National Book Award Finalist Angela Flournoy joined us for our May CHAPTERS reading series event, which was only 3 days after the Girls Write Now Awards! The author of award winning novel The Turner House (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt), gave her keynote address that quoted Kendrick Lamar and the journey of writing to our audience full of mentees, mentors, and Girls Write Now fans.
IN OUR WORDS
Senior mentee Muse McCormack wrote about the experience of her last CHAPTERS event, check out her thoughts!
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Girls Write Now Readers
Jiselle Abraham, Curly Frizzy Hair; Ayanna Bailey, Gaining Confidence; Zariah Jenkins, I Strongly Believe That Black People Deserve To Feel Beautiful Too; Mariel Jaquez & Bec Gil, Why Social Media Can Be Damaging to Teens Psychological Development & Talking About a Revolution; Jadaida Glover, A Mother’s Prayer; Kristine Veras & Adina Talve-Goodman, Once Upon A Kristine; Julia Mercado, Eleanor; Zahraa Lopez, Ode to the Bronx; Rosemary Alfonseca, Steps to Becoming a Better Boy from a Better Girl; Kiana Jackson, Silent Courage; Shania Russell & Carol Paik, Times New Roman: A Diatribe; Libranece Ayala, Why I Need Feminism; Jennifer Lee, Fuzhousnese; “Child”; Muse McCormack, Creation; Muhua Li & Alanna Schubach, Letter to Younger Me
Emcees
- ROMAISSAA BENZIZOUNE is a graduating senior at Hunter College High School who will be attending New York University in the fall. A second year mentee, Romaissaa has achieved regional and national recognition by Scholastic, and has been published in multiple anthologies as well as The Toast. Currently she writes a monthly column for McSweeney’s.com titled “Hijabi in Plain Sight”, where she chronicles her life as a Muslim-American teenager in a post-Trump world. When she isn’t workshopping pieces with her mentor/creative partner Robin Willig, she is watching The Mindy Project and counting down the days to graduation.
- ROBIN WILLIG is on a constant quest to balance a creative, writing life with her day job, which is at the Center for Reproductive Rights where she serves as Chief of Staff in the Office of the President. She considers her time as a mentor in Girls Write Now central to her creative life, during which she and her mentee, Romaissaa, work together in different genres and generally make each other laugh. Robin was awarded a fiction-writing residency at the Writers Colony at Dairy Hollow in Eureka Springs, Arkansas and her short fiction has appeared in literary journals including Epiphany Literary Journal. She received Honorable Mention the Glimmer Train Press “Family Matters” Short Fiction Competition in 2010.