Girls Write Now

Girls Write Now

Log in

Join Our Email List

  • About
    • Intro
    • Mission
    • Impact
    • Black Lives Matter
    • Digital Media Growth
  • Community
    • Mentors/Mentees
    • Speakers
    • Alumni
    • Team
    • Board
    • GWN Circle
    • Agents of Change
    • Fdn/Govt
    • All Donors 2020
  • Programs
    • Writing 360
    • Writing Works
    • Salon Series
    • Community Chats
    • Summer Edition
    • GWN Live
    • Publications
  • Join
    • Enroll
    • Support
    • Careers
    • Get Involved
    • Contact
  • Girls Write Now Awards
  • News
    • Media Mentions
    • Blog
  • Calendar
    • Jan 28: Book Launch Event for Cicely Tyson
    • Jan 29: Friday Night Salon with Mahogany L. Browne
    • Feb 5: Friday Night Salon with Dr. Joy Harden Bradford
Home / Programs / Salon Series / SUMMER SALON SERIES: Going All In, A Memoir Writing Salon with Maria Konnikova

SUMMER SALON SERIES: Going All In, A Memoir Writing Salon with Maria Konnikova

On Thursday, August 6, we wrote high-stakes memoir scenes with New York Times bestselling author, journalist, and professional poker player Maria Konnikova at Going All In, A Memoir Writing Salon!

Prompt #1

What is the scariest thing you’ve ever done, on purpose? Describe the experience in a scene. What was it? Why did you find yourself there? What were you feeling? Did you know it for what it was at the time—or is it only later that you understood what was at stake?

Prompt #2

Think about someone who has played a significant role in your life. A teacher, a parent, a friend, a mentor, a sibling. Describe one single interaction that highlights why this person is important to you. Show us who they are through a scene. Through dialogue: Make us feel like we’re there, with you, in one very specific moment in time.

Prompt #3

Write about an object that holds power over you. Describe the object in a way that highlights the nature of its personal significance. A phone or computer, for instance, holds power over most of us: the grip of technology. But that’s something more universal than personal. Try to find something that is unique to you.

Maria Konnikova is the author of Mastermind and The Confidence Game. She is a regular contributing writer for The New Yorker and has written for The Atlantic, The New York Times, Slate, The New Republic, The Paris Review, The Wall Street Journal, Salon, The Boston Globe, Scientific American, Wired, and Smithsonian, among many other publications. Her writing has won numerous awards, including the 2019 Excellence in Science Journalism Award from the Society of Personality and Social Psychology. While researching her newest book The Biggest Bluff, Maria became an international poker champion and the winner of over $300,000 in tournament earnings. Maria also hosts the podcast The Grift from Panoply Media and is currently a visiting fellow at NYU’s School of Journalism. Her podcasting work earned her a National Magazine Award nomination in 2019. Maria graduated from Harvard University and received her Ph.D. in Psychology from Columbia University.

Our Summer Salons—hosted in Zoom and open to the public—are a space for our community to learn from and write with some incredible authors, poets, journalists, and novelists. The Girls Write Now Summer Salon Series is an extension of our Writing Works Program.

Donate Now

Life Resources and Events

At Girls Write Now, we are saddened and horrified by the recent acts of domestic terrorism grounded in the systemic racism and inequality we work as a community to challenge and change every day. We are here to support you individually and as a community through our robust programming. Check out our calendar to see our current offerings or visit our Life Resources page to support you during this time. 

We’re Hiring!

Looking for more purpose-driven work in the new year? Check out available roles to join the team! 

Friday Night Salon with Mahogany L. Browne

Join us on Friday, January 29, 6-7:30PM EST for (Un)Spoken Rules of Growing Up Girl: Writing Poetry for Young Adults with Mahogany L. Browne!

GIVE. WRITE. NOW. And Thank you!!

Girls Write Now’s services are more essential than ever before—serving the hardest hit communities—and many of our young women and gender nonconforming youth have themselves become essential workers to help their families. They carry an enormous burden and face devastating loss, slipping further into poverty. To meet the need, we have enriched and extended our programs, leading the historical transition to virtual learning.

Get Involved!

Are you a licensed mental health professional who’d love to work with our community of writers and creatives? We’re seeking volunteer Wellness Advisors. Get more info & apply here!

Relive the Girls (Re)Write Now Awards

If you missed the awards, you can still watch it! Relive this revolutionary night of mini–master classes with honorees on empathy, art, activism & humor and Girls Write Now mentees on writing with purpose, climate justice & self-care. 

Writing from our Future Leaders

Taking Our Place in History: the Girls Write Now 2020 Anthology was published with support from Dutton and Amazon Literary Partnership, available for purchase from McNally Jackson Books and anywhere ebooks are sold!

Girls Write Now in the News

Girls Write Now’s work has recently been featured by the National Endowment for the Arts, Time Out New York, NYXT and more!

Girls Write Now

247 West 37th Street, Suite 1000
New York, NY 10018
212.336.9330
Please donate at girlswritenow.org/give
or make checks payable to Girls Write Now

Connect With Us

  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

Copyright © 2021 · Girls Write Now · Designed by Alex Yeske and built by Tadpole · Powered by WordPress and Genesis · Log in

Copyright © 2021 · Girls Write Now Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in