I got the news Tuesday morning. I’d just said to a friend over coffee, “Wouldn’t it be cool if I got the email saying I was awarded a Steinbeck Fellowship while I’m in Monterey this weekend, doing all the Steinbeck things?” Then I checked my email and there it was: “Application Denied.” I am not one of the 2025-2026 Steinbeck Fellows, and yet here I am this morning, about to embark on a very Steinbeck kind of road trip. I don’t know why, but this rejection hit me particularly hard.
When I got the news, I’d just finished journaling about all the Steinbeck-y things I’m going to do this weekend. This trip is built around an event that’s taking place Saturday evening at the National Steinbeck Center in Salinas, California. Author Iris Jamahl Dunkle will be there to talk about her book Riding Like the Wind, a biography about writer Sanora Babb. You can read a little about Babb and her connection to John Steinbeck in a review I wrote, here: Books: Whose Names Are Unknown by Sanora Babb.
While I’m in the area, I’m going to try to squeeze in visits to some other places I’ve never visited, despite living there for years: John Steinbeck’s childhood home in Salinas—you can have lunch there now; John Steinbeck’s grave in the Garden of Memories cemetery; John Steinbeck’s home and writing studio in Pacific Grove—they’re Airbnbs now, so I’ll have to view them from the sidewalk.
I’m also going to visit some places that are important to me personally, like the cemetery in King City, California. King City is the town John Steinbeck’s father helped settle, the town where I was born, and the town in which both of my parents are buried. I’m going to stop in Soledad, too, to visit my grandparents’ old house and their graves.
John Steinbeck has been a big part of my life as a writer. We’ve lived in the same places, loved the same places, and written about the same places. Place is important to both of us in our writing. Part of the reason it’s so important to me is that I am absolutely in love with my home state of California, and of all the places I love in California, I love Monterey the most—visiting Monterey always feels like going home to me. But another reason place is so centered in my writing, I’m sure, is the influence reading Steinbeck has had on me, all of my life.
I’ve written about all that before, and you can read about it here:
My Cannery Row Story
I’ve spent a lot of time on Cannery Row in Monterey, California. In my teens and early twenties, I lived less than twenty miles away, in Salinas, where author John Steinbeck was born. I haven’t lived in Monterey County for a long time, but before 2020, I visited Cannery Row at least once a year. Arriving in Monterey always feels like coming home. I haven’t been home in four years.
Anyway, I’m glad I got the news on Tuesday—it would have been fun to get the news I was a Steinbeck Fellow while I’m in Monterey doing all the Steinbeck things, but it would not have been fun to get the news my application was denied while I’m there. I’ve had a couple of days to grieve. This morning, I’m mostly over it, and I’m excited to be hitting the road.
I’m used to rejection, friends, in love and in writing. The career I’ve chosen for myself is full of rejection, but that’s okay—I can take it. Usually. I’m still working out why this one hit me so hard, because I generally bounce back within 15 minutes and move on to my next wild idea. But I’m guessing it’s because this one was so personal to me, so much about my family and where we come from, so much about who I am as a human being and as a writer. This annual trip home is always a mix of happy and sad anyway, for all those reasons and more. So this fellowship is one that meant a lot to me personally. But we take our blows, and we move on. That’s what writers do.
Heartfelt congratulations to the six deserving 2025-2026 Steinbeck Fellows: Kate Busatto, Olivia Cheng, Nayereh Doosti, Jenni Li, Sarah Matsui, and Bill Nguyen. I’ll admit, I’m still feeling a little, not jealous really, but FOMO. But I sincerely wish them a wonderful fellowship year and all the best with their writing projects, and I’ll be first in line to buy their books.
XOXO
Leanne
P.S. Speaking of books, pre-orders, am I right? I’ve listed some great books by friends of mine below. For those that are coming out soon, you can support the authors by ordering them in advance.
“I don’t begrudge anybody, because I know how hard it is to have that dream and to make it happen, whether or not it’s just to put a roof over your head and food on the table.”
—Carol Burnett
NEWS & ANNOUNCEMENTS
DEANNE STILLMAN’S ON SUCH A WINTER’S DAY MAY 16TH & 17TH!
The world premiere of Deanne Stillman’s play On Such a Winter’s Day is happening this weekend at the Long Beach Shakespeare Company’s 2025 New Works Festival. “Deanne Stillman's voice is firmly rooted in the American West. Across her work—from essays to plays—she often explores Western landscapes and misunderstood characters, blending history and folklore. In On Such a Winter’s Day, she continues this approach, treating California’s coastline and high deserts as both setting and symbol. The monologues are full of local color and metaphor: mountain lions and freeway pilgrimages rub shoulders with campfire ghosts and skylit promises. By drawing on mythic icons (like Monroe) and lesser-known souls (like Donner), Stillman foregrounds the idea that each Californian—famous or humble—carries a story of hope.” (Chloe Rabinowitz for Broadway World)
Our digital archive is threatened by state budget cuts
(Sue Fishoff for The Jewish News of Northern California)
You can donate to help save the California Digital Newspaper Collection here:
https://www.givecampus.com/campaigns/61710/donations/
GOLDEN QUILL WRITING CONTEST
The Golden Quill Writing Contest is now open for entries in the categories of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. This year’s judges are Juliet McDaniel, whose debut novel Mr. and Mrs. American Pie is the book upon which the hit Apple TV+ series Palm Royale is based; Deanne Stillman, author of many nonfiction books, including Twentynine Palms: A True Story of Murder, Marines, and the Mojave; and SLO County Poet Laureate Caleb Nichols, author of Teems///\Recedes.
CENTRAL COAST WRITERS’ CONFERENCE
Please join me at the Central Coast Writers’ Conference, September 26th & 27th, in sunny San Luis Obispo, California! I’ll be speaking on a panel about finding your writing tribe on Friday and presenting two sessions on Saturday, one on the who, what, where, when, and how of publishing short pieces and one on funding your writing career with grants, fellowships, and residencies.
BOOK RECOMMENDATIONS
Retreat (out now!)
My friend Lindsay Jamieson collaborated with Krysten Ritter on her New York Times bestselling novel Retreat! A beautiful con artist insinuates herself into a wealthy socialite’s life … with deadly consequences, in this serpentine thriller about identity and obsession, from actress, director and bestselling author Krysten Ritter.
Ten Sleep (coming 6/24/2025)
This is the second novel by my friend Nicholas Belardes, author of The Deading. Here’s a little blurb from bestselling author Stephen Graham Jones: “Open these pages and fall into a cattle drive up in the high lonesome country, where it’s not just the cattle and the work that are challenging—here there be monsters, too.”
Absolute Pleasure: Queer Perspectives on Rocky Horror (coming 9/16/2025)
This anthology includes my friend Trey Burnette’s piece “A Rather Tender Subject.” The essays in Absolute Pleasure … explore … [the] complicated legacy of The Rocky Horror Picture Show, along with queer and trans joy, sexuality, family, generational understandings of queerness, and what we do with our problematic faves.
Vicious Cycle: A Thriller (Corey in Los Angeles) (coming 10/21/2025)
The debut novel by my friend Jaime Parker Stickle. A former reporter gets a new spin on life in this gripping debut from author Jaime Parker Stickle, whose psychological roller-coaster ride set in sunny Los Angeles tackles motherhood and murder.
“When you’re living a full life, someone else’s happiness shouldn’t disturb you or make you feel insecure. Find your joy and be happy for the ones who’ve found theirs.”
—Alexandra Elle
SOME THINGS FOR READERS
Jubilate: An Homage to Cherie
(Joyce Carol Oates for Joyce Carol Oates: A Writer’s Journal)
The Quiet Power of Books
(Dan Blank for The Creative Shift)
Some Wandering Thoughts on an Easter Morning
(Pam Houston)
The Art of Repair
(Brooke Warner on Amanda Knox’s memoir Free and the public apology she issued to a mutual friend of ours, Gina Frangello, author of Blow Your House Down)
On the Occasion of My Father’s Impending Retirement
(A beautiful and important piece by Adam Zemel for Opposite of Nihilism)
“I’ve come to think of life as a quest. We can’t begrudge any experience. We need to be thankful for it all, because each experience leads to a growing position of wisdom.”
—Gill Hicks
SOME THINGS FOR WRITERS
A Voice in the Night: Roll over or get cracking?
(George Saunders for Story Club with George Saunders)
No, ChatGPT. You May Not Have My Em Dash
(Pamela Hines for Evolved Perspective)
Book Publicity Isn’t a Contest
(Kathleen Schmidt for Publishing Confidential)
Why You Need to Play Therapist to Your Protagonist: Digging Deeper into Backstory for a Stronger Draft
(Heather Garbo for Write Your Next Chapter)
Revisions as easy as pie: a writer’s recipe: The messy and time-consuming personal essay process
(Cahterine Palmer for Amid Life with Catherine Palmer)
Genre Guide: Women’s Fiction, Upmarket, Romance, Literary …?
(Lidija Hilje)
“I attribute my success to this—I never gave or took any excuse.”
Florence Nightingale
SOME THINGS TO MAKE YOU SMILE
Leanne Phillips
Writer | Book Coach | Editor
leannephillips.com
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Sorry to hear it was a no, Leanne. Onwards and upwards!
I was just writing about The Grapes of Wrath yesterday as one of the influences on TEN SLEEP. Of course that led me to perusing the Steinbeck Center, which I am itching to visit again. And of course, King City. There’s a lil Mexican restaurant where I always get a burrito—or if birder friends are passing through, I beg them to pick one up for me. I wanna go on your adventure! Sounds like good times await . . . and rejections suck . . . just got another today, which I am using as motivation to propel me deep into a project I already started, but need to get moving more deeply on . . . coffee again soon?