September Community Outreach
Dear Friends of Project Write Now:
Something meaningful happens when writing moves beyond the page and into a shared space.
Our words become a way to pause, to really listen, and to better understand and appreciate one another.
This month, we experienced this connection again and again—along the water, at a community college, and across all our programs.
At a time when so much around us can feel overwhelming, creating space to write, share, and connect matters more than ever. It’s where we are reminded that we are not alone.
It’s where we find hope.
If you’ve been wanting to connect and find hope through shared stories, we invite you to join us for our annual CringeFest fundraising event on Friday, April 17, beginning at 6 p.m. at the Vogel at Count Basie Center for the Arts.
It’s an evening of storytelling, humor, and connection, and we’d love for you to be a part of it!
With love & gratitude,
Here’s what else we’ve been up to this month. If you are interested in bringing a community outreach program to your school or mission-based organization, email Meredith Z. Avakian, Director of Community Outreach & Engagement, at meredith@projectwritenow.org.
Bridge Ink 10.3
Our latest Bridge Ink issue is out! Bridge Ink is our virtual teen literary journal. Volume 10, Issue 3 features incredible teen writing from NIGERIA, BANGLADESH, California, Florida, New York, and New Jersey. We are so grateful to all who submitted. Check it out now! Congratulations to the newly published teens!
Firefly: Stories on Stage
We had such an amazing time at our spring-themed Firefly this month! We are so grateful to all who came out for this inspiring evening of community and connection at the gorgeous Two River Theater. Huge thanks to our featured storytellers (listed in order of appearance): Elizabeth Jannuzzi, Keaton DiBenedetto, Mannikka Rosa. And great job to all of the brave souls who joined us on the mic and shared a true, five-minute-long, first-person story on the topic of spring. We are taking a pause until August for our next Firefly. We look forward to seeing you then!
GEAR UP
In honor of Women’s History Month, we culminated our spring session by writing letters to and poems about some of the women who serve as inspirations in our lives. We also decorated cards (and envelopes), and then transcribed the letters and poems onto them, to share with loved ones or hold onto as a keepsake.
Love Is … Community Love Poem
Through the month of February, we collected answers from our writing community to the question: WHAT IS LOVE? We are thrilled to share the final community poem with you now. Thank you to all who contributed!
Lunchtime Write-In
Writers continued to meet on Zoom for Lunchtime Write-In to write and share original stories and poems. This month, we explored the themes: “Six,” “Superstitions,” and “Speed.” We love the writing community that has formed in this group and we are always open to welcoming new participants. Lunchtime Write-In meets on Fridays at 12:15 p.m. ET. Join us for our next Lunchtime Write-In to see what our upcoming theme will be!
Morning Pages
Committed writers continued to meet on Zoom for Morning Pages for an hour every weekday, from 8 to 9 a.m. ET. Want to join us? Sign up for April’s Morning Pages and write with us any weekday through the month. We are so grateful for the community that has formed around starting our days with words on a page!
PWN India (adults)
Our PWN India adult journaling club continued to write in response to some of our favorite pieces. In celebration of Women’s History Month, we read “These Poems” by June Jordan and “Pedal Fast, Eyes Up” by Tanya E. Friedman. These pieces had us reflecting on who we are and reminded us of childhood memories, such as learning to ride a bike. We love this quiet hour we have together to connect halfway across the world through words.
PWN India (teens)
We were thrilled to be welcomed back into India (virtually) for another weekly program with talented teen writers. In our first week, we read the excerpt “My Name” from The House On Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros and wrote about our names and things we have named. Every writer in the room said they wouldn’t change their name and we loved the outpouring of self-love that stemmed from this prompt. In our second week, we read Maya Angelou’s “Letter to Her Younger Self” and wrote letters both to our younger selves and our future selves. There were lots of words of encouragement and affirmations. We love writing with these inspiring teens and can’t wait to see what the next few weeks will bring!
Red Bank Middle School AVID (in-school)
Our 7th and 8th grade Red Bank Middle School AVID students finished their random-fact-inspired writing and we were blown away by what they came up with! One student used the fact that a shrimp’s heart is in its head to inspire a piece about what that would be like if that were true for humans. Another student wrote about how hard it is to make it as a professional soccer player and imagined himself in the role. More than one student chose to write about how otters hold hands when falling asleep, relating it back to things they never want to let go of themselves. We have been working on revising our pieces for the PWN Teen Voice & Verse Writing Contest and we have all submitted just before the deadline! We were also thrilled to have Heather from Wage International join us so that our students could participate in a pen-pal project with students in UGANDA! We have received a little over 20 letters from Ugandan students and had our RBMS students read and respond to every letter, most letters getting two responses, both one from an 8th grader and one from a 7th grader. We loved how excited our RBMS students were to read the letters and learn about a different culture. They also had a lot in common with the Ugandan students, some sharing a love of sports, a love of animals, one even sharing a birthday almost to the day (just three days apart). We can’t wait to get replies from our new friends!
Red Bank Middle School PWN Creative Expression Club (after-school)
Our PWN Creative Expression after-school writing club at Red Bank Middle School asked for spooky writing prompts and stories, so we shared R. L. Stine’s “There’s Something in my Sandwich” and then wrote our own twist endings. Some writers left us on cliffhangers, some leaned into the scariness of the unknown. We also read “Freedom” by Oliver Runner and wrote about our favorite places to travel and our bucket list dream travel locations. We read “Tattoo” by Ron Nick Flynn and wrote about the stories of our skin. And we read “A friend found in music” by Bryanna T. Perkins and wrote about our own unique relationships with music. Some of us even created playlists on the spot! On our last day, we went outside to write in the beautiful weather, participating in a Write Around where each writer added one sentence to collaboratively create a new story. We had such a great time writing together!
Red Bank Middle School Write to Be Here Club (after-school)
The Write to Be Here Creative Writing Club marched through neighborhoods of their own creation. Using inspiration from Shel Silverstein’s “Where the Sidewalk Ends,” writers imagined a world that they would like to inhabit and used words (and glue!) to construct it. Each week, writers added a new element to their word building world: out of the box buildings, popsicle stick sidewalks, poetry garden pop ups, mythological creature legends, super hero manifestos, and a welcome message to new residents. This collaboration between Project Write Now and Georgian Court University is part of creative writing research: how can we use storytelling to examine our past, understand our present, and envision a future we want to share? How can our words help us capture beauty, cultivate peace, speak truth, and hold hope? This group of students answered the call in cascading purple flower gardens, pink cloudy space pads, ziplining escape routes, and bird song filled paradises where communities were welcoming and kindness ruled.
Red Bank Regional Community Service Fair
We were honored to be invited to participate in Red Bank Regional’s Community Service Fair, setting up a table amongst a plethora of community partners to meet with RBR’s ambitious teens. So many stopped by our table to learn about our Voice & Verse contest and summer programs, and mostly to take notebooks and stickers and candy! So many gave us hugs, remembering us from their middle school years. We loved reconnecting with our students and meeting potential new students and interns, too!
Shore House
It was finally warm enough to do a grounding exercise outside with Shore House writers, guided by the incredible Danica of The Heart Space. After settling into the meditation, we quietly returned to our writing space and read “White-Eyes” by Mary Oliver to move us into a creative mindset. We invited members to write about the experience they just had, asking questions such as: Where did the meditation take you, if anywhere? Did this experience remind you of anything? What senses were most evoked? Pieces ranged from deep introspection to imaginative fantasy and we loved how every writer leaned into their own unique voice. We also brought back our community poem from the end of 2025 and hung it on a giant canvas, decorating the edges around it to be displayed at the Shore House location.
Soldier On
We are so excited to begin a new partnership with Soldier On, a nonprofit organization that offers a variety of need-based housing solutions to veterans. We began our first session reading “Small Kindnesses” by Danusha Lameris and “Tomato on Board” by Ross Gay and using the pieces to write about the small kindnesses we’ve experienced. The following week we explored what brings us joy inspired by “Night at the Roller Palace,” by January Gill O’Neil and “Pedal Fast, Eyes Up” by Tanya E. Friedman. Already we are moved by the stories the participants are sharing and we’re grateful for the opportunity to provide this program.
Success Stories
We are thrilled to share the success stories of our writing community! Check out the recent accomplishments (October – now) of these incredible writers here. Congratulations to all!
Teen Arts
We had an incredible time at this year’s Teen Arts Festival, a two-day event sponsored by Monmouth Arts that gives teens opportunities to experience professional critiques in their artistic disciplines. We adjudicated nearly 150 pieces of writing from teens from all over Monmouth County. We are always in awe of these young, brave writers who trust us with their words! We were also thrilled to host six writing workshops alongside adjudications, where we used poetry as inspiration to explore new creative works. We love how this event brings artists together in community to celebrate unique voices and talents! Thank you, Monmouth Arts, for including us in this very special event!
Womyn’s Worth – Lunch Break
We concluded our Womyn’s Worth sessions in collaboration with Melia Bloom by celebrating Women’s History Month. We “borrowed” words from women who inspired us and then read Nikki Giovanni’s “The Muse” to reflect on how our own words of wisdom inspire us. During our last session, we read Maya Angelou’s “Letter to Her Younger Self” and then wrote letters to our future selves to be opened in exactly one year. We then read Angelou’s “Phenomenal Woman” and wrote about what is phenomenal about who we are and what we bring to the world. We’re excited to celebrate these incredible women at their graduation in April.
Write Out Loud
As an ode to Women’s History Month, attendees at this month’s Write Out Loud got to spend time exploring the shelves at Asbury Book Cooperative, each selecting a book from a female author. We turned to random pages, swapped books, read the open pages, and used the words that stood out to us as inspiration for writing prompts. We had a blast! Join us for our next Write Out Loud on April 14!
Writing on the River Educator Retreat
We had a fabulous time at our annual Writing on the River retreat for educators at the start of the month! We are so grateful to all who came out to write with us and reignite our love for teaching through creativity and reflection. We had a blast kicking off the event with Saturday Night Fun for the first time—a reception, dinner, and a cozy evening of Pajamas, Journaling & Crafts. We will definitely be bringing this back again! We are thankful, as always, to The Oyster Point Hotel for the delicious food, inspiring artwork, and cozy space with amazing views. We can’t wait to come back next year!
Scholarship Seats
Through our mission as a nonprofit organization, we remove barriers to participating in our fee-based classes by providing full and partial scholarship seats as well as payment plans. In 2025, we provided 45 seats totaling $12,619.00. So far for 2026, we’ve offered 13 seats totaling $3,365. For information about our scholarship program or to become a valuable donor providing these seats, please email Jennifer Chauhan at jennifer@projectwritenow.org.
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