Brian Gresko

Our 🌲backyard reading series🌺 launch was a blast! Outstanding readers @ellomelissa , @sasha_fletcher , @deirdrekoala , @jtpjustlikehome , and @wil_to_win shared poignant and hilarious stories over background sounds of rumbling trains and jingling ice cream trucks. As day faded into evening, twinkling lights kept things bright. And we were thrilled to see so many friendly faces—including @petesreading ’s @bgresko , Reading the City’s @tylerwrites , @world.trans.forum ’s @aaantons , @tenacity_plys , @talking2walls , @ceciliakcecilia , @octavia.nicole.clahar , @cityskyandsea , @heretosunday , and more! Huge thanks to all our readers and our enthusiastic crowd, @crowninnbk owner Zhenya Kampanets and her hardworking staff, and publishers @astrahousebooks and @melvillehouse ! 🗓️Next up, on May 18: Our inaugural Poets Night—stayed tuned for details!

New conversation on Zona Motel is now up 💃 Brian Gresko talks with Kyle McCarthy on dance, the necessary evil of creepy rich men in the arts, and her new novel Immersions (2026, Tin House Books) Read the convo on the stack, link is in bio 🐐

Update: it’s only $350 now, but Instagram won’t let me swap graphics! ⬇️ One summer, two ways! It’s the third annual Summer Camp from @writing.colab and I’m so glad to be back at it with another generative Power Hour. 🏖️ Whether you join for the full shebang (image 1) or a mini session (image 2), there’s community, insight, and a lot of words to be written. No sunblock required (unless you join from a rooftop or a pool… by all means: invite me). 🫡 Link in bio!

New York I love you and you are not bringing me down! What a fun couple of days back home in Brooklyn, and a very special reading at my old haunt @petescandystore , where I used to cohost a monthly music series (miss you, Dread Not crew), played many shows, and was once thrown the best surprise thirtieth birthday party of all time. Big thanks to the amazing @bgresko and @both_and_yes for having me back on this stage for @petesreading (celebrating its 25th year!), to my fellow fabulous readers, and to everyone who came out and packed this house! So many neighbors and friends! Thanks too to @greenlightbklyn for selling copies of HEMLOCK (which sold out!), and for stocking it at the shop! Also swung by @booksaremagicbk and was so delighted to find a stack of copies, which are now all signed! Miss you and love you, BK. Next stop: Providence tonight at @riffraffpvd with @mkimmijin , then Richmond and Wilmington next week! #hemlock #booktour #doeordie #brooklyn #newyork

As Melissa Febos put it in her essay “In Defense of Navel Gazing,” “Social justice has always depended upon the testimonies of the oppressed.” Now more than ever we need you to write and share the story of your lived experiences, your body, history, identity, family. We need you to put yourself on the page, and @bgresko will help you do so, in The Personal Essay Is Political. You’ll begin each class with a discussion of published work, drawing out specific techniques and approaches to essay writing as well as inspiration for the bravery it requires to get real with a reader, to fully expose your vulnerable self for a stranger to experience. We’ll talk about the difference between writing as therapy, for the self, and writing for a readership, and how the two often coexist during the writing process. Each class, you’ll have the opportunity to share and discuss work that you wrote. One student raved, “Brian is a great teacher! They had fantastic readings, cultivated a real community feel in class, and had awesome feedback on our work.” Find out more and enroll on the classes page of our website.

The process vs. the results. When clients go to AWP, @florifundamentals goes to AWP! I’m not usually in front of the camera, here’s why! Thank you @vanessalillie for grabbing BTS clips! #awp #awp26 #contentcreator #authorsofig #bookmarketing

Come write with us!! Last year @bgresko and I brought a group of talented writers for the first Peitho's Gift Writing retreat with @writing.colab . We're going back Sep 4-11, 2026. Link in the bio I can promise long slow days writing, breaks to swim in the Mediterranean, the best food of your life, welcoming hosts at a traditional family owned hotel, new writer friends who all have gifts to share with the community, and Brian and I there to support each guest as an artist and a human. I can't promise magic but let's try to conjure some together 💛💛 #writingretreat #writinginspiration #writeyourselfalive #crete

My permanent AWP stance: if I saw you I love you & if I missed you I love you. (There’s always next year, there’s always now too.) Jerrod came with me to Baltimore and so not only do I have some photos but ALSO: we did things I always say I’ll do and then don’t because AWP! Like going to a museum to marvel and look and not stop looking until it’s time to eat pierogis and maybe buy a perfectly tiny watch at @adayinjunevintage 🌞

Felt cute, might don a cat sweatshirt and hug a bunch of beautiful weirdo introverts while subsisting entirely on Sour Patch Kids and Peppermint Patties (@writing.colab & @writinginst_slc my pepto invoice is in the post) until I collapse on the couch 72 hours later. How lucky we were that @trish.fancher rode in at the 11th hour to complete our writing group. You were missed. ♥️ 📚 🐎

AWP 2026 is a wrap! Thanks to everyone who stopped by the booth to buy a book, grab a condom, or just say hi! 🙏🏼💖💖💖

If you’re not familiar with the terms “pantser” or “plotter,” basically it’s the difference between a writer who sits down and plans what they are going to write before they start writing versus someone who flies by the seat of their pants (a “pantser.”) Tbh, these distinctions have always confused me because most writers write in pants—or at least clothed—regardless of how they are writing or not writing, outlining, revising, or just working off vibes. Yesterday at our #AWP panel, we shared photos of our own approaches to outlining and planning (and messes, and rejection) across multiple disciplines: personal essay, novels, memoir, nonfiction book projects. We had a packed house and an enthusiastic group of early risers and I just adored my fellow panelists, including @turningpoints_writers alum Elizabeth Austin! Thanks to all who made it out and special thanks to Brian Grecko for moderating and Miranda Beverly Whittemore for enlisting her smart son to make stickers we gave out!

Hey #awpbaltimore, we got swag! Find one of us on the conference center floor to grab a limited edition sticker and help us spread the word about our 9AM Friday panel about how we outline! #awp