Join four mentees for an afternoon of poetry on identity, resistance, and coming of age. Girls Write Now takes the Youth Stage at The New York City Poetry Festival on Sunday, July 19 at 2 PM. The 15th Annual Festival takes place at Nolan Park on Governors Island—this will be the second time our mentees grace the Poetry Festival stage. Registration is free—all you need is the $2.75 ferry fare. We look forward to seeing you there!
Bobin Shim is a Korean American poet based in Queens. Her work has been recognized by the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards and Girls Write Now, and she was named a 2026 New York State Youth Poet Laureate Finalist. When she’s not reading or writing, she can be found playing guitar, cracking corny jokes, crying over old movies, and singing and dancing when no one’s watching.
Veronica Mollod is a rising senior at the High School of American Studies. An avid reader who loves to learn about the world, she is excited to share her poetry with you—and grateful to her eighth-grade English teacher for inviting her into the world of poetry.
Mia Carranza is a writer from Queens and a Girls Write Now mentee. Her original poems are inspired by her studies of Latin American poetry and its central themes—identity, resistance, love, and cultural pride. She holds a BA from Macaulay Honors College at Hunter College, where she studied English Literature and Spanish Translation. Mia is proud to honor her Puerto Rican and Salvadoran heritage and hopes to continue serving her community through her creative work.
Zaina Rivera (she/her) is a queer poet who grew up religious in the Rockaways. Her poems explore her identity as a queer mixed teen and the way religion shaped her life from a young age. “Unrequited” and “REDACTED” each received honorable mentions from the CCNY Poetry and Performance contests, and she is the recipient of a regional Scholastic Gold Key for “Mango,” which recounts her experience of coming out to her grandmother.
For 25 years, Girls Write Now has been breaking down barriers of gender, race, age and poverty to mentor the…
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