Day Eight is pleased to open application for our spring 2024 enrichment writing intensive for DC-area middle and high school aged girls. The program is designed to provide a supportive space for young female writers to create and grow. The program meets monthly, January through May, the third Sunday of each month, from noon to 4pm. The program cost, including food and entrance tickets, is free thanks to foundation support and individual donors to Day Eight. Deadline for applications is January 17, 2024. Enrollment is competitive and limited to 10 participants. Applications are reviewed on a rolling basis and you can expect to hear from us within two weeks of completing the application.
Application Link: https://dayeight.org/spring-2024-women-and-girls-application/
The workshop leader for the five Spring 2024 sessions is Rebecca Bishophall. Rebecca Bishophall is the co-author of Breaking the Blank, published in 2023 by Day Eight. Rebecca has featured at Spit Dat open mic, the Afrocentric Book Expo, and elsewhere, and works in member services for a non-profit organization. She graduated from Trinity University in 2006 with a major in Communications. At each of the Spring 2024 sessions, Rebecca will be joined by a Guest Writer.
Spring 2024 Session Outline
Sun January 21, 2024, Noon-4pm – Planet Word Museum, lunch at Pow Wow Franklin Sq, with Guest Writer Dine Watson
Sun February 18, 2024, Noon-4pm – National Portrait Gallery, lunch at Chipotle Gallery Place, with Guest Writer Shilpi Malinwoski
Sun March 17, 2024, Noon-4pm – African American Museum, lunch at food trucks on the mall, with Guest Writer Shaquetta Nelson
Sun April 21, 2024, Noon-4pm – The Bible Museum, lunch at the Bible Museum Cafe, with Guest Writers Maritza Rivera and Jessica Genia Simon
Sun May 19, 2024 2-4pm – Graduating reading and celebration – families and friends invited, at the MLK DC Public Library
Each session begins with the group gathering for lunch together (provided by Day Eight.) The group will then tour an exhibit together, followed by a writing workshop, and share-back of writing.
Within the program, participants receive formal and informal mentorship and training in writing, editing, and providing and receiving feedback on writing. Writing by group members will be published in a print edition of Day Eight’s literary magazine, the Mid-Atlantic Review, at the conclusion of the program.
Guest Writer Bios
Bernardine (Dine) Watson, a Day Eight board member, has written for The Washington Post, The Ford Foundation, Annie E. Casey Foundation, and Stoneleigh Foundation. Her poetry has been published in the Beltway Poetry Quarterly, Indian River Review, by Darkhouse Books, and by the Painted Bride Art Center. Her book, Transplant: A Memoir, won the Washington Writers’ Publishing House 2023 nonfiction prize and is on NPR’s 2023 list of Books We Love.
Shilpi Malinowski is an author, reporter, oral historian, teacher, and D.C. resident. Her first book, “Shaw, LeDroit Park and Bloomingdale in Washington, D.C.: An Oral History,” was published in 2021. Shilpi is a reporter whose articles have been published in The Washington Post, The New York Times, India Abroad, UrbanTurf, and The Indian American magazine. In the past, Shilpi was a high school journalism teacher, a yoga teacher, and a photographer.
Shaquetta Nelson is a visual artist and poet who publishes and performs as R.E.I.L. They are the author of the book Ashes to Justice, published in 2022 by Day Eight. R.E.I.L. started her poetry career at open mics in the D.C. area and at 16 competed in the Brave New Voices slam in New York City. An arts educator teaching in D.C. schools, R.E.I.L. seeks inspiration from past and present life experiences to help the lives of other unsung souls.
Jessica Genia Simon is the author of Built of All I Shape and Name (Kelsay Books, 2023.) Her poems have been published broadly, including in the Atlanta Review, Slipform 2020 Anthology, Moment Magazine, Magnolia: A Journal of Women’s Socially Engaged Literature, and, Super Stoked: An Anthology of Queer Poetry from the Capturing Fire Slam & Summit.
Maritza Rivera is a Puerto Rican poet and Army veteran and founder of the annual Mariposa Poetry Retreat and Casa Mariposa Press. She is the author of About You; A Mother’s War; Baker’s Dozen; and, Twenty-One: Blackjack Poems and co-editor of the afro latin anthology, Diaspora Cafe, D.C., published by Day Eight in 2022. Her work appears in magazines, anthologies, online publications, and a public art project in Wheaton, MD.