Maya Nussbaum (right) with author Tayari Jones at the Girls Write Now 10th Anniversary Friendraiser on October 18. Photo taken by Nana Brew-Hammond.
Founded by Maya Nussbaum, Girls Write Now is the only East Coast nonprofit that provides all-girl mentoring and creative writing training for high school girls. Based in New York City, Girls Write Now matches young aspiring female writers with a professional female writer to serve as her mentor and writing coach.
Founder and Executive Director Maya Nussbaum reflects on the past 10 years and why girls need to write. Here's Maya...
Maya, what inspired you to start Girls Write Now? What are the personal experiences that led you to take on creating a non-profit with this particular mission?
I co-founded Girls Write Now when I was finishing college in New York City and not much older than the teenage girls we serve. At the time I was privately struggling with severe writer's block. I made it my mission to break down the myth of the isolated writer and to build an organization based on the guiding principle that writing is actually a communal enterprise. I wanted to focus on teens because I remember ninth and tenth grade of high school as the years during which I became awakened intellectually and creatively, and I have found that other women feel the same way about their developmental history. The idea is to pluck girls during that narrow window and expose them to as many new writing opportunities as we can, and then to get them to face head-on their own creative power. Honestly, I have been healed by Girls Write Now as much as the students who graduate from it are.
How important is having a safe and supportive environment for girls to write? What are some examples of how many girls across the country do not have a safe or supportive environment?
Absolutely critical. Trying to write when you feel under attack physically, emotionally, etc. is almost impossible. The more safe and supported you feel, the more likely you are to take creative risks with your work, and to ultimately produce imaginative, innovative, interesting art. Examples of “unsafe� environments are manifold: underserved neighborhoods; large or overcrowded schools; almost anywhere for a non-native speaker; oftentimes even our own homes. One third of girls across the country say they don’t have anyone outside the family to confide in, even though there is tons of research out there proving the direct correlation between mentoring and a student’s success in school, career, and life.
How did your 10th Anniversary “Friendraiser� on Thursday go? And how do you feel about 10-year-old Girls Write Now? Which were the best years out of the 10? And which were the most difficult?
The event was phenomenal! Our friends, new and old alike, were busting out of the space. We started off at the Lower East Side activist bookstore, Bluestockings, with mentor/mentee collaborative readings from their self-published summer “chapbook� project. The pairs had produced these books themselves from conception to publication; and the resulting works were dazzling and diverse.
Next, we rounded the corner for The Slipper Room where Tayari Jones (The Untelling and Leaving Atlanta) and Janice Erlbaum (Girlbomb and Have You Found Her )wowed us with their funny and heartbreaking coming-of-age tales. Finally Royal Pink rocked the house with their ass-shaking, debouchery-encouraging, politically important and all-around superfantabulous pop-punk.
I am so proud of Girls Write Now for the high-quality programming, rigorous curriculum, and dynamic community we have created and sustained for the last ten years. I would say that this moment--this year--is both the best and the most difficult time for us. In order to achieve real sustainability and keep pace with our exploding wait-list, we must raise serious capacity-building funds.
Who are some of the writers and mentors that have participated in Girls Write Now? And what should a reader do if she is interested in being a mentor? What does the position entail?
Our mentors are some of the most sophisticated, compassionate, and extraordinary women role models you will ever meet. They are poets, playwrights, journalists, novelists, editors, and professors who work for renowned institutions such as NYU, The New School, The NYC Department of Education, The After School Corporation, The New York Times, The LA Times, The Village Voice, Redbook Magazine--I could go on. Check out the bios of this year’s mentors: www.girlswritenow.org/gwn/?q=node/26
The mentoring position requires a serious commitment from September to June to weekly one-on-one mentoring sessions, monthly group workshops and special events, and co-leadership of one workshop per season. Visit www.girlswritenow.org/gwn/?q=node/96 to review our mentor guidelines and to download an application.
I saw on your website that 100% of the teen girls who have participated in Girls Write Now have been accepted to college or university. Do you know if any are or have pursued careers in writing or literature?
We have mentee alumnae at Barnard College, Baruch College, Colgate University, The New School, Ithaca College, NYU, and Swarthmore College, to list just a handful. To name of few girls with whom I’m in regular touch, Laura Ramirez (GWN mentee from 2003-2006) was an intern at Redbook Magazine and Stephanie Nolasco (GWN mentee from 2002-2004) is an intern at The New York Observer.
Perhaps our ultimate program success can be measured by girls who are giving back the rewards of mentoring to their own communities. Jaselyn, a 2003 Girls Write Now graduate, started her own creative writing program called “Mad Hot,� based in her native Bronx neighborhood.
Who are some of your favorite writers? And what writers did you look up to when you were in high school? Who are some of the writers that the teen girls of Girls Write Now read when they're not doing their homework?
I was a nerdy canonical reader in high school and college. Lots of dead white men with a few wonderful exceptions like Alice Walker, Maya Angelou, and Toni Morrison. These days I find myself returning again and again to Joan Didion, Emily Dickinson, William Carlos Williams, and the teachings of Kenneth Koch.
Girls Write Now teens read a surprising range of authors. Last year, for example, we introduced them to Jeanette Wall’s The Glass Castle at our memoir workshop and Victoria Redel’s Swoon at our poetry workshop, and they loved both. This year in interviews I heard a lot of shout outs to Stephanie Meyers and Kristina Cook.
Is there anything you would like to add?
Just a huge, heartfelt thank you to our rock-solid team of mentors, mentees, and board members, and to everyone far and wide--friends, family, colleagues, mentor and mentee alum--who have worked so hard over the last ten years to make Girls Write Now the vibrant community we are today.
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Kudos to Maya and all of Girls Write Now - it's my first year with them, and they are phenomenal. I encourage everyone to visit girlswritenow.org and check out what we do and how you can help!
Fun to see Tayari Jones. She's a fierce writer--both Leaving Atlanta and The Untelling. She writes the lives of little black girls so incredibly well.