Day Eight is pleased to open applications for our spring 2025 pre-professional writing program for DC-area middle and high school girls. The program is designed to provide a supportive, creative, space for young female writers to develop.
The program runs for nine, concurrent weeks, beginning Sunday, February 2nd, and includes two meetings each session week: a long meeting on Sunday afternoons, and a short meeting Tuesday evenings. The Sunday sessions meet at the National Portrait Gallery in downtown DC. The Tuesday evening sessions meet online over zoom. To download a PDF listing all session dates, click here.
The cost of the program, including lunches and entrance tickets, is free thanks to support from individual donors to Day Eight and Learn24.
Enrollment is competitive and limited to 15 participants. Applications are reviewed on a rolling basis.
To submit an application complete the application form below. Below the application form are the bios for guest faculty members participant in the program.
The workshop leader for the Spring 2025 sessions is Amuchechukwu Nwafor. Amuchechukwu Nwafor is the 2024 DC Poet Project winner and author of the book, Salt Water Roots. A writer, educator, and teaching artist, ‘Amuche’ is a first-generation born Black American. At each session, Amuchechukwu will be joined by a guest faculty.
Each weekend session begins with the group gathering and having lunch together, followed by shared participation in an arts experience (exhibition, movie, etc.) Amuchechukwu Nwafor will then lead a writing workshop, followed by independent writing time and then share back of writing. Participants will receive formal and informal mentorship from Amuchechukwu and the guest faculty, and gain experience in editing, including providing and receiving feedback on writing. Select writing by participants will be published in Day Eight’s literary magazine, the Mid-Atlantic Review, at the conclusion of the program. The second, weekday, session each week is a youth-led workshop. Each participant will be paired to deliver a writing workshop to the other participants under guidance of the program faculty.
Faculty Bios
Maritza Rivera is a Puerto Rican poet and Army veteran and founder of the 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 arts project in Wheaton, MD.
Rebecca Bishophall is the co-author of Breaking the Blank, published in 2023 by Day Eight. Rebecca has featured at Spit Dat open mic, Capitol Hill book fair, 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.
Haley Huchler is a D.C area writer covering culture, style, the arts, and literature. She has contributed to Washington Independent Review of Books, DC Theater Arts, and Northern Virginia Magazine. A graduate of James Madison University, she was a feature writer for James Madison University’s College of Integrated Science and Engineering, and the 2022-2023 editor in chief of Iris, a student-run literature and arts magazine. Haley was an arts writing fellow with Day Eight 2023-2024.
Oluseyi Akinyode grew up in the bustling city of Lagos, Nigeria. She uses art writing as a way to explore, probe, and make sense of the world around her. Outside of work, She is passionate about mentorship and access for youth. She enjoys finding cheap eats, visiting museums, and watching Korean dramas (250+). She has a Bachelor of Science in Finance from New York University. Oluseyi is an arts writing fellow with Day Eight since Dec 2023.
Teniola Ayoola is a Day Eight DC Arts Writing Fellow, board member, and contributing writer for DC Theater Arts and MD Theatre Guide. With a Master’s degree in Management from Harvard University and a Bachelor’s in Journalism from The George Washington University, she brings a solid foundation in critical analysis, research, and storytelling. Teniola’s experience in communications includes at the BBC, The Shakespeare Theatre Company, and The White House Correspondents’ Association.
Pacyinz Lyfoung is a French-born and raised, Minnesota-grown, Hmong/Asian American woman poet, attorney and activist. She emerged as a poet among the Asian American Renaissance and the Hmong Literary Movement in MN. She started an Asian/Black solidarity art project, called Jade x Onyx. She is currently based in Washington-DC, and working on her poetry manuscript to be published by Sahtu Press, an independent Laotian American publisher.
Jessica Genia Simon is the author of Built of All I Shape and Name (Kelsay Books, 2023.) Her poems have been published in the Atlanta Review, Slipform 2020 Anthology, Moment Magazine, Magnolia: A Journal of Women’s Socially Engaged Literature, Super Stoked: An Anthology of Queer Poetry from the Capturing Fire Slam & Summit, the Mid-Atlantic Review, and more.
Ishanee Chanda is a Washington, D.C.-based prose writer and poet from Dallas, Texas. She has been published on The Huffington Post, the Eckleberg Project, and ThoughtCatalog. Ishanee is a past winner of the Gordone Award for Creative Writing, and has participated in the Blackbox Writer’s Residency program. She was a poet commissioned within Day Eight’s 2024 DC AAPI Poetry Commissioning project.