Speaking in First Draft

We’re kicking off our second season with a conversation between Mentor alum and debut author of The Waves Take You Home, María Alejandra Barrios Velez, and Mentee Fiona Hernandez. María recently hosted a Friday Night Salon for Girls Write Now all about ancestry, inheritance, and the experience of writing her first novel in her second language. In this episode, you’ll hear María read two excerpts: one from the first draft of her novel and the second from the published book. We hope you enjoy this delicious conversation about home cooking, magical realism, and writing the book of your dreams.

You can pre-order María’s book The Waves Take You Home coming March 19th.

Speaking in First Draft is a production by Girls Write Now.

Host: Kathryn Destin

Producers: Kathryn Destin, Sally Familia, and Vahni Kurra

Editors: Kathryn Destin, Sally Familia, and Vahni Kurra

Music by Jaya Rao-Herel

In this final episode of Speaking in First Draft Season one, Mentee Justine Ramirez and Mentor Viviana Leo engage in a conversation about authentic representation of humanity in scriptwriting, the importance of planning and discipline in your craft, and the struggles with getting others to read your work. Join in on the laughs and enjoy this lighthearted conversation between two amazing storytellers.

Our celebration of Pride and Caribbean American Heritage continues in part 2 of the conversation between Girls Write Now Fellow Sally Familia and Mentee Carissa Ceasor. Last episode, our guests dove deep into how they use poetry to process and release their emotions, in addition to the impact their ancestry has on them. This week, Sally and Carissa talk more about poetry and give tons of great advice for all of you fellow writers listening in.

In celebration of Pride and Caribbean American Heritage Month, we bring you part one of a special two-part episode featuring Girls Write Now Fellow Sally Familia and Mentee Carissa Ceasor. In this riveting conversation, both our guests talk about what it means to explore their Caribbean ancestry and queerness through writing poetry. Carissa opens with three excerpts from their in-progress poetry chapbook entitled “Messages from the Radical Diaspora”. If you’re all about culture, identity, emotional liberation, and history, this episode is for you. 

Sometimes mere existence is resistance, especially when you’re a woman in the midst of a war the entire world is watching. In Episode 9, our Senior Community Systems Coordinator here at Girls Write Now Lisbett Rodriguez interviews Ukranian-American poet and Girls Write Now Mentor Vera Sirota about her two poems “Despite All the Odds” and “Eve’s Eyebrows” part of her new chapbook We Bow To No One (Bottlecap Press). Vera and Lisbett dive into Ukrainian identity, powerful women, and overcoming difficult circumstances. They also conceptualize resistance as fluid and as something that can be embodied by simply remaining alive when all the odds are stacked against you.

Applications are now open for mentors and mentees in the Girls Write Now Collaboratory for 2023-2024. Learn more and enroll at girlswritenow.org/enroll.

In this bonus installment of Speaking in First Draft, host, Kathryn Destin, speaks with the incredible Chrissy King. Former strength coach, writer, speaker, educator, and Girls Write Now honoree, Chrissy entered the P&T Knitwear Podcast Studio during GWN's 2023 anthology launch party to discuss her book The Body Liberation Project: How Understanding Racism and Diet Culture Helps Cultivate Joy and Build Collective Freedom. Tune in to hear Chrissy and Kathryn get candid about body image, fatphobia, disordered eating, social media, and collective liberation.

Content Warning: Topics involving and surrounding body dysmorphia/body insecurity and eating disorders are discussed throughout this episode.

Today, we’re talking about a movement that’s affecting a huge part of our creative community: the Writer’s Guild of America Strike. In this special episode, two writers working in TV from the Girls Write Now community, Micharne Cloughley and Hannah Rothblatt, discuss their involvement in the strike and what it means for the industry at large. Micharne Cloughley is a television writer and playwright. Most recently she was a story editor and staff writer for seasons 21 – 23 of Law & Order: SVU. Hannah Rothblatt worked as a digital producer for late-night show, Full Frontal with Samantha Bee, and has worked as a documentary story researcher, writer and producer at Upright Citizens Brigade. The two mentors discuss the biggest issues affecting TV writers, including AI and the proliferation of streaming, and what WGA is doing to secure the labor rights of the people who create our favorite shows.

For more information about the strike, go to https://www.wgacontract2023.org/.

To find out how you can join Girls Write Now as a mentor or mentee, head to girlswritenow.org/enroll.

For episode 6 of Speaking in First Draft, Mentee Jamilah Araf interviews Mentor Elle Gonzalez Rose about her debut novel Caught in a Bad Fauxmance. Elle graciously shares one of the earliest drafts of her book and tells us the backstory behind her creativity and her transition into the YA genre. Together, Jamilah and Elle cover a range of topics in the writing process, including outlining, changing perspectives, and channeling real life experiences into their stories.

Disclaimer: This episode has brief explicit language.

This week’s theme is dreams. Episode five of Speaking in First Draft dives deep into the raw emotions that come up in relationships and in first-draft writing. Our guests discuss accepting friendship fallouts, the inevitability of hurting the ones we love, and making mistakes. Tune in to a vulnerable conversation from New Yorkers Vahni Kurra, co-producer and editor of Speaking in First Draft, and GWN mentee of three years Megumi Jindo where they discuss the first drafts of their poems and the not-so dreamy stories behind them. 

This week brings you a special episode where both of our guests share the first drafts of their current works in progress. You'll hear from mentee Ayah Al-Masabi, a creative hailing from Colorado interested in fiction and nonfiction, and her mentor Anne Hellman from New York, who founded The Grandmother Project - an online archive for people to share the stories of the women who come before them. In this episode, our guests discuss Anne’s novel The Bloodroot, which is about a woman meeting the ghost of her great-grandmother in the streets of New York City, and Ayah’s long-form piece “Molly” which follows a royal family, specifically 16-year-old Molly who is coming of age in royalty. While both pieces are fiction, they are rooted in some of the realities our guests have either experienced themselves or witnessed. Listen to Anne and Ayah’s conversation about the drafting process of these fantastical pieces.