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R.C. Chizhov
Our 2024 Editor-Writer Mentees!
BelenMedina
Trinity Clements-Clark
R.C. CHIZHOV
2024 Picture Book Mentee
R.C. Chizhov contracted the writing bug at age five and distributed hand-written autographed copies of her books to classmates in India, where she grew up. After a master's degree in finance from Columbia University and a career in investment banking, she realized her childhood dream of being an author with her self-published picture book: The Lion in Your Heart. She is now pursuing opportunities in the traditional publishing world with her agent, Lynnette Novak.
R.C. is a graduate of UCLA's Novel Writing program, Gotham's Writer's Workshop, Writing Mastery Academy, Children's Book Academy and member of SCBWI and 12x12. For more info, please visit her website: rcchizhov.com.
Marisa Catalina Casey
TRINITY CLEMENTS-CLARK
2024 Middle Grade Mentee
Born into a family of readers, Trinity has always had a full bookcase. Originally born in the Midwest, Trinity now lives in the only place in Arizona where it snows. Trinity has attended Futurescapes Writer’s Virtual Workshop 2023, Rebecca Makkai’s 2024 PubCrawl publishing intensive and is a member of SCBWI. She is currently writing a fantasy, middle grade novel filled with talkative allies, dragons, and a lost queen. When she's not writing, you can find Trinity singing Disney songs with her kids, buying more Post-It Notes, and reading at the local library.
Carmen Catena
MARISA CATALINA CASEY
2024 Young Adult Mentee
Marisa Catalina Casey feels most at home on the west coast of South America and the east coast of North America. Adopted from Bogotá, Colombia, she earned her M.A. from Columbia University and her B.A. from Brown University. Prior to writing creatively, she was a Peace Corps Volunteer in Ecuador, founder of a community-based arts center in Brooklyn, and co-director of a summer writing program for teens in NYC and London. In 2023, Marisa was named a Las Musas Books Hermana and a Writers Grotto Rooted & Written Fellow. In 2024, she was selected to join the Macondo Writers Workshop, founded by Sandra Cisneros, and was awarded the Elvira Cordero Cisneros Scholarship. Co-editor and contributor to Born in Our Hearts: Stories of Adoption, Marisa has earned scholarships from SCBWI, Highlights Foundation, We Need Diverse Books, and the Flor y Canto Fund, among others.
CARMEN CATENA
2024 Adult Romance Mentee
Carmen Catena is a multi-genre, neurodiverse writer. She has lived in 18 places (so far) and is now based in Germany with her family. Her work almost always features a House—probably because she’s lived in so many. Her writing has been published in Coffin Bell Journal and Permafrost Magazine, among others. When she’s not writing, she can most likely be found walking through the woods, watching midcentury movies, or chasing her kids.
Brenton Zola
BRENTON ZOLA
2024 Adult Fiction Mentee
Brenton Sizwe Zola is a first-generation writer, interdisciplinary artist, and researcher. Informed by experiences of childhood homelessness, global travel, and a lineage of African spiritual leaders, his work examines themes of myth, spirit, and sanctity. His writing has appeared in Newsweek, Inc., American Theatre, Boulevard, Prism, and on WBUR, Boston’s NPR affiliate, among others. He is a recipient of the Marianne Russo Award for a Novel-in-Progress at the Key West Literary Seminar and his poem “Multiplicity” is one of the official poems of the City of Denver. Zola was an inaugural member of the LinkedIn Creator Accelerator Program, a Writing in Color Retreat fellow at Lighthouse Writers Workshop, an inaugural playwriting fellow at Denver Center for the Performing Arts, and a finalist for a Periplus fellowship. He is a former curator for Tilt West and a current fellow at UCLA’s School of the Arts and Architecture.
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