Click on the video above to hear about Joan’s experience with Writer’s Relief!

When Joan Gelfand decided to get serious about her writing career, she knew she’d need to boost not only her confidence but her list of publication credits as well. By working with the Writer’s Relief A La Carte service and Full Service since 2004, Joan Gelfand’s reviews, stories, essays, and poetry have appeared in over 150 national and international literary journals and magazines, including The Los Angeles Review of Books, The San Francisco Chronicle, PANK, The Huffington Post, Rattle, Levure Littéraire, Voice and Verse, Sycamore Review, Prairie Schooner, and The Meridian Anthology of Contemporary Poetry. She has also won numerous awards and Pushcart Prize nominations for her writing.

Read on and watch the video to hear how Writer’s Relief helped Joan build this impressive collection of publications and accomplishments.

In Joan’s Own Words

I learned about Writer’s Relief in 2004, when I was a published poet and an aspiring novelist. In learning about the publishing industry, I knew that to catch the attention of an agent or publisher, a writer needed to show a serious résumé of publications.

While I had given readings and published work when invited by editors, I had never focused on building my list of publications. With the help of Writer’s Relief, I began to be published in literary journals and anthologies around the country. My confidence grew. Soon after starting with Writer’s Relief, I won my first award for a short story they helped me place.

I used the services of Writer’s Relief consistently for over three years. Fast-forward fifteen years, and I now have three full-length collections of poetry with wonderful small presses, a chapbook of short fiction (which won the Cervena Barva Fiction Award), a book for writers published by Mango Press, and my debut novel, Extreme, published by Blue Light Press.

With Writer’s Relief I learned the importance of being consistent with submissions, of weathering the challenges of rejection, and of being persistent and committed to my projects and goals.

Today I have over 150 publication credits for my poetry, short stories, reviews, and criticism. Publications include the Los Angeles Review of Books, Voice and Verse, Chicken Soup for the Soul, The Toronto Review, Levure Littéraire, The Meridian Journal of Contemporary Poetry, PANK, and the San Francisco Chronicle. I have been honored to win twenty writing awards, including three Pushcart nominations and the Effie Lee Morris Award for Poetry.

I can’t say enough about how Writer’s Relief helped me get my career off the ground!

Thank you so much to Ronnie and her staff!

More About Joan

Joan has consistently used the Writer’s Relief A La Carte service, which allows writers to utilize our extensive research while taking a more DIY approach to submissions. She is the recipient of numerous writing awards, including three Pushcart nominations and the Women’s National Book Association’s Effie Lee Morris Prize. Joan’s poem “The Ferlinghetti School of Poetics” was made into a short film by Dana Walden. The film was featured at twenty international film festivals and was awarded “Best Poetry Movie” at the World Film Festival. Joan’s book for writers, You Can Be a Winning Writer: The 4 C’s of Author Success (Mango Press), is a #1 best seller on Amazon. Extreme, her debut novel, was published by Blue Light Press in July 2020.

Joan has also shared the stage with such luminaries as Peter Coyote, Michael McClure, Willie Brown, Al Young, Amy Tan, and Devorah Major. Venues include the New York Public Library, Litquake, the Southern Festival of Books, the Bowery Poetry Club, the Oakland Museum, and the San Francisco Public Library. A member of the National Book Critics Circle, Joan is a poetry Juror for the Northern California Book Awards and a staff teacher at The Writing Salon.

A graduate of San Francisco State University and Mills College (MFA), Joan lives in San Francisco with her husband, Adam Hertz, and two beatnik cats—Jack Kerouac and Lawrence Ferlinghetti.