GirlsWriteNow's blog

By Maud Newton
Girls Write Now Board of Directors

The first installment of CHAPTERS, the Girls Write Now reading series I'm curating, will feature the talented Dolen Perkins-Valdez, author of the new novel Wench.

She'll be introduced by my friend and fellow board member Tayari Jones. After Dolen's guest reading, several of the girls will share their own work.  The event is this Friday at the Center for Fiction, 6 p.m., and we'd love to see you there.

By Amelia Thomson-DeVeaux
Soapbox Inc./Girls Write Now Intern

Bruce Morrow is an educational leader, a passionate believer in lifelong learning.  Talking with him is a delight—one could easily discuss anything from black masculinity to Bruce’s children, to his work with Bank Street College of Education, in New York, to the book he’s currently reading (Let the Great World Spin, by Colum McCann), or even his favorite six-grain Mediterranean yogurt. And of course, Bruce has watched Girls Write Now grow over the past few years, and has nothing but praise for the work that he has both participated in and watched. “I would say that our biggest challenge has been capacity,” he said, laughingly turning my question on its head.  “There’s just so much demand for what Girls Write Now has to offer.”

From his early days working at Teachers & Writers Collaborative in New York, Bruce has always been a mentor, although he quickly admitted that his very first experience was somewhat serendipitous. “I had a friend who was an actress,” he recalled, “and she was leaving New York to move to Los Angeles. She had someone who she was a mentor for, very informally, and she thought that we would work well together. He was a student at Cardinal Hayes High School in the Bronx, so although it was a private Catholic school, it’s still an underserved area.” Morrow’s friend’s mentee wanted to be a writer, and thought that he and Bruce would get along well.  Bruce finally agreed to meet with him, and the two formed a three-year friendship and mentoring relationship, during which Bruce’s mentee was able to attend the Young Writers Workshop of the University of Virginia.

By Michelle Gonzalez
Soapbox Inc./Girls Write Now Intern

Kathy Daneman is an icon in the publishing industry, having worked for organizations such as SoHo Press and Beacon Press. She currently works as the publicity manager for Farrar, Straus, and Giroux. Her passion for literature and journalism began at an early age, partly because her parents loved reading. Growing up in Kansas can be challenging for a self-proclaimed feminist, but Kathy successfully overcame the obstacles that stood in her way.
 
During high school, Kathy met Judy McMahon, her personal mentor and a role model for young women everywhere. She encouraged Kathy to challenge stereotypical ideas about women and speak her mind openly. Kathy says, “She taught me to write, encouraged me to think independently, championed me and my (unpopular feminist) interests.” Overall, Kathy had a very positive experience growing up and finding her place in the feminist movement and literary world. She recently became a member of the Girls Write Now community but has always felt strongly connected to the group’s mission. Although Kathy had an incredible experience, she recognizes that not all young women are so fortunate. She feels that every woman has the right to form her own opinions and voice them honestly.

By Marlee Kimmick
Girls Write Now Intern

Here at Girls Write Now, we strive to make an impact on the lives and writing of New York City girls, and there is no way that we would be able to do so without the dedication, knowledge, and compassion that our mentors bring to the organization. January has been designated National Mentoring Month by President Obama, so we wanted to send a special thanks to our incredible mentors.

At Mentor Training Part II, held on Saturday, Jan. 9^th at Girls Write Now, Board member and long-time mentor Andrea Juncos led a toast to GWN’s mentors saying: “We wanted to take this time to celebrate all of you, the mentors, for working with your girls on writing and so much more. Your impact is huge, even when you don’t feel like it is…and our girls are so lucky to have you. President Obama calls mentoring a ‘unique and timeless gift’ – we feel the same way and clearly so do your mentees. Here they celebrate you in their own words”

By Julie Polk
Girls Write Now Mentor

I hate asking for donations. It always feels like I’m imposing, and it’s easy to assume that people have other things to do with their time and/or money. (I’m sure this aversion comes in part from my ten years as actress, where the “cause” was usually “rent money,” and the potential “donors” were otherwise known as “my parents.”) Which is why I can admit, after the fact, that as I walked into the GWN letter-writing soiree on November 5th, I was planning on staying for a drink, chatting with a fellow mentor or two, knocking out a couple of letters max, and then sneaking away before anyone caught on to how lame I am at this sort of activity.

But here is the thing: once I sat down and read Tina Gao’s appeal letter and watched the video of her and Maya’s trip to the White House for the Coming Up Taller award, I was sold on GWN all over again. And I realized I had it wrong. The soiree was about asking others to be generous, sure, but it was also about we at GWN being generous as well, because generosity comes in all kinds of forms. Sometimes it’s about giving, but at least as often it’s about sharing things you love: a favorite book, a great band you’ve just discovered, a recipe you’ve made so many times you know it by heart. From the time I first learned about GWN I was a huge fan. I worked as hard on my mentor application as I did on my applications to writing school. (Erm… harder, probably, but don’t tell my grad school teachers that, all right? It’ll just be our little secret. Excellent.) Being a part of Girls Write Now is a pleasure I feel lucky to have, so how could I justify withholding the possibility of that pleasure from others just because I felt a little uncomfortable?

The answer, of course, is that I couldn’t. So I had my drink and my chats and more cookies than I’m willing to admit publicly, and then I sat down and knocked out a bunch more letters than the couple I had intended. I have no idea how many of the letters I sent yielded donations, but I know at least two of them did, because after donating they emailed me to thank me for letting them know about GWN. So be generous enough to share what you love with others. Who knows? They may love it as much as you do – but unless you tell them about it, they may never have the chance.

On November 4, The President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities and First Lady Michelle Obama honored all Girls Write Now mentors and mentees at with a Coming Up Taller Award, distinguishing our community of as one of the top 15 after-school organizations in the nation. Watch clips of the ceremony on YouTube. Below, our girls thank Mrs. Obama in their own words.

Dear Michelle Obama
by Diamond Arriola, GWN Mentee

I just want to start off by sincerely stating my gratitude for your award given to Girls Write Now. This program means so much to me, as it does to you. Girls Write Now has inspired me to persevere in my writing goals as far as becoming a magazine writer and a well-known poet. They saw something in me and held my hand through each step of the way. I look up to my mentor- her name is Nakisha. She has inspired me to work in the same field that she does, writing for various types of magazines. Now is the time that our program, Girls Write now, looks up to you. Thank you so much for your dedication.

Sincerely,
Diamond

By Anna Poon and Nancy Mercado
Girls Write Now Mentor-Mentee Pair

Girls Write Now pair Nancy and Anna reflect on their experiences at the poetry workshop through the medium they focused on during the workshop: slam poetry.

The commanding presence of Leeza inspired everyone to stand in their own skin.

So much so that hands shot up immediately to volunteer to read. (So brave.)

Spoken word has always been kind of scary for us.

Why?

First of all, it’s poetry. We want to do it right and we want to do it well.

There was no way we would have wanted to get up and read in front of everyone.

But by the end we were surprised that we actually wanted to read our pieces.

The other girls were sharing personal things about themselves, so we didn’t feel scared to share our own feelings. (Inspiring.)

Take Emily Alvarez: We don’t remember what she said, but we remember how she said it. Her loose body language and dynamic personality still sticks with us.

Maybe there’s something about the freedom of the format that made us feel like we could do it.

No rhyme scheme, no specific structure.

Inhibitions went down. Down with inhibitions!

Let your inhibitions down; it’s like a chain reaction, everyone else becomes looser.

By Girls Write Now

Girls Write Now is powered by a vibrant, close-knit community of exceptional women writers—their published work is as captivating and current as the voices of our girls, who stream in to our office for weekly mentoring sessions and monthly workshops from every corner of New York City. Our network of committed volunteers, more than 6,000 strong, intimately understands that a key component of nurturing the next generation of women writers is connecting them with their role models. This space of mutual support has grown exponentially thanks to our partnership with She Writes, which is why, on this Day of Action, we band with them and recall just a few of the countless women whose words inspire us this year, at our workshops, readings and events...

By Ceilidh Morgan
GWN Mentee

I cannot believe that I have in been in GWN for a year already. I have learned so much about myself as a writer and a person in this year alone. I joined GWN right at the beginning of a period of a lot of change in my life. I was getting ready to apply to college and graduate from high school and move on to a whole new chapter in my life. At the same time, as a writer, I was at a point where I hardly ever wrote anymore. Everything I wrote just felt like a poor imitation of something I had read before.

My mom was the one who told me about Girls Write Now. She had met two mentees from the program who were giving out information about Girls Write Now. She started talking to them about the program and thought it would be perfect for me. I didn’t know what to expect, but I thought I needed to get back into writing so I applied. When I was called for the interview, I was really happy and after the interview I wanted to be in the program even more. I felt afraid because I knew how much I wanted to be a part of GWN, but I wasn’t sure I’d get in. When I got the call that I was accepted, I couldn’t believe it, I was so happy.

By Grace Bastidas, Michele Thomas, and Heather Smith
GWN Community

On Friday, September 11, the New York City Mayor's office invited Girls Write Now to participate in the eighth annual September 11th Commemoration Ceremony at Zuccotti Park, adjacent to the World Trade Center. Here, three key members of Girls Write Now's core community—mentor Grace Bastidas, mentor alum Michele Thomas, and volunteer enrollment chair Heather Smith—reflect on their experience: