How They Did It: The Art of Revision

Litquake’s diverse live programs are created with the aim of inspiring critical engagement with the key issues of the day, bringing people together around the common humanity encapsulated in literature, and perpetuating a sense of literary community, as well as a vibrant forum for Bay Area writing. We believe in literature as a public good, so we work to produce events that are accessible to all.Learn more atlitquake.org

Litquake, San Francisco's Literary Festival

Love it or loathe it, revision is an essential part of the writing process—and one that can carry its own unexpected rewards.

Page Street Co-Working

Co-presented with LitCamp<blockquote>“It’s possible you could take five tons of butter and cut away everything that’s not a cow. Others of us need to churn our own butter. Revision is finding the cow.” —Elizabeth McCracken, A Long Game</blockquote>Love it or loathe it, revision is an essential part of the writing process—and one that can carry its own unexpected rewards. But how do professional writers approach revising their own work? Does revision look different across genres? And, since perfection is, let’s face it, impossible, how do they know when the work of revision is done?In the latest “How They Did It” conversation co-presented by Litquake and LitCamp, we’ll hear from five writers who embrace the messy yet fruitful process of revision. Journalist and creative nonfiction specialist Jeanne Carstensen (A Greek Tragedy), memoirist Margaret Juhae Lee (Starry Field), short story writer Lori Ostlund (Are You Happy?), novelist Shobha Rao (Indian Country), and poet Maw Shein Win (Percussing the Thinking Jar) will share their approach, offer inspiration, and answer your questions about how to make revision not only an obligation but also a delight. Our moderator is Janis Cooke Newman, novelist, memoirist, and the founder of Page Street and LitCamp.We'll gather at the Page Street Co-Working space in San Francisco (297 Page Street) , where in addition to the conversation, we'll enjoy time for casual networking. We'll be pouring Prosecco, wine, and fancy nonalcoholic drinks. Proceeds from ticket sales will support both LitCamp and Litquake.Book sales provided by Green Apple Books.Prefer to purchase books online? Shop our <a href="https://bookshop.org/lists/how-they-did-it-the-art-of-revision" title="https://bookshop.org/lists/how-they-did-it-the-art-of-revision" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Bookshop.org booklist</a> for this event and receive a 15% discount with code BSO15. A portion of your purchase will support Green Apple Books or the independent bookstore of your choosing!<h4>_____________________________________________________________</h4><h3>About the Speakers</h3>Jeanne Carstensen is a San Francisco–based journalist and author. Her book, A Greek Tragedy: One Day, A Deadly Shipwreck (One Signal, 2025), and the Human Cost of the Refugee Crisis, is a finalist for the 2026 PEN /Galbraith Award for Nonfiction.Margaret Juhae Lee is the author of the award-winning Starry Field: A Memoir of Lost History, which was named a best book of 2024 by the San Francisco Chronicle. A former editor at The Nation, she is a founding member of Radical Ahjumma, a collective of feminist writers from the Korean diaspora.Lori Ostlund’s third book, entitled Are You Happy? (Astra House, 2025), was included on the Washington Post’s “50 notable works of fiction in 2025” and was one of Electric Lit’s Top 5 story collections of 2025. Her novel After the Parade (Scribner 2015) was a New York Times Editors’ Choice, a Barnes &amp; Noble Discover pick, and a finalist for the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize. Her story collection, The Bigness of the World, won the 2008 Flannery O’Connor Award for Short Fiction, the California Book Award for First Fiction, and the Edmund White Debut Fiction Award. Her work has appeared in The Best Short Stories, The O.Henry Prize Winners, New England Review, ZYZZYVA, and other places. She is the series editor of the Flannery O’Connor Award for Short Fiction and a board member of the Barbara Deming Memorial Fund, which supports feminist women in the arts. She lives in San Francisco with her wife, the writer Anne Raeff.Shobha Rao moved to the United States from India at the age of seven. She is the author of the short story collection, An Unrestored Woman, and the novel, Girls Burn Brighter. Rao is the winner of the Katherine Anne Porter Prize in Fiction and was a Grace Paley Teaching Fellow at The New School. Her story “Kavitha and Mustafa” was chosen by T.C. Boyle for inclusion in Best American Short Stories. Girls Burn Brighter was long listed for the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize and was a finalist for the California Book Award and the Goodreads Choice Awards. She lives in San Francisco.Maw Shein Win’s most recent full-length poetry collection is Percussing the Thinking Jar (Omnidawn, 2024), and her previous collection is Storage Unit for the Spirit House (Omnidawn, 2020). She is the inaugural poet laureate of El Cerrito, the 2025 Berkeley Poetry Festival Lifetime Achievement Awardee, and a 2025 Recipient of the Nomadic/San Francisco Foundation Literary Award. Win teaches poetry in the MFA Program at the University of San Francisco and at Saint Mary’s College of California.Janis Cooke Newman (moderator) is the author of the novels Mary: Mrs. A. Lincoln, which was a finalist for an LA Times Book Prize and USA Today’s Historical Novel of the Year, and A Master Plan for Rescue, which was an SF Chronicle Best Book of the Year. She is also the author of The Russian Word for Snow, a memoir about adopting her son from Russia. Newman is the founder of the LitCamp writers conference and Page Street, co-working spaces for writers in San Francisco and Berkeley.<h4>_____________________________________________________________</h4><h3>About Litquake</h3>Since being founded by Jane Ganahl and Jack Boulware in 1999, <a href="https://www.litquake.org/" title="https://www.litquake.org/" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Litquake</a> has hosted 10,500 authors for 275,000 attendees and distributed 12,000 free books to San Francisco schoolchildren. With over 225 literary partners, Litquake functions more than ever as an umbrella organization stitching together the Bay Area’s literary scene. In its lively, diverse and inclusive celebration of San Francisco’s thriving contemporary literary scene, Litquake, which entered its second quarter-century in 2025, seeks to foster an interest in literature, perpetuate a sense of literary community, and provides a forum for Bay Area writing as a complement to the city’s music, film, and cultural festivals. Litquake 2026 will take place October 8–24, with additional events year-round.<h3> </h3><h3>About LitCamp</h3><a href="https://www.litcampwriters.org/" title="https://www.litcampwriters.org/" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">LitCamp</a> exists to help writers hone their craft, navigate the world of publishing, and find community. Each year, the organization holds two conferences at the stunning Bell Valley Retreat Center in Mendocino County: one focused on craft, the other on the business of being a writer. Lit Nights events, held at the Page Street co-working space in San Francisco, give emerging writers the opportunity to read their work in front of an audience. LitCamp's in-person and online classes, taught by published writers and experienced instructors, help writers develop their craft. Retreats, held at some of the most secluded and beautiful locations in Northern California, give writers the time and space they need to write.

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How They Did It: The Art of Revision

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