Ayah Al-Masyabi is a student journalist, artist, and writer with work published in The Colorado Sun, YR Media, The Talon at the Community College of Denver, and more. As an artist and writer, stories – especially about humans – are what get her up in the morning and motivate her to keep writing about the things that matter. Any compelling story interests her, but those surrounding culture, food, and sports are some of her favorites.

Julia Andresakis is a writer born and raised in Brooklyn, New York. She is a former mentee, intern, and digital media producer for Girls Write Now — if you’ve scrolled through the Resources section of the website, you are familiar with her work.  She holds a degree in film and creative writing from Brooklyn College. While an undergraduate, she placed first in fiction in the 2019-2020 CUNYwide LaborArts “Making Work Visible” contest. An aficionado for all things surreal, uncanny, and liminal, her work typically focuses on lonely souls pursuing unconventional obsessions. Julia is excited to support Girls Write Now in a more involved capacity.

Azia Armstead (she/her) is a poet from Richmond, Virginia. She holds an MFA in Poetry from New York University where she received the Goldwater Fellowship. In 2019, Azia was a finalist for the Furious Flower Poetry Prize judged by A. Van Jordan and honorable mention for the Arts Club of Washington’s Scholarship Award for Poetry. Azia was chosen as a finalist for the 2023 Nine Syllables Press Chapbook Contest. Her work has appeared in Boston Review, The Quarry, Obsidian, Rattle and elsewhere. She currently lives in Brooklyn.

Annaya Baynes (she/they) is a Community Coordinator. They graduated from Spelman College with a Bachelor of Arts in English and French. As an undergraduate, she worked on Spelman’s social justice podcast, The Blue Record, and the reproductive justice-oriented podcast Black Feminist Rants. Annaya has interned at various publishing houses, including Penguin Random House, Macmillan, and The Feminist Press. They have a deep love for literature and film. She is a Master’s student at NYU’s Martin Scorsese Department of Cinema Studies.

Storytelling is in Chelle’s DNA. Chelle (Rochelle)’s imagination is the lens through which she experiences the world. Like many children, life obtruded upon her dreams, and bit by bit, she forgot them. Her stories never forgot her. In the wake of a career as an HR executive, she evolved into perhaps the world’s most reluctant stay-at-home mom. She raised two children, trained a beloved boxer puppy, and in quiet moments, listened to the muse. She returned to writing and hasn’t stopped. A linguaphile and lover of the oxford comma, anything, in the form of a story can engage, inform, and delight. A grateful steward of Girls Write Now’s emerging creatives, she commits to never let any writer ignore a siren’s call.

Kathryn is a nonprofit researcher and writer and also was the 2022-23 Editor-In-Residence for Girls Write Now. An only child from Harlem, NYC, Kathryn looks for community in many spaces centered on her interests such as cooking, comedy, Blackness, queerness and investigative journalism. She is a Girls Write Now mentee and is fascinated by film, media and writing as avenues for social advocacy and activism. As a young creative, she is excited to utilize various mediums to speak against injustice and share stories from marginalized voices.

Kayla Dudley (she/her) is a poet, educator, and artivist dedicated to using storytelling as a tool for social change. A recent graduate from John Jay College with a B.A. in Political Science and a minor in Africana Studies, she explores the intersections of identity, justice, and healing through her work. She is the CEO/Founder of Healotry, a workshop series that invites participants to confront silence and reclaim their voices through creative expression. Her poetry often centers on love, resilience, and the lived experiences of Black women and queer communities. She aspires to continue blending art and advocacy as she pursues her graduates in creative writing and Africana Studies.

Morayo Faleyimu is currently serving as an Editor-in-Residence at Girls Write Now. She is a writer of short and long-form fiction. A nonfiction writer by trade, Morayo uses fiction to explore emotional truths. The seeds of story, she believes, are planted in everyday life. A writer’s duty is to pay attention and to garden with care. A former educator, Morayo currently works as a professional development writer for a school network in New Jersey.

Sally Familia (they/them) is a queer poet and freelance editor. Born in the Dominican Republic and raised in Washington Heights, Familia has a rooted passion for their community. They spent a year serving as senior editor for La Galería Magazine, a Dominican-based magazine for the Dominican diaspora in Washington Heights. They hold a B.A. in creative writing with a focus on poetry from SUNY Oswego. Most recently, Sally’s passions have shifted; now incorporating a strong desire to work with and for the youth. Sally hopes to merge their love for literature, Queer and BIPOC communities, and the youth as they continue to navigate the artist/ professional dichotomy. Sally has been awarded the Academy of American Poets Prize for the poem, “The Trouble with Reminiscing” (2019). They were also nominated for a Pushcart Prize by Brooklyn Poets for the poem, “Esperanza, Republica Dominicana”. Sally is currently working on their first poetry collection.

Ellen Rae Huang (she/her) hails from Seattle, WA originally but has always felt like a New Yorker at heart. After graduating from the University of Washington with a B.A. in Theatre, she made her way to NYC. Ellen got her start in event planning while working at Grey Group in their medical education division, but once she transitioned into the nonprofit sector, she never looked back. Over the last 15 years she has developed her fundraising skills, specializing in special events and individual giving, while at Girl Scouts of Greater New York, StoryCorps, and, most recently, at the Korean American Community Foundation. Ellen enjoys hiking, snorkeling, and spending time with her two kids, even when they trounce her at Mario Kart.

Jesse Jagtiani  is an interdisciplinary artist, educator, and researcher of Indian-German heritage residing in New York City. Jesse earned her Doctor of Education in Art & Art Education from Teachers College, Columbia University, complemented by an MFA in Studio Art from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts University, and a degree in Visual Communications from the University of Arts, Berlin. Her research centers on the formative dimensions of intuition, bridging indigenous wisdom with contemporary scientific perspectives to foster a balance of the intuitive and the rational mind within Western educational paradigms. Jesse’s artwork has been exhibited nationally and internationally, and her scholarly contributions extend to various publications, including chapter three of the book Developing Informed Intuition for Decision Making. Jesse has taught in (and outside of) higher education for numerous years and is passionate about supporting emerging artists, writers, and leaders on their creative, academic, and career pathways.

Vahni Kurra (she/hers) hails from disparate parts of the American Midwest with roots in Southern India. She recently earned a B.A. in English and Creative Writing from Kenyon College, where she co-edited Hika, Kenyon’s oldest, student-run literary magazine. Vahni’s work centers on themes of displacement, and her personal essay, “Banana Republic,” was published in Oyster River Pages. She is currently the book review editor for Sweet: A Literary Confection. Vahni has always been a strong advocate for the rights of women and trans* folks, as she has interned for NARAL Pro-Choice Ohio and helped facilitate a peer support program for Kenyon students impacted by sexual assault. Vahni is excited to blend her passions for gender equality and creative writing as she works with Girls Write Now to ensure that all mentees have the same opportunities that she did to pursue their artistic and personal dreams.

Kelsey LePage comes to Girls Write Now with great experience from administration and fundraising to developing curriculum and teaching youth. She has worked in creative, educational, and humanitarian settings serving local communities — at YMCA, Playworks, and most recently in sales and event management at NY Kids Club. Originally from New Hampshire, Kelsey enjoys hiking, kayaking and would be perfectly happy getting lost in a museum or library for a day. She is excited to be starting a new life in a new city and to be sharing her passions with the Girls Write Now team.

Molly is proud to call Girls Write Now her professional home for the last 10 years, leading partnerships, editing the annual anthology, and learning something new every single day from a talented community of writers. In high school, Molly won an emerging journalist award from her local newspaper, which meant receiving a hardcover, dictionary-thesaurus combo that she cherished, spending the rest of her teen years looking up words. Molly studied English and Journalism at Boston University, and wrote for the daily newspaper. One of her first internships in college was at WBAI Radio, obtained by walking into the office and asking if she could intern. Thankfully, they said yes. She has added commas to stories while at The New Yorker, worked in features at Marie Claire and Redbook, and ran teen magazines during the Destiny’s Child days. Girls Write Now is a bright spot for so many and Molly is honored to be a part of the team.

Kayla Martinez is a writer and illustrator who is based in the Bay Area. Whether writing or painting, she loves exploring the occult, whimsical, and weird. If she’s not hunched over her laptop or covered in paint, you can probably find her hiking, trying new recipes, or spending time with her family.

Kenna McCafferty’s writing journey began at home. With her mom as her elementary school librarian, she was quickly introduced to the world of reading and writing. Spending her early childhood in Vienna, Austria, she learned to use writing as a powerful tool of exchange and self discovery. She has since earned a BA in Modern Political Messaging, a major of her own design, from Emerson College. During her time at Emerson she worked with youth development organizations like YouthxLead Sharon and 826 Boston to empower students to find their creative voice. In PR, she worked with mission-driven organizations to communicate around events, initiatives and institutional messaging with a concentration in non-profits, and universities. Her journalistic work has appeared in places like office magazine, PAPER magazine, Alternative Press, The Creative Independent, Dazed, LUNA Collective and more. She has interviewed everyone from Arlo Parks to Coco & Clair Clair, with a special knack for catching on to emerging artists before they make it big. A voracious listener, she continues to conduct interviews and report around music, and is in the process of developing a music blog to catalogue and share her listening journey.

Cazzie David is the creator, writer, and star of the critically acclaimed web series Eighty-Sixed. She is a columnist at Graydon Carter’s Air Mail and has written for Vanity Fair, the Hollywood Reporter, Glamour, InStyle and Vogue. She is also the author of the New York Times Bestselling memoir No One Asked for This (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt). Photo Credit: Katie Mccurdy

New York Times best-selling author Tayari Jones is the author of four novels, most recently An American Marriage. Published in 2018, An American Marriage is an Oprah’s Book Club Selection and also appeared on Barack Obama’s summer reading list as well as his year-end roundup. The novel was awarded the Women’s Prize for Fiction (formerly known as the Orange Prize), Aspen Words Prize and an NAACP Image Award. It has been published in two dozen countries. Jones, a 2021 Guggenheim Fellow, has also been a recipient of the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award, United States Artist Fellowship, NEA Fellowship, and Radcliffe Institute Bunting Fellowship. Her third novel, Silver Sparrow, was added to the NEA Big Read Library of classics in 2016. Jones is a graduate of Spelman College, University of Iowa, and Arizona State University. She is an Andrew D. White Professor-at-Large at Cornell University and the Charles Howard Candler Professor of Creative Writing at Emory University.

Emma Straub is the New York Times-bestselling author of four novels—All Adults Here, The Vacationers, Modern Lovers, Laura Lamont’s Life in Pictures—and the short story collection Other People We Married. Her books have been published in more than 20 languages, and All Adults Here is currently in development as a television series. Emma and her husband own Books Are Magic, an independent bookstore in Brooklyn, New York.

Abbi Jacobson is an actor, writer and artist based in New York City. She is the Series Creator, Executive Producer and star of the critically-acclaimed show Broad City, premiering its fourth season this summer on Comedy Central. Upcoming, Jacobson will Executive Produce FX’s female-centric half-hour comedy pilot Meaty with Jessi Klein, and will star in the Netflix heroin drama 6 Balloons alongside Dave Franco. Jacobson is a New York Times-bestselling author of her illustrated book, Carry This Book, and has also released two coloring books: Color This Book: New York City and Color This Book: San Francisco.

Rupi Kaur is a poet, author, and performer. Her second book, the sun and her flowers—an instant global bestseller, is an artistic sibling to her debut, milk and honey—one of America’s bestselling books of 2017. milk and honey has sold over 5 million copies, been translated into more than 42 languages, and was on the New York Times Bestsellers List for over three years. Photo Credit: Nabil Shash

Cleo Wade is a friend, community builder, and the author of the books, “Heart Talk: Poetic Wisdom for a Better Life” and “Where to Begin: A small book your power to create big change.” She has been called the poet of her generation by Time Magazine and one of the 100 most creative people in business by Fast Company. Cleo sits on the board of The Lower East Side Girls Club, the National Black Theatre in Harlem, the Women’s Prison Association. When Cleo is not at home in California with her partner, Simon Kinberg, and their daughter, Memphis, she can be found traveling around the country on her sold-out book tours, which have become a safe space to laugh, cry, hug, and offer support to fellow readers. Photo Credit: Rony Alwin

Tech Committee Member; Shifali Bose works at Adobe as a Digital Strategist for Automotive, working with senior leaders to identify digital gaps across the end-to-end customer experience and provide recommendations focused on the highest-value opportunities.

Anne (AN-ee) Caceres-Gonzalez is a first generation Caribbean Latina, born in New York and raised in the Bronx, whose intersectional lived experience has led her to advocate and create space for traditionally underrepresented communities in the workplace. Anne’s experience in people work extends across performance management, coaching, recruitment and learning and development, through the lens of diversity, equity and inclusion, connecting people, and advocating personal + professional growth. The love Anne holds for her own identity and deep, profound respect she has for others’, are constantly working together to create a space where underrepresented groups feel safe and seen. Anne’s life ambition is to continue to center the voices of underrepresented people, as it’s key in order to decolonize and redefine those narratives. Anne is currently the Director of People and Culture at Mischief, a creative advertising agency in Brooklyn, NY and has previously held roles at other creative agencies like BBDO, 72andSunny and FCB. Anne holds a Bachelor of Arts in Corporate Communications with a minor in English from Baruch College, is a member and has served on the National Executive Board of Lambda Pi Upsilon Sorority, Latinas Poderosas Unidas, Inc, where she has mentored and empowered young women to find their voice.

Lisa Chai is the founder and general partner of Interwoven Ventures, leading the firm’s investment activities in the field of robotics and artificial intelligence. Lisa and her team at Interwoven are investing in mobility, smart cities, digital health, and manufacturing sectors. Lisa has over two decades of investing experience in both public and private markets where she was a SVP and portfolio manager for Palisade Capital, TPG/Angelo Gordon and Credit Suisse Asset Management’s emerging growth funds. Lisa is a long-time supporter of Girls Write Now having been on the Advisory Council, Finance and Audit Committee, Treasurer and a member of the board. Lisa is currently on the Girls Write Now Technology Committee.

Mentor Alum & Tech Committee Member; Felicia Dodge is currently living in the big city (New York) and chasing after even bigger dreams. She is fascinated by learning new things and has trouble staying in the same place for too long. Currently, she serves as the Director of Analytics & Insights at Monks and was previously part of the Audience Insights team at Twitter, leading custom research initiatives and developing data-backed strategies for brands in the sports & entertainment industries. She has spent the last 5 years in the tech industry, working with marketers to tell compelling stories with data.

Mentor Alum & Tech Committee Member; Rose Else-Mitchell leads the education business at Scholastic comprising all the company’s products and services in support of reading development and children’s social-emotional wellbeing created for prek-12 districts, schools, and direct to teachers. With a focus on meeting the highly diverse needs of all students, Education Solutions offers unparalleled literacy content, book collections, instruction, extended/ home learning, curricula and professional learning across print and digital formats. Education Solutions’ innovative, equitable, and effective materials which support children to learn to read and love to read serve over 90% of prek-12 institutions in the U.S. First joining Scholastic in 2000 as an instructional designer, Rose became Senior Vice-President, of Product Development for the EdTech business in 2008, developing READ 180 Next Generation, MATH 180 and System 44, which were sold to Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (HMH) in 2015. She was later appointed Chief Learning Officer and EVP, Professional Learning, at HMH. Rose also serves as a Teaching Fellow at the Harvard Graduate School of Education and chairs the Industry Council of the EdTech Evidence Exchange. Rose began her career in education as an ELA classroom teacher in Sydney, Australia.

Pam Hacker is a social impact executive with proven expertise in driving transformational outcomes. With over 25 years of experience developing and managing global teams, Pam works with the world’s leading companies to harness the power of technology, talent and intellectual property to create opportunities for underserved communities to thrive. Pam’s career includes leadership roles within new and established Social Impact functions at Sesame Workshop, HBO and Warner Bros Discovery. Currently Vice President of Social Impact at Kyndryl, the world’s largest IT infrastructure services provider, Pam leads global strategy, envisioning and actualizing the company’s mission to drive progress in the 60 countries where it operates and across the diverse communities where its 80,000 employees live and work. A lifelong New Yorker with a passion for theater, Pam lives in NYC with her family. She serves on the board of Opening Act, a nonprofit that brings theater arts to underserved communities throughout the five boroughs.

Jacob Lewis is the Co-Founder, Co-CEO, and President an Authorative. An experienced media executive, entrepreneur, and startup advisor, he has founded three companies across a range of industries, and has an extensive background in managing big and small teams—editorial, product, and technical staff—driving revenue and optimizing efficiencies. He has a demonstrated history of moving traditional companies into the digital sphere and is particularly skilled in digital strategy, content strategy, business development, product management, and operations. He has served as an advisor at Authorative, Holloway, Fletcher & Co, ReddyYeti, and Mic, and as a Managing Editor at Condé Nast.

Morgan Lin is a storyteller, social-impact-driven technology innovator, and interdisciplinary tinkerer with a purpose to amplify youth voices and promote digital literacy equity. An award-winning poet, her work explores human connection and intangible emotions, with pieces featured in Scholastic Art & Writing, Girls Write Now, Tiger Leaping Review, Noor Magazine, and Disney. In technology, Morgan channels her innovation into her app providing college resources and NightGuard, a device designed to enhance women’s safety during nighttime walks. She has contributed to projects through Google Code Next, NYU Tandon’s bioengineering lab, and NASA SEES climate research. Driven by her passion for bridging the digital divide, Morgan leads initiatives like Little League Coding, a nonprofit that introduces underserved youth to technology, GirlCon, an international conference empowering women in STEM, and the Public Knowledge AI Literacy Toolkit for K-12 schools. Morgan serves as one of 10 Youth Representatives at UNICEF USA, where she champions children’s rights in the digital realm and promotes mental health. Her efforts extend to policy, including contributing to statewide legislation to ban facial recognition in schools and combat algorithmic bias with Encode Justice. Morgan is a mentee participant in GWN’s Lead Incubator journey. Little League Coding (Morgan’s org)

Sophia One is a NYC high school student from the Bronx High School of Science who is also a Girls Write Now mentee and a member of GWN’s Lead Incubator. She is involved in many extracurriculars related to environmentalism, such as conducting social science research on climate policies, promoting climate action in government, and leading the Green Team at her school. Her other activities include volunteering at her local Queens Public Library, running an online vintage business, and participating in the National Honor Society. Sophia also has a strong interest in media studies and journalism, of which she hopes to continue in college. Besides her academic life, Sophia enjoys traveling the world, building legos, and watching Formula One races (a huge Ferrari fan!).

Lynda Pak is Senior Vice President, Technology Leader for Global Brands and Corporate Functions at Estee Lauder Companies (ELC). Since joining ELC in 2016, she has been passionate about helping business leaders make smart technology investment choices to shape and accelerate value creation. With over twenty years of technology strategy and operational experience, she has collaborated with executive leadership teams at ELC, Bed Bath and Beyond (BBB), Borders Group (BGI), and other leading companies in the consumer products/retail industry. Prior to ELC, as the Vice President of eCom/Digital and Marketing Technologies for BBB, she successfully led the redesign of the digital customer experience and their next generation digital and marketing capabilities. At BGI, she served as Chief Technology Officer and VP of Applications, and as VP of eCommerce Operations. Additionally, with over 19 years of consulting experience with Deloitte Consulting and PricewaterhouseCoopers, she has demonstrated commitment and success as an advisor to senior executive business partners to define and curate their strategic initiatives to drive business value. Lynda has led the delivery of very large, complex, and global ERP programs for key clients. Finally, Lynda built Deloitte Consulting’s global ‘Green IT’ practice to help clients reduce their technology carbon footprint.

Tech Committee Member; Dylan is a senior trader and quant specialist with the Program Trading group at RBC Capital Markets. Prior to his time at RBC, Dylan worked at Barclays Investment Bank. In professional and personal capacities Dylan volunteers with Hudson River Community Sailing, The LGBTQ+ Center, and Junior Achievement of NY. A DC native, he celebrates the diverse community and public education system that he grew up with, both of which he credits with his passion for learning and adventure.

Mentor Alum & Tech Committee Member; Ashna Shah is a brand strategist—helping brands and political candidates alike find and articulate their north stars. Having worked on campaigns for brands like H&M and Pepsi, and progressive candidates of color across the country, she’s honed her storytelling and narrative skills for maximum resonance and memorability, and has a deep respect for the power of the well-chosen word. As a mentor at Girls Write Now, she supports—and learns from—a talented mentee whose writing impresses and unveils unspoken truths.

Tech Committee Member; Alisha Stull is a Partner Engineer at Google, where she works with software companies that are hosted on Google Cloud on various Go-to-market initiatives. Prior to Google, Alisha worked at ServiceNow and SAP.

Isabelle is an Engagement Manager at QuantumBlack (the Artificial Intelligence arm of McKinsey & Company) where she advises companies across the world on topics at the intersection of business and technology. Isabelle has a background in economics and computer science, and holds certifications in AWS, Scrum, DevOps, and more. She has also completed multiple international research efforts focused on the trends and societal effects of technology such as Cloud and Agentic AI. Isabelle is currently on the Girls Write Now Technology Committee.

From mentee in 2007 to technical writer at Google, Girls Write Now has supported Natalia from high school to college, through internships and applying to grad school, positioning her now at the intersection of human and computer languages, enabling her fluency in both poetry and code.

Angela works at a New York-based hedge fund as an investment analyst, focusing her time on technology companies and working with management teams to achieve better outcomes. She previously was an investor at Blackstone and was active in the company’s investments across edtech, media, and healthcare. Her interests lie at the intersection of technology and literature.

For 27 years Nan worked at the Borough of Manhattan Community College, CUNY, teaching developmental writing, composition, and women’s literature. She then became Academic Director of the CUNY Baccalaureate for Unique and Interdisciplinary Studies for nine years. After retiring, she was part-time Director of Special Projects at John Jay College and consultant for the City University of New York and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation documenting the development of The Stella and Charles Guttman Community College, CUNY. She volunteers at The Whitney Museum, and has edited or coedited seven books. Her family consists of four children and 12 grandchildren.

Annaya Baynes (she/they) is a Community Coordinator. They graduated from Spelman College with a Bachelor of Arts in English and French. As an undergraduate, she worked on Spelman’s social justice podcast, The Blue Record, and the reproductive justice-oriented podcast Black Feminist Rants. Annaya has interned at various publishing houses, including Penguin Random House, Macmillan, and The Feminist Press. They have a deep love for literature and film. She is a Master’s student at NYU’s Martin Scorsese Department of Cinema Studies.

Audrey is a grant writer in her professional life and enjoys writing fiction and poetry about causes she is passionate about, including animal welfare. She tends to write poetry and short stories with fantasy and/or horror elements. She graduated in May of 2024 as an English major with a minor in Creative writing. Some authors who have inspired her are Margaret Atwood, Ellen Hopkins, and Suzanne Collins.

Kaia Boyer (any pronouns) is a 17-year-old Chinese-American author born and raised in San Francisco, California, currently attending Galileo Academy of Science and Technology, with words in 826 Valencia, The Daily Drunk Mag and elsewhere. While she’s not reading and writing, she can be found on the softball field, listening to Taylor Swift, or trying (and failing) to manage their parakeets. They’re currently revising their second of three novels.

Anne (AN-ee) Caceres-Gonzalez is a first generation Caribbean Latina, born in New York and raised in the Bronx, whose intersectional lived experience has led her to advocate and create space for traditionally underrepresented communities in the workplace. Anne’s experience in people work extends across performance management, coaching, recruitment and learning and development, through the lens of diversity, equity and inclusion, connecting people, and advocating personal + professional growth. The love Anne holds for her own identity and deep, profound respect she has for others’, are constantly working together to create a space where underrepresented groups feel safe and seen. Anne’s life ambition is to continue to center the voices of underrepresented people, as it’s key in order to decolonize and redefine those narratives. Anne is currently the Director of People and Culture at Mischief, a creative advertising agency in Brooklyn, NY and has previously held roles at other creative agencies like BBDO, 72andSunny and FCB. Anne holds a Bachelor of Arts in Corporate Communications with a minor in English from Baruch College, is a member and has served on the National Executive Board of Lambda Pi Upsilon Sorority, Latinas Poderosas Unidas, Inc, where she has mentored and empowered young women to find their voice.

Luna Calvario Rojas is currently a student at Fordham University. She is majoring in English and minoring in marketing. She is interested in creating stories that can deeply connect with people and their emotions around the world. Her hope is to create a society where everyone feels welcomed and represented, whether this is in writing, film, the arts, and more. Luna believes that the power of stories can inspire empathy, build bridges across cultures, and create meaningful change in a constantly evolving world.

Andrea Cepeda is an English major with a concentration in Creative Writing. She reads and writes romance, but is open to exploring any and all genres; genres that she loves to read, besides romance, are historical fiction, fantasy, sci-fi/dystopian. In her free time, she reads and writes, rewatches her comfort shows, and romanticizes her life.

Martina Clark is a professor and the award-winning author and narrator of My Unexpected Life: An International Memoir of Two Pandemics, HIV and COVID-19. She writes memoir, personal essays, and travel narratives. Before teaching, she worked for the United Nations system (UNAIDS, UNICEF, Peacekeeping) for decades. She has been living with HIV for more than half her life – 31 years and counting – and survived COVID-19, original recipe. Martina has traveled to more than 90 countries and conducted condom demonstrations in at least 50 of them. She’s traveled by boat, bus, and plane, but never by elephant or camel.

Comly is a senior majoring in communication and media studies with a minor in English at Montclair University. She writes flash and middle grade. In her free time she loves being outdoors, baking, and running.

Shreya Darji is a senior high school student residing in Southern New Jersey. When she isn’t writing a poem or two, Shreya can be found drawing or reading a new book.

Jennifer L. Brown is an author of middle grade and young adult novels. She spent many years as a performer, working in theatres across the country in plays ranging from contemporary musicals to Shakespeare. When not writing, she tutors standardized tests, English, and essay writing. Her novel won a space in an intensive mentoring program called Pitch Wars in the fall of 2017. She has served as a mentor in that same program for the last four years. Her writing is represented by Alyssa Jennette at Stonesong Literary.

Christiane Calixte is a Brooklyn-based Caribbean American freelance writer, public speaker, and writing coach. Her work has been featured in publications such as the Washington Post and YR media. She has been part of the Girls Write Now program for four years and is part of both the English and Creative Writing programs at Columbia University.

India Choquette is a former Vermonter living in New York City. She has her MFA in Creative Writing Program at the City College of New York, where she won the Stark Short Fiction Prize, and has received support from the Bread Loaf Environmental Writers’ Conference and Art Farm. Her work has been published by Hobart, 365Tomorrows, Foglifter, and others. She is also an editor at Teachers & Writers Magazine, which has published her writing on teaching creative writing, and she teaches creative writing and composition at the City College of New York. She lives with her spouse and two cats in a plant-filled apartment.

Jeanna Kadlec is the author of Heretic: A Memoir (HarperCollins, 2022) and the creator of the New York Times featured newsletter Astrology for Writers. Her second nonfiction project is forthcoming from Hachette. A born and bred Midwesterner, she now lives in New York City.

Vasvi Kejriwal is a former lawyer. She leads Fresh Mint, a project that serves to share and highlight literary works from underrepresented communities. She is a Pushcart Prize nominee and also the recipient of the AI Young Memorial scholarship from the Community of Writers Conference. Her poems have been a Finalist for the Epiphany Breakout! Prize and the Yellowwood Poetry Prize. Her work appears or is forthcoming in Rattle, Nimrod, Florida Review, Shō Poetry Journal, and elsewhere. She serves as Associate Poetry Editor for The Bombay Literary Magazine. She'll teach creative writing to NYU undergraduates this Fall. 

Crystal Reyes is a Latinx essayist & poet native to Houston and works as an educator. She is a graduate candidate at Bay Path University, working on her MFA in Creative Nonfiction. Her debut poetry collection, Wildflower Blooming was released last Spring. Her essays and nonfiction works have been featured in Hip Latina, Entre Magazine, Autostraddle, & other literary magazines and anthologies. She has received support from the following literary organizations: The Kenyon Review and The Writer’s Center. You can follow her work at @Crisreyeswrites

Crystal Worrell (she/her/hers) is a poet and Learning Specialist working in NYC. She’s also professionally trained in Dance and absolutely loves poetry and content creation. She has been a recipient of the Lucille Clifton Award, was a participant as a Lannan Fellow and self published her first volume of poetry in 2020 during her graduate studies at NYU.

Jasmine Chvilicek is a writer and advocate. She was born and raised in the Midwest, but longs to live under the California sun one day. Jasmine has been writing poetry since she was 11 years old and continues to write with her heart on her sleeve in hopes of reaching the souls of humanity with her words. Jasmine is a natural storyteller, with many of her poems exhibiting creative story arcs and detailed metaphors. She has a knack for free verse and often writes about all that is life, including trauma and healing, the complexities of mental health and illness, nature, emotional milestones, and the little glimmers of joy. As an emerging poet, Jasmine is currently working on her first poetry collection. In her free time, she enjoys reading, baking, and scrapbooking.