There are lots of things to love about San Francisco. We have amazing produce, gorgeous views, fantastic architecture. And San Francisco is a great place to be a budding writer. There is such a warm, welcoming literary community here. The writers I’ve met in San Francisco seem to want “writing” to do better, which means that if you’re a writer, they want you to do better too.
Wanna chat with someone who’s won a Pulitzer or a National Book Award? In San Francisco that’s easy! Just go to Litquake. You’ll get to have a lovely chat with the writer you revere.
Generous writers exist outside of San Francisco too. George Saunders has followed up his magnificent A Swim in the Pond in the Rain with Story Club, a writing community on Substack. I can’t believe how lucky I am to be learning to write as he’s deciding to teach thousands more people about the craft.
At one time or another, we are all engaged in difficult things we’ve never done before, right? We want to do well. We know we don’t know what we don’t know. We wonder who we can ask for help. Who can we trust?
I feel so fortunate that I can trust a few wonderfully generous writers who are farther along the path than I am, and that I can count a few of them as friends. When I feel scared and overwhelmed, I can just turn to what I’ve learned (and keep learning) from these writers. It feels like falling backward into a solidly constructed, high quality, predictably available featherbed of support. It is a relief. It is a joy.
I hope that you find the same!
Lisa Poulson is a voice in favor of the complex beauty of female power, the descendant of fiercely resilient Mormon pioneers and a woman who survived the death of her fiancé four months before their wedding. Lisa lives in San Francisco, where she spends her time absorbing and creating as much beauty as possible.