The CHAPTERS Reading Series is where our girls go from page to stage, sharing their best original writing with the world. Each reading opens with a keynote speech from an inspiring writer who embodies the principles we instill in our girls.
The final installment of CHAPTERS 2016 features award-winning author Naomi Jackson at the General Society Library on June 17. The event is open to the public (and free for teens!).
Naomi Jackson was born and raised in Brooklyn by West Indian parents. She studied fiction at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, where she was awarded the Maytag Fellowship for Excellence in Fiction to complete her first novel, The Star Side of Bird Hill (Penguin Press, June 2015). Jackson traveled to South Africa on a Fulbright scholarship, where she received an MA in creative writing from the University of Cape Town. A graduate of Williams College, Jackson’s work has appeared in literary journals and magazines in the United States and abroad.
We are so excited to have Naomi at June’s CHAPTERS performing alongside NYC’s best teen writers. She shared her thoughts on our girls work in the 2016 Girls Write Now Anthology:
“Find in these pages whispered, shouted, necessary notes on our present in the voices of girls on their way to becoming women. The world is a better place for the poems and stories contained here, and the relationships of mentorship and creativity among women and girls that these words reflect.”
This year’s CHAPTERS keynote speakers include new authors and fresh voices that are not always represented in the classic canon or on high school reading lists. We are thrilled to include alongside Naomi, Angela Flournoy, Tanwi Nandini Islam, and Mia Alvar.