Seek Joy in Everything You Do… Alex Ewing & Elizabeth Stone’s Life@ GWN

Mentee Alex Ewing and her mentor Elizabeth Stone may come from opposite ends of the country and have a 50-year age gap, but when they meet up over coffee, a good book, or an in-depth Twilight presentation, they’re thick as thieves.

Neither knew what to expect when they joined Girls Write Now for the Summer 2025 cycle, but both wanted community and collaboration to shape their creative practices. In their second cycle together in the Collaboratory, they’ve only grown closer, each gaining new insights, perspectives, and hope for their future together and in their own creative practices.

Read on to learn more about how this pair struck their balance.

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Tell Us About Your Life@GWN

ALEX:  Girls Write Now is such a welcoming group of people. They always make sure to be welcoming and helpful.

ELIZABETH: My primary involvement with Girls Write Now is spending time (talking, writing, and eating) with you, Alex. We meet face-to-face (and through Zoom when time is tight), and together we have also participated in several meetings of various sorts offered by GWN. Staffers like Azia Armstead have been particularly helpful to both Alex and me.

What’s Your Superpower? How Does That Inform Your Girls Write Now Experience?

ALEX: My friends have told me my laughter is my superpower. How I can make others laugh at my jokes because of how hard I laugh at them.

ELIZABETH: What’s a superpower? Can I pick two? I’d say mine is curiosity, and then writing about the things I’ve been curious about.

The title of this year’s Girls Write Now Anthology is “Hope Lives in our Words.” Do you have a mantra, phrase or quote that you turn to for hope & inspiration?

ALEX: When I was about 17, just getting out of a dark place, I wanted to have a “year of happiness.” The whole year,

“I didn’t do anything that didn’t give me some kind of joy, and it was healing in so many ways. Ever since, I’ve tried to “seek joy” in nearly everything I do.”

ELIZABETH: About hope? Hmmm. Are hope and resilience the same? When I was a kid and feeling really bad about something, my mom used to sing a song she liked by Nat King Cole. It went “I’m going to pick myself up, dust myself off, take a deep breath, and start all over again.”   Later on—in college where I was an English major—I was inspired by an Emily Dickinson poem—about hope—which she compared to a bird. I’ll just give you the first verse: “Hope is the thing with feathers/ That perches in the soul/ And sings the tune without the words /And never stops—at all.” The last line, which I love, is how hope gives, but never asks anything of us.

What Did You Learn From Your Mentor/Mentee That Was Unexpected, That You Thought You Already Knew?

ALEX: I genuinely thought I was a horrible writer and was too afraid to show anyone what I wrote, but you actively make sure I know that I’m good, whether or not I want to hear it.

ELIZABETH: I hope you don’t mind hearing that I think your storytelling is great! As to what I learned that was unexpected—to tell you the truth, given what I read in the news these days, I would have anticipated that someone from Mississippi who came from a devout Christian background and was home-schooled would have conservative political views—and that may statistically be true, but it’s certainly not true of you. You’re an independent soul who came to New York to study musical theatre, with your parents’ support. You’ve been here five years and are taking in what New York has to offer.

How Will This Relationship Change the Way You Think About Life, and What Part?

ALEX: I’m not exactly sure yet, but you have made me feel so much more confident in my writing abilities, and I am eternally grateful for it.

ELIZABETH: For me, I know that stereotypes don’t always apply, and my experience with you confirms that. I guess I could add that professionally, as a college professor, I have always been a mentor to mentees. But now I see more than I did before that there are so many different ways of being in a mentor-mentee relationship. With students in my memoir classes, I knew a lot about them, but I didn’t ask them personal questions that went beyond the boundaries of what they were writing about because I didn’t want to intrude. Also, because I was their professor, I wasn’t all that self-revealing. My relationship with you is much looser. You’re very intuitive and insightful, and you ask me a lot of questions about myself, but you’re never intrusive, and I hope you see me the same way.

What Does Your Tee/tor Love That You Can’t Stand, or Don’t Understand?

ALEX: You’re more into nonfiction, while I almost always read fiction.

ELIZABETH: And you like vampires! Especially those in the Twilight series, and you have so much information for your friends. You made a slideshow covering the backstory of 13 different characters. You can probably do an extended lecture on the subject.

What is Your Favorite Pop Culture Reference You Have Learned From One Another?

ALEX: I love playing video games. Elizabeth doesn’t always know about them, and I enjoy telling her.

ELIZABETH: I do know that you thought when I mentioned “The Main Character Syndrome” that was a pop culture reference. Outside of Taylor Swift (Right now I’m listening to “The Life of a Showgirl”) I love Ed Sheeran, but I had to look up the spelling of his name. I don’t know if Mah Jongg is part of pop culture or not, though it’s pretty trendy right now. You play Mah Jongg and I’m hoping you’ll teach me.

What Are Things You Have Learned About From Your Tee/Tor That You Now Love or Would Like to Try?

ALEX: There is a book that you enjoyed—Educated by Tara Westover—and it’s the one nonfiction book I must read soon! I’m more comfortable with technology, but you are a bigger fan of AI than I am.

ELIZABETH: I’d like to be as tech-savvy as you are. And I like the way you put fabrics and such on your wall—which you showed me in one of our Zoom meetings—just because you like seeing them. It’s inspiring.

How Are You and Your Mentor/Mentee Different or the Same in Either Obvious or Unexpected Ways?
ALEX: When I first learned I got you as my mentor, all my friends said how perfect it was that I ended up with an “old lady,” since they’ve always joked about how I’m a grandma or grandpa because of how I am. We have a very similar sense of humor and we could both go on and on about books.

ELIZABETH: You and I are both cat-lovers, and I think that we’re also very much alike—in our senses of humor and readiness to laugh. There are obvious differences between us, though I don’t know if they’re significant. When we go to diners, you gravitate toward whipped cream, while I go for bacon.

You’re  20-something, and from the South; I’m 70-something and from the North.

“You’re 20-something, and from the South; I’m 70-something and from the North.”

You grew up in a religious Christian household and were homeschooled. I went to public school in Brooklyn. My mom was Catholic, my dad was Jewish, and they raised me as a Lutheran. Go figure! I haven’t yet seen if, underneath the similarities, we’re markedly different.

If we can’t talk to each other, how will we solve the world’s problems?