Information Booklet 2022 - The Adroit Journal
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2022 Information Booklet
Table o f Co nt e nt s
4 About the Program
6 Application Details
10 Tuition & Financial Aid
12 2022 Staff
18 2022 Mentors
50 Testimonials
58 Student News
64 Student Alumni
74 About the Journal
2 2022 Adroit Summer Mentorship Program | 3
About the Pr ogr am
Now in its tenth year, The Adroit Journal Summer Mentorship Program is
an entirely online program that pairs experienced writers with high school
students (including graduating seniors) and gap year students (high school
class of ’21 or ’22) interested in exploring the creative writing processes of
drafting, redrafting, and editing.
This year, the program offers mentorships in the genres of poetry, fiction,
and creative nonfiction/memoir.
The aim of the mentorship program is not formalized instruction, but rather
an individualized, flexible, and often informal correspondence. Poetry
students will share work with mentors and peers on a weekly basis, while
fiction and creative nonfiction students will share work with mentors and
ABOUT THE
peers on a biweekly basis.
The 2022 Adroit Journal Summer Mentorship Program will begin on June
20th and will conclude on August 1st.
Applications for the 2022 Adroit Journal Summer Mentorship Program will
be open via our Submittable platform from February 15, 2022 until March
15, 2022 at 11:59pm Pacific Standard Time (PST).
PROGRAM
We are very proud of our alumni. Students have subsequently been
recognized through the National YoungArts Foundation & United States
Presidential Scholar in the Arts designation, the National Scholastic Art
& Writing Awards, and the Foyle Young Poet of the Year Awards, among a
plethora of other recognition avenues.
Over 65% of mentorship graduates have matriculated at Ivy League
universities, Stanford, UChicago, Cambridge, or Oxford. Click here to view
the mentorship alumni college list.
Questions?
Visit us online: https://www.theadroitjournal.org/mentorship
Say hello: adroitmentorship@gmail.com
4 2022 Adroit Summer Mentorship Program | 5
Application DETAILS
This year’s program will be open for applications via our submission manager
until March 15, 2022 at 11:59 PM PST. Click here to start your application.
Applicants should possess a firm work ethic and some familiarity with the
writing and revision process; should be comfortable with receiving (and giving)
commentary and critique; and should be prompt and generous communicators.
Applicants should also possess the will to explore and improve!
How do I app ly?
Applications for this year’s mentorship program consist of four parts. Please
note that our walkthrough of the app spans multiple pages—so please read on!
APPLICATION ESSAYS (REQUIRED)
APPLICATION Please note that you must respond to both questions for your application to be
considered. We encourage you to double space your responses and include
a page break between them, making sure to also include the full question to
which you are responding above each answer. (P.S. We find that conventional
fonts like Times New Roman, Arial, or Garamond often work best!)
Question #1
DETAILS In approx. 450-600 words, explore and examine your impulse to write—give us
the who, what, where, when, and/or why behind your passion for the genre (or
genres) of creative writing to which you are applying. Perhaps you’ll shed light
on why you started writing. Perhaps you’ll take us on a backstage tour behind
your current writing process(es). Perhaps you’ll dissect the way(s) writing fits
into your life, academically, extracurricularly, philosophically, socially, and/or
artistically. Perhaps all of the above—it’s all fair game.
Note: Please feel encouraged to reference work(s) from your sample or samples
in your response. You might also reference any writing project(s) you have
undertaken and/or how you hope your writing might develop in craft and/or
theme as a mentorship student this summer.
Read on, on the next page, for our second Application Essay question, and to
learn more about the other application components.
6 2022 Adroit Summer Mentorship Program | 7
Appli c atio n D ETA I LS ( CONT. ) Application DETAILS (CONT.)
Please note that this is a continuation of guidelines that began on the previous Please note that this is a continuation of guidelines that began on page 7. Be
page. Be sure to begin reading on that page and continue on to this one! sure to begin reading on that page and continue on through this one!
APPLICATION ESSAYS - CONT. (REQUIRED) ACADEMIC TRANSCRIPT (OPTIONAL)
Question #2 The Academic Transcript is an optional component that is used as a verification
of student status. Transcripts may be official or unofficial and should ideally be
In approx. 350-500 words, introduce us to a work of writing or art that moves in PDF form. There is no need to upload multiple transcripts if you’ve changed
you. Why does it move you? What’s kept it stuck in your head? Examples of schools during your high school career—your latest transcript will suffice. If
selected work may include a poem, series of linked poems, or poetry collection; not sent with your application, a transcript (or other proof of student-status) is
a short story, short story collection, or novella, or even an excerpt/chapter of a required when accepting a spot in a mentorship cohort.
novel; an essay, essay collection, or memoir; a song, EP, or album (of any genre);
a literary magazine issue; a piece or series of visual art; a movie; or that idea of
yours that immediately sprang to mind! If it’s even arguably art but moving and
meaningful to you, go for it. ADDITIONAL INFORMATION SECTION (OPTIONAL)
Note: Given length constraints, if you select a collection of work (e.g. a The Additional Information Section is an optional component included in the
collection of poems, stories, or essays; a lit mag issue; an album; etc.), please application as an opportunity to share any information that you feel is pertinent
center your discussion around 3-5 specific pieces of the work. to your background and/or mentorship candidacy. Please upload no more than
two pages as a .DOC or .PDF file in this section. You may treat this section as
an opportunity to upload a resume/activity sheet if you would like, or you can
instead share more about situational factors that you have not shared elsewhere.
WRITING SAMPLE (REQUIRED)
In offering this section, we hope that you will not feel pressure to fit, squish, or
The Writing Sample should consist of four or five poems (max of twelve pages, force any content into other areas of your application. Thanks very much for your
with each poem starting on a new page) or between eight and twelve double- interest in the mentorship program; we look forward to seeing what you've got!
spaced pages of prose (excerpts are acceptable).
Students who wish to apply to multiple genres may do so by utilizing both the
First Choice and Second Choice options in the mentorship application form. READY TO START YOUR APPLICATION ?
If you’re applying in multiple genres, you may include multiple samples in your Visit us online: https://www.theadroitjournal.org/mentorship
Writing Sample file—please ensure that you are abiding by the writing sample Get started: https://adroit.submittable.com/submit
guidelines for each genre. We consider all genres independent of their ranking
on your app until the final stage. Please direct additional questions to adroitmentorship@gmail.com.
8 2022 Adroit Summer Mentorship Program | 9
TUITION & FINANCIAL AID
Participation in the mentorship for students who do not qualify for financial aid
will cost $450 per mentee. Please note that there is no application fee.
The accessibility of the mentorship has long been one of the program’s most
attractive qualities to young writers nationally and internationally. We want to
assure mentee applicants for whom tuition will be a barrier that fee remission
and robust financial aid will be available.
Applications will be read in accordance with our existing best practices: finding
promising writers who will most benefit from working with our chosen mentors.
Financial need will be addressed entirely separately, and will not be an factor on
mentorship admission decisions. Program administrators will not have access to
financial need information until after admission decisions have been made.
TUITION &
We have adopted the Common App's full list of financial need indicators when
assessing financial need of accepted students. Please see below for a full list of
these indicators for the 2021-2022 academic year:
• I have received or am eligible to receive an ACT or SAT testing fee waiver.
• I am enrolled in or am eligible to participate in the Federal Free or Reduced
Price Lunch Program (FRPL).
• My annual family income falls within the Income Eligibility Guidelines set by
FINANCIAL AID
the USDA Food and Nutrition Service.
• I am enrolled in a federal, state, or local program that aids students from
low-income families (e.g., TRIO programs such as Upward Bound).
• My family receives public assistance.
• I live in federally subsidized public housing, a foster home or am homeless.
• I am a ward of the state or an orphan.
• I can provide a supporting statement from a school official, college counselor,
financial aid officer, community leader, or parent/guardian.
Please direct questions regarding tuition and financial aid to this year's program
administrators via email (adroitmentorship@gmail.com).
READY TO START YOUR APPLICATION ?
Visit us online: https://www.theadroitjournal.org/mentorship
Get started: https://adroit.submittable.com/submit
10 2022 Adroit Summer Mentorship Program | 11
20 22 DIRE CTOR
J O H N A L L E N TAY L O R
Mentorship Program Director
MENTORSH IP ASSISTANTS
EMORY BRINSON
Poetry Alum, '19
2022
K AYA D I E R K S
Fiction Alum, '20
YA S M E E N K H A N
Fiction Alum, '19
S A R A H F AT H I M A M O H A M M E D
STAFF
Poetry Alum, '20
J I E YA N WA N G
Fiction Alum, '19
R AC H A E L L I N W H E E L E R
Poetry Alum, '21
12 2022 Adroit Summer Mentorship Program | 13
JOHN ALLEN TAYLOR is author of the chapbook KAYA DIERKS' fiction appears in SmokeLong
Unmonstrous (YesYes Books, 2019). His poems appear Quarterly, the Adroit Journal, GASHER Journal, and
in Sixth Finch, Poetry Northwest, DIAGRAM, The more, and has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize.
Common, Pleiades, and other places. John serves as She is a YoungArts Finalist in Writing in Short Story &
the senior poetry reader for Ploughshares, coordinates Dramatic Script, a five-time Scholastic National Gold
the writing center at the University of Michigan- Medalist, and the recipient of a Scholastic American
Dearborn, and bakes sourdough bread. For more, visit Voices Medal, among other honors. She studied
johnallentaylor.com. fiction under Michelle Ross in the 2020 Adroit Journal
Summer Mentorship Program and, beginning in Fall
2022, she will attend Yale University.
JOHN ALLEN KAYA DIERKS
TAYLOR
Mentorship Assistant
Program Director FAVORITE WRITERS FAVORITE WRITERS
(Prose)
Mahmoud Darwish, Patricia Smith, and James Wright. Anthony Doerr, Carmen Maria Machado, & Mariko Tamaki.
EMORY BRINSON is a student at Brown University YASMEEN KHAN is a high school senior living in
studying policy and literary arts. She is terrified of Spring, Texas. She is the recipient of the 2020 Adroit
spiders and obsessed with writing about the body and Prize for Prose, selected by Kristen Arnett, and her
all of its fragments. Her work has been recognized work has been recognized by the National YoungArts
by the National Scholastic Art and Writing Awards Foundation and the Alliance for Young Artists and
(as a Gold Medalist for Writing Portfolio), the Nancy Writers. Her short stories and essays can be found
Thorp Poetry Contest, and the National YoungArts in the Adroit Journal, Columbia Journal, the Rumpus,
Foundation. She was a finalist for the Elinor Benedict and others.
Poetry Prize and is published in Sledgehammer Lit,
Corporeal, Olney Magazine, and more.
EMORY YASMEEN
BRINSON KHAN
FAVORITE WRITERS Mentorship Assistant FAVORITE WRITERS Mentorship Assistant
Hanif Abdurraqib, Terrance Hayes, Nicole Sealey. (Poetry) Aria Aber, Elena Ferrante, Yelena Moskovich. (Prose)
14 2022 Adroit Summer Mentorship Program | 15
SARAH FATHIMA MOHAMMED, daughter of RACHAEL LIN WHEELER attends Washington
Indian Muslim immigrants, is a poet from the San University in St. Louis as a Howard Nemerov Writing
Francisco Bay Area. She represents the West as a Scholar and is an alum of the Adroit Journal Summer
2021-22 National Student Poet, America's highest Mentorship Program. A two-time Pushcart Prize
honor for youth poets. Her work appears in or is nominee and finalist for Tinderbox Poetry Journal’s
forthcoming from the Adroit Journal, Crazyhorse, Brett Elizabeth Jenkins and Majda Gama Editors’
diode, Frontier Poetry, PANK, the Rumpus, SOFTBLOW, Prizes, RL’s poetry appears in Ghost City Review,
and wildness, and has been recognized by the SOFTBLOW, and the West Review, among others. RL
National YoungArts Foundation and Poetry Society of also serves as the editorial assistant for EX/POST
the United Kingdom. She was born in 2005. MAGAZINE and editor of Vox Viola Literary Magazine.
She can be found at rachaellinwheeler.com.
SARAH RACHAEL LIN
FATHIMA WHEELER
MOHAMMED FAVORITE WRITERS Mentorship Assistant FAVORITE WRITERS
Mentorship Assistant Aria Aber, Fatimah Asghar, Brandon Taylor. (Poetry) Aria Aber, Marcelo Hernandez Castillo, Jos Charles.
(Poetry)
JIEYAN WANG is a current first-year college
student at Harvard University. Her work has appeared
in or is forthcoming from Baltimore Review, Colorado
Review, Passages North, Pleiades, Witness, and
elsewhere. She has been named a National Scholastic
Gold Medalist in Writing Portfolio, National YoungArts
Finalist in Writing (Short Story), and U.S. Presidential
Scholar in the Arts. Currently, she reads prose for the
Adroit Journal.
JIEYAN WANG
Mentorship Assistant
FAVORITE WRITERS
(Prose)
Carmen Maria Machado, Jenny Xie, Bing Xin.
16 2022 Adroit Summer Mentorship Program | 17
20 22 Mentor s
DA N A A L SA M SAM
Poetry Mentor
SCOTT E DWA RD ANDERSON
Creative Nonfiction/Memoir Mentor
DA RIUS AT E FAT-PECKH AM
Poetry Mentor
K AT IE BE RTA
2022
Poetry Mentor
M A RK K YUN GSO O BI AS
Poetry Mentor
STE P HA N IE CHANG
Poetry Mentor
Mentors
CA ROL IN E CRE W
Creative Nonfiction/Memoir Mentor
JOSE HE RN A N D EZ DI AZ
Poetry Mentor
ASA D RA K E
Poetry Mentor
CA ROL IN E FA IREY
Creative Nonfiction/Memoir Mentor
A N A N YA GA RG
Fiction Mentor
M E L ISSA GOOD RI CH
Fiction Mentor
18 2022 Adroit Summer Mentorship Program | 192022 Mentors (CONT.) 2022 Mentors (CONT.) AMA N DA HAW KI N S SA RA M A RTIN Poetry Mentor Fiction Mentor K INS ALE HU ES TO N JOHN PA UL M A RTI NEZ Poetry Mentor Poetry Mentor BRION N E J AN AE E D UA RD O M A RTI NEZ -LEYVA Poetry Mentor Poetry Mentor ERIN J O N ES A RA M M RJOIA N Fiction Mentor Fiction Mentor W. TO D D K AN EK O K E CHI N OM U Poetry Mentor Poetry Mentor J ASMI N E KHALI Q E RN E ST ÒGÚN YEMÍ Poetry Mentor Poetry Mentor BEN LOO R Y M A RCUS ON G K AH H O Fiction Mentor Fiction Mentor ANG I E S I J U N LO U RUBE N QUE SA DA Fiction Mentor Poetry Mentor MAJA LUKIC JE SSICA N IRVA NA RAM Poetry Mentor Poetry Mentor LINDS AY LY N C H L E SL IE SA IN Z Fiction Mentor Poetry Mentor SA M AN T HA M AN N RA E N A SHIRA L I Creative Nonfiction/Memoir Mentor Poetry Mentor R AC HEL I N EZ M A R S H A L L STE F F I SIN Poetry Mentor Fiction Mentor 20 2022 Adroit Summer Mentorship Program | 21
2022 Mentors (CONT.)
DANA ALSAMSAM is a first generation Syrian-
J EDD I E S OP HR O NIU S American from Chicago who is currently based in
Poetry Mentor Boston, where she works in arts development and runs
a freelance book editing business. Her work has been
MELAN I E TAF EJI A N supported by fellowships from Emerson College
Poetry Mentor and Lambda Literary. Her poems have appeared in the
Georgia Review, the Massachusetts Review, the North
J ONN Y T EKLI T
American Review, the Shallow Ends, Salamander, the
Poetry Mentor
Offing, BOOTH, the Common, and others.
AR I T I S ON
Fiction Mentor DANA
ALSAMSAM
NUR T U R KM AN I
Poetry Mentor FAVORITE WRITERS
Fiction Mentor
Kaveh Akbar, Safia Elhillo, Ocean Vuong.
J OR R ELL WAT KI N S
Poetry Mentor
K AT E W I S EL
SCOTT EDWARD ANDERSON is an award-
Fiction Mentor
winning poet, memoirist, essayist, and translator, and
the author of Wine-Dark Sea: New & Selected Poems
& Translations (Shanti Arts, 2022); Azorean Suite/Suite
Açoriana (Letras Lavadas, 2020); Falling Up: A Memoir
of Second Chances (Homebound, 2019), which
received the 1st Literary Prize from Letras Lavadas/
PEN Açores in 2020; Dwelling: an ecopoem (Shanti
Arts, 2018), winner of the Nautilus Prize; and Fallow
Field: Poems (Aldrich Press, 2013). Connect with him
on Twitter and Instagram @greenskeptic.
SCOTT
EDWARD
FAVORITE WRITERS ANDERSON
Elizabeth Bishop, Annie Dillard, Michael Ondaatje. Creative Nonfiction Mentor
22 2022 Adroit Summer Mentorship Program | 23DARIUS ATEFAT-PECKHAM is an Iranian- MARK KYUNGSOO BIAS is a Korean American
American poet and essayist. His work has appeared in writer. His work appears or will soon appear in Adroit
Poem-a-Day, Georgia Review, Indiana Review, Barrow Journal, Asheville Poetry Review, Best New Poets, The
Street, Michigan Quarterly Review, the Journal, the Common, and PANK, among others. He is a 2021 Tin
Florida Review, and elsewhere. He is the author of the House Scholar, as well as a Screenwriting Instructor
chapbook How Many Love Poems (Seven Kitchens at the Juniper Institute for Young Writers, a Poetry
Press) and in 2018, Atefat-Peckham was selected by Consultant at Grub Street, and an MFA candidate
the Library of Congress as a National Student Poet. and REAL Fellow at the University of Massachusetts
Atefat-Peckham lives in Huntington, West Virginia and Amherst.
currently studies English and Near Eastern Languages
and Civilizations at Harvard College.
DARIUS MARK
ATEFAT- KYUNGSOO
PECKHAM FAVORITE WRITERS BIAS FAVORITE WRITERS
Poetry Mentor Kaveh Akbar, Ross Gay, Ada Limón. Poetry Mentor Theresa Hak Kyung Cha, Victoria Chang, Eileen Myles.
KATIE BERTA is the managing editor of the Iowa STEPHANIE CHANG is an undergraduate student
Review. Her poems have appeared in Ploughshares, at Kenyon College from Vancouver, Canada. Her work
Cincinnati Review, Kenyon Review Online, Prairie appears in the Adroit Journal, the Blue Mesa Review,
Schooner, Yale Review, Massachusetts Review, and Waxwing, Frontier Poetry, wildness, and the Kenyon
Black Warrior Review, among others. You can find her Review, where she now serves as an Associate. She is
book reviews in American Poetry Review, West Branch, the winner of the 2021 Adroit Prize for Poetry, selected
Harvard Review, and Ploughshares. She has received by Carl Phillips. Additionally, she has been recognized
a residency from Millay Arts, fellowships from Vermont by the Poetry Society of the UK, Anthony Quinn
Studio Center and the Virginia G. Piper Center for Foundation, Hollins University, and beyond. Stephanie
Creative Writing, and an Iowa Review Award. currently edits for Sine Theta Magazine, a creative arts
publication by and for the Sino diaspora.
KATIE BERTA STEPHANIE
CHANG
Poetry Mentor
FAVORITE WRITERS FAVORITE WRITERS Poetry Mentor
Victoria Chang, Benjamin Garcia, Diana Khoi Nguyen. Kaveh Akbar, Richie Hofmann, Sally Wen Mao.
24 2022 Adroit Summer Mentorship Program | 25CAROLINE CREW is the author of the essay | ASA DRAKE is a Filipina American writer and public
collection Other Girls to Burn (University of Georgia services librarian in Central Florida. She has received
Press, 2021), winner of the AWP Prize for Nonfiction, fellowships from Tin House and Idyllwild Arts and is a
as well as the poetry collection PINK MUSEUM (Big 2020 92Y Discovery Poetry Contest winner. Her most
Lucks). She holds a PhD from Georgia State University, recent poems will soon appear in the Adroit Journal,
as well as an MA from the University of Oxford and an the American Poetry Review, the Georgia Review, and
MFA from The University of Massachusetts Amherst. Poetry Northwest.
Currently, she is a Visiting Professor at Warren Wilson
College. She's online here: caroline-crew.com.
CAROLINE ASA DRAKE
CREW
Poetry Mentor
Creative Nonfiction Mentor FAVORITE WRITERS FAVORITE WRITERS
Lucie Brock-Broido, Molly Brodak, Carmen Maria Machado. Ai, Kimiko Hahn, Brigit Pegeen Kelly.
JOSE HERNANDEZ DIAZ is a 2017 NEA Poetry CAROLINE FAIREY is a writer, an editor, and a
Fellow. He is the author of The Fire Eater (Texas Review translator from Estill, South Carolina. She is currently a
Press, 2020). His work appears in the American Poetry Prose Editor for the Adroit Journal, and has previously
Review, Boulevard, Crazyhorse, the Georgia Review, worked (or volunteered) with Dzanc Books, Lanternfish
the Iowa Review, the Missouri Review, the Nation, Press, Ploughshares, 826Michigan, and Ayesha Pande
Poetry, the Southern Review, and in the Best American Literary. Her work has been published in storySouth,
Nonrequired Reading 2011. He teaches creative Garnet & Black Magazine, Jellyfish Review, Noble Gas
writing online and edits for Frontier Poetry. Qrtly, and elsewhere. She was a YoungArts Finalist
in Creative Nonfiction and a three-time Scholastic
Medalist. She graduated summa cum laude from the
University of South Carolina Honors College in 2020
JOSE CAROLINE
and currently resides in Ypsilanti, Michigan.
HERNANDEZ FAIREY
FAVORITE WRITERS DIAZ FAVORITE WRITERS Creative Nonfiction Mentor
Marosa di Giorgio, Alberto Ríos, James Tate. Poetry Mentor Teju Cole, Leah Dieterich, Sayaka Murata.
26 2022 Adroit Summer Mentorship Program | 27ANANYA GARG s a South Asian lesbian writer, AMANDA HAWKINS is a Tin House and Bread Loaf
performer, and educator. She is the author of the Scholar, three-time Pushcart nominee, and recipient
chapbook, STILLNESS (2020). Her writing appears in of the Florida Review Editor’s Prize for Poetry. Her work
YES! Magazine, Asian American Feminist Collective’s appears in Orion, Boston Review, Cincinnati Review,
“first times” collection, the Neither Here Nor There Massachusetts Review, Terrain, Tin House, and Tin
Journal, and others. Her film, “MANGO,” premiered at House Online. She holds an MA in theological studies
the 2021 Cadence Poetry Film Festival. She lives with and is an MFA candidate at UC Davis. She also serves
her partner and dog in Brooklyn, NY, where she is a as a Prose Reader for the Adroit Journal.
2021-22 Museum Education Fellow at the Brooklyn
Museum.
ANANYA GARG AMANDA
HAWKINS
Fiction Mentor
FAVORITE WRITERS Poetry Mentor FAVORITE WRITERS
Elizabeth Acevedo, Safia Elhillo, Nikki Giovanni. Anne Carson, Natalie Diaz, Vievee Francis.
MELISSA GOODRICH is a writer based in Tucson, KINSALE HUESTON is a poet, performer, and
Arizona. She received her BA in Creative Writing from senior at Yale University, where she studies the healing
Susquehanna University and her MFA in Fiction from and (re)vitalization potentials of Indigenous poetics.
the University of Arizona. Her work has appeared in She has served as a 2017-2018 National Student
American Short Fiction, Artful Dodge, the Kenyon Poet, the nation’s highest honor for youth poets
Review Online, Passages North, PANK, Word Riot, presenting original work, was named one of Time’s
Gigantic Sequins, and others. She is the author of the “34 People Changing How We See the World,” and
collaborative collection The Classroom, the fiction is the recipient of the J. Edgar Meeker Prize and the
collection Daughters of Monsters, and the poetry Yale Indigenous Performing Arts Program Prize for
chapbook IF YOU WHAT. Find her at melissa-goodrich. Storytelling. Her work has been published or shared
com and tweeting @good_rib. by Torrey House Press (2021), the Los Angeles Times,
MELISSA KINSALE
Time Magazine, the Adroit Journal, and more.
GOODRICH HUESTON
FAVORITE WRITERS Fiction Mentor FAVORITE WRITERS Poetry Mentor
Aimee Bender, Octavia Butler, Carmen Maria Machado. Billy Ray-Belcourt, Natalie Diaz, Leslie Marmon Silko.
28 2022 Adroit Summer Mentorship Program | 29BRIONNE JANAE is a poet and teaching artist W. TODD KANEKO is the author of two books
living in Brooklyn. They are the author of Blessed are of poetry: This is How the Bone Sings and The Dead
the Peacemakers (2021), which won the 2020 Cave Wrestler Elegies. He is co-author with Amorak Huey
Canem Northwestern University Press Poetry Prize, of the poetry chapbook Slash / Slash and of Poetry:
and After Jubilee (2017) published by Boaat Press. A Writers’ Guide and Anthology. His poems appear
Their poetry appears in Ploughshares, American Poetry in Poetry, Alaskan Quarterly Review, Massachusetts
Review, the Academy of American Poets' Poem-a-Day, Review, the Normal School, Barrelhouse, Verse Daily,
the Sun, jubilat, and Waxwing, among others. Brionne Poetry Daily, the American Academy of Poets' Poem-
is the co-host of the podcast The Slave is Gone, A-Day, and elsewhere. A Kundiman Fellow, he lives in
alongside poet Jericho Brown and Rogue Scholar Aífe Grand Rapids, Michigan, where he teaches at Grand
Murray. Off the page, they go by Breezy. Valley State University.
BRIONNE W. TODD
JANAE KANEKO
Poetry Mentor FAVORITE WRITERS Poetry Mentor FAVORITE WRITERS
Toi Dericotte, Sharon Olds, Natasha Trethewey. Li-Young Lee, Ada Limón, Aimee Nezhukumatathil.
ERIN JONES received her MFA in Creative Writing JASMINE KHALIQ is a Pakistani Mexican poet
from Emerson College, where she is now affiliated from Northern California. She holds an MFA from the
faculty. Her first novel, Tinfoil Crowns, was published University of Washington, Seattle. A finalist for the
by Flux Books in 2019, was named one of Barnes & Diagram Chapbook Contest as well as Tupelo Press’
Nobels most anticipated Young Adult novels, and Sunken Garden Poetry Prize & Snowbound Chapbook
received a 2020 Moonbeam Award. Jones is the Award, she is a Ph.D. student at the University of Utah,
former head of marketing at Ploughshares and her where she serves as Assistant Editor of Quarterly West
work has been published in the James Franco Review, and reads for Split Lip Magazine. Her poetry appears
Rock & Sling, and elsewhere. She was a finalist for the in Poetry Northwest, Black Warrior Review, Rattle,
Boston Public Library Writer-in-Residence fellowship Seneca Review, Poet Lore, Bennington Review, and
and calls Boston home. elsewhere.
ERIN JONES JASMINE
KHALIQ
Fiction Mentor
FAVORITE WRITERS Poetry Mentor
FAVORITE WRITERS
Anne Carson, Kim Hyesoon, Sylvia Plath.
Kate Chopin, Ottessa Moshfegh, Tim O'Brien.
30 2022 Adroit Summer Mentorship Program | 31BEN LOORY is the author of the collections Tales MAJA LUKIC is an MFA candidate in poetry at
of Falling and Flying (Penguin, 2017) and Stories for Warren Wilson College. Her work appears or will in A
Nighttime and Some for the Day (Penguin, 2011), as Public Space, the Adroit Journal, Crazyhorse, Poetry
well as a picture book for children, The Baseball Player Northwest, Colorado Review, Prelude, Salamander,
and the Walrus (Dial Books for Young Readers, 2015). the American Journal of Poetry, and elsewhere. In
His fables and tales have appeared in the New Yorker, 2020, her poem "Dusty Lemons" was featured by Tracy
Fairy Tale Review, BOMB Magazine, and A Public K. Smith on the Slowdown podcast. Selected pieces
Space, and been heard on This American Life and published online are available at majalukic.com. She
Selected Shorts. Loory is a graduate of Harvard lives in Brooklyn, New York.
University and holds an MFA in Screenwriting from the
American Film Institute. He lives and teaches fiction
BEN LOORY writing in Los Angeles.
MAJA LUKIC
Fiction Mentor Poetry Mentor
FAVORITE WRITERS FAVORITE WRITERS
Aesop, Franz Kafka, Philip K. Dick. Louise Glück, Charles Simic, Tomas Tranströmer.
ANGIE SIJUN LOU is the daughter of Chinese LINDSAY LYNCH is the author of the novel Do
immigrants. Her work appears in American Poetry Tell, forthcoming from Doubleday Books in 2023. A
Review, Poetry Northwest, Kenyon Review, Gulf Coast, long-time indie bookseller, Lindsay currently lives in
Best Small Fictions, Georgia Review, The Margins, and Nashville, where she works as the book buyer for
others. She is a Kundiman Fellow, is a Ph.D. Candidate Parnassus Books. She holds an MFA in Fiction from the
in Literature and Creative Writing at the University University of Wyoming. Her work has appeared in the
of California, Santa Cruz, and an instructor at San Adroit Journal, Electric Lit, the Atlantic, the Offing, and
Quentin State Prison. She has received fellowships Lit Hub, among other places.
and support from Vermont Studio Center, Millay Arts,
the Calfornia Arts Council, and the Mendocino Coast
Writers' Conference. She lives in Oakland.
ANGIE SIJUN LINDSAY
LOU LYNCH
Fiction Mentor FAVORITE WRITERS Fiction Mentor
FAVORITE WRITERS
Alexander Chee, Lauren Groff, Sarah Waters.
Roberto Bolaño, Sawako Nakayasu, Lisa Robertson.
32 2022 Adroit Summer Mentorship Program | 33SAMANTHA MANN is the author of Putting Out: SARA MARTIN lives in Philadelphia. She has
Essays on Otherness (2019). She's written for BUST for received fellowships from the Fine Arts Work Center,
the past 3.5 years covering mental health, sexuality, Yaddo Corporation, Jentel Foundation, Sundress Press
motherhood, and queer life. Her work was featured in Academy for the Arts, and other organizations. Her
the weekly round-up of Roxane Gay's newsletter, The work has been published by Literary Hub, The Rumpus,
Audacity, in August 2021. Other publications include The Seattle Review, Penn Review, Columbia Journal,
Elle, Washington Post Magazine, Romper, Bustle, The and others. She teaches in the Writing Studies
Rumpus, and others. Her work from Romper has been Departments of Montclair State University, Drew
featured in Miss Representation and Cup of Jo. University and Moore College of Art & Design. She
recently completed a novel in verse called They Wake
Up Swinging and is working on a new novel called
SAMANTHA SARA MARTIN Movie Night.
MANN
Fiction Mentor
Creative Nonfiction Mentor FAVORITE WRITERS FAVORITE WRITERS
Melissa Broder, Mary Karr, Lidia Yuknavitch. Keri Hulme, Michel de Montaigne, Sei Shonagon.
RACHEL INEZ MARSHALL's poems have JOHN PAUL MARTINEZ is a Filipino Canadian
appeared in Ploughshares, Mississippi Review, Best poet writing out of the Midwest. He was a finalist
New Poets, the Normal School, the Adroit Journal, for the 2019 Indiana Review Poetry Prize and 1/2 K
Hayden's Ferry Review, and other publications. She Prize, the 2019 Elinor Benedict Poetry Prize, and the
earned her MFA from Florida State University and 2018 Black Warrior Review Poetry Contest. Their work
currently lives in Nashville, Tennessee. appears in Third Coast, Redivider, Nashville Review,
Poetry Northwest, and The Margins. He holds a BA in
Linguistics from the University of Wisconsin–Madison
and currently serves as a poetry reader for BOAAT.
RACHEL INEZ JOHN PAUL
MARSHALL MARTINEZ
FAVORITE WRITERS Poetry Mentor Poetry Mentor
FAVORITE WRITERS
Federico García Lorca, Frank O'Hara, Anne Sexton.
Hanif Abdurraqib, Heather Christle, Sawako Nakayasu.
34 2022 Adroit Summer Mentorship Program | 35EDUARDO MARTINEZ-LEYVA was born on the KECHI NOMU is a bi Nigerian writer. Her work
U.S. Mexico border to Mexican immigrants. His work has appeared in Boston Review, Electric Literature,
has appeared in Boston Review, the Adroit Journal, Ploughshares, Cosmonauts Avenue, and DIALOGIST.
Best New Poets, and elsewhere. He has received Her essay was named a notable piece of 2020 in Best
fellowships from CantoMundo, the Frost Place, and American Essays, and in 2019 she was named a
the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown. semifinalist for the Aura Estrada Short Story Prize. Her
poems are included in Kunstenfestivaldesarts’ The
Diasporic Schools project. She is a Stein-Brodey
Fellow at NYU, where she is completing an MFA in
poetry, and is the author of the chapbook Acts of
Crucifixion (Akashic Books/African Poetry Book Fund,
EDUARDO KECHI NOMU 2018). She lives in Brooklyn.
MARTINEZ-
Poetry Mentor
LEYVA FAVORITE WRITER
FAVORITE WRITERS
Poetry Mentor Natalie Diaz, Hervé Guibert, Arundhati Roy.
Tracy K. Smith, Ada Limón, Cate Marvin.
ARAM MRJOIAN is a writer, editor, critic, and ERNEST ÒGÚNYEMÍ is a writer, literary journalist,
educator. He earned his Ph.D. in creative writing at and editor from Nigeria. His work has appeared in
Florida State University and his MFA at Northwestern AGNI, Southern Humanities Review, Cincinnati Review,
University. Aram's writing appears in Electric Literature, Bodega, Joyland, Tinderbox, the minnesota review,
Barrelhouse, Gulf Coast, The Millions, The Rumpus, and elsewhere. He is currently pursuing a BA in History
Boulevard, Longreads, and many other publications. and International Studies at Lagos State University.
He is at work editing Imagining and Seeing: Voices of
the Armenian Diaspora, an anthology of essays slated
for publication with University of Texas Press in Fall
2022. He is currently a Visiting Assistant Professor in
English at Pacific Lutheran University.
ARAM ERNEST
MRJOIAN ÒGÚNYEMÍ
FAVORITE WRITERS Fiction Mentor FAVORITE WRITERS Poetry Mentor
Diane Cook, Percival Everett, Viet Thanh Nguyen. James Longenbach, Kenneth Rexroth, Lewis Thomas.
36 2022 Adroit Summer Mentorship Program | 37MARCUS ONG KAH HO is a writer and teacher JESSICA NIRVANA RAM is an Indo-Guyanese
from Singapore. His stories have appeared in the MFA candidate at the University of North Carolina at
Adroit Journal, Guesthouse, Going Down Swinging, Wilmington. She is equal parts poet and essayist,
Hayden's Ferry Review, Washington Square Review, while occasionally moonlighting as a fiction writer. Her
and elsewhere. Find him online at marcusongkh.com. work appears or will soon appear in Glass: A Journal
of Poetry, Hayden's Ferry Review, Hellebore Press,
and Honey Literary. Jessica is also a poetry reader at
Okay Donkey Magazine. You can find her tweets about
teaching, writing, and life @jessnirvanapoet.
MARCUS ONG JESSICA
KAH HO NIRVANA RAM
Fiction Mentor FAVORITE WRITERS Poetry Mentor FAVORITE WRITERS
Rachel Cusk, Lydia Davis, George Saunders. Chen Chen, Franny Choi, Aja Monet.
RUBEN QUESADA (Ph.D.) is the editor of Latinx LESLIE SAINZ is a first generation Cuban-
Poetics: Essays on the Art of Poetry, the author of American, born and raised in Miami. The recipient
Revelations, Next Extinct Mammal, and the translator of a 2021 National Endowment for the Arts Poetry
of Exiled from the Throne of Night: Selected Fellowship, she received her MFA in poetry from
Translations of Luis Cernuda. His writing appears the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Her work has
in Harvard Review, Best American Poetry, American appeared in Kenyon Review Online, AGNI, Narrative,
Poetry Review, Ploughshares, and elsewhere. He has jubilat, Black Warrior Review, and others. A two-time
served as an editor and coordinator for The Rumpus National Poetry Series finalist, she is the managing
Kenyon Review, AGNI, Pleiades, Publishing Triangle editor of the New England Review.
Awards, and PEN America Literary Awards. He serves
on the board of Foglifter Press and the National Book
RUBEN LESLIE SAINZ
Critics Circle.
QUESADA
Poetry Mentor
FAVORITE WRITERS Poetry Mentor FAVORITE WRITERS
Rafael Campo, Amy Clampitt, Marie Howe. Airea D. Matthews, Gertrude Stein, Jean Valentine.
38 2022 Adroit Summer Mentorship Program | 39RAENA SHIRALI’s first book, GILT (YesYes Books, JEDDIE SOPHRONIUS is a Chinese-Indonesian
2017), won the 2018 Milt Kessler Poetry Book Award, writer from Jakarta. He is currently an MFA candidate
and her forthcoming collection, summonings, won the at the University of Virginia and the Editor-in-Chief
2021 Black Lawrence Press Hudson Prize. Winner of at Meridian. His work has appeared or is forthcoming
a Pushcart Prize, Shirali is also the recipient of prizes in the Cincinnati Review, Prairie Schooner, the Iowa
and honors from VIDA, Gulf Coast, Boston Review, & Review, and elsewhere.
Cosmonauts Avenue. She holds an MFA in Poetry from
The Ohio State University. Shirali is Assistant Professor
of English at Holy Family University, where she serves
as Faculty Advisor for Folio—a literary magazine
dedicated to publishing undergraduate student work
RAENA JEDDIE
at the national level.
SHIRALI SOPHRONIUS
Poetry Mentor FAVORITE WRITERS Poetry Mentor FAVORITE WRITERS
Lynda Hull, Paisley Rekdal, Adrienne Rich. Li-Young Lee, Edna St. Vincent Millay, Wiji Thukul.
STEFFI SIN graduated from UC Davis with a B.S. in MELANIE TAFEJIAN is a poet and educator from
Landscape Architecture and a minor in English. Her Olympia, WA. She holds an MFA in Poetry from North
undergraduate thesis focused on the representation Carolina State University, where she won the 2020
of landscapes in Asian-American literature. In her North Carolina State Poetry Contest. She was awarded
creative writing, she examines how people navigate first place in the 2021 Atlanta Review International
between different cultures and languages while Poetry Contest and has work in or forthcoming in
exploring the boundaries between fiction and creative the Georgia Review, the Los Angeles Review, Poetry
nonfiction. Her work has been published by Kenyon Northwest, and Willow Springs, among other journals.
Review, the Los Angeles Review, the Adroit Journal, She lives in Raleigh, North Carolina.
and elsewhere. She is Nonfiction Editor of Hayden’s
Ferry Review.
STEFFI SIN MELANIE
TAFEJIAN
Fiction Mentor
FAVORITE WRITERS FAVORITE WRITERS Poetry Mentor
Sandra Cisneros, Joan Didion, Maxine Hong Kingston. Lydia Davis, Carolyn Forche, Mary Ruefle.
40 2022 Adroit Summer Mentorship Program | 41JONNY TEKLIT is a winner of the 2019 Academy NUR TURKMANI is a Syrian-Lebanese researcher
of American Poets College Poetry Prize, as well as the and writer in Beirut. Her research looks at climate
recipient of the 2019 Aliki Perroti and Seth Young Most change, gender, and development in the Middle East.
Promising Young Poet Award. His work has appeared Nur’s poem "Body Parts" was selected as a runner-up
in the New Yorker, the Adroit Journal, Catapult, Alien for the Barjeel Poetry Prize. She is the Managing Editor
Magazine, Glass Poetry Press, Mixed Mag, Dishsoap of Rusted Radishes: Beirut Art and Literary Journal’s
Quarterly, the Susquehanna Review, and elsewhere. website and is currently studying creative writing at
the University of Oxford. Her work has been published
in London Poetry, Muzzle Magazine, the Adroit Journal,
Syria Untold, Discontent MAG, and others.
JONNY TEKLIT NUR
TURKMANI
Poetry Mentor
FAVORITE WRITERS Fiction Mentor FAVORITE WRITERS
Hanif Abdurraqib, Ross Gay, Danez Smith. Hala Alyan, Arundathi Roy, Zadie Smith.
ARI TISON is a Bribri (Indigenous Costa Rican) JORRELL WATKINS hails from Richmond, VA.
American poet, essayist, autoethnographer, and He is a 2020-21 Fulbright Japan Graduate Research
author of YA hybrid novel SAINTS OF THE HOUSE- Fellow and an alum of Hampshire College and the
HOLD (2023) + Untitled YA (TBD) with FSG/BFYR. She Iowa Writers’ Workshop. In 2019, Combined Efforts
has her MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults Theater Company produced his disability inclusive
from Hamline University, where she was the winner of play, Meet us at the Horizon. His chapbook, If Only the
the 2018 Vaunda Micheaux Nelson award for a BIPOC Sharks Would Bite, won the Desert Pavilion Chapbook
writer from Lerner Publishing. She's the broadside Series in Poetry. He collaborated with writers Claretta
editor for Minnesota Prison Writing Workshop in Holsey, DJ Savarese, and Lateef Mcleod to publish
collaboration with the Minnesota Center for the Book Studies in Brotherly Love (Prompt Press, 2021), a
Arts. She teaches writing at Hamline University and poetry chapbook based on Malcolm Corley’s paintings.
ARI TISON JORRELL
the Loft Literary Center.
WATKINS
Fiction Mentor
FAVORITE WRITERS FAVORITE WRITERS Poetry Mentor
Joy Harjo, Laura Ruby, & Robin Wall Kimmerer. Etheridge Knight, Suzan-Lori Parks, Natasha Tretheway.
42 2022 Adroit Summer Mentorship Program | 43KATE WISEL is the author of Driving in Cars With
Homeless Men, winner of the Drue Heinz Literature
Prize, selected by Min Jin Lee. Her fiction appears in
publications that include Prairie Schooner, Gulf Coast,
Tin House Online, Los Angeles Review, New Ohio
Review, Adroit Journal, DIAGRAM, the Best Small
Fictions 2019, Redivider (as winner of the Beacon
Street Prize), W.W. Norton’s Flash Fiction America,
and elsewhere.
KATE WISEL
Fiction Mentor
FAVORITE WRITERS
Stephanie Danler, Pam Houston, Lisa Taddeo.
Taylor Moon ("Blue Dream", Issue Thirty-Nine)
44 2022 Adroit Summer Mentorship Program | 45PRE V IO US M entor s Aria Aber (Poetry, '15) Emily Rose Cole (Poetry, '17) Aidan Forster (Poetry, '18) Caleb Kaiser (Poetry, '13-14) Jenessa Abrams (Fiction, '19-21) Donte Collins (Spoken Word, '21) Katherine Frain (Poetry, '14) W. Todd Kaneko (Poetry, '21) Kenzie Allen (Poetry, '17) Katie Condon (Poetry, '17) Michael Frazier (Poetry, '20) Kevin Kantor (Spoken Word, '21) Eloisa Amezcua (Poetry, '17-19) S. Brook Corfman (Poetry, '18) Denice Frohman (Poetry, '18) Gina Keicher (Poetry, '16) Kaitlyn Andrews-Rice (Fiction, '19) Claudia Cortese (Poetry, '20) Kate Gaskin (Poetry, '19) Peter Kispert (Fiction, '18) Noah Baldino (Poetry, '19) Emily Corwin (Poetry, '19) Matthew Gellman (Poetry, '17) Taisia Kitaiskaia (Poetry, '16) Elizabeth Ballou (Fiction, '14) Kevin Coval (Poetry, '18) Jennifer Givhan (Poetry, '16) Sophie Klahr (Poetry, '20) Samantha Bares (Poetry, '15) Caroline Crew (Nonfiction, '16-21) Melissa Goodrich (Fiction, '18-'21) Dan Kraines (Poetry, '18) Gabrielle Bates (Poetry, '17-21) Melissa Crowe (Poetry, '20) Kimberly Grabowski Strayer (Poetry, '17) Theophilus Kwek (Poetry, '17) Krys Malcolm Belc (Nonfiction, '19-21) Kyle Dacuyan (Poetry, '19) J.P. Grasser (Poetry, '17) Peter LaBerge (Poetry, '13-20) Alyse Bensel (Poetry, '17-18) Armen Davoudian (Poetry, '21) Andrew Gretes (Fiction, '16, '18-21) Keith Leonard (Poetry, '20-21) Garrett Biggs (Fiction, '16, '18, '20) Meg Day (Poetry, '20) Benjamin Gucciardi (Fiction, '17) Keegan Lester (Poetry, '16-17) John-Michael Bloomquist (Poetry, '18) Alexa Derman (Fiction, '14-15) Emily Harnden (Fiction, '20-21) Paige Lewis (Poetry, '17-18) Conor Bracken (Poetry, '19) Dana Diehl (Fiction, '18-21) Rebecca Hazelton (Poetry, '19) Ananda Lima (Fiction, '18) William Brewer (Poetry, '16) Chelsea Dingman (Poetry, '19) Faylita Hicks (Poetry, '20-21) Zach Linge (Poetry, '19) Marci Calabretta Cancio-Bello (Poetry, '17-20) Aline Dolinh (Poetry, '15) Alex Higley (Fiction, '16) Anni Liu (Poetry, '19) Kayleb Ragre Candrilli (Poetry, '19) Michelle Donahue (Poetry, '15) Kamden Hilliard (Poetry, '17) Ben Loory (Fiction, '20-21) Stephanie Cawley (Poetry, '16) Ryan Dzelzkalns (Poetry, '18-21) Noor Hindi (Nonfiction, '20) Antonio López (Poetry, '19) Nicky Cayless (Poetry, '15) Stevie Edwards (Poetry, '18) Ben Hoffman (Fiction, '17-'20) Lucia LoTempio (Poetry, '15-16) Alexander Cendrowski (Fiction, '15) Trista Edwards (Poetry, '16-17) Carlie Hoffman (Poetry, '18) Angie Sijun Lou (Fiction, '19-'20) Dorothy Chan (Poetry, '20) Natalie Eilbert (Poetry, '20) Jackson Holbert (Poetry, '15) Erinrose Mager (Fiction, '18, '20) Sylvia Chan (Nonfiction, '18) Cody Ernst (Poetry, '15-16) Luther Hughes (Poetry, '19) Rachel Inez Marshall (Poetry, '18-19) Victoria Chang (Poetry, '18) William Evans (Poetry, '19) Rochelle Hurt (Poetry, '16) Madison McCartha (Poetry, '19) Mario Chard (Poetry, '20-21) William Fargason (Poetry, '16) Christina Im (Poetry, '19) LaTanya McQueen (Nonfiction, '19-'20) Chen Chen (Poetry, '16-17) Scott Fenton (Fiction, '19) Brionne Janae (Poetry, '21) Rachel Mennies (Poetry, '18-'21) Jennifer S. Cheng (Nonfiction, '21) Megan Fernandes (Poetry, '20) Ghinwa Jawhari (Fiction, '21) Lo Kwa Mei-en (Poetry, '17) Elaine Hsieh Chou (Fiction, '20-21) Sarah Fletcher (Poetry, '13) Kaitlin Jennrich (Poetry, '14-15) Carly Joy Miller (Poetry, '16-19) Lucas Church (Fiction, '19, '20) Kate Folk (Fiction, '20) Erin Jones (Fiction, '20-21) Matt W. Miller (Poetry, '16) Hannah Cohen (Poetry, '18-19) Aricka Foreman (Poetry, '20) Kasey Jueds (Poetry, '18) Stephen Mills (Poetry, '16) 46 2022 Adroit Summer Mentorship Program | 47
PRE V IO US M entor s Bern Mulvey (Poetry, '17) Caleb Rainey (Poetry, '21) Erin Slaughter (Nonfiction, '21) Emma Townley-Smith (Poetry, '13) Aram Mrjoian (Fiction, '19-'20) Doug Ramspeck (Poetry, '17-18) Analicia Sotelo (Poetry, '17-18 J. A. Tyler (Fiction, '19) Jason Myers (Poetry, '18) Jacques J. Rancourt (Poetry, '21) Glenn Stowell (Fiction, '18) Rushi Vyas (Poetry, '19) Emily O'Neill (Poetry, '21) Julian Randall (Poetry, '17) Jessica Lynn Suchon (Poetry, '19) Claire Wahmanholm (Poetry, '20-21) Natasha Oladokun (Poetry, '18) Brynne Rebele-Henry (Fiction, '18) Nina Sudhakar (Fiction, '19) Noah Warren (Poetry, '20) José Olivarez (Poetry, '20) Nancy Reddy (Poetry, '16-17) Eshani Surya (Fiction, '18) Jeff Whitney (Poetry, '16) Kwame Opuku-Duku (Fiction, '18) Jim Redmond (Poetry, '16) Avia Tadmor (Poetry, '19) Emily Paige Wilson (Poetry, '16) Sebastian Hasani Paramo (Poetry, '19) Jayme Ringleb (Poetry, '19) Talin Tahajian (Poetry, '14-15) Keith S. Wilson (Poetry, '20-21) Megan Peak (Poetry, '16) Michelle Ross (Fiction, '20-21) Gabriella R. Tallmadge (Poetry, '20-21) Jane Wong (Poetry, '20) Emilia Phillips (Poetry, '20) Leslie Sainz (Poetry, '17, '20-21) Oriana Tang (Fiction, '15) Shelley Wong (Poetry, '17) Maria Pinto (Fiction, '16) C.A. Schaefer (Fiction, '20) Alexandra Tanner (Fiction, '19-21) Jenny Xie (Fiction, '19) Alycia Pirmohamed (Poetry, '20) Claire Schwartz (Poetry, '18-19) Courtney Faye Taylor (Poetry, '19-21) Jay G. Ying (Fiction, '18-19) Jessica Poli (Poetry, '17) Rob Shapiro (Poetry, '20-21) John Allen Taylor (Poetry, '18) Emily Jungmin Yoon (Poetry, '18) Ben Purkert (Poetry, '19) Raena Shirali (Poetry, '20-21) Gale Marie Thompson (Poetry, '19) Charity Young (Fiction, '18) Ruben Quesada (Poetry, '20-21) Amanda Silberling (Nonfiction, '15) Brian Tierney (Poetry, '17) Jihyun Yun (Poetry, '19) Christina Qiu (Fiction, '16) Steffi Sin (Fiction, '21) 48 2022 Adroit Summer Mentorship Program | 49
"Adroit took the intimidating world of contemporary cre-
ative writing and gave me an entry point. The program
offered an artistic guide through my mentor, as well as the
community of fellow writers. I met mentees of previous
years, mentees and friends of mentees who ran their own
publications, and so on. Since the mentorship program
is so wide-reaching, participating in the program gave
me common ground with many other young writers in the
otherwise confusing and chaotic literary world."
SINCE THE MENTORSHIP...
DANIEL
MENTEE
Daniel has represented the Southeast as a National Student
BLOKH Poet. He is author of two chapbooks and a memoir: Holding
Poetry, '16 Myself Hostage in the Kitchen, Grimmening, and In Migration.
Yale University, '23 His work appears in The Adroit Journal, Cosmonauts Avenue,
Gigantic Sequins, The Kenyon Review, and elsewhere.
TESTIMONIALS
"The Adroit Journal Summer Mentorship Program offered
me the incredible chance to work with enthusiastic peers
and teachers. The mentorship program encouraged me to
take risks with writing and my mentor, Aria Aber, worked
with me one-on-one to help me find my unique voice. The
program connected me with a supportive community of
creative writers, and I would strongly encourage the
program to any high school student!"
SINCE THE MENTORSHIP...
Carissa has been named a U.S. Presidential Scholar in the
CARISSA
Arts, a Davidson Fellow in Literature, a Scholastic National
CHEN
Writing Portfolio Gold Medalist, and a two-time YoungArts Poetry, '15
Finalist in Writing (Poetry) and Visual Arts. Harvard University, '21
50 2022 Adroit Summer Mentorship Program | 51"What made the Adroit Summer Mentorship Program "I grew up in a small town with few peers passionate about
so valuable was its commitment to intimate, intensive, reading and writing fiction. Without a community of art-
and individualized support and guidance. The unique ists, I struggled to meet writers to exchange drafts and
structure of the program marries personal attention provide feedback. Friends and mentors weren't sending
and community engagement, and allows writers to read me books to read or contests to submit to or encour-
widely, connect with peers, interrogate their own craft, agement when I struggled with drafts and revisions. The
and engage with complex, nuanced questions about the Adroit Journal Summer Mentorship Program provided the
writing process." accessible community that became integral to my writing
practice."
SINCE THE MENTORSHIP... SINCE THE MENTORSHIP...
ISABELLA CHO ANGELO
Isabella has been named a YoungArts Finalist for Writing Angelo received the Beinecke Scholarship, the Mellon Mays
HERNANDEZ-SIAS
Poetry, '19 (Poetry), a U.S. Presidential Scholar in the Arts for Writing, and Undergraduate Fellowship, the Adroit Prize for Prose, and the
Harvard University, '24 a National Scholastic Art & Writing Awards Gold Medalist for Fiction, '16 Quarto Best Fiction Prize. He earned his B.A. from Columbia
Writing Portfolio. Isabella is also the recipient of the $50,000 Columbia University, '20 University, and is currently an MFA candidate in fiction at
YoungArts Lin Arison Award for Excellence in Writing. Syracuse University, where he studies with George Saunders.
"The Adroit Journal Summer Mentorship Program was “The program was transformative for me—suddenly, I
one of the most amazing experiences I've ever had. was intentional about craft, taking criticism, and con-
There, I found a community of young writers who were sidering process. Most importantly, I emerged from
interested in engaging with poetry in a truly excit- the program with a supportive community of fellow
ing way. The program helped me find and develop my young writers. I always knew—and continue to know—
poetic voice, explore my poetry, stretch the limits of that I have that community, believers in what I write.
what poetry could be, and make lasting friendships The generosity and empathy I’ve experienced is a
with like-minded artists." direct result of the friendships that were born during
my summer as an Adroit mentee.”
SINCE THE MENTORSHIP... SINCE THE MENTORSHIP...
Aidan has been named a U.S. Presidential Scholar in the Arts
AIDAN CHRISTINA IM
Christina has been recognized as a YoungArts Finalist, Best
and the recipient of the $50,000 YoungArts Arison Award for
FORSTER of the Net finalist, and U.S. Presidential Scholars semifinalist, Poetry, '15
Excellence in Writing. His work appears in Best New Poets, Poetry, '15 among others. Her work has appeared in The Adroit Journal, Princeton University, '22
Indiana Review, and Tin House. His debut chapbook, Exit Pas- Brown University, '22 Best New Poets, and elsewhere. She has served as a TEDx
toral, was released from YesYes Books. speaker and is now an undergraduate at Princeton University.
52 2022 Adroit Summer Mentorship Program | 53"There’s so much joy in finding a community around an art "There is maybe nothing more important for a young writer
form that can be so solitary—it's an experience that’s than a community of like-minded and talented individuals.
both humbling and validating. The writers I connected The Adroit Journal provides every one of the young writers
with during this program are some of the most inspir- it comes across with that community; the foundation of
ing people I've ever met. This program empowered me this community is the mentorship program. I learned so
to create and critique writing in a caring, constructive much as a mentee and even more as a mentor. Participat-
environment, and to develop more confidence in my own ing in the program was without a doubt one of the most
work. I will always be grateful for my time in this program; rewarding experiences I had as a young writer."
it transformed me not only as a writer, but as a person."
SINCE THE MENTORSHIP... SINCE THE MENTORSHIP...
YASMEEN Yasmeen was recognized as a YoungArts Finalist for Writing
CHRISTINA Christina was named a National YoungArts Finalist in Writing
KHAN (Short Story) by the National YoungArts Foundation, a Best of
QIU (Short Story) and a U.S. Presidential Scholar in the Arts. Since
Fiction, 19 the Net nominee for fiction, and a Scholastic Art & Writing Fiction, '14 serving as a fiction mentor in 2016, Christina blossomed as a
Awards Gold Medalist & Best-in-Grade Award Recipient. Harvard University, '19 sharp and refined columnist for The Harvard Crimson and gra-
ducated from Harvard University in 2019.
"As a young Nigerian (and African) writer, Adroit is defi- “As a teen writer at a high school that didn’t offer cre-
nitely one of the best things that has ever happened to ative writing, the mentorship was an exercise in different
me. The program provided a space for me to share my ways of thinking. I developed my craft in ways that, if
work with such amazing and brilliant young people. I left to my own devices, I would've never thought to try.
learned how to workshop and how provide critical feed- This exposure to foreign forms and figures, the passion-
back, and came away from the program with lifelong ate community of engaged peers, and the personalized
access to a supportive community of like-minded artists. access to the kind of mentor-figure who truly cares all set
It was only after Adroit, I might say, that I had the confi- the mentorship apart. As both a mentee and a mentor, I
dence to commit to fully identify as a writer." grew from the experience.”
SINCE THE MENTORSHIP... SINCE THE MENTORSHIP...
Ernest’s work has appeared in AGNI, Cincinnati Review, Tin-
ERNEST Talin studied English literature at the University of Cambridge,
TALIN
derbox Poetry Journal, and Mementos: An Anthology of
ÒGÚNYEMÍ where she graduated at the top of her class. She received her
TAHAJIAN
Contemporary Nigerian Poetry. He's received a Counterclock Poetry, '19 MFA in poetry from the University of Michigan, where she was a Poetry, '13
Arts Collective Grant, the Kreative Diadem Prize for Poetry, Lagos State University, '23 Zell Fellow. She is a PhD student in Literature at Harvard University of Cambridge, '17
and has curated the first Young African Poets Anthology. University. Her work has appeared in POETRY and elsewhere.
54 2022 Adroit Summer Mentorship Program | 55"Having seen the mentorship program from both sides, as "Wow a million times over. The mentorship program has
both mentee and mentor, I can honestly say the program transformed the way I approached poetry and the writing
is a profoundly beautiful and affirming experience for process. It was deeply insightful and valuable to interro-
both parties. The program not only improved the qual- gate what I knew about writing and look at it from side
ity of my writing but also introduced me to an incredible to side and upside down. The program helped me find
community of writers that has been a critical support net- newness in language and form again, and I met the kind-
work as my writing and I have grown. est, most supportive, and most talented friends and fellow
writers through the program, who I will always love for
their sheer brilliance and generosity of spirit."
SINCE THE MENTORSHIP... SINCE THE MENTORSHIP...
ORIANA TANG Oriana has been named a U.S. Presidential Scholar in the Arts, LYDIA WEI After spending the summer studying poetry with Jane Wong,
Poetry, '14 a Davidson Fellow in Literature, and a YoungArts Finalist in Poetry, '19 Lydia was recognized as a Foyle Young Poet of the Year, a
Yale University, '19 Writing (Poetry & Short Story). Oriana continues to write, and Stanford University, '24 YoungArts Finalist for Writing (Poetry), a U.S. Presidential
served from 2015-2019 as an Adorit Prose Reader. She even Scholar in the Arts Semifinalist, and a five-time National
served as a summer mentor for a few summers! Scholastic Art & Writing Awards Medalist.
“As someone who comes from a rural area with under- "Apart from finding a writing community, I found a direc-
funded education, the Adroit Journal Summer Mentorship tion to push my writing towards. Before the program, I
Program offered invaluable support for my artistic self. I was writing poems, but I lacked awareness of what I
met lifelong friends, gained new perspectives on litera- could do with poetry, or how I wanted my poems to look.
ture, and made enormous progress in my writing. Most of There’s a huge jump in development from the poems I
all, it gave me people who believed in me as a writer—a wrote at the start of the program to the poems I wrote
community that uplifted me to pursue my art fearlessly.” towards the end, even from a week-to-week basis; hon-
estly, I can’t think of another period of time where my
poetry grew and developed to that same degree."
SINCE THE MENTORSHIP... SINCE THE MENTORSHIP...
Jieyan has been named a National YoungArts Finalist for JIEYAN WANG Lily has been named a National Scholastic Art & Writing LILY ZHOU
Writing (Short Story), a Scholastic Gold Medalist for Writing Fiction, '19 Awards Medalist, YoungArts Finalist (Poetry & Short Story), Poetry, '16
Portfolio, and a Presidential Scholar in the Arts semifinalist. As Harvard University, '24 and semifinalist for the U.S. Presidential Scholar Program. Stanford University, '22
an Intel International Science & Engineering Fair Finalist, she Lily's work appears in Best New Poets, Poetry, and Tin House,
continues apply her scientific background to her short stories. and her debut chapbook is forthcoming from YesYes Books.
56 2022 Adroit Summer Mentorship Program | 57You can also read
