Anthology pieces due for ALL mentees and mentors

DEADLINE FOR SUBMISSION:
ALL SUBMISSIONS ARE DUE NO LATER THAN THURSDAY, APRIL 1, 2010, 5PM. BECAUSE OF PRINTER DEADLINES, WE CAN OFFER NO EXTENSIONS.

WHAT TO SUBMIT:
1. Mentees Only: ONE FULL, POLISHED PIECE that you worked on with your mentor in workshops, pair sessions, or both. This CANNOT be the reading piece you submitted earlier this year. Think of this piece as the best example of your work from this Girls Write Now year—choose something that you’re really proud of! This piece should be NO MORE THAN 850 WORDS. MAKE SURE TO INCLUDE A TITLE WITH THIS PIECE.

3. Mentees & Mentors: This year, our workshop theme of “Where We Live” has taken us from our homes out into our world and beyond. Write about where your mentee/mentor has taken you this year (literally or figuratively) and how that journey has impacted your pair relationship. Your pair snapshot should reveal your relationship and personality, so be candid, creative, and fun—AND NO MORE THAN 100 WORDS EACH! So, that’s two 100-word snapshots: one written by each of you. See below for a sample pair snapshot.

HOW TO SUBMIT:
MENTORS, please email your and your mentee’s submissions to antho@girlswritenow.org. Please email ALL SUBMISSIONS TOGETHER IN ONE EMAIL, and be sure to label each piece with the following:
1. Author’s name
2. Submission category: full piece, workshop gem, or pair snapshot
3. For full pieces, include a title
4. For all workshop gems, specify the workshop and exercise the gem was inspired by (see list below)

We’ve had a lot of workshops this year! Can’t quite remember what you wrote? Please see below for a reminder of the great and various work you’ve produced so far!

Memoir, Personal Essay, “In My House”

• Write one or two sentences about the rooms in your house: your favorite hiding place, your family’s favorite gathering spot, what it sounds like in certain rooms, what room embarrasses you the most, or which room you’re jealous of in your best friend’s house.
• Based on one of rooms you wrote about in the icebreaker, write about a memory you have of a specific event that happened in that place. Try to write about an experience that you have mixed feelings about, focusing on the emotions that made this event memorable.
• Look back on the experience you just wrote about and reflect on it, adding a paragraph to the end or the beginning. You can write about how time and distance has affected how you think about your experience. Show us a shift in perspective.
• Or any of the take home exercises.
  

Poetry, Spoken Word, “At My School”

• What’s it like at your school? How do you feel about the people and things you encounter there every day? Choose 5 people and / or things from your school and write two or three sentences directly addressed to each of the things or people you choose.
• Write your own spoken word poem, speaking directly TO some one or something from your school. Think about what you would say to this person or thing if they were right in front of you. This is your chance to get whatever you’ve been burning to say off your chest!
• Re-write your spoken word poem, marking it with notes for how you will read it when it’s read out loud. For example: take a breath, long pause, emphasize, speed up, slow down.
• Or any of the take home exercises.

Fiction, Short Story, “Around My Neighborhood”

• Think about your neighborhood and the everyday situations that happen there. Describe a character from your neighborhood having a bad day; describe your neighborhood to some one who’s never been there; write a dialogue between two people in your neighborhood having an argument.
• Write an excerpt of a short story that contains a conflict. The conflict can be internal or external. You can use a character, setting, or event that you came up in the icebreaker above.
• Re-visit the conflict you just wrote and now imagine that you’re seeing it through someone else’s eyes. Switch points of view or perspectives and re-tell the scene from this new point of view.
• Or any of the take home exercises.

Playwriting, One-Woman Show, “Throughout My City”

• Think of three characters (people you know, people you’ve never met – real or imagined, or people you wish you’d met). List the three most important things about each of these characters. Include a physical description for each of your characters.
• Choose one of your characters from the Icebreaker and, in that character’s voice, tell some one the story of his/her worst day. When writing this speech, or monologue, think about who your character is telling this story to, and why.
• Turn your one-character monologue from the Free Write into a scene in which you use multiple characters to tell the same story. Think about how the language or focus will change when you’re telling the story from another character’s point of view.
• Or any of the take home exercises.

Says Melissa: It was early November when I first took a risk in front of a person I was just starting to get to know. Carrot cake in the morning! Yup, that was my risk, and it felt good. I was always self-conscious about what someone outside of my immediate family would think of me if they actually saw me be the real Melissa that I am. However, Michele inspired such confidence that she helped me break that habit by encouraging me to pick the piece of cake that we shared.

Says Michele: It was an early November morning, and one of our first meetings. We met at a bookstore to work on her portfolio statement and get to know each other. We talked about writing, poetry, and creative risk – the Achilles’ heel of most writers I know. We talked about how creative risk doesn’t have to be scary. It can happen one step at a time, a piece of cake. All that talk of cake made us hungry, but the most appetizing – and risky – bite available was the carrot cake in the café. Melissa took the leap, and she let me share in her journey.