ENROLLMENT

Final Days to Apply for Spring Journey!

Apply as a Mentor or Mentee by January 15

Tell your friends, colleagues, and family! You have a little more time to get in your applications to join the Girls Write Now Collaboratory as a mentor or mentee this spring. Explore self love, creative career opportunities, poetry, activism, and more in one of our dynamic Spring Journeys.

If you are currently enrolled in a Fall Journey, look out for a renewal application in your inbox.

WRITING FOR HOPE

Prompt of the Week

Write a response to this excerpt from Amanda Gorman's poem, "We Write":

Change is made of choices,
& choices are made of character.
Cling to whatever brings us to begin,
Even if it is formless as foam.
We keep hoping
For no reason at all.
For every reason we share.

As Inauguration Day approaches, we are reminded of the powerful words of inaugural poet and Girls Write Now champion Amanda Gorman. How do you practice hope? How do you move yourself to action?

LIFE@GWN

Annie and Shaila: Mentorship is a Two-Way Street

Celebrating Transformative Relationships During National Mentoring Month

In 2023, Channel Kindness, a project of Lady Gaga's Born This Way Foundation, interviewed mentor Annie Pill and mentee Shaila Moulee after they completed their first year of mentorship. Writing through grief, transition, and self-doubt, both have come out stronger for it, with a wealth of creativity to express, process and connect through. When we caught up with them recently, we couldn't believe all that they had done since joining Girls Write Now, and we are excited to share their updates with you!

CAREER CHAT

Audio/Podcasting Career Chat

Tuesday, Jan. 14, 4:45-6 PM ET, Virtual

This Chat will explore the essential attributes and pathways to positions within the audio and podcasting industries. Here is your chance to ask all of your burning questions with a panel that covers everything from podcast production to audiobooks!

Open to all mentees, mentors, and members. If you don't yet have an account, it's easy to set one up and become a Girls Write Now Member.

COMMITTEE STUDIO

Committee on Print Editorial

Wednesday, Jan. 15, 7-8 PM ET, Virtual

Join us for the kick-off Intersectional Voices in Editorial (IV Edit) Print Committee meeting as we gather to talk about Girls Write Now's 2025 Anthology and share our hopes and dreams. Who should write the Foreword and who should provide a blurb? What goes into making this meaningful book? You'll learn about the publishing process and meet the mentors and mentees who will be editing the book.

Open to all IV Edit – Print committee members, mentees, mentors & members.

COLLABORATORY WORKSHOP

Literature to Life: I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter

Saturday, Jan. 18, 2-4 PM ET
Girls Write Now Headquarters
247 W 37th Street, Suite 10

Girls Write Now presents Literature to Life's stage presentation of I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter by Erika L. Sánchez, performed by Elizabeth Raquel Ramirez, and adapted and directed by Ana Maria Jomolca. Based on the novel I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter, © 2017
Production produced in partnership with Freedom Reads.

Required for Playwriting Journey participants.
Open to mentors, mentees and members. If you don't yet have an account, it's easy to set one up and become a Girls Write Now Member.

COMMITTEE STUDIO

Intersectional Voices in Editorial Digital Committee Studio

Wednesday, Jan. 22, 6-7 PM ET, Virtual

Join us for an interactive, live editing session of mentee writing! Special guests from the Nonfiction Journey will share excerpts from their memoirs in progress and receive feedback from IVEdit – Digital Committee Members.

Open to all mentors, mentees, and members.

COMMITTEE STUDIO

Committee on Diversity, Equity, Inclusion & Belonging: Aligning Communications to Our Values

Thursday, Jan. 23, 7-8:15 PM ET, Virtual

Please join us for the next Committee Meeting of Intersectional Voices in Diversity Equity & Inclusion (IV DEIB) where we'll be discussing Girls Write Now's values, and applying them to our communications. At this meeting, we will discuss our plans to institute our values of trust, evolution, community, creativity , and expression. Then we will utilize these values to review and make recommendations on how we communicate as a community—with a focus on our primary platform Slack.

Open to all mentors, mentees, and members. Open to both current & prospective IVDEIB committee members.

JOB OPPORTUNITY

Dotdash Meredith

People Magazine, Staff Editor, Food

The Staff Editor will be responsible for working closely with the Senior Editor and Senior News Editor to coordinate cross-platform content. This will include managing both routine daily news and breaking news situations. The ideal candidate is a dynamic editor who is passionate about People Magazine and knows how to find unique and compelling stories.

FELLOWSHIP OPPORTUNITY

PEN America

Emerging Voices Fellowship

The Emerging Voices Fellowship provides a virtual five-month immersive mentorship program for early-career writers from communities that are traditionally underrepresented in the publishing world. The program is committed to cultivating the careers of Black writers, and serves writers who identify as Indigenous, persons of color, LGBTQ+, immigrants, writers with disabilities, and those living outside of urban centers.

FELLOWSHIP OPPORTUNITY

Martha's Vineyard Institute of Creative Writing

Voices of Color Fellowship

We are proud to announce the Leonard A. Slade, Jr. Poetry Fellowships for Writers of Color (established 2018) to honor poets of color, and The Voices of Color Fellowships (established 2017) to honor prose writers of color. The fellowships assist MVICW with our commitment to expanding the American literary canon by promoting voices from a wide array of cultural backgrounds, and to increasing philanthropic support for writers of color in the arts. Application for these fellowships is open to all writers of color, ages 18 and older. Two Full Fellowship Winners (one prose and one poetry) will receive the Full Attendance Package to the MVICW Summer Writers' Conference which includes registration, lodging, and a manuscript session.

Due Date: January 19, 2025