About the Iris Starn Fellowships and Workshops

Each year, New Literary Project offers Iris Starn Fellowships and Workshops in memory of Iris Starn. The Iris Starn Workshops are taught by Iris Starn Fellows who are graduate students in the MFA Program at Saint Mary’s College of California Creative Writing Department. Starn Workshops are offered to young people in the Bay Area at no charge through schools and partner organizations such as Emery High, Concord High School, and LPS Hayward.

About Iris Starn (1936 – 2013)

From NewLit Board Member Frank Starn, her son:

Iris Starn, my mom, enjoyed a distinguished career as a nurse in surgery and endoscopy at the Cleveland Clinic. Simply put, she dedicated her life to serving others. Apart from her family, she had a passion for caring for others in need, the arts, and reading.

Mom loved to read . . . everything. She always had a novel with her, wherever she went. As much as she took deep pleasure in reading, she also found it therapeutic, helping her face the patient trauma she witnessed in the ER. No wonder she started all of us reading early—summer reading and writing classes were mandatory (no debates, thank you). As a result, our mother endowed all of us with the values we hold dear to this day, and the love of reading and storytelling manifested itself in her entire, cherished family. We feel the effects of that love and care every day as we remember her and gratefully endow the Iris Starn Fellowships in her name.