In partnership with publishers Open Road, Penguin Group, Random House Children’s Books, and Writers House, Girls Write Now explored this year’s theme New Worlds, celebrating the incredible diversity and creative fearlessness of our intergenerational community. In March, special guest speaker Sonia Manzano, Maria from Sesame Street and author of The Revolution of Evelyn Serrano, joined the stage with our talented teen writers in SoHo’s Scholastic auditorium.
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Girls Write Now Readers
Suleyma Cuellar & Pam Bayless Is There More to Life?; Maxine Armstrong, Fishing; Brenda Bota & Maddy Zollo, Guilt is That Thing; Mennen Gordon, Luca; Brianna Marie Marini, Hurricane Connor; Ashley Christie, I Wish; Mariah Teresa Aviles, Not Just A Stranger; Karilis Cruz & Lyndsay Faye, El Silencio; Sara Reka, You Might Catch Me Crying; Bushra Miah, The Package; Monica Chin, Man and Me; Defiance; A Postcard; Nishat Anjum, The Understanding; Ava Nadel, Math; Kristasiah Daniels, The Killer is Me; Monica Hernandez, The Reveries of a Traveler; Ariana Spatola, It Saves; Kiara Joseph & Rachel Krantz, Resolved.
Excerpts
- Maxine Armstrong, Fishing.
“Sunset and Sunrise are the same thing in Brooklyn. Here, it’s a sign you made it, a sign that everything you were fighting for — you’d have another chance to fight. Sunset and Sunrise in Brooklyn led the way for wise men at sea and ruthless women who had wisdom in their tongues and strength in their grips. ” Read More
- Mennen Gordon, Luca.
“Luca entered the dining hall when it was about half full, with all the early risers and people who had business to attend to in the morning sleepily spooning cheerios—or whatever else there was to eat—into their tired little mouths.” Read More
- Brianna Marie Marini, Hurricane Connor.
“Last night, I hadn’t been the one to tuck him in. My grandmother had been the one to make sure that he was in bed, pulling the covers tight under his chin. He’d pull them down the minute the door was closed, hop out of bed with the typical energy of a five year old, and turn on his Thomas the Tank Engine nightlight.” Read More
Alum Emcees
- Jeanette Anderson lives in Brooklyn, New York. Her poetry has appeared in The Broome Review, Mslexia and Poets & Artists. She received a B.A. with Honors in Literary Studies from The New School and attended the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference with Jane Hirshfield. She is the National Student Poets Program Coordinator at the Alliance for Young Artists & Writers. When she is not running around Prospect Park with her dog Zeke, she updates her cooking blog, Hark, Zeke.
- Morgan Baden is a Communications Director for Scholastic, where she manages the award-winning On Our Minds @Scholastic blog and oversees the company’s social media strategy and internal communications. She’s a writer of Young Adult fiction, a ghostwriter of bestselling teen novels, and an occasional writer of poetry and narrative non-fiction for blogs and magazines. Now a member of the GWN Marketing Committee, she spent three years as a mentor and two years on the Program Advisory Committee. She lives in Brooklyn. Find her at morganbaden.com or on Twitter @MorganBaden.