Author Description

Authors Mackenzie Bell, Kaya Bullard, Laila Butcher, Giselle Caban, Naujda Davis-Van Hook, Aisha Renée Diop, Rowan Feldman, Jennifer Leon, Mariah McCoy, Erikah Sanders, Chariot Waddell, Clover Waddell, Alanna Williams, and Jolie Wilson share their empowering perspectives in stories, memoir pieces, and poems. In its second year in 2022, Write Your Story is an exciting year-long program that brought creative writing masterclasses and artistic mentorship to young women of color, ages 12 to 18, a fabulous collaboration of Cinnamongirl, Inc. and the Bay Area Book Festival. The first cohort of girls spent a year honing their voices, their visions, and their craft, with instruction and encouragement from a faculty of acclaimed women authors of color like Rena Barron, Paulette Boudreaux, Lisa Moore Ramée, Michelle Mush Lee, Deborah Santana, Nikki Shannon Smith, Misa Sugiura, Arisa White, and many others. These 14 Black and Brown girls now present their work to the public in this remarkable inaugural anthology, I AM THE DREAM: Voices of a New Generation.