• "Colleen and Anna are the writing gurus I didn't know I needed. With heart, intellect, and wisdom, they have created an experience like no other--both supportive and challenging, joyful and introspective, individualized and community-minded. The Incubator sparked me to examine all aspects of my writing life--from my inner critic to my desk ergonomics--and the results include better protection of my writing time and renewed focus, confidence, and direction with my book project. The Incubator is truly transformative."

    Akemi Johnson, author of Night in the American Village

  • "The Incubator offered me something I have not seen anywhere else: a community of writers with a serious commitment to their work, who can offer both sharp and tailored craft advice and open heartfelt discussions of the deeply emotional and challenging work of long form writing. It is exactly the combination I've been looking for, and with this support, I was able to finish a book revision I'd been working on for over a year. I still receive near daily encouragement and affirmation from Anna, Colleen and the writers in my cohort."

    Danielle LaSusa, PhD, author of memoir-in-progress You’re Not Real

  • “When I started the Incubator, I was making slow, sporadic progress on a project I wasn't yet comfortable calling a book. Six weeks later, I'd finished a draft! Colleen and Anna have really created something special here: from the craft talks to the Book Therapy sessions, the weekly table reads to the daily accountability texts, I felt so supported and inspired, start to finish. Maybe most of all, I just appreciated waking up every morning knowing I'd be working in the company of so many other stellar writers."

    Brian Benson, author of Going Somewhere

  • “I am in awe of the work that Anna and Colleen did to create the Incubator. My experience was the exact sort of challenge I needed to reconsider my existing patterns as a writer, and benefit from the support and generosity of all the new concepts offered throughout. The combination of communal and individual support offered was a gift that I'm grateful to have received, and know that so many other writers would benefit from it as well.”

    Haley Mlotek, former editor of The Hairpin and author of No Fault

  • "Anna and Colleen have developed something exceptional: a matrix of strong and diverse writers who support one another sincerely and generously while daring one another to defy our own limitations. In the months since the Incubator ended, our relationships have continued to deepen and we remain present for each other to discuss approach, process, publishing, disappointments, and the successes we celebrate together. To me, the nest Colleen and Anna built remains a precious source of courage as I continue work on a daunting project. "

    Amber Meadow Adams, PhD., author of the novel-in-progress If Only For Today

  • "The Incubator truly is an MFA for the soul — Colleen and Anna taught me not only the type of writer, but the type of person I hope to be, while reinforcing the crucial need for community on a path that can so often feel like a solitary one. The program instilled in me a new discipline for my craft that I’ve carried to this day, and gave me a cohort of brilliant and kind peers, with whom I’ve navigated everything from the business of writing to being a human in the world during a supremely strange time. It would not be too big a statement to say the experience changed the trajectory of my life — and that’s the Incubator magic."

    -Meghan Gunn, journalist & essayist

  • "As I reached the final push of writing my book--a long-haul project that has taken years of reporting, research and writing--The Incubator was essential in bringing back joy and momentum to my writing process, and helping me get to the finish line. Anna and Colleen have nurtured an incredibly warm and talented community of writers, and it was an absolute joy to get to know them, through structured conversation and dialogue. Although the program lasted for six weeks, I have no doubt that I'll carry the tools that I've gained and the relationships that I've cultivated well into the future."

    Yi-Ling Liu, author of Dancing in Shackles, forthcoming with Knopf

  • "The Incubator was pure joy: joy in community, in writing, in dismantling unhelpful patterns and building better ones, in learning from other writers, and in offering up my own writerly self. During my six weeks in the Incubator, I completed a long essay I’d been struggling with for months, and outlined the structure of a larger work in progress that had felt too daunting to begin before I had the Incubator’s support. Also, I am continually passing on nuggets of wisdom learned from Anna and Colleen. So, not only is the Incubator a gift, but it is also a force multiplier. Any writer who can join the Incubator, should."

    -Jessica Gregory, MD, author of essay- collection-in-progress

  • “The Incubator transformed my relationship to writing in terms of what I believe myself able to accomplish. I wrote for 3-4 hours a day, developed a muscle for creating the space and the time and developed friendships with the people in my group. I highly recommend this Incubator to anyone who is struggling with creating writing space in their lives.”

    Amy Bond, author of the memoir-in-progress Divorce: A Love Story

  • "Even if my project--a deeply-researched work of journalistic nonfiction--was different from those of my Incubator peers, the experience of collective process and journey was priceless; it transformed the way I have been working and approaching challenges even after the incubator wrapped (though I still miss it!)”

    Samantha Culp, author of What Was The Future, forthcoming with Crown Publishing

  • "The Incubator did an incredible thing for my own writing: it put me at ease about my book going out into the world and to help me achieve the focus and clarity to throw myself into a new project. Colleen and Anna have fostered a community of vulnerable and generous literary citizens who are not only accomplished storytellers but are genuine people who consider community and camaraderie essential to their writing lives. I'm so grateful to have found them."

    -Daniel Tam-Claiborne, author of Transplants

  • "I’m grateful for the Incubator because it taught me what intentional support and care look and feel like from a community of writers. I was newer to the practice and yet everyone made me feel so welcome and celebrated. I have gotten to know some of the best people over the course of six weeks. I will always cherish this experience. It changed my writing life."

    Nimarta Narang, short story writer and editor at Brown Girl Magazine

  • "I thought this program would help me get my book finished but did not anticipate the degree that it prepared me to make all the practical, personal, emotional changes--big and small changes necessary to live and work in a much more healthy, productive and connected way.... I've never had this much clarity and felt this much support for my writing."

    -Aizita Magaña, essayist and author of a memoir-in-progress

  • “The Incubator has saved my writing dreams. It has pulled me back from the brink of book suicide. If not for the Incubator, I would still be sitting on my ass, running through a mental check-list on WHY I SHOULDN'T BE WRITING MY BOOK and then hosting a pity party for myself right after. There would be no joy, no clarity, no love for myself, nor for my book."

    Ying Reinhardt, author of memoir-in-progress The Wander Years

  • "The single most important investment of time and finances I've made in my writing life in almost two decades. Colleen's and Anna's attention to my work and my struggles was specific, precisely what I needed right at this moment to move forward with my current project and my writing life. Their ability to observe, name, and address what the writer needs is uncanny. They're soothsayers."

    -Dawn Denham, author of Spin, a memoir-in-progress