Plus, a haunted-house prompt from a Bram Stoker winner
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Each week, a word becomes a world.
October 26-November 1
Challenging Expectations:
Featured Media
And Here I Breathe
By Madyson Oneiya
Despite everything, time continues to tick on. Eventually, everyone’s hourglass runs out of sand, and we run out of time.
But this story doesn’t end where you think it does…
Rewrite the Starving Artist Script
Young writers hear it constantly: shelve the novel, the screenplay, the poem, for something more “stable.” Girls Write Now hands them a different script. In the Collaboratory, writers in more than 30 states learn how creative work becomes a living—through a Career Chat with Macmillan, a personal finance workshop with Raymond James, a mentor who has built that life herself. Their stories can pay the rent. Your gift proves it.
Stories That Haunt Us:
Notes from Our Community
BOOK RECS
Eight Spooky Stories
Picked by the Girls Write Now Community
Can you feel that chill? The Girls Write Now community told us what they’re reading this October, and the list runs from Bram Stoker’s Dracula to a queer Rapunzel retelling, a reality-TV horror comedy, and twenty-six Indigenous writers who know why you should never whistle at night. Pick your next haunted read.
Girls Write Now Salon Artist
Cynthia Pelayo
PROMPT OF THE WEEK
Anatomy of a Ghost Story
Piece Together Your Own Haunted House
Every haunted house is built from the same parts. Outline yours with these:
- Character
- Setting
- Beginning, middle, and end
- Rising action and falling action
- Pacing
- Tension
- Fear
Then open the door and start writing.
This week’s prompt comes from Cynthia Pelayo, who leads Girls Write Now's Horror Fiction: This House Is Haunted. A Puerto Rican-born author, poet, and journalist, she writes across horror, crime fiction, and poetry, and won the Bram Stoker Award for her poetry collection Crime Scene.
WRITING CONTEST
Claim Your Voice & Win $1,500
We inherit stories about who we are, where we belong, and what is possible. Girls Write Now and Chasing Spirits want to hear about the moment you defied one of them—to stay alive, to claim your voice, to imagine a different future. Submit through November 15.
Open to young people ages 13-19 who identify as girls, gender-expansive, and/or LGBTQIA+.
Happening Write Now:
Mark Your Calendar
COMMUNITY CONVERSATION
After Cornell, How We Show Up for Each Other
Tuesday, October 27, 6:30-7:30 PM ET, Virtual
Wherever the news of the Cornell Seven finds you—grieving, furious, organizing, or still searching for words—come process it with us. Sophia Steele, a Girls Write Now mentor and Cornell PhD student, will lead an hour of guided journaling and conversation for our whole community: mentees, mentors, alumni, and anyone who cares about the safety and voices of women and gender-expansive people.
This session discusses sexual assault. If you need support now, the National Sexual Assault Hotline is free and confidential: 800-656-4673.
Open to all mentees, mentors, members & the public.
PUBLICATION LAUNCH
Metamorphosis Anthology Launch Parties
Wednesday, November 4, 6-8 PM ET, In Person
Friday, November 6, 7-8:30 PM ET, Virtual
IN PERSON: Words transform. Hear it for yourself as Metamorphosis writers perform their poems, stories, and essays at McNally Jackson Seaport. Browse shelves stocked with titles from the Girls Write Now community, and take home your own copy of Metamorphosis: Girls Write Now 2026 Anthology, with a foreword by Julissa Reynoso and an introduction by Blair Imani.
VIRTUAL: Can’t make it to the Seaport? Tune in from any of the more than 30 states our writers call home, and hear the next generation of women and gender-expansive writers read from its pages.
Open to all mentees, mentors, members & the public.
CAREER CHAT
Becoming Changemakers: A Politics & Organizing Career Chat
Tuesday, November 10, 4:45-6 PM ET, Virtual
One week after Election Day, meet the people who keep the work going. Organizers, advocates, and political professionals will tell you how they built careers around the causes they believe in. Then ask them what you want to know.
Open to all mentees, mentors, members & the public.
Get the Gig:
Curated Opportunities Just for You
Need help applying for these opportunities—and more?
Meet with a Mentor on Demand
FELLOWSHIP OPPORTUNITY
Editorial Fellowship
The Atlantic
The Atlantic is looking for recent college graduates and early-career journalists to join its newsroom. Fellows combine editorial work with learning and mentoring built around them, and come away understanding The Atlantic’s journalism and the wider American news industry.
Deadline: November 5, 2026
Create a portal account to apply.
ENRICHMENT OPPORTUNITY
RISE Program
Institute for Nonprofit Practice
RISE gives early-career professionals leadership training for mission-driven work. Participants learn how social impact organizations run, build leadership and professional skills, and connect through mentoring and networking. The program is free for participants and their organizations.
Priority deadline: November 6, 2026. Applications accepted year-round.
Create a portal account to apply.
FELLOWSHIP OPPORTUNITY
Newsroom Fellowship
The New York Times
The New York Times Fellowship Program for early-career journalists runs from June 7, 2027 to May 26, 2028. Fellows work full time in the newsroom or the Opinion section and must be authorized to work in the United States when they apply and for the length of the program.
Deadline: November 20, 2026
Create a portal account to apply.
If you don’t already have a Girls Write Now account, create one now.
