Debutiful will host a new event introducing Coloradans to three of the most exciting new voices in writing, presented by Denver Public Library, on March 13, 2026.
Debutiful’s New Arrivals will feature three recent debut authors discussing why and how they write, their path to publication, and how media influences their work.
Registration is free, but required. You can RSVP at the Denver Public Library’s website.
Featured writers include:
Stephen Fishbach is a Pushcart Prize-winning writer and former television executive. A two-time Survivor contestant (voted onto the show the second time by millions of fans), he’s worked on the network side as a Vice President at MTV and freelanced for a reality producers’ trade group. He cohosts the Survivor Know-It-Alls podcast and hosts the literary podcast Paraphrase. Stephen graduated with honors from Yale and received a Master of Fine Arts in fiction at New York University. His short story “To Sharks”—an excerpt from Escape!—was published by One Story, which garnered Stephen the Pushcart Prize. He lives in Washington, DC, with his wife and two daughters.
Michelle Gurule is the author of the memoir, Thank You, John, which explores the complexities of sex work, class, power and Michelle’s intersectional identity as a queer, white / Chicana woman and was named by Debuitiful as one of 2025’s best debut books. Her work has appeared in Slate, HuffPost Personals, Electric Lit, The Offing, Lit Hub and others. In 2021, the excerpt, “Exit Route,” won StoryQuarterly’s Nonfiction Prize, judged by T Kira Madden and was later listed in Best American Essays Notables in 2022.
Kim Samek is a half-Thai Emmy-nominated writer and television producer whose credits include MTV’s Catfish and PBS’s WordGirl. She studied German literature and creative writing at Stanford University. Her stories have appeared in Guernica, Ecotone, Electric Literature, North American Review, Chicago Quarterly Review, swamp pink, Gulf Coast, Southern Humanities Review, The Threepenny Review, Story, and ZYZZYVA. Her short fiction has won a Pushcart Prize. A native of Seattle, she lives in Los Angeles.
Adam Vitcavage, founder of Debutiful, will guide this conversation on the realities of breaking into publishing, how media shapes literary work and reception, and what it means to launch a first book in a crowded cultural landscape. The panel will include discussion, audience Q&A, and a book signing.