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NEW GWN SEASON LAUNCHES!
The Girls Write Now 2011-12 season is off to a rollicking start, beginning with last week's mentor training event at GWN Headquarters. The day included an "icebreaker" scavenger hunt designed to introduce everyone, with clues such as "the mentor who had a film debut in the Black Harvest Film Festival" and "the first mentee to become a mentor." The afternoon continued with discussions tailored to both new and returning mentors, covering topics such as the collaborative process of reinventing the annual workshop curriculum, and the idea of "meeting your mentee where she is."
In the training's final activity, Closing Lines, mentors reflected on last year, and on the year to come. Returning mentor Wendy recalled that her mentee taught her "it's never too late to do anything," while new mentor Mary Pat wants to share with her mentee "the power of watchfulness, and the joy of putting what you see down on paper."
The entire GWN community of mentors and mentees will come together on September 24, when the group will sign the community pledge, and have a chance to do "speed dating" in advance of the matchmaking to come at the October 15 Fiction Workshop (which will focus on the sub-genre of crime writing!).
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LAUGHTER AND 2011 GRADUATION
The final events of the 2010-11 season highlighted the successes of the entire year - so we decided to take a look back! Sketch Comedy was our last "Wild Card" genre workshop on May 14, and sent the GWN mentors and mentees laughing on into summer vacation. Our thanks to hilarious special guests Megan Neuringer and Tara Copeland. (Revisit the delight of Sketch Comedy with Joy and Emma's hilarious blog post, "Our Top 5" - and the whole season through mentees' eyes on the GWN Blog.)
At CHAPTERS on June 17, guest author Kate Christensen told us she would love to be a GWN mentor if she lived in NYC - and went on to tell a little bit about her
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Seniors Brittany and Meghan were featured on Figment.com
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beginnings as a young writer before reading from her book, The Astral (revisit it on Girls Write Now's YouTube Channel!) The final reading not only marked the publication of the 2011 GWN Anthology, it also honored the graduation of our Class of 2011 mentees - particularly our 31 seniors, who have now matriculated at colleges across the country.
Graduates Meghan McCullough and Brittany Barker shared some insight about their years with Girls Write Now with Figment.com (above). Figment was a generous partner throughout the 2011 series - if you missed any of their coverage, be sure to go back and check it out! And our thanks to Kathleen Sweeney and Caitlin Curran, who filmed our guest authors in collaboration with mentee and mentee alum interviewers.
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HAVEN'T SEEN US IN A WHILE?
If you've just rejoined our email list - welcome back! PLEASE LET US KNOW if you'd like to opt out of future Girls Write Now mailings.
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A SUMMER WITH GIRLS COLLEGE BOUND
 Girls from across the five boroughs of NYC (including some returning mentees, and a few new ones too!) came together at 247 West 37th Street this past July for a series of four free college essay-writing workshops, led by veteran GWN mentors and teaching artists Erica Silberman and Susanna Horng.
The workshops began with idea brainstorming, and over the weeks guided participants through the drafting of introductions, core content paragraphs, and conclusions. Small group workshopping provided instructor and peer feedback at each session - for many girls, this element was their favorite part!
Rising senior (and new mentee) Mary shared her experience in the workshops on the Girls Write Now Blog, noting, "I loved the feeling of having so many people surrounding me that are willing to help me with my writing." She also included a list of essay-writing tips she took away from the events. And GWN summer intern Kamelia Kilawan blogged about the workshops too, writing, "After hearing so many powerful essays, I realized how writing can impact a whole new generation of women." We couldn't agree more, Kamelia.
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TINDERBOX IS MUSIC TO GWN'S EARS
 Girls Write Now mentors and mentees joined in on the first-ever Tinderbox/GWN songwriting workshop on July 30, a special one-day event where each girl had the opportunity to be paired with a songwriting mentor.
After a full day of exercises and activities, the pairs got to perform their original songs in front of the group. For many mentees, it was their first time writing a song - from Zinga and Alyson's electo-pop song about one mother's journey, to Farah and Therese's Juno-inspired track about a lonely sandbox, each song was a unique offering and made for a great performance. Participants enthused that the musical experience was fresh and rewarding, something that they would love to repeat.
Girls Write Now was also honored to be one of the beneficiaries of the 2011 Tinderbox Music Festival, held this past Saturday at the Knitting Factory in Brooklyn. Our congratulations to Tinderbox on the success of this event, which featured an all female line-up including Holly Miranda, Xylos, Tinderbox founder Alyson Greenfield, and other talented women! And of course stay tuned for more Tinderbox songwriting workshops...
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WELCOME ANUSHA MAHAR!
We're delighted to have Anusha Mehar join the Girls Write Now staff this fall, as our new Program Coordinator. A long-time human rights activist, organizer and educator, Anusha received a BA from CUNY Hunter College in Spanish Language Arts and Literature. She comes to the Girls Write Now team after a year of Program Coordinating and development work with the Rebel Diaz Arts Collective (RDAC-BX), a Hip Hop Community Center in the South Bronx, where she facilitated programing around youth empowerment through media literacy training.
"I fell in love with Girls Write Now from a distance a long time ago," says Anusha, "but over the past few weeks, I have had the opportunity to intimately acquaint myself with the organization. The energy of the staff, mentors, and volunteers is incredible, and I am ecstatic to begin working with such an amazing group of positive women." Welcome, Anusha!
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PAIR SPOTLIGHT: THERESE & KAT
 "Therese has shown me that you can always explore the world with relish," says fourth year mentee Kat Jagai about her mentor, writer and musician Therese Cox. Kat, a Brooklyn native, tends to focus her compositions in the fantasy fiction genre, as seen in her reading piece for last spring's CHAPTERS series, an excerpt from her work-in-progress novel, Halflings. In their weekly sessions together, Therese and Kat explore a wide range of common interests, including art books, film, and photography - "but our varied indulgences always seem to come back to writing," says Kat.  | |
PHOTO: Jason Falchook/The MOTH
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Kat's been busy this summer - among other things, she was selected to participate in a special storytelling workshop sponsored by The Moth (in cooperation with GWN and Participant Media) this past July, which culminated in a performance at El Museo Del Barrio (pictured at left). This fall, the pair is excited to be joining The Sketchbook Project at the Brooklyn Art Library, in addition to GWN. And Kat's looking forward to her own TED talk on writing - more info to come on that. But of course (even with college applications!), they'll still be sure to leave time for Halflings. |
GIRLS WRITE NOW IN THE NEWS
GWN Board member Nancy K. Miller's new book What They Saved is our Fall Book Pick. Learn more about GWN community books here.
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SAVE THE DATE: GWN HOLIDAY SOIREE
On the night of Thursday, November 3rd, friends of GWN will gather for the annual GIRLS WRITE NOW HOLIDAY SOIREE - a festive evening to support our community. Look out for more details to come. We hope to see you there! |
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GRANTS UPDATE
With gratitude, Girls Write Now is delighted to acknowledge renewed funding from:
- Adco Foundation
- Brooklyn Community Foundation
- Ferris Greeney Family Foundation
- Patrina Foundation
And we proudly welcome the following new funders to our community:
- The Debs
- Friedman Family Trust
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GIRLS WRITE NOW Holiday Soiree
Thursday 11/3
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