Lyzette Wanzer is a San Francisco writer, editor, and writing workshop instructor. She received her MFA in Fiction from Mills College. A flash fiction connoisseur and essay aficionado, her work has appeared in Natural Bridge, The Los Angeles Review, Callaloo, Tampa Review, The MacGuffin, Ampersand Review, Journal of Advanced Development, Fourteen Hills, Journal of Experimental Fiction, Pleiades, Flashquake, Glossalia Flash Fiction, Potomac Review, International Journal on Literature and Theory, Fringe Magazine, and many others. She is a contributor to The Chalk Circle: Intercultural Prizewinning Essays (Wyatt-MacKenzie), Civil Liberties United: Diverse Voices from the San Francisco Bay Area (Pease Press), and 642 Tiny Things to Write About (Chronicle Books). Her articles have appeared in Essay Daily, The Naked Truth, and the San Francisco University High School Journal. Lyzette is the current judge of the Soul-Making Keats Literary Competition’s Intercultural Essay category.

Lyzette has been invited to present her work and/or panels at conferences across the country, including the American and Popular Culture Association, Association of Writers & Writing Programs (AWP), College English Association (CEA), Louisville Conference on Literature & Culture Since 1900, Litquake Festival, San Francisco Writers Conference, and others.

Lyzette is a member of the National Writers’ Union, where she serves on the Northern California Chapter's Steering Committee, The Authors Guild, and The Writers' Grotto nonprofit organization. She has also served on the Grotto's fellowship adjudication panel. Lyzette has been awarded writing residencies at Blue Mountain Center (NY), Kimmel Harding Center for the Arts (NE), Playa Summer Lake (OR), Horned Dorset Colony (NY), Virginia Center for Creative Arts, Writers' Colony at Dairy Hollow (AR), Headlands Center for the Arts (CA), and The Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity in Canada. She is the recipient of an Investing in Artists grant from the Center for Cultural Innovation, two Individual Artist Commission grants from San Francisco Arts Commission, and two Professional Development Grants from the Creative Capacity Fund. Her newest project is an essay anthology arising from her AWP 2020 panel called Trauma, Tresses, & Truth: Untangling Our Hair Through Personal Narrative. She is also working on Professionalize Your Creative Writing Practice: Building A Career As A Literary Artist, a professional development workbook for creative writers.

Website: http://www.lyzettewanzermfa.com

Twitter Username: @TraumaTresses

Publications

• "Yellow." , Blue Literary Magazine (August 2020)
• "Third Eye." , Natural Bridge (June 2020)
• “Tracks of Passage.” , Midnight & Indigo (June 2020)
• “Jaywalking.” , Maryland Literary Review (May 2020)
• "Taking Liberties.” , The Write Launch (January 2020)
• “Twisted” in Civil Liberties United: Diverse Voices from the San Francisco Bay Area , Pease Press (May 2019)
• “Finding A Way In: Teaching the Lyric Essay.” , Essay Daily (December 2018)
• "The Human Development Program 2.0." , University High School Journal. Vol. XXIV, No. 2 (November 2018)
• "The UHS Presence Program." , University High School Journal. Vol. XXIV, No. 2 (November 2018)
• “Saddest Tale.” , The Los Angeles Review (September 2017)
• “Latent Image.” , Chautauqua Journal (June 2017)
• “’Signatures’” Five Years Later.“ , The Naked Truth (December 2016)
• “Molasses Sugar.” , Portland Review (October 2014)
• “Twisted.” , Guernica Magazine (August 2014)
• "The Sudden Essay Fitness Center.” , Essay Daily (August 2014)
• “Escheresque.” , Journal of Advanced Development (July 2014)
• “Seasons.” , Journal of Experimental Fiction (October 2012)
• "Portrait." , The Ampersand Review (June 2012)
• “Signatures” in The Chalk Circle: Intercultural Prizewinning Essays , Wyatt-MacKenzie (May 2012)
• “The Gamin” and “The Gamine.” , Journal of Advanced Development (May 2012)
• “Grandma’s Four Stories.” , Callaloo (February 2011)
• “Freight.” , The MacGuffin (October 2011)
• “Precipice.” , Decanto Magazine (England) (June 2011)

Awards

• PlySpace Residency (Muncie Arts & Culture Council)(2021)
• San Francisco Artists' Grant (SF Arts Commission)(2021)
• Virginia G. Piper Center for Creative Writing Teaching Fellowship(2021)
• California Humanities, a National Endowment for the Humanities partner(2021)
• Investing in Artists Grant, Center for Cultural Innovation(2012)
• Individual Artists Commission, San Francisco Arts Commission(2019)
• Banff Centre for the Arts(2017)
• Individual Artists Commission, San Francisco Arts Commission(2017)
• National League of American Pen Women(2017)
• National League of American Pen Women(2016)
• Kay Snow Elizabeth Lyon Award for Nonfiction(2016)
• Virginia Center for Creative Arts(2015)
• Horned Dorset Colony Foundation(2014)
• Playa Summer Lake (2014)
• National League of American Pen Women(2013)
• Individual Artists Commission, San Francisco Arts Commission(2013)
• Creative Capacity Fund(2013)

Employment

• Creative Writing Instructor at The Writers Grotto (June 2015 - )
• Creative Writing Instructor at The Loft Literary Center (July 2021 - July 2021)
• Creative Writing Instructor at Writers.com (March 2021 - )
• Writing Teacher at The Writing Salon (November 2017 - October 2018)
• Writing Workshop Instructor at CounterPulse Art + Community (August 2018 - August 2018)
• Workshop Instructor at San Francisco Writers Conference (February 2016 - February 2018)
• Creative Writing Teacher at Fremont Adult School (October 2017 - September 2018)
• Instructor at Mechanics Institute Library (September 2015 - December 2020)
• Writing Workshop Instructor at Mill Valley Public Library (August 2016 - August 2016)
• Workshop Leader at Larkin Street Youth Services (January 2020 - January 2020)
• Guest Speaker at University of California at Berkeley (August 2021 - August 2021)
• Intercultural Essay Judge at Keats Soulmaking Literary Competition (December 2021 - )
• Nonfiction Category Judge at Women’s National Book Association’s Effie Lee Morris Writing Contest (August 2021 - )

Degrees

• Master of Fine Arts in Fiction Writing from Mills College

Genres of Interest

Fiction, Creative nonfiction