Girls Write Now Party: ERLBAUM/JONES/ROYAL PINK October 18, 2007

GIRLS WRITE NOW'S CELEBRATION
OF TEN YEARS OF INNOVATIVE PROGRAMMING
KICKS OFF IN STYLE AT THE SLIPPER ROOM

October 18th Party Promises Luminous Evening of Words and Music

NEW YORK (September 25) – Girls Write Now, a nonprofit volunteer mentoring organization that has been matching bright, creative teenage girls from New York City's public high schools with professional women writers in the community since 1998, today announced its signature fall event, a celebration of ten years of innovative programming that kicks off at the Slipper Room on Thursday, October 18th from 7PM to 9:30PM. Admission is free. The party at the Slipper Room will feature short readings by Janice Erlbaum and Tayari Jones, two noted authors whose work has touched on the inner lives of teenage girls, and a musical performance by downtown favorites Royal Pink. Known for its luscious jewel box stage and welcoming atmosphere, The Slipper Room is located at 167 Orchard Street at Stanton on the Lower East Side. Immediately prior, Girls Write Now mentees will read from their work at Bluestockings, around the corner at 172 Allen Street at Stanton, from 5:30 – 6:30PM, giving those curious about the organization an opportunity to see it in action.

Since forming a year ago, the ladies of Royal Pink have taken New York venues such as Don Hill's, Piano's, Crash Mansion, Lit, Cake Shop, Rock Star Bar and more by storm with their ass-shaking, debauchery-encouraging, politically important and all-around superfantabulous pop-punk. In short, the Duchess of Pink's got the pipes. Lady Pink rocks the bass. Baroness von Pink rocks the vox and plays the bass. Princess Pink's got the beat. And you've got a date with Royal Pink.

Janice Erlbaum is the author of Girlbomb: A Halfway Homeless Memoir, and the forthcoming Have You Found Her (Villard, February 2008). She was a contributor to BUST magazine from 1994 through 2007, and has also written for NYPress, POPsmear, and McSweeneys.net. She is featured in the anthologies ALOUD: Voices from the Nuyorican Poets Cafe, Verses That Hurt, and The BUST Guide to the New Girl Order, and she's been written about in magazines including Poets & Writers, The New York Times Sunday Book Review, Elle, PAPER, Harper's Bazaar, Seventeen, the Daily News, and New York. She once kissed a girl on MTV. She now lives in her native New York City with her domestic partner, Bill Scurry, and their three cats, where she sometimes volunteers at a shelter for homeless teens.

Tayari Jones is the author of Leaving Atlanta and The Untelling, winners of the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award and The Lillian C. Smith Awards, respectively. Called "A Writer to Watch," by Essence, Jones as been described by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution as "one of the most important writers of her generation." Jones is both a writer and a professor of creative writing. She holds degrees from Spelman College, Arizona State University and The University of Iowa. Most recently the Jenny McKean Moore Writer in Residence at George Washington University, she is now an assistant professor on the MFA faculty of Rutgers University, Newark Campus.

Founded in 1998, Girls Write Now Inc. provides a safe and supportive environment where girls can expand their natural writing talents, develop independent creative voices, and build confidence in making healthy choices in school, career and life. GWN is the only East Coast nonprofit that combines mentoring and creative writing training within the context of all-girl programming. GWN provides at-risk high school girls with emerging writing talent the unique opportunity to be custom matched with a professional woman writer who serves as her individual mentor and writing coach, meeting with her weekly for one entire school year, and for up to four years. GWN also enrolls each student in a vibrant writing community and professional network -- all mentees and mentors gather monthly for genre-based workshops conducted at Teachers & Writers Collaborative -- the home of the oldest writers-in-the-schools program in the country -- in midtown Manhattan. The year is punctuated by three public readings, college and career prep seminars, a social action series, field trips to cultural events, and endless opportunities for scholarships and publication. The magic of the program is reflected in a solid nine-year track record, a 65-percent member retention rate, a 100-percent college acceptance rate, an annual anthology of original writing, and the seven-genre portfolios each student emerges equipped with each season.

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Official Website: http://www.girlswritenow.org