Camille Acker is an assistant editor at John Wiley & Sons, a book publishing house. She was raised in Washington, D.C. and has been a writer since childhood. In 2000, she graduated from Howard University with a B.A. in English. She writes in her spare time for publications such as Metro and recently won the Unpublished Writer’s Award from the Go On Girl book club. Currently, she is at work on a novel.

Karen Ballentine, a resident of Manhattan, is currently a freelance consultant whose research and writing focuses on global conflict and development issues. She has worked with a number of peace NGOs, including the Oslo-Based Fafo Institute for Applied International Studies and the International Peace Academy in New York. Previously she worked as a researcher for the Carnegie Corporation of New York. She has written extensively on a wide range of international peace and security issues and served as consultant to the UN, the OECD, and the Human Security Network. A native of Canada, where she studied journalism and Russian history and language, she has an M. Phil. degree in Political Science from Columbia University. While still a graduate student, she was a mentor at the Society for Higher Learning, based in Bratislava, where she also served as Associate Editor for Kritika I Kontext, a social science journal.

Caroline Berger is the Assistant Director of the Bachelor's Program at the New School for General Studies, an individualized undergraduate degree program for returning adult students. She has an M.F.A. in creative writing with a concentration in fiction from The New School, and has a B.A. in English literature and writing from Hiram College. Her short prose has appeared most recently in La Petite Zine, Pindeldyboz and Barrow Street. She was a 2004 Artist in Residence at The Artists' Enclave at I-Park and a 2006 juror for the Scholastic Writing Awards. For the past four years, she has co-curated the Sunday Salon, a monthly reading series in Brooklyn (www.sundaysalon.com). Caroline teaches creative and expository writing at The New School.

Emily Berger graduated from Barnard College in May 2001 with a major in English literature and a concentration in creative writing. While at Barnard, she won the Lenore Marshall Barnard Prize for Prose and the Peter S. Prescott Prose Writing Award for her first draft of Raw, which is pending publication. Emily is currently enrolled in the joint law and social work program at Rutgers University to pursue a career in child advocacy. She is the founder of Law Students for Choice at Rutgers School of Law-Newark and is on the editorial staff of Rutgers Race & the Law Review.

Pamela Bloom has pursued a passionate writing career across many genres. She first began publishing as a music critic for such magazines as High Fidelity, Musician, and Seven Days. As a travel writer, she has hiked through Italy, biked through China, and danced in Rio’s Carnaval; two of her guidebooks, Brazil Up Close and Amazon Up Close, both won the Lowell Thomas Travel Journalism Award. As an interfaith minister, she counsels people with life-threatening diseases and has authored three spiritual books: On the Wings of Angels, Buddhist Acts of Compassion, and The Heart Sutra (in The Dalai Lama’s Altar Kit). Short fiction has appeared in Disney Adventures magazine. A former opera singer and lover of global music, she is presently developing two opera librettos.

Nana Brew-Hammond's diverse writing resume credits her as a: Journalist (former Assistant Editor at TRACE magazine, contributor to Sportswear International, The Village Voice, and BET.com); Poet (poem published in Nike’s Jordan Brand Winter '01 Collection catalog); Playwright (wrote & produced her first play, Ends Meet, to a packed off-Broadway house in November 2001); Short Story Writer and Screenwriter. A Political Science and Africana Studies double major at Vassar College, she graduated Cum Laude and was the recipient of the June Jackson Christmas Prize for having the highest GPA in the Africana Studies Major in the class of 1998. She attended high school in Ghana's Central Region at Mfantsiman Girls’ Secondary School, founded by Ghana's first president, Kwame Nkrumah.

Tara Betts represented Chicago twice in the National Poetry Slam and has appeared on HBO's "Def Poetry Jam." A Cave Canem graduate, she is pursuing her MFA in Poetry and has been published in Essence, Obsidian III, FEMSPEC, Columbia Poetry Review, and several anthologies. She teaches with Urban Word and performs as a member of girlstory (www.girlstory.org), an intergenerational, multicultural women's performance group. In Chicago, she did workshops with young women through Ms. Foundation, Cook County Juvenile Detention Center, City Girls, Girl Talk and as a co-founder of GirlSpeak. Find out more at www.tarabetts.net.

Lara Cohen has been a mentor with Girls Write Now for three years. She is a doctoral candidate in English at Yale University and has taught at Yale and Wesleyan University. Before coming to graduate school, she worked at the Consortium on Chicago School Research, taught creative writing to elementary school students, and wrote freelance music journalism.

Marya Cohn is a writer/director. She has directed many plays and films, some of which she also wrote. She is currently working on a feature-length screenplay, Waking Eyes. She worked in the public schools for years as an artist in residence, primarily teaching playwriting and video. She is also the mother of two small children, Milo and Saskia.

Alysha Nicole Cryer graduated from Loyola University in 2002 with a BA in Sociology and minor in journalism. As an undergrad, she completed several internships in television news and public relations. Her first job out of college was as a publicist for a nonprofit organization in Chicago, and she is currently the Media and Speakers' Bureau Coordinator for Catalyst, a research and advisory organization working to advance women in business. She can be found on the A or C trains writing in her journal and is a member of the New York Association of Black Journalists.

Amber D’Amato was born in Brooklyn, New York and moved fourteen times up and down the east coast while growing up. She graduated from Eugene Lang College at the New School University in May 2005 with a major in Creative Writing. In 2002-03, she was the Entertainment Editor at the Western Press and displayed her artwork at the Western Art Gallery in Long Island. Her poems and articles are in various literary journals and local newspapers. Currently she has finished working on her first book of poetry, “Hiding Behind A Design,” and is now creating two graphic novels on astrology and poetry. In Amber’s spare time, she loves to paint, draw, sculpt, read, bake desserts, and go out to eat.

Rebecca Davis is currently an assistant editor at Redbook where she started as a freelancer and became an editorial assistant before assuming her current role in the features department. Prior to working at Redbook, Rebecca worked at Harper's Bazaar and Parenting while earning her master's degree in journalism from New York University. She did her undergraduate work at Georgetown University where she studied English and art history and graduated in 2002.

Dimitra DeFotis has been a print journalist for 17 years. She's a senior writer at Barron's Online, where she writes stories about stocks and investing that also appear in prices. Dimitra was a staff writer at the Chicago Tribune, an early innovator in online journalism and cross-media experiments. She was born and raised in Chicago, where she developed her love of languages.

Kathryn Rose Gertz, Curriculum Director of Girls Write Now, is an award-winning journalist whose articles have appeared in Family Circle, Harper’s Bazaar, Self, GQ, The New York Times, Town & Country, Glamour and Science Digest, among other publications. She has written on a wide range of topics—the common cold, laughter, family therapy, and the hero dogs of 9/11, to name a few—and has worked on the staff of Newsweek and The New York Post. She’s been a Girls Write Now mentor since 2003.

Adrien Glover has spent years working as a freelance journalist focusing on travel, food, and design. She now works for Frommer's travel magazine and website, a division of Newsweek that supplies daily travel news and features to MSNBC.com. Later this year, she will also begin work for Rough Guides, Britain's largest publisher of travel guide books. She is a graduate of Sarah Lawrence College, where she studied film and romance languages, and Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism. Adrien has contributed to such publications as Entertainment Weekly, Time Out NY, House & Garden, Lucky, Organic Style, and the New Yorker. Glover also co-founded the website Undergroundfilm.com, one the first online exhibition spaces for independent films (now domain of the Film Studies Department at UC Berkeley), and worked as the Executive Editorial Director for Dreamworks SKG and Imagine Entertainment's online venture, Pop.com. She is currently completing her first novel and a screenplay about legendary African-American track and field star Wilma Rudolph. Adrien, a New York City resident, grew up in Maine and has lived in Barcelona, Spain and Florence, Italy.

Lisa Gross teaches High School English at The Dalton School. She graduated from Yale University with a degree in English Literature. She writes regularly for the Eats and Drinks section of the NY Press in addition to writing fiction and personal essays. Her other interests include photography, documentary filmmaking, directing and creating original performance pieces, traveling, meditating, and doing yoga.

Lauren Gurfein graduated from Brown University in May 2003 with a concentration in Literature and Cultures in English, and a focus in Expository Writing. While at Brown she wrote and edited for a lifestyle magazine, Providence Monthly. Following graduation she worked as an editorial intern at Bazaar magazine, and has currently settled into a job she is very enthusiastic about as an editorial/online assistant at Lucky.

Allison Heiny is originally from Columbus, Ohio, and she graduated from The University of Wisconsin-Madison with a BA in Journalism and Women's Studies. Since she moved to New York City five years ago, Allison has held various jobs in publishing with an emphasis on young adult fiction, children’s books, and foreign rights. She is now the Foreign Rights Manager and the Managing Editor for Alloy Entertainment, which is the teen novel packager that developed both The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants series and the Gossip Girl series. She also enjoys working on her own fiction and non-fiction writing.

Heather Hernandez is graduating New School University spring 2006 with a BA in psychology and minor in creative writing. Concurrent with her education, she founded a branch of Vector Marketing Corporation working to develop and grow the business community of the Hudson County, NJ area. She currently works as assistant director for PH Dynamics, heading up sales and marketing of new products. Prior to Girls Write Now, she has worked as a mentor and recruiter for the Nassau County Department of Social Services, and with at risk youth as a mentor for Children’s Aid Society. She founded the first Long Island chapter of A.R.A Anti-Racist Action group, which has remained active in the community over the last 8 years. As a writer, Heather served as chief editor of an anti-bullying curriculum designed for at-risk schools in NYC. She has numerous poetry publications in the Iliad anthology, has recently published her first edition of a poetry chapbook titled Being Human, and has read at numerous poetry readings throughout New School University and NYC. Heather will be pursuing a doctoral degree in psychology at the California Institute of Integral studies.

Sarah Herrington is a graduate of New York University where she studied English, Creative Writing, and Art History. She has worked at Gotham Writers' Workshop, Scholastic, and has taught English in Japan. Both a poet and fiction writer, Sarah's work has appeared in journals from smallsprialnotebook to Poetry Motel to Altar magazine, and she has read her work around the city, from the Cornelia Street Cafe to the Knitting Factory to Halcyon. She is currently working on a young adult novel. You can visit her online at: www.sarahherrington.com

Rolaine Hochstein is the author of two novels, “Stepping Out” (Norton) and “Table 47” (Doubleday). Over three dozen of her short stories have been widely published and have been awarded two O. Henry prizes, the Pushcard prize, and the Seaton First Price of the Kansas Arts Council, among other citations. Her articles on women’s issues have been featured in national magazines, such as Good Housekeeping, Cosmopolitan, Parents, Glamour, and Ms. She has received fellowships from the Macdowell Colony, Yaddo, and the N.J. State Council on the Arts. She has been a teaching artist with the New Jersey Writers Project since 1986. Rolaine’s husband, Mort Hochstein, writes prolifically about food and wine.

Susanna Horng teaches writing to undergraduates at New York University in the General Studies Program. After studying English Literature at the University of Virginia and Cinema Studies at NYU, she flirted with film production before finding her passion—creative writing. She earned an MFA at Sarah Lawrence College and has been an artist-in-residence at The Hall Farm Center for Arts and Education in Townsend, Vermont. She is currently completing a collection of linked short stories

Andrea Juncos works for the New York City Department of Education as the Special Assistant to the Regional Superintendent of Region 2 in the Bronx. In this role, she serves as a liaison for the Superintendent, helping to ensure the success of all 139 schools in the region. She manages key relationships with the press, local government offices, and various partner organizations. Prior to joining the Department of Education, Andrea was Associate Editor at Catalyst, a nonprofit research and consulting organization working to advance women and minorities in business. She received her bachelor’s degree in English Literature and Education at Swarthmore College, not far from her hometown of West Chester, Pennsylvania. Andrea has been a mentor with Girls Write Now since the fall of 2002.

Robin Keegan, Development Director of Girls Write Now, is an independent consultant and research fellow at the Center for an Urban Future, a nonpartisan policy organization dedicated to independent, fact-based research about critical issues affecting New York’s future. Robin was previously deputy director at the Center, responsible for management and fundraising. She also led the Center’s research on arts and economic development. This research includes The Creative Engine, an assessment of neighborhood-based arts and economic development and the recently released, Creative New York, the first comprehensive assessment of New York’s creative sector. Her current work includes assessments of the creative economy of New York City and New Orleans, Louisiana, her hometown. Robin has been an active member of Girls Write Now since 1991.

Dana Liu has worked in public policy as a consultant for the World Bank and as an editor at the Economist Intelligence Unit. She studied and researched in Singapore and China for one year and published several articles on China’s economy and global competitiveness. Since then, she has served as co-director of a Creative Writing Program for a women’s organization in France, and worked at the literary and talent agency, Artists Management Group. She has an MFA in fiction from the New School, where she is an editorial staff member of the literary journal, LIT. Her short story, Orfevre, will appear in the annual printed anthology, The Best of Carve Magazine Anthology (Volume Six).

Pooja Makhijani is an essayist, journalist, and writer of children’s literature. She lives in New York City with her husband and too many books. Apart from reading and writing, she loves to dance, listen to Bollywood music, and make chocolate desserts. She is the editor of Under Her Skin: How Girls Experience Race in America, which is an anthology of essays by women that explores the complex ways in which race shapes American lives and families. Her first picture book, Mama's Saris, is forthcoming from Little, Brown & Company Books for Young Readers. She maintains the most comprehensive online bibliography of South Asia and the South Asian diaspora in children’s literature, and it has become a valuable resource for educators and librarians. Learn more at www.poojamakhijani.com/sakidlit.html.

Zaedryn Meade is a queer poet working for subversion and joy. She believes in social change through encouraging the sharing of marginalized peoples unique voices and stories. She believes all her paths have led her to the pen, the page, and the stage. Zaedryn's work has previously been published in various literary magazines and compilations. She has produced two chapbooks, Covet (2002) and Valence: Fool's Gold in the Shape of Poems (2005), and one spoken word CD, For the Record (2005). Zaedryn's website is www.zaedryn.com.

Georgette Moger currently resides and works in the East Village and is a graduate of Eugene Lang College. She writes for Girlshop.com and is a volunteer for 826NYC's celebrated after school writing program. Her first book, Harlequin Garlands, distributed by A.D.S. Press, is a collection of stories inspired by her high jinks, debacles, and travesties from her travels and sojourns throughout North America. Her two-act play, "A Tomb of One's Own" was performed last fall at the Monster Cabaret in the West Village.

Candace Moore is an English teacher at ACORN High School (Social Justice), thanks to the New York City Teaching Fellows Program. She graduated from San Diego State University, where she was a Copy Editor and Writer for The Daily Aztec. She was born to write, raised in California, and now lives in Brooklyn.

Maya Nussbaum, Co-Founder and Executive Director of Girls Write Now, has grown the organization over the last eight years, and led countless workshops on fiction, poetry, and writing and the arts. Maya is formerly a Director of Ash Fine Art and Von Lintel Gallery. She has degrees in English literature and creative writing from Columbia University.

Navani Otero is a 27-year-old Latina writer residing in Fort Greene, Brooklyn. Her work is on the nightlife sites: www.nochelatina.com and www.clubplanet.com. For Otero, work often mixes with pleasure as she spends most of her time at movie screenings, club openings, and interviewing musicians. She received her Bachelors in Design at Pace University and her master's in interactive multimedia at Long Island University.

Sarah Lynn Pace is a writer originally from Seattle, Washington. Her fiction, poetry, reviews, and interviews have appeared in literary magazines, print anthologies and various online publications. She enjoys working with non-profits, especially in the literary arts. She also runs an online bookstore specializing in science fiction, fantasy, and speculative fiction.

Sacha Phillip is an entertainment-industry professional, with a background in Literature. Her favorite literary genres include post-colonial novels, Greek dramas, and Romantic-era poetry. She is an avid writer, focusing on poetry and short fiction.

Ruth Patkin is Director of Communications for Barnard College, founder of cowgirlmedia.com, and an inveterate collector of cool women’s stories. She produced the 2004 Smart Women Vote campaign with the League of Women Voters’, partnered with Women for Afghan Women to aid female refugees, and served as a reporter-at-large for Working Woman magazine—interviewing women like Maria Bartiromo, Ruth Simmons, and Julie Taymor. Earlier in her career, she spent ten years directing marketing and communications for Diane Von Furstenberg. Ruth grew up in New England, graduated with honors from Tufts University, and has lived in Cowgirl-friendly Manhattan ever since.

Laura Prah is currently pursuing an M.F.A. in Creative Writing at Vermont College. After graduating from Penn State with a B.A. in Journalism, she moved to New York City to pursue documentary filmmaking. This led to a diverse career in multimedia communications. She recently left her position as the Director of Multimedia Services at an investment bank to establish herself as a multimedia communications consultant. Laura is currently working on a collection of short stories.

Meghan Rabbitt, Workshops and Events Director of Girls Write Now, graduated from the Honors Program at the University of Delaware in 2001. After a summer internship at the New York City Mayor's Office, she became an editorial assistant at Parenting magazine. Now an associate editor at Parenting, Rabbitt channels her inner toddler to write and edit stories on everything from toys to tantrums to teething. She’s been a Girls Write Now mentor since 2004.

Susan Schneider has always been a reader and writer, which is what brought her into magazine publishing. Her first job was at Redbook magazine, in the fiction department. After that, she landed at Mademoiselle as fiction editor. She became an articles editor at Mademoiselle, as well as a columnist and writer. She has also worked at Modern Bride and Elegant Bride; currently, she’s at Bridal Guide. Schneider is now writing a novel that’s set—guess where?—at a bridal magazine.

Denise Simon is in her fourth season as a mentor with Girls Write Now. A graduate of the University of Miami, she has worked as a story analyst, a magazine researcher, and a freelance writer/reviewer for several publications. On most days, you can find her in the busy midtown offices of Town & Country Travel and Town & Country Weddings, where she is a member of the editorial staff. The NYC native also enjoys her role as Girls Write Now’s primary photographer, and she looks forward to capturing another season’s worth of memories on film.

Taigi Smith is a fulltime Television Producer at the CBS Evening NEWS and currently lives in Brooklyn. As a freelance writer, Taigi’s work has appeared in numerous magazines and literary anthologies, including Essence, Step Into A World: An Anthology of the New Black Literature and Listen Up: Voices from the Next Feminist Generation. Taigi’s anthology, Sometimes Rhythm, Sometimes Blues: Young African-Americans on Love, Relationships, Sex, and the Search for Mr. Right, was published by Seal Press in 2004.

Caron K. Stengel is a writer, a literary agent and an adjunct college English teacher. Her essay, “Don’t Be a Martyr,” was included in LABOR DAY: Shared Experiences from the Delivery Room (Workman, 1999). The literary journal New York Stories has published her interviews with, among others, James McBride and Edwidge Danticat, and her upcoming interview with Marjane Satrapi will appear in the spring 2006 issue. Knauer worked as a film development executive at Twentieth Century Fox for five years, and she was associate producer of the film “Waiting to Exhale”. She is currently working on “SPA!”, a comedic screenplay.

Michele Thomas explored creative writing at the High School of Graphic Communication Arts in Manhattan before attending Fordham University, where she majored in Communication and Media Studies. She currently works as an editor with Jump Start Press, a children’s educational book development company. Her diverse work experience includes covering health and nutrition as a freelance writer; working as the managing editor of a nationally syndicated newspaper distribution service; and as a science editor on Grades K-5 educational materials for Macmillan/McGraw-Hill. She is also the author of “Oxygen” and “Sodium” for the Understanding the Elements of the Periodic Table™ series (Rosen Publishing Group, 2004) for middle-school children. The Brooklyn native, knitting nut, and avid “foodie” can usually cook or knit her way out of trouble and enjoys sharing her crafty ways whenever possible. Michele lives in Brooklyn with her cat Stitches and several spatulas.

Lynn Weingarten graduated from the University of Maryland in 2001 with a major in English and a concentration in Creative Writing. For the past four years, Lynn has worked at Alloy Entertainment creating, plotting, and editing commercial teen fiction. She helped develop the New York Times best-selling series, The Clique by Lisi Harrison, which she continues to edit. She also edits the best-selling A List series (by Zoey Dean) and works with a number of popular authors including Kate Brian (The V Club, Megan Meade's Guide to the McGowan Boys, Private) and Tucker Shaw (The Hookup Artist). In addition to working on her own short stories, Lynn writes text-messages, shopping lists, and notes to herself on her hand.

Penny Wrenn, Talent Director of Girls Write Now, is currently an assistant editor at Redbook magazine. In addition to Redbook, she has also written for Esquire, Essence, Parenting, Fader, Oneworld, and Ms. magazines. Penny is a graduate of Spelman College where she studied English. She’s been a Girls Write Now mentor since 2004.

Ruiyan Xu grew up in Shanghai and graduated from Brown University. She is a fiction writer who has attended residencies in Wyoming, Washington, and Minnesota. She lives in Brooklyn.