks. Participants will learn her revision sequence and then participants will each workshop one short poem of their own in an atmosphere of generous, serious attention. Participants are encouraged to bring a poem (no longer than one page) to revise on the spot.
This lecture is open to writers of all skill levels 18+.
In this lecture, students will leave with the following:

Learn revision techniques that re-envision their work
Revise one piece of their own written work on the spot
Leave this lecture with revision tools that can be used at home

Poet, essayist, and visual artist, Laurie Ann Guerrero was born and raised in the Southside of San Antonio and is the author of REDWORK, winner of the 2025 Autumn House Poetry Award, forthcoming in October 2026. Poet Laureate of San Antonio (2014-16) and Texas (2016-2017), her award-winning collections, along with a volume of new & selected poems, include Babies under the Skin (Panhandler 2008), A Tongue in the Mouth of the Dying (University of Notre Dame Press 2013), A Crown for Gumecindo (Aztlan Libre Press 2015), and I Have Eaten the Rattlesnake: New & Selected Poems (TCU Press 2021). Guerrero holds degrees from Smith College and Drew University. She is an Associate Professor and the Writer-in-Residence at Texas A&M University-San Antonio where she teaches writing, cultural, and gender studies. She is currently at work on a novel.

The Big Texas Author Talk Featuring Deb Olin Unferth
2026-08-19 07:00 - 20:30 (America/Chicago) | Online via Zoom
Join us on Wednesday, August 19, 2026, via Zoom for a conversation with Deb Olin Unferth, to discuss her new book, Earth 7: A Novel (Graywolf Press).

(Virtual Readings Quarterly @ 7pm CST)

RSVP
Deb Olin Unferth’s latest novel, Earth 7, is a bold and imaginative work of climate fiction that explores love, survival, and what remains of humanity on a nearly uninhabitable planet. As Earth sits on the brink, two unlikely figures—a woman raised in an ocean pod and another who may be a robot—form a connection in a world where some have fled to Mars and others seek digital immortality. At once poetic, strange, and deeply human, Earth 7 moves from the vast edges of the cosmos to the microscopic, asking urgent questions about consciousness, technology, and what it means to endure.

About the Author
Deb Olin Unferth is the author of seven books, including Barn 8 and Wait Till You See Me Dance. She has received a Guggenheim Fellowship and four Pushcart Prizes, and was a National Book Critics Circle Award finalist. Her work has appeared in Harper’s, The Paris Review, Granta, and McSweeney’s.

About the Moderator
Fernando A. Flores was born in Reynosa, Tamaulipas, Mexico, and grew up in the South Texas borderlands. He is the author of the collections Death to the Bullshit Artists of South Texas and Valleyesque, along with the novels Tears of the Trufflepig and Brother Brontë, which was one of Kirkus’ Best of Fiction 2025 and longlisted for the 2026 PEN/Faulkner award for fiction. He lives in Austin, Texas.

Open Writers’ Lab Reading & Community Open Mic
2026-08-20 18:30 - 20:00 (America/Chicago) | Gemini Ink, 1111 Navarro St, San Antonio, TX, 78205, United States
Join Gemini Ink as we celebrate the literary artistry of our Open Writers’ Lab members with a community reading and open mic.

Voices of San Anto Workshop with Marisela Barrera
2026-08-22 13:00 - 17:00 (America/Mexico_City) | Igo Branch Library, 13330 Kyle Seale Pkwy, San Antonio, Texas, 78249
Register
Whether it’s that funny anecdote you share at parties or an event that changed your life, we want to help you bring your story to life.
Join writer and performer Marisela Barrera for a free, two-session bilingual storytelling workshop at the San Antonio Public Library.
Workshop participants will craft a 5-7-minute story about a significant moment in their lives and present it at a live storytelling show.

Attendance at all three sessions is mandatory.
Workshop dates: Sat, Aug 22 & Aug 29, 2026, 1-5pmFinal Celebration: Sep 5, 2-4pm

Registration is required.
Space is limited to 15!
Please email Sarah.DeLaRosa@sanantonio.gov to request being added to the waitlist.

Voices of San Anto Storytelling Showcase
2026-09-05 14:00 - 16:00 (America/Chicago) | Schaefer Library, 6322 US Hwy. 87 E., San Antonio, Texas, 78222
Participants gather during a Voices of San Anto bilingual storytelling workshop led by Marisela Barrera in 2025.
Join Gemini Ink and the San Antonio Public Library for an afternoon of live bilingual storytelling featuring local San Antonio storytellers.
Over the past several weeks, community members from across San Antonio have worked with writer and performer Marisela Barrera to craft original stories rooted in family history, neighborhood memory, music, identity, immigration, friendship, and everyday life in San Antonio. This final celebration brings those stories to the stage in English and Spanish.
Voices of San Anto is a free bilingual storytelling workshop series presented in partnership with the San Antonio Public Library and designed to help local residents shape and share their personal stories in a welcoming community setting.
Event Details
Free and open to the public.
Saturday, Sep 5, 2026
2–4pm
Igo Branch Library
13330 Kyle Seale Pkwy
San Antonio, TX 78249
Presented by Gemini Ink and the San Antonio Public Library.

About Voices of San Anto
Since 2023, Gemini Ink has partnered with the San Antonio Public Library to offer free bilingual storytelling workshops led by local writers and performers including Daniel Ramirez, Marisela Barrera, Eddie Vega, and Chibbi Orduna.
Participants develop original 5–7 minute stories and share them during a live public celebration with family, friends, and the community.

LitMinds Book Club: Art Above Everything
2026-09-09 18:30 - 20:00 (America/Chicago) | Gemini Ink, 1111 Navarro St, San Antonio, TX, 78205, United States
Join us as we read Art Above Everything by Stephanie Elizondo Griest.

A new kind of travel writing.
— Booklist
…a potent testament to the value of pursuing one’s passion.
— Publishers Weekly
A global exploration of what it means to choose a creative life.
All artists struggle. But women are especially pushed to give up their creative ambitions, from societal disapproval against “selfishness” to the pressure (or desire) for children and economic stability. Throughout her 20s and 30s, Stephanie Elizondo Griest wondered if constantly prioritizing her writing over everything else was leading her to fulfillment or regret. After a brutal break-up and narrowly surviving a health crisis in her early 40s, she turned to other women for their perspectives on that haunting question: is art enough?
Art Above Everything documents her travels to 10 nations—from Cuba to Iceland; Rwanda to Qatar—where she meets with legendary painters, poets, actors, dancers, and musicians who talk intimately about their art, both what it gifts them and what it costs them. Collectively, these artists speak dozens of languages and worship a spectrum of faiths, but their compulsions to create despite financial hardship, misogyny, sexual violence, and family ostracization are wholly akin. Bold and inspiring, Art Above Everything illuminates the ways we can wield creativity as a vitalizing force.

About the Author

Stephanie Elizondo Griest is a globetrotting author from the Texas/Mexico borderlands and the author of six books, including Around the Bloc, Mexican Enough, All the Agents and Saints, and Art Above Everything. Her writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, VQR, The Believer, BBC, Orion, Lit Hub, and Oxford American, and has earned a Margolis Award, a PEN Southwest Book Award, an International Latino Book Award, and two Lowell Thomas Travel Journalism prizes.
She is currently Professor of Creative Nonfiction at the University of North Carolina–Chapel Hill. She has traveled to 50 countries and 49 states, is a cancer survivor now in remission, and recently endowed Testimonios Fronterizos, a research grant for borderlands student journalists at the University of Texas at Austin.

Visit our LitMinds page to see what we’re reading next!

LitMinds Book Club: The Awakening
2026-10-14 18:30 - 20:00 (America/Chicago) | Gemini Ink, 1111 Navarro St, San Antonio, TX, 78205, United States
Join us as we read The Awakening by Kate Chopin.

“The great power of The Awakening resides not in the answers it provides, but in the questions it exposes.” —Washington Post
“Kate Chopin . . . smoked and went hatless and played cards into the small hours; she wrote stories about venereal disease, adultery, divorce and the ‘monstrous joy’ of widowhood . . . scandalous in her own age; held up as a heroine by feminists of the Seventies.” —Observer
First published in 1899, this beautiful, brief novel so disturbed critics and the public that it was banished for decades afterward.
On vacation in Grand Isle, Louisiana, a married woman falls in love with a charming, attentive young man. The relationship spurs Edna Pontellier to explore her longing for independence and creative fulfillment. It also compels her to defy conventions, rejecting the constraints of marriage and motherhood.
First published in 1899, this beautiful, brief novel so disturbed critics and the public that it was banished for decades afterward. Now widely read and admired, The Awakening has been hailed as an early vision of women’s emancipation. This sensuous book tells of a woman’s abandonment of her family, her seduction, and her awakening to desires and passions that threatened to consumer her. Originally entitled A Solitary Soul, this portrait of twenty-eight-year-old Edna Pontellier is a landmark in American fiction, rooted firmly in the romantic tradition of Herman Melville and Emily Dickinson.

About the Author

Born and raised in St. Louis, Kate Chopin (1850-1904) moved to Louisiana to marry the son of a cotton grower. A mother of six by the age of twenty-eight and a widow at thirty-two, she turned to writing to support her young family. She is best known today for The Awakening (1899), a portrait of marriage and motherhood so controversial it fell out of print shortly after publication and was not rediscovered until the 1960s.

Visit our LitMinds page to see what we’re reading next!
