Join a Vibrant Writing Community in East Austin

Supporting emerging writers, established authors, and multidisciplinary artists in Austin, TX through workshop-based writing groups, craft intensives, and literary events.

Our Subculture Lit book club reads books that don’t behave.

Craft Your Voice

The East Austin Writing Project is more than a set of events—it’s a creative writing community built on generosity, rigor, and shared passion for the literary arts. Here, you’ll find:

  • A network of writers, poets, and artists across Austin

  • Opportunities to experiment, revise, and publish your work

  • Access to experienced writers and peer-led learning

  • A welcoming space to connect with Austin’s vibrant literary scene

  • Monthly collaborative literary events

Whether you’re seeking Austin writing groups, workshops, an opportunity to read your work, or a place to explore experimental literature, we invite you to pull up a chair, open your notebook, and join the conversation.

We foster an inclusive, community-driven space to write.

Our work building an inclusive, community-driven writing space has been recognized by Poets & Writers, the nation’s leading resource for authors and the publishing industry.

Female poet reading at an East Austin gallery during a literary event by East Austin Writing Project, featuring creative writing workshops and local artist collaboration.

  • Literary reading in collaboration with local musicians at Cloud Tree Art Gallery in East Austin, Texas.

    Image: Marissa Anne Ayala

    Featured Readers:

    Marissa Anne Ayala is a poet & artist based in Austin, TX. Her poetry combines language and visual art crafting color-drenched narratives informed by color-theory.  Marissa's work has appeared in Poets of Queens Anthology, Fugue Literary Journal, Pen + Brush Literary Magazine, Pen + Brush Art Gallery, Tupelo Press, & more. She was featured in Poets & Writers Magazine discussing her work leading the East Austin Writing Project. Marissa earned her BA in Writing and Literature at Naropa University and her MFA in Fiction at the New School.

    Kyle Schlesinger is a poet, printer, and professor. His publications include A New Kind of Country (Chax Press, 2020), Color & Light (Dusie, 2020), None of Us, a collaboration with Ted Greenwald (Kin Press, 2020), and A Poetics of the Press (Ugly Duckling Presse, 2021). He resides in Austin, where he serves as the proprietor of Cuneiform Press.

    Emily May is an essayist and visual artist based in Austin, Texas. Emily’s work is centered around class, education, feminism, late capitalism, and opportunity. She has been published in Cagibi Lit, Entropy, espnW, and other venues. Emily's collection of essays Some Girls was shortlisted by Galileo Press, who will publish her first book in 2024.

    Kelly Schirmann is a writer, musician, and ceramicist from Northern California. She is the author of the hybrid poetry and essay collections Popular Music (Black Ocean, 2016) and The New World (Black Ocean, 2020); and the co-author, with Tyler Brewington, of Boyfriend Mountain (Poor Claudia, 2014). Her debut book Popular Music was named one of the Top Poetry Books of 2016 by Catapult, Entropy Magazine, and the Chicago Review of Books. She received her MFA in Nonfiction from the University of Montana in 2020, where she currently teaches writing. Her poems and essays have been published at GRANTA, Vice, The Awl, The New York Tyrant, Territory, and elsewhere. She currently works as a full-time ceramicist and occasional writing professor in Missoula, Montana.

Female author reading from her traditionally published book at an East Austin art talk, part of Austin literary events and local artist collaborations and writing club.

  • Carly Weaver’s Artist Talk for Solo Exhibit

    Image: Emily May


    Carly Weaver     is a multidisciplinary artist based in Austin, Texas, whose work is deeply inspired by the culture and natural landscape of her home city. She works exclusively on wood panels that she builds herself, often dividing her time equally between the wood shop and the studio.

    Carly has been a part of the East Austin creative community since 2005, when she relocated from Boston after earning a BFA from James Madison University in Virginia. Her home and studio—affectionately known as Grackle House—open to the public twice a year during the Austin Studio Tour in November and Young Grackle House in April.

    Featured Readers: Marissa Anne Ayala and Emily May

Join a Writing Group

At the East Austin Writing Project, we believe great writing grows in community. Our events bring together writers of all backgrounds to share work, sharpen skills, and explore the power of the written word.

Why Join Our Writing Groups?

  • Community-rooted learning - Share work, sharpen skills, and explore the power of storytelling with writers of all levels, including advanced writing sections for peer-to-peer feedback.

  • Tailored to your growth - From generative workshops and peer critique to focused craft sessions, there’s a place for both new and advanced writers.

  • Creative space, flexible formats - Whether you're drawn to intimate critique circles, workshop-based intensives, or poetry sessions, every group is grounded in craft, collaboration, and East Austin’s creative spirit.

A writer is standing to read his work from a writing prompt while sharing with ten peers during a writing group at a locally owned coffee shop.
Two writers at a picnic table in East Austin during an East Austin Writing Project creative writing group.
A fiction writer is reading a peer’s work from his phone while sitting with a laptop and notebook at an East Austin Writing Project group.
Explore Writing Groups

Our Story

The East Austin Writing Project began in 2018 as a small circle of ten writers meeting in coffee shops and breweries to share work, build creative momentum, and talk honestly about the craft. What started as a writing group quickly grew into a grassroots community.

In 2019, our founder, Marissa Ayala, formally launched EAWP as a platform for emerging writers and multidisciplinary artists. Today, we’re a volunteer-led literary arts organization serving over 1,200 creatives through free programming and a commitment to equity, experimentation, and access.

We offer creative writing workshops, critique groups, literary readings, and community events that support writers at every stage—from rough ideas to publication-ready drafts. Our Austin writing community includes novelists, poets, essayists, and artists who write across genres.

In 2024, we expanded with a team of volunteer teaching artists to lead interactive sessions. The following year, we launched Subculture Lit in partnership with Alienated Majesty Books—a small press book club for writers focused on subversive, independent, and experimental literature.

Rooted in East Austin’s creative energy, we continue to grow a space where writers connect, create, revise, and celebrate the work that matters most to them.

a black man reads his published prose fiction at a literary reading open mic outside in Austin Texas at an inclusive backyard space
“Marissa created this community six years ago for writers and poets to congregate, share their work, build community, and maintain the creative energy of Austin, Texas...This resource empowers the community, as we believe each and every person has a story to tell.”
— Victor Pope, member since 2019

Our Founder 

Marissa Anne Ayala is a writer, researcher, and multi-disciplinary artist based in Austin, TX. Her work explores the dynamic relationship between self and place, delving into the intersections of cultural identity, societal influence, and the act of breaking away. She is deeply invested in understanding how individuals define themselves in relation to the places they inhabit, whether physical, cultural, or psychological.

In a landscape where many East Austin performers and writers are underpaid or unpaid, and where the cost of professional and cultural events remains high, Marissa positions cultural equity at the heart of East Austin Writing Project’s work. She has designed the organization as an open, inclusive, and supportive space that empowers all voices while foregrounding those most impacted by rising costs and displacement. Through the proposed activity, she will continue to create immersive workshops and development pathways that allow emerging and established writers alike to stay rooted in East Austin’s literary life, rather than being priced out of participation or residency in the city.

She is the recipient of the 2026 In Cahoots writing residency in CA, the 2025 Puffin Foundation Environmental Advocacy Artist Grant, and a 2025 writing residency at Chulitna Lodge in Alaska, where she conducted eco-conscious fieldwork for a hybrid narrative work in progress. She also participated in the grant-funded field research for the chapbook series Errant Elements, conducting art-based and cultural research in Marfa, Texas. This work led to a sound art performance and the publication of her chapbook.

Invited by the Smithsonian Institution’s Archives of American Art, Marissa conducted primary research on the writings and works of key artists in color theory, deepening her understanding of the subject and its psychological impact. She held a year-long teaching artist residency at Pen + Brush Gallery, where she led creative writing workshops that used visual art a explore themes such as gender equality and the power of literature to shape social change.

Her work has been featured in TELEPHONE, Errant Elements, Poets & Writers magazine, Pen + Brush Literary Magazine, Fugue, Poets of Queens Anthology, and more. She founded the East Austin Writing Project, a literary arts organization that provides equitable access to arts programming for the Austin, TX community.

She earned her BA at Naropa University’s Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics and her MFA in fiction at The New School.

Join Us!