Executive Director, Instructor
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Rebecca founded Writopia Lab in April 2007, currently directs the national organization, and teaches writing workshops in NYC and at special events throughout the country. Rebecca has won multiple teaching awards including the Scholastic Awards' 2012 Ovation Inspired Teacher Award for submitting the most outstanding senior portfolios on the national level and for "developing a method of working with students that inspires them to create original work that embodies their unique, personal voice.... Because of [her] tutelage... these students are now empowered to bring that voice into the broader world..." She has also won the 2008, 2009, and 2011 National Gold Apple Teacher Award for "submitting the most outstanding group of submissions on the national level" to the Scholastic Art & Writing event. She lectures at schools, events, and parents' organizations on a variety of topics including "How to Inspire the Writer Within Your Child," "Writing for High School and College Admittance," and on "Identifying and Participating in Positive Competitions." Previously, Rebecca established the creative writing program at the Abraham Joshua Heschel Middle School on the Upper West Side of Manhattan as a consultant. While she was there, the program outperformed every other school in the city (including every elite public and private institution) in Scholastic's prestigious Art & Writing Awards competition. She has been awarded recognition from The Scholastic Art & Writing Awards as an "outstanding educator" every year since 2006. (Writopia won Scholastic's official endorsement in 2007.) Rebecca was also nominated by students and selected to be entered into the 11th Edition of Who's Who Among American Teachers.

Rebecca has taught at SUNY Albany, New York University, and at Gotham Writers’ Workshop. In 2009, Rebecca was invited to join The Op-Ed Project Mentor Editor Program and has since helped several brilliant women break into some of the nation's most widely read national opinion pages. In 2002, she had the pleasure of working with young writers in New York City public schools for the first time as a resident writer with the Teachers & Writers Collaborative. By 2003, she was working at the Heschel School, planting the seeds for a unique and successful creative writing program there. She also participated in the judging of the Scholastic competition in 2006 and currently serves as a judge of several national youth writing competitions (in which her students are not involved).

Writings
Rebecca began writing for publications in 1997. She has contributed opeds about education and writing to the The Atlantic Monthly and The Wall Street Journal, and thought pieces to The Huffington Post, and The Nation, along with five cover stories (and other pieces) to the Village Voice. She has contributed the foreward to Bryant Park's Poem in Your Day Chapbook 2012 and to The Scholastic Award's 2012 Best Teen Writing. She also served as Senior Editor at Psychology Today Magazine, and won Salon's "Best People Story of the Year Award" for "Love Labor’s Flossed." In 1999, she became a Journalism Fellow at Brandeis University. In 2003, she entered the world of comedy writing, and began writing and performing sketch comedy around NYC. She won a “Best Sketch” competition at the Upright Citizens Brigade in 2006.

Instructor
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Courtney Sheinmel teaches summer and year-round fiction and memoir workshops at Writopia Lab. She grew up in California and New York, graduated magna cum laude from Barnard College, and Fordham University School of Law. After working as a litigator for several years, Courtney decided to focus on her true love: writing. Her critically-acclaimed debut “tween” novel, My So-Called Family, was published by Simon & Schuster in October, 2008.  Her second book, Positively, came out in September 2009.  She is also the author of Sincerely Sophie/Sincerely Katie (June 2010) and You Can’t Even Measure It (2011). You can visit Courtney online at www.courtneysheinmel.com.

Playwriting and Screenwriting Teacher

Original Artistic Director of Writopia Lab's Worldwide Plays Festival

This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Instructor
Catherine.Curan@writopialab

Catherine joined the Writopia Westchester team spring, 2012. Her writing has been published in Fiction, Many Mountains Moving, Ozone Park Journal, the SalonZine and Sleet magazine. As a journalist, Catherine has investigated the mortgage industry for the New York Post, covered fashion shows for Condé Nast Portfolio.com, and earned a Newswomen’s Club of New York Front Page Award for her Crain’s New York Business special report on the hip-hop economy. Catherine earned her A.B. in English with a concentration in Creative Writing from Princeton University, graduating cum laude, and received an MFA in Creative Writing from The New School. She volunteers as Associate Publisher of the online journal Anderbo.com, and has twice served as a judge for the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards.

Jordana Frankel is so excited to join Writopia! Her debut young adult novel, THE WARD, is forthcoming from HarperCollins in 2013. She received her B.A. from Goucher College in Maryland where, as the recipient of the Kratz Creative Writing Fellowship, she studied the art of storytelling within indigenous cultures. After graduating, she spent a year in Italy studying to be an artiste, but instead acquired a deep knowledge of pasta, and returned home to follow her true love: words. She then received her M.F.A. in creative writing with a focus on poetry from Hollins University in Roanoke, Virginia. Jordana has worked in the publishing industry for the last few years, but now devotes herself full-time to her writing.

Danielle is honored to work as an instructor and program developer at Writopia. Danielle studied writing at Stanford University and New York University, and graduated from the Draper Program at NYU in January 2010. Her latest one-act play, Under Somebody's Nose, was produced at Roy Arias theater in November of 2012. She produced and performed the one-acts Graduands to Graduates; The Megalomaniac and Valedictorian Commence and Scene From a Dartboard at the Manhattan Repertory theatre in March through June 2010, and the one-act Look at Me When I Am Talking to You at the Wings Theatre in New York in May 2008. Her short story “Before Noon” was published in the Intersections Issue of the NYU journal, Anamesa.  She has had the opportunity to teach English and creative writing in a classroom setting to children in Ghana, Africa, Chinatown, New York, East Palo Alto, California, and New Orleans, Louisiana.

Instructor
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Kira Peikoff is thrilled to join Writopia, NYC. She is the author of Living Proof, a debut thriller which will be published by Tor/Forge in early 2012. Kira holds a B.A. in journalism from NYU, and has contributed to New York magazine, Newsday, the New York Daily News, and The Orange County Register. From 2008-2011, Kira worked in the editorial department at two major publishing houses, which helped hone her judgment of good storytelling--a skill she hopes to pass on to her students, along with a love of creative writing. Visit her online at www.kirapeikoff.com.

Instructor
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Chris Tarry began teaching creative writing and songwriting at Writopia Lab in 2013. His work has appeared or is forthcoming in The Literary Review, On Spec, The G.W. Review, PANK, Bull Men's Fiction, Monkeybicycle, and elsewhere. In 2011 he was a finalist in Freefall Magazine’s annual prose and poetry competition, and most recently, his story "Here Be Dragons," was nominated for a Pushcart Prize. Chris is also a four-time Juno Award winner, a bassist, and a composer. His most recent book "Rest of the Story," is a small collection of short fiction and a jazz album rolled into one.www.christarry.com.

Instructor

This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Stephanie Strohm is so happy to be joining Writopia!  She is the author of Pilgrims Don't Wear Pink, a young adult novel published by HMH/Graphia in May of 2012.  The sequel, Confederates Don't Wear Couture, will be published in June of 2013.  She graduated from Middlebury College with a B.A. in theater and history.  Prior to joining Writopia, Stephanie worked with the Write-a-Play program at Florida Studio Theater, the Playgroundlings Summer Camp at MaineStage Shakespeare, and the Westport Country Playhouse's Young Playwrights Festival.  She has also performed onstage in 25 states.  Visit her online at www.StephanieKateStrohm.com. 

Instructor
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Instructor
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Alyssa Sheinmel is the author of The Beautiful Between, The Lucky Kind, and The Stone Girl, all published by Knopf Books for Young Readers. Alyssa grew up in California and New York, and graduated from Manhattan’s Spence School and Barnard College. Alyssa worked in publishing for nearly a decade, and now writes full time in New York City. You can visit Alyssa online at AlyssaSheinmel.com or follow her on Twitter @AlyssaSheinmel.

Instructor
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Daniel McCoy joined Writopia in January, 2013. He is a playwright, performer, and member of the award-winning New York Neo-Futurists, an experimental theater ensemble whose ongoing late-night show Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind (30 Plays in 60 Minutes) is now entering its 9th year in NYC. In addition to TMLMTBGB, his work with the Neos includes writing/performing in main stage shows (un)afraid, On the Future, and the forthcoming Soft Hydraulics: New Futurist Puppetry and Mute. Daniel's plays Group and Eli and Cheryl Jump have been produced as part of the New York International Fringe Festival. Other plays have been produced and workshopped in New York, Los Angeles, Washington D.C. and elsewhere. B.A. in English from CUNY Brooklyn..

Instructor
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Rachel Ephraim has taught fiction and memoir at Writopia Lab in Brooklyn and Manhattan since 2008, spearheaded the establishment of Writopia Brooklyn, and is now the Branch Manager for Writopia's Hudson Valley region. Her work has appeared in The Apple Valley Review, The Barcelona Review, Word Riot, Listen Party, The New York Spirit, Park Slope Reader and other journals and publications. In 2009, 2010, and 2012 Rachel's students were honored at the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards with both regional and national awards. Through Writopia, Rachel has led workshops at MS 51, PS 58, Friend's Seminary, Bryant Park and at High Meadow School (Stone Ridge). In 2010, Rachel was accepted as a resident to La Muse Inn, an artists’ residency in the south of France. In 2011, she attended Vermont Studio Center on a writer’s grant. In 2012, she was a writer-in-residence at Milkwood International in the Czech Republic and at Gowry Art Institute in India. She received her MFA at Columbia University while working in the fiction department of The New Yorker and couldn't be happier with her new move to the Hudson Valley where she's inspired daily by the natural beauty of the landscape.

Instructor

This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Danielle Blau is thrilled to join Writopia Lab. Her poems, short stories, articles, and interviews have appeared in such publications as Ploughshares, The Literary Review, The New Yorker Book Bench blog, The Atlantic online, Black Clock, The Wolf, multiple issues of Unsaid, as well as the poetry anthology by Argos Books, Why I Am Not A Painter. Danielle’s chapbook, Thingèd, was selected for the 2012 PSA Chapbook Fellowship Award, and will be published by Poetry Society of America in spring 2013 with an introduction by D.A. Powell. A graduate of NYU's MFA program in poetry, Danielle also has two middle grade fiction books forthcoming from Houghton Mifflin Harcourt's Leveled Literacy Intervention, Couch Potato and Worst Enemies Forever.

Songwriting Instructor

This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Antonio Thompson is an actor and musician in New York City and is incredibly excited to be a part of Writopia Lab. He is a graduate of the New York Film Academy and has been studying and playing music all of his life. He was recently in the short film "Check, Please," is a member of the improv troupe Red Tie Mafia, and is also the co-creator/writer of the sketch comedy web-series "The Antonio & Richie Show." Antonio has been a guitarist and keyboardist in various bands and is now writing and recording music on his own and has found a new joy in writing music for films. He is excited to be teaching songwriting and working with the students to bring music to their words.

Cathleen is the author of two novels for young adults, Slipping (Bloomsbury 2008) and Little Blog on the Prairie (Bloomsbury 2010). She holds a BA in American Studies from Barnard College and an MFA in fiction writing from Columbia University. Aside from teaching writing to kids, she’s worked as a reporter, a salesperson, a market researcher, a copywriter, a birthday party entertainer, a personal shopper and a research assistant. Visit her online at CathleenDavittBell.com. She is thrilled to join the Writopia community. She has two dogs named Oscar and Oprah. Her favorite food is pizza and, strangely, in her thirties, she's developed a great love for playing catch.

Instructor

This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Molly Haas-Hooven is so excited to join Writopia! Molly is a writer, actor and teacher originally from western Massachusetts. She has trained in improv, voice, clown, Suzuki, puppetry and dance with Shakespeare and Company, the Roy Hart Theatre and Double Edge Theatre. Most recently her writing has been produced by the New School for Drama, Ugly Rhino and New Century Theatre. Her play Shadow Trees received a Harold and Mimi Steinberg award for Best Original Play in 2009.  Molly loves combining her interests in peace-building and art-making and in 2010 she co-produced a monologue workshop for twenty teens and adults at a Boston center for domestic violence. She has worked with typical and special needs children from infancy to high school age in classroom and theater settings. She graduated summa cum laude from Brandeis University where she received her B.A. in theater arts and has since performed throughout the Northeast.  She currently studies at the New School for Drama (MFA in playwriting, expected 2014).

Instructor

This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Cory Tamler is a playwright and recent transplant to New York after living in Chicago and Berlin (where she was a 2010/2011 Fulbright Scholar). She focuses on community-based work, international collaboration, and the intersection between science and art; her plays have been produced in Chicago, Pittsburgh, Germany, and elsewhere. Most recently, Cory worked with Open Waters Theatre Arts in Maine and three small family-owned farms as the playwright for Farms & Fables, a multi-year project culminating in October 2011 with a play that put farmers onstage alongside professional actors in a story about the future of agriculture. Cory has designed/taught a playwriting workshop for teens at The Telling Room in Portland, ME, and co-designed/co-taught theater classes for students of all ages in Pittsburgh, PA and in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia. She is originally from Pittsburgh, where she studied physics and fiction writing at the University of Pittsburgh. As a homeschooled kid, she took a lot of writing and theater classes and wouldn't be who she is today without them. She is thrilled to be able to step back into that environment as an instructor for Writopia.

Instructor

Trish Cook is thrilled to teach creative writing workshops at Writopia Chicago! Trish is the author of four YA novels: So Lyrical and it's sequel Overnight Sensation, plus Notes from the Blender and A Really Awesome Mess. Her essays have appeared in Graze Literary Magazine and Spittoon, and she is currently completing her memoir, tentatively titled Bret Michaels at the Symphony. She's a 2013 Creative Nonfiction graduate from the University of Chicago's Graham School. She grew up in New Jersey (and still misses it) but loves her adopted city of Chicago.You can visit Trish at www.trishcook.com

Instructor
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Whitney began teaching at Writopia in 2013. Her comedy sketches have aired on Comedy Central and have been featured online at TV.com, Gawker.com and Atom.com. In 2010, Whitney wrote 8 Bits: A Sketch Show about Video Games, which premiered at Upright Citizens Brigade Theater in New York and played at i.O. West in Los Angeles as part of the Hollywood Fringe Festival. Whitney Does What She Wants, her first solo show, showed at the NC Comedy Arts Festival and at Theatre Row as part of the United Solo Theatre Festival.

Whitney also wrote the pilot for Recession Proof, which earned a semi-finalist distinction in the TVWriter.com People’s Pilot competition and was picked up and produced through an independent production company. She is presently a writer for SLAP FIGHT, a sketch comedy house team at the People’s Improv Theater in NYC.

Amy Dupcak is truly excited to join Writopia, NYC. She studied Writing, Film History, and other random things at Sarah Lawrence College, then earned an MFA in Fiction from The New School. Along the way, she's worked as a music and culture journalist, editor, blogger, and publishing intern. She started and taught a Creative Writing course for high school seniors in Westchester, and now teaches English and tutors on the college level in Manhattan. She has published short stories and creative nonfiction in Sonora Review, Fringe, Phoebe, The Dirty Napkin, and other literary journals, and has also completed her first novel, which she is hoping to get out into the world very soon!

Stephen began teaching fiction and playwriting at Writopia in 2011.  His original theatre has been produced throughout New York City for the past seven years through the Brick Theatre, the Downtown Urban Theatre Festival, and the Ontological-Hysteric Incubator, chashama. He has also co-produced community theater for Williamsburg families.  He studied English, History and Theatre at Louisiana State University, and recently graduated with his MFA from NYU's Department of Dramatic Writing, where he was awarded the John Golden Prize for Excellence in Playwriting.

Graphic Novel Mentor

Steve Ross is an artist, illustrator and writer whose work has appeared in many magazines and periodicals including the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times. He is the creator of two popular graphic novels: Marked, a re-imagining of the Gospel of Mark and Blinded, an idiosyncratic take on the misadventures of St. Paul of Tarsus.  He and his son, Allen (a proud Writopia alum), are also the creators of the online web comic www.SeventyOfSeventy.com.

Steve began his professional career as a teenager in San Antonio, Texas, selling pictures of angst-ridden, dark and disturbing surrealist art to his friends and teachers. Soon after high school he landed a job drawing dining room tables for a local furniture company, and was surprised when the owner became upset that he was drawing dark and disturbing surrealist furniture for the company's newspaper ads. They parted company.

You can visit Steve and see more of his work at www.StevenTracyRoss.com.

Intern
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Samantha is thrilled to be working with a program that connects writers and helps them grow. She is a Brooklyn native and a rising sophomore at Occidental College in Los Angeles, where she plans on majoring in English and comparative literature with an emphasis on creative writing. Samantha participated in a Writopia workshop in high school, and since then she has participated in many workshops, which have all been a vital part of the development of her interest in creative writing. Aside from reading and writing, Samantha’s favorite hobby is baking copious amounts of cookies and cupcakes.

Instructor

Beth Breier is excited to be teaching the summer book-making workshops at Writopia Lab. She is a NYS licensed visual arts teacher and has taught art to childen at different schools in Queens. She also gives private art lessons. Beth holds a BA in studio art and an MS in art education from CUNY Queens College. She studied drawing and painting at the Art Institute of Florence. When she is not teaching art, she creates small sculptures with found objects.

Alexander is very excited to be involved with Writopia Lab. He earned an MFA in creative writing from Syracuse University, and his first novel, Moondogs, was published by Doubleday and Random House Audio in the spring of 2011. Other work of his has appeared in Salon, American Fiction, The Kenyon Review Online, and the Tin House Blog. He has taught writing in Syracuse, NY, and Fairfax, Va. He used to live in the Philippines. Sometime in the not-too-distant future, he will live in Rwanda.

Elizabeth Buchanan joined Writopia DC as an instructor in February of 2012. She has taught writing at The University of Oregon, where she earned her MFA in fiction writing, and at the St. Albans School for boys, where she currently serves as the school’s writer-in-residence. Her stories, reviews, and interviews have appeared in The Washington Post, Iron Horse Literary Review, Bluestem Magazine, Helix, and therumpus.net, among others, and she is currently at work on a collection of short stories.

Writopia Playwrights Festival/Admin Support
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Hannah is a director, dramaturg, actor, stage manager and sound designer originally from Juneau Alaska. She's very excited to be back at Writopia Lab after stage managing the 2012 Worldwide Plays Festival. Her artistic and administrative work has been seen at Perseverance Theatre, Theatre In The Rough, the iDiom Theatre, Western Washington University, The Vineyard Theatre, Conni's Avant Garde Restaurant and The Kennedy Center. Training includes a BA from Western Washington University, SITI Company Intensive at Saratoga Springs and she is a 2012 member of the Lincoln Center Directors Lab. She's currently the Literary Resident at The Vineyard Theatre, Producer with The Secret City and a company member of Superhero Clubhouse, Perseverance Theatre and Elephant In The Room. In her very limited spare time she likes to nerd out over marine biology and contribute to a food/music blog.

Intern
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Chireau White is a Junior at Hunter College, who double majors in Creative Writing and Sociology. She works as an editor for her college run literary magazine and as a member of United for Education through Equality helps promote education with several non-profits in New York. Chireau loves to read, especially short fiction and mystery novels, tutors English during her free time; and is very excited to join the Writopia staff.

Assistant Teacher

This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Zainab is super-excited to be joining Writopia’s team. She is currently working on a collection of short stories and pursuing her MFA in Creative Writing at Antioch University. She is fiction editor for Lunchticket magazine and writes for Big Pen Pakistan – Pakistan’s first weekly humor site. Her creative nonfiction has appeared in Literary Mama. Teaching A-level English Literature for three years in Pakistan helped her discover her love for working with children – another reason she loves Writopia.

Abby Coleman joined Writopia Lab in September 2012. She is an MFA candidate in poetry at The New School where she is a poetry editor for LIT magazine. She completed her BA in English/Creative Writing from Hendrix College in Arkansas. She has created two chapbooks, The Heart Machine and Involuntary Rabbits. Her poetry and artwork have appeared in The Providence Journal, The Aonian, and The New School Collaborative. She is thrilled to serve as an administrator and assistant instructor for Writopia.

Program Developer/Instructor

This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Yael is thrilled to be part of the Writopia team! She received her BA in English from Stern College of Yeshiva University, and joined Writopia Lab in 2011. She has taught and tutored writing in several New York City colleges and private schools, and has worked as a director, most recently  directing at 59e59 Theaters and at Roy Arias Theater.  At Writopia she works as an instructor and program developer. Her Writopia students have received Scholastic recognition on both on the regional and national levels, and she has served as a national judge for the Scholastic Art and Writing Awards. In 2012, she was recognized by the Scholastic Awards "as an outstanding educator whose dedication, commitment, and guidance are represented by student work selected for national honors."

Asiya is honored and excited to join such wonderful and passionate people at Writopia. She has had a voracious appetite for literature ever since her older sister taught her how to read when she was three years old. She has explored different writing disciplines throughout her life, including creative writing, poetry, journalism, playwriting, screenwriting, and, on occasion, songwriting. Most recently, she has been applying herself to the theatrical arts and dramaturgy in general. She graduated from high school in 2012 and is currently taking a gap year before she begins attending SUNY Purchase, where she hopes to major in Playwriting and Stage Management. When she is not copy-editing marvelous pieces for The (Parenthetical) or juggling two to three different internships and at least four personal projects, she is asleep.

Peter has been attending Writopia workshops since the organization began in 2007. He has always enjoyed writing, but didn’t really get started on it until he met Rebecca when she taught his 7th grade English class. Since then Peter has submitted numerous pieces to the Scholastic Writing Awards, receiving recognition for many of them, including a National Silver Key for his senior portfolio.
Peter is currently a student at SUNY Binghamton, and he frequently visits Writopia to help out and visit on his vacations.

DC Director, Instructor
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Kathy Crutcher joined Writopia Lab in March 2009. She received an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Arizona in both fiction and creative nonfiction, and has taught composition and creative writing at the University of Kentucky, the University of Arizona, and through the Johns Hopkins University Center for Talented Youth program. Kathy has also read for various literary publications, including The Atlantic, The Sonora Review, and Limestone, and will serve on the national panel of judges for the 2009 Parent Teacher Association Reflections Literature Contest. Her writing has earned her an Artist Enrichment Grant from the Kentucky Foundation for Women, fellowships to writing programs in Prague and Kenya, as well as accolades from contests such as the Glimmer Train Fiction Open and The New Millennium Writing Awards. Kathy is thrilled to be part of Writopia and looks forward to many good reads in DC!

Instructor, Writopia DC
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Melissa Wyse has been an instructor with Writopia DC since the summer of 2010. She has taught writing at American University and the Johns Hopkins Center for Talented Youth, and she works as a writing tutor and freelance editor in Maryland and DC. Melissa is completing her MFA in fiction and creative nonfiction writing at American University. Her stories, articles, and poems have appeared in print and online publications, including Urbanite and decomP.

Julia Wang joined Writopia, DC the fall of 2010. She is completing her Creative Writing MFA at American University and working on her Children’s Literature MA at Hollins University. She works as a freelance editor and has taught writing to third grade students. When she was in high school, she participated in the Scholastic Writing Awards and received a Gold Key and a prestigious American Voices Award. She is thrilled to be working with the Scholastic Awards and with Writopia, to do her part in bringing the program to a new generation of young writers. Here’s to a great year!

Instructor

This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Cristin Terrill is a young adult novelist living in Washington DC. Her debut novel All Our Yesterdays will be published by Disney-Hyperion in the fall of 2013. She holds a BA in Drama from Vassar College and an MA in Shakespeare Studies from the Shakespeare Institute at the University of Birmingham.

Instructor
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Kathleen McCleary is the author of three novels, including HOUSE AND HOME (Hyperion); A SIMPLE THING (HarperCollins) and LEAVING HAVEN (due out in Oct. 2013 from HarperCollins). Her non-fiction articles and essays have appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, Ladies Home Journal, Good Housekeeping, and other publications. She has also taught writing as an adjunct professor at American University. When she's not writing, she can be found in the gym, trying to teach herself to do pull-ups. You can find more about Kathleen's work at www.kathleenmccleary.com

Tony Mancus is very excited to be joining the good folk at Writopia Lab! He is newly transplanted in Rosslyn, VA and he holds an MFA in poetry from the University of Arizona. Tony has been teaching writing in varying capacities for the past six years, most recently at a small preparatory high school in DC and in Florence, Italy. He has taught creative writing and composition at Hunter College, Montclair State University, Queensborough Community College, the University of Scranton, and the University of Arizona. He co-founded Flying Guillotine Press, a press that makes small handbound books, where he helps in the editorial screening and book design process. Tony's poems have appeared in a number of print and online journals and his work received an award from the University of Arizona's Poetry Center.

Instructor

This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Norman Allen is thrilled to join the Writopia team! His plays have been commissioned and produced by the Kennedy Center (The Light of Excalibur), the Shakespeare Theatre Company (On the Eve of Friday Morning), and the Karlin Music Theatre in Prague (Carmen). His work while playwright-in-residence at Signature Theatre (VA) includes Nijinsky's Last Dance (Helen Hayes Award, Outstanding Play) and In the Garden (Charles MacArthur Award), with subsequent productions throughout the United States, South Africa and Europe. Norman provided the concert adaptation for Encore's Sweet Adeline at New York City Center, and the libretto for the national tour of Cirque Ingenieux, featured on PBS. He’s the founder and former director of the Signature In The Schools outreach program. His plays are published by Playscripts, Inc., and have been translated into Czech, Hungarian, Slovenian, Japanese and Mandarin Chinese. His essays and commentary have appeared in The Washington Post, Smithsonian, WAMU-FM (NPR), and other media outlets.

Intern, Writopia DC
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Stephanie Pape is pursing her MFA degree in Creative Writing at American University in Washington, DC, where she is actively writing and striving towards becoming published. She received her BA in English and Creative Writing from the University of Wisconsin – Madison, where she was a feature writer for The Daily Cardinal, Madison’s only independent student newspaper. She was awarded the Eudora Welty Fiction Award for her creative writing senior thesis titled, "Catalyze", which was a short story collection. She is excited to be interning as a teaching assistant for Writopia Lab, and can’t wait to help the organization get started in DC!

Marina Koestler Ruben joined Writopia DC this fall. She is the 2004 winner of the New Jersey All Ages Playwrights Festival. Her one-act plays have been produced in Maryland and New Jersey. For two years, she served as a judge for CENTERSTAGE's Young Playwrights Festival. Marina earned her M.A. in Writing and the award of "Outstanding Graduate" from the Johns Hopkins University. Among the publications that have featured her articles are the Washington City Paper, Education Week, Smithsonian magazine, and CNN.com. Her articles are available online at www.marinaruben.com.

Marina also works as the Upper School Writing Tutor at Sidwell Friends School, and previously taught 10th-grade English and History at the Melvin J. Berman Hebrew Academy. She has worked as a mentor for the International Rescue Committee and American Red Cross and as a tutor in Baltimore, Potomac, and in Washington, D.C.

Instructor, Writopia DC
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

John Bishop is a writer and editor based in Washington, DC. He studied creative writing at Colby College and has an MFA from the University of Michigan where he was the recipient of an Avery Hopwood Award. His fiction has appeared in literary magazines including The Southern Review, The Green Mountains Review, The Blue Mesa Review, The Georgetown Review, Fugue, and Confrontation. He has lived in China, Taiwan, South Korea, and Nepal and has returned to the US after six years overseas working as a journalist.

Instructor

This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Alex Henderson gets excited every time he thinks about going to work at Writopia Lab. He came to Washington from North Carolina, where he focused on creative writing and Russian at UNC-Chapel Hill. After he graduated, he moved to Prague to work in a bookstore and write. Now an MFA candidate in fiction at George Mason University in Fairfax, VA, Alex spends most of his time riding the metro with his notebook balanced on his knees. His fiction has appeared in Harper-Perennial’s Fifty-Two Stories and Ekleksographia. He will listen to anyone tell a good story.

Instructor

This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Rachel is thrilled and honored to be joining the Writopia Lab team! She is an award winning playwright and poet based out of Washington D.C. Her plays have been developed and produced in New York, London, Washington DC, and Philadelphia. She was the recipient of the Kennedy Center’s JFK National Playwriting Scholarship and a finalist for the National Partners of American Theatre National Playwriting Award. Her poetry was published in the anthology, The Poetry of Yoga, in November 2011.As an educator, Rachel has worked with Horizon Theatre Company’s “New South Young Playwrights Festival”, the DC Theatre Lab, and Imagination Stage’s “Speak Out On Stage” program, where she guided students through a devised theatre-making process and wrote the book and lyrics for the program’s musical, On This Side of the Mountain, which will be produced in June 2012. Rachel is also a founding member of In One Day DC, a social outreach initiative whose mission is to cultivate community connection and empowerment through artistic expression. Rachel has an MFA in Dramatic Writing from Catholic University of America and a B.A. in Theater and English with a minor in Creative Writing from Arcadia University.

Instructor
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Carrie Murphy joined Writopia in 2012. Her first collection of poems, PRETTY TILT, was released by Keyhole Press in 2012. She received her BA from the University of Maryland and her MFA from New Mexico State University. Her chapbook, MEET THE LAVENDERS, appeared in 2011 from Birds of Lace.

Instructor

This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Christine Stoddard joined Writopia in August 2012 after graduating from Virginia Commonwealth University, School of the Arts with degrees in Film, English, and Product Innovation, as well as minors in Spanish, French, and European Studies. Scholarships have also allowed her to study at Grinnell College, the Glasgow School of Art, and the University of Guadalajara. Christine's art and writing have appeared in publications and exhibits in Washington, D.C., Virginia, New York, Arkansas, Kentucky, Iowa, Illinois, Canada, and Scotland. Previously she has completed assignments and projects for WashingtonPost.com, Teen Ink Magazine, The Smithsonian American Art Museum, Virginia Living Magazine, The Science Museum of Virginia, and other fine companies and organizations. Thanks to a variety of grants and Kickstarter campaigns, Christine has founded Quail Bell Magazine (www.quailbellmagazine.com) and Comicality Magazine (www.comicalitymagazine.com). She is also a former AmeriCorps volunteer and Puffin Foundation grant artist. Six Gallery Press (Pittsburgh) releases Christine's first book, Once Upon a Body, in Fall 2012.

Instructor 
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Jessica joined Writopia Lab in 2012 as an instructor in Washington, DC. She is the author of the novel Grey Areas (PaperBox Books 2010) Don't Ask(Vagabondage Press 2012) and The Bleeding Crowd (Melange Books 2012) along with numerous published short stories. Outside of teaching and her own writing, Jessica has also worked in the submissions and editorial departments of a small science fiction, fantasy, and horror press (2009-2011).

Alison Klein earned her MFA in creative writing from The City College of the City University of New York, and is currently earning a PhD in English literature at the City University of New York. She has taught writing classes at Georgetown University, City College, and the Johns Hopkins Center for Talented Youth. Her fiction and essays have been published in several magazines and journals, including The Sun and The Columbia Review. She is excited to be joining the Writopia team!

Zach is a playwright and a company member of Infinite Stage Theatre Company and Flying V. He is also the 2011-2012 Playwright in Residence at American Ensemble Theatre. His plays have also been performed by The National Portrait Gallery, ACT, Teatro de Havana, and the Otono Azul play festival in Argentina. He is excited to help DC Writopia writers get involved with Writopia NYC's Worldwide Plays Festival!

Instructor

This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Lisa Friedman writes novels, nonfiction, essays and a humor column titled Laugh Out Loud. Her work appears in the New York Times Sunday Magazine and in newspapers and magazines around the country. Lisa loves to work with writers. She coaches individuals working toward publication and has lead workshops, discussions and writing labs in elementary and high schools in MD. She earned her MA in Creative Writing from the Johns Hopkins University where she is a guest lecturer, and has won several awards for her work including Best Humorist by the Erma Bombeck Center. Lisa is looking forward to brainstorming with the creative writers at Writopia.  Read about Lisa at: www.lkfriedman.com

Sinta Jimenez joined Writopia in 2011. She is a fiction writer and fine artist. Her poetry and paintings have been published in several literary magazines including Underground Voices, Otis Nebula, and The Black Boot. In 2000, she was a recipient of a National Association for the Advancement of the Arts Award in Short Story. She received her MFA from Otis College of Art and Design.

Los Angeles Branch Manager/Instructor

This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

A recent transplant from Writopia DC, Steve is thrilled to be joining the Writopia West squad. Steve’s work as a playwright has been honored by the Kennedy Center and Sundance Lab (winner of the Mark Twain Prize for Comic Playwriting), placed as a Finalist for New Dramatists’ Princess Grace Award for Playwriting, and published by Smith & Kraus. As an arts educator, Steve has also taught fiction and playwriting for the award-winning Young Playwrights’ Theater, Arena Stage, Imagination Stage, and the University of Maryland. Steve studied creative writing at the University of Pennsylvania (B.A.) and the Catholic University of America (M.F.A.). He and his wife love Los Angeles, and their two tiny dogs love not living under threat of snow burial.

Los Angeles Communications Manager

This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

After living vicariously through Steve (Lauren’s husband) and seeing how wonderful his experiences with Writopia have been over the years, Lauren is very excited to join the Writopia Lab team as Communications Manager for the Los Angeles Branch. Lauren graduated with a B.A. in English from the College of William and Mary in 2007. Since then, she has worked in Washington, DC and Los Angeles as a corporate events and marketing manager in the publishing and tech industries. In her previous roles, Lauren mastered the ability to manage numerous campaigns at once -- a skill she has found to come in very handy with all the exciting events on Writopia LA’s horizon. Lauren is thrilled to become a part of something so special.

Instructor
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Instructor
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Janet Edwards is so excited to be joining Writopia LA. Her poetry and reviews have been published in Weave Magazine, McSweeney's, The Rio Grande Review, The Raven Chronicles, and The Exquisite Corpse. Janet holds an M.F.A. in Creative Writing from New York University and a B.A. in English from Louisiana State University, where she won the Dara Wier Award for Poetry. She has worked with youth in various capacities for over fourteen years, as a camp counselor, writing and English tutor, and creative writing instructor at NYU.

Léna began teaching Writopia Lab workshops in Manhattan in 2009, then went on to develop the program in NYC's northern suburbs in 2010. That same year, her first Young Adult novel, Edges, was published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux. Léna earned her BA from Barnard, studying English and Italian literature, and her MA in Drama Therapy from NYU. Mentoring has long been the connective tissue in Léna's life, whether through her work with at-risk adolescents in Utah, California, and New York; or through her own writing discipline, as fostered by her late grandmother, author Madeleine L'Engle. It was her grandmother who taught Léna to transform the solitary nature of writing into a sacred sense of community, where her art and the art of others can flourish. You can visit Léna at www.lenaroybooks.com.

Instructor

This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Christine Pakkala is thrilled to be joining Writopia. She will be teaching fiction workshops in Westport, Stamford, and Larchmont--or wherever Writopia wants her to go. Christine's debut middle-grade novel, Last But Not Least Lola, is forthcoming from Boyds Mill Press in the fall of 2013, with a second novel, Last But Not Least Lola: Going Green to follow. Christine grew up in Idaho and studied English and Journalism at the University of Idaho. She went out East to Iowa where she attended the Iowa Writers Workshop (MFA, Poetry Writing, 1993). She was a Fulbright Scholar in 1994 in Helsinki, Finland, where she translated modern Finnish poetry. She taught 7th and 9th grade English at Horace Mann. She is currently at work on a bunch of projects, including a YA novel

Rachel Snyder joined the Writopia Westchester team in spring, 2012. Rachel's poetry has appeared in The Pedestal Magazine, Word Riot, Birds Eye Review, Big Lucks, and The Foundling Review. She attended Sarah Lawrence College, where she earned her BA and later an MFA in creative writing. Rachel has taught at Purchase College, and loves to explore the many worlds of word play and creative writing with her students.

Instructor
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

David Neilsen joined Writopia Lab in the Spring of 2013. He spent a decade writing horror screenplays for Hollywood, managing to get a single, non-horror feature produced straight to DVD and optioning a not-really-horror TV Pilot to 20th Century FOX. More recently, he switched from screenplays to novels and from horror to YA/MG, completing a number of short stories and his first novel. David has also written extensively on the web, and has been featured in numerous national publications, including Rolling Stone, Newsweek and Entertainment Weekly.

Instructor
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Christie Hauser began teaching at Writopia Lab in 2012. Her fiction has appeared in Tin House, Third Coast, The Brooklyn Review, The Laurel Review, The Kenyon Review, and Esquire. She is the 2010 recipient of McSweeney's Amanda Davis Highwire Fiction Award, the winner of the 2012 Jaimy Gordon Prize in Fiction, and the A Room of Her Own Foundation’s Orlando Prize. She is at work on a novel about fishing towns, taxidermy, and love. Christie holds a BA in English from Georgetown University and an MFA in Fiction from Brooklyn College. Christie has taught college freshman English at Brooklyn College and BMCC, and writing at Gotham Writers' Workshop.

Westchester & Fairfield Operations Manager

This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Rob is Writopia Lab's administrator for the Westchester & Fairfield branch, and it's no coincidence that he's married to Léna Roy, the branch's Program Manager (and Instructor). Having worked more than a decade in New York film production, Rob says he's perfectly qualified to run errands, file paperwork, and tinker on computers. And because Rob shares Writopia's vision of building an environment in which to foster the creativity of teens and kids, he now runs, files, and tinkers with more joy than he did before.