Here's to an Award Winning 2019!

We are pleased to announce our student, instructor, and organizational accomplishments of the past year. Please let us know if you would like us to add additional news in an upcoming newsletter.

Hot Off the Press!
Teen Writing, Ages 12-19
Teen Writing, Ages 6-11
Young Writer Awards & Publications Abey Weitzman, recipient of this year's prestigious American Voices Medal, at Carnegie Hall this year. Listen to Writopia Lab's new podcast, Plot Builds Character, featuing Abey here.   Congratulations to all of Writopia Lab’s writers from across the country who submitted work to the 2019 Scholastic Writing Awards! More than 100 Writopians received more than 200 regional awards, including 72 Gold Keys, 74 Silver Keys, and 91 Honorable Mentions.   Additionally, congratulations to the following Writopians whose works went on to receive national medals: Julia Arancio, Lena DiBiasio, Kaya Dierks, Emma Dollar, Sophia Eno, Sabbia Gale-Donnelly, Ella Goldblum, Rina Hisajima, Foster Hudson, Annelie Hyatt, Leya Ivanov, Ayelet Kaminer, Saule Konstantinavicius, Violet Kopp, Hannah Mayerfield, Sarah Nachimson, Sophie Nadel, Ava Neumaier, Lily O'Donnell, Petra Popper-Freedman, Christina Poulin, Megha Ravi, Claire Reisberg, Anna Rosenbloom, Ayla Schultz, Sarah Senese, Abigail Sylvor Greenberg, Ava Vernor, Sarah Waring, Abraham Weitzman, Emily Xu, Claire Yu   Below are just some of our students' accomplishments this past year. Please email abby@writopialab.org if a piece you wrote at Writopia has been published in 2019.   Ava Choi's piece Children in White was published by Chappaqua Library Young Writer's Contest. Gracie Bea Frasch's piece Salty Strong Currents was published by Chappaqua Library Young Writer's Contest. Devisi Goel's piece Brief Moments in Time was published by Chappaqua Library Young Writer's Contest. Sophie Nadel's piece The Life and Death of Violet Barnes was published by the Chappaqua Library Contest. Alberto Ramos was awarded the Sara McMickle Summer Scholarship Sarah Senese's poem "The Patina Effect" was published in The Best Teen Writing of 2019. Sarah Senese's poem "The Patina Effect" was published in The Best Teen Writing of 2019. Emmie Shapiro's piece, Sunflowers, was published in Chappaqua Library's Young Writer's Context. Tessa Wheeler's pieces, Snow Day and My Psychiatrist is a bag of Doritos, was published in the Chappaqua Library Young Writer's Contest. Yifei Liu, Ishaana Misra, Aparajita Shimpi, and Alex Stephan's film, The Perfect Shot, was selected for the Kids' Tribeca Film Festival 2019.     Thank you to Abby Coleman, Writopia's Submissions Coordinator, for researching opportunities for these writers and guiding them through the submissions process.     College Essay Successes ​   Congratulations to our college essay writers! In 2019, they earned admissions to these schools and many others:   Barnard College, Boston University, Bucknel University , Colorado College, Harvard University, LeMoyne, Loyola, New School, New York University, Northwestern, Oberlin, Pace, Pace University, Rutgers University, Seton Hall, Skidmore, Stanford, SUNY Binghamton, SUNY Albany, Swarthmore, Temple University, Tufts University, University of Chicago, University of Maryland, University of Minnesota, University of Pennsylvania, University of Texas Austin, Washington University, Yale University, and many more!   Forever Writopian Alumni Collective Writopia Lab Alumna Eunju Namkung.   Thank you Eunju Namkung for initiating the Forever Writopian Alumni Collective! And congratulations for launching her new initiative, Description Pills, a communications and marketing firm that primarily serves public policy-oriented organizations including associations, educational institutions and non-profits.   Congratulations to each of the following alumni: Lennarsha Prescott for graduating from Hunter College. Rachel Calnek-Sugin for graduating from Yale and for being published in the Yale Literary Magazine. Maxine Charles for graduating from Bucknell University Emma Goldberg for starting her new job at the New York Times. Katie Hartman completing Teach for America and starting her teaching career at The Shefa School. Louis Evans for his publishing debut in Escape Pod.  Sam Levine for publishing high profile stories in the Huffington Post this year, including this one. Milana Meytes for beginning her Fullbright Scholarship in the fall. Nora Miller for gradutating from University of Iowa with an MFA in poetry. Julia Smith for graduating from Smith College.   Tory Testa for graduating from Stanford University.   If you'd like us to share your news, or find out how you can get involved, contact alumni@writopialab.org.     Leadership Opportunities High School students in Writopia's High School Internship programs serve as role models and provide workshop, editorial, and moral support to our 6 to 9 year-old writers. They now also help writers prepare for readings, and support them at the events themselves.   A high school intern engaging with a young workshopper.   Our LA writers inspired Civic Engagement and Activism, a new youth leadership program that fosters awareness and activism surrounding climate change and human impact on the environment. Our New York City teens created a gun control group and a book club called Paperbactivism, led by Madeline Taylor.     Teens in the Paperbactivism book club.   On the Horizon   Writopia Lab Executive Director Rebecca Wallace-Segall and Goddard Riverside’s Associate Executive Director Susan Matloff-Nieves to form The Positive Literacy Collaborative, funded by the Pinkerton Foundation, whose mission is to bring inspiring, effective writing programs to underserved youths throughout Goddard and the broader youth development community.   Writopia Lab at the NYC Pride March: Join Writopia at the annual march on June 30th, 2019!   Writopia at the 2018 Pride parade. Love Letters, Writopia Lab's collection of poetry and memoirs celebrating the African Diaspora, is being considered for publication at a major publishing house!   Writopia Lab runs Scholastic Writing Awards affiliates in San Francisco, Washington DC, and New York Metro North, serving thousands of writers per year. We are expanding that partnership to run next year's Scholastic Writing Awards ceremony in Chicago!		2019 Impact Report   At Writopia, we measured both our social emotional learning impact and our literacy impact this past school year, and we are happy to share these results in both quantitative and qualitative terms. Click this graph to read more!   A Message from Our Executive Director    Writopia Lab's Rebecca Wallace-Segall. This has been such an incredible school year at Writopia across the country! We served over 5,000 invigorated kids and teens in safe space, censorship-free writing workshops at our labs, in schools, and in partnership with community-based organizations. To read more, click here!     New Initiatives   Thank you to the Joseph H. Flom Foundation for enabling Yael Schick and Ethan Shafran Moltz to expand their innovative Language Play preschool film program to two new schools: Homes for the Homeless Prospect Family Inn and Sojourner Truth School in Harlem. Ask us for a private link to a few of their movies! A student at the Prospect Universal pre-school works on his film.    Congratulations to Danielle Sheeler for creating the amazing Narrative Therapy program which bridges creative writing with a deliberate therapeutic approach. And congratulations to her for receiving her second Master's Degree, this one in social work from Columbia University!   Writopia Lab, in conjunction with Columbia University School of Social Work, is now offering Narrative Therapy Workshops and private sessions.   Writopia Lab's Danielle Sheeler.   Congratulations to Janelle Williams for spearheading the second annual Teen Writer's Summit! With seven teen-led panel discussions sitting 24 literary leaders, TWS touched on topics such as creating a diverse and conscious literary climate, facing rejection in the writing world, and journalistic reporting without bias.   In continuing the TWS mission to curate a diverse platform for teens to assess and advocate their writing, there will be many more events to come!   Panelists speaking at 2018's Teen Writer's Summit.     New Writopia Publications Memories in Every Bite: A Kingsbridge High School Cookbook - Congratulations to Ethan Shafran Moltz for working with Kingsbridge International High School to produce this beautiful collection of recipies and memoirs from the English as a Second Language classes. Things You Need in a Wildfire: The H4H 2018 Anthology - Congratulations to Elsa Bermudez and Abby Coleman for producing this amazing anthology of the Homes for the Homeless workshoppers. The Parenthetical and The Ellipsis - Congratulations to Matthew Jellison for publishing the latest issues! Go to theellipsis.org and theparenthetical.org to read them!   Event Spotlight: Writopia Lab's Benefit 2019   This year, Writopia Lab celebrated the Worldwide Plays Festival's 10th Anniversary with our annual Gala. Since 2010, Writopia Lab has produced 489 productions of young playwrights around the country! Congratulations to Dan Kitrosser for helming the Worldwide Plays Festival for the 10th year in a row! Thank you to donors and funders, especially David Sherman, Kim Hartman, The Pinkerton Foundation, the Meringoff Foundation, the Joseph H. Flom Foundation, the Crosswick's Foundation, and the Writopia Alumni Association.   Dan Kitrosser speaking at Writopia Lab's 2019 Gala.     Instructor Awards & Accomplishments   Emma Sheinbaum, New York City instructor, published "Something Normal" in Juked Magazine (January 2019). She was also the Semifinalist in The Center for Women Writers' International Literary Awards: The Penelope Niven Creative Nonfiction Award, judged by Melissa Febos (for a personal essay titled "Clouds from Plan B") Jessica McHugh, Washington DC instructor, published the following pieces: Of Human Symphonies (Unnerving Magazine). Ghost of Hyperia (Hellhole: An Anthology of Subterranean Terror) Amity in Bloom (Ashes & Entropy) Things She Left in the Woods (Lost Films), Always a Bride (Forbidden Futures), We'll Know the Reason When the World Parts its Lips (Forbidden Futures). Kimberly Faith Waid, Los Angeles Regional Manager, was Shortlisted for the 2019 Tennessee Williams Fiction Contest (top ten). Alexandra Cohl, New York City instructor, received the Teacher-Writer Award at The City College of New York. Madeline Stevens, Los Angeles instructor, is publishing a novel on August 13th called Devotion. Bianca Turetsky, Brooklyn Regional Manager, published her books Magic on the Map # 1: Let's Mooove! and Magic on the Map #2: The Show Must Go On with Random House Children's Books, co-written by Writopia Lab instructor Courtney Sheinmel. Cathleen Bell, New York City instructor, published her novel Weregirl: Typhon in 2018. Kailyn McCord, Bay Area instructor, will be a resident at The Ucross Foundation this fall, at work on my CNF manuscript, and have also been accepted for a Nonfiction Workstudy at the Bread Loaf Writer's Conference in August. Any details, don't hesitate to ask! Justin Allen, New York Metro North instructor, wrote an original story for a Dances Patrelle production staged at New York Live Arts. Gina Stevenson, New York City instructor, was a Austin Film Festival Pitch Competition Finalist and Playwriting Competition Semifinalist. She also received her MFA from Columbia University. Elsa Bermudez, Head Instructor and Curriculum Developer, wrote and directed a show called Cleveland of New York, set to premier in New York City's Magnet Theater on August 5th at 7:30.    Our Staff   Writopia Lab's full-time staff.   Exciting changes for our full-time staff: Lena Roy is now our Associate Creative Director of Programs at Writopia Lab and Regional Director of the NYMN region; Michaela Florio, former program coordinator in Westchester, will be serving as Regional Manager in the Bay Area as of the fall; Ethan Shafran Moltz is now our Media Manager; Madeline Taylor is now our Program Administration Manager; Abby Coleman is now our Associate Director of Programs.   Writopia continues to grow in amazing and wonderful ways and it wouldn't be possible without our nationwide team of full-time staff: Michael Alessi, Elsa Bermudez, Abby Coleman, Rachel Crocker, Mikaela Dunitz, Rita Feinstein, Michaela Florio, Tom Flynn, Nancy Gauhan, Kyle Henry, Matthew Jellison, Malcolm Knowles, Lucian Mattison, Milana Meytes, Laura Owsiany, Léna Roy, Rob Roy, Yael Schick, Ethan Shafran Moltz, Sarah Shatan-Pardo, Danielle Sheeler, Derek Souza, Jacquelyn Stolos, Madeline Taylor, Bianca Turetsky, Kimberly Faith Waid, Jeremy Wallace-Segall, Rebecca Wallace-Segall, and Janelle Williams.
Writopia Lab is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization that fosters joy, literacy, and critical thinking in young people from all backgrounds through creative writing. We run fun and productive student-centered creative writing workshops led by published writers across the country. Our writers are published or win more recognition each year than any other group of students in the nation. Learn more or join the community by enrolling in a workshop!