PWN Teen Lit Fest All-Day Pass
(all ages)
Virtual: Zoom
Sunday, April 30, 2023
11:45 a.m. to 8 p.m. ET
(Dinner break from 5 to 7 p.m. ET)
Join us for a fun, engaging day of interactive workshops, informative panels, and opportunities to share your work!
Writers and artists of all experience levels welcome.
Teachers: We invite you to attend with your students and participate in the workshops!
- 11:45 a.m. to 12 p.m. ET Welcome
We kick off the day with fun games and an introduction to the day’s events. Join us to say hello to your fellow writers and win cool prizes. - 12 to 1:15 p.m. ET What’s Your Vision? with Pamela Major
Are you ready to see your vision come to life? Whatever your writing goals, it’s been proven that visualizing your dreams and committing them to paper helps you attain them. During this workshop, entrepreneur and author Pamela Major guides you to create a personal vision board and become aware of the steps it takes to help the vision come off the board and into your everyday life. - 1:30 to 2:30 p.m. ET Spoken Word with Mannikka Rosa
Learn the essence of performative storytelling! During this interactive workshop, educator and spoken word artist Mannikka Rosa gives you the confidence and skills needed to move your stories from the page to the stage. We write in response to thoughtful prompts and read/listen to inspiring pieces to better understand essential elements of performance. We then look at how we can apply these elements to our own writing in dynamic ways. - 1:30 to 2:30 p.m. ET In a Flash with Alyson Mosquera Dutemple
Flash writing is about quality, not quantity. During this interactive workshop with short story writer Alyson Dutemple, we explore different styles of small but mighty works, including micro and flash fiction and memoir. We read samples of published “short shorts” for inspiration and then write drafts of our own using prompts inspired by our readings. We share and discuss as we experiment with word counts and how to make a big impact with only a few words. - 2:45 to 3:45 p.m. ET Storyboard Workshop with Sebrina Gao
Learn the essentials of storyboarding! During this workshop, LA-based storyboard artist Sebrina Gao provides a behind-the-scenes look into the story pipeline process in the animation industry. She shares how story sequences are structured for TV animation and discusses how character is expressed through visual images and camera angles. A drawing demo will be included. This workshop is for art lovers and writers alike (no art experience required). - 4 to 5 p.m. ET Teen Panel: Art Will Save Us
with Lola Anaya, Anusha Bansal, Rowan Brown, and Bernice Zhao
moderated by Vivian DeRosa
What role do the arts play in your everyday life? How do you express yourself in a way that feels most authentically you? Join us for a lively conversation with four young adult writers as we talk about our passion projects, the writing communities we belong to, and how we nurture and sustain our artistic lives in the face of academic and societal pressures. - 7 p.m. ET Open Mic
Your story matters and we want to hear it! This special open mic features the inspiring winners from PWN Teen’s writing contest, Voice & Verse. Join us to support your fellow writers and share your own original work.* You can also just come listen. Pieces shared should be your own work, 500 words or less, and align with PWN’s mission to provide an inclusive, supportive environment.
Grab your ticket:
PWN Teen Lit Fest Open Mic
$0.00(all ages)
Virtual: Zoom
Sunday, April 30, 2022
starting at 7 p.m. ET
Meet the PWN Teen Lit Fest workshop artists:
Lola Anaya is a Puerto Rican poet from New York City studying at Smith College. They are majoring in English with a minor in Art History and a concentration in Poetry. They have attended workshops at Sarah Lawrence College and read their poetry at Spoonbill and Sugartown Books in Williamsburg, NY; Prototype 237 in Paterson, NJ; and Werd Beat at Sweven in Hoboken, NJ. This past summer, they began working for the Poetry Society New York as a Brinkley Fellow, and they are now an Administrative and Development Intern. Aside from their work, they love to write poetry, visit museums, go on walks, and watch movies.
Anusha Bansal is a senior at Livingston High School and started Blissful Us, a nonprofit to benefit underserved children and youth in 2017. To spread her passion for creative writing, Anusha started an online youth literary arts magazine, The Blissful Pursuit, and an online STEM initiative, Blissful Coding Club, that teaches free coding classes to underserved communities. In her free time, you can find her fencing, painting, or driving around town finding new cafés!
Rowan Brown attended the South Carolina Governor’s School for the Arts, served as the managing editor for Crashtest Magazine, and won national awards for nonfiction from places like Youngarts, Bluefire, and the Kay Snow Prize when she was a teen writer. Now, as a senior at Smith College, they spend their time writing science fiction and fantasy novels, working as a freelance editor, and endlessly tweaking their application to medical school.
Vivian DeRosa is a writer, blogger, and current student at Smith College. She worked as a Project Write Now intern for two years before founding the Teen Writing Group, which is now in its seventh year. She believes that writing and community go hand in hand, and she’s passionate about creating a space where everyone can share their story. She is a Presidential Scholar in the Arts and an Aspen Words Emerging Writer Fellow, and her writing has been published in the Huffington Post, Poets Reading the News, and Lunch Ticket. Currently, she’s working on a novel. When she’s not teaching, Vivian likes reading excellent books and watching terrible TV. You can find her at vivianparkinderosa.com, where she blogs about all things literary.
Sebrina Gao is an LA-based storyboard artist at Nickelodeon Animation Studios. Her current focus is on action-adventure and comedy TV, but she is interested in storytelling in various genres, from live-action films to poetry. Outside of work, she enjoys being outdoors and hopes to one day travel around the world.
Pamela A. Major is the creator and founder of Melia Bloom, a lifestyle services company that empowers people, places, and purpose. Pamela has a profound belief that in taking the adventure to grow, we can always have the delight and opportunity to be better. She is a dynamic speaker, author, playwright, storyteller, and empowerment coach. She has a unique ability to put into context the needs of an organization or individual and provides practical insights to help them achieve and succeed. One of Pamela’s most prominent programs is the Viral Vision Adventure (Vi-VA).
Alyson Mosquera Dutemple is a writer, editor, and creative writing instructor from New Jersey who holds an MFA from the Program for Writers at Warren Wilson College. She has published fiction, craft essays, and hybrid work in literary magazines, including Colorado Review, Alaska Quarterly Review, Passages North, The Journal, Wigleaf and DIAGRAM, and has been nominated for Best Small Fictions, Best Microfictions, and a Pushcart Prize. Her short story collection was a runner up for University of Georgia Press’s 2022 Flannery O’Connor Award for Short Fiction. As a screenwriter, Alyson has optioned feature film scripts and has received recognitions in competitions in the US and the UK. She is a freelance editorial consultant and an assistant fiction Editor at Pithead Chapel. Alyson is never not thinking about writing, and short stories have her heart. She lives with her family and a small notebook where she keeps a list of every book she’s read since middle school. You can find her at alysondutemple.com.
Mannikka Rosa is founder and creator of the educational consulting company, The Educationalist Method. The Method is a program designed for special education teachers and Hip Hop hE.D.s (supporters for more Hip Hop Based Education in the classroom) who yearn for educational reform that brings visibility to the disabled community. Mannikka learned the value of being an MC in the classroom rather than a “Sage on the Stage” through her decade-long experience as a secondary Special Education teacher. She believes that in order to bridge gaps and retain new teachers, educators must be taught how to effectively use the language of the youth to empower and inspire young people to be critical thinkers. She brings “The Method” into the courses she teaches for PWN by encouraging students to apply their authentic voice to the aesthetic forms found in Hip Hop throughout the creative writing process. Mannikka has a Masters in Transitional Education from George Washington University and a Masters in Educational Leadership from the University of Virginia. But her heart will always and forever be with her alma mater, THE Ohio State University, where she graduated in 2007 with a B.A. in Criminology. O-H! Mannikka and her family moved to the New Jersey area from Northern Virginia in May of 2020. She lives in Fair Haven with her husband, three kids, and dog.
Bernice Zhao is a junior at High Technology High School who is passionate about psychology, social advocacy, and creative writing, and believes that there is an inseparable connection between these fields. Her poetry and personal essays, which have been recognized by the Scholastic Art and Writing Awards, address the universal struggles of girlhood, adolescence, relationships, and mental health. As a Project Write Now teen ambassador, Bernice has served as a teaching assistant and editorial assistant for PWN programs. She is also actively engaged with Writopia Lab as an editor for their literary magazines, The Parenthetical and The Ellipsis. Outside of writing, Bernice is the founder of the Wellness Group at her school, which promotes a holistic approach to mental wellness among the student body.