Dialogue: Grotto Nights at the Library

Sometimes, the best parts of the holidays are the stories we tell. In this generative class, we'll turn your most celebratory, difficult, and hilarious moments of 2025—from vacation adventures to birthday bashes—into narratives or poems that fit on a greeting card. We'll use art, music, and writing prompts to turn your holiday treasures and triumphs into literary gold. The goal is to craft compelling, joyous stories from the memories that shaped you in 2025. This class is all about having fun and creating. We'll provide blank greeting cards, pens, pencils and art supplies to make cards unique to your experience, you can also bring your own notebooks or a laptop. 

Jessica Martinez makes the “Get Over It, Go Out With Somebody Else” zine series which celebrates breakups using quotes from Wayne’s World. She also writes children’s books, sketch comedy and plays, including “Schooltown Funk,” a satire on public school teaching, which had a sold-out run at the SF Fringe Festival. She is a 2025 LAMBDA Literary Fellow and currently at work on a young adult novel.

Britta Stromeyer is a member of the National Book Critics Circle. Her writing appears in The Common, Tupelo Quarterly, Necessary Fiction, On The Seawall, Beyond Words Literary, Flash Fiction Magazine, Bending Genres Journal, Marin Independent Journal and other publications. Britta has authored award-winning children’s books and holds an MFA from Dominican University, CA, an M.A. from American University, and a Certificate in Novel Writing from Stanford University.

The Writers Grotto is a community of working writers and narrative artists who connect in physical and virtual space, pooling their talents to support each other, mentor and teach others, and engage the wider world. The Grotto fosters a literary culture that is generous in spirit and deeply inclusive, elevating writers of all backgrounds. 

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