I’m represented by agent Kerry Sparks at Levine Greenberg Rostan Literary Agency.
ROMAN THE RENEGADE
(middle grade graphic novel forthcoming in 2024, Lee & Low Books)

Friends, I have big BOOK NEWS!!! My middle grade graphic novel about Filipino myths, monsters and messy friendships is coming to life! In 2021, Lee and Low awarded me their New Visions Honor and a publishing contract (book forthcoming in 2024). Thank you to everyone who’s been along for the ride on this bumpy writer journey. I couldn’t have done it without all your amazing support, critiques and late night ice cream runs. Thanks to my lumpia-loving Filipino side of the family for inspiring some of these stories too. I wanted to use ‘Ana Rodriguez Ellickson’ for my kid lit pen name, to honor how hard my mom worked to carve out a darn good life here in Cali. Cheers to Lee & Low Books for giving me a chance to share stories with kids! Read the full announcement here:
WRITING WORKSHOPS
Over the past few years, I’ve been accepted into the 2021 Tin House YA Fiction Workshop, 2018 Madcap Writing Cross-Culturally Workshop in Nashville, 2013 A Room of Her Own Writing Retreat at Ghost Ranch, SCBWI Golden Gate Conference (Asilomar), SCBWI LA Summer Conference, UW Madison’s Write-by-the-Lake, among others. My amazing MUG writing group also hosts a small bi-annual retreat to focus on craft, catch up with friends, frolic in nature, and snap way too many photos. Our previous retreats have been in Mammoth Lakes, Seattle, Santa Barbara, and via Zoom during our rollercoaster covid year.
SHORT STORIES, POETRY, AND AWARDS
“Montecito Drive” (October 2021) – The Quiet Ones: “Ghosts of the Ruin”
Poems: “A Crow Named Zorro” and “Guardians of the Sill” (April 2021) – While You Wait anthology published by Gunpowder Press (anthology edited by Laure-Anne Bosselaar, Poet Laureate of Santa Barbara)
“Starry Night Above the Sequoias” (February 2021) – Top Ten Finalist in the Recreation.gov Outdoor Adventure Writing Contest
“Blanca and the Ruins” (March 2016) – SCBWI LA Writer’s Day 2016 YA Winner of the Work-in-Progress Contest
“Infrared” (February 2016) – Ursa Minor: “True North” (UC Berkeley)
“Dealan Dhe” (August 2015) – Dactyl Magazine: “Elements and Origins” (also sold at the 2015 Edinburgh International Book Festival)
“Drop” (May 2015) – DASH Literary Journal
“Conditionals” (April 2014) – Santa Fe Writers Project
“At Bike’s End” (May 2013) – Stanford Story Slam 2013 – 2nd Place Winner, Collaborative Story written with Cynthia Bermudez, Anthony Lanni, and Taylor Ross
“The Red Envelope” (April 2013) – 100 Word Story
Flash Fiction Contest 2nd Place Winner (August 2012) – Writer Unboxed
“Becoming a Burner” (October 2009) – Winner of the SBCC Student Symposium (sponsored by The Big Read, an initiative of the National Endowment for the Arts)
BLOG ARTICLES WRITTEN FOR NATIONAL NOVEL WRITING MONTH
- Dare to Wear Pink – NaNoWriMo Blog
- The Impossible Infomercial – NaNoWriMo Blog
- News from the Crossroads – NaNoWriMo Blog
- Holy Smokes, I’ve Arrived in NaNoLand! – NaNoWriMo Blog
- Untold Stories from Elsewhere :: Middle East – NaNoWriMo Blog
- Published NaNo-Novelist Lydia Netzer on Shine Shine Shining Up Your Novel – NaNoWriMo Blog